The Express.
London, England, 1855-06-13 00:00:00

THE CAMP AT ALDERSHOT?.

IT s upwards of two months /hoe
the Camp at Aldershott was

gantic failure. Subsequent
our prophecy was in every
me season is now well advanced,
a dozen weak battalions of militia
bled in the camp, and these hav
specific training than if the regiments

tared separately at any of the
racks in England. And not
throughout England as yet not
benefit from what ought to har
a school of military training, but
of the line—the 61st, 66th, 80th, ,
about to depart for the Mediterranean
war, without having been even
tered in the immense town of

the country so much money. This,
we are engaged in a war of -
and when the efficiency or no.
every man in the army most

advantage or otherwise. In the expedition to,
the other day large numbers of our very hest,
were obliged to fall out of the reeks, being ova
partly by the heat, partly by the leather stock,
heavy knapsacks, but chiefly from their %O de'
thing like training. Of 800 Marines who hat,
from the ship. not 50 were with the battalion eye
it reached Kerteb, and the three Highland cape"
reduced to about 100 each when they arrived g
same destination. If these casualties happen magi
the stout-hearted veterans who have seen theft.,
through all the troubles of last winter before Bee;
topol, what are we to expect when levies draw
emits take their stand in the ranks of Lord Riitai
army ? Verily, we are—that is, the authorities%
—equally unjust to our troops, and to the utile ga
pays those troops. The country provides at same
mous expense a training school, which migke hi
been of the utmost benefit to the army, hd,
to official blundering, no use whatever is tea
of the place. If the money laid our a
the camp at Aldershott—or even if one-half of it.
had been judiciously expended, Government angina
this next month have been able to strengthen LA
RAGLAN'S force with 50,000 trained soldiers—wet),
at the very lowest estimation, 100,000 nor recr4
By the words "trained soldiers," we mean sods*
as the French manage to turn out of their map
every month, and send by instalments of 10,000 kg
time to the Crimea—men able to build their oe
huts, cook their own meals, bake their own bra,
and carry their full marching equipment at the rei
of three English miles an hour, without having to it
out of the ranks. This is whet might have beencla,
by means of the training camp at Aldenhott;
what has been achieved there after all the ass!.
voted by Parliament has been laid out? Nothig.
literally nothing. The officers of the regiments shie
have now been quartered there some twenty dsl4
are unanimously of opinion that the locality ism
badly chosen. Where the hats now are thee i
hardly any water whatever to be had, and for mil
all purposes this has to be brought from the Essig,
stoke Canal, which is a quarter of a mile off.
will hardly be believed that had the site beenchow
about a mile from the present camp—near when es
remains of an old Roman camp are still to
plenty of the very best water could have been reo
cured for the troops, within the limits of the mei.
meat. And yet every soldier knows that in elle
ing an encamping ground, wood and water see tie
first objects looked for. Who then could handset
for the camp a tract of land with such a veryesios
drawback ? But another, and almost as gnat c
objection, exists to the present site. When thetas
are out at drill the least wind raises clouds (1(4;
dust all over their parade ground, to such an era
that they find it almost impossible to go thronghthc
mancenvres with anything like correctness. lic
the camp been situated where an gnaws
of good water exists—on the other side
sci
the Farnham road, and near the Roman sis
es well known to all officers who have studied at ts
Senior Department of Sandhurst—the huts u n.
as the drill-ground would have been sheltered ha
the wind, and the troops would not experience a
hue
need they now do. Of the huts themselves .
willlitheedosebewhsaoidd,evisbutedththatelmittlesir
oot
Josrrube
s.
the first who called attention to the fact that theme
nese of the wood with which they were about to a,
built was most objectionable in every way, and world
fPavextmraosble s
the usefulness of their accommodation. And Sir Jc
prove fatal to the comfort of the soldiers as well u t

SEM was right. In all the huts the bouds hot
even with the few days of warm weather yet se
this summer—shrank to inch an extent that tl

buildings will not be inhabitable after the L
a/ September. The camp then is calculated to lid
troops for exactly three months in the year, and e
sapiently can barely train one set of soldiers daring ti
twelve months. The present weak brigade stAlcitreha
soesists of six militia battalions; the average etrenr
of each is not more than 500 men—say 3,000 la el
Bat of these only about 800 have been in camp f
three weeks. The remainder have merely come i
by driblets, and up to the present time none Wed
rived any advantage whatever from being brae
bitether at Aldenhott. Had the huts been en
'ready for the troops in February or March last--ii
they been so constructed that men of ordinary at
mina could have inhabited them during the lelle
year—the Militia regiments would have &rill
the greatest advantage from being removed at on
from the scenes of vice and filth in which the rn
have lived almost since their first ea,
sent. How the officers of these corps la
maintained anything like discipline wee
the men, billetted as the latter have Id
in public-housed throughout our large towns, so
little short of marvellous. Whatever may be t
faults of Aldershott camp, it would at any retold
been far better than the places in which the %hi
regiments have been living for months put. I
with any thing like management this might he
been effected long ago, and now—as the fine wall
can hardly last for three short months—we i
that but little good will accrue front the srue
monk The feet of the Militia being a sort of I
eery for our regiments of the line should newt
an instant be lost sight of; and it should be rem
bared that the training of the former will, if PTV
and systematically carried out, both rodeos
Militiaman to volunteer more readily foe the MI
army, and also fit him for immediate service el
he joins his new corps. Hitherto we have c
kept in sight the parade and show movements of
troops, and so long as these are correctly peed
all is supposed to go well. We have the finest le
rial in Europe for an army, but we give our red
no training whatever before they take the field.
sonsequence is that we invariably have to blc
over a campaign before our troops are converted
effective soldiers. And this short-sighted poliq
tends not only to our barrack yards, but even G
so-called Camps of Instruction. Aldershott seems'
to prove no exception to this rule. It is pull
that we shall have several grand show parades
before the season le over, but the only perer.e2
to derive any; substantial benefit from ',he cs
the owner!s of hotels in the neighl,,urhood, se
Shareholders of the South Wes!,n gealwiy.
News.

ruer
he have
ell
ul aced,
e 111
likelyifl nil I 2unit' e t
nur sod
nnr
ebett d e tireogo" hid
en st u ge
lisiu bee,
le
* e yet,
rine ° I 1p
tl 5 it
l'ellh:
'nu°.
we 1814
events here Prot
' way correct, iii;al
: only hive the iii
not derived the 114 l'
me been sin, mitt 4
oth, and 96th
terranean and the 44
en fora single 474,e
F huts Which has
'-',.
This + ' - .
, too, a.* oneytt
the Ecnoit reschit,„k •
non-efficieney of L 4,4
float tell tithe?