We arc authorized to state, that her Majesty the Queen
intends to pro- ceed to Aldershott on Monday next, for the purpose of reviewing, in the afternoon, the regiments of the Guards and of the Line which have lately returned from the Crimea.-iforning Post.
A fortnight ago, Lord Palmerston gave a promise in Parliament that the entry of the Guards into London on their return from the Crimea should be so arranged as to time and place that all the inhabitants of the metropolis who chose might witness the sight. It was assumed imme- diately, that as the Guards marched out on the starlit February morning by the Strand and Waterloo Bridge, they would return by the same route ; and it was assumed that the Queen would meet and head her Guards on horseback. Everybody was satisfied. By and by, however, there arose a whisper that some of the hidden powers had arranged that the Guards should return to quarters-we cannot say enter London-by Vauxhall Bridge. This rumour, laughed at as incredible, grew into a fact. The hidden powers, who keep up the policy of a hid- den army, had decreed that it should be so and had submitted their plan to the Queen. Chief among those bidden ; powers is the Quartermaster- General, Sir Richard Airey. His theory is, it seems, that the Guards are solely the Guards of the Queen, ergo not the soldiers of the public. He contemns the public, and the public contemn him. The manifest discrepancy between the plan of the Quartermaster-General and the pro- mise of Lord Palmerston struck everybody. Where was the War Mi- nister? Lord Palmerston intended, so the people thought, to give them at once a fine military spectacle and an opportunity of honouring the Guards. But Sir Richard Airey took a Quartermaster-General's view of the subject, and simply arranged a line of march-nonsequent on change of quarters. -Was he ashamed of the troops, that he proposed to bring them in b.y a back-door ; otherwise why try to kee them out of sight ? For doing. these things the official Globe rebuked as a " flip- pant official," insinuating that he acted in opposition to Lord Panmure. That was on Thursday ; on Friday the Globe officially announced that Sir Richard would not be allowed to have his own way. Ordinary folks thought the matter settled ; but lo today Sir Richard publishes his programme in the morning journals-the old programme.
May we not infer from this that there is "a want of. harmony" be- tween the Departments ; that the Horse Guards is battling with the War Office ? The Premier, however, we should say, ,cannot afford to succumb to a fifth-rate soldier like the Quartermaster-General. But how does the matter stand ?-is the entry of the Guards to be a military spec- tacle, or a Quartermaster's march ? The latest report, not without ap- pearance of authenticity, is that Sir Richard has been defeated, and that the Guards will march by Waterloo Bridge and the Strand. .
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