VOLUNTEER INTELLIGENCE.
THE EASTER MONDAY REVIEW AT PORTSMOUTH.
The Hants Telegraph reports, with reference to the Easter Monday Volunteer Review at Portsmouth, that there is a prospect of the necessary accommodation and other arrangements as to detail, being all that can possibly be desired to render the review successful. The amount already subscribed in the borough is close upon £7OO, and there is reasonable ground for believing that this will be more than doubled in the course of a few days. Many definite arrrngements have already been made as to the movements of some of the metropolitan corps. Information, for instance, has reached Portsmouth that the 1st Middlesex, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Creed, will march from London with a battery of six guns and 50 hoses. The corps will leave head-quarters on Thursday, and will rest at Guildford and Petersfield. The Honourable Artillery Company will bring 40 horses, and will also bivouac at Petersfield and Guildford. It is estimated that the field artillery will require 450 horses for the movement of the guns; and it is also estimated that the infantry present will comprise 160 battalions; and, if this be so, at least 350 additional horses will be required for the field officers. Thus it will be seen that about 800 horses will be required for the review. It has been determined to barricade a portion of Southsea-common to facilitate the march past of the various corps, and to avoid the pressure which would be otherwise experienced from the crowd. There is reason to believe that a grand pyrotechnic display will take place, in the evening, and in order to render this as effective as possible the authorities will be solicited to confer upon the town the grant usually accorded upon such occasions—a supply of fireworks from Woolwich Arsenal. Another object of the committee will be to obtain the services of the naval brigade to take part in the review by occupying positions on Portchester lake and attacking to the right of the enemy on Portsdown-hill, the effect of which, if carried out, will be one of the most interesting in the programme of the day. The Honourable Artillery Company will be entertained to breakfast on the morning of the review by Mr. Alderman Emanuel. In addition to the church parade, which is fixed to enable Volunteers to attend Divine service at St. John's on Easter Sunday, arrangements have also been made for the Hon. Artillery Company to attend St. Thomas's Church, Portsmouth, on the same day, accompanied by the Mayor and Corporation. There will be a general effort made on the part of the inhabitants to decorate the town—or especially those portions through which the Volunteers will pass—and already special subscriptions are being collected in different localities for this purpose.
On Wednesday, a deputation, consisting of the mayor and other members of the municipal body, and of officers of local Volunteer corps, waited upon the authorities at the War Office and Admiralty in London, for the purpose of facilitating the arrangements for the review, and of obtaining any assistance that may be required from those departments of the Government. The deputation were courteously received, and the Government officials showed every disposition to forward their views, and to contribute as far as possible to the success of the event. Judging from the applications which have already been made to attend the review, it is anticipated that the number of men on the ground will be considerably in excess of the force which has been present on any previous occasion, either at Brighton or Dover, and the excess will be chiefly made up of corps in the south-western military district which have, in consequence of the distance, been unable to assemble with the force on the East Sussex Downs. Amongst these will be the corps of Davenport and Keyham dockyards, a Government steamer having been appropriated for their use. The Metropolitan, Sussex and East Hants Volunteers will be discharged at the terminus of the South-Western and South Coast Railways at Portsmouth, and the western divisions will, to save inconvenient pressure here, be conveyed to the Gosport terminus of the South-Western Railway, crossing thence to Portsmouth over the floating bridge. Every possible provision is being made for the accommodation, at reasonable charges, of those of the Volunteer, who may desire to remain in the neighbourhood beyond the day of the review; and we understand that the Government authorities will assist this arrangement, by granting the use of military bedsteads and bedding, which will be set up in convenient places.
One of the most interesting features in the review will be the employment of the naval brigade from the Excellent gunnery ship and other ships in harbour. About 1,000 men will, it is expected, be landed, and as it will be high water in Portsmouth harbour about 2 on that day, the defending force will be further supplemented by a division of gun-boats, launches and pinnaces. The actual scene of the mimic fight will be on the land or north side of the borough of Portsmouth, and beyond the first new line of fortifications, which extend from the east shore of Portsmouth harbour to the west shore of Langston harbour. The troops will first of all rendezvous for the most part on the glacis of the old fortifications of Portsmouth and Portsea; the batteries of artillery occupying other convenient open spaces which are to be found in the borough. They will then march to Southsea-common, which is only a short distance away, and consists of a fine open parade ground, with a well-formed esplanade and charming sea-beach on its south-western, south and southeastern limits. Five miles away, overlooking the waters of Spithead, is the Isle of Wight with its bold undulations and charming varieties of scenery; and looking in a south-easterly direction, away to the left is the English Channel.
After the formal ceremony of marching past the reviewing staff is concluded, one division of the troops will return to the railway station, about a mile distant, and proceed to Cosham, a little village about four miles from Portsmouth, at the southern base of Portsdown-hill, which is part of a range of downs stretching for some miles from east to west, in a parallel line with this part of the south coast. This division will constitute the force whose object is to attack Portsmouth on its northern front, and it will take possession of the hill, and probably of the village of Cosham, and the hamlets of Wymering and Farlington, which are in the same line. The main body of Volunteers will then take the road, or rather they will advance in three divisions in parallel lines from Portsmouth, the chief division proceeding northward by the only turnpike leading out of Portsmouth, the right wing taking the Copnor, and the left wing the Tipner, roads, to the first line of new and yet incomplete fortifications to which we have already referred. The distance from the "marching past" ground to these fortifications is about three miles. Beyond this line, however, there is only one highway; and as there is to be crossed a wet military ditch, and a narrow channel intended eventually to form the line of water communication between Portsmouth and Langston harbours, pontoon bridges will be brought into requisition; and new military roads for short distances between Copnor-lane on the right, and Tipner on the left, will have to be improvised for the occasion at the expense of the local committee. It is at this point that the Action will in reality begin, the object of the defenders being to dislodge the attacking force from the position which it holds in the village and hamlets at the foot of Portsdown-hill, beyond the outer line of fortifications which occupy the most commanding positions on the summit of the hill itself. These strong works, however, have not yet received their armaments, and, instead of being vantage points to be fought for by the contending forces, they will simply be used as platforms for the benefit of those of the spectators who may be fortunate enough to obtain tickets of admission, and will command a view of the whole operations of the field. These, we understand, constitute the main features of the general plan of attack and defence, the details of which are still under consideration.
It is understood that the review would have taken place under the personal direction of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, and possibly also in the presence of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, but for the arrangement which takes those distinguished personages to Ireland.
On Wednesday, there war a large and important meeting of commanding officers of London and country Volunteer regiments at the offices of National Rifle Association in Pall-mall, to consider the steps which should be taken for bringing before the Government the necessity which exists for an increased capitation grant to the Volunteers, so as to relieve the efficient members and the officers from the heavy expenses which now fall upon them. Colonel Lord Elcho, M.P., presided. The question was taken up from where it was left at the last Wimbledon meeting of the National Rife Association, when a deputation of Volunteer commanding officers, representing Volunteer corps of every county (as the gathering of Wednesday did as well), waited upon the Secretary of State for War, and left with the understanding that, though the season was then too far advanced for the wants of the force to be considered in the estimate, of 1867, yet that they should be considered this year. Commanding officers now stated, that, in the full belief the grant would be increased this year, they had, in order to advance the numbers and efficiency of their various corps, rendered themselves responsible for many expenses which should rightly fall upon the country; and officers from the country stated that they had taken action themselves to point out to the Government that if the Government desired to keep up this "reserve force" it must at once declare its intentions. The meeting then went in a deputation to Sir John Pakington at the War Office, who not only declined to have any representatives of the press present as such at the interview, but called upon those who were in the room to hold the proceedings as private conversation. A tolerably full account of what took place has, notwithstanding, appeared. Sir J. Pakington seems to have said that he had to consider other claims besides those of the Volunteers, and he found, from the information he had obtained, that some corps were in want of Government money; others could get on very well without it. Two individuals, commanding large forces, had indeed told him no further grant was necessary. He could only draw one inference—viz., that the question applied in different degrees to different localities. Sir John pointed out, as to the alleged falling off of the force, that it was really numerically stronger. There was no obligation, he said, on the officers, either to keep on paying or to embody new forces. The official returns from 1863 showed 17 new corps and 28 dissolved; 1864, 6 new corps, and 29 dissolved; 1865, 14 new corps, and 18 dissolved; 1866, 12 new corps and 9 dissolved; 1867, 27 new corps and 9 dissolved. Efficient, 113,529 in 1863, 155,276 in 1867; enrolled, 163,935 in 1863, 187,864 in 1867. The Cabinet had decided that such a case was not made out as would justify a heavy addition to the expense of the Volunteer force, and particularly as last year's capitation grant showed £385,000 being an excess of no less than £22,000 upon the grant of the year last. If one corps vanished, another sprang up. He had placed the whole matter before the Cabinet. They were not indifferent; they hoped the force might flourish; but, looking to his general duty to the country and its financial position, he could not consent to any immediate increase of the grant.
With the view of promoting the efficiency of the Wiltshire Rifle Volunteer forces, and of giving them some experience of the requirements of actual service, it has been determined shortly to form an encampment of the following corps, comprising the 1st Administrative Battalion of Wilts Rifle Volunteers, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Everett—namely, 1st WIlts, Salisbury; 2nd Trowbridge, 6th Maiden Bradley, 8th Mere, 9th Bradford, 10th Warminster, 13th Westbury and 14th Wilton. It is proposed that the camping out shall take place on the extensive downs in the neighbourhood of Warminster, and a subscription has been commenced, headed by the Lord-Lieutenant of the county (the Marquis of Ailesbury) and the Marquis of Bath, which already amounts to nearly £400, to defray the necessary expenses.
It is proposed to form a Volunteer encampment at Hunstanton in the course of the coming summer. The encampment will be continued for a week, and it is hoped that on one day the Prince of Wales will review the assembled troops.