The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-17 00:00:00

Volunteer Review at Leatherhead,

The volunteer movement can do very well without pliffing,
and it serves no possible good purpose to announce that so
many thousands of the home guard will take part is a re-
view when it is perfectly well understood by inspectors and
commanding ellicers that there will hardly be as many
hundreds on the ground. Inc press and the public have
of late been victimised more than once in this small way,
and it is nearly time that an end were put to the thing,
which has become a social nuisance. Yesterday there were
to have been 4,000 volunteers at Leathcrhcad, but hardly
600 turned .up on the Downs. Moreover, nobody entitled
to pronounce upon the matter expected 4,ooo—hardly a
quarter of that number. It was morally impossible that so
many men could be found among the London volunteers
willing to sacrifice the second Monday holiday of the year,
especially when it is remembered that on Saturday week
they will be asked to make a holiday for the birthday re-
view by the Prince of Wales. So only three corps put in
an appearance yesterday before Colonel M'Murdo. These
three were the Inns of Court, under Colonel Brewster ; the
2d and Bth Tower Hamlets, under Colonel Walker and
Major Sarnuda ; and the Ist City, or London Rifle Brigade,
under Colonel Warde and Major Rose, M.P. The lawyers
wore the strongest, numbering perhaps 230, the Tower
Hamlets had, may bo, 180, and the London Brigade might
have counted up to 160. The ground was reached about 4
o'clock, after a dusty march of a couple of miles along a
road commanding one of the loveliest views of Surrey. By
favour of a Mr Fletcher the volunteers passed through that
gentleman's grounds to the Downs above, and thus saved
themselves the worst bit of the road. But nevertheless they
were pretty well blown when they arrived at the spot ee•
lected for the mancnuvres. A quantity of beer and sandwiches
that had been provided by the forethought of a member of
the Ist City were despatched with a relish which showed
that the heat of the lovely day—" there was not a cloud in
the sky"—had produced the usual effect upon the throats of
the citizen soldiers. If Colonel M'Murdo had formed line
at once on reaching the ground there would have been
something like a mutiny ; but, considerate as ever, he
allowed due time for cooling down before he gave the word.
It was five o'clock when the ranks were refilled, and then
the movements at once commenced. They rec.:ere no de-
tailed description, inasmuch as, though exceedingly well
done, they were of the ordinary character. A wheel to the
right in open column of companies, a charge of front with
the left thrown back a quarter circle, and an advance of the
right wing in direct echellon were the principal features.
The Inns of Court formed the right wing, Col. Walker's
corps, the centre, and the City Brigade the left; and while
the palm must be awarded to Col. Brewster's command,

there need be no invidious comparisons drawn, since every-
thing was done with the utmost steadiness, and in the most
creditable manner. Some of the volley firing was very
g,,od, while the file firing was in all cases excellent.'t
The Inspector-General, who was in undress, was assisted
by Lieut.-Col. Ibbetson, as brigade major, while Captain
M'Murdo, of the Guards, and Sergeant llarris—superbly
mounted, as usual—did duty as aides-de-camp. The corps
returned to town at dusk, many of the men expressing a
decided opinion that it would be well if nest year the great
spring review were deferred from Easter to Whitsuntide,
an alteration which would enable the various corps time to
recover from their winter torpidity ;before they appeared at
the annual muster. Small as the numbers were yesterday,
the influence of the drills undergone since Easter as very
apparent. There was a certain steadiness in every move-
ment which could not have been looked for sevan weeks
ago, when the corps had in a measure forgotten their
autumn drills and had not yet begun to " set up" for the

season.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIM ES.—We have recently received very interest
ing information with regard to the important events
which are transpiring in a remote corner of the
American continent, to which public attention, na-
turally preoccupied by occurrences in that part of
the American continent which lies nearer to Europe
and of which Europe knows most, has been little
directed. The remote province of Louisiana, situated
on the western side of the Mississippi, and out off by
the capture of New Orleans and by the successes of
General Grant from the rest of the American con-
tinent, has just been the scene of one of the most
decisive victories which have occurred in the course
of a civil war already sanguinary beyond all former
record. It seems that General Banks set forth on a
campaign, the object of which was nothing less than
to seize upon a vast quantity of cotton, and by
means of this article of commerce, now as much in
demand as gold itself, to relieve Mr. Chase from his
present perplexities with regard to the unruly up-
ward tendency of the gold market. The history
of the expedition reads something like a duplicate
of poor Braddock's unfortunate aavance to Fort
Duquesne. Firmly persuaded that there was no
enemy within 60 mile 3, the General advanced in
loose and straggling array. The cavalry, newly
6,000 strong, together with the artillery and a
waggon train, were advancing between two woods
five miles ahead of the infantry, when they were
sharply attacked by the Confederates on each side
of the road, and, although bravely supported by the
infantry, fled, carrying them away in their disorder.
In the next day's battle the Federals claimed a
success which was marred, they say, by an order
from Banks to retreat, and ended in the abandon-
ment of the wounded and one of the most dastardly
flights which have disgraced the Federal records.
The victory seems to have been signal and com-
plete. The Federal army was not only beaten, but
thoroughly demoralised, and a division which was
coming up to General Banks was, as usual in cases
of such un-looked disaster, exposed to the utmost
risk of being cut off. What makes this defeat more
provoking is that in order to make up the army
which has thus signally failed the posts on the
Mississippi were weakened, Fort Pillow lost, and
Memphis seriously endangered. It is not wonder-
ful that so important a success should have given
rise to speculations on the possibility of obtaining
peace, end developed certain Southern sympathies
and antipathies which we have long foreseen, but
of which we have hitherto had no very direct evi-
dence. It seems that the South regards the West
with far less aversion than the East, and that
people even go so far as to start the idea that it
teeight be possible to arrange a reunion from which
the BAstern States should alone be exelueed. It
may easily be imagined that the present monstrous
proceedings in Congress, by which it is sought to
double the import duties for two months, is not
favourably received, and that such an event falls
like fire on fuel on. the Southern and Western
people, and tends powerfully to develops an ap-
proximation to which other circumstances are
gradually leading. Meanwhile the North seems to
have carried its point with regard to the abolition
of slavery. The planters in Louisinia, at any rate,
are convinced that it is impossible to return to the
state of things which existed before the war, and
are most creditably endeavouring to set negroes to
work by making them an allowance of food and
clothing, together with a portion of the crop for
compensation. This scheme, however, is grievously
thwarted by the proceedings of that great champion
of the black race, General Banks, who as our readers
know, has got a scheme of his own for emancipating
negroes by holding them to forced labour and depriva
ing them of that assistance in illness and old age which
they used to derive from the kindness of their mas-
ters. The result of all this is that within the juris-
diction of General B Inlet; cultivation is almost at a
standstill. The planters feel relieved in manylcases
by the desertion of negroes. in order to support
whom they had reduced themselves to the barest
necessaries of life; and the indiscriminate plunder
of cotton, even when found in the hands of loyal
holders, has occasioned very recently the destruc-
tion of some 80,000 bake, which might, if matters
had been conducted with reetzenable fairness and
good sense, have found their way into the possession
of the Northern General for no unreasonable price.
Altogether the administration of Louisiana, civil
and military, presents a picture of iucapacity and
blunders such as one could hardly believe possible,
even where fanaticism is joined to incapacity and
both are united to dishonesty, for this element also
is not wanting. .Tust az Napoleon, after having
stirred Heaven and earth to keep -British goods out
of the Continent of Europe, then turned suddenly
round and sought to turn an honest penny by sell-
ing license.a to violate his own laws; so we find, to
say the very least of it, a very profitable traffic driven
in the New Orleans Custom-1;01;8e in "permits,"
under which goods are conveyed to points on the
river with a view of introducing them into the Con•
federate lines, The cost is great, about a third of
the invoice of goods but the prices realism by qui-
nine for instance, which the humanity of the Nor-
thern Government withhold from its fever etrinken
adversary, cover all outgoing and and leave a
handsome profit: The Federal gunboats on the
one side and the guerilla bands which are in arms
against the Federala on the other are actively
employed in this traffic, each pai ty being recon-
ciled to this deviation from duty by a share of the
plunder. The names:of persons high in office are
freely mentioned as concerned in this exceptional
commerce, and there seems some foundation for the
assertion of a high ofr,.cial, himself exempt from all
corrupt influences, that all the reacted Ta993otY of
the United States has been concentrated upon' the
Mississippi River. In the meanwhile the Govern-
ment of General Banks,after having restored slavery
itself in en aggravated form, is setting up, it would
seem, a species of cmall slave trade of its own.
Negroes having no ostensible meaua of 'etv;tng are
seized upon, locked up, and supplied to enterprising
Northern squatters who have taken possession of
abandoned estates, at the rate of 10 dollars a head.
Such is the picture of Louisiana under the degene-
rating influence of the Government which would
have us believe that it is carrying on a bloody and
destructive war mainly for the sake of negro race
and the doetrinc,6 of a sensitive philitnthrepy. The