The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-04-29 00:00:00

THE BRIGHTON REVIEW,

The great gathering of volunteers on Monday
on the Downs at Brighton have been a complete
answer to those sinister reports which have been
flying about for some time peat with respect to
the disorganization of the volunteer movement.
Nearly 20,000 members of different corps were
present, and the triumphant success iN ith which
their proceedings were crowned, will, we are
sure, act as a healthy stimulant to the volun-
teering spirit, not only of those present, but
throughott the country. Lord Clyde, more
commonly known by the name of Sir Cohn
Campbell, the heroic leader of the Highland
brigade on tho heights of the Alma, and the
queller of the great Indian mutiny, presided
over and conducted Easter Monday's proceed-
ings; and he certainly adopted the best means
of testing to the fullest possible extent the capa-
bilities, the excellence, and the efficiency of
those who were under his command. He wholly
dispensed with a programme—as is usually
adopted—of the different manceuvres to be tone
through in order that it might be "rehearsed,"
so to speak, "by the several performers ;" but
led them, without making known any of his plans
or intentions, just as he would have done had
he been going to attack an enemy, instead of
reviewing a Volunteer force. By this method,
if the young army was tested severely, it was
tested truly; and that they had made the most
gratifying progress in all things pertaining to
the profession they had adopted, is evident,
not only from the cordial approval of their
Commander-in-Chief, but also from those pre-
sent who were well versed in military tactics.
Lord Clyde is not one of those good-natured,
easy-going gentlemen who praise good and bad
indiscriminately in order to keep things pleasant.
He took a soldier's view of the force before him,
brought together for the purpose of repelling
a hostile force from our shores; and the fact
that he expressed his satisfaction with all he had
seen and all that had been done—the steadiness,
the precision, the soldierly bearing, the quick-
ness of apprehension with reference to the com-
mands given—shows that in the opinion of the
greatest general this country at present possesses,
our citizen soldiers may with confidence be
regarded as a most important element in the
defensive strength of these realms. Our volun-
teer forces are composed of the flower of the
nation, their skirmishing has on all occasions
called forth the highest enconiums from the
moat competent judges, they are armed with the
most effective weapon that has been manufac-
tured, and a large proportion of them have
acquired a proficiency in the use of it even
greater than that possessed by the regular army.
The Brighton review of Monday, will, we doubt
not, have an important influence, not only on
our country, but on every other country in
Europe. It has proved that our patriotic
soldiers would be equal to any emergency they
might be called to sustain in a day of danger.
Apart from its value as a military exercise, it
has shown us by its thoroughness in drilling and
training, which could not have been attained but
by a tedious preparation perseveringly carried
through, that there is a vitality in the move-
ment of which England may justly feel proud.
It has shown too, that in the course of a short
morning, nearly twenty thousand volunteers—
not to mention the fifty thousand civilians who
went down—can be transported a distance of 52
miles with the most perfect regularity and with-
out the slightest accident. And if this could be
done without hitch or hindrance on a holiday,
who does not believe, had there been an invasion
at Brighton, double or treble that number
could have been conveyed thither in a compara-
tively brief period of time, and fresh as when
they left their quarters ? Among the seventy
thousand spectators on White Hawk Down
were foreign critics watching with intense in-
terest the whole of the movement.; and we
, have their own acknowledgment that the
manoeuvres were performed with a precision
I they had seen rarely equalled and never sur-
passed by regular troops. We certainly do not
know what a month, a week, or even • day may
bring forth. At.present we are at peace with
all the world, but who can tell how soon the
whim of a despot, the despair of an intriguer,
the fury of an exasperated priestly tyranny, or
the pPssion of an angry people, may be the means
of calling this country again to arms? We
sincerely trust that it will be long ere we shall
have to draw the sword or point the rifle in our
own defence, but knowing not what contingency
may arise, we may justly feel proud of our
citizen soldiers, believing as we do from all that
has gone before, that through their gallantry
and by God's blessing, the dwellers of our
now happy isle will have preserved to them
their homes and their firesides from foreign
aggression.