The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-22 00:00:00

TEE PROPOSED REVIEW AT

BRIGHTON.

The proposed Volunteer review and sham fight
on Easter Monday next at Brighton is a subject
which is just now causing considerable agitation
and even ill-feeling among the various metropoli-
tan Rifle Corps. By some commanding officers the
scheme is warmly approved, and energetically sup-
ported. Other commanders take precisely an oppo-
site view, and not only decline to allow their regi-
ments to attend by summoning them to parade else-
where, but are otherwise active in their determi-
nation to oppose every detail in the plan. The
result of this disunion among the commanding
officers, of course, extends to a certain degree
among the subalterns and men, and the effect of the
whole must certainly be disadvantageous to the pro-
gress of the metropolitan Volunteers by perhaps
eventually leading to the retirement of some of
their ablest commanding officers. Earl Grosvenor,
Viscount Bury, Lord Elcho, and Lord Truro support
the intended review at Wimbledon-common, or, at
least, will not attend with their regiments at
Brighton ; Lord Ranelagh, Colonel Lindsay, Col.
Brownlow Knox, M.P., and other commanding
officers, are in favour of the Brighton display.
It is contended on one side that Brighton is too
far from the metropolis, and that the railway ar-
rangements will not be equal to the rapid transport
of a large body of men and a considerable number
of spectators, in addition to the vast holiday
traffic always on the South• Eastern line to the
Crystal Palace and other places. The last objec-
tion is of course the gravest, and is met by Lord
Ranelagh and his friends saying that whatever
weight it has applies with infinitely greater force
to the Wimbledon demonstration, as the South-
Western Railway has confessedly an infinitely
smaller passenger traffic than the South-Eastern,
and has consequently not only less experience,
but less of the facilities required in the way of
rolling stock to meet an unusual run.
Distance from London, they contend, secures
them from the presence of an overpowering
crowd, and the choice of Brighton has been
made in order to secure a station that has unex-
ampled facilities for accommodating large numbers,
and getting off the trains in rapid succession.
There is no doubt but that the choice of Wimbledon
is open to the objection that the station was never
meant to accommodate more than 100 passengers
or so, and that from the want of sidings more than
two trains cannot remain there. This, in the case
of a large number of Volunteers coming down by
rail, and the certainty of an immense crowd of
spectators, would be a cause of delay and incon-
venience sure to give rise to bitter complaints.
Both parties seem quite to have overlooked a place
which is probably better fitted than any other
in the kingdom for such Volunteer re-
views on a large scale—we mean the Epsom
Downs. There is space of ground there and to
spare for all the London Volunteers and any amount
of spectators. The town is large enough to meet
any demands in the way of commissariat, and, above
all, there are two lines of rail to the spot, both of
which could, and actually do, on a Derby-day take
down from 15,000 to 20,000 passengers. Those
who have chosen Brighton have, in our humble
judgment, gone too far; and on the other hand
Wimbledon is too near, and is otherwise in the
choice of its railway station most unfortunate.
If the weather is fine both displays may,
and we trust they will, be most successful ; if,
on the contrary, it is wet and stormy, there
will not be much to choose between the discomforts
of either party. The force to be reviewed at
Brighton will consist of five brigades. As great
doubt still exists about the numerical strength of
these, and as, in fact, the return of the tickets
issued will not be known till next week, we will
say nothing about the numbers that are expected to
be present. It is sufficient to say that the railway
company state they have made arrangements for
the rapid transport of a much larger number than
are likely to go down. The resources of the South-
Easter Company for passenger traffic are greater
than those of any other line in the kingdom.

The Six Feet Guards (32d Middlesex) hare
volunteered to assist their rifle comrades in Sussex in the
sham fight. The supposed enemy will land at Shoreham,
and the whole of the manoeuvres will take place in the
neighbourhood of the Race Hill, whence a pergctly unin-
terrupted view of them may be had.