The Volunteer Review at Brighton on Easter Monday passed off
with remarkable spirit and success. 20,000 volunteers were under arms on the ground, considerably more than on any former occasion, and so we hope to be spared any further talk about the decline of the movement—if the volunteer force .has not long emerged from the "movement" stage. Twenty special trains conveyed 13,800 volunteers from London and its neighbourhood to Brighton in an average time of two hours—one doing the dis- tance in an hour and a half. The weather was perfection, the en- thusiasm with which Brighton received the volunteers was naturally heightened by the omission of their visit last year, the sham fight was conducted in a more intelligible manner than usual, the different corps also showed marked improvement in marching, and what is really very creditable to all concerned, there was scarcely au accident that could be called serious in the course of the day. The Easter Monday Review seems now likely to be held at Brighton as a matter ofcourse. Brighton may be the best place for a mere review, but it is not clear that it is to the advantage of the volunteers always to manceuvre on the same ground, or advisable that one railway should always have the task of massing 20,000 men at a given point in the minimum of time. Why should not the volunteers become acquainted With as many points on the coast as possible? It would be well, too, if every railway leading to the coast within a tiaoderate distance could have the benefits of experience in rapid convey/nee of troops. It ought to. be borne in mind that the Easter Monday Review should be more than a mere military spectarle—Wimbledon affords that—but that each recurrence should. a possible, render the force more efficient for its great objee,—defence. There is nothing to prevent the volunteers frori becoming acquainted in course of time with all the main poir ts of coast defence near London.
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