With this view both should be inspected daily. " In regard to the food of the soldier, I have frequently observed and lamented in the late campaign the facility and celerity with which the French soldiers cooked in comparison with those of our army. " The cause of this disadvantage Is the same with that of every other description — the want of attention of the officers to the orders of the army, and the conduct of their men, and the consequent want of authority over their conduct. Certain men of each company should be appointed to cut and bring in wood; others to fetch water, and others to get the meat, &c., to be cooked; and it would soon be found that, if this practice were daily enforced, and a particular hour for seeing the dinners and for the men dining named, as it ought to be, equally as for parade, the cooking would no longer require the inconvenient length of time which it has lately been found to take, and the soldiers would not be exposed to the privation of their food at the moment at which the army might be engaged in operations with the enemy. " You will, of course, give your attention to the field exercise and discipline of the troops.
It is very desirable that the soldiers should not lose the habits of marching, and the division should march ten or twelve miles twice in each week, if the weather should permit, and the roads in the neighbourhood of the cantonments of the division should be dry." Now, the writer of this " offensive production " was Arthur Duke of Wellington, and it is an extract of a circular addi-essed to all commanding officers of divisions and brigades, dated Frenada, Nov. 28, 1812. It was not the Duke's province to inquire into the reason of " this want of attention to the men " of which he complains; but in a service in which there are only two captains in a regiment, and all the other officers except the colonel and major are boys who have seen but a few weeks' service, intent only on champagne, tarts, good grub, dog-hunts, and horse-races, it is not wonderful if the same thing occurs in the Crimea in Novemher, 1855.
Sjjero meliora. It would he unjust to say that the British soldier has not admirable raw material provided by Government for him now, and many regiments possess most excellent cooking-houses, built under the direction of their officers. I was particularly struck by the nvimber and neatness of those of the 48th Regiment, and poor Colonel Unett, of the 19th, worked very hard in erecting some excellent kitchens for his regiment, and even invented a plan of baking bricks, manufactured out of the earth in the neighbourhood, for the purpose. There is really very little news. General Simpson has refused the sabre of honour presented to him by the Sultan, as well as the Order of the Medjidie, till he receives the command and permission of Her Majesty to accept and wear them.
The preparations for the expedition, of which I sent you a few details, continue. All the French and English troops are embarked. General Vivian, of the Turkish Contingent, with some officers of his staff, is on board the " Indian," but it is supposed he is only waiting for a passage to Eupatoria. where a portion of his force has already landed. The Light Cavalry ^Brigade, under Lord George Paget — the 4th, 13th, 12th, and I7th — will proceed at once in the same direction, to reinforce the French cavalry, consisting of the 8th Hussars, 6th Dragoons, aoid the 8th Dragoons. The secret expedition will leave Kamiesch to-morrow at noon. CHAPTER XXVI, The Highlanders under orders for embarkation — Departure of the Light Cavalry — Expeditions the order of the day — Freedom of the army from disease — Second summer — Probable destination of the expedition — Peaceful toils — The Russian fire — Domestic arrangements — Hutting and road-making — Dwellers in a camp — Drainage — Promotion of Colonel Windham— Lord William Paulet — Miss Nightingale — Expectation that the Russians will evacuate the North side — Lord Panmure's telegraphic message — The expedition countermanded — Direction of the campaign by the home authorities, Sebastopol, October 15.