LORD CAMPBELLMy Lords, the Question I have given Notice of was put down in some degree to enable me to offer an opinion on a point—although it may not seem a very grave one—which much concerns a large branch of the Auxiliary Forces. The opinion has been based on long and personal experience, and it will not require many minutes to support it. As regards the great annual field days of the Volunteers, with which society is thoroughly familiar, we stand apparently in this way—For a few years, from different causes, they have gone into abeyance. It is now intended to revive them. There is a fresh departure on the subject. Different projects have been mooted. The Government are not committed yet to any. They are on the point, however, of declaring themselves. It is stated, in the ordinary channels of intelligence, that the local board of Aldershot have strongly urged the advantage of a field day at that place, in connection with the Aldershot Division. On the other hand, the Brighton Corporation, with a highly laudable regard to the gain of every publican in that considerable watering-place, are moving heaven and earth—at least, the Government and the Volunteer commanders—to restore the very thing which used to happen, and at the very time which used to be allotted to it. Before protesting, individually, against the gratuitous relapse, I wish to take advantage of the shelter which an eminent authority has given. General Sir Hope Grant, not many years back, presiding upon one of these occasions, reported to the Government against them. So great a soldier, and so eminent a character, 673 officially explained to the Government that they ought not to be continued, because their inconveniences were greater than the benefit resulting from them. The exact view which swayed General Sir Hope Grant is beyond my recollection, as it is a long while since the document was promulgated. On this point, no doubt, the War Office are ready to enlighten us. But having myself been present as an auxiliary officer at nearly all of these parades, I can put before the House in a few words some grounds which justify a verdict so authoritative. One is that, at such an early time as Easter, parades on the sea-coast are threatened by the gravest interruption from the stormy weather which is not unlikely to prevail. A striking illustration of the hazard took place at Dover a few years back, and of course it might happen equally at Brighton, since Dover, although a favoured spot, has no monopoly of tempests. The brigades were formed on the sea-walk, and in a quarter of an hour the violence of the gale was such that they were actually dispersed by order. Had it not been for the activity of the illustrious Duke the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, who in the afternoon rode over, I believe, from Walmer Castle, some 20,000 men, at great expense to every regiment, would have come down from points much more remote than the Metropolis, for nothing but the spray which fell upon their uniforms. As it was, even the effort of the illustrious Duke, with all his aides-decamp to back him, could only reassemble some half of the Force which had been scattered. There were commanders without regiments, field officers without horses, and horses without field officers. At that time the unanimous conclusion was that these annual parades, however excellent, ought never to be held again under such circumstances; that if they took place at Easter it ought not to be at the sea-coast; that if they took place on the sea-coast it ought not to be at Easter. If I am not mistaken, it was further on in time that General Sir Hope Grant explained the disadvantages of Brighton. One of them—whether it struck him or not—is absolutely fatal. You cannot keep the ground when you are followed for only two or three miles by so great a population. Discipline is lost and movements are confounded. I have seen under my own 674 eyes, when forced to take a regiment there, the crowd pressing so close to the rear of the line, that there was no space to form a quarter distance, or, as it is now termed, a quarter column, when in order to return to Brighton such a movement was essential. There is another serious objection, which may have possibly escaped Sir Hope Grant, who went there rather as a critic of manœuvres. It is the bad effect on men in the ranks of loitering for many days without restraint or influence of any kind in a town so large and so accessible as Brighton; and where, indeed, the Railway Company allures them for a sojourn wholly irrespective of any military duty. It is a fact which often came before me that on the Easter Monday men who had been wearing uniforms for days before actually absented themselves—their zeal having evaporated in too long a holiday—while the burden of the day was borne by those who left their beds in the Metropolis at 4 or 5 o'clock, and thus showed that they were not in all respects unworthy of campaigning. But there is a grave objection to Easter Monday field days wherever you may hold them. No battalion drills precede them, because the season is too early for them. The Force is therefore unprepared. The excitement they involve makes it very difficult to get men to attend battalion drills for some weeks after they have happened. This objection would partly cease if a parade at Whitsuntide was allowed to follow that of Easter; while that of Easter took place in the interior and not upon the sea-coast. But we start at present from the given axiom that only one of any magnitude is contemplated. In that case, the conclusion I have long ago arrived at is that it ought to take place at Aldershot in combination with the Regulars, during the Whitsuntide Recess, when it is much easier to assemble men from different parts of the United Kingdom than at Easter. Some might think Shorncliffe more desirable. But where all may thoroughly unite is in deprecating the revival of what Sir Hope Grant officially condemned, partly on the grounds that gallant officer advanced, partly upon those which I have touched, without, of course, attempting to exhaust them. I will conclude by asking, Whether Her Majesty's Government proposes to sanction a Volunteer 675 Field Day at Brighton on Easter Monday?
§ VISCOUNT BURYI need hardly remind your Lordships that the initiative with regard to these Reviews has by custom been long left to the commanders of the Volunteer Force themselves. The eloquent speech of my noble Friend ought, therefore, to have been addressed to the meeting of commanding officers, he himself being one, assembled to arrange for the Review. We have not at the War Office yet received any official intimation of the wish of the Volunteers to hold a Review this year at Brighton, although I believe it is their intention. After consultation with the illustrious Duke the Commander-in-Chief, it appears to the War Office that there is no sufficient reason, if they should ask, why they should not receive permission. With regard to the opinion of General Sir Hope Grant, quoted by my noble Friend, we do not think that a partial failure of a Review 12 years ago would be a sufficient reason for preventing the Volunteers mustering at Brighton. The choice of location is limited by two considerations—the first is, whether transport can be obtained; and the second, whether a suitable ground in connection with it can be had? Since Easter Monday became a Bank Holiday, the railway authorities have found it very difficult to transport a numerous body of Volunteers in addition to their holiday traffic; but, on this occasion, Mr. Knight, the officer at the head of the Brighton and South Coast Railway, has made great exertions to provide adequate means of transport; and I have reason to believe he will be able to overcome all difficulties if the Volunteers desire to be taken to Brighton. I am not aware of any other place where that could be the case; and the War Office does not feel in a position to refuse its consent if it is asked, as I hope it will be, and I trust that we shall see this year a Review on Easter Monday at Brighton.