Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/84

40 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, and, even upon the supposition that he could "^' at once treat the military offices at Westminster as sub - departments all liound to obey him, there still remained the fact that he had not the central machinery required for directing their energies. A AVar Minister without a War Min- istry, he was in a predicament analogous to that of the French general wlio found himself sud- denly called upon to act as the commander of an army in the hour of battle without having a headquarter staff.(^'^) His capacity Howevcr, the Dukc did not bend under the as a war • ■, n ^ ^ i tt- • adminis- wei<^ht of the cares he assumed. His impetuous trator. direction to go and ' lay siege ' to Sebastopol is a fitting subject for criticism, and the course we shall see him adopting against Lord Eaglan in a time of dire peril and misery, will have to be painfully judged ; but as an administrator, striving hard night and day to meet the wants of the army, he certainly brought to his task zeal, boldness, prodigious activity, a healthy ambition, and — in many, if not in all matters — a fairly sound, rapid judgment, which did not desert him until he became disturbed by the roar of the popular voice. Further Our public lucu. Seeing the mischiefs of a dis- lillX^Tn persed administration, endeavoured after a while trYtive'ma-^' to couccntrate official power — as, for example, ciinery. ^^ withdrawing the Commissariat from the Treasury to place it within the War Depart- ment ; (^^) and at a later period, by annexing to that same War Department the hitherto independent Board of Ordnance.(^^) In the