Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/155

WAY OF MINISTERING TO THE ARMIES. Ill request was conveyed in the form of a respectful chap. submission to the judgment of official superiors. '. — On the other hand, the conscientious, painstak- ing Treasury Board considered that — because not expressed in the language of ' request,' and only in that of 'suggestion' — the appeal was one that ought to undergo the ordeal of their own judgment. They therefore proceeded to weigh the question of sending out the 2000 tons as one which Mr Filder had only raised, not as one he had meant to determine. (^^) Bringing to bear on this question keen intelli- gence, indefatigable energy, and a lively — a too lively — sense of their duty as public servants, the Treasury Board, as may well be imagined, was slow to believe it possible, that when the Allied armies had victoriously laid their grasp on a province abounding in flocks and herds, in corn and hay and firewood, they — without having met with a reverse — would deliberately give up their rich prize to the exclusive use of the enemy, and appeal to their distant homes in France and England for not only all other and less bulky supplies, but even for such a product as hay. It is indeed very true, as we have seen, that the incredulity of the Board was falsified by the event, and that the armies really did go and put themselves in such a predicament as to be- come absolutely dependent for everything upon vessels coming over the seas ; but none could well imagine beforehand that so strange an anomaly would take place. Again, the Treasury saw that, however precise in its terms, the despatch