The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-19 00:00:00

this plain Mr. Filder represented to Grveretnent;
that for an army of 24.000 men 12,000 horses were
"""arY) and was. not allowed to get 6,000 ; when
we are told that, instead of the thoroughly orgaeistd.
Lai,Bl Transport in the French -.service, he had not a
single vehic'e or driver of I it own on our arrival at
Varna; "ivf en we are ' the officers Comporing his
staff in the C:imea.bad just crepe together from all parts
of the word, Nithout a common naderstaudi“g or mutua
confidence ; that be was by his position simply a store -
keeper, so far as regards the stores of the Quartermaster. -
General ; that his department as utterly overtasked.
that on the embarkation from -Varna he was compelled
to leave behind some thousand Rainiale collected in But-
garia, or, just conveyed thither; that whenever an am-
munition aititnal broke dowl, the contents of one of the
few counnissatiat (arts were turned out, and the cart
filled with arnmenition ; that immediately after the -
failure of our fire on the 171 h of Oetoh,r he pressed Lord
Raglan for Supplies, and could not get hi, i„rd,,,bi_
p to -•
move for several weeks; that be failed in his attempt to
ransack the sh..res of the B ask Sea ; that as fast as be
got horses they were killed by overwork and eep.)sure,
or stolen for want of soldiers to protect their ; that an
immense quantity of his stores wa.ertclrred cut of harbour
witbrstt a- king his leave;
and kept there till they went
to the b Atom ; that on the 13th of November be wrote
a letter is that all 1.6,t ires transports Would
be of no avail if ral to the c imp wer, not kept in re-
par, which it nevtrt:•eess Wfel not; "that! When he sent the
Jason, one -of the two isteatner on which ho hai to de-
re• d for so/pli,s, to ConStantinopie. arid expected it
l-)ack in three or lour deys, Admiral B ixer let the cap
twin keep it titer.) (in some- frivolous pretence for three
ui:eeks ; that the forwarding-of the French eolliers from
the BosphoruS, or aoy othcr of was considered be-
fore the sending of euppiies to tie British Cononisitariat ;
all this,
it seems
m wa
that no - alagazines of rt,ny kind wire established at the
s thes to mist
qa.'"Pr and ec ireely any at Balaklava. ; him we are told
te-xnpae
expected
rresult
the humble
m
possible, the
very .
ntBtrhtiott of plain Mr. Filder, with his insufficient stiff
of ie-si,tants t. ily collected from all parts of the world,
in t eked out-with nlerk-3from the Treawury. We have
on 'y to inta,gine one of the elderly gentlemen who come
in every day by 'bus from Islington to Somerset-house
or the Bank, suddenly posted in a little office, surrounded
by tig glin Er-big ship., big generals, big admiral"; and --
everything on the most blustering scale, and we are pre-
pared f a career of any conceivable amount of ineffi-
ciency.
We can only say that, considering an army must be
fed, and the British soldier is particularly dependent on
solid food for the display of his peculiar qualities ; and
considering, too, that horses must be fed, and, above an,
' the horses that carry the British Dragoons, there ought
either to be no such person as this plain, insignificant,
much snutbed, much disregarded Mr. Filder, and..the
Commander-in-Chief ought to be immediately responsible
for the feeding, of his army, or Mr. Filder ought to be, a
greater man, and better prepared for the struggle with -
the big people around him. Be ought to be General
Filder, or Lord Filder, or the Hon. Mr. Filder, at least,
and he ought to have a suitable cleft' of the quality that
inspires confidence and rerikct in the British mind.
There really somethin4 in that remarkable observa-

tion of Lord Palmerston, that the Commissariat is not
an aristocrat service, and has broken down. It quite
explains itself- that Mr. Fiider should ffnd his
horses left behind, his• carts seized for ammunition,
his ships laid up at Cietantinople, his hints about
reads and depots set at nought, his vtinter sup-
plies sent to the bottom of the Black Sea, and his -
name, villiked by everybAly. But, then, it certainly •
is-rstber uefortunate Vat the whole British ariuyiand •
all the mighty interests .and ismes above enumerated,_
smuld depend on pla n Mr. Fildkr. The two or three
thousand officers in toe Crimea, for their own:sakes, had
better look more zarefelly to the position of the man on
whom they depend for their lives. It must go hard •
with tlii m if they damage the credit of their purveyor.
There is nobody, not oven Lord Raglan himself. whom
they are more interested in supporting and aiding in
every possible was. It tLey could make him a head and
shoulders taller than the rest of the army. if they could
give him the voice of Stentor, the hands of Briareus,
the feet of Achilles, the eye of Lynceu', and the %hams
of Pegasus, so touch the better for them, for they and
their horses wi:l be better f.d, and will thereby be ena-
bled to fight better. As t!iey have not these preter-
natural gifts at their disposal, trey will consult their.
own iuterests by investing the commissari,t with what
posers they can, and rai,iing it t..) an equality in rank
and dignity with the other branches of the service.