The Express.
London, England, 1860-03-08 00:00:00

THE VOLUNTEERS.

THE RECEPTION.
:" This was indeed a proud day for England ! It
promoted the sublime spectacle of a patriot mono&
who reigns no less distinguished in the hearts, of.
h people than es his throne, mooing the *vs
citizens .of his metropolis, armed in defence lothle
wows sag et the British constitution, and, withthe
chtiroslikisde virtue of the sons of Albion, reeslooll •
to *asthma free, or gloriously to fall with the libeEty
sad indspendinse of their country. Such a spec-
tacle is worthy of such a people ; suoh a pollee me
deserving the superior blessings they poems:
A chronicler of the meneetbie mammal df
the yeat 1803 thus preflune lie nereedve ase of

the most remarkable iitdirente of that aped—see
tattiest which has not sines recurred, though ik
analogy to the striking event and brilliant senteony
which took plass yesteeday at 84. Jaws's, Tendon
the sentiments =peered in the observation just
quoted, almost equally applicable to the prating
common.

On the 28th and 28th October, 1803, George 111,
inspected 27,077 volunteers in Hyde-park, the re-
preeentatives et a Weal metropolitan form of 48,000
men, at a time when the numbers throughout
England amounted to 379,900; the populatioa of
the country being then arty half what it is at prevent.
It was computed that on each day more than
200,000 human beings were oongregated to witness
the extraordinary spectacle t that all within a circle
of twenty mile who could leave their homes at-
tended ; and it is recorded that at a period when tra-
vellers had few facilities and the meson many dis-
comforts, a vast number accompliahed journeys of
assay hundred miles, in order that they might be-
hold this remarkable display of the zera and
patriotism of their countrymen. "It was alto-
gether," adds the writer just quoted, " a day
on which we have to congratulate Landon and the
empire at large. It was a day which afforded the
most &scions sight we ever witnemed, without a
single eirenmstanoe to excite the smallest regret."
Two gestestions since then have passed away.
The Sovereign befog* whom thous gallant troops de-
filed; the Dukes of Cambridge, of York, of Comber-
lind, of Clarence, and of Ken; by whom he was sur-
rounded ; the Queen, the Mamma Augusta,
Elisabeth, Sophia, and Hazy, the Prinoe de Conde,
the Doke de Bewley the Deka , de Berri, among
the mew distinguished and the more conspicaous of
the speetstors—have all long sines deesended to the
grave, The Earl of Harrington, who commanded on
the occasion, and the whole staff of general officers
who accompanied him, are gone; and probably a
room of very moderate dimensions would now con-
tain all the survivors of those who assisted at that
memorable pageant.

Th position of the country has materially changed,
Ilee,sease them. We cannot quits say, in the weals of a
goes of the University of Cambridge, passed at that
period. on the subjoin of arming the under-graduatem
that" Bell= in dies singulos ►ngravescat, hoetesque
jam tandem seas in ipsam Britanniam irrupturos
sew minitentar"—nevertheless, it is not very long
sines a cabinet minister publicly declared, that "our
pacific relatioes with France were not a question of
weeks or days, bat of hours;" however secure, there-
fore, we may now feel, the important fact cannot be
' blinked that our increased security and confidence
are due, in no slight degree, to the prompt and
vigorous messuree that have of late been taken, not
ao much by our naval and military authorities as by
the nation at large.

The array of odious who assemblad yesterday,
horn all parts of the kingdom, to pay their homage
to the Throne, represented not only some of the
noblest and mast illustrious families in the land, but
they came forward as the delegatesof anarmy that
can now actually muster many thousand lighting
men, anything too, as it unquestionably does, in its
ranks the very ilits of the population of these Isles,
It is not nt* all teo mach to wort, that no country
but our own could have sent forth so stately an
array as that which then marched silently in
review before the Queen. In thin: upset and manly
bearing, in that cool, resolute, and undaunted look,
the unmistakeable oharactsriatio of Englishmen,
they did honour to the soil that gave theta birth, and
oar gracious Sovereign Could not but have Mt a
secret emotion of exaltation as she gazed upon that
assemblage of gallant gentlemen, as they passed
through the Throve-room, and reflected, as no doubt
she did, that in the hour of England's need, eke could
count upon the services of an almost innumerable
host of such men, who come forward, not from any
motives of professional or personal ambition, proffer-
ing freely their time, and, if, seed were, their lives, in
the Minos of that island home over which she rules.

Sines' Moiday morning, the arrivals from all
parts of the kingdom have ben incessant. The
Lord Chamberlain's office has been fairly besieged
by those who were anxious to avail themselves of the
opportunity afforded them, of approaching her
Majesty, their numbers demonstratiag that the pre-
cautionary =assures recently pollinated in the
(hustle, with a view to prevent tionflien, had net
been unwisely promulgated. • •
Lung belors half-past 12 (the hour at which ft had
been announced that the Palms doors would be
thrown open), St. Janteel-strest and Pall-mall were
thronged by numerous groups, displaying a great
variety of uniforms. As the stated moment ap-
proached, a crowd gradually formed at the corridor
entrance, opposite Marlborough Moms, in front of
which a vast marques had been meted. Wben the
door was opened, the leap sinew parses leading to
a room appropriated m the first ef a series of
waitiog-rooms was speedily filled. The precedence
of each regiment was settled by reference to the
Army List having in the first instanos been
deteriaiand by the date at which its services had
been originally sompted.

'The Mtllhr7, of which them are already no leo
than 43 distinct corps, are allowed precedence; they
were well represented yesterday. Next in order
follow the Middlesex, the Lanarkshire and the
Edinburgh Engineers, the Huntingdonshire and
Devonshire Mounted Rifles ; then came the eighty-
three Rifle corps, easetitatiag an army of width
the nation may justly be proud.
Devonshire, Middlesex, and Lancashire form the
mot; and es the representatives of the hundred and
two carps which it seems these three counties ma,
mater M fetl is--two dab' elmaidumble interest was