Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/72

 28 THE WINTER TROUBLES CHAP, his 'Ministers' in the conduct of any war III. "onig on. Upon the return of peace, our polity always relapsed, withdrawing from responsible Ministers the largely augmented control over military business which they had had during the war, and restoring to the 'personal king' that meas- ure of sway in things military which he had been able to exercise before the breaking out of hostilities. Lord Hardinge, the Commander-in-Chief at the Horse Guards, was no less willing than his predecessors to act upon the terms of the com- promise already stated ; (^^) and indeed one may say that lie practically conceded some extension of the engagement relating to military patronage ; for, although his promise in terms gave the Government a power of exclusion only, and not of selection, he was always, it seems, so willing to meet the Minister's wish that the Duke of Newcastle, by a little insistance, could enforce the nomination of any generals whom he and his colleagues might choose. (■^^) rue ord- Upon the ' Ordnance ' in war-time there at- ■'"'"*'*^ tached huge and manifold tasks; for it not only had to maintain in a state of efficiency the Artillery, the Engineers, and all men and things relating to fortifications and sieges, but to fur- nish, as Sir Hew Eoss expressed it, ' the whole 'material of war for the army and the naval ' services ; ^^) and concurrently with the change from peace to active hostilities which all at once threw on the office enormous burthens, it lost