text:  And this we will venture to say--that in defiance of all professional pedantry incident to military men and engineers the reader is likely to be of opinion that we at a distance of 7000 miles have pointed out capital blunders ensuring ruin and forming temptations to conspiracy which Lieutenant Eyre a principal artillery officer on the spot has failed to notice; and if he failed to notice them in his book _a fortiori_ he must have failed to notice them officially whilst yet it would have been in time