The Heather on Fire.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13974, 7 August 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Heather on Fire.

SCOTTISH VOLUNTEERS. In his review of "Itecords of the Scottish Volunteer Force," and "Fifty Years of it," Charles Lowe writes iu the "Daily Chronicle," as follows: — To the fact that this is the Jubilee year of what used to be known as our Volunteer Force we owe the appearance of these two works, which may be said to be the complement of one ailother—one supplying the substance and the other the spirit. The bigger and more detailed of the two (the Records} has been compiled reminiscent of the kind of composition in his volumes on the armies of Germany' and Russia, and who to the particularity of the statistician adds the patriotism of the perfervid Scot. The other is from the pen of a man who, in the legal circles of Edinburgh, is known as Lord Kingsburgh, Lord Justice-Clerk, but who in military circles prefers to be called Brigadier General MacdOnald, commanding the Fourth Brigade of Volunteers, or Territorials.

With all his learning and legal acumen, it may well be said that Sir John Macdonald mistook his profession when he took to the wearing of a peruke instead of a plumed bonnet. A elansman, and even a kinsman of Flora Macdonald, one would think, ought to have fonnd his way to a position of command at Edinburgh Castle, instead of to a seat on the bench in Parlia ment House. _ We fancy that even now, at his 'advanced age, the sound of bagpipes must act upon him as they did on Adam Fergusson, the philosopher, when he was acting as cliaplin to the "Black Watch," and marched with him as their spiritual monitor to Fontenoy. "When the regiment was advancing into action, its colonel, Sir Robert Monro, a great martinet, noticed his chablain at the head of the column with a drawn sword in his hand.' and ordered him to the rear with , the surgeons. Fergusson refused, ' and when the colonel, in the altercation which ensued, threatened to have the chaplain's commission cancelled, the latter bluntly ' retorted, " Damn - my commission!" and flung himself into the fray. Adam Fergusson lived to become Professor- of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh, while ..it has been the function of Sir John Macdonald to act as what may be called unofficial professor of military philosophy at Edinburgh. while being officially Lord Justice Clerk. A soldier at heart, he is nevertheless one not, of the broadsword and swashbuckler sort, but oT the scientific type 1 . His books and ' pamphlets on military subjects would make a- list as long as your arm,; and we believe it was'his commonsense work on tactics which his - clansman, Hector Macdonald, adopted' at 'the basis of his drill for those Soudanese battalions which: showed what they, could do at Ginnis, on the Atbara, and at Omdurman. Well worth reading, • therefore,- are the reminiscences of a man who joined the Ybliiriteers as a private, in the' first year of their .Existence,, and who lias been connected with them ever since, as' : commander of the redoubtable Queen's Brigade and in other capacities. But w> what,, then, did they owe ,their origin? . '.. .s We knew, in general, that it was to the restless' and bellicose policy .of Louis Napoleon, but we had quite forgotten this: , ■ . '' Certain French colonels had combined to make unofficial threats, of what they " wotfld do if they were "permitted by their own authority and encouraged: by their own people. Their manifesto took the form of a challenge by. them to as uiany British officers to a fight of the duelling type, and of course '"a la; nidrt." _No more comical episode has occurred • ill the history of nafaohs,. and had it excited nothing but ridicule there would have been no ground, for surprise. . - But, absurd' as? was the- incident, it was held, and rightly, to be symbolic of the frame of mind of the Frenchman towards this country at that, time, and that, accordingly, it could not be overlooked. . and in a very short time General Peel, the "War Minister, with her Majesty's approval, issued a call for volunteers to enrol, and organise themselves for home defence." 1 . . In- Scotland, where no martial appeal has ever been made in vain, the response to this call was at once prompt and hearty, and, as" General Gridrsou remarks: " The Scottish Volunteers, have proved by the .large proportion" which their numbers have always-borne to the male population, by the high degree of efficiency to which they have attained, as attested by the Royal approbation bestowed upon them, and by the generous support which they have, afforded in times of stress to their national regular regiments, that the old war spirit runs as high as ever in. Scotland." It was this'spirit which, in 1900, prompted no fewer 'than about 0000 men of various kinds, Or 10 per cent, of the enrolled force, to volunteer for war service in South Africa; just as.it was the same spirit which; five years: later, ■ caused little, short/of 40,000 Volunteers to troop from all parts of Scotland—with its population of less than, that' of London—and parade before Sing Edward in Holyrood Park —the largest army which had assembled in his ancient 'kingdom since the days of Bannockburn. In 1860, the second year of their existence, Queen V ictoria had similarly reviewed more than 20,000 Scottish Volunteers in the same place ; while'again, in 1881—their coming-of-age year—her Majesty was treated to another march past of 40,000 men, including several battalions from the Border Counties of England. . It was on this historic occasion that the Scottish Volunteers were subjected to a test of endurance and discipline such as certainly never tried any of their British comrades; while General Macdonald doubts "if ever in the. world's liistorv" a ceremonial march took place across a " rain river eight or ten inches deep, which ran in a course the water had made for itself exactly like a mill-race, v with. /the swirls and broken water one sees in a stream." It was the most frightful rainstorm that had ever been experienced in Edinburgh, yet only two men-efrom the North of England left the ranks of " an army of 38,000, who had been kept under arms for twelve hours, and then turned into trains for a long journey."