The Express.
London, England, 1862-04-22 00:00:00

stand I was agreeably ditappointed at finding it
almost empty, and had therefore an opportunity of
displaying my generalship by the selection of a '
oommanding position. The appearance el the
stand and of the swelling expanse in front was that
of a sort of miniature Derby. The former gradually
filled, and the various vehicles slowly gathered
along the boundaries of the course, but the display I
of private equipages was singularly meagre, and I
that of the '" two-pound-ten " community just that
incongruous, ill-Shapen, rough-looking crowd of
nondescript machines which one may expect to meet
on an occasidi of this kind anywhere out of London.
I could not help thinking that the review so far,
from town was a grand aid. Mipakw spectacle
thrown away ; or oontrasting it with what it sort=
have been, and what wouktheadibeen this
I 111110embied, had it taken place at Wimbledon or
Epsom Downs. I may here mention, en powant,
that Wimbledon is objected to as being too small,
but it is exactly half the sise of the Champs de
Mars at Paris, and surely there would not be much
difficulty or—censidering the object—cost, in
doubling the area, and establishing it as a regular
review-gronad fer the annual gathering of our
volunteers. In freest of the stand rise the two .l
sidges misaligned. in the programme, the farthest i
of being While Reek Deans, bat I could not Litt ..
lameret -lhe wearer see from any of the aided
inhabitants. On the right fluttered the flag beneath!
which the Commander-in-Chief was to receive the
salute during the " march past," and beyond it a
hill which was already chequered with thin black
lines of spectators, who bad evidently established
themselves, regardless of showers, for the day. Be-
tween this hill and White Hawk Down opened iv
valley, the centre point of which was the Coast-
guard station, and in that direction every eye was
turned, because there, it was said, we were to
get our meteorological indications as to the
ultimate character of the day. To my inexperienced
eye it looked unpromising enough, the atmospheric
effects had nothing favourable about them ; but the
public, whose wish was father to the thought, in-
sisted that the day would be fine because just one
streak of apocryphal sunlight broke through the
black mantle that hung pertinaciously over the un-
happy valley. On the other aide, the left of the
stand,
were more Downs, including a windmill and
more black sinueus streaks of determined sight-
seekers, who were labouring patiently for the crest
of the bill. Along the hither down, the artillery
—I mean those that had been provided with bat-
teries—might be seen moving slowly up at about
half-past 11 o'clock, and after them mustered in
slow succession the great body of the volunteer army.
First, on the left hand, we discerned the Engi-
neers, whose scarlet tunics made them at once
favourites with the public. Active little fellows,
and provident, for each man carried a canvas bag
in front, filled I have no doubt with a very harm-
less description of explosives. A lot of faggots had
been thrown on their line of march, in order that
they might have an opportunity of exercising their
speciality. They set to work with a will, and not
being, like their brethren of the line, ordi-
narily employed in civilian work, they exhibited
considerable dexterity, and very soon cleared away
faggots, cut down hedges, and opened a path for
the dense black column of infantry, which poured
down incessantly from the height. On the Brest
of the hill the 18th Hussars rode along, and with
them the Hants Light Horee—a small but valiant
bead of rural cavalry—rendered conspicuous by
their Bersaglieri hats and the very tell horses upon
which they were mounted. A good deal of notion
was taken of the paucity of volunteer cavalry, but
it must be remembered that the yeomanry Asorbs
all the volunteers who can mount themselves, and
that besides the railway fare for a horse is 20a., a
figure that would tell in the case of a large cavalry
muster.
When we got tired of looking at the Engineers
clearing away obstructions on the right hand, and
the dark columns of Middlesex and Surrey moving
down the path and forming on the slopes, we
turned to the right, where up the valley, just be-
tween Coastguard Castle and the hill to which ,I
have before alluded, another army was &dual*"
supposed to be the provincial forces.
The question now arose, what were to be the
evolutions. The programme was still a secret in the
bosom of Lord Clyde, whose battles, every one said, .
, were all models of evolution. At about half-past 12
o'clock his lordship and Generals
other Queen's officers,
two of whom were Pennefather and
Dalsell, and followed by four aides-de-camp,
gallopped across the open, and took up a position
close to the oolumu of the Engioeers. Lame-
[ diately after, obviously in obedience to orders
from his lordship, the great mamas of men began
to move, and several corps, principally light grey,
started off at the double to take up their positions.
The intention appeared to be to form line along
L the nearer ridge, in addition to which skirmishem
were thrown out, a duty which is always remarks.-
. .. . . . .

(nom ous owe szroaria.)
BRIGHTON, Mornsr.
Bain !• • Can it be possible) What can that be
whieh.patters so ominously at the bed-room win-
dow, at about 7 o'clock in the morning, which
awakens the sleeper, and causes him to jump up
mid look ont, and think of Washington Irving's
"wet Sunday 1" Cannot Aquarius hang. up his
watering-pot for one day, and allow Lord Clyabsto
review the volunteer army in a dry skin 7 It is I
rain, reel south-coast rain, fresh from the cloudy
atmosphere Of 'the Downs, and coming down
as if it meant a day's mischief. A hundred
thousand eyes at that moment looked out of fifty
thousand windows, and offered up inward orisons
for that real blessing to Englishmen, a fine day.
At eight Aquarius shows symptoms of relenting,
and at nine—by which time a breakfast had been
swallowed in all the agonies of suspense—the clouds
broke ; universal *lghten smiled the smile of hope,
awn:bambinos elOoired a vow at ones to treble
their fares. As a specimen 1 may mention that one
modest individual, whose horse looked as if he I
could, with great exertion, reach the Downs by
sunset, asked me 2/. 10s. for the journey " one
way." But so it always is when any " event°
takes place in the provinces. The local organs of
wonder and acquisitiveness are stimulated to such
an extraordinary degree, that the only
puzzle with the natives is how much they
may safely demand fur everything, and the result
is that before the crisis has passed the largest por-
tion of their stock, whether of lodgings or vehicles,
lies a drug in the market. However, I did not
pay two pounds ten, and I did get • vehicle, which
took me to the Downs by such a route as enabled
me to note the preliminaries of what every one was
preparing for. At the ordinary railway station
nobody could guess that anything extraordinary
was going on, were it not for the crowds which
lingered outside the gates, and discussed the
topic of the day under the inspiration of the
genius loci. For the volunteers a separate
debarcad4re bad been provided, and from it they
repaired to their various rendezvous without the
slightest trouble or confusion. A constant stream
of foot passengers flowed along the pathways, all in
one direction, and amongst them could be noticed
a smart spriukling of single volunteers—red, green,
and grey—the tall " Guards " and the small En-
gineers, all smoking the calumet of war, which
looked exceedingly late a short pipe, and hurrying
off to their early tryst. I notioed good many of
the " Two-pound-tenners " crawling empty and
sulkily along, and I derived much comfort
from thinking that such would most pro-
bably be their amusement during the remainder
of the day. In the town were two principal
rendezvous, both of which my model of a cabman—
he ought to have been a volunteer—wan •
enough to permit me to visit. In one of these,
the Pavilion, once the secluded Capin of
the Euglish Tiberius, but now a very proper
and useful cavalry barracks, the country
corps—that is to say, the artillery—mustered
to the number of about 2,000. There were
the Cinque Ports, who brought their own
pieces, and the Portsmouth, who came without
any. Much grumbling was there upon this poi*
Eighteen six-pounders to eighteen hundred men I
" A halfpenny-worth of bread to all this
sack!" It was perfectly monstrous, but it
was a fact. Either the government would
not give the guns, or the railway asked
too much for carrying them, and so there was all
this valiant artillery marshalled on the how a non
iticendu principle without the guns wherewith they
could show Lord Clyde their facility in demolishing
infantry squares, or sweeping sway cavalry squa-
drons. The 18th Huss•ro were very kind and
patronising to the new comers, and comforted them
with the reflection that the absence of guns might,
after all, be better both for themselves and for the
spectators. They (her Majesty's 18th) cautioned
the visitors that if they should be charged at the
gallop their plan would be to keep their bayonets
up, and not lower them to the ground, an error in
practice which had been observed at certain previ-
ous volunteer review..
It was a good step from the Pavilion to the
" Level," but cabby, who entered heart and soul
into the movement, insisted upon going there also;
and there certainly we saw a picturesque and gra-
tifying sight. The "Level," be it known to the
solitary individual in London who has never seen
Brighton, is a very spacious parallelogram, covered
with very brown and bordered with exceed-

grass,
ingly stunted trees. Scattered in irregular masses
over its extensive plateau I saw the whole of the
volunteer force who had come down that morning
from London. The largest masa was clad in light grey
or warlike "pepper and salt," and they were soon
recognized as that distinguished corps which is
popularly supposed to form part of the live stock
of a certain subterranean potentate. Near them
was a large tent, in which I concluded they bad
wisely provided some matutinal refreshment. A
fierce and stalwart son of Themia stood at the
entranoe, and convulsively clutched a pewter pot,
which, albeit a homely vessel, formed under the
circumstances a very appropriate and martial
feature in the picture. Homer a heroes drank out
of horns and skulls, and all sorts of absurd
contrivances, and the cup of the thirsty
"Devil's Own" was a great advance in
bibulous civilization. Round the hero—evi-
dently a Q.C., claiming the first pull at the
porter as lie would the largest fee on the brief—
stood a score of juniors, either admiring his
prowess or waiting for their turn, but if the latter,
it did not come whilst I watched. In another
corner were stationed the compact little Enginems,
and marching at the double across the ground, I
observed the dark grey uniform which indicated
the 29th North Middlesex. In this fine corps the
agility, zeal, and military aptitude of certain of
the subaltern officers were strikingly conspicuous.
It was altogether au inspiring, and, for pacific
England, a novel scene. The " Level" bad quite
the look of a continental Place d'Arines, with its
varied uniforms, arms piled, groups of soldiers,
and thousands of pleased spectators. It only wanted
the sharp rattle of the drum and a little higher tan
on the faces of the warriors to make the resemblance
complete.

bly well perforMed by the volunteers: By this
time the crowd of spectators had increased enor-
mously, and people watched eagerly for the nearer
approach of the troops.
About this time the great weather question was
settled by the sun definitively breaking out and
establishing himself in a white, hazy, semi-trans-
parent sky for the rest of the day. It was also
ascertained that the intention of the military tip-
thorities was to wassail the troops on the northern
heights, and, after a brief inspection, to have the
much deeiderated " march past ' before instead of
after the evolutions. The masses on the ridge
now grew gradually denser and blacker ;
and Lord Clyde could be recognised in
the foreground splendidly mounted, and
accompanied by Colonel M'Murdo and the
three inspectors of volunteers. Very shortly after-
wards the sound of a trumpet was heard, and his
lordship came galloping up to the betting-ring,
followed by a brilliant regular and volunteer staff,
and, what surprised me a good deal, by quite a
cork* of civilian equestrians, who showed a good
deal more curiosity than politeness in the closeness
to his lordship in which they thought proper to
exhibit their very indifferent horsemanship.
Lord Clyde had a most enthusiastic reception
from the crowd, and when, a few momenta
after, his lordship uncovered whilst speaking to
the ladies in the Lord-Lieutenant's carriage,
the cheering was redoubled, and kept up for seve-
ral minutes with an almost frantic vehemence. His
lordship, who is said to fear a popular ovation more
than a Russian battery, was quite overcome? and
backed his horse to its appointed station in evident
confsaion.
Everyone now prepared for the march peat,
which commenced at ton minutes past two, with
the 18th Hi --- who it is needless to add set

But the diorama, or rather the cab, must move 1 non. ,-
on. The police insist, and it just occurs to even lau admirable example of discipline and drill to
the most enthusiastic of Jehus, that if be hurries their civilian comrades. Atter them came the
on he may get back from the grand stand in time Hampshire berseglieri, whose commander forgot
for another fare. We bread the bill at a leisurely to salute the general ; and then the
pace, and pass crowds of foot passengers ascending I "Inns of Court," who certainly bore off the palm
at one Mill more leisurely. The warlike spirit from anything on the ground, both for marching
which cabby had imbibed whilst contempla. I and appearance. Everyone seemed to know, and
ting the musters of the Level and the I everyone to like, this distinguished corps, and when
Pavilion expends itself in frantic cuts of . their well-known, affecting, and most appropriate
the whip at the little boys who, unmindful j lyric was struck up by the band, the crowd made
of the responsibility which already rested on the 1 the welkin ring again with their acclamations. I
horse, would persist in getting up behind. On i cannot undertake to note down the interminable
each side swelled the Downs, bare, vast, and steam- . succession of corps which now passed before the
ing with vapour, the result of the recent rain. I venerable commander-in-chief during a full hour
Not a hut, not a tree, not a human being within , and a half, who, with head uncovered, returned
sight, except in the road. A distant plain was , with marked emptestement the salute of every
dotted with something white, perhaps lime or successive corps, and seemed to watch every-
chalk, which might pass for tents, but the ear thing, with a most critical eye, whilst api
listened in vain for the note of the bugle, the neigh occasional nod indicated that something bat
of the warhorse, or the sullen rumble of the arta- passed deserving of more than ordinary' 00111.
lery. The eye looked anxiously out of mendation. At 3 o'clock not one half of the corps
the cab window for the rain, which looked had passed the flagstaff, bet a short pause took
as if it meant to come down again, and place in consequence of sonic difference as to prete-
the mind reflected upon the prospect of assisting dance which was being settled on the crest of the
at a volunteer review and shaft fight under a per. hill. When the march was resumed, a lively Scotch
' severing downfall of rain. On arriving at the air told that hie lordship's countrymen, the Lou-