A radical inquiry, tamed: the Sebastopol Committee of 1855

In January 1855, the British House of Commons appointed a Select Committee to investigate the parlous state of the British army then encamped before Sebastopol. Originally a radical project driven by the Radical MP John Arthur Roebuck, the Sebastopol Committee wound up tamer than its origins implied. At its outset, it collapsed a government, and prompted anguished complaints from traditionalists that it was overthrowing the constitution. Yet in choosing to work through a Select Committee – a long-established form, albeit one not previously used to investigate an ongoing military operation – Roebuck made a calculated gamble that did not entirely pay off. Sacrificing control over his Committee’s composition to secure wide parliamentary approval and thereby legitimacy, he wound up unable to influence its conclusions in his preferred direction. Instead, his more ‘establishment’ colleagues declined to censure individuals, refused even to consider the government’s wider strategic approach, and produced a set of recommendations almost identical to what the government was doing anyway. The effect was to neuter Roebuck’s radical inquiry. In the end, the fact that the Sebastopol Committee happened matters more than anything it did, or anything it found.