It was suggested by the Committee that the Commissariat were to blame when, after supplying food for the whole army, they were suddenly called upon to provide huts and other articles, and failed to do so. Lord Hardinge said he thought not. The difficulties of the climate, the state of the roads, and, above all, the misfortune of a large army depending entirely upon the sea for its communications, made it almost beyond human effort to get things right. He maintained that no expedition ever left England under greater advantages; in the Peninsula they had no tents until 1814, four years after the Duke of Wellington assumed the command. The Commissariat animals had been allowed to dwindle down to too low a strength, the result of making war upon a peace establishment. When he himself crossed the Sutlej with 20,000 British and Native troops, his Commissariat transport consisted of no less than 120,000 baggage-animals, which had been procured without any great pressure or hardship upon the Native population.
When questioned concerning the recruits sent out to reinforce the army before Sebastopol, he gave the following explanation: — The necessity arose entirely from the fact that the peace establishment stood at so low a figure[1] that, after the first effort had been made
- ↑ The Commander-in-Chief has no control over the numbers of the army, which are fixed by the Secretary of War, on the authority of the Cabinet, and are included in the first vote of the Army Estimates, a.s annually sanctioned by Parliament.
