Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/398

 X 354 THE WINTKU TROUBLES. CHAP. ' you; and in expressing my warmest acknow- ' ledgments, I speak the feelings of the many ' thousands who have so largely benefited by ' your exertions.'(^^) If people ask, as they may, how this miniature sample of army-administration can be imitated on a large scale by Government, the answer is one that by many will be thought to suggest a hard task, but still is simple and short : — Have in London a Cal)inet, freed from the exigencies of ' personal ' sovereignty, that can devise and give effect to its plans with the wisdom, the forethought, the care that ruled in Lord Elles- mere's Committee ; and for that other end of the administrative chain where the strife, the close strife, against a world of obstacles may have to be waged, find men with the zeal, the devotion, the sense, the resource, the strong will disclosed by Tower and Egerton. IV. Hopeful signs of improvement in the bodily condition of our army became day by day more encouraging, yet continued to receive contradic- tion from the state of the Sick List until after After 22d tlic 2 2d of February. On that day, our army (ieds?v7im- had lying disabled by either sickness or wounds mthe'hwith no less than 13,640 men; but during the eight our army, ^^^j^g which followcd, there went on a sustained improvement in the health of our troops, which reduced by more than 5000 the number of men in hospital. (^^) For a while, the improvement