Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/180

136 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, one time occasioned, it seems, some embarrass- VI. '- — ment by repudiating or questioning their allegi- ance to any other authority than that of the department at home ; and besides, having long been accustomed to act under a tightened system of audit, they had become so cramped by the discipline as to be hardly capable of launching out into that free, unhesitating expenditure which the occasion required. The London departments omitted to follow up their own orders for proper hospital furniture, and proper hospital stores, so that neither did they effect the prompt transport of even the in- adequate cargoes they had made up their minds to send out, nor do so mucli as account for the failure of their limited efforts ; (^^) and, to meet the wants caused by abounding defaults of this kind, there was no one at first so bold that he would dip in the great purse of England and send across to Constantinople for the purchase of the needed supplies. The Home Government seemingly feared that a hitch of this kind might occur, and, with the best of intentions, it author- ised our ambassador at the Porte to supply freely all the funds needed for any hospital purposes ; but this expedient failed. Lord Stratford de Eedcliffe of course could scarce force money into the hands of men saying they did not require it ; and the reluctance of the hospital authorities to confess any want was an obstacle not to be con- quered by opening what was only in substance one channel the more for effecting Government payments.