THE DEMEANOUR OF ENGLAND. 273 his accusations in positive terms, without first chap. hearing what might be said by the Commander ' of the Forces, under whose very eyes the two officers in question were working ! To such ex- cesses might a public man go in his eagerness to expiate the sins of Whitehall by finding victims in camp ! On the first day of the new year, the Duke wrote more excitedly, saying that the reported instances of mismanagement were creating a fer- ment in the public mind, which would ' soon ' find a vent in a burst of unreasoning violence ; ' and he added : ' I shall, of course, be the first ' victim to popular vengeance ; and the papers, ' assisted by the Tory and Radical parties, have ' pretty well settled my fate already.
- But more victims will be required. You and
' I will come first, but those who are most to ' blame in these matters will not escape. . . . ' I confess I blush for a country which has sent ' out such a fleet of steam-transports, and cannot ' find people who know how to use them. I ' cannot say how it pains me to write all this ' to you. Gladly would I spare you a parti- ' cipation in the bitter anxiety which I suffer ' day by day from such neglect of duty by those ' who ought to know how to perform it, but I ' cannot remain silent till either remedy is found,
- or some other person relieves me of the painful
' duty of trying to cure such evils.' At length, under the advice of some of the Duke's colleagues, the complaints of the Govern- ment were thrown into the form of an official VOL. vn. s
