Mr. Balfour opened a bazaar at North Berwick on Saturday
last in aid of the funds of the 7th Volunteer Battalion of Royal Scots, and spoke at length on the future of the Volun- teers. That force now threw on the taxpayer a considerable portion of the Estimates, and unless they could justify their existence as an integral and essential element in the defensive forces of the Crown, their raison d'etre was gone, they were expensive without being useful, and public opinion in the long run would condemn them. Mr. Balfour signified his adhesion to the modern view that invasion of these shores on a large scale was impossible. This, however, did not preclude the possibility of raids, for the repelling of which Volunteers were indispensable. He thus reached the " inevitable con- clusion" that "we are safe from invasion oversea, and we are in the position of freeing our Regular Army for service across the sea so long, but only so long, as the patriotism of this country will provide us with a sufficiency of trained Volunteers to deal with any national emergency which may anise." To a great deal of Mr. Balfour's abstract argument we make no objection. But it is extremely hard to make his present attitude towards the Volunteers square with the policy of dis- couragement and hostility recently adopted by the Govern- ment, and, as we have pointed out elsewhere, he fails to understand two of the essential functions of the force. Speeches and pamphlets are futile unless they are backed up by action. But, unfortunately, though Mr. Balfour, to adapt Goldsmith, " talks like an angel," he acts like—the War Office.
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