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114 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, periods of time spent iu finding and loading the ^- vessels, it not only resulted that the whole month of October passed away before the first cargo went off, but that even down to the end of November, the quantity of hay despatched from our shores ' during the course of the 'autumn' had reached to only 270, instead of 2000 tons.f*) Moved afterwards by further appeals and warnings from Mr Filder, they, on the 7th and 28th of November, requested the Admiralty tc send out yet further and greater though still iusufl&cient supplies ; (^^) but before their com- mands could be obeyed by even beginning the despatch of those further quantities of hay, the autumn was destined to end, and the Commis- sary-General would soon have to learn that, although he made his application on the 13th of September 1854, he must not only pass through October and November, but also through the dreaded December, and even through the January of the following year without having up to that time received more than what one may call a ninth part of the 2000 tons deraanded.(^^) The Commissariat, as we saw, was to be with- drawn from the rule of the Treasury on the 2 2d of December and annexed to the War Department ; but this structural change did not take full effect until afterwards ; and it failed to operate promptly upon the business of de- spatching hay from England. The quantity shipped in January was only 357 tons, and in February G51 tons.(^'^)