VOLUNTEERS

Press, Volume II, Issue 42, 1 March 1862, Page 1

VOLUNTEERS

The volunteer movement of the last three yeai*, however noble in one light, is, in another, a painful and humiliating spectacle. In one light it speaks of the heroism and self-devotion of men; in another it speaks of a new barbarism spreading its gloom over the world. Thirty years ago, when the Duke of Wellington was prime minister, the expenditure of Great Britain was about thirty-five millions a-year. It now amounts to seventy millions. And this gigantic increase in the annual burdens of the country Jβ mainly caused by the increase in its military and naval armaments. The same change which has taken place in England has been seen in every country in Europe; and we are now witnessing the pitiful and humiliating spectacle of millions of men with arms by their sides and sinister looks, waiting any chance event which may precipitate them upon one another with all the ferocity of traditional and national hatred. It is one sole mind which has accomplished this devil'd work in the civilised world. The period when

the Emperor of Frrrance came into powder is that in which Europe begaacn to arm : and the farther uncertainty arouse-d I))' his name and antecedents has grown into nniitrus-ist and suspicion at every step of his mysterious cmeacer, and every word which has fallen from his lips. Laanguage which in other mouths would have cemeiita ed friendships and lulled suspicion, falling from loiiis s Napoleon, has been regarded as the prognostic} oftoome new and hidden danger. With the :wffluel of the Empire of Prance has come a new epwhdi in ti e history of the civilized world. The low military display and gorgeous spectacle,— thto adirmiration for brute force in all its phrases down to lies lowest, the beastly exhibition of the prize-fight;—lite « lust for- empire—the devotion of science to the arts • of destruction instead of those of creation, untLl tie names of Watt and Stephenson pale before tloso o> of Armstrong and Whitworth, — all these are syitftooins of a new feeling stealing over the mind of Europe. It is not now a new Attila we have to fear, teaping g down From a dark and unknown north upon thie rip»»eued civilization of an old world, but rather a flood oof pent u_p barharism in the heart of civilization which is oozing up to the surface and beslimingtlie negations with its filth. No two natioibdbave ever before stood in the same attitude to eaoli (ithfher as England and [France, with 'words of peaceoflfr" their lips, and war in their hearts?. . The kindlier % bespeak, each other, the louder grows the din. of aramns, the faster grow the preparations for war, tb c tighter they grasp their brands. What may ccHnoorS , all this (rod only knows f But one phase of tliis ▼irarlilce disease which has seized the world is- tlio Volunteer movement. A most necessary ones,ani, e m one aspect, a most useful one. War is the giioffdie devil, hut the discipline of God. With all its lwocure, it has its uses: to purge out the mean, and toe-s, and selfish in man, and teach him the law of nature: that " He that loses his life shall save it." Araditi-Esonly when we fight ourselves for hearth and hypr-oxy and by hirelings, but in our owm. perreeons, that Avar can teach its full lesson. Of allll militarry spectacles therefore the volunteer army iea the iraost noble and the least humiliating. Our objection too muck of the volunteer movement that has taken pln**ce hitherto was its child's play, its unreality. I'or example;, here were our youths doing the gooic-s-step aucl shouldering powderless rifles in otb*er piumrts of New Zealand, whilst their fellow countrpcEo were l>eing shot and their country rava-geilat'-t Tarana-ki. We are not entering into the causes of this ; but, speaking as a stranger looking on "would speak, there was clearly something siekly-lookiitgiiifeSliis peaceful drumming and drilling close to the scene of a deadly and desperate strife. .NTow, how-over, v~\ve hope "the scene is to be changed. AYe are called oil ♦" to enTol sis volunteers, not for fun, "but as a steraianA . solemn duty in the face of a present and pressing dangler. Tke speeches delivered at the Town Hall onltooonday evening last bespeak a sober determination to arm the Province. The opening speech by tlio EDlesidenfc Magistrate was the best speech we havoW-e&rd for some time in this Province, and put thetrutniin. a simple and manly way. By all the ottaor epcjeakers there wag a good deal of obvious seHse sgyoken, and some of it well. And there was tlio usual amount of common-place nonsense t-AW,also pretty well. His Honor the Superintendent "that a "schooner of thirty tous, with 0% "stom amidships," would be sufficient to silence 4ho b&attery ont Britomart Point at Auckland. Well, to - havene-ver heen so fortunate as to see a ( long; fan ~" in a thirty ton schooner, though we have seen «icli sa gun in a schooner five times that size, and fclien irlt seemed big enough for the craft .- we do iwttLiliink even that vessel would prove a very formic!* nutagonl st against a fort containing, bo far as from twelve to fifteen thirtytwo pounclers r*-ell mouated. We readily, however, forgive Hia Horraor this little trip when we ccc that he is thoroughly— convinced that we must look to ourselves for defeaooe. He thinks G-reat Britain ought to help us; jo does every one. N"o one has put forward ccHitojiQopinions; but we nixist not wait for help, we naiistde-.o what we can for ourselves instantly. And we catuforgagive His Honor a little bunkum if he will put in astvite of defence without delay. Mr. Crostwo F- ard. one of the most versatile, if not most sectors of the day, appeared in the character <rfiLZ.ytteltoa Volunteer. Ist us hope his aim and butty, -onet, should lie be called on to employ

them, may be truer and sharper than his tongue or his pen. The only part of his speech which varied from the common-place was an attack which he made on Mr. Grodley's opinions on the subject of Colonial Military Defence. The attack might have been more interesting, if not more successful, had he ever read the papers (which he clearly had not), which he attempted to answer. For lie assumes that the Military Defence Committee recommended that the colonies should defend themselves at their own expense, which is nearly the opposite of their view. In the examination of Mr. Godley before the Parliamentary Committee, M. C. Portescue asked — " I suppose you are aware that some of the colonists do not agree with your views'?" Mr. Grodley's answer is a remarkable one, he said —"I should be surprised if any of the colonists agreed with mc. People very rarely do agree with you when you ask them to pay money." He knew well enough that the colonies swarmed with Mr. "Wards, and men of that stamp; that the political faith—' ; base is the slave who pays " —was not unlikely to be a popular one, be preached vigorously enough by men who I court popularity: and Mr. Ward can say what he has [ heard before, and what everybody else is saying, as I well as his neighbours, or can even parody current sentiments if required. But we will not quarrel with him because he is incapable of taking in any larger views than the most ordinary ones. Our readers however, who are better informed than Mr."Ward on the subject, know that what Mr. Godlev and the Committee recommended was exactly that which we are now asked to do, in fact, they recommended that the Colonies should undertake the whole of their own defence in their own way, and that England should pay a fixed quota, say half the cost. Had this been the rule two years ago, instead of the shameful defeats, and more than defeats, which the military endured at Taranaki, what colonist is there who does not feel that the war would have been concluded in a few weeks? It was not that the Colonies should be deserted and abandoned, which Mr. Godley proposed, but that they should undertake the whole management and direction of the forces employed, and that the expense should be shared in a fixed proportion between the colony and the mother county, as for example half-and-half; although what that proportion should be was never insisted on as important. But the committee does not enter into the question of the naval defence of colonies. It is the military service which the Committee recommended should be localized. The real defence of all colonies (and this is one point most unanswerably established in the report) is the naval supremacy of the sea. No expedition could sail from Europe or America of sufficient magnitude to attack and hold a country —and it would be absurd to attack a country without a force sufficient to hold it—unless the sea were commanded by the power sending such un expedition. This is a truth not only obvious to reason, but established by history. The military forces placed in the Colonies of foreign powers have always proved wholly inefficient against attacks made by England, when she possessed the supremacy of the sea. And it was this alone, and not the local land forces, which was the salvation of our West Indian possessions. There is not, then, the slightest chance of any danger to these colonies, in the present emergency, from any organized expedition, or even, as we think, from ships of war. The American ships of war in the Pacific are all known, and will be looked after by the British men-of-war on the station, if they do their duty. But of small privateers we are in great danger; and the danger is most pressing and immediate. If the incoming mail bring news of war, not one day ought to be lost in sending everywhere for some long guns. Men ought to be set to work at once on the batteries, and the wood should be cut for the platforms; and all this work ought to be done before the guns arrive. Above all, at least one thousand rifles ought to be ordered with proper ammunition: cavalry and artillery may come afterwards. What we want to see is that if a privateer come into Lyttelton six months hence, a dozen long guns may open on her hull, and a thousand rifles sweep her decks.