The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-07-16 00:00:00

,THE GRAND REVIEW
AT AINTREE.

Fifty-seven rears ago, when Bonaparte meditated the
overthrow of England and the conquest of the world, our
forefathers answered the call of danger, and formed the
volunteers of 1303 for the defence of their hearths and
homes. In the day of trial our countrymen were equal
to the occasion. Bonaparte was defeated : St. Helena
was the sequel. The danger passed away, and with
It, for a time, the volunteer movement. Our fathers
returned to their shops and their fields, and gave
up the glory of military life to cultivate the
arts of peace. Lately a second ardbitions potentate
of the line of Bonaparte has appeared on the arena of
Europe. Jealous of the power of England, he Alec
seeks to raise the volunteer movement in France, !Ls
E,'lpire may be Peace, but his deeigrte .re •wrapt in
Mystery; and he is, even at this it ;went, an object of
Suspicion. Theft What litt'T'A e Cone to subvert his plans
We have not dees'tea the fields ; we transact business still
rl.•° 4.r and offices ; but, true to our sires, we have
•
..sited in a common bond for the defence of our homes, of
oar Queen and country. We cultivate the arts of peace,
and learn the science of war. In other veords, we have
resuscitated the volunteer movement. Every rank, every
profession, every trade help to swell its coltame. The
nobleman, the artist, and the man of letters practise
the drill beside the artisan and the egrichlturist ; the
agriculturist and the artisan, whilst in uniform, at
least, are on an equality with the man of letters,
the artist and the nobleman. Political disputes and
religious differences have been laid aside; all sects
and factions have united for a common purpose. The
movement has been recognised by authority and by
Royalty. The history of the last fortnight stamps its
national importance. The review on Saturday fortnight
in Hyde-park marked its triumph, and proved its entire
success. Should the French be equally succeesfill with our-
selves in the result, the other nations of Europe will follow
the example, and confide ultimately the interest of all
countries to the hands of volunteers, by which means
the most sanguine desire of the Peace-at-any-price
party for a reduction in the army estimates may some
day be realised,. In our own country one hundred
and thirty thousand volunteers are already under arms—
men who with less than twelve months' ttperience, are
within a step of the practical soldier. By next summer
their numbers will doubtless be doubled if not trebled.
In the meantime, the movement will, we feel confident,
be brought more closely to the door of the artisan and
the labourer, who are willing and. rectify to bring brave
hearts and strong arms into the service of their country,
but who, as a class, lack the means for equipping them-
selves. There are plenty of men of the Maclver class,
who, we feel certain, will lay the contents of their
purses at the feet of the men in their etiiploy. We can
then well echo
" Fom the loom, from the Mine, from the forge, from the mart,
From the cells of stern science, the halls of fair art,
From the homes of calm learning they come.
And they come in their thousa:Kt
Arrd from thousands a s, front cot and from hall,
Should once the w^
Baia who are ready at call,
tiger be seen."
first First in altreost every movement of great national
importance, our good old town produced, we believe, the
in the kingdom—a fact of which we may
3u-..ely feel proud. There are at present from seven to
kight thousand men under arms in this neighbourhood ;
and we. feel convinced, from the spirit evinced by all
classes of the community, that we shall neat summer be
able to boast of a well trained volunteer force of at least
twenty thousand strong. There certainly ought to be that
number in a town containing half a million or more inha-
bitants. Nothing tan exceed the loyalty which appears
to pervade every section of the community. The Scqtch,
the Welsh, and even the Irish have gallant corps of
their own, a happy pledge of the loyalty of the right-
thinking men amongst the latter. The Irish brigade is
an ornament to the Emerald Isle, and a welcome tribute
of respect to the ruling country. Moet of the corps are
self-supporting. Each man pays a yearly or a monthly
snbeeription, of an amount within the reach of the
better class of artisans ; and thus, with er, little extra-
neous aid, they have been enabled to purchase
uniforms—handsome and substantial, yet not glaring—
and all the other requisites not furnished by the
Government.
The triumph of the movement locally was celebrated
with great eclat on Saturday afternoon, at the Aintree
Racecourse. The day was looked forward to with much
interest by merchants and their cler6, shopkeepers
and their assistants, schoolboys, and—we need scarcely
add—the ladies. With the most praiseworthy libe-
rality the leading business men in the town had deter-
mined to give those in their employ at least half a
holiday ; and advertisements to that effect appeared in
all the daily journals. Picnic parties were arranged in
distant towns, and altogether the day promised to be one
of the most brilliant in the annals of Liverpool. How
far it proved so will be best seen from the narrative.

THE WEATHER.
Late on Friday night clouds began to gather threaten-
ingly,, and between twelve and one o'clock on Saturday
-morning it rained heavily. The rain ceased for a time,
but early in the morning it commenced again, clearing off
a second time about seven o'clock. Showers fell at long
intervals, however, tiuring the whole of the morning; and
between twelve and one o'clock the atmosphere presented
a gloomy aspect, accompanied with a small, drizzling rain.
The most ardent pleasure seekers looked anxiously at
the prospect of a bad day ; and there can be no doubt
that this circumstance deterred a great number from
witnessing the proceedings of the afternoon. The rain
continued until shortly after three o'clock, when it
ceased. The sun then shone out gloriously, arid gave
prospect of a splendid afternoon. The remainder of
the day proved extremely fine ; the rain having one
good effect at least—laying the dust, which otherwise
would hive been almost insufferable.
APPEARANCE OP' THE TOWN, AND THE
DEPARTURES FOR AINTREE.
Generally speaking, the day was looked upon as a
holiday. Flags were profusely displayed from many
public buildings and private dwellings. A very large
number of business houses and merchants' offices were
not opened at all during the day ; and, in the course of
the morning, the leading drapers and grocers closed
their establishments ; and there appeared, here and
there, on the closed shutters, the expressive sentence,
" Gone to the review." Several large establishments,
however, were exceptions to this rule. The leading
streets and thoroughfares became, at an early hour,
crowded with old men and women, boys and girls,
offering for sale maps of the Aintree ground, with the
official programme, for one penny each. The chief
points of attraction in the town were the Royal
ExChange, St. George's Hall, and Birchfield Barracks,
where, it was understood, the majority of the volunteers
would meet previous to their departure from Tithebarn-
street railway station. Spes;tators began to assemble at
the Exchange flags vy
s after noon. Between
one and two o'clock in the afternoon the windows
in the Exchange-building& -were crowded by a fashionable
gathering of ladies and gentlemen anxious to witness
the arrival of the first and second battalions of the Rifle
Brigade, under the consmand of Captain Taylor and
Lieutenant-Colonel Gladstone; The streets also were
literally thronged in spite of the rain, and the number
various corps, from their head-
of persons following th e
quarters to the appoinf
places of meeting, might have
been reckoned by thouzands. Each side of the streets,
the doorways, and tb,e windows, were crammed with
spectators. Now anet again a cheer was raised ; and
altogether the intense interest shown by young and old,
high and low, rich and poor, left not a doubt of its
popularity with eve ry class. At two, o'clock, the second
battalion, 550 strong, and at half-past two, the- first
battalion, 500 eh tong (of Rifles), assembled at, the
Exchange. Their appearance was truly grand. The
dark uniforms or the generality of the Volunteers,
relieved by the 'light clothing of the 71st, and the
striped caps of Eke Scotch corps, and lit up by the
glittering brillia nice of the swords of the officers,
had an effect which was truly magnificent. The
music of the ball, is was excellent. The first battalion
of Artillery Brig ide met at St. George's-hall at two
o'clock. The exa sitement which prevailed here almost
exceeded that at the Exchange, but the movement of
the volunteers co old not be observed to so great advan-
tage as at the laf ter place. They proceeded to the rail-
way station at forty minutes past two.. The second
battalion of Arti llety assembled at Birchfield Barracks ;
the third battal ion of Artillery and the fourth Rifles
met in the first i nstance at the station.
THE S CENE AT THE STATION
was perfectly in describable. The road in front was
crowded by the s pectators ; the approaches to the station
were perfectly blocked up, and thousands of persons
stood on the to (race outside the doors of the ticket-
offices, whence • they looked down upon the Volunteers
as they passed tip towards the entrance near the north
end of the station e.---through which no person but them-
selves was allowed to enter. From twelve o'clock there
was a difficulty to obtain tickets, and about two o'clock
the crush became extreme. Many parties turned away
from the station doors in despair ; and many of those
who succeeded at; length in getting inside the station
repented baying made the attempt. Nor was it for
an hour or two that this state of things continued ;
but until nearly five o'clock. To obtain admission
into the railway station was only about half or a
third of the trouble. To get into a carriage was
almost a hopeless task. A train, full to repletion,
started every ten minutes, and yet so intent was every-
body on obtaining a seat that scarcely any notice was
taken of the volunteers who were drawn up en the
opposite side. No sooner had train of empty carriages
arrived, than the excited excursionists got in through
the windows, and it was really surprising that no acci-
dents occurred. Happily, we have not heard of any.
Captain Tyndall Bright superintended the departure
of the volunteers, who were drawn up on the right
platform fronting the carriages. Each company had
been previously divided by the officer commanding into
sections of five file each; and they were all Marched
without any difficulty to the carriages, in which lao other
persons were allowed to ride.
There was a strong body of police ill 4ttendance at
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