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Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 9168, 30 July 1890, Page 4

The mutiny of the regiment of Guards was a more serious matter than tho authorities appear at,all disposed to allow. In fact, the precautions of the authorities to put the public on the wrong scent prove nothing so much as the fact of the gravity of the mutiny. They explain that the poor Grenadiers merely mistook the hour of parade. But if they mistook the hour, why did they lock the doors ? That having struck the authorities, they conceive the brilliant idea of admitting that the Grenadiers were overworked. That would account not only for the locked doors, but also for the long consultations of the chiefs of the army. Here we discover that, as in all such cases, the conspiracy of hush is at fault, because there is something which the conspirators have forgotten to account for. It is the arrival of the Yorkshire Regiment in London. And just as we are marvelling at the necessity of marching a regiment into London because the Grenadiers have shown themselves partly fractious from overwork, partly forgetful, no doubt from the same cause, of their hour for parading, we learn that another regiment, a regiment of Irish Fusileers, was actually under orders for London, to the great excitement of the people of Portsmouth, where that regiment was quartered. We should not he surprised to learn that other troops in other places were under orders also. It is in/fact evident that the.

Grenadiers had mutinied very seriously,; and the most probable conclusion as to the reason is that the Grenadiers objected to do the work of the police. One thing, of course, is certain, and has been certain for years and years. It is that there will come a day when the troops in London will not refuse to sympathise with the populace, which in some great outburst will carry everything before it. The authorities thought when the Queen’s Grenadiers mutinied that that time had arrived. The police were disaffected, the mob was out. It was necessary to stamp out the military mutiny quickly. A general concentration on London was ordered, but before it could be carried out the mutiuy collapsed. Enough of the precautionary measures transpired, however, to excite suspicion. That suspicion the idiotic behaviour of the authorities has . converted almost into certainty. It seems to have been a narrow escape.