ENGLISH WAK ADMINISTHATION. 39 not fail to streiiiJ'theTi his hands ; so that, whether CHAP. . . Ill by actual force of law, or by virtue of the gene- L_ ral understanding that obtained, he was able to press very cogently upon all the other military departments, and either in terms to command them, or in other ways bend their will. Indeed General , . ,, 1 , , 1 readiness of one may say, speaknig generally, that there was theoidarmy not amongst the old army offices any really per- under his' , . ... • i. ■ ■^ guidance. nicious desire to maintain inconvenient privileges, and, on the contrary, so general a determination to toil zealously in the business of the war under the guidance of the Secretary of State that, except at the ' Ordnance ' (which proved at one time somewhat restive),^*' the Duke of Newcastle was but little embarrassed by obstructors. He always, sooner or later, proved able to enforce compliance by formally applying the united will of the ' Government ' as his lever for constrain- ing a department.(^^) In authoritv, therefore, as we have now plainly want of , _^."'..-. nil- If official ina- seen, the JJiike of JSewcastle did not nnd himself cinneryat . . the disposal wanting ; but it was otherwise as regards the of the Duke appliances of office ; for upon quitting the Colo- castie. nial Department, he did not carry with him the men of great and well-proved ability who then formed part of its staff,(^^) and found no other staff awaiting him in what was to him a new realm. To use, until better lodged, he borrowed a set of rooms that formed part of the Treasury building, but rooms at first empty, having neither within them the men nor yet the cherished tra- ditions that make a great department of State ;
- See ante, p. 29.
