The Express.
London, England, 1864-07-25 00:00:00

rim NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION
MISTING AT WPABLEDON.

What we may term the season of the National
Rifle Association terminated successfully on Satur-
day last, with the distribution of prizes and the
volunteer review. Had it not been for the one uu-
happy accident which had checquered the previous
proceedings, the day would have been quite a
festival, the review would have come off with all
the fulminaut appliances oflllie warfare, and
the athletic games would have completed a most
attractive bill of fare. But the unhappy state of
the poor guardsman who had been accidentally
wounded, and who was then lying between life and
death in the hospital tout, close by, cast a gloom
over everything. The athletic games were dis-
with, and his Royal Highness the Duke of
Cambridge, ridge, with a humane consideration that did
him honour, ordered that not a shot should be fired
at the review, lest the quiet which the doctors bad
pronounced to be indispensable to even the chance
of recovery should be denied to the poor patient.
In every other incident and result the meeting of
this year has been a success far beyond the must
sanguine expectations of its promoters. The con-
tention of the marksmen has been eager, and
the shooting has been excellent, even Switzer-
land, the fatherland of riflemen, tacitly submitting
to the superiority of our island marksmen by
declining to send a competitor. One Swiss geu-
tleman, the Count I.e Gendre, it is true, won
this year three prizes, but he has been for some
years naturalized amongst us, and therefore we
claim him as an Englishman, both by dietary
and taxation. The fact is that the progress which
our volunteers have made in rifle shooting has
surprised everybody, and has proved the English-
men of the present day to be not a whit inferior
in quickness of eye or strength of nerve to those
famous archers who in the olden days so uncere-
moniously knocked over Genoese crossbow men or
French men-at-arms at Cressy and Agincourt
And this rapidly acquired proficiency has been
confined to no class or station in society. The
aristocratic Lords have contended with and beaten
the middle-class Commons, the boys at our
public schools have entered into and have
distinguished themselves in the harmless
strife, and the blue ribbon of the year, the Queen's
prize, has been won by Private Wyatt of the City
Rifles. Thousands upon thousands of the young
and the old, the high-born and the lowly, the men
and the women of our London world, have assem-
bled day by day at Wimbledon to witness the brave
national sports and to stimulate the players, and
there has not been, from the first day to the last, a
single word exchanged in auger, a single grumble
from the losers at the success Of the winners, or a
single incident to mar the pleasure and success of
the annual holiday, etcept the unhappy misadven-
ture to which we have before alluded, which no
human foresight could have provided against, and
which had at least this one sad compensation, that
it brought out the brightest side of the national
character, in the exhibition of an amount of sym-
pathy and sorrow for the injury of a private soldier
as intense and as general as if this victim of a chance
shot had been a personage of the highest distinction.
The special business of Saturday consisted of the
presentation of the prizes and the voluuteer review,
but although the formerdid not commence until past
three o'clock in the afternoon, Wimbledon-common
and its vicinity presented all the appearance of
Epsom on the Derby day from a comparatively
early hour in the morning. Wandsworth and
Putney had turned all their population into
the streets, the roads leading to the ground were
thronged with multiform vthicularity, and the
entrance ground to the enclosure realised all
the crowd and the bustle, the shouting and the con-
fusion, of a genuine " Halt of the Caravan." We
complained of the dearth of flys and omnibuses at
an early stage of the proceedings, but on Saturday
it seemed as if everything that ran upon wheels bad
been pressed into the service of the rifle match.
Terms of passage of the most moderate amount
were vociferated in hoarse rivalry from a hundred
not over melodious throats, and visitors on foot
narrowly escaped being driven over by excited
Johns, whose only anxiety was to give them an
extraordinarily cheap ride. Within the magic
paling all was bustle and vivacity. The attendance
of the fashionable world meaning all those
who could pay half-a-crown or five shillings
for special accommodation—was numerous
beyond all previous calculation. In the
early part of the day the " Exhibition tent" was •
great centre of attraction, and the costly plate
exhibited by Messrs. Hancocka, of Brutou-street,
and other eminent firms, found ready purchasers.
Mr. Hancock's stand presented quite a gorgeous
array of caps, tankards, mortar clocks, and silver
claret hogsheads, some relying on the virgin purity
of the material for their attractiveness, others
displaying all the elaborate decorations of " cinque
canto," " renaissance," and " repoussi." The
rapidity with which they went off seemed to
indicate that the victors of the match were
determined to invest their winnings in the purchase
of wetly memorials of their triumph. Mr.
Bennett's turret clock also was honoured with
a good deal of inspection by the curious. A
learned judge once said that the lines COW-
mewing " Thirty days bath September,"
were the most useful piece of poetry that was ever
written, and in the same way we may say that Mr.
Bennett's turret clock was the most useful orna-
ment that wasever sent to a rifle ground. It could be
seen " from afar," and it could be beard all over the
common, and therefore it exercised no unimportant
influence iu keeping time and regulating the
order of proceedings.
The presentation of the prizes on the ground
itself was an alteration, and, as we think, an im-
provement in previous arrangements. A table ran
along at the foot of the royal standard, upou which
were pieced the various prizes, and close by it
stood Lady Riche, who wan to honour the winners
by presenting them, and Lord Elcho, who was to
act public orator on the occasion. His lordship
made many speeches, all more or less apposite and
effective, but, as impartial chroniclers, we arc
bound to add, not all giving equal satisfaction,
A alight tendency to " chaff" the modest riflemen,
who are already not a little embarrassed at this
4* the proudest moment of their lives," is some-
times perceptible in his lordship's addresses, and
although this is exceedingly amusing to the general
public, it is not always equally relished by the in-
dividual who gets thus publicly laughed at. It is
the impression of many well-wishers of the Rifle
Association that the annual presentation of prizes
should more assimilate to the ceremonial of the
Series Tie, and that the winners should oe sent away
with the impression that they had deserved well of
their country, and that their country appreciated
their exertions.

The following prizes were handed by Lady Elcho
to the winners or their representatives, and where
the prize had already been received, by the system
which has been adopted this year of paying competi-
tors at once if they so desire it, the ceremony was
represented by her ladyship shaking hands with
the fortunate winners :