Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/447

 APPENDIX. 403 War Office — a real (though not powerful) department of State, belonging to what was called the ' Government, ' and under a chief whose tenure depended on the confidence of Parliament. The efforts of George III. were directed to the object of ' man- ' aging ' Parliament, not doing battle against it ; and therefore the curious safeguard thus contrived by our forefathers never had its worth put to the test. It became the practice of the War Office to issue in blank the papers called ' Routes, ' and leave them to be filled up at the Horse Guards.* Note 9. — The 'Clerk of the Ordnance,' who was a member of the ' Government. ' In earlier times, the ' Master-General of the ' Ordnance ' had been a member of the Government, and, indeed, of the Cabinet. Note 10. — These were some of the temptations to crime which must have presented themselves to the mind of George III., if he really meant what he said when declaring — declaring in this very century ! — that ' he had taken a positive determination not to ' admit Mr Fox into his councils even at the hazard of civil war.' — ' Rose's Diary,' vol. ii. p. 156. See also the king's reiteration of this resolve (which, however, he had to abandon in the next year but one), ibid., p. 182. Note 11. — Evidence of Lord Hardinge, Commander-in-Chief at the Horse Guards, and the signers of the document in question, before Sebastopol Committee, 20,732 et seq., and see Preface to this volume. No alteration has been made by me in the text of page 29, represented in this edition by pp. 26 and 27. It was by a ' Letter of Service ' in this form that Sir Arthur Wellesley was despatched upon a ' particular service ' (the Peninsula) in 1809; and that in 1815 the same commander (then Duke of Wellington) was placed under the orders of ' H. M. 's Ministers ' with a view to the war in Flanders. Lord Raglan's letter of ser- vice was dated the 5th of April 1854, and (with the substitution of ' queen ' for ' king,' and ' her ' for ' his ') exactly in the form shown ante, pp. 26, 27. Note 12. — See Lord Hardinge's opinion, Seb. Comm., 3d Rep., p. 231. Note 13. — There were three instances in which Lord Hardinsre the advantage of having had my attention drawn to the suliject above touched, and the result of enquiries I made was such as to confirm hi-? statoment.
 * I owe to the ' History of the British Army' (by Mr Artliui- Grifllth)