Lord Derby addressed the 1st Lancashire Rifle Volunteers on Wednesday,
at Liverpool, on the defences of the country. After some words in praise of the Volunteer movement, he observed that England differed from every other country in this, "she had no frontiers." The utmost force by which this country could be invaded would be 100,000 men, and when people talked of drilling all the able-bodied men of this country, they had either a low opinion of British soldiers, or intended something other than defence, " incon- sistent with the ideas of our time or the real interests of the
-country." If we train everybody, we shall have too many soldiers ; if we pick and choose, we commit gross injustice. We had far better, even from the economical point of view, trust to voluntary enlistment, and pay the fair market value of the military labour we want. A " nation was meant to be something else than a camp," and war carried on by the mass of the people instead of by a class is " a retrograde step in civilization." It never seems to enter Lord Derby's head that three years' drill may be made the very highest education ; that military training, so far from wasting force for peaceful pursuits, accumulates it. Muscular education, capacity to organize, ability to obey,—these are just the qualities our people want.
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