The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1860-01-17 00:00:00

THE LORD CHANCELLOR SWEARING
IN THE RIFLE VOLUNTEERS OF
THE INNS OF COURT.

The Court of Chancery was densely crowded on
Thursday morning in consequence of the Lord Chan-
cellor having expressed his intention to administer the
oath of allegiance to the lit and 2nd companies of the
above -named Volunteer Hine Corps.
The Lord Chancellor, previous to administering the
oath, delivered the following address to the volunteer,:
It gives one high satisfaction that I have been called npor
to administer to you the oath of allegiance on your en-
tering as volunteers into the military service of the
Crown. I rejoice in the national movement which is
now displayed, and the ardour with is hich you partici-
pate in it seems to me to he very creditable to the pro-
fession to which we belong. You are ready to defend
the liberties of your country not only in the forum but
in the field. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, this movement is
not prompted by any immediate apprehension of danger,
nor from suspicion of the designs of any particular
foreign ruler or State. Fortunately, we are in amity
with all nations, and I trust we are long likely to con-
tinue so. (Hear, hear.) But the opinion generally pre-
vails, and 1 believe it is well hounded, that the martial
disposition of our population has not of late years been
sufficiently encouraged, and that our defences against
foreign invasion have not kept Pate with the increased
facilities of effecting a landing on our sacred soil. (Hear,
bear.) Hence the danger of panic at home, and of hold-
ing out a temptation abroad to take advantage of our
supposed unprepareduesa. England is free from all
notion of aggremioin ; we are satiated with tloe excess of
colonial and foreign possessions, and we desire without
interruption to cultivate the pursuits of I,eace
(hear, hear); but to secure these blessings we
must bear in mind that war may come upon us un-
expectedly, and that to ward off invasion we
must be prepared to repel it. (Hear, hear.) Gentle-
-111011, in my early youth, when a student of law, I Boy-
self was a soldier. and perhaps I might say, "Ali/duel
sea sine pkorid." (Cheers.) I served in a t dis-
tinguished corps, the Inns of Court Volunteers of that
day, reinaritable for its discipline and efficiency, and I
had the honour of being reviewed in Hyde Park by His
Majesty King George 111, with above 100,000
volunteers then and there asseoiobled, ready to march to
the coast on the first alarm of the sailing of the Armada
at Boulogne, which only waited for a fair wind, for
Sandwich ot Pevensey. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, we
did our duty while the war lasted ; but we, or rather
the Goverinuent of that time must be blamed for allow-
ing all tile volunteer corps in the kingdom—amounting.
I believe, to between 300,01) and 400,1100 men—to be
disbanded aud dissolved 116 soon as peace was pro-
claimed. (Hear, hear.) For nearly half a century we
have had no citizen soldiers among us, and we have
depended for our safety against invasion on defenders
regularly in the pay of the State, who, renouncing all
civil emiloyments, professedly devote themselves to
arms (Hear, hear.) These are must gallant defenders,
and we place unbounded confidence in their heroism ;
but they may be gieatly outnumbered by the iiiimenae
bands of veteran troops who may be disembarked on our
shores, and they ought to be supported by our citizens
voluntarily trained to arms in every county, city, and
parish in the realm. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, it
delights me to think that we approximate to • consum-
mation so devoutly to be wished. You have set • noble
example, which I doubt not will be universally fol-
lowed, and let me express my anxious hope for your
steadiness and perseverance in your military career. As
the movement due* not proceed from any momentary
impulse or teusporary cause let it be permanent.
(Cheers.) I have to congratulate you on being fur-
nished with a new weapon, the Enfield Title, said to be
so mach superior to that to which we trusted—the now
ridiculed Brown Item. In devoting a portion of each
day to martial exercise. I can say, from observation and
experience, that you will neither impede your legal
studies nor injure the interest* of your clients. (Hear,
hear.) Let the rifle be now daily in the hands of our
fellow-citizens as the bow was once in the hands of our
ancestors, and may English riflemen be as superior to
all others as English bowmen once were. (Cheers.)

The special Sunday evening services are achieving a
success greater than that by which they have been dis-
tinguished in previous years. Not only St. Paul's Cathe-
dral, Westminster Abbey, and Exeter Hall, but also
several of the theatres were crowded on Sunday with
attentive congregations. This movement cannot tail to
do good.