Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/514

 470 APPENDIX. with in the third vohune of Sir Theodore Martin's ' Life of the Prince Consort.' Note 87. — The exception mentioned in the text wiis a very great one, including, of course, Lord Raglan and all the officers of the army and navy then engaged in the East, and besides, the Commissary-General, Mr Filder, whose testimony could not but be of great importance. Under such conditions it was impossible for the Committee to deal with their subject completely ; but at least they might make diligent use of the testimony within their reach, and this they did. Note 88. — The report incorporated some sentences taken (with alterations) from Mr Roebuck's rejected draught, and also some taken from Mr Drummond's ; but the main body of the adopted report owed its source to Lord Seymour. Note 89. — By saying this much of the report (which is of great length) I trust I sufficiently dispense myself from the necessity of fully stating its contents. With the excejitions above indi- cated, the conclusions I have reached are so far in general accord with the completed parts of the report that, if I were to give it in full, or even to give an abstract of it, I should be repeating much of what is contained in former chapters. The finding of the Committee is in its Fifth Report. By ' completed parts of ' the report,' I mean those on which the Committee could deci- sively report without the aid of the then absent witnesses. Note 90. — This paragraph did not form part of the chairman's rejected draught, but was afterwards proposed by him and adopted upon a division by his casting vote. Lord Seymour voted against it. The Committee on this occasion resisted Lord Seymour's guidance, and in doing so at once went astray. It was not from any administrative oversight, but by the peremptory exigencies of their own strategy that the Allies were prevented from going into 'winter quarters.' Where the Duke of Newcastle erred I have freely shown ; but the Committee ought not to have blamed him for omitting to jirepare ' winter quarters,' or failing to pro- vide beforehand for so strange a contingency as that of the Allied ai'mies placing themselves in duress upon the top of a barren hill. We, however, saw plainly (see ante, p. 109 et scq.) that, in matter of foi'age, the ' administration ' between them were answerable for an error of judgment hugely pregnant with mischief. Note 91. — This jmragraph was based in part upon one proposed by the chairman. The Committee struck out his vitupei'ative words, and adopted the other parts of his sentence.