on board. The horses all belonged to Lord Raglan and his staff. The horse-boxes were fitted up by the Messrs. Wigram, and very substantially done-too much so. The boxes had a deal covering that rain could not pass through. He could not speak as to how the cavalry horses were sent out, and whether they had sufficient food.

and sheep certainly were. Receipts were given for the stores. He thought there was at times a confusion between the commissariat and the transport department. Had he received an order from the commissariat, he could not have unloaded without another order from Captain Christie; he was the head of the transport service.

Could not the offal floating in the harbour have been easily removed by the contrivance called a rake, if the crews of the ships lying in the harbour had been employed?-Not easily. He thought it was inevitable at the moment. There were carcasses of oxen floating in the harbour; they might have been thrown over dead from the ships.

Can you tell the committee at what rate your ships were taken up by the government? The Emperor was chartered at £650 per week, the government finding fuel; the Cottingham at £2 5s. per ton amonth-she was about 550 tons; and the Alster, of about 100 tons, at £2 10s. per ton a-month. For all the steamers the government found the fuel. He paid his own insurances. He could not tell how much work they actually did, but they were so often detained idly waiting to discharge-Certainly.

Mr. Ellice.-If compensation had been given to the crews of the ships, would they not have undertaken to remove those bodies?

cargo, that they were not much occupied. For good pay would not the men and At first the Emperor was almost constantly their officers have found the means of taking employed, being often ordered by Lord those things out to sea?-I think they Raglan on special services. Those special might have done it. services were from port to port in the East, fetching horses from Varna, and other purposes. Once he believed the Emperor was sent to Varna with an order for shipment of horses, but there was something not clear about it, and as the officer there could not understand it, the ship came back without the horses. Captain Christie lived on board the Emperor in Balaklava. The government paid £650 a-week for her, but she was never specially devoted to Captain Christie. When she was wanted for any purpose she was sent away. Captain Christie afterwards

lived on board the Harbinger.

Whose business was it to see that nothing was thrown into the harbour?-The harbourmaster's; he saw the bodies of sheep floating about. The offal in the harbour would be very likely to create disease. Had any proper system of organisation been adopted, many of the transports might have been usefully employed, instead of lying idle. If properly regulated, one-third less in number would have sufficed. Vessels never went out without orders from Captain Christie or special orders from Lord Raglan. The system that a mercantile firm would adopt was out of the question, because all the shipowners and masters were under the naval and transport regulations.

But had Captain Christie given regular orders, you could have executed them?— Certainly.

no

What was the state of the harbour. Was it well organised?-It was very disorganised. That is, it was very badly organised?-It was. Captain Christie, who had the charge of the transports, appeared to him overborne with work. He had too much to do. Then, organisation was not impossible? A younger man would have suited the post-No; but there was nothing like system better; though his next in command, Mr. employed; for instance, there were Pritchard, was a very able and active man. bands of men organised for coaling at When a vessel arrived it was reported to Constantinople. It was what was wanted. Captain Christie, and it then received orders In Balaklava, the ship containing coals was as to entering and anchoring. The longest brought alongside the steamer. The ships period any of his vessels were detained were moored athwart the harbour; vessels waiting for cargo did not exceed a month; could have got out when they chose with a the longest detention he recollected was a little trouble. No huts had been put up cargo of timber from Sinope. He was before he left. The houses in Balaklava never in communication with Mr. Filder; were inhabited, many of them by sick he did not know him. He believed that Turks. He was not aware that any of the many of the stores of his ships were re- houses were appropriated to single officers. ceived by the commissariat. The cattle The large house marked as Lord Raglan's

The

only contained a few blacksmiths. exhausting labour exacted from the soldiers : church was turned into a hospital. He "They were on duty three nights, and saw no ill-treatment of the Turks, nor did might be able to lie down part of the fourth. he know how they were fed. They died If they came off duty in the trenches at six rapidly, and he supposed they must have in the morning, they might be able to lie been badly fed. The cavalry horses were down till ten; they would then be called on treated as well as they could be under the some working party. On that night, percircumstances; those of the Scots grays haps, they might lie down for a short period; were picketed in rows about three or four but at four the next morning they would be feet apart, with their heads tied down. called out to go on picket duty, and they Their manes and tails appeared to have were on that duty twenty-four hours at a been gnawed or eaten. The cavalry was time, including the march to and fro. Their not entirely dependent on England for food in the trenches was salt pork and rum. food; ships were sometimes sent to the In the trenches the men had means of cookports of the Black Sea for forage. There ing. They generally contrived to cook their were depôts of coal at Constantinople, but pork in their tents, and eat it cold in the not at Balaklava, except on board ship. trenches." To the question, How many There was not labour enough to form hours, on an average, had the soldiers to depôts on shore. But it might have been themselves out of the twenty-four ?-Colodone by a judicious expenditure and or- nel Wilson replied, "Not more than three. ganisation. The men left behind in the tents, generally, by an agreement among themselves, had something ready-cooked when their comrades came in from the trenches." He had heard that men had sometimes eaten their rations raw, but he had never seen them do it. They had no vegetables.

There was nothing inevitable in the confusion and disorder?-No.

Did you know Admiral Boxer?-Yes; he was a very intemperate old man, and used to give very strange orders. He had heard complaints of him from all the masters of ships he had met. He was removed from Constantinople to establish order at Balaklava.

Mr. Ellice.-If the authorities at Balaklava had sent for the captains of transports and furnished them with the means, could they not have cleared the harbour of the dead animals floating in it?-They could have cleared it in a week.

Might there not have been some regulations to prevent dead carcasses being thrown overboard from the ships?-There might.

Chairman.-You would not have dared to throw them over in the harbour of Hull? -No.

On the 12th of March, the Duke of Cambridge was examined before the committee. No new facts of interest concerning the expedition were elicited from his royal highness. He supported the statements. that the sufferings and excessive mortality in our Crimean army had arisen from the overwork and exposure to which the men had been subjected. When asked if he was satisfied with the general staff, he spoke in the highest terms of that body; and amongst others, mentioned Colonel Brownrigg, whom his royal highness described as "an excellent officer." On the same day, Colonel Wilson, of the Coldstream guards, gave the following startling information as to the

The following selections from Colonel Wilson's evidence, also possess that painful interest which envelopes so much of the details of the war. He did not think the difference in weight between the English knapsack and the French was very much. The French soldier carried with him more essentials on a march than the English, as he carried part of his tent. He had seen the contents of a French knapsack; every article was lighter, which was the great thing in war. If tents could not be carried by the commissariat, it was better the men should carry them at all risks. In the Crimea he had to carry his own baggage. He suffered very much; at the end of a march he was too exhausted for any duty. One officer, Colonel Cox, died of exhaustion from carrying his baggage.

In answer to questions respecting the bands of the regiments, Colonel Wilson said, -They were employed to carry the wounded; he believed they landed with their instruments, but they were soon thrown away. The men were very fond of the French music. He had seen them throng round the French bands, and cheer when they finished playing.

Was there sufficient provision for the sick and wounded? The colonel thought not. He believed some of the wounded at

the battle of the Alma remained one night on the field, but not two.

In what state was the clothing of the men when you left?-It was becoming very bad; it was getting very thin. The men were dressed in all sorts of things, and one could hardly tell they were English soldiers. Very many of the men wore Russian trowsers. He had heard that some clothing for the army was lost in the Prince; but no new clothing of any kind had been distributed, The officers were as badly off as the men from the 14th of September till the 26th of November he had never changed his clothes; there were many others in the same condition. He did not obtain his baggage till he arrived at Constantinople; he never took off his trowsers till he got on board ship; he had not a change of linen, nor had the men; he never heard there was any expectation of their getting any.

sentations on the subject? Captain Kellock replied,-He reported the existence of great mismanagement to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company; he was still in the pay of that company, and his crew also, he believed in consequence of an arrangement with the government. The letters of complaint were addressed to the secretary of the company; he had no copies of them. They had on board also some Moorsom shells, and engineering stores for the steamers of the fleet. Everything was landed except the charcoal. When he landed the horses, he was not aware of any stores of forage having been erected. He took convalescents from Scutari to the Crimea; they were still mostly very sick and ill; he remonstrated with Major Bunbury on the absurdity of taking such men to the Crimea again, and twenty-five of them were landed and sent back to the hospital. Dr. Hall was on board with these men as a passenger. The greater part of them were landed at Balaklava in the gun-vessel, the Arrow. He was not at Balaklava during the storm of November. The anchorage outside that port was exceedingly dangerous. He had spoken of the dangerous character of the place, but not in the way of remonstrance. Every sailor could see the objections to the place as an anchorage. In a south-west gale every ship must go on shore; a steamer might easily get off the coast. He had daily opportunities of examining the state of the harbour. It was in a very beastly condition, with offal floating On the 13th of March, Captain Kellock, about, thrown over from the ships. The late commander of the Himalaya, a noble burial-ground had become very offensive transport screw-steamer, of 3,550 tons, and indeed; it was not 400 yards from the 750 horse-power, was examined. This ves- harbour. The graves were dug too shallow; sel took the horses of the ambulance to the he buried some of the sailors of the HimaCrimea. She also took charcoal from Con- laya there, and paid some soldiers half-astantinople to Balaklava. There were about crown each to dig the graves deeper. The 650 sacks. It was much wanted by the offal floating in the harbour could easily army, and was pressed for the service of have been removed. He would have made the government. When he arrived with it a requisition to the commander of one of at Balaklava, it was not landed because the ships of war, and with a hundred men Captain Christie (the head of the transport from her crew, he would have undertaken to service) would not receive it, and he took it clean out the harbour and the town in seven back to Constantinople again. He was ex-days. tremely anxious about the charcoal, and From this day's proceedings, we also offered Captain Christie, if he would receive extract the examination of Sergeant Thomas it, to land it by his own boats, and with his Dawson, of the grenadier guards :own crew. It was not received, and he carried it back to Constantinople again. There he delivered it to Admiral Boxer, who sent lighters to land it.

Have you been in the field hospitals? Yes. The men were lying on the bare ground, and much crowded; he had heard them complain, but not frequently. Indeed, one remarkable thing with regard to the troops, was the rarity of complaints from them. He did not know which to praise most, their surpassing bravery in action, or, when under great suffering, their almost pious resignation. He attributed much of the disease to overwork and want of fresh meat. What the medical men called scorbutic diarrhoea, was brought on by want of yegetables.

To the inquiry, Did you make any repre

Witness had lost his left arm at the battle of Inkermann. He stated he first joined the regiment in Aladyn, in Bulgaria, and went with it to the Crimea. It was encamped in tents at Aladyn; there were

the morning after, and saw no wounded there then. The sailors took them off to the ships. After they went up to the heights of Sebastopol, their commissary kept them pretty well supplied with provisions. The worst thing was the coffee. The men did not grumble so much about the provisions as about the green coffee. They had no tea after they left Balaklava for the heights. They had no means of cooking, except their own tin kettles. They gathered brushwood in front of the camp; there was plenty of it. After going to Sebastopol they did not get fresh meat more than three days a-week. They never had any cocoa; the men had complained of it. They liked tea better; it refreshed them more than coffee. In roasting the coffee it was often burnt to a cinder, which they had to grind up. They broke it up with the mallets they used to drive in the tent-pegs with. When on duty in the trenches a man did not get one whole night's rest in the week. The most rest they got was on the outlying picket. They used to cook their food and take it to the trenches with them, and perhaps the order would come before they got it cooked. He was wounded at Inkermann, and his arm was amputated the same evening. He was taken to Balaklava in one of the ambulance carts. They were very well on a smooth road, but in some places they suffered very much; he had to hold on by his right hand to keep his left shoulder from coming against the other side. He never saw the French wounded carried down, but had seen their mules; he thought they must be much easier to ride. After they landed, many men of weak constitutions suffered very much from sleeping on the ground.

upwards of a thousand men in the regiment. They had twenty-five camp kettles to every Disease had already broken out when he company. They carried them the best way joined; two men who went out with him they could; many of them were lost on the died two days after they landed. Round march; but the men retained their own the camp was brushwood; there were four-small mess kettles. The men wounded at teen or fifteen men in one tent; it was very Alma were taken on board the ships the hot in the tent during the day. They made following morning. He crossed the field on a kind of shade of brushwood to lie under during the day, as it was cooler. The tents could be ventilated by turning up the bottom of them. They used to turn them up the first thing in the morning. The tents were very close indeed in the night. In wet weather, when the tent was closed it was often past bearing. Men became faint from the heat and closeness. They changed the place of the tent frequently, and changed the boughs and what they were lying on; but it was put up again on the same spot, unless the camp altered its position. It was difficult to get vegetables. Sometimes they had tea, and sometimes coffee. Tea was much the best; the coffee was green, and gave the men too much trouble to roast. They spoilt their tin kettles in doing so. They seldom got any porter, and not at all till they arrived at Galata. The bread at Varna was generally good; it was a little gritty, but wholesome; at times it turned sour if kept, but when fresh served it was pretty good. He could not tell how many men they lost. The Coldstreams lost as many as ten a-day at Varna. The men were in a very low state when they embarked for the Crimea. They could not march more than four or five miles a-day in coming down to Varna. The men then carried their knapsacks; those of the men who fell out of the march were put on the baggage waggons. The men recovered their health a great deal after they embarked; they were much better on the water than ashore. They landed in the Crimea in good spirits and in much better health. They did not have their knapsacks when they landed in the Crimea. They had their blanket rolled up, with a pair of boots and a change of linen inside. The men would Would it have been a great advantage rather have had their knapsacks. The to have small tents, as the French had?blanket was not so easy to carry. With It would. The men would not refuse to the knapsack a man could bring his elbow to the rear, and ease it up when it pressed hard, but with the blanket he could not. He did not know the weight of the French knapsack; he believed theirs was a great deal heavier than the French. He knew the French soldiers carried tents; he had heard the men speak very highly of them.

carry them; they would have been very glad to do so. He was sent to Scutari in the Sydney transport. He was well attended to on the voyage; he was twenty-seven days in the barrack hospital; he was also well treated in the hospital. He came home in the Talavera.

By General Peel.-The wounded men

were carried from the field by soldiers told off for that duty; they did not depend on the sailors for that; the sailors took them from the shore to the ships.

By Mr. Layard.-There was a large hospital tent for the operations, with circular tents round it, where the men were placed afterwards. In the tents they lay on boards six or seven inches from the ground. His wound was from a musket-ball that broke the bone of the arm.

What was the cause of the men's illness on the march?-Many of the men were weak from diarrhoea, and the stock was too tight.

How do you like the bearskin cap?-Not at all, it is too heavy. On a march the men always take them off and carry them on their bayonets, and put on their foraging caps. This cap (touching it) is very well adapted to the service. He had heard it had been changed. He had only seen the new one at home. The new one might be the best for home service.

In what state was the clothing of the men when you left?-Very bad, it was getting very ragged.

You worked in the trenches?—Yes.

Did you hear any complaints of the tools? -Yes, often; the tools we had were very bad indeed. The bills would not cut a piece of wood; pieces chipped out of the edges an inch long. The pickaxes were generally bad; they were always coming off the handles, if they did not break. The shovels were worse than the picks.

gale supplied was not so much medicines as medical comforts; but it was impossible not to see that it was these, rather than medicines, the men most wanted. They landed in a state of exhaustion; let it be called by any medical name whatever, it was chiefly exhaustion--a flickering of the lamp of life; for men in this state, these medical comforts were what was most needed. There was one case of a man dying from his diet having been changed. He had been put on a strengthening diet, and was recovering, when by a mistake it was changed to a lowering one, and he died in consequence. He was quite aware of the cause of his death, as he spoke of it; he said he supposed that in so great a crowd it could not be helped. Things were in a state of utter confusion. When he left the beds were not numbered; any registry in the hospitals must have been very difficult to keep correctly. He knew one case of a false return. He had with him the letter of a soldier which was brought to him by the permission of his commanding officer, in which the man stated he had been returned as dead, and the report had reached his family at home; he wished to contradict it, and, for better security, his officer had allowed him to bring witness the letter of contradiction himself.

On the 23rd, 24th, and 25th of April, the Duke of Newcastle was examined before the committee. This weary three days' questioning ended without leading to any discovery of the hidden sources of misHow did the men like the Minié rifle ?-management. "The Duke of Newcastle," Very well; only when engaged there is no time to fix the slides, and the men have to judge the sight by their own eye.

said the Times, "doubtless did his best; but he was always seeing obstacles which he was unable to remove, and attempting in vain to produce directness and unity of action amid warring departments and complicated forms. He suggested remedies, overruled forms, and did some things on his own personal responsibility. But, somehow or other, his well-intended measures fell wide of the mark, or short of it, like old Priam's javelin."

The evidence of that philanthropic gentleman, Mr. Augustus Stafford, M.P., respecting the hospitals and the treatment of the sick and wounded soldiers, abounded in facts, from the bare contemplation of which even the decent-not to say humane-mind recoiled in horror and disgust. At the same time, according to Mr. Stafford, such was the dreadful condition of the soldiers in Sir John Burgoyne, who, while he was in the camp, that his wonder on seeing them the Crimea, had been the principal director was, not that the hospitals at Scutari were of the siege operations, was examined on full, but that the camp was not completely the 1st of May. He said that with respect empty. Much of Mr. Stafford's evidence to the formation of a road from Balaklava was of too painful and revolting a character to the camp, that the English force was too! to be transmitted to these pages; but something of the confusion reigning in the hospitals at Scutari may be understood from the following passage:-What Miss Nightin

small to construct one. He allowed it would have been better to have had a good road, but said they had not men sufficient to work in the trenches; and added, that if