THE BATTLE OF DORKING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 185, 7 August 1871, Page 2

THE BATTLE OF DORKING.

Under this title, an article, of which Col. Hamley, a well-known military writer, is said to be the author, recently appeared ir. Blackuood's Magazine, and has created an immense sensation in England. Its purport is to show the folly of England's persisteut neglect of her military and naval defences, and of her refusal to avail herself of- all the latest appliances of modern warfare. The plot of the story is as follows : — The Darrator sits down A.D. 1925 to recite to his grand children the events which culminated in the Battle of Dorking, and the particulars of that decisive engagement which occurred 50 years previously. After briefly sketching the wealthy and prosperous condition of Great Britain just before the German invasion^ he proceeds to define the causes of the defenceless condition of the mother country, how a rising iv India had drawn away a part of her small army, a difficulty with America had taken. 10,000 men to Canada, . while half of those left at home were in Ireland to check the talked-of Fenian invasion fitting, out in, the West. The fleet also was scattered abroad, some ships guarding the West Indies, others checking- privateering in the China seas, and a large number trying to protect tbe colonies which with incredible. folly we continued to retain on the Northern' Pacific shore of -America. It was while England was in this state that the Secret Treaty was published, and Denmark aud Holland were annexed to Germany. The whole, country boiled, over with indignation, aud the Government, egged on by the press, and going with the stream, declared war. "It; was on a Monday/, that ,-ithe declaration.o f war was announced,' and in * a fewhours we.got our. first inkling of the sort of preparation the enemy had made for the event which they bad really brought about,, -» the; < actual^ declarajtip.n } was \ mad c s iby - ns. * A piopf appeal to the )ftpd pf Ib-ttleß, whom it was said' we had aroused, was telegraphed back,

and from that moment all communication with the North of Europe was cut oft. Oar embassies and legations were packed off at an hour's notice, and it was as if we hadsnddetil"^ come back to the dark ages. The dumb astonishment visible all over London the next morning when the papers came out void of news, merely hintiug at what had happened, was one of the most startling things in this war of surprises." Meanwhile, the best part of the fleet had been decoyed down the Dardanelles, and what remained of the Channel squadron was looking after Fenian fillibusters off tbe west of Ireland. Then followed a few days of battle and confusion, and sickening suspense, until a wire connected with one of the ships of the fleet announced that a naval battle had commenced; hour after hour there followed tidings of great disasters, then the cable became silent, and nothing more was known for two _ays, when the solitary ironclad that had escaped steamed into Portsmouth, and then the whole story came out — how our sailors, gallant as ever, had tried to close with the enemy ; bow the latter had evaded the couflict at close quarters, and sheering off, left behind them the fatal engines which sent our ships, one after another to the bottom. The Government, it was said, had received warning of this invention, but to the nation this stunning blow was utterly unexpected. Then ensued a season of panic and excitement in London, the funds fell to 35, the bank stopped payment, and half the houses in the City failed. The volunteers were called out aud responded nobly to the call, the regiment to which the writer belonged going up in a day or two from its usual strength of 600 to nearly 1000, but the supply of rifles was short, and the regiment had to be divided iuto two parts, the recruits drilling with the rifles in the morning and the old hands in the evening. After a time it was announced that a lot of smooth bore muskets in store at the tower would be served out, and a regular scramble for them took place, but then it turned out that there was no smooth bore ammunition in the country. A national subscription was raised for the manufacture of rifles at Birmingham, which ran up to a couple of millions in two days, but, like everything else, this came too late. At last, after many days of suspense aud ignorance of what the enemy were doing, there came the news that they had landed in force near Harwich. Then again came a rumor of their having landed at Worthing, and in two days they had got more than 20 miles inland, and nothing effectual been done to stop them. Meantime there was hurry and bustle, and the volunteers, militia, and regulars were mustering in London, Shoreditch being the great rendezvous, where the troops continued to arrive as fast as the trains could run. "Everything was very orderly ; the men had piled arms, and were standing about in groups. There was no sign of high spirits or enthusiasm. Matters had become too serious. Every man's face* reflected the general feeling that we had neglected the warnings given us, and that now the danger," so long derided as impossible and absurd, had really come and found us unprepared. But the soldiers, if grave, looked determined, like men who meant to do their duty whatever might happen." How the commissariat department was managed we must let the writer tell in his own words. " The ignorance," he says, in which we volunteers, from the colonel downwards, were kept of the enemy's movements filled us with uneasiness. We could not but depict him to ourselves as carrying out all the while firmly his wellconsidered scheme of attack, and contrasting it with our own uncertainty of purpose. The very silence with which his advance appeared to be conducted filled us with mysterious awe. Meanwhile the day wore on, and we became faint with hunger for we had eaten nothing since daybreak. No provisions came up, and there were no signs of commissariat officers. It seems that when we were at the Waterloo station a whole train full of provisions was drawn up there, and our colonel proposed that oue of the trucks should be taken off and attached to our train, so that we might have some food at hand ; but the officer in charge, an assistant controller J think they call him — the control department was a new fangled affair wfyich did us almost as much harm as the enemy in the long run — said his .orders .were to keep all stores together, and that he couldn't issue any without authority from the head of the department. So we had to go without. 1 ' News having reached the camp that the enemy was trying to turn the position on both sides, the troops were ordered to fall back, and take up a position at Dorking where the great chalk range was to be defended. Here follows a graphic description of the wretched state of mismanagement that prevailed which we must give in exttnso.

"We had scarcely reached the hill ahove the town, which we were told was to be our bivouac ; for the .night, when the welcome news came that a food train had arrived at the station, but there were no carts to bring the things up, so a fatigueparty went down and carried back a supply to us io their arms — loaves, a barrel of rum, packets of tea, and joints of meat — abundance for all; but there was not a kettle or a cooking pot in the regiment, and we could not eat the meat raw. Some of us were sent back into the town to see what we could procure in the way of cooking utensils. "We succeeded in getting a few kettles and saucepans, and thus laden, we trudged back to our camp on the hill, filling the kettles with dirty water from a little stream which runs between the hill and the town. It was nearly a couple of miles each way, and exhausted as we were with marching and wnnt of rest, we were almost too tired to eat. The cooking was of the roughest, as you may suppose, all we could do was to cut off slices of the meat and boil them in saucepans using our fingers for forks. Firewood was plentiful, for the hill was covered with beautiful wood, but it took some time to collect it, for we had nothing but our pocket knives to cut down the branches with." Then follows a description of the position taken up by the army upon which to give battle to the invading foe. " Anybody " says the writer, " must have been struck with the natural advantages of our position; but what, as I remember, roost impressed me, was the peaceful beauty of the scene, the little town with the outline of the houses obscured by a blue mist, the massive crispness of the foliage, the outlines of the great trees lighted -up by the sun, and relieved by deep blue shade. The quiet of the scene was the more impressive because contrasted in the mind with the scenes we expected to follow; and I can remember, as if it were yesterday, the sensation of bitter regret that it should now be too late to avert this coming desecration of our country, which might so easily have been prevented. A little firmness, a little prevision on the part of our rulers, even a little common sense, and this great calamity would have been rendered utterly impossible. Too late, alas ! We were like the foolish virgins in the parable." [The account of the battle and its results we must reserve for another day.]