Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/303

 THE DEMEANOUR OF ENGLAND. 259 misfortunes and troubles of various kinds mi<jlit chap. IX. attribute them all to 'mismanagement' instead , of the more stubborn causes from which we before deduced them. Thus when ships were discharging their cargoes in the diminutive cove of Balaclava, there often occurred such a ' block ' in the transit from the sea to the road as must needs cause grievous delays — delays likely to be more or less aggravated by the necessarily resulting overthrow of previous calculations ; but such troubles resulted inevitably from want of space, want of hands, want of land -transport power, and were only kept within bounds by the zeal and exceeding ability of the naval and military officers engaged at our port of supply. (^'') Still, observers judging in haste, were prone — as indeed seems quite natural — to imagine that all the hindrances must have been caused by defective arrangements ; and conclusions of this kind, with, besides, many strong representations concerning the ill state of our camps and the privations afflicting our troops, were not only pressed upon the Duke of Xewcastle by the voice of the newspapers, but also by numbers of people who had received private letters from our camp. In the newly-constituted office of the War Department, there, apparently, were wanting those body-guards who, in old, well-appointed offices, protect a Minister's time. The unhappy Duke was assailed by accounts laid before him as proofs — conclusive proofs — of mismanage-