much, did not suffer half so much as the rest of the
division. The tools supplied for working parties were
very bad, especially the bill-hooks, which rendered the
obtaining fuel still more difficult, as the men had nothing
to cut it with. They had been complained of at Chobham.
The camp-kettles now in use were made upon a
pattern approved by the Duke of Wellington during the
Peninsular War. To special questions by Mr. Layard,
the Duke answered—"No modern improvements in
clothing have been introduced into the army, such as
waterproof coats and sheeting." "I think generally
there has not been much change in the state of the army
since the Peninsular War, except in the arms of the
the troops, in which there has been a great
improvement by the Minié rifle." "There has been a
very great change in the character of the men—a
wonderful change even in my time." Colonel Wilson
went over pretty much the same ground as the Duke of
Cambridge; confirming the previous evidence, by
details, as to the over-working of the men, the bad effect
upon the health of the officers from want of means of
transport, and upon officers and men from lack of tents.
He also testified to the short supplies of fresh meat, and
the inadequate provision for the wounded.

On Tuesday the 13th, the witnesses were Captain
Shakspeare of the Horse Artillery, Mr. Joseph Crowe;
Mr. Kellock, Master of the Himalaya; Colonel Sparkes,
of the 48th Regiment; and Sergeant Dawson, of
the Grenadier Guards. Captain Shakspeare spoke
very distinctly on three points. The horses of his troop
were well supplied in Bulgaria; before Sebastopol they
were not got under cover until the middle of December,
when seventy had died; the supply of forage was
pretty good, but after the storm in November, the men
had to go to Balaklava to fetch it. The Artillery had
fresh meat three, and sometimes four, times a week;
they had a good supply of clothes; from the first a
waterproof sheet to lie on, and had not the severe work
which the infantry had to perform. He was president
of a committee which sat to report upon the tools, and
all were condemned except the pickaxes. The bill-
hooks were especially bad. Fresh tools were issued
before he left, but they were as bad as the first. All
the tools, stores, harness, and all things for the Artillery,
were sent out direct from Woolwich to Mr. Young at
Balaklava. Mr. Crowe (who was the Correspondent of the
Illustrated London News) said that he was not employed
in any military capacity in the Crimea. He spoke to the
mismanagement of the harbour. The Trent, with 240
mules on board, was kept waiting five days because huts
for their reception were not ready. She remained some
days longer with artillery-platforms, which Captain
Christie thought it was the business of the ordnance
department to land; and after all she returned to
Varna with a quantity of fodder on board. There were
plenty of crews who would have landed the stores had
they been paid. The fodder was not landed because
there was no place for it. On a previous occasion, the
Trent, with 200 bales of hay, was ordered to Varna
without landing them. Captain Kellock, illustrated the
transport system. The Himalaya had altogether conveyed
1682 horses, two of which only had been lost. He
transported the horses of the ambulance corps; the
men were old pensioners, and addicted to drinking.
The Himalaya also took charcoal from Constantinople to
Balaklava. There were about 650 sacks.  It was much
wanted by the army. When he arrived with it at
Balaklava, it was not landed, because Captain Christie
would not receive it; and he took it back to Constantinople
again. Witness was extremely anxious about the
charcoal, and offered Captain Christie, if he would
receive it, to land it by his own boats, and with his own
crew. It was not received, and witness carried it back
to Constantinople again. There he delivered it to
Admiral Boxer, who sent lighters to land it. He had
daily opportunities of examining the harbour of
Balaklava. It was in a very beastly condition, with offal
floating about thrown over from the ships. The offal
floating in the harbour could easily have been removed.
He would have made a requisition to the commander of
one of the ships of war, and with 100 men from her
crew he would have undertaken to clean out the
harbour and the town in seven days. He did not know
whose business it was to keep order in the place. He
never saw any order kept at all. When he was at
Constantinople he was under the command of Admiral
Boxer. The Himalaya required 1200 tons of coals, and
from want of system at Constantinople they were often
seven days being put on board; at Malta they could
have been shipped in twenty-four hours. Sergeant
Dawson had lost an arm at Inkermann. He gave
emphatic evidence as to the wretched things supplied as
tools. He worked in the trenches, and often heard
complaints of the tools. The bills would not cut a piece
of wood; pieces chipped out of the edges an inch long.
The pickaxes were generally bad; they were always
coming off the handles, if they did not break; and the
shovels were worse than the picks.

On Wednesday, the 14th, the witnesses were Colonel
Kinloch, the Earl of Cardigan, and Mr. Macdonald of
the Times. Colonel Kinloch gave an account of a
transaction as to Spanish mules. In March last, he
suggested to the Duke of Cambridge the purchase of
mules in Spain; and understood subsequently from the
Duke of Cambridge that the suggestion was considered a
good one, but that it would cause too much expense.
Three months afterwards, he was sent for by Sir Charles
Trevelyan, in the name of the Lords of the Treasury,
and then received instructions to proceed to Spain to
purchase 500 mules. That was about the middle of
June. Between that time and the beginning of
September, he purchased 500 mules; 300 for pack-saddles
and 200 for harness.—The prices ranged between £15
and £30. He was accompanied by a commissariat
officer, whose duty it was to ascertain the expenses and
draw Treasury bills. That officer sometimes remarked,
when the rate of exchange was very high, that the
government would not like it: but upon witness
replying that it was a work of necessity, that the animals
must be got, and that he would bear the responsibility,
the commissariat officer made no further difficulty.
He embarked 300 of these animals at Barcelona on the
26th August, in the Trent; which was well fitted for
the purpose. The remaining 200, strong powerful
animals, were detained at Alicante until December.
He had to keep them at a daily cost of a shilling per
head, besides the wages of the muleteers. Everybody
charged him high; he was cheated by everybody, as
he had no non-commissioned officer to look after the
distribution of the stores. Several mules died at
Alicante from kicks and disease. The delay arose from
the detention of the transports in the Black Sea. At
length, on the 20th December, he embarked the
remainder at Alicante, in the Poictiers. She had been
hastily fitted up, without slings or buckets; the rolling
of the ship drove the mules from side to side; two died,
and others were maimed. He was not restricted in
price. He could have obtained plenty more mules, but
there was a difficulty in getting people to take charge of
them; the regular muleteers declined to quit Spain. A
proposal was made to him by a capitalist in Madrid,
for the English government to hire mules at so much
per day, and he would send out the best muleteers
with the animals: but the government declined the
proposition. He thought it was the only means by
which good muleteers could be obtained. The Earl of
Cardigan described the progress of the light cavalry
brigade, from Kululee to Sebastopol. The light
cavalry were healthy, and well supplied both with
food and forage, until after the battle of Balaklava.
Then a great want of forage began to be felt: they
were eighteen days without hay, while there was plenty
at Balaklava; but the roads were so impracticable it
could not be brought up. The horses were picketed in
the open air, and suffered very much. The clothing of
the men had become very bad when he left; no warm
clothing had been issued. The general impression was
that the army would not winter in the Crimea. No
stores were formed. It was known that the army
would have to winter in the Crimea two days after the
battle of Inkermann; and then arrangements were made
for the purchase of clothing, by sending men to
Constantinople. The men did not return for a month,
because Admiral Boxer found no means of giving them
transport. The great deficiency of forage for his horses
was, under the circumstances, unavoidable. With