THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIX, Issue 06, 21 January 1860, Page 3

THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT.

[From the Evening Mail, Nov. 14.]

The copybooks inform 113 that perseverance is generally attended with success. If we doubted this encouraging moral maxim, we should be much consoled by the present appearance of the. Volunteer movement. The country is being covered with corps more or less numerous; there is actual inieting, and drilling, and shooting going on. It is evident that enrolment is not sought after merely for the sake of an uniform, or a pleasant meeting once a-fortuight, or a ball once n-year ; bin because there is an earnest conviction that the country may soon be exposed to danger, and can be protected only by the patriotic exertions of her sons. In this result we ourselves have good cause to rejoice. It was the livening Mail which, by reiterated appeal*, succeeded in rousing the present generation to do whai their grandfathers had done at the beginning of the century. We are not in the habit of recurring to the past, and are, as a general rule, willing to allow our exertions and succeas?s to speak for themselves. But the influence of the press in overthrowing our effete army system, and moie recently, in rousing the people to a sense of their own duties in defending the country, is too remarkable to be passed over without some words of comment. The example of the American States, where the regular army, numbering only a few thousands, is posted on the extreme verge of civilization, and Miere the real defence of the country is intrusted to the militia, could not be without its effect on any thinking man who was free from professional prejudices. In that land of energy and self-dependence a young man looks upon himself as disgraced unless he belongs to Some body more or less military in its organization. It may be a regiment of, volunteers, or it may be only a fire company ; but the practice of associating in masses for service of various kinds jjives to the whole people a facility in learning the art of war which is one of the best possessions of a nation. The services of the American Militia in past times are too well known to be referred to. In the war of 1812 they were found to be fully equal to regular troops ; and, indeed, the best soldiers of Wellington's Peninsular army were over and over again defeated by these levies, whose skill in the use of firearms fully made up for any want of mechanical precision in movement. Wherever a fortification either

natural or artificial gave the Americans assistance, their murderous fire, directed mainly against the officers of the British force, generally ended in securing them the advantage. Since that time war has become more and more a matter of individual skill in the use of the rifle. The rifle, it is confessed, won the battle of Inkermann, where men fought by sixes and sevens, and all elaborate movements were impossible. There can be no doubt that the well-trained rifleman is now a much more equal match for the professional soldier than was the case 40 years ago, and that such men as form the mass of the American Volunteers could be converted into an effective army in the course of a very few weeks.

Reflecting on the sad contrast presented by our own country, we felt anxious that the public should feel its duties, and understand how weak, how dishonourable, is the situation of a people which depends for its safety on hired soldiers alone. The extension of the military system on the Continent, r.nd the Imperial dynasty in France, impelled to warlike enterprises by the necessity of its existence, found the people of England ignorant of the use of arms, and every day more disposed to consider war/are a matter in which only their rulers had any concern. This feeling found only too much encouragement in high quarters, where a dominant and exclusive army in the midst of a submissive and unquestioning people is a not uupleasing institution. But the system broke down by its own weight. The only duty of the people in the eyes of a certain class was to pay taxes for more regiments and more ships. At last, however, a time came when these taxes were likely to become impossible. The expenditure ot the country on military armaments had risen to not far from £'30,000,000 a-year, exclusive of the enormous drain on India. And yet, with all this, there wasever the cry that we were def'rnce-les-t. Million after million was thrown into the <;ulf of military and naval extravagance, and yet there was still the piteous complaint that an invading force might march from the coast to London without meeting with the slightest resistance. This being the state of things, we felt it our bounden duty to urge on the people of this country the formation of those corps which are now spreading so extensively. At first we spoke in vain. Three years since, with the example of the American Volunteers before us, we advocated the establishment of a small force as an auxiliary to the militia, but the advice was given in vain. People assented to the arguments, and thought rifle regiments would be very good things, but did nothing. From that time we recurred to the subject at every opportunity, and had the .pleasure of finding that each time the subject was more talked of, though as yet nothing practical came of it.

It was not, however, till the ill-will of the French people and their Government was fully made known by the proceedings subsequent to Orsini's attempt, that our exhortations were of any avail. The French Colonels have to thank themselves for the fact that the English people have been roused to consider their own danger, and that this island is at least in a fair way of being made secure from attack. Last year the long continued efforts of this journal were crowned with success, and the germ of a healthy, safe, and cheap system of defence was planted in the country. It is to the credit of this nation that the safeguards which will ultimately baffle its enemies have been the work, not of the Government, but of that public intelligence which, though it acts slowly, never fails to seize the truth, from whatever quarter it may come. Any credit which the public will allow us for our share in this movement we would use to impress on them the necessity of making Volunteer Corps not a temporary, but a per* inanent institution. A spasmodic patriotism, the result of sudden fright, is of little use in the defence of nations. What Englishmen should accomplish is the establishment of a general system of defence- one that will make the country secure for all time to come, and prevent the repetition of those disgraceful panics which have been habitual of late years. The youth of this country should for the future be encouraged to look upon these Rifls Cotps as they now look upon their cricket or boating clubs. The use of. the rifle, though not so natural in a crowded country as where men wander through the forest or prairie for miles, is yet in the power of every man in these kingdoms who has a few hours to spare occasionally. Even in the neighbourhood of this vast city there are eligible places for practice; and when once the use of the weapon fkes its place among our national sports, there can be no doubt that efficient riflemen will be numbered by hundreds of thousands. But to bring about this state of things, to naturalize, as it were, the rifle, requires a little present exertion, and should receive the attention of all patriotic Englishmen.