Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/200

156 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP. VIII. Still their suTeringa and losses very great. Difficulties obstructing fair com- parison be- tween the French and the English, The French medical statistics. trive to make the best of wliatever food there inio-ht l)e ; and General Canrobert even seems to have hoped that this same mighty resource — the resource of numerical strength^might sustain the fight against scurvy by making good the want of imported vegetables; for by a general Order he urged his troops to labour in search of the dandelions that might be made, he fondly thought, into salad, and serve to keep down the disease which threatens men trying to live on biscuit and salted meat. Still with even these means of resistance, the gallant French, after all, could only fence with an evil so gTeat, so surely destructive as that of having to winter without anterior preparation, on the bleak, open Chersonese Heights ; and, to go through the task without incurring horrible sufferings and cruel losses, was more than lay in their power. At the time, no extended comparison could well be even attempted between the condition of the French army and that of the English ; be- cause the one had its sufferings veiled by the will of an absolute Government, whilst the other lay under that glare which extreme publicity sheds, and afforded all the materials for what was, perhaps, a more searching scrutiny and a more keen-eyed criticism than had ever before been applied to the labours of men simply trying to feed, clothe, and shelter an army. Yet even under absolute governments, where the people are cultivated, a good deal of long-con- cealed truth is apt in time, though imperfectly,