Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/431

 CARE OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED. 387 them by some magic vigour to be finished with- chap. iu a few weeks, how soon did any male hope ' that they could be brought to result in that actual ' correction of deficiencies ' which, of course, was the object iu view ? The hospi- tals were many, and some of them were divided from others by hundreds of miles of sea. Each one of them, however imperfect, was still a com- plex organism ; and although its faults might be glaring, the cause of them might well be obscure, whilst, besides, over every step that led towards improvement, there always impended the danger of exciting antagonism in the minds of public servants who, when disturbed in their work by this ugly search after faults, might easily throw up defences obstructive to prompt reformation ; and, upon the whole, it was scarcely imaginable that Commissioners reaching the Bos- phorus in the first week of Noveml)er would be able to complete their Enquiry and make their Eeport before the middle of the following month. Allowing from that time one fortnight for the mail to take home the Eeport, another for de- liberation in Whitehall and the construction of remedial plans, another for the Eastward-bound mail bringing out the decrees of the Government, with — superadded at last — yet one other fort- night for carrying them into effect, we find inter- posed for preparatives a period of some thirteen weeks — that is, a quarter of a year — and the time of expected fulfilment stands — not as was bitterly needed before the beginning of winter, but — almost indeed at its close, so that any of