THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT.
Meetings to promote the formation of volunteer rifle corps are now pretty general. Steps have been taken. at Biriningham, Wolverhampton, Manchester, Hastings, Liverpool, lieter, Torquay, Portsmouth, Tyne- mouth, Birkenhead; OxforeVand other places. The Government circular does not finclitinch faVour. It is justly considered too restrictive. From Hastings; One writes to the Daily News, referring to General Peel's " We-would give a guarantee for effective drill as well as target practice, if we were left to choose our own hours for it, instead of being called out from our offices and shops at the arbitrary will of a stranger to our business and our town. We would, moreover, find our own arms and equipments, and pro- vide, by a voluntary fund, for many artisans who could not buy their arms for themselves. The cost of this, as we had here settled it, would not be more than five pounds a man ; the rifle and bayonet being a little over three guineas ; and a cheap blouse and cap sufficing capitally for uniform. This would be enough for efficiency. We would find and pay our own drill- master, and be the government servants only in fighting time. All we ask *permission to devote our leisure time to fit ourselves for serving our coun- try in the hour of need." - -
Mr. Frederick North, referring to the proceedings at the same town says— • " The Government certainly offer us but little encouragement in their i
proposed regulations. But we intend to persevere, and (keeping within the statutes as to drill) we mean, and trust others will do the same, to teach our- selves the use of the rifle. 'We fancy, at Hastings, that military organiza- tion may be eventually superadded, if necessary, to proficiency in shooting, and that such proficiency may make us as efficient protectors to our Queen and our country as the Americans were to their institutions in the wars of independence." At Cambridge the sum promised for the establishment of the proposed Rifle Club exceeds 8001., and the annual income is calculated at upwards of 2001. It appears that by paying an entrance fee of 10s. 8d.,- and an annual subscription of 11. la., or by the immediate subscription of,51. 5s., an3r:persOn will he'entitled to the use of the rifles belonging to the club, and to the instructions of a competent officer to be specially provided for that purpose. Ev&y one, heivever, will be expected to pay for the cartridges he uses, which will be supplied on the ground at le. a dozen. It :will be optional for the members of the club to join the volunteer rifle corps authorized by the circular from the War Office.
n O. II." " an old Tory, and therefore much more nearly allied to a Radical_ than to a Whig" writes to the Times. " It may be a mere red-tape necessity which makes the War Office throw all the expenses on the volunteers themselves; but, whether that is the case or not, it is to be expected that the new session will not be long in exis- tence before a resolution of the House of Commons decides that at least arms and accoutrements, to be used in the service of the nation, shall be provided at the expense of the nation. Still, there will be some expense to be borne by every volunteer, and therefore I suggest that there should be three lists :-
" 1. Men who are able and willing to be volunteers at their own expense; "2. Men who are unable to be volunteers, but who are able and willing to contribute towards the expenses of n 3. Men who are able and willing to be volunteers, but who are unable to_hear the einenee, or the whole expense. .
if there were any reason to fear that, in case the working classes found themselves with arms in their hands they would use them for revolutionary potposes, it might be prudent to make volunteering so expensive as to keep them unarmed r • but happily the days when such a fear might be entertained are past—at least in England and Scotland. A Secretary at War, acting without the sanction of Parliament, may hesitate in pledging the, country to - any expenditure for volunteers ; but a House of Commons, consisting of men of whom at least nine-tenths have just been boasting from the hustings
of their regard for the working classes, cannot suffer them to remain under the slur on their loyalty and patriotism which is implied by saying, in effect, The Queen shall have no volunteer except from among those who have money to spare.' " A " Field Officer" remarks that " the tenour of the proclamation issued by the War-office-is highly objectionable, and is no more in keeping with the public feeling and progreas of this day than any attempt to revive the atrocities of the press-gang would be." •
At nearly all the meetings held in the-country the circular has found small favour, but, we are happy to say that a disposition to provide vo- lunteers upon the conditions required by law generally exists accom-
panied by a determination to obtain less exclusive terms. , In Scotland, the chief cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, have bestirred themselves, and the right spirit seems to abound as much there as among ourselves. -
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