The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-24 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 24,1857.

It is only through a change in those institutions, which no
Minister would willingly propose, or through a great
practical improvement in the working of them, which your
co•operation may supply, that the necessary force can be
maintained.

I am satisfied that the principle upon which our militia
is now founded—that of voluntary enlistment—is the one
most acceptable to the people ; and I feel assured that a
militia maintained at its full complement, us it may be,
and can only be by the patriotic exertions of country gentle.
men and farmers, is the best foundation of our military
system. If you, and such as you. will, by your efforts,
keep the militia up to its complement, the regular army
will take care of itself. It may cost more to draw the
recruit for the army through the militia, but the recruit so
obtained is in most cases one who would not have been
procured mall unless he had first entered the militia, and
there acquired a taste for military service. Employ in the
obtaining of recruits for the militia but half the zeal you
would display in getting votes at an election, and you will
certainly succeed. A hundred recruiting sergeants could
not do what each of you can do within the sphere of his
personal influence.
When I tell you that you have this power, I speak from
my own experience. When the militia, as now constituted,
was first established in 1Et.53, i took much interest in the
success of the measure, and I earnestly requested several
farmers I was acquainted with to do their utmost to obtain
recruits. Some zealously exerted themselves, others were
more lukewarm ; but in every instance in which an in-
fluential farmer cordially undertook the duty the result
was uniformly the same; and I am convinced that, if all
who could have done so, had acted as some did, the
country could in that year have raised, not between fifty
and sixty thousand, but not less than one hundred and
twenty thousand men.

No doubt you would be greatly aided in your exertions
to obtain recruits if the militia of the country should be
embodied. Men will more willingly enlist in a regiment
they can see marching with all the pomp and circumstance
of war, than in a corps a hich remains invisible, and of
which the existence is only to be found in official records.
But, let others do as they may, it is for you to do your
duty. Where you lead, others will follow; and while you
do much good by your individual efforts, you will do yet
more by your example.
I ask you only to do what I know you can do, and
what I feel you ought to do for the assistance of the
country in this critical juncture of our affairs.
It is impossible to over-estimate its importance. There
is nothing man holds dear for which we have not now to
fight. If we should not bear ourselves manfully in the
contest thus forced upon us, if we should not succeed in
it, we must be content, not only to lose the noblest empire
in the world, but to make the name of Englishman a bye-
word of shame amongst nations.
The wives and daughters of our countrymen hare been
publicly violated, their children have been put to death
with circumstances of cruelty surpassing all we read of
in history as the punishments inflicted by God upon the
offending Jews. It has not been deemed sufficient to
destroy us. We were first to be dishonoured, and this in
a country through which we have proudly—perhaps too
proudly—stalked as conquerors for a hundred years.
Do you suppose that, if we could submit to this in
India, we should not be threatened with it in England?
Do you imagine that the great military powers of Europe,
always prepared for war, offended by our pride, resentful
of our former victories, and coveting our present wealth,
would long permit us to enjoy in peace the luxuries we
cling to and the dreams of irresistible strength in which
we fatuously indulge? Be assured that if, under the
strongest necessity ever imposed upon a people, we do not
rise as one man to vindicate our national honour and to
re-establish our Indian empire, the horrors we read of
with shuddering as perpetrated at Meerut and at Delhi
will not for ever be averated from our island home.

I counsel you, therefore, to give at once your cordial
assistance, as you best can give it, to the country. In
the prosecution of this contest which we cannot avoid—
the greatest and the moat difficult in which we have ever
been engaged—it will not do to confine ourselves to a cold
compliance with what may be requireil from us by the
law. To succeed in this war, the people must make it its
own.—l remain, gentlemen, with much regard, your
very faithful servant,

ELLENBOROUGII.

SIR E. B. LYTTON ON INDIAN AFFAIRS.
Sir E. B. Lrrroa, M.P, on Wednesday addressed
a portion of his constituents at the meeting of the
Tring Agricultural Association, which was very fully
attended. Lieutenant• Colonel SMITH DonatEN, of
the Herts Militia, having returned thanks for the
army,

SIR E. B. LYTTON rose to respond to the toast of
"The County Members." He said :
Gentlemen, recollecting the bast which was drunk at an
earlier part of the evening, and considering whose guest I
was last night,-1 mean my friend Colonel Smith Dorrien,
who responded in a way that showed his manly spirit and
his vivid recollection of the deeds of his youth,-1 am
proud to think that Hertfordshire has contributed so many
of these men to the service of our country. Out of that
noble body of militia which this country produced, and
which received, as it deserved, the highest encomiums
from the highest military anthorities,—out of a body of 770
men, under the admirable training of the gentleman who
site on my right hand (a Harts man ), no less than 600
men were contributed to the Line. We may well be proud
of Hertfordshire, and especially at this moment. Ah! who
is there who is not thinking of India? Ilas there been