Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/77

ENGLISH WAR ADMINISTRATION. 33 taking part in the transaction of military busi- chap, ness, the Treasury had a prominent place, be- __ — _ cause that great department of State stood charged with the formation and maintenance of our Commissariat Service. This Service — ne- The com- glected and depressed in former years — had been liappily raised up into an excellent state by the alile hand and strong will of Sir Charles Trevelyan, the Assistant Secretary of the Treas- ury : but despite his repeated appeals, its field of operation had been persistently kept within the territorial limits which he found estab- lished when he came into office ; and accord- ingly, at the time when this new war with Russia had already become closely imminent, there was indeed a Commissariat force for Ireland and for the Colonies, but none for England or Scotland, and none for foreign service, nay, not even the nucleus or rudiment or framework of any such body ; (^^) so that statesmen at the outbreak of war who might be charged to organise the Commissariat force required for campaigning in b^irope, would have to create it anew from head to foot. To a Government preparing an army for foreign ser- vice, and seeking out anxiously the names of a few Commissariat officers not already on duty lieyond sea, and not retired on half -pay, the Army List was an absolute blank. There not being in all Great Britain any embryo of a Commissariat force, it became nec- essary to form one in haste out of scattered elements ; and, Authority having laid it down VOL. VIL C