The Sebastopol Committee has closed its labours of examination; and,
pending the appearance of the final report, everybody is dis- covering that the Committee has failed to satisfy the expectations which it created. In this respect the Committee itself has af- forded a signal confirmation of the moral which it was appointed to draw. Armed expeditions left this country to take Cronstadt and Sebastopol. From Ministers to every newspaper-reader, all expected the "fall" of everything against which we addressed our forces. The real achievements of our arms have been under- rated, because measured against that unreasonable expectation ; and the Committee which was to set it all to rights, by dis- covering some wonderful cause of failure, tells us almost nothing that we did not know already. The examinations, which wound up with Lord Aberdeen, had greatly declined in interest. The survey of the proceedings as a whole confirms the belief with which we started, that the Committee lacked a plan; and the consequence is, that the evidence is wanting in unity and closeness. But if it does not make out a connected tale, some of the defects of the administration have been defined, doubtful stories confirmed or contradicted, exaggerations corrected. Perhaps the beet result of all has been, that the Committee has brought out beyond question, the admirable qualities which the British charac- ter has displayed under circumstances of the greatest difficulty, during that first year of war, which, as Lord Lansdowne reminds us, is always attended in this country by disaster and temporary failure. Unhappily, the Committee has also had some other consequences ; it has discouraged more than one meritorious officer : it has ended the life of one—of Captain Christie, Trans- port Superintendent at Balaklava, who was worried to death by charges against him for faults in management which are now proved not to have been in his department. Admiral Boxer has equally been the butt for shafts levelled at him unjustly. And even where faults have been proved, the inquiry has shown beyond every- thing, that "the system," through the effects of the long peace, mistaken parsimony, and other causes, was in a state that ren- dered it impossible for the public servants to avoid mistakes. The only matter of chance was, what kind of mistakes they should fall into.
Previous page
