Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/195

SUFFERINGS OF THE ARMIES. 151 still on the same bleak Jieit^lits, and as yet im- CHAP. VIII equipped for such trials — to go on doing battle L. for months against the rigours of winter — this "one^e^'with- alone was much more than enough to make paratron!^^' their sufferings cruel and bring many a man to his grave ; but whilst, so far, resulting inevitably from the determinations of the Allied com- manders, and therefore from fair stress of war, and therefore, again, from the fair, though hard chances of a soldier's life, the calamity was Thecaiam- , 1 ityaggra- rendered yet more pernicious by several ex- vatedby '- T • 1 Tn 'avertible' traneous causes already in part explained. Ills evils, wrought by false strategy were aggravated by defective administration, and the evils thus super- added may in one sense be called ' avertible.' III. Compared with our people, the French en- The suflei- , . , , . , ings and joyed many advantages, including, as we have losses sus- ■* "^ 11 -1 tained by seen, for example, their highly organised system iiie Fiencb n 1 army. of war administration, their mastery of the art of campaigning maintained by long practice in Africa, their comparative proximity to the coun- try whence they drew their supplies, the spacious- ness of their harbours and landing grounds, and, above all, the strength — the ample numerical strength — which enabled them to meet the exi- gencies entailed by their part of the siege with- out either overtasking their men or being left for a moment without the soldier ' hands ' needed for ministering to the wants of their army.- But the immunity from ' avertilile ' evils which ru-