whom a little later they decisively defeated at Giurgevo.
Silistria had been determinedly besieged by the Russians,
and its fall was daily expected. Yet, under the leadership of
three young Englishmen, Captain Butler and Lieutenants Nasmyth
and Ballard, the Russians were beaten off and the siege
raised. The schemes of the Czar against Turkey in Europe had
miscarried.

Mr Kinglake describes, in an interesting passage, the growth
in the public mind of a determination that the Crimea should
be invaded, and Sebastopol destroyed. The Emperor Napoleon
had suggested the plan at an earlier stage, and the _Times_
newspaper fanned popular enthusiasm in favour of it. The
improved outlook in the East warranted the attempt being made,
but the plan was not regarded with unqualified approval by the
commanders of the allied forces in the East. In the speech,
already referred to, of Lord Lyndhurst, the project had been
urged upon the Government, and Lord Raglan considered that the
despatch now sanctioned by the Cabinet, which is printed in
the _Invasion of the Crimea_, left him no discretion in the
matter.

The scheme had previously been considered in all its
aspects by the Cabinet, and Mr Kinglake gives an exaggerated
importance to the fact that some of the members of the Cabinet
gave way to sleep while the long draft of instructions was
being read to them at the after-dinner Council at Pembroke
Lodge.]

[Footnote 42: Bomarsund, a fortress on one of these islands,
was taken by Sir Charles Napier, aided by a French contingent
under General Baraguay d'Hilliers, on the 16th of August;
but the high expectations raised as to the success of the
operations in the Baltic were not realised.]

_The Earl of Aberdeen to Queen Victoria._

LONDON, _30th June 1854._

Lord Aberdeen presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He begs to
call your Majesty's attention to the circumstance that, in 1842, your
Majesty was graciously pleased to authorise Sir Robert Peel to declare
that your Majesty had determined that the Income Tax should be charged
upon the sum payable to your Majesty under the Civil List Act, and
that this declaration was received with marked satisfaction. Lord
Aberdeen humbly presumes that your Majesty will be disposed to follow
the same course with reference to the augmentation of the Tax; and
shoul