The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-08-18 00:00:00

Eagle of Russia. Were it otherwise, we caunol
afford as a nation to exist on the forbearance o'

powerful neighbours.

We have already done

much in strengthening our national defences, but
much more has yet to be overtaken, and doubt-
less will not be neglected for an hour. What
more especially constitutes our present duty,
however, is to double, or quadruple the amount
of our present Volunteer army, and to place the
whole system on a pecuniary footing which shall

make it unquestionably a permanent and wholly

reliable reserve force for the defence of the entire

kingdom.

Supposing that the Volunteers now num-
ber nearly a hundred and fifty thousand, we

maintain, and have, in these columns, demon
strated by undeniable figures, that that number
is a mere fraction of the amount that ought to be
enrolled in proportion to the male population of
the country and the actual requirements of the
case. This truth has been further illustrated by
reference to the fact, that, in the beginning-of the
present century, when perhaps there was less
real grounds for alarm, see;ng that a steam navy
was unknown, the country, with less than half
its present population, produced upwards of three
hundred thousand Volunteers ! To come up to
the same mark, we ought now to have enrolled
at least six hundred thousand men—or something
like four or five times as many as we actually can
calculate on. Then again, as we have previously
pointed out, a hundred and some odd thousand
Volunteers—all that we can now boast of—are
really next to good for nothing as local corps of
defence scattered all over the country. Out of
such a comparatively small number, so widely
dispersed, it would be impossible, with any rea-
sonable degree of promptness, to assemble suddenly
at any given point an efficiently powerful contin-
gent to meet a serious emergency. Take the case
of any of our great Volunteer gatherings for
review, and mark how one and all have been
characterised by the most irritating delays in
assembling the various corps, even when many
weeks of preparation might have put it within
their power to make the most deliberately perfect
arrangements. At Edinburgh, the other day, it
was most pitiable to see some of the corps, who had
only some few score miles to cross by railway from
their head-quarters to the field of review, coming
rushing into the ground three or four hours after
the first corps had taken up their positions. How
much more difficult would it be to concentrate a
large number on some out-of-the-way part of the
coast without premonition, and in the face of
every difficulty that may be supposed inevitable
from a case of real demand for service 9 The
difficulty is most easily got over by arming and
drilling as far as possible the whole population,
until every corner of the land - literally swarms
with Volunteers. This can be done—there cannot
be a doubt of it—without serious inconvenience
or undue or unbearable expense. But it is not
to be done until we adopt proper measures for
enlisting the sympathies and arms of our artisan
population. We have long since advocated these
views, but it is only now that they are beginning
to tell upon public opinion—partly because it is
only now that the people begin to fear that the
first burst of the movement •
It nearly over without
having furnished an adequate number of national
Volunteer defenders, and partly because, as we
have just pointed out, the threatened danger
which first elicited this expression of patriotism
instead of having passed away, becomes daily
more imminent, and more imßovntively demands
our utmost exertions foN home defence.
t
M(3neYl it is at last frankly confessed on all
hands, is the only difficulty, and it has been
simultaneously discovered that this need be. no,
We want ayti4aa
difficulty at all.V.olakiteers,
and the only obstacle to, irir joining the ranks is
the e4pens.e. That hindrance is not to be gut
f the self-sup over by destroYing spirit of
the movement. So that if the artisans cannot
come up to the cost of the present equipment,
that eost must he lowered to meet their capabilities.
It is easily done, and Lard ELCHO has pointed
out several ways in which it may be accomplished.
In any view we must have no mere artisan corpst
All classes must meet together, Arka unite
clektice nt their common
shoulder to shoulder" in
country. This hOTig adm,itted, the rest is an easy
matteic of- detailed arrangement. The Govern-
, ment must be a little more liberal in ammunition,
&e., and the noble promoters of the present
movement a little more accommodativg in their
particular arrangements, aid, then, we believe,
the requisite nFaber of all classes will
tha:ong into the same ranks ; and a brother-
hood in arms will be established, such 44.