Altogether this
military enterprise of occupation was effected with the usual British
confusion and lack of arrangement.
The commissariat of course broke down, although special pains had been
taken to supply the troops with luxuries that to a simple mind are
inconceivable; thus COPPER WARMING-PANS in great numbers were sent out!
As the thermometer was above 100 degrees Fahr., these fiery furnaces
were hardly appreciated. It is a reflection upon the want of resource
exhibited by the authorities that these peculiar utensils were not sent
out as regimental stew-pans, as there was a dearth of cooking-pots, and
the warming-pans might have added materially to the comforts of the
insides, instead of the outsides of the men, by reducing the
gutta-percha-like texture of Cyprian bullocks into a savoury stew.
Another comfort thoughtfully supplied by some more than usually insane
authority, who no doubt had passed a severe competitive examination, was
exhibited in countless coal-boxes of cast-iron! These curious devices
were about three feet six inches long by two feet and a half deep, and
the same in width. To my ideas they were only suitable for gigantic
foot-pans or hip-baths, or as an aquarium for a young seal; but their
real object was to contain coal for the supply of the various tents!
What is to become of our country, exclaims the British taxpayer, if this
frightful waste is to continue? What traveller or explorer ever carried
with him a copper warming-pan and a gigantic coal-box, weighing nearly
two hundred pounds? And these useless abominations are to hamper the
operations of our troops, and to wear out our sailors in the labour of
the disembarkment of such disgraceful lumber! Should we unhappily in
some future political annexation send a military force to Spitzbergen,
we shall probably omit the warming-pans and fuel, but supply a shipload
of refrigerators and "Family Ice Machines.
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