306 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, care upon the questions referred to him, General ^' Simpson reported his opinion of the oflBcers of Hi« report, the Headquarter Staff, saying also: 'There is ' not one of them whom I would wish to see ' removed ; ' and adding yet further, ' I do not ' think a better selection of staff officers could ' be made, and therefore have no reasons to ' recommend any changes to your lordship.'(^^) The general made his report the more satisfac- tory by saying : ' I confess myself to have come ' amongst these officers, many of them strangers ' to me, with some degree of prejudice against
- them created in my mind by the gross mis-
- representations current in England respecting
' them. His course General Simpson, we saw, had come out with an authority then new in our army — the author- ity of a ' chief of the staff;' and if he had been a self -asserting, self-seeking officer, he might have claimed a position like that of the chief of the staff in the French army. But, happily, he was a high-minded, conscientious man, who could not have harboured a thought of selfishly pushing his opportunities to the injury of the public service ; and when he had assured him- self that the military departments at Head- quarters were all working excellently, he no less wisely than honourably forbore from an interference which he saw would do no sort of good, and thus placed his course of action in harmony with the judgment he had formed and recorded. His zeal, energy, and good sense enabled him to render valuable service in the of action.
