Lord Elcho has given up urging that the Volunteers should
be armed with Solders, for the very excellent reason that of the 300,000 which Mr. Cardwell stated to be in store, it seems that -nearly 200,000 are in store in Canada. Lord Elcho takes this disappointment very calmly, and says he is sure no British subject would wish to rob the Canadians of a weapon 'which they have used so gallantly under invasions the danger of which has not yet disappeared, and he is even weakly grateful to Mr. Cardwell for his promise that " in the event of the Volun- teers being called out for active service, no portion of the force will be sent against an enemy without previously being armed with breech-leaders,"—which appears to mean that the Volunteers will not be used, however much they are needed, if there are not breech-loaders to give them. What does not seem to have struck Lord Elcho is the ignorance,—for we cannot suppose for a moment Mr. Cardwell knew where nearly 200,000 out of the 300,000 Sniders were, when he spoke of the 300,000 in store,—of facts of /the first importance betrayed by Mr. Cardwell'a paper figures. Mr. Cardwell might just as well say that we had commissariat stores for 300,000 men, only that two-thirds of them consisted of Australian beef and mutton not yet shipped to England. No doubt General Le Boeuf had, in this new sense, an ample number of Chaasepots for the French Army,—though the troops could not have them. -Can't we get a War Minister who is not content with paper figures, .and has a preference for facts?
Previous page
