and Eglintoun took part, Lord PANMURE replied.—The
bill was then read a second time, and, the standing
orders having been suspended, it was passed through all
its stages, a clause limiting the period of service to three
years having been inserted on the third reading.

IN the HOUSE of COMMONS on Monday, January 29th
the adjourned debate on Mr. Roebuck's motion for a
committee of inquiry into the State of the Army in the
Crimea was resumed by Mr. A. STAFFORD, who entered
into the details of what he himself had seen at Scutari,
Balaklava, and the camp before Sebastopol. Mr.
Stafford expressed his approval of the choice of Smyrna
as a site for a new hospital; as the position of the
hospital at Scutari, and the atmosphere at Constantinople,
are unfavourable to the healing of wounds.
Abydos was well chosen as a spot for a hospital; and if
the stores were ready it would not turn out a failure.
But when he was there, there were four hundred
soldiers, and only two bottles of port–wine in store. He
described the bad state of the hospital at Scutari; men
lying on mattresses upon a floor of unglazed porous
tiles, stained with feculent matter, which had engendered
a noxious atmosphere, so that whoever entered
caught the prevailing diseases. It had been greatly
improved, but it was still and always will be unhealthy.
The doctors were not entirely to be blamed; for there
had been a want of proper instructions from home. As
another illustration, he took the case of "convalescents"
returning to the Crimea. Out of three hundred few
had knapsacks. Inquiring of one soldier where his
shoes were, he was told they were in his knapsack,
lying with others in a ship a hundred yards off: Mr.
Stafford went to the ship, but he could only obtain two
knapsacks: the fact was the whole of these knapsacks
had remained on board ever since the troops had landed
in the Crimea, and they had made four voyages to and
fro between the Crimea and Scutari; in this case they
were under the cargo, and two were all that he could
obtain. He described the hospital at Balaklava,—now
greatly improved—as uncleanly, unventilated, without
a sheet, a mattress, or a single medical comfort. There
were fourteen men in one room, and nine in another,
lying on the bare boards; while in the passage between
the two were bedsteads that could have been put up in
two or three minutes. He found one of the convalescents
sitting in the middle of the street, ready to drop with
fatigue and hunger, and nobody to take him to the
hospital—next morning he died. Another case was
that of a man who could take no food but hospital sago:
he was allowed a pint a day; he wished to have it three
times a day, instead of other food; he was willing even
to buy it; but he was refused the privilege. Mr.
Stafford wished to take him back to Scutari, but the
medical officer said he had not been ill long enough.
Riding out one morning towards the camp, he passed
a man lying down by the roadside in the last stage of
diarrhoæ; as he passed, he heard the man say, not
addressing any one in particular, "Will anybody take me
away or kill me?" On this he dismounted and asked
the man how he came there? "They have been moving
me down from the camp," he said, "to put me on board
ship; but they have left me here, and I don't know
what they are going to do with me; but I wish they
would either kill me or take me away." There were
four or five others close by in even a worse condition,
inasmuch as they could not speak, while this man could;
and on turning towards the camp, he saw coming towards
him a long procession of our wounded soldiers, being
brought down from the camp on French mules and in
French ambulances. He would do the French soldiers
the justice of saying that no countrymen could have
behaved with greater kindness to these poor fellows. The
sick on board the Avon had been served with soup made
of whole pease, which, instead of thickening, sank to
the bottom, while the greasy pork floated at the top.
The Candia went to Balaklava to bring down sick, and
took some medical comforts with her; but Captain
Field could not obtain permission to leave them from
the authorities, until he said he would deliver them to
any officer who would give him a receipt for them. When
the sick were put on board, had it not been for the urgent
representations of Captain Field, there would have been
no medical provision at all. These sick men had nothing
to cover them but filthy blankets, swarming with vermin.
At the instance of Mr. Stafford, the doctor was induced
to waive routine and to issue fresh blankets; which,
the orderlies being ill, Mr. Stafford and his servant
served out to the men. He contrasted the state of the
French hospitals with ours, from personal inspection;
describing the French as clean, well–ventilated and well
supplied with every convenience; so that "it seemed as
if the French had been there for ten years and that the
English came only the day before." Amidst the
gloomy picture which he drew Mr. Stafford congratulated
Mr. Herbert on the success of one measure—the
sending out of the female nurses last autumn. Success
more complete had never attended human effort than
that which had resulted from this excellent measure.
They could scarcely realise, without personally seeing it,
the heartfelt gratitude of the soldiers to these noble
ladies, or the amount of misery they had relieved, or the
degree of comfort—he might say of joy—they had diffused;
and it was impossible to do justice, not only to
the kindness of heart, but to the clever judgment, ready
intelligence, and experience displayed by the distinguished
lady to whom this difficult mission has been
intrusted. If Scutari was not altogether as we could
wish it to be, it was because of the inadequate powers
confided to Miss Nightingale; and if the Government
did not stand by her and her devoted band, and repel
unfounded and ungenerous attacks made upon them—
if it did not consult their wishes and yield to their
superior judgment in many respects—it would deserve
the execration of the public. He told how happy the
news of the Queen's letter had made the wounded in
the hospital at Scutari. He saw one poor fellow
proposing to drink the Queen's health with a preparation
of bark and quinine, which he was ordered to take as a
medicine; and when Mr. Stafford remarked the draught
was a bitter one for such a toast, the man smilingly
replied—"Yes, and but for these words I could not get
it down." This anecdote was told to his fellow sufferers,
and this was the way in which they sweetened
their bitter draughts. He had no notion of the noble
qualities possessed by these brave men until he lived
and laboured among them. Fervent exclamations of
humble piety and sincere penitence were heard escaping
from their dying lips. Unceasing pain and approaching
death failed to unman those gallant spirits; and it was
only when charging him with their last messages to
those, near and dear to them that their voices were
noticed to falter. Once, indeed, a brave fellow, who
bore the highest character in his regiment, on his death–
bed uttered to him these words—"Had I been better
treated I might have gone back to my duty in the field,
and there I should have been ready to meet the soldiers
of the enemy: but England has not cared for me."
These words caused to Mr. Stafford's mind the deepest
pain, but he felt convinced that England did care for
her soldiers; indeed, from what he had seen of the
feeling of this country since his return, he believed that
there was comparatively nothing else for which the
people of England now cared as much as for the welfare
of those who fought their battles. He concluded by
urging the house to appoint the committee, as the only
means of saving our army.—Mr. B. OSBORNE said he had
remarked with pleasure that among the many criticisms
on the conduct of the war, none had been directed
against the department to which he was attached, the
Admiralty. He commented upon the injustice of sacrificing
a minister for the faults of a system, and contended
the military organisation of the country was
altogether rotten.—Mr. HENLEY said the question
was not whither the system was bad, but whether
the present ministers had made the best of it.—Mr.
Beresford vindicated the military character of Lord
Raglan, and supported the motion, being desirous of
full inquiry.—Mr. Rice and Sir F. Baring opposed the
motion; Mr. Miles and Mr. Bentinck supported it.
—Sir E. BULWER LYTTON contended that the justification
of the motion was to be found in the extremity
of the case. Lord J. Russell had left his colleagues
rather than resist it, notwithstanding the pain which
such an abandonment must have given to so gallant a
spirit. "Shall this house (he said,) be more