The Express.
London, England, 1855-04-03 00:00:00

lERINO APROPOS OF THE
MILITIA.

Mona mismanagement ! Not content with ruining
an army of regular soldiers in the Crimea, Govern-
ment are now doing their best to melt away the Mili-
tia of the United Kingdom. Of the latter faro* nearly
every regiment in England is now in a state of die-
!spears, and unless matters mend greatly, and quickly,
very few days will suffice to leave the country with-
out nay Militia at all. Would that some one could
provide us with a War Minister who had clear no-
tions regarding came* and effects, and who could fore-
see that in all human probability official blunders will
at the present day produce very great evils to the
country ! The reason of this disruption in so many
Militia regiments is a want of official arrangement,
forethought, and foresight, which would utterly ruin
any Joint-Stock Company, or bring a Merchant, in
whom. establishmen t the blundering took place, into the
Gasetle. When the Act of Parliament which brought
the Militia into being in 1832 was framed,no provision
whatever appears to have been made for the difficulty
which has now arisen. The framers seem—according

to the good old English custom in all matters of war
er warfare—to have trusted a good deal to chance,
and the remainder to Providence, in ow of any
future dillealtiee respecting the period the men

bad to serve. The Militia raised between the
Act of 1862 and the 12th May, 1864, were liable to
be called out ander ordinary circumstances for
periods not exceeding 68 days in each year; but
should there be any danger of invasion, or other
great and immediate call for their services, they
were liable to be embodied for permanent duty. By
the Act 0'1864, all men subsequently enlisted for the
Militia were bound to serve so long as the war lasted.
Boon after that Act was psseed,many of the Militia regi•
nnotebeing required forgarrison duty, all the enrolled
men were called out, and have been retained with their
respective corps until now. However, there appear to
have been suipicions on the minds of county members
that all wee not on the square ; and question., easy to
ask bet difficult to answer, were asked again and again
in Parliament. Government consulted the law
allows of the Crown, who gars it as their
opinion that all Militiamen, whether enlisted
before or after the new Act of Parliament, were
bound to serve permanently, if required to do so.
The opinion did not, however, suit the parties
most concerned, and unmistakeable grumbling.
began to be heard in many of the Militia regi-
ments doing duty in various provincial towns. Then'
—but not till then—Lord PAlnirtlai did what he ought
to have doos in May last, when the new Act was passed.
He authorised the discharge ef all men enrolled prior
to the passing of the Act, or at any rate of such as

did not wish to serve any longer—at the seine time I
giving them the option of being re-attested for five
years' service, with a bounty of twenty shillings for
such u entered upon this fresh engagement. The
teeth of this any sae—save perhaps an English Mi-
nister of War—might have foreseen. On Friday last
these conditions were explained to the let Somerset
Militia stationed at Plymouth, and of this regiment—
which is said to be one of the finest corps of embodied
Militia it the kingdom-414 men out of 600 took
their discharge, and started by railway for their
satin county. On Wednesday last, about 600 men
of the West Lent Light Infantry claimed to be re-
leased from duty, on the same grounds as those sat
forth by the lest Somerset Militia. TM North Durham
have, *seceding to the Sinederlesei nlB6lll, lost 770
men out at 800 during the put week. At Wool-
wich, the liesapihire Artillery Militia demanded, on
Friday last, their discharge in a most disrespectful
amuse cc parade. Of the Leicestershire Militia,
460 have *Nabbed their dimming], sad only 120
41 Emu have beet mattested under the new Act.
The Mak Artillery have bet 40 men left eat of 130

that mustered at the Leadgeard Fact on Thursday
lest. The example set at Plymouth by the' Ist
Somerset Militia has be= followed betfi by the South
Devon Regiment and Devon Artillery in the same
prrieon, sad to ouch an extent that theMajor-Ociteral
commanding the district and garrison has great diffi-
culty in mastering men sufficient for garrison duty:
Besides the Hampshire Artillery Militia, who
asked for and obtained their discharge on Friday
last at Woolwich, the Monmouthshire Militia,

doing duty in the same 'anima, in like manner
demanded to return to their homes daring the early
part of lest week, and the regiment is not now
ese-fifth its former strength. And so on we might
enumerate regiment after regiment that has during
as kit Isetnight lost from two•thirds to live-eighths

'lts men.
No persoo who happened to be near any of the Lew
don railway stations, yesterday, could have failed to
observe the extraordinary number of Militiamen
arriving from and departing for all parts of the
country en route to their homes. Even in other
parts of the metropolis, numerous ex-Militia soldiers,
dressed in dirty uniforms, and carrying their goods
and chattels in bags or boxes, have been seen during
the last two days hurrying from one terminus to
another, on their way through town to their respec-
tive counties.

Is this to be wondered at ? Certainly not. Official
blunders will ever beget national misfortunes—it is
the old rule of cause and effect. Blunder No. 1 was
the Act of 1852 not providing for a contingency
like the present war. No. 2 was altering the law in
May last. For these Lord PANIIIIIIE is not 'newer•
able, but he eertainly is for the climax of mistakes—
that of not offering more than 202. bounty to
each men as take service again and are re•atteeted.
In the regular •army, at present, a recruit who only
eaters for two years gets a bounty of 71. in the in-
fantry and 101. in the cavalry. It is, therefore, not
very likely that able-bodied men, who are quite
eligible for one, if not both, of these branches of the
service, would enlist in the Militia for five years,
receiving a bounty of 11. The first blunder on our
list having been discovered in time, a bounty
of at least 51. should hate been offered to each man
of the Militia who—being entitled to his disobarge—
re-enlisted in the corps for five years. Up to the
present time our Militia corps have, by their disci-
pline and good conduct—not leas than by the manner
is which they went through their drills and per-
formed their duties—excited the wonder and admire•

lion of military men in England. It would hardly
have been thought possible that this forts—the only
soldiers almost we have in England, and the source
from which oar regiments in the Crimea fill up their
ranks soquickly—could have been mismanaged byany
amount of official blundering. Events have, however,
proved otherwise. To an Roglish Minister of War
all things are possible—to destroy by ignorance, or
make useless by want of foresight, what others would
think it impossible to injure. No amount of warning
seems to have any effect whatever on the powers that
be. When Parliament reassembles, question upon ques-
don will be asked Ministers respecting the cause of so
many hundreds of Militiamen refusing to serve any
longer. What replies can be made to thee* queries? Ist,
that the case has been greatly exaggerated; 2nd. that
other good men and true will be found totake the places
of those who have left ; and 3rd,that, as a wind-up," the
system works well The first of these, a glance at any
county paper, published since Wednesday last, will at
once contradict; the second is obviously false, for men
who have yet to be drilled and formed cannot be as
good soldiers as those who have been some time at
the work ; the third, even Mr. FREDERICK PEEL will
hardly have the official brass to assert. No : let us
have patience, and time will perhaps show us what
the end of all this blundering will be. Of one thing,
however, we may be certain; that wherever those

" coming men," so much wanted as English ministers,
may appear from, they Imes not yet been seen in
Downing-street : least of all can Lord PAM' UM
lay claim to be one of the number.—Daily News.

SPORTING EXTRAORDINARY.

Tile Englishman is pre-eminently a horse-racing
animal Our Kings—from CHARLES 11. to 0110110 E
111.—have all had a penchant for the turf. Our
Statesmen--our FOXES,GRAIIAMO,IIId BENTINCKS—
have studied the mysteries of finance at Tattersall'.
and Newmarket No sooner is an English colony
settled in a waste or barbarous land, than a race-
course is laid oat. Even Sierra Leoae—" the
whits man's grave—has its race-course. Our officers
while hemmed in, in Affghanistan, had their training.
and matches under the walls of JellalabarL And

now the Russian look-onts--watching, through their
glasses, the doings in our camp before Sebastopol
--are perplexed by the movements bf crowds which
would have no mystery for any clerk or costermon-
ger who has witnessed a " Derby Day." We have
been favoured, by a friend in the camp, with a list of
the races--though not with a "list of the running
hones"—that were fixed to come off in the rear of the
camp of the Fourth Division, "Russians and cannon
balls permitting." Here it is :