Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/375

 THE DEMEANOUlt OF ENGLAI^D, d'dl land-transport, traced the want of land-transport chap. to the insufficient supply of forage, declared that ^^' Commissary-General Filder was not justly re- showed the "^ d </ cause of the sponsible for that insufficiency, and finally, inti- 'avertible- mated an opinion that the insufficiency was owing to the omission on the part of the Trea- sury to send a proper supply of forage from England. (110) With this decision there ended the last of the several State Inquests which had sought to dis- cover the causes of our winter calamities, so that now, after long, dubious searchings in the laby- rinth of our military institutions, the finger of blame rested pointing, and pointing judicially, to a great Department of State — that is, to her Majesty's Treasury.* In this judgment the State acquiesced.(iii) Acquies- _,, °. . ,, , ., . ', cenceofthe J^rom the prmtmg oi the evidence taken be- state in this fore all the enquiring tribunals there resulted a vastaccu- huge pile of blue-books, reinforced, as we saw, "ufhe'^yc"^ by the volumes presented to our War Depart- forminga*^°' ment at the request of its chief ; and for any {o'thTc^use who, instead of relying upon authoritative deci- fn^a^" ^^®'"' sion, would rather judge for themselves, these vast and authentic materials lie in readiness to show how it was that the undisputed command of the sea, the power of unstinted wealth, and finally, the ndghty passport of victory, proved all insufficient to save our army from want during a period of several weeks. just incidence of blame, see a7ite the latter part of Chapter V,
 * With respect to the constitution of the Treasui-y, and the