The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-15 00:00:00

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practice on Chobham-heath, comprising, as it is intended
to do, every form of military operation, will bring out
results far more satisfactory and important than those of
ordinary field-days and reviews. Though, compared
with the martial displays of continental Europe, the en-
campment in Surrey may appear a very contemptible
affair, and though we at home here are more disposed to
smile at those who treat gravely a matter which
hits mainly a ttho minor comforts of our soldiers,
still there is a good deal to be gathered from this
Chobham encampment which is at once consoling to our
pride and assuring when we look at the question of our
military resources. The numbers are small, certainly ;
but the men are unsurpassed by any army of the world
for size and strength, for rigid discipline, and for the
material excellence of their equipment. The House-
.

hold troops, horse and foot, maybe rather spoiledlTy
a luxurious life, alternating between Windsor and

the metropolis. Let them be closely examined, 11W-
ever ' • let foreigners go out to Chobham and see how
they look there. Their earth kitchens may be some-
what more carefully made than those belonging to the
line, their horses better provided for, and some faint
efforts at furniture in their mess-rooms ; but they arc
as fine and as noble a body of soldiers as any general
could desire to wield, and one could not help feeling
some pardonable pulsations of national vanity at seeing
them yesterday a conspicuous feature of the camp. The
troops of the line, however, are the strength of the
British army, and must always be its chief pride. In
them are supposed to be happily blended the charac-
tt ristic spirit of three or four nationalities, and the his-
torians of our wars affect to trace in battle the firm and
sustained courage of English regiments, the devotion of
the Highlanders, or the wild impetuosity of the Irish.
If there be truth in this view of our military force,
it is well developed at the camp, where, yesterday,
as you passed from one set of tents to another, you
heard the mother tongue spoken in unmistakeable
varieties of accent. Now a mellifluous brogue saluted
the car, and a little beyond it was the broad dialect of
the land of cakes, while the waving tartans and plumed
bonnets appealed similarly to the eye. The Sappers
withale n
ca m contingentsp in
encampment.
'They from
have eac h
sunk
and Miners—probably the most intelligent and the best
liey,
of
educated men in our army—make the least external
show.
have for some time past been preparing the ground for
thepurposesThey,
formed reservoirs, erected stables, and made kitchens.

These kitchens, constructed by them, are a decided im-
provement on the old form in use during the Peninsular
war, and which some of the regiments, we observe, still

practise. They economise fuel, and enable cooking to
be carried on snore quickly and in larger quantities ; but,
on the other hand, they are perhaps a little more trouble-
some to construct. The experience and practise of the
camp yesterday were mainly centred on this point, for,
of course, when the men came on the ground, after their
tents were up, the first thing requisite was to
feed them, and when that was done the rain had
effectually cleared the common of sp&ctators. It must
not be supposed that the culinary art, as practised in
the midst of war's alarms, is an uninteresting object of
study. Any thing more rude and accordant with cam-
paigning it is hardly possible to conceive. A trench is
dug with a short mud chimney at one end ; a fire is
lighted at the other, and the top of the trench being
covered over with turf, pots are stuck down into holes
wade for them in this covering to boil ; this is the Sap-
pers' mode. The earth kitchen approved of by the ex-
isting regulations is a still rougher contrivance, and one's
thoughts in looking at either naturally revert with satis-
faction to sea-coal fires,, ranges, ovens, hot plates, and
all the other appliances of modern gastronomy. The
Artillery, like the Sappers, are obliged to be able to turn
their hands to any sort of work more than the men of
the line, and they gave excellent evidence of their ex-
pertness yesterday by the quickness with which they
took up their position.
Chobham-common, which has been selected for the
encampment, is a wild, extensive, heath-clad tract of
land, about three miles from Chertsey. The lower parts
of it are marshy, the high grounds covered with a
scrubby dry turf. Its _extent, its freedom from enclo-
sures or wood, and other considerations, on the whole,
well adapt it for the use to which it is now put. The
wet weather of the last two days has, of course, given
the troops no very favourable impression of the site ;
but, looking at it with the impartiality and coolness
which not being compelled to sleep there enables one to
exercise, it seems impossible to deny that the camp is
finely situated. A succession of swelling heights formed
into a crescent-shaped ridge runs through the centre of
the common, and upon its concave edge the encamp-
ment rests, with a northern aspect. The tents,
therefore, looked at from the north, form graceful and
regular hollow lines, advanced at each end and
receding in the centre, along the verge of the horizon.
The Cavalry, with their spacious canvas stables, occupy
the extreme right ; then the three battalions of the
Guards ; then the 42d Highlanders, the 95th, the 50th,
the 38th, the 93d, and the 23d. The Artillery and Rifles
occupy the extreme left of the position. Each regiment
keeps its boundaries distinct from the rest, and the ar-
rangement of tents is in regular order by companies,
the men in their bell tents, 15 to each tent, in front ;
the officers in the rear. Behind them, again, the
mess-room, the hospital, the canteen, the kitchen, the
stables, and the women's huts. Of course, the appear-
ance of the encampment varies with the arm of the
service which occupies it. The Cavalry stables and
those of the Artillery give either wing a rather booth-
like effect, but the ridge, dotted regularly wtth the
symmetrical tents of the infantry, is exceedingly strik-
ing, and the swarms of red and white coats moving about
like ants add immensely to the animation of the scene.
It was an interesting and pretty sight yesterday to see
each regiment come in upon the ground allotted to it,
the band playing at its head, and then, after a short
pause, at the word of command, all the tents raised at
once, and as if by magic. The men deserve great praise
for the expertness which they all showed in this matter.
Of course, the main interest of the encampment will
be found in the military evolutions which are to follow.
Yesterday's proceedings were entirely confined to the
ordinary details of pitching tents and taking possession
of the site, and making all needful preliminary arrange-
ments. The occasion attracted a number of the aristo-
cracy from town, and Lord Hardinge was on the ground
:or some time.

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

PORTSMOUTH, JUNE 14

The Victoria and Albert royal yacht, Captain Crispin,
hauled out of the fitting-basin this evening, thoroughly
refitted.
The Geyser's officers and crew are not to commission
the Vesuvius steam-sloop, the crew having petitioned
the Admiralty to pay them off, which their lordships
have acceded to.
The Neptune, 120, Captain E. H. Scott, has had the
whole of her copper stripped off, and will be newly cop -

pered.
The Plumper, 9, screw-corvette, was taken out to-
day, by Captain Henderson, as the steam reserve, to
Stokes' Bay, to try her engines.
The Rolla, 6, apprentices' instruction-brig, Lieutenant
Fenwick, of the Victory, in charge, returnel last night
from a nine days' cruise to the westward.
Commodore Vanderbilt, in his fine yacht North Star,
with a large party of ladies and gentlemen of Southamp-
ton on board, having made the circuit of the Isle of
Wight, ran two or three times through the anchorage at
Spithead, to give the company a good opportunity of
seeing the fine squadron (Duke of Wellington, 131, Ajax,
60, Blenheim, 60, Hogue, 58, Edinburgh, 58, Sidon, 22,
Odin, 16) moored there. On first coming up to Spithead,
Commodore Vanderbilt fired a royal salute, of which
act of gratuitous courtesy no notice was taken until the
Commodore and his guests must have landed at or been
near Southampton. Preparations were making on the
garrison battery to return the American gentleman's sa-
lute, which he fired about 4 o'clock.

PLYMOUTH, JUNE 14.

Her Majesty's ship Queen, 116, Capt. E. T. Michell,
in the Sound, is ordered to take on board six months'
provisions. She received powder yesterday.

WOOLWICH, JUNE 14.
APPOINTMENTS.
Commodore Henry Eden, Superintendent of Woolwich.
Dockyard, to be Naval Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, in
the room of Captain William Fanshawe Martin, pro-
moted to the rank of Rear-Admiral.
Lieutenant William E. Fisher (1845), to the Horatio,
24, screw steam guard-ship at Sheerness.
Chaplain and Naval Instructor—Rev. R. M. Inskip
(1836), to thelMagicienne, 16, paddle-wheel steam-fri-
gate, at Devonport.
Surgeon—John I. Crawford, M.D. (1843), to Horatio.
Naval Cadets—A. B. Wodehouse and H. A. T.
Phipps, to the St. Jean d'Acre, 101, screw steam-ship, at
Devonport.
Clerk's Assistant—F. J. P. Shapcote, to the St. Jean
d'Acre.
Benjamin S. Jackson, W. H. Aldham, Thomas W.
Webster, Charles Evershcd, Herbert de Carteret, and
J. W. Ashton, to he masters assistants.
Acting Gunner William Dove, of the Excellent, is
confirmed to that rank.

DEATH or ADMIRAL ALLEN.—Admiral Allen, the
second in seniority on the reserved half-pay list,
died at Torpoint, Cornwall, on the 4th inst. He
entered the navy in 1787, was in the Penelope,
32, and assisted, in company with the Iphigenia
32, at the capture off St. Domingo, on the 25411
of November following, of the French 36-gun frigate
L'lnconstante, after a close action of half an hour, in
which the Penelope had one man killed, and seven, in-
cluding himself, wounded. Mr. Allen, who obtained a
lieutenantcy on the 10th of December in the same year,
in the Convert, 36, Captain John Lawford, was unfor-
tunately wrecked in the West Indies, March 8, 1794 ;
was made commander Dec. 6, 1796 ; and,inutillies
aEnccli
sloop, on the Jamaica station, captured, July 3, 1799,
L'Amazon, French letter of marque, of 10 geo
men. He was posted April 29, 1802. During the last
two years of the war, Captain Allen officiated as agent
for prisoners of war at Newfoundland, His official
motion to the rank of rear-admiral took place August
17, 1840. The admiral was in the receipt- of a pension
for wounds of 2501.