The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-01 00:00:00

STRAND.

TnIR EvrsrNa, NI A1:1:1 TE RA AND YOUNG HUR-
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HOLBORN.

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RR TTANNIA.

......
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To-Mouitvw—Murniug, Ith. 17m Mtamotm,lll2.

LONDON, FRIDAY, MARCI 7 1.

THE metropolitan commanding officers of the
Volunteer Corps met on Wednesday to consider,
snit mg other matters, the position and duties of,
lunteeis in times of mailar tumult. If the
subject does not seem just now of great importance,
it is one which may easily beccine so by association
with error or uncertainty. The Mayor of Chester
was in great doubt the other day concerning his
authority to call out the Volunteers when an
attack upon the Castle of that city, with its stores
of ammunition and arms, was apprehended. He
appealed to the Home-office fur instructions, and
received a reply which must have increased his
perplexity. Discussions have since taken place
in the House of Lords which have further involved
the question iu difficulty ; and lastly, it has
been referred by the Government to the law
officers of the Crown. We do not know precisely'
what amount of authority can be claimed for the
resolutions of commanding officers of Volunteers.
It would seem that if meetings for deliberation
are permitted at all in this branch of the public
military force, the body at large might expect to
be consulted on such a matter. It is always
well, however, to know what is thought and
felt on subjects of public interest by those
who are in a position favourable to the
formation of a judgment. The officers who met
on Wednesday expressed, together with a de-
sire for a clearer determination of the existing
law, the opinion that while on the one hand it
would not ho desirable to renew the proNisions of
the old Volunteer Act, under which Volurteers are
liable to he called out to suppress riot and tumult ;
on the other hand, " on any great emergency or
" raid supposed upon good information to be fo-
" mented by foreign or external influences, and to
" affect her MAJESTY'S supremacy, and in all
" cases of threatened attack upon armouries or
" magazines, Volunteers might be called upon to
" act in their military capacity."
This resolution expresses in a loose, general
manner, though without sufficient discrimina-
tion or the safeguard of precise phraseology,
the view which many Englishmen would be
inclined to take of the matter. It certainly
would st.ein absurd that when a lawless
body was about to advance upon a barrack or
an armoury, the Volunteers, who form a part of
the public force of the country, should not be
available for its protection—if, for instance, the
Volunteers could not have been used to defend
Chester Castle the other day. Whatever the cause
or complexion of a riot may be, it must always
be a good thing to prevent the public
property, and especially arms, from f into
the hands of rioters. And not only is this
duty one as to the necessity of which no
doubt or scruple can ever be entertained, but it is
at the same time well and distinctly defined. In
the performance of other duties, when passions
are excited, it is easy for zeal to hurry armed
men into excess, but this one is definitively
marked off by its own strong outlines, and there
seems no sound reason why Volunteers should not
be available for it.

The same cannot be said of Earl GROSVENOR'S
proposition, that the legality of the employment of
Volunteers in time of tumult shall be made
to depend on the view taken of the relation
of the disorder to anything that has been or
is being done abroad. No commanding officer or
civil magistrate would like the lawfulness of his
acts to depend on the question whether the
troubles with which he had to deal constituted
a "great emergency" which might fairly be
" supposed to be fomented by foreign or external
" influences." This is just one of those questions
which persons in authority should not be
called on to decide under great stress and urgency.
The considerations by which duty should be
made to turn ought to be as simple as possible,
and should rest on something capable of being
at once brought to the test. No Govern-
ment would he justified in accepting the services
of Volunteers without surrounding both offi-
cers and men with the protection which
can only he given by clear and definite
instructions in conformity with the law.
If Chester should again be in peril, the duty of
the couniumiling officer must not depend on any-
thing which he " supposes" as to the doings of
people on the other side of the Atlantic, but the I
warrant of the action must be found on the spot, I
and be matter of observation, nut of speculation
or recondite inference.

The grounds on which the employment of
Volunteers in the suppression of riots and tumults
is to be depre...ated are so obvious, that a very
little re!!ection would suffice to bring about perfect
unanimity of opinion on the subject. The force