The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-19 00:00:00

THE APPROACHING RIFLE CORPS
REVIEW.

Last evening the City of London Rifle Brigade,
Lieut.-Col. Hicks, mustered at the Guildhall at five
o'clock, and marched out for battalion drill. Yes.
terday the whole of the metropolitan and suburban
volunteer corps commenced active training, morn-
ing and evening, to be continued daily up to the
23d instant. Volunteers who do not attend all
these drills, and who have not attained thorough
efficiency in their drill, will not be permitted to
parade with their corps to attend the review on
Saturday. On Wednesday, the brigades into
which the different corps are divided will have a
grand field day in Hyde Park, Regent's Park, and
the Victoria Park, &c. The Royal Artillery Com-
pany were out yesterday actively training in their
grounds, Bunhill-row, Finsbury-square, and on
Friday they will be inspected by their Captain-
General and Colonel his Royal Highness the
Prince Consort previous to taking their places in
the review on Saturday. The Lord Chancellor has
made an order of Court declaring Saturday next
a holiday in the offices of the court, so that the
gentlemen employed therein may be at liberty to
attend the muster of their corps. It is expected
that the law offices will be closed, and that the
superior courts will rise early to permit the mem-
bers of the bar to join their regiment, and that the
Saturday half-holiday will be general in the metro-
polis on the 23d instant to release the volunteers.
The railway companies have made arrangements
for the issue of return tickets at single fares to
enable country residents to be present at the
reN lew.

D_EFENCE OF LONDON.

Colonel Jebb, in a letter to a contemporary, says :

—No one can read the report which has just been
issue 4 by the Commissioners on the defences of the
country without being impressed with a sense of
its vast importance, or without appreciating the
comprehensive and very practical manner in which
the subject of placing our naval ports in security
has been handled.

There must, however, exist, as is stated in your
impression of Friday last, a feeling of regret that
no definite plans for the defence of London appear
to have been specially considered.
It is admitted that " the main object of an enemy
invading this country would be to push for the
capital, in the hope that if he succeeded in obtaining
command of it, such a disaster would result in our
buying him off upon any terms he might think it
expedient to exact."
No less object than this would realise the dreams
of insatiate ambition, nor would any greater ob-
ject be likely to be attempted, for the permanent
subjugation of the country would hardly enter into
the calculations of any one acquainted with the
English character.
We may be caught unprepared, and we may be
beaten, and this we will rightly deserve for being
unprepared, but few think that we can be entirely
conquered.
No, if the British Lion is to be bearded in his
den, it would be to draw his teeth, to cripple his
power, and to humiliate him.
The capture of one of our naval ports would not
effect this object, or do much more than produce
permanent exasperation and temporary inconve-
nience.

There can be no doubt, therefore, that the com-
missioners are right in concluding that the blow
would be struck at the heart of the empire ; and,
however necessary it is to defend the extremities,
it is that most vital point that claims timely atten-
tion, for if the capital is secure, the prize which
might tempt an invasion would be out of reach.
Could it be clearly shown that within a reason-
able period measures might be adopted by which the
country would b© placed in safety and freed from
the periodical panics and hot and cold fits to which
she has been so long exposed, no sacrifice would be
deemed too high a rate of insurance to obtain so
desirable an object.
Lord Overstone, in his reply to the questions of
the Defence Commissioners, says :

" We may, however, be well assured that under the most
favourable supposition the general confusion and ruin which
the presence of a hostile army must produce would be such
that it would be absolute madness on the part of the Go-
vernment and people of this country if they were to omit
any possible measures of precaution, or shrink from any
present sacrifice by which the occurrence of such a catas-
trophe may be rendered impossible."

The Commissioners have taken very good care
of our great naval establishments, and no doubt
the means of resisting a landing wherever it
might be attempted have been fully considered.
But assuming an enemy to have made good his
landing and to be pushing on for London, what is
to be done to insure his never reaching his desti-
nation ? This is a wide and most important, and
in some respects it may be a difficult question ; the
solution of it, however, should be vigorously at-
tempted without loss of time.
The following may be taken as a brief summary
of what we have to look to :
The first line of defence is the Channel; the
second, measures for opposing a landing; the
third, one or more general actions at a certain dis-
tance from London. The fourth and following
would be successive lines of defence in its more
immediate neighbourhood.
It was the opinion of the Duke of Wellington,
in speaking of invasion, that " there is no mode of
resistance, much less of protection, from this
danger, excepting by an army in the field capable
of meeting and contending with its formidable
enemy."
In this deliberate opinion of the highest autho-
rity to which we can appeal, fortifications, as such,
arc left to fulfil the special and necessary objects
hoe
for which they may be constructed, as at Ports-
mouth, &c., and we are warned to trust the safety
of the country mainly to our army in the field.
It is on this point that I would venture to claim
your permission to make a few observations.
If we may not expect to be at all times fully pre-
pared with a powerful army,—if our forces are
likely to be always made up of a moderate number
of regular troops, a large proportion of militia
er only
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Lion to take one section of the country, and assume
that one or more heavy columns, having landed
somewhere between Portland and Ramsgate, are
fighting their way on for the only prize worth con-
tending for—the possession of London, the electric
telegraph disclosing their movements and proceed-
ings to every part of the kingdom.
Excepting in the open chalk country, which is
favourable for moving troops, they must have roads
by which to tr: positions on every
one of the road, aemy could possibly
advance, possessing certain advantages with re-
ference to some general p'an of operations for not
only disputing his advance, bat compelling him to
fight a general action.-
To provide for the contingency of a reverse it
would be necessary that our forces should have titue
to fail back in good order upon the lines prepared
for the more immediate defence of the capital, and
it woald therefore appear prudent to make the first
determined stand at a distance of not less than 30 or
40 miles from London.

In looking out for a line of operation with this
object in view, it so happens that some of the
strongest and most favourably situated ground to
the south will be found in the escarpment of the
chalk range running westward from near Maidstone,
towards Reigate, Dorking, Guildford, and Farnham.
At the latter point this general line, after including
all the strong ground in front of Aldershott, might
be advantageously thrown back in the direction of
Odiham and Reading, resting its ,right on the
Thames.
This line of country is full of strong positions,
and may not inaptly be designated the Torres Ve-
dras of London. Chatham and the River Medway
lie on the left, and would compel a hostile force
marching in haste from the south-east to take the
road passing through Maidstone. keeping this
road they would soon find themselves at the foot
divergeo llr ro t ht
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they would come upon some of the proposed
Chatham defences, near Cobham. The whole of
the ground also on the left bank of the Medway is
very defensible ; and, as the proposed work at
Shooter's-hill lies upon the old Dover-road, it may
be assumed that the high ground at Wrotham-hill
might be taken as the left of a line which in its
course westward intersects every road by which an
enemy could march to London from the most ac-
cessible parts of the coast.
It may be said that the choice of a field of battle
rests with the assailant, but this is not by any
means true. With proper precautions he might
leave a fortress with its garrison locked up in his
rear ; but if there be a moveable force in the field at
all equal to cope with him he would hardly under-
take the dangerous enterprise of a flank march in
its presence. He must fight where he can find his
antagonist.
The field of Waterloo was chosen long before it
was wanted.
In any extended line of operations, freedom of
access to all parts of it, from the flanks and rear, is
an essential condition.
•

_ln this point of view this part of the country
possesses peculiar facilities, for all the roads from
London lead directly up to it. The left is open to
Essex and the Eastern Counties by Gravesend, and
the right is open at Reading to the rest of England.
The South-Western Railway, with its branches,
together with the Portsmouth, the Brighton, the
Dover and Chatham lines, also contribute their re-
sources for locomotion: So far as regards the means
of quickly assembling or reinforcing an army in
that situation nothing, therefore, is wanting..
Neither is the position entirely deficient in lateral
communication to enable troops to move rapidly
from one part of the line to another, which is also
an object of primary importance.
The railroad which runs from Reigate by Alder-
shott to Reading would be available for this pur-
pose to a certain extent. The great desideratum,
however, would be to improve the roads and com-
munications across the country from point to point
in rear of the general line.
As regards the positions which might be selected
on this line, it may be sufficient for the purpose of
conveying a general idea to assume that there are
some six or eight principal roads, by one or two of
which an enemy would be obliged to advance.
It is to the particular points where these roads
intersect the defensive line, and have to ascend a
steep hill, or pass through a narrow gorge or defile,
that attention might be directed.
If small, heavily-armed field works, secure from a
coup de main, were placed as points d'appui in the
most favourable positions for disputing those roads
cr denying them to an enemy, a great advantage
would be gained; and in case of an action being
fought there, open batteries and intrenchments
made at the moment would materially strengthen
the position and afford the means of utilising the
services of large bodies of men, who might not be
sufficiently drilled to manoeuvre in the open field
against a highly disciplined and enterprising
enemy.
Independently, however, of the natural strength
of any positions selected on this line, or of any
other of its assumed advantages, one of its recom-
mendations is that nearly- the whole of it is on the
chalk, which affords facilities for executing defen-
sible works of any description at a comparatively
trifling cost, and in the shortest possible time.
Every railway cutting shows the chalk standing
perpendicularly. A ditch, therefore, would require
no artificial scarp or counter-scarp, but might be
rendered secure from a coup de main by the simple
excavation, and in less than a month might be made
to assume a very respectable aspect.
I would particularly dwell upon this advantage
from thinking that if our army and navy were
otherwise occupied on the coast or elsewhere, it
would be quite possible to execute in a very short
time any works of this description by the labour of
soldiers encamped on the spot.

LIFEBOATS AND SHIPArItECKS.

TO TIIE EDITOR OF TILE SEN.
SIII,,—The severe loss of life occasioned by ship-
wrecks off the coasts of the United Kingdom dur-
ing the last year ought to direct the attention of
every friend of humanity to the most efficacious
means of preventing such lamentable losses. No
less than 1,646 of our fellow creatures met with a
watery grave in that year, to which number must
be added those who have since perished in the
fearful, and, for the season, unprecedented storms
of the last few weeks. We cannot prevent the re•
currence of such visitations, nbr stem the fury of
the tc mpest ; but it is in the power, and is the duty
of man, to mitigate the calamities that result from
them. It appears from the annnal official return of
the Board of Trade that 2,332 lives were saved in
the past year, of which number 291 were preserved
by lifeboats; and the total number of persons
rescued from shipwreck since the first establishment
of the National Lifeboat Institution in 1824, and
for rescuing whom it has granted honorary and pe-
cuniary rewards, amounts to 11,401.
At present the number of boats belonging to the
institution amounts to 101, but many more are re-
quired. The Coastguard officers and Lloyd's agents
reported last year that upwards of 60 more were
needed ; and, although several new boats have since
then been placed on the coasts, there are still very
many exposed localities, especially on the coast of
Scotland, where hardly a year passes without a
great loss of life, which might be to a great extent
prevented if lifeboats were stationed in the vicinity.
In the single gale of Aug. 17, 1848, the results of
which were so ably inquired into and reported on to
the House of Commons by Capt. Washington, no
less than 100 men were drowned, and 124 boats lost
or damaged, involving a pecuniary loss of £7,011;
and in that of the 23d November, 1857, 44 fisher-
men, mostly in the prime of life, perished, and no
fewer than 27 widows and 79 orphans were left to
bewail their loss. Such calamities are of frequent
occurrence, and I am sure only require to be stated
to induce all who sympathise with the sufferings of
others to give whatever aid may be in their power
towards diminishing them. The first cost of a new
lifeboat station, including, besides the boat, the ne-
cessary gear, crew's life-belt,s boat-house, and car-
riage to convey the boat to any spot where a wreck
has taken place, averages between £3OO and £4OO,
and its subsequent maintenance comes
ll
annually to about
.£3O per annum. The wreek-e-ar s
t anally pub-
lished by the Board of T '
ra;i e give melancholy
evidence as to the spot NN:licre these boats are
required; and I trust that in this age of philan-
thropy sufficient funds
will he forthcoming to en-
able one of these messengers
of life and safety to
be stationed on all exposed parts of our shores
where they
can render succour to the wrecked
ineriner.—Y our obedient servant,
Vere• street, June 16. MONTAGUE GORE.

SAD ACCIDENT ON BOARD THE ROYAL ALBERT,
AT LEITIL—On Saturday afternoon, while the decks of the
hoyal Albert were thronged with visitors, the dress of a
lady, in passing one of the signal guns, caught the percus-
sion hammer and brought it over upon the fuse. The
gun, which was loaded with blank cartridge, went off, and
one of the crew, who unfortunately was either standing in
front of the gun or had been working about it, had his arm
blown off close to the shoulder. The poor fellow was
promptly attended to by the medical officers of the ship,
and was, we believe, brought to Leith Hospital in the even-
ing. The sad event caused much consternation as well ;18
regret among the visitors, and the lady who had unwi
`been its cause fainted,4cotsinan.