Excerpt from The Panmure Papers, Vol. 2 of 2: Being a Selection From the Correspondence of Fox Maule, Second Baron Panmure, Afterwards Eleventh Earl of Dalhousie, K. T., G. C. B Active Operations were not to be looked for during this month, and, beyond a slight reverse sustained by Vivian's Cavalry, and a couple of unimportant outpost affairs, we hear of nothing in that kind. Thus the military position continued unchanged - the enemy holding his ground, whilst the Allied Armies remained prepared to seize any advantage which might be offered by his movements. The destruction Of the South Side of Sebastopol, its docks and forts, is in our power, ' writes Codrington to Panmure on December 8th, 'but the enemy holds as much control over the harbour as we do we have not possession of it at all in a naval point of View It is a large mutual wet ditch under fire from both sides. It would, therefore, have to be decided by the Allies whether the war was to be prosecuted in the Crimea or not, and meantime it was becoming apparent that the French had grown tired of a war so far from home. The comparative advantages of various defensive lines had lately been discussed with the aid of experts in Committee of the Cabinet. But before the end of the month we find Codrington contemplating the situation which would be brought about by a withdrawal Of the French Army within its own lines at Kamiesh. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.