A reference to the daily General Orders will satisfy any one of the truthfulness of that outcry. The number of officers who sicken and are ordered home, or to Scutari, or to go on board sliip, is increasing, and it is not fovmd that the recently arrived regiments furnish the smallest number of those worn out by ennui, and reduced from good health to a state of illness by a few days' service. The old officers, of course, grumble loudly and deeply at such a state of things, and the grim veterans who have remained with their regiments since the beginning of the campaign, are indignant at having sent out as their comrades puling boys, who, from no fault of their own, are utterly helpless and inefficient, and soon sicken, and leave the duties of the regiment to be performed by their overworked seniors.
Why should not vacancies in regiments out here be filled up from regiments stationed elsewhere? Such a course was pursued in the Chinese war, in our Indian wars, and I believe in the long war, and it secured the services of experienced soldiers. There are many ensigns of four, five, and six years' standing in the latter regiments, while it would be difficult to find many lieutenants who have seen so much service in any regiment which has been here since the beginning of the war. With all our experience we still permit the existence of absurdities and anomalies. About 100 doctors are sick from overwork or of disgust, and yet we have civil hospitals on the Dardanelles, maintained at some expense, in which the medical men have so little to do that they come up to camp to " tout" for patients and practice.
The surgeons say that, as it is very evident Government will never give them any honour or reward, except mere service promotion and pay, they will look to the latter alone, and it may be easily imagined in what frame of mind they will serve in cases where they can escape the necessity of energetic exertion. With a kind of refined irony two of the medical officers were " invited to attend" at the investiture of the K.C.B.'s the other day, as none of them were eligible as C.B.'s. Two commissariat officers were kindly invited to represent their body. These complaints are the echoes of voices iu the camp, loud cuouyh to be lieavd, and as such I ro;tx)rt then;. The oondiiiou of the army, notwithstanding the existence of a considerable amount of sickness, of some discontent, and of an element of weakness in the youthful recruits, is, on the whole, so far as one can judge, satisfactory.
It is not, however, as strong as people at home imagine. With all our reinforcements in fresh regiments and draughts it does not reach the strength Mr. Sidney Herbert and his friends over and over again declared it to be when it was struggling for life in the snow and mud last winter. The Sardinians, now acclimatized, Hushed with triumph, and an.Kious for another opportunity to try their steel, form a fine corps of about 8000 effective bayonets, and the Turks can turn out about 13,000 strong. The French, notwithstanding their enormous losses by sickness, their sufferings in the capture of the Mamelon, in the assault of the 18th of June, and, above all, in the trenches, where they have on an average 150 Jiors de combat on " quiet nights," and perhaps twice as manj' when the enemy are busy, could with ease present 55,000 bayonets to the enemy vyithout distressing themselves, or calling on the camp guards, &c., to leave their posts.
The allied cavalry is jiist 9000 sabres strong, and our field artillery is overpowering. In a word, while the siege works are advancing steadily, and with very few checiks, the allies can present on any side a front which is quite strong enough to hold its own against whatever numbers the Russians can bring against us. There is no ground for them to attack in large masses, and there is no room to deploy the men if they had them, and they have already discovered that in attacking by masses of columns successively svirging against us their slaughter is increased and the confusion of their repulse very much aggravated. From the French sap in front of the Mamelon one can now lay his hand on the abattis of the Malakhitjf!