The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-26 00:00:00

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seat of war. That, indeed, is ver v much the-....
theory
of the office, and we have no doult that a Minister
with the requisite personal qualities vinpuld find the
subordinate departments sufficiently at his dispoial,
and prompt enough to execute his of 'ders. But
then it must be a man who has his heal 't and soul
in the war, who is beforehand with evez y conjunc-
ture, who suffers nothing to go by de fault, and
urges on the war instead of lagging behind. Such
a War Minister we certainly had not last year.
Nor have we now. We believe that at this mo-
ment the British army in the Crimea is as unpre-
pared for almost any change of operations as it was
any time last year. Whether we take Sebastopol,
or give it up as hopeless for the present, there is
the
to take reatest prob
and ability of our finding it necessary
the field penetrate into the country.
unprepared. We have
ve
For that we are certainly
not anything like the proper number of animals,
hicles or other e , •
quipages. We have not even
that summer clothing which by this time
must be
necessary, whether we take the field or retain our
present position before Sebastopol. Rejoiced indeed
should we beto find ourselves mistaken ; but we feel
hardly a doubt that in.the event of a Council of War
deciding to take the field as soon as possible, it
will be found necessary to wait an indefinite period
for the arrival of proper supplies from this country..
When those _supplies at last arrive the opportunity
may have passed, new difficulties may have risen
up, the Russian army in the field may have been
doubled or trebled, and another Council of War
may decide on another course, for which our army
Will be equally unprepared.
The Duke of .Newcastle doubtless did his beet ;
but, as he appears in his own evidence, he was
/
always seeing obstacles which he was unable to
remove, and attempting in vain to produce direat-
ness and unity of action amid warring.departments
and complicated forms. We have seldom read a
more painful narrative. Indeed the authorities in
the Crimea, when accused.
of mismanagement, can
on
Fromnowrefitrsertt totriumphantly lastth the Duke appears
justly dissatisfied with the state
the confusion at home.
all the departments connectedao ant(7
rhealavteionbseeonf
G with the war. He
was slighted by the
the whole system of the Medical lrds. Be thought
tremely bad, and the System
ofc: eipart men tex-
comforts through the AdmiraltynPaPnom-nal medical
H
could get no information from the medial
olus.
th e
au o-
rities, but only denials, which turned out to be
untrue. He was dissatisfied with the organisation
of the Medical, the Ordnance, the Commissariat,
and the Transport Departments—with how many
more we cannot say at this moment. He suggested
remedies, overruled forms, and did some things on his personal responsibility. But, somehow
or other his well-intended measures fell wide of
the mark, or short of it, like Old Priam's jave-
lin. He had just misgivings, but they did him
no service. For example, he was always appre•
hensive, ho says, of the number of soldiers' wives
sent with • the army;--but was overruled by prece-
dent and the foolish wishes of the soldiers, and
found his own views too well justified by the re-
sult. He felt himself deserted by his colleagues
last August and September, and would have pre-
ferred some Cabinet meetings ; perhaps, however,
he says, it did not signify so long as there was
nothing of importance—that is, in a period that,
included the embarkation of the troops from Yarns.,
the landing in the Crimea, and the Battle of the
Alma. He suffered from the Board of Ordnance
the same insubordination as from the Horse Guards,
in the shape of a peremptory order from that board
stopping the manufacture of winter huts which he
had ordered on his own responsibility. In both
instances the insubordinate officials ought to have
been instantly dismissed the public service, but
the Duke of Newcastle, not having called them to
accont, himself pays the penalty, as indeed he
ought to do. If there is one thing more than
another on which Lord Raglan appears to be ob-
servant and well informed it is the weather. As
early as October his Lordship had formed a dis-
tinct and very unfavourable view on this important
subject, and written home accordingly. The Duke
of Newcastle's prescience, so often exhibited to so
little purpose, here whollyfailed him, and he would
not believe a winter in the Crimea so formidable
as had been represented, though any schoolboy
might have told him that the inhospitable climate
of the Euxine was proverbial from the remotest
antiquity.