NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Pt-1mm bUsiness was suspended on Wednesday, in order that Queen, Lords, and Commons, and as many of the British nation as oould, might go down to Portsmouth to review the great fleet which has been got ready by the termination of the war. The spectacle was one that will be easily imagined by those who have seen the great floating batteries and their auxiliaries in motion-
intpossible to be. conceived by those who have never witnessed naval evolutions. . The size of the vessels, the vast space which they filled to the eye, the order of their movement upon the un- stable element, formed, a picture which, when seen, could be they filled to the eye, the order of their movement upon the un- stable element, formed, a picture which, when seen, could be appreciated by the least learned ; and, with the presence of the ,Sovereign and the Legislature, the assembled Civil and Military Administration of the country, and of the people, represented by immense masses on shore and afloat, the parade was calculated to gratify the pride of Englishmen. The programme of the day's proceedings was designed to show the command which has been Obtained over the vessels that compose a fleet ; and while the com- bination of mechanical improvement with great magnitude eon- ,sfituted a triumph of naval architecture, the gun-boats for find- ing out the enemy close in-shore were a truly interesting novelty in the muster. So far as the fleet itself was concerned, the pro- gramme appears to have been successfully accomplished. The .simplest evolutions—the manning of the yards and the parading of the vessels in two lines, filing off to the right and left on either side of the Royal yacht—proved the mastery which has been obtained by science and discipline over the immense structures of timber and iron, and in the regiments of mariners that manned them.
45outhsea Castle was the object of a sham attack; and though, of course, its walls were in no danger, the ease with which the gun- hoats were stationed and worked was a fact among important ex- periments. The use of steam in the whole fleet gave to its move- ments much of its military character. It is as if fortresses and batteries were able to march bodily about the field of battle and to play the part'there of divisions and regiments. The review enabled officers to gather some new experience as to the mode in which this immense fleet, the largest yet the handiest ever placed upon the water by Great Britain, can be manceuvered. Although, therefore, the ships at present constitute a force which is destined to no present mission, the review was in itself a great event.
The civil arrangements of the day did not so completely test our mechanical power or our capacity for system. There was to have been a dramatic tableau ; the Queen was to have been sup- ported by the Lords and Commons—each House of the Legisla- ture in its separate steamer. This part was a failure. The Members could not make a House—at least not sufficient for the captain to consider himself justified in putting the question. Motions were made, indeed, from time to time, that the House do rise,that is, that the steamer do go ahead ; but they were not carried without considerable delay. - Lords and Commons were hours liehind time ; and they sank into the ordinary group of spectators, omitting their august presence from the display of the British 6onstitution at the head of the British Fleet. Queen Victoria is always punctual as to arrangements, time, weather, and everything else. The fact is, however, not only that some Peers and Commoners kept too lax an eye upon the clock early in
the morning, but that the railway was not equal to its task ; the trains could not carry numbers enough nor fast enough. How- [LidEsr Einnow.)
ever, it is not " in those galleys " that Peers or Commoners are bound to show their mettle ; and, sooth to say, they were not very seriously missed from the parade.
