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June 30, 1860.J The Leader and Saturday ...
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THE VOLUNTEER¦REVIEW. S ATURDAY last wil...
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LORD STANLEY ON THE INDIA N" ARMY. THE g...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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June 30, 1860.J The Leader And Saturday ...
June 30 , 1860 . J The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 603
The Volunteer¦Review. S Aturday Last Wil...
THE VOLUNTEER ¦ REVIEW . S ATURDAY last will be a memorable day in English history . It gives a date to the substitution of a calm confidence in its own strength for the violent extremes of carelessness and panic , between which the nation has of late years so fitfully oscillated . It has taught uV to think more justly of ourselves it will teach other nations to think better of us . The twenty thousand volunteers reviewed by the Queen represented nearly a hundred and fifty thousand men , the pick of British vigour . and intelligence , who of their own free will , and at the cost of much time and labour , have in six short months made
themselves soldiers any general would be proud to command . The old men , whose recollections carried them back to the beginning of the centuiy , when almost every Englishman was a volunteer , felt , as they looked upon the riflemen who marched by the royal carriage on Saturday , that the new work was much greater than the old . That was a fitful effort ; the rush to arms of an undisciplined people to defend themselves against an invasion
which was directly menaced . This is the establishment of an . army for home defence ; almost as effective for that purpose as the same number of regular troops , leaving room , if the need . should ever arise , for a levy , en masse , of the population . It was well that the metropolis should mark the event by a holiday . We take holidays whereon to fast when we begin a war , and to feast when we finish it ; with much more reason may we take one to celebrate the success of a movement which may
render fast and thanksgiving alike unnecessary . The Volunteers may now boldly stand on their own merits , and abandon any claims to indulgent criticism on the score of the short time they have been training , and the great difficulties they have had to contend with . No one who saw them on Saturday had anticipated such general soldierly bearing , -and the best judges regarded them not as civilians practising military exercises , but as soldiers . The fact , however , that all ilus has Jjeen accomplished against great disadvantages is most important , and shows how much intelligence and education profit sl manr-even in what seems a dull ordinary routine , best fitted for
ignorant rustics . Few of the corps have been drilling more than six months , and their work has been done during one of the most unfavourable seasons that could be imagined . The men themselves have been occupied during the day in their countings houses , shopsj or warehouses , and have then given up the whole of-their ; in many cases , scanty leisure , to the instructions of the drill sergeant . The Saturday hah ^ holiday has been devoted to parades and marches in storms of rain , which have sent every one of them home wet to the skin , a fate which it was clear was in store for them before they set but . The weather has , at least , had this good effect—it has tried the mettle of the men .
They have stood water , so there is no doubt that they can stand fire / It requires , indeed , a much smaller amount of courage to go boldly on with a number of comrades against an enexhy's fire , than to stand for an hour or two in a puddle , and feel a mass of wet clothes clinging to one ' s skin . The excitement of the battle , the lottery of it , the encouragement of comrades , and the shame of betraying cowardice in their presence , would make almost any craven valorous . But it is a hard thing to keep up one ' s spirits in a state of solely external moisture , especially if already the victim of a cold , and conscious that one's position and appearance are sublimely ridiculous in the eyes of
wellprotected passers-by oh their way home . Nor is the actual labour undergone to be underrated . The Enfield rifle is by no means light as air , and a ^ march of several miles , involving a frequent flourish of that instrument , is no joke for a man , much less for some of the lads who marched so gravely and formally from the Guildhall to Hyde Park on Saturday . That day itself , although a holiday to the public , was no such thing to some of the regiments vrlio were reviewed . That ' Durham regiment , which started lnte on Friday night , marched at once from King's
Cross to the Park , stayed there from eleven to seven , and left London again at ten , on its ten hours' journey homo must have been tired enough in all conscience : and sp with the other provincial corps present . It was English pluck and energy which did it , and those who preach the deendence of Alkion may reconcile as they can these manifestations of the old strength ami spirit with their jeremiads over the decay of manly feeling and the prevalence of all those ills which obncwna pectmia has tlie oreclit of inirodiicirig . . '
The strength of the Volunteer movement and the guarantee ibr its progress are to be found in its signal triumph , over all the obstacles which have impeded its progress . It survived And grew , in spite of the absurdities of imprudent partisans , the ill-concealed contempt of the authorities ot the regular nnny , and the indifference of the Government . It triumphed easily , as a matter of course , over the lumbering jokes of the Peace-ntany-price journals , and the lighter raillery of the small wits ,
It was not overthrown by the wonderful discovery of some sagacious old ladies who inspire certain nominally liberal journals , that the whole business Was a dire conspiracy to defeat the Reform Bill , keep down the building operatives on strike , and generally rivet- ^ that , we believe , is the word—the chains of slavery upon an oppressed people ; and lastly—a real riumph , a signal evidence of vitality—it has sustained no appreciable damage from the follies and meannesses Avhich have mixed themselves up with it . Only a vigorous plant could have survived the " snobbism , " " gentism , " exclusiveness , and petty jealousy , which have in some places entwined themselves about it . We have realized the fancy of a " cheap defence of nations . " The Volunteers cost the country little , and are its best protection .
True , the time sacrificed by each individual represents at first sight a certain waste of productive powers ; but the loss is more than made up to lii-m by the admirable sanitary effects of the hours so occupied , and ultimately to the nation , in the improved health , increased strength , and augmented powers of endurance of the whole body . Far greater , "however , is the value of the security thus guaranteed . We say nothing of the probable reduction of the actual military expenditure . The policy of England is peace , and her shores once protected against invasion , she may reduce her army to the limits'which the protection of India , her colonies and garrisons , and the maintenance of a small but highly equipped force at home ready for all emergencies prescribe .
We have already obtained a great deal from the Volunteer movement ; we earnestly hope all will not be ruined by the blunders of . those who want to do everything at once . Some of our contemporaries wish very much ito see working men handling the rifle . So do we ; but we would leave it to themselveSj and the co-operation of their friends and neighbours . In this way , a beginning has been already made . They want the Government to undertake the task—in other words , to rob the movement of all its life , and make the rifle corps as useless as the yepmanry cavalry . ¦ ..- --
Lord Stanley On The India N" Army. The G...
LORD STANLEY ON THE INDIA N" ARMY . THE great question of the Indian army was > last week , after we had written on the subject , debated in . the House of Commons ^ but not settled . Sir Charles Woop obtained leave to bring in his Bill—a step very generally permitted without debate ; but his measure , though unopposed , was severely criticized . Lord Stanley took the lead , and stated forcibly , in a speech remarkable for a condensed knowledge of the subject , ninny serious objections to the proposition for abolishing the local European force and amalgamating it with the regular army . The other proposition , to abolish the native local force , is as yet only a suggestion of some new men in India and some newspaper men in England ,
and will , perhaps , be hereafter debated . At present , tiTe ^ rcstroTf is confined to substituting a portion of the Royal army fora body of European troops , organized especially for service in India ^ It is , however , impossible , as Lord Stanley stated , to consider the two subjects apart , for the number of European soldiers to be kept in India must depend on the fact whether a native army be maintained or not . If not , the European force must be much larger than if it be . In his opinion , it is impossible to dispense with a native army . A force composed wholly of Europeans ' cannot take the held . It must have native troops to perform indispensable services . To pretend to do without them , as Sir Chaules Wood proposes , is to begin the world anew with an untried theory .
Curiously enough , the great mutiny , on which alone the argument is founded for getting rid of the native troops , was kept in check by the new native levies of Sikhs raised by Sir J . Lawrence , and ultimately put down by the aid of the' . faithful Bombay and Madras Sepoys . Supposing , then , contrary to the doctrine of ignorant pretenders to knowledge , that the aid of a native army is indispensable to preserve our dominion over India—as by its aid this dominion Was obtained—Lord Stanlet is justly of opinion that a European force , organized especially to co-optn-ato with such an army , or perform this peculiar service , is equally necessary . Sir Chaules Wood was of the sainu opinion
last year . Influence , it is rumoured , of a peculiar and , for a statesman , not creditable description , has induced him to adopt a different opinion . The chief justification of his change is founded on the opinion of officers of the Royal army , who , notwithstanding the splendid abilities and great success of u few individuals tunangst- them , are incompetent advisers on a ( jucstion of civil administrutio ' n . They arc to bo listened to with much respect when they tell how battles may be won , but not how an empire may be preserved . Tho men who laid the foundations ot our power in India—Hastings , ( Jlivk , uncl their predecessorswere not soldiers . Tho officers of the Royal army , from hold
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 30, 1860, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30061860/page/3/
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