CADET CORPS AND RIFLE-SHOOTING FOR ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL BOYS.
[TO rim EDITOR OP TR' "SPECTATOR." J Srn,—The number of young men who join the Volunteers after having served in a Cadet corps is so small as to be a negligible quantity. The battalion to which I belonged for many years is about twelve hundred s)rong (composed entirely of working and labouring men), and receives over three hundred recruits each year. Although we had two Cadet battalions of working-class boys affiliated, less than one per cent. of our recruits came from them,—their military ardour became exhausted with their Cadet service. I am thoroughly convinced that time and money spent upon rifle-shooting for elementary-school children will be wasted, and when they come to manhood they will be the last to come forward for active service. No good can come of it, and much harm may be done. Miniature rifles at close ranges are just as deadly as, and much more dangerous than, Service rifles; they look so harm- less that carelessness in their handling is engendered, and we shall have a number of distressing and fatal accidents, similar to that which happened to a boy of tender age at a school at Dulwich some time ago. I would strongly advocate the intro- duction of physical drill and instruction in the principles of discipline, which would inculcate self-respect, and develop habits of personal cleanliness,—characteriatics which at present are conspicuous by their absence in the masses of our people.—I am, Sir, &c., Thos. COLLEY, V.D., Lieut.-Col.
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