The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-25 00:00:00

Chief rode past, and after the line of battalions
had been inspected throughout its entire length,
the Staff crossed to the saluting base at the
other side of the park, near the enclosure for the
Lords and Commons. The consolidated band of
the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, Grenadier,
Coldstream, and Scots Fusilier Guards took up their
position, and the march past then commenced from
the right flank, the other brigades following in
succession. Those whose only notion of a march
past consists in what they have seen, and, it may
be, criticised, have little conception of the care
necessary to execute with good effect this ap-
parently simple movement. After a couple of
wheels performed at the double in close forma-
tion, anti an incessant recurrence of momen-
tary halts, the battaion arrives a little short of
the flagstaff. Here the companies open out to
wheeling distance and brace themselves for an effort.
There are the strongest inducements to cast the
eyes around, but the temptation must be resisted
with the firmness of St. Anthony, or the character of
the regiment is gone from that moment. You know
that to the right are the Lords and, for that matter,
the ladies, too, for the eye is conscious of a silken
haze in that direction ; that to the left is the Duke,
with his glittering staff ; that the Guards' sentries
are kneeling to allow spectators to see over their
heads ; but you know no more. You must go
forward glancing neither to the right nor left—with
head erect and eye fixed on some object in front

—your front rank man's neck if you happen to be
in *he rear-rank—hands and arms rigid by your
side " keeping the touch," and balancing the rifle
minutia upon which everything depends. The
moment of extreme tension over, if spectators only
knew what a sense of relief, what a testimonial to
character their applause conveys,they would applaud
where they think applause deserving even more
promptly than they do. The flag-staff passed, no
time is lost by the corps in returning to its original
position, from which it is then in a position to ob-
serve how other corps conduct themselves. It was
observed with regret that artillery and cavalry, as
distinctive services, were unrepresented on Satur-
day- The members of artillery corps, indeed,
were invited to march past with their carbines ;
but artillery without their guns are like cavalry
without their horses, and naturally they could
not be expected to feel their ordinary interest
in the occasion. It is to be hoped that measures
may be taken before long to repair the omission by
holding a special artillery review, which would
be not only acceptable as a compliment to the
flower of the Volunteer service, but advantageous
in a military point of view. The metropolitan
corps of greatest note all experienced a cordial re-
ception, and in the case of Lord Elcho, Lord
Grosvenor, Lord Donegal, Lord Ranelagh, Lord
Bury, Colonel Lindsay, Colonel M'Murdo, Colonel
Bigge, and other commanding officerslong and fami-
liarly known there was a personal warmth in the ap-
plause over and above the tribute of admiration ex-
tended to their respective followings. The London
Irish, a regiment which has made rapid progress in
numbers and efficiency, was probably second to none
in the cheering that it received. As on a former
occasion, however, the honours of the day were
due to the country corps, which not only came up
in excess of their estimated strength, but were as
remarkable for discipline as for numbers. In indi-
vidual cases, like the " Robin Hoods," or the
Berkshire battalion, admittedly among the finest in
the country, excellence would not be matter for
surprise. But all the country corps attained a very
high standard. The Derbyshire and Warwickshire
contingents were thoroughly up to the mark ; and
the repeated shouts of " Well done, well done !"
when the country brigade, 2,500 strong, had all
marched past, showed what a deep impression had
been made and how necessary it is that town corps
should work hard if they wish to keep pace with
those in the rural districts.
The review began at half-past 5 o'clock, and
concluded shortly after 7, the termination being
somewhat accelerated by a popular rush from the
direction of the Marble Arch, which the military
were unable to prevent. The barriers once loosed,
the tide of spectators overflowed the enclosure, and
then for the first time an adequate conception could
be gained of the numbers that must have been pre-
sent. The different corps left in succession by the
same routes as they had entered, and before 8
o'clock all had quitted Hyde-park.
The otherwise brilliant success of the day's pro-
ceedings was marred Uy vue or mu liielau..to of
which more will probably be heard hereafter. In
the ranks of the West Middlesex a difference had
arisen with regard to the propriety of appear-
ing at the review at all ; and a notice intimat-
ing that the corps would not appear is
attributed to Lord Radstock, as colonel of the
regiment—though, according to another version,
his lordship had before resigned his command.
Whatever the merits of the previous controversy,
the unpleasant circumstances themselves were
brought into strong relief when two companies of the
West Middlesex appeared upon the ground, and
insisted on taking part in the review, contrary to
the wishes of some of their own officers. Colonel
Loyd-Lindsay fortunately heard of the disturbance
in time to act as mediator, and for the moment, at
least, to surmount the difficulty.
The other incident was of a widely different cha-
racter. In the park, as has been already stated,
Lord Elcho was warmly cheered in his capacity as
commander of the second brigade of the first divi-
sion. But on leaving the enclosure there were
manifestations that persons had assembled whose
thoughts ran not by any means exclusively upon
volunteering. Hisses and cries of " Reform,"
" What about the working-man ?" &c., were raised
at intervals by knots here and there, and though in
the majority of instances these cries were drowned
by counter applause from the great body of the by-
standers, they were repeated at intervals till the
brigade reached the parade ground at the back of
the Horse Guards. Here Lord Elcho's command

terminated, and his own regiment, the London
Scottish, was dismissed. Of the other battalions
which had been included in the brigade the Work-
ing Men's College Corps and the Inns of Court Rifles
marched to the same point, and when the time for
breaking off came, Colonel Hughes, on the part
of his regiment, led a round of cheers for Lord
Elcho, enthusiastically repeated by the Inns of
Court. Meanwhile, the opposing voices, as it
seemed, had drawn together, and Lord Elcho, now
alone, was surrounded by a regular mob, of which
a large proportion was composed of mere lads,
shouting, hooting, groaning, and hemming him in
so tightly that though on horseback it was impos-
sible for him to move. Observing this, Colonel
Nl,Murdo and Colonel Sargent, of the Inns of
Court Volunteers, contrived to place themselves
at either hand,
and with Captain Page, the
Adjutant of the London Scottish, and one or two
other mounted officers following, an escort was
l
formed which slowly and
with difficulty
way along the Mall out hyMar rouu,yhy madeatcand c_ its
so on in the direction of St. James's e'
g '
Palace, the
crowd all the time pouring upon Lord Elcho the
most uncomplimentary epithets. In one or two
of the club-houses• that lay upon the route the
on,
members, observing what was going cheered
the cavalcade by way of encouragement, but the
crowd, it is needless to say, had the advantage of
numbers. Lord Elcho having reached his desti-
nation, dismounted, and walked home. The crowd
followed the other horsemen for, a short distance,
but when they found that Lord Elcho was not with
them, they proceeded to the front of his house in st.
James's-place. There were fortunately no avail-
able missiles to pick up, but one stone was thrown,
breaking a single square of glass. A superinten-
dent of police, with a sufficiently large body of con-
stables, arrived almost at the moment, and no fur-
ther damage was done.

Petroleum seems to be widely extended over the
earth, or rather under it. We learn from the Tara-
naki Herald, a New Zealand journal, that oil had
been struck there at 60 feet. it is stated that
5,000 gallons were obtained daily, and that £lO,OOO
had been offered and refused by the six working
men who started the enterprise.
The Melbourne Argus also informs us that petro-
leum had been found on the Coorong, in South
Australia.