Then The Report Gives A List Of The Army Supplies Miscellaneously
Purchased By Mr. Cummings:
280 dozen pints of ale at 9s. 6d. a
dozen; a lot of codfish and herrings; 200 boxes of
Cheeses and a
large assortment of butter; some tongues; straw hats and linen
"pants;" 23 barrels of pickles; 25 casks of Scotch ale, price not
stated; a lot of London porter, price not stated; and some Hall
carbines of which I must say a word more further on. It should be
remembered that no requisition had come from the army for any of the
articles named; that the purchase of herrings and straw hats was
dictated solely by the discretion of Cummings and his man Humphreys,
or, as is more probable, by the fact that some other person had such
articles by him for sale; and that the government had its own
established officers for the supply of things properly ordered by
military requisition. These very same articles also were apparently
procured, in the first place, as a private speculation, and were
made over to the government on the failure of that speculation.
"Some of the above articles," says the report, "were shipped by the
Catiline, which was probably loaded on private account, and, not
being able to obtain a clearance, was, in some way, through Mr.
Cummings, transferred over to the government - SCOTCH ALE, LONDON
PORTER, SELECTED HERRINGS, and all." The italics, as well as the
words, are taken from the report.
This was the confidential political friend of the Secretary of War,
by whom he was intrusted with 400,000l. of public money! Twenty-
eight thousand pounds had not been accounted for when the report was
made, and the army supplies were bought after the fashion above
named. That Secretary of War, Mr. Cameron, has since left the
cabinet; but he has not been turned out in disgrace; he has been
nominated as Minister to Russia, and the world has been told that
there was some difference of opinion between him and his colleagues
respecting slavery! Mr. Cameron, in some speech or paper, declared
on his leaving the cabinet that he had not intended to remain long
as Secretary of War. This assertion, I should think, must have been
true.
And now about the Hall carbines, as to which the gentlemen on this
committee tell their tale with an evident delight in the richness of
its incidents which at once puts all their readers in accord with
them. There were altogether some five thousand of these, all of
which the government sold to a Mr. Eastman in June, 1861, for 14s.
each, as perfectly useless, and afterward bought in August for 4l.
8s. each, about 4s. a carbine having been expended in their repair
in the mean time. But as regards 790 of these now famous weapons,
it must be explained they had been sold by the government as
perfectly useless, and at a nominal price, previously to this second
sale made by the government to Mr. Eastman.
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