Our readers will remember the Laird in one of Scott's
novels who was always planting trees and hugging the thought that they were growing while he was sleeping. The British people may feel the same about their new armies. The recruits planted a month, or even a fortnight, ago are already springing up into battalions, brigades, and divisions. Though unseen by the general public, the education of the troops and the forming of the units are proceeding with something better than mere rapidity—with an eager, alert, almost restless spirit. Nothing more moving can be imagined than a visit to Aldershot just now. Every parade ground, every road, is alive with men—men bent upon learning their military duties in the shortest possible time, and with quick- eyed, sharp-voiced instructors equally bent on communicating that instruction rapidly. They teach, and their students—for their attitude is the student's attitude—learn, as if the fate of the nation depended upon it, as of course it does.
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