Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/63

ENGLISH WAK ADMINISTRATION. 19 recruit, soldiers gave a more williuf' allef'iance to chap. a master described in the concrete than to one shadowed out in the abstract ; preferred service under a man to service under the State, and would rather turn out for ' King George,' than obey what men called the ' Government.' This soldier - side aspect of the question afforded — not, indeed, a good warrant, but at all events — specious excuses for assenting to a relaxed application of constitutional prin- ciples ; and, on the whole, as we shall presently see, our sovereigns on the one side, and our con- stitutional Ministers on the other, found a way of coming to terms ; but they did so by agreeing to divide the control of our land forces between the king and ' the king's Government,' thus destroy- ing, of course, that unity of command which is necessary for the well working of an office ; and on the other hand, the partition, as we shall see, was not so effected as to lay the founda- tions of even a clear dual system ; for, there being a severance of the royal authority with- out a corresponding allotment of the establish- ments under it, the two masters (by means ol 'requisitions') might be bawling, as it were, both at once to the same servants, and distract- ing them with double orders not only of differ- ent import, but likely enough to clash. Thus it was that our war administration fell into the disjointed state we have had to observe ; and, as satrapies become petty kingdoms when the paramount authority is divided and weak- ened, so also amongst the military offices dis-