Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1855-04-26
TIE BRITISH ARMY.


pointed by the House of Commons to invos-
tiga,e the condition Of the British army in
the Crmca. Witnesses hive been cSamin.
cd Of every rank and station, from the Duke
Of Cambridge down aud their testimony Is
surprisingly unanimous. All departments
Of the administration have been passed In
review, and all have been found to be not
ouly deficient, but scandalously SO. The
staff, the medical department, the puryeyor's
department, the commmissariai, the trans
port service, the hospital administration, the
sanitary and disciplinary police, the harbor
police of Balakava, have one and all been
condemned without an opposing voice. .-.
Bad as every department was itself. the full
glories of the system were, however, devel.
oped only by the contact and cooperation of
all The regulations were SO beautifully
arranged that as soon as they came to be put
in force, when the troops first landed in
! Turkey, nobody knew where his authority
began Tor where it ended, nor to whom to
apply for anything; and thus, from whole
, some feur of responsibility, every IoGy shifted
/ everything from his own shoulders to those
of somebody else. Under this system, the
hospitals were scenes Of Infamous brutality.
lndolent neglect did its worst upon the sick
and wounded on board the transports and
after their arrival. The facts revealed are
; incredible; indeed there was nothing more
horrible in the retreat from Moscow. And
yet, they actually happened at Scutarl, with
in sight Of Constautnople, large city, with
/ all its resources in labor and material COM
I rort I,.
treat, with the CossaCks at the heels OF the
| fugitives aud cutting OF their supplies, bui
( in the Curse Of a partially successful cam
paign, at place sheltered from all hostile
attack, at the great central depot where
Great Britain had heaped up her stores for
the army And the authors Of these horrors
0nd denominations are no hard-hcarted barba-
! rlans. They are, every one Of them. British
gentlemen Of good extraction, well educated 4,
aud of mild, philanhr0pc and religious dis
/ positions. In their individual capacity, they
no doubt were ready aud willing to do my
thing; in their official capacity their duty
/ was to look cuoly aud with folded army upon
all these infalnies conscious that the case was
not provided form any part Of her Majesty.s
( regulations affecting themselves. Perish a
thousand armies sooner than infringe upoE
her M,jesty's regulations And Tantalus
like, the soldiers had to die within sight, al
most within reach of tho comforts which
would have saved their lives.
Not man on the spot had the energy to
break through the network OF routine, to act
upon his own responsibility as the nccessi-
ties on the case demanded, and in the teeth
of the. regulations. The only party who has
dared to do this is woman, Miss Nighin-
gale. Having once Hscertuined that the
things wanted were in stole, she reported
to have taken a handIu. of stout fellows and
to have actually committed burglary upon
( the Queens store-houses The old women
in authority at Constantnople and Scutari,
! far from being capable of such daring, were
towards to Il degre, we could scarcely credit,
were it not openly admitted BY themselves. -
| One OF them, DR.. Andrew Smith, ;or line
chief of the hospitals, was asked if there
were in COnstartinople no funds. to buy, and
no market to supply, many OF the things
wanted! och, yes,a he replied, "but after
forty gears routine and drudyery al home, as
sure you / could hardty for some months realize
The idea hat / actualy had funds placed al mJ
command"
Tie very blackcst descriptions of the state
of matters which had been given in bo!h
newspapers and Parliamentary speeches, are
far oatdone by the reality, as it now is brO'l
before us. Some Of the most sluring fca'
lures had been broached, but even these now
receive L egloomier cooring Although the
| picture is as yet far from Goa plcto, we can
see enough Of it to Judge of ,he whole. Ex.
ceping the female nurses sent our, there /:
not one redceming feature in it, One grouI
is as bad aud as stupid US the other, and ii the
Committee, in their report, have the courage
to spenk out according to evidence, they will
be embarrassed to find in the English Ian
guuge words strong enough to express theil
condemnation.
! In view OF these disclosures it is impossi'
ble to repress strong glow of indignation
and contempt not only lo- the immediate ac-
tors, bit absvc all for the Government which
arranged the expedltion and which, with the
facts staring it in the tace, had the impudencc
to declare they were mere tic.iuns. Where
now, is that great Coalition o! All the Tai
ents, that galaxy Of statesmen with whose
advent the Golden Age was to dawn upon
England! Between Wings and Peetes
Russellites and Palmerstunians, Irish men
aud Englishmen, Liberal Conservatives and
Conservative Liberals, they have been hucks,
tcring and bargaining among themselves, ant
every man they have put into place turns out
to be an old woman or an unmitigated fool
These statesmen were so sure the machine
they had been managing for thirty years
would work admirably, lhat they did not ever
send out Il person invested with eXtraordna
ry powers for unforeseen circumstances; un
foresecn circumstances, Of course, could nev
er occur under a wel-regulated Government
, Subalterns by nature and by hnbit, lhes
} British ministers, suddenly placed in Il posi-
f ton of command, have achieved the utter dis
, grace OF England, There is old Raglan, al
| his life head. .oilice.clerk to Wellington;
man that never was permitted to uct upon hi
own responsibility; u man bred to 40 just al
> he was bid, up TO his 65th year; and this MAI
is all of a sudden appointed to lead an army