The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-09 00:00:00

ORDNANCE ESTIMATES;

On the bringing up of the report on the Ordnance Esti-
mates,
Mr. WILLIAMS said that he had been that morning in-
formed by letters received from Plymouth, that a company
of Sappers and Miners, lately embarked there on board the
Princess Alice, had been so embarked in a state of mutiny,
caused by starvation, because Captain Lyons would not allow
them to cat anything inside the Victualling-yard. The men
came down to Plymouth by an early train, and were marched
into the Victualling-yard to wait to be embarked. Their
euLtatkatl'otr,- how Ci "'wt. take-place. till_ late in tie
afternoon, and during the whole of this time they had no food
supplied to them. When these circumstances became known
in the town, Mr. Harris, a bootmaker, and a few other re-
spectable men, provided them with bread and cheese and boor
at an hotel. This was a case of very gross neglect. These
were men on the eve of embarkation for the Crimea, and he
appealed to the house if that was the way in which the brave
defenders of their country ought to be treated ? (Hear.)
Many of the poor fellows were so exhausted by their famished
state that they were unable any longer to keep their feet,
and were obliged to throw themselves down on the ground.
Only two days subs.equently her Majesty passed through Ply-
mouth on her way to Osborne. She was surrounded on her
passage by all the Plymouth officers decked in their gayest
uniforms ; but bad she known that the people by whom she
was encircled had only recently been guilty of an infamy such
as that he had just related to the house, she would have chased
them from her presence with disgust. Ho should make no
objection to the vote that had been proposed by the right
hon. gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer, although
the greatest waste of public money had been made, and that
by the most gross neglect he had ever heard of. In the vote
before the house there was a sum of 649,5001. for great-coats,
loottL men,andshoes, and warm clothing for the troops, for huts
for
stable huts, hospital huts, and other items of a
like nature, and yet there was a vote in the last session of up-
wards of 600,0001. for the very same purposes. In fact, a sum
amounting to 1,570,0001. had been spent in providing those
comforts of the men. If this enormous sum had saved the
life of one of those brave men ho would not have objected to
paying it ; but when he saw it wasted away, when he saw
the comforts of the men rotting in the dock at Balaklava—
(cheers)—and elsewhere, and our brave troops perishing for
want of food, clothing, and shelter, he could not help feeling
that there must have been gross mismanagement of the most
disgraceful kind. This Ordnance department was the worst
managed department in this country, bad as they all were--
(hear)—and ho hoped it would be included in the new Secre-
tary of War. The head of that department was in com-
mand of an army 3,000 miles off. Had ho been at his office
in Pall-mall, instead of in the Crimea, he (Mr. Williams) be-
lieved the lives of many thousands of our men, as well as the
honour and character of the 'country, would have been saved.
Our diasters were much more to be attributed to the want of
common sense and common management than to any other
cause. How was it that this country could send the neces-
sary stores to an army 3,000 miles off; and the general
commanding that army in chief could not find the means of
transporting them seven miles further on ? Had he taken
the advice of any sergeant of the line, instead of consulting
only some aristocratic officers, all these misfortunes would
have been avoided, for the commonest sergeant of the line
could have told him how. Lord Raglan did nothing. He
only wrote to the Admiralty in despair. Had he written to
our ambassador at Constantinople, 2,000 labourers might
have been immediately sent him, who would have constructed
a road in 48 hours. The manner in which our brave army
had been le:t without raiment, food, or shelter, had dis-
graced the nation, and lowered it in the eyes of the civilised
world. He hoped the new Covet nment;would act with energy
and courage sufficient to remedy and remove these evils. He
hoped tho house also would support them. If they would
only relieve our troops effectually they would earn the thanks
of the nation. He wished to know also from the Chancellor
of the Exchequer whether this was money that had been ex-
pended or that was to be expended ?
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER replied that it
was a vote for money to be expended.
The vote was then agreed to.