Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/374

330 THE WINTEIl TROUBLES. CHAP. IX. The wide import of a question which in terms only challenged Mr Filder. fho part of tlio Report in which llif iioard mour's toil, this Chelsea Board drew information from another body of witnesses, and not only had before it the chief surviving officers of Lord JIaglan's Headquarter Staff, but also Mr Filder, the Commissary-General ; (^^^) whilst, to aid them in judging the conduct of his chiefs at Whitehall, they received from the Treasury a highly elab- orated paper prepared by the able hand of Sir Charles Trevelyan.(i*^^) Thus, the materials before the Board were most complete ; and by this time, the state of the general controversy as to the cause of the ' avertible ' suffering had become so cleared and so narrowed, that by simply determining whether Mr Filder ought or not to bear blame, the Board of General Officers would be virtually adjudging the very question which had long been debated by a baffled and angry nation. Apart from the need that there was for over- tasking our troops, the main cause of ' avertible ' suffering was traced, as we long ago saw, to a failure of the laud-transport power — a failure not caused by want of horses and mules, but by want of the means of feeding them ; and accord- ingly, when forced to determine how that want of forage occurred, the Board found itself solving a question of extensive significance, and giving the weight of its judgment to the conclusion of disputes which had raged with but little inter- mission during a period of some eighteen months. By their Eeport the Board of General Officers traced the sufferings of the army in the Crimea durin<j the winter of 1854-55 to the want of