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on of the age , and a reproach to the admin of justice . He did not , indeed , eee the r for any separate Court of Probate at all , the present bill proposed to establish in convith the Court of Chancery ; but he would if upon that view lest he should endanger re which he thought a vast improvement , littee , he would propose certain amendments , ill was also supported by Mr . Roundell who observed , in opposition to Mr . Malins , > far complied with the recommendations of icery Commissioners as to establish a sepaurt in the Court of Chancery for testajurisdiction . —On the motion of Dr . Philthe debate was adjourned .
PUBLIC OFFrCK BUILDINGS . r William Molesworth moving for leave luce a bill to enable the Board of Works to additional offices for the public service in -street , he was asked by Mr . Northcote if tended to carry out any plan for connecting Efices with the Houses of Parliament , aud hat plans had been prepared for his coni by Sir Charles Barry , for building offices jinity of the Houses of Parliament , and had L before the Treasury . The object of this jver , he said , "is chiefly to rebuild the offices ng-street , which are now in a most dilapite . ( Laughter . ' ) For instance , the Foreign Colonial offices are in such a condition that lire to be propped upon every side . ( Great In fact , those offices are nuisanceslaughter ' )—and any change would be for the [ ieave was given to bring in the bill .
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IE SEBASTOPOL COMMITTEE . MONDAY . iy the Duke of Newcastle was examined with ; o his mode of conducting the War Office . The j-room was crowded . ice , after describing the nature of his dutiesluded the general direction of the war , the ' the forces to be sent , &c . —said , in answer to dour , that , on the breaking out of the war he ated with the Commander-in-Chief and the sneral of the Ordnance , but that he did not ate with the Director-General of the medical t immediately , because the business of that t , previous to the division of the War Sep and the Colonies , was generally conducted
the Secretary-at-War . He also said that iot communicate with the Quartermasters regards the class and character of the t were to be placed under him : he always ited with " the heads of the department . " s of the officers selected for command were for Her Majesty ' s approval by the Com--chief , after he had first consulted with the tion through the witness . That is to say Grace ) , the administration was " generally " but there were exceptions . Upon being mention the names of those who formed the , the ~ Duke ~ at first begged to be excused . —He there were three of these exceptions : that
appointed without the knowledge or consent eminent , and that they continued in command ; iis Grace had reason to know " it was all done advertence , and not intentionally . " Ultimately , onsented to mention the names of the officers so which were , Lord Lucan , and Brigadiers id Goldie . No official notice was taken of lar proceeding , though the witness said that a lount of responsibility fell on him for the those officers . As regarded the Commissariat , ilained to those who had the management of tment what the duties were , lie expected them it the requisite arrangements . As regards the ooked to the Master-General of the Ordnance
Board of Ordnance . Still , he did not mean it he divested himself of all care on these or lie often interfered . The medical departto a certain extent under his notice ; but , the separation of the secretaryships of War Colonies , the business of that department , speaking , " was carried on by the Secretary-I'lio witness then went on to state that every Qcaution was taken before sending out the ox-Sir John Burgoyno and Major Dixon were > make inquiries into the . character of the lood of the Danube , both as regards salubrity ility for military operations . Lord Raglan
> m Omar Pacha a Btrong assurance of the iss of Varna ; but the result did not justify it . invasion of the Crimea waa decided on , the occupation of Perekop was recommended to in ; but tho Duke received a communication Raglan , expressing his opinion that it would iticable , or desirable , to occupy Perekop or Assof ; and it was only four of fivo months that they ascertained there was anothor ucccss a to tho Crimea , some miles eastward of tho ' Perekop . This information came through . of a vessel from some Tartars . The witness rare that Captain Druminond had made offers
to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to go into the Crimea for the purpose of examining into these matters . His Grace then proceeded to give an account of the steps which he had taken upon its being determined on to keep the troops in the Crimea during the whiter Extra supplies of blankets and warm clothing , together with huts and fresh meat , were sent out . There was a reserve of troops incase of casualities in the army formed at Malta at the end of November ; but the Commanderin-Chief did not inform the witness that the troops suffered greatly from overwork in the trenches before Sebastopol . His Grace was not aware that in December an offer was made by a Spanish colonel to provide the English government with 10 , 000 Spanish troops . There were , indeed , several offers of that description at the Foreign-office ; but at that period there was . a strong
feeling against the employment of foreign troops . The despatch from Lord Raglan asking for more troops was when the pressure on the troops became very serious . That despatch was dated the 3 rd of November . Referring to the ill-fated ship , the Prince , the duke said : — " It was stated that the medical stores were shipped under the heavy ordnance , as well in the Prince as in other vessels . When I heard a statement of so disgraceful a character as that , 1 called upon the Ordnance authorities to explain it , and they positively denied the truth of it . I also appointed a commission of three gentlemen to inquire into the matter—one from the Admiralty , another from the Ordnance , and another from the War Department—and they reported that it was not the fact that those medical stores were shipped under the ordnance stores . "
Touching upon the division of authority , his Grace observed that apparently there was not between the Admiralty and the Ordnance that proper understanding of their relative duties which ought to have existed . This led to the reconstitution of the old transport board . His Grace added : — " I never received any information as to the receipt of the goods by the army . " A design was entertained of constructing huts for the army on the spot , but , to the witness ' s surprise , wood could not be obtained at Constantinople . Supplies of wood were then sent from home , from Trieste , and from Malta , but there were no means of conveying the wood from Balaklava to the front . The troops therefore went without
the benefit of the huts for a great length of time . The witness further stated : — " I was well aware , from the complaints made to me by private individuals , and . also from statements in the newspapers , of the failure of the transport animals from want of forage and from exposure to the cold ; but I never received any official intimation of that , nor any complaint from the Commissariat department that the shortcomings of other departments prevented them ( the Commissariat ) from executing their duties . Certainly no information was given to me as to the probable failure of the road to the front before that failure took place . I remained entirely in the dark upon that point . "
observations are to a certain extent pertinent to the War Office , the Commander-in-Chief , and the Horse Guards ; but there are no forms to be gone through between the Secretary-of-State and the Horse Guards . Witness believed that the present constitution of the War department necessarily entails a larger amount of correspondence than is desirable . He did nt > t think , however , that the relations subsisting between the War department , the Horse Guards , the Ordnance , and the other departments of a cognate nature , are on an unsatisfactory footing . He believed that no extensive change had taken place since he left office . There was some change ; but he was not aware of the exact nature of it . Referring to the details of the campaign , his Grace stated that he carried on a correspondence with Lord Raglan , but
did riot submit the letters to Lord Hardinge : that was not usual or necessary . The witness ' s despatch , giving a sketch of the proposed military campaign , was shown by him to Lord Hardinge , and , of course , Lord Hardinge , if he had seen any reason to object to it , would have communicated his objections ; but his Grace does not in any way hold Lord Hardinge responsible for anything contained in that despatch or in other despatches , nor is lie responsible for any of the movements of the army during the campaign . Witness thought that , in some respects , the line of demarcation between the Minister of War and the Commander-in-Chief is undoubtedly vague and inconvenient . There are many alterations in the whole of the war departments which are desirable ; but he had never been consulted by the present Government on trie subject .
Referring to Lord Raglan ' s position as Master-General of the Ordnance , his Grace said , in reply to a question from the Chairman , that his lordship , he believed , still continued to receive bis pay , though the work is performed by Sir H . D . Ross . With respect to the navy , witness had very little control over it—nothing more than results from the issue of a general outline of operations . Until lately there was no blockade in the Black Sea ; but that arose entirely from political reasons . Upon being asked if it had not been stated in the House of Commons that a blockade was actually in force , the Duke replied , he thought the statement was that " orders had been issued to institute a blockade in the Black Sea . " The non-institution of the blockade did not arise from any disagreement between the Admiralty and the Government , and the latter were principally responsible for the omission .
Mr . Layard—* ' Were any reasons sent to you from the East which were considered satisfactory to the Government for not enforcing the blockade ?"—¦ " Reasons were sent , but that they were in all respects entirely satisfactory I cannot say ; and I really would rather not say why I consider they were not satisfactory . They would not apply merely to those departments into which the hon . member might wish to inquire . " ( Upon the wjhole of this subject his Grace exhibited some uneasiness , and more than once declined entering into details . )
His Grace then gave a brief narrative of the expedition of Miss Nightingale ; and , referring to the alleged want of medicines , said he believed some accident had taken place on the arrival of those articles , and he , therefore , sent out fresh supplies . With respect to Dr . Andrew Smith ' s letter about -the . clothing . of _ the troops , he said : — "My impression is , that Dr . Andrew Smith never sent to me any such letter . My conviction is , that I never saw his letter on that subject ; - but he may have drawn my attention in conversation to the necessity of making changes in the clothing of the troops . I do not think any blame attached to the military secretary for not sending Dr . Smith ' s letter to me . That blame would rather attach to Dr . Smith himself for not making arrangements for bringing that letter under my notice . "
The witness then went on to give a variety of particulars respecting the ambulance corps and other military arrangements in the East , and stated that Lord Raglan had plenary powers in such matters , and had no necessity to refer to the Government at home ; but possibly he lh ^ u ^ lit ~ it"desiraT ) le "" t < r ' o ; 6 '''" s"o : '''"' Dr . - nA . TidTew-Sinitlinever forwarded to the Duke any complaints of the state of the hospitals -, but his Grace had received complaints from private sources . He communicated with the Admiralty after the battle of Alma , and the Admiralty sent out instructions that a fleet of ships should be appropriated for the use of the sick and wounded ; but these instructions were not attended to for a considerable time afterwards . He believed they were at length carried out by Admiral Dundas . He ( the Duke ) was satisfied that tho state of things at the hospital at Scutari was anything but what it should have been .
His Grace ' s evidence occupied the whole day , and was not even then completed . It will have been seen by the reader that its chief tendency is to trace the evils of the war to the divided authority which directed it . TUESDAY . The Duke of Newcastle was again examined , and said , in answer to Mr . Layard , that " undoubtedly" he found great difficulty in connexion with the forms which had to be gone through . The routine system prevailed throughout , and existed equally before and after the separation of the secretaryships of Wur and the Colonies . His Grace said hesupersededthesefornisin numerous instances , more especially in the case of the medical department , which was one of the worst cases , and in which the head of the medical board , to obtain medical comforts and supplies , was obliged to go through a large circuit of forms and offices before he could obtain them . The witness directed
With regard to the transport service , the witness said that the first statement he received from Lord Raglan as to the deficiency in the land transport was a mere casual one , and was made in order to explain other things to which witness had called his lordship ' s attention . That must have been quite the end of September . He ( witness ) had certainly received , in the way many others had received , information as to cavalry horses , each worth from 50 / . to 70 / ., being devoted to purposes in the Crimea for which small ponies of the value of 51 . would have been adequate ; but he had received no official information on the subject . The last statement lie received from Mr . Filder was that the coinmiaHuriat horaes ho had in the Crimea very little exceeded 400 . "When tho land taken send
transport became ho reduced , no steps were to out horses from thia country . That was quite impossible under the circumwtanceH , and lie ( witness ) organised a separate and independent transport corps on a muitary Hytttem , which he placed under the direction of Colonel M'Murdo . Before that period , no attempt was made to ortfuuise a transport aervieo in England . Tho Htutemont that the men placed in charge of the ambulances were very old wan not true ; but itmuHt bo acknowledged that they were >» the habit of getting drunk , though not more frequently than the average of the whole army . Witness had heard that large quantities of tho stores orduicd to be sent out were dltthonefitly detained ; but ho found upon inquiry that they were private stores , and that they were only waiting for means of transport . Tho
this to be superseded , and he had no doubt it was ; but it was merely a personal exorcise of authority on his part . To the best of his knowledge , these forms still exist . He did not , however , make any reports on tiio mutter , for tho business of tho office was so onerous that it waa impossible for him to do so . Inventions calculated to be utxtCul to tho public were very much delayed by tho process of form and routine they had to undergo at the Ordnance . He had no doubt that many inventions were not investigated nearly so soon as it was desirable they should bo . These deluys sometimes arose from tho inadequacy of tho Ordnance staff ; but , from the fact of there being so many separate war departments , the public are necessarily in ignorance to whom they ought to apply . Tho samo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 28, 1855, page 389, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2088/page/5/
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