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 458 APPENDIX. ing the department many months without knowing that the business of providing for the land - transport rested with the Commissariat. Lord Raglan, in his reply, had to explain this to him as though to a pupil, at the very beginning of his admin- istrative studies. Note 49. — We before saw (see ante, chap. v. sect. 3) that although General Airey's requisition for three thousand tents was made by him in November 1854, the London officials, with all the resources of England at their command, proved unable to meet it until the May of the following year ! Even then they did not meet the requisition completely ; and indeed, during that month of May 1855, I iind one of the departments corresponding with another of the London offices on the subject of the still continuing delays, and endeavouring to account for them. Note 50. — I scarce think that the question can be answered decisively by appealing to dates ; for although the quaint scheme, as a whole, may be said to have been first propounded by the ' Times ' (on the 23d of December), the Duke of Newcastle's letters of the 18 th and 22d show him previously taking some steps which tended in the same direction. The Duke's impres- sion seems to have been, that the attack upon our Headquarters was originated by himself on the 18th, but he apparently feared that he might be accused (though erroneously) of following the great journal, for after speaking of the personal attacks which the ' Times ' had made on Lord Raglan, he adds : ' I should at ' first have written publicly as well as privately, if the sudden ' outbreak of that most versatile paper had not made me anxious ' to avoid the semblance of shifting the blame from my own ' shoulders to those of others. ' — Private letter to Lord Raglan, 8th Januaiy 1855. Note 51. — On the 11th, the Duke had written complainingly about the reported state of the camp ; but I follow his guidance in taking the 18th as the day when what he considered his inculpatory remarks began ; for, vn-iting in January, he places theii- commencement 'after the middle of last month.' Note 52. — When once put into official form, the accusations, of course, might some day be laid before Parliament. However, the reason for this increasingly hostile step, which the Duke assigne<l when addressing Lord Raglan, was a wish to 'strengthen ' his ' hands. ' Note 53. — Private letter to Duke of Newcastle, 6th January 1855.