WHO FOUNDED THE VOLUNTEERS, AND WHO WILL FOUND I NATIONAL
?
MERE is a singular question abroad. Who made the Army of Volunteers in which we all rejoice ? We are asked to believe that the great man must be somewhere, and could we only lay
hands on him, we might plant a crown upon his brow, set up his statue beside that of Nelson, and call detachments from all the Volunteer corps to witness its inauguration. Every great fact, according to a notiirious theory, is the product of some mighty person or hero. ,'Thus, Cromwell revolutionized England ; George Washington founded the American Republic ; Mr. Cobden repealed the Corn-laws ; Sfein originated the reabtion in Germany which overthrew Napoleon. So some people think that there must be a Pompey of our Volunteer movement, the stamping of whose potential feet called forth this gallant army. There are many claimants. General Peel has an idea that he did it, and the Cabinet he worked with think they had a share in it. The claims of a Mr. Alfred Bate Richards have been set forth in a pafaphlet, and a testimonial is to be given to Lieutenant-Colonel Bousfield of Liverpool. But all these gentlemen sink into nothing before
Mr. Hans Busk. You cannot resist bin]. He comes before you with the imprimatur of the Times—[and many shrewd people
think, and they are not far wrong, that the broadsheet of the
limes was the force which, giving expression to a national instinct, tailed Out the Volunteers; whoever may have originated the idea, here was the power which gave it vitality and expan- sion.] If the Times did so much for the Volunteer movement, it has done more for Mr. Busk. Through that journal we learn from Mr. Busk himself that he is the great man we are seeking for. Here is the mainspring of the Volunteer movement. Mr. Bate Richards, and General Peel, and Colonel Bouslield are all thrown into the shade. Nonerof them have run up and down the country to the extent and at• the rate of Mr. Buck's peregrina- tions. He is the loconiotive talking and Writing force of the whole movement. He has nearly a thousand correspondents' he has travelled tens of thousands of miles, he has delivered hun- dreds of speeches. To promote the Volunteer movement he has taken the stump, and 'nilat his own expense. Nay, without him, those famous Victoria Rifles would not be so strong and so famous as they are. It is news to us that the Kilburn gentlemen are the model of the Volunteer corps throughout the country, and still more that they are the best drilled and best disciplined corps in the United Kingdom. But Mr. Busk says so ; he also claims to be the legs lungs, and brains of the Volunteer movement ; and no doubt bah statements are equally true. Still we have heard from good military authorities that on the 23d of June last, not the Kilburn Light Infantry, who all carry cavalry sabres under their arms, but regiments like the Nottingham Robin Hoods, the Woolwich Arsenal Corps, the Inns of Court, and the Westmin- ster men, ranked before the Victoria Rifles. Far from being modelled on this corps, the great object has been to avoi4 its chief characteristic—expense in personal adornment. There never would have been a Volunteer army had we all followed the example of the Doke of Wellington's armigeri, who enjoy the great blessing of Captain Busk's assiduous patronage. Neverthe- less here is our hero ; here is the Cobden of the Volunteer move- ment. We are bound to believe, for who can resist the imperious, impetuous, self-assertion of Mr. Busk himself, who storms out his claims through a whole column of the Times?
We have heard of men who did good by stealth and blushed to find it fame. We have heard of bards who went to bed obscure and rose in the morning to find themselves renowned. There have been heroes who were happy in being the theme of poets, and heroes who have died unknown because the poet was absent or idle. But here is a novelty ; here is a hero who is his own poet, who states his claims as if he were applying for a place; who acts his little epic, creates the Volunteer movement at leisure intervals, by way Of relaxation, then sets it down in black and white and gets it printed. Upon what a trifle do the destinies of nations depend. Had there been no Busk there would have been no Volunteers !
We have -net the slightest wish to depreciate unduly the ser- vices of Mr. Busk.' He has, no doubt, hurried about, spoken much and written more, with zeal and good effect. He has also _published some books, perhaps with profit to himself and Mr. Routledge but that is a supposition it is rather hard-hearted to interpolate in connexion with labours of our Volunteer Hercules. But, if he is so great a man, so potent a cause, as he declares himself to be, why is it necessary that he should come forth and fiercely tell us so himself ? The Volunteer movement is a spon- taneous national uprising. It has its sources in the immense change in armaments, in the change in dynasties, in the change .in the character of the people and, not least, in the want of manly amusements profitable to the individual and the nation. The ideas that occurred to Mr. Busk in 1837 had already occurred to many minds, though perhaps few would have had the audacity and assurance to send their schemes- to a Prime Minister, even had they theiu,ght them worthy. Then there was the great prece- dent of 1800, present to all minds, for 'Volunteers of that period are still alive. The moment the French Empire was reestablished the national mind instinctively recurred to the precedent of 1800; when the addresses of the Colonels broke out like a rash in the Moniteur, the idea of national defence by Volunteer agency 'acquired great power, and in 1869 it -grew so strong that the official mind was compelled to give it free scope to realize itself. But this idea was not one written or talked into the mind of the nation ; it grew-there '-• for the habit of self-defence is tolerably ancient in these islands. Under these ciecumstances, it is posi- tively ludicrous for any one to come before us and preelaini himself • to be the sole patentee of what is a national instinct. If the Volun- teer movement has not deeper and broader foundations than the speeches and little books of Mr. Busk; Mr. A. B. Richards, and the like, it will not last long. But since it has broader and deeper foundations, these gentlemen must be content td class their little books and speeches among the forces which have in some small degree helped the national instinct to take form ; but we may safely say that the instinct 'was the effective cause of the books and speeches, and not that the books and speeches are the effective cause of the instinct. Were it not so, the movement" -would be mere unsubstantial vapour, certain to dissolve and dis- appear at no distant day. There is' however, a noble piece of work to be done, which will require real talent for military organization and real force of cha- racter to do it, and that is, to devise a practical measure for the establishment of a National -Militia on a basis broad enough to Contain the whole available fighting force of the Working Classes, and attractive enough to bring them within it ; and next, to win for that plan the support of the country and its adoption by the War Office. Until we reckon the working classes, who are not rich enough to be self-supporting Volunteer, and who will neither enter the Line nor what is now called the Militia, among the drilled and disciplined Reserve Defensive Force of the country, our national armament will not be complete, and will not be wholly worthy of the name of-National. This is a piece of work we should be happy to see accomplished by one man or twenty men, by any lawful means, whether it be by travelling 24,000 miles, delivering some acres of speeches, publishing little books, or by quieter but more potential methods. The man who can devise it and get it dome, him we shall esteem as a benefactor of his country ; but we shall esteem him all the more if, like a true patriot, he is modest withal, and leaves it to others to sing his praise, chronicle his exploit, and spontaneously obtain for him honour and reward. And perhaps this might be done by an application of the Volunteer principle as regards drill and dis- cipline, to the whole of the working classes, under the sole re- sponsibility of the Government, and with the common funds of the country. However that may be, this is the next piece of military work which we are called upon to perform, and when it is done we may rest in tranquillity, certain that no man or body of men will venture upon destruction by attempting an invasion of these islands.
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