Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/329

 THE DEMEANOUR OF ENGLAND, 285 conducted in the Crimea; and afterwards by a CHAP. IX supplemental instruction directed them to extend '. — their scrutiny to the delays that had taken place in the unshipment and distribution of clothing and other army stores. It undertook to clear and remodel our military hospitals on the shores of the Bosphorus ; and, with the object of thence bringing home sick and wounded men, proceed- ed to organise a direct communication between Scutari and England. It also sent out Com- missioners who, for the purpose of sanitary im- provement, were to enquire and report upon the state of our camps. Except as regards the supplemental instruction just mentioned, these measures, together with one respecting the age of recruits, and another which will be by-and-by stated, were announced in the House of Lords on the 16th of February by Lord Panmure, the new Secretary of State for War. He seems to have announced them as new, but several of them, and in particular the two first, had been initiated by the Duke of Newcastle. In yet one other matter which, although per- haps seeming trivial, still touched the very life of our army, a change of great moment took place. From a day no less early than the 13th of September in the previous year, our Commis- sary-General had been incessantly asking the Treasury to send him out cargoes of hay, with- out having his requests duly met ; but, sup- ported as they were by Lord Kaglan again and again and again, these prayers for forage, more forage, were at length better heard in White-