The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-04-18 00:00:00

s,tonlrage Otserher.

SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1808.

THE VOLUNTEER REVIEW.

We elsewhere give an account of this, the great
event of the week. The Volunteer Review, as
a whole, has been a great and glorious success,
and perhaps, altogether, has been the finest and
best organised rsvies that our Volunteers have
yet had. Difficulties there were at the com-
mvseement, which chiefly arose from the num-
ber of men that were expected to assist in the
operations of the day, and at one time there was
reason to fear that Lord Ranelagh's disagreeable !
dictum, that our volunteer army was a sham,
was about to be painfully illustrated ; but these
difficulties have been overcome by sound common
sense and practical organisation. The locality
selected was favourable to the warlike and yet
peaceful display that was contemplated, inas-
much as it enah:ed the Volunteers to illustrate
an attack and repulse in the vicinity of an arse-
nal and dockyard ; while it would not have been
well to have had the same fi,:ld of operations as
on former occasions. Easter Monday is now
the great annual field-day, and we think it would
be advisable that each year the li,edle should be
changed, just as the Royal A Tricultural Society,
the British Association, and other bodies change
the scene of their operations each successive
year..

But, referring our readers to the account we
give in another column, we turn to our
tem army as a great national and permanent in.
stitntion- Called into being by the spirit-stir-
ring strains of the Laureate, " Riflemen, form !"
when the fear of w ar was general, the Volunteer
movement has ceased to be a movement; it is
now no more a movement than the Throne or
the House of Commons ; it is an institution.
At first the idea was to form corpa of mere ritle•
men, who had to learn to handle arms, shoot for
prize medals, and be called out as a small subsi-
diary force in case of invasion; but there was
no intention of ever massing them on the field
as a Volunteer army. We now see that this has
become practicable. The operations of last
Monday were in no sense a sham, for all was
done with an intention and a plan, and that
which was effected was not mere show and dis-
play, but real work accomplishing its end and
purpose. And especially were the day's opera-
tions no sham, inasmuch as the force assembled
on Southsea Common, or who took part in the
heavy work of the day elsewhere, was a repre-
sentative force. They represented seine 180,000
Volunteers, who, should occasion ever demand it
—and heaven grant that nu such occasion may
ever arise—would willingly, as their name Mi.
ports, come forward in the defence of their
country. The motto of these men enshrines
their priciple of action; it is " Defence, not de-
fiance." They seek not war, which they, in
common with the rest of the civilized world, re.
gard as an evil. Thoy do not even act on the
i old classic axiom, Si fid p, I triilllll, %Weil
I ha n so often served as II specious excuse for
I gigantic warlike expenditure. They have no
hostile feeling for neighbouring nations; but
they' voluntarily enrol themselves in one great
national citizen-army to defend, if need, their
heartha and homes. That they would fight
bravely for their country, if ever regaired to do
so, there can be no reasonable doubt; nor in-
deed is this saying much, for physical bravery
is after all a very common virtue, if it in a virtue
at all. Nor can it reasonably be doubted that
thousands and thousands more would readily
enrol themselves among our Volunteer force
were it necessary at any time to appeal to their
patriotism.
. . . _

• 1
It is probable that this last Easter Monday
Review wiil be made a starting-point for obtain-
ing additional government, or rather parliamen-
tary aid to the volunteer cause, and that ere
long the capitation grant will be increased. The
country will scarcely raise objection to any well
considered scheme of the kind. But we must
be on our guard against the least encroachment
on the purely voluntary principle which is the
mainspring of the whole system. Government
support and Government control are things
which it is very difficult to keep apart, and in
proportion as the voluntary force become devel-
oped and organised, will be the desire of existing
governments, be their polities what they may,
to obtain a hold over it. An increased capitation
grant is undoubtedly an increased inducement
to become a volunteer, and only make this grant
large enough, and it virtually becomes bounty
money. The pride and glory of the Volunteerg
are their patriotism and self-devotion to their
fellow-citizens. They are alike free from the
snares and trickery of the recruiting system, and
the tyrannous cruelty of a cons .ription. They
may join the volunteer ranks and quit them
whm they think proper, and hitherto this volun-
tary principle, with some little Government
has been found sufficiently powerful. Any in-
crease of the capitation grant, therefore, com-
bined as it will probably be with additional Go-
vernment control, may well be watched with
some misgivings. But while saying this much
we veadily admit that the country cannot reason-
ably expect the Volunteers to make too great a
pecuniary sacrifice. Volunteering is indirectly,
if not directly, expensive, and a Volunteer's
holiday is often not only a hard day's work, but
a costly one ; and as it is especeially desirable
that the working classes, the mechanics, artis-
ans, and labourers of England, should form the
great bulk of the force, it is only right that ade-
quate pecuniary aid should be rendered them by
the country whom they serve. But it will be
well, as we have said, to watch any movement
that may have a tendency to alter the character
of our volunteer institution. Meanwhile we
h ive in the great fact of this last Volunteer Re-
view an additional reason to be proud of our
countrymen.

A NEW CHURCH for BLACKHEATH.
On Wedne4day afternoon the foundation atone
for lilaekl.eath was lad by the Countesa of Dud
h.y. The occasion WWI held as a general boll.
day throughout the diitrict, the establiskinents
of tradesmen and others being closed, and the
approaches from Rowley to the site of the new
church, presented a scene almost unparalleled
'in the history of the place. Triumphal arches,
I evergreens, flags, and banners were to be found
I at every approach ; and the beautiful weather
i brought out the inhubilinta of all grades. The
Iroads and lanes were crowded by spectators, who
appeased wore anxious to get a eight of the