THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT.
From one end to the other the country rings with the proceedings of volunteer corps. The movement makes decided and steady progress. In London large subscriptions have been raised, and the number of effective riflemen daily increases. In the country districts and in Scotland corps of rifle and artillery volunteers are increasing every day. Peers, squires, farmers, merchants, give money, time, practising grounds, and exhort the youth to enrol. Even Manchester is raising a strong corps. Not- tingham and Norwich, relatively small places, are, however, in public spirit on a par with Manchester, and muster as many men. The City of London and the rest of the metropolis ought to raise a force in pro- portion to their population, and exceed the force of any county in the kingdom. Great as the progress has been much yet remains to be done. In proof of which we have a witness.
Mr. Deedes, Member for East Kent, has issued an address to the no- bility, clergy, gentry, farmers and tradesmen of Kent, entitled " Our National Defences What is Kent doing ?" .It applies to many other counties besides Kent- " At a time when the whole of the kingdom is more or less under the influence of a feeling of insecurity, when grave doubts suggest themselves to every thoughtful mind as to whether our preparations to resist ag- gression are commensurate with the stake at issue, and at a moment when of all others in the history of our country, it behoves England, as a means
enough ? Is this equal to what must be expected of a county so important from its position, its population, and its wealth ? Why is so much valuable find the sinews of war and produce their substitutes ? been started, which, I trust, may be followed by a similar result ; but is this and able to be enrolled and instructed, the rich and more advanced in life to for repeating a question on the subject of our national defences,' which I Kent doing ?' this month, as Nos. 1 and 2 company of the volunteer rifle corps of the county. I am aware also that in other places the nucleus of a corps has time lost ? Why do not volunteers of all classes come forward—the young of averting danger, to be well and thoroughly prepared, I offer no apology asked at a public dinner in the county some weeks since—namely, What is "Is it that we are not convinced—or rather that we resist the conviction "True, Maidstone and Ramsgate honourably appear in the Army List of —of the necessity, in my humble judgment, the urgent necessity of the case ? Or is it that petty jealousies and local prejudices interfere ? Or are we under the fatal delusion that a population, whose bravery and deter- mined courage no one would doubt, can, at moment's notice, uninstructed iu the use of the arms it must wield, and undrilled in the simplest move- ments which are absolutely necessary to insure combined action, success- fully oppose hostile forces composed of old and tried soldiers ? "I stop not here to inquire whether any of these, or what other reasons may be the cause of our apathy. My object is not to find fault, but to excite to activity. I appeal to you to exhibit increased energy and patriotism in defence of all that is most dear to you, and I do so from a deep-seated con- viction in my own mind that the time is at hand when we must rely, under God's providence, for the safety of the kingdom on our own exertions ; and if we of this county desire to preserve unstained our motto, Invicta,' of which we justly boast, we must make every sacrifice to meet impending danger, and beware of being lulled into a false security.
" Should it be necessary far me to offer any further excuse for the liberty I am taking in addressing you, it may perhaps be found in the fact that for nearly forty years I have been—through good report and evil report—from a conviction of its constitutional usefulness, a member of a volunteer corps. My desire is not here to put forward the superiority of mounted riflemen over a force otherwise constituted—though I fully believe a more serviceable mounted force cannot be found—but to excite the patriotic of all classes to fill up the limited ranks of the yeomanry cavalry, and so to swell the num- bers of the proposed rifle and artillery corps as to prove their determination to resist to the utmost the aggression of any enemy who may dare to at- tempt the invasion of this free and favoured land.
WJT.T.7 AM DEEDES."
" Sandling Park, November 5."
General Sir William Napier has published a valuable letter in the Times, showing how rifle volunteers acting as skirmishers should be sup- ported by volunteer horse, and volunteer Armstrong artillery. We should impress upon all volunteers to adopt the advice of the gallant historian, and make it a point of honour to become the finest body of skirmishers in the world. It may be stated that at a meeting at Perth Mr. Arthur Kinnaird said that when in Italy he had a conversation with Garibaldi, and that celebrated man expressed his surprise that this country did not avail itself of the volunteer system.
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