The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-26 00:00:00

THE YEOMANRY AND MILITIA.

The Ist West Yorkshire Regiment of Yeomanry
Cavalry assembled at Doncaster, on Saturday, at
noon, for eight days' training, under the command
of the Lord-Lieutenant of the West R'ding, the
Earl Fitzwilliam. The men were received by
Lieut.-Col. Brown, and Adjutant M'Neill. The
troops were two from Sheffield, and one each from
Doncaster, Rotherham, Wakefield, Pontefract,
Barnsley, Hatfield,Watb, Tickhill, Kiveton (Work..
sop), and Barnsdale (Doncaster). In the evening a
grand banquet was given to the offieers by the
Mayor (Alderman Danbill).

The 4th West York Militia, :under the command
of Lieut.-Col. Cairnes, were inspected on the 13th
inst. at Leeds by Lieut.-Gen. Sir George Wether-
all, K.C.8., K.H., commanding the northern
district. The regiments mustered upwards of 700
rank and file, and presented a most soldier-like ap-
pearance. The steadiness and precision with which
the various manoeuvres were performed elicited the
highest praise from the inspecting officer.
The Royal South Middlesex Militia, commanded
by Lieut.-Col. Scriven, was inspected last week by
the Assistant Adjutant-General. After the usual
manoeuvres, one of the captains (Boulton) was
directed to form a square ; the inspecting officer
addressed Colonel Scriven and the regiment in the
most flattering terms.

The Royal South Gloucester Regiment of Militia,
under the command of Col. the Hon. F. W. F.
Berkeley, M.P., was inspected by Col. J. R. Brun-
ker, commanding the Bristol district, on Wednes-
day, thel3th inst. The inspecting officer expressed
his admiration at the smart and soldierlike bearing
of the regiments, which mustered on dismissal a total
of 27 officers and 661 sergeants rank and file.

THE VOLUNTEERS.

FIELD-DAY AT CHISELHURST.

There is still something in a name. Lord Rule,
o o
lagh's parade ground at Brighton having been
adopted by the military
authorities, the noble lord
was
discovering,
at c
overinhehut, ivhen
gis, or recovering, an-
other
o n
for the point f
the
iVolunteers
un-
fortunately, illness intervened. Instantly arrange-
ments which looked so promising a few days before
were dropped, and the projected review was tacitly
abandoned. The site was still available, the readi-
ness of the Volunteers to turn out might equally
have been counted upon, but the purposed Com-
mander-in-Chief was absent, and the Chiselhurst ex-
peditionary force accordingly resolved itself into its
original elements. One of the metropolitan corps
went to Gravesend, another to Croydon, a third to
Richmond, others to Streatham, and so on. It de-
serves the consideration of commanding officers
whether this was an opportunity thrown away for
practising those combined movements, on which the
efficiency of volunteer officers was said greatly to
depend, and whether some system of alternating
brigadiers' commands should not be instituted, or
enforced in case it already exists. There have been
one or two occasions on which the want of a timely
understanding between colonels and battalions has
led, not perhaps to rival reviews, but to marches out
in contrary directions; and this is just the reverse
of what sound policy dictates. If the volunteer force
is to be perpetuated as one of the services of the coun-
try—and recent votes in Parliament go fully that
length—it ought to assert itself on general holidays
in its corporate capacity, and not dwindle to an
aggregation merely of individual battalions. Resi-
dents in and around Chiselhn rst, as well as the nume-
rous
excursionists from London, evidently expected
that operations on a grand scale:would be under-
taken, for the array of spectators was sufficient to
encircle and frequently to hide from view the force
under arms. In point of numbers this certainly was
not imposing. The 29th (North Middlesex) Regi-
ment was the only one by which the original pro-
gramme was adhered to, and it had given material
guarantees for its attendance. There is one argu-
ment against which no hospitable host, no affection.
ate friend is ever known to struggle—And that is,
that the departing guest or acquaintance has taken
,t his ticket." When a regiment adopts the strong
measure of sending on its beer, the band and head-
quarters may be duly expected to follow. As the
North Middlesex were the lions of the day, their
ranks were scrutinised with microscopic attention,
and they bore the inspection creditably. In
these cases much always depends on the
leader, and those volunteer regiments have through.
out made the best figure whose chiefs were military
men. The present commander, Colonel Whitehead,
who has succeeded Lord Ewe
--e.d in the active
control of the corps, served in the Crimea, and was
for some time major of the Victoria Rifles.
Leaving London-bridge Station at 12.45 p.m.,
the special train containing the regiment reached
the Bickley Station of the Mid-Kent line shortly
after half-past one o'clock. Thence they marched
to Camden-park, and arrived about half-past two
o'clock on the crest of the hill, Where,
by the libe-
rality of Colonel Whitehead and the other officers,
a very substantial meal, consisting of different
cold meats, bread, pickles, porter, ginger-beer, Bze.,
had been provided. The scramble often charac-
teristic of similar al fresco entertainments was