Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/172

 128 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, ground where he lay; then the tent or marquee, and wound- ^j^gj^ ^j^g qq^^^ qp pannier, used in transferring him to some other kind of hospital, or bringing him down to the coast; then some means of embarking him ; then a ship voyaging over the seas that would bear him to a more southern clime ; then means of landing and carrying him ; and at last his appointed hospital awaiting him on the shores of the Bosphorus, or on some other not distant coast. The failure of our war administration in all those successive stages would seem to have re- sulted quite naturally from that want of com- manding authority by which, as we saw, Dr Andrew Smith remained baffled when addressing his appeals to the Horse Guards. The London departments provided no efBcient ambulance corps, appropriated no sufficient, no well-fitted vessels to the care and transport of our stricken soldiery — sent out no artilicers of the kind demanded — refused AdAiiral Boxer's wise prayer for a ' receiving sliip ' at Constantinople ; Q^) and although, it is true, sending out a few of the men and the things that would be needed for general hospitals, they did not either construct any such institutions themselves, or directly entrust the task to other servants of State. Amongst the men sent out, there were medical officers of various ranks, though not in sufficing numbers, and there were also purveyors, not appa- rently so chosen or so instructed that they would prove ready instruments for either etfecting pur-
 * in which he was to find the ' field hospital ; '