The Express.
London, England, 1859-05-16 00:00:00

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SONDOID. YO/DAY. MAY U.

ltx shall hope to bear a good dad about Volun•
per Corps sad Rise Clubs daring the next few
weeks sod month& That elticieat Wanton Rids

'Corps should be organised and trained with all the
haste ewmpatib'e with " good speed" is • national

'slaty whom ITO portance we were urging long before
Ake chscovery of that fabulous monster—the Doable

Treaty—whew jaws ate gaping to devour us, and
who to • few weeks will swallow us, boos and all,

at a single mouthful. We shall not abandon the
subject now merely became that awful apparition
his brought a number of raw, noisy, and half-seared
. .

advocates into the held, who hare done their eery
best to make the subject of our national defence*
ridiculous, or because the coming of the monster
has been heralded in the thunders of prose and in
the 'enamel pipes of a lean sod flashy poetry.
Daily attempts are made to frighten the nation out
of its propriety, by tumid and blustering descrip-
tions of the appalling and imminent danger to which
it is exposed. The Times, in its fine frenzy, sees the
whole country already on the parade-ground. " It
•' needed," mays ear contemporary, " but one note of
" the trumpet to ealiesery man of these islands into the

field." lo a abort time the whole of this Tut forte

wall be trained and disciplined. "In six mead
•• tame we shall beeeldierv, *eery wan of 011." All the

soldiers, too, are to be deadly marksmen. " Every
". man of every corps might to be perfect ly certaba that
within a short distance of hie rifle no enemy geoid
" stand or live." Getting thoroughly roamed with
the scent of blood, our contemporary revels is the

glorious prospect of an invuior 7 finder adequate
provocation, and with an enemy worthy of its
" prowess, England wilt be a volcano of destruction
. .

"to all its foes, far and near. The death-shower

" will be hurled from its crest, and the death-stream
will roll from its sides,and the one will tall heavier

" and the other wider u long as there remains an
" enemy in the field."

All this of course is mere rhodomontade—rbodo-
montade, too, not only of very questionable taste and
feeling, but, in relation to such a serious subject,
neither innocent nor harmless. The whole article
on Rifle Corps is such a tissue of misrepresentations
that it must binder rather than help forward that
important movement. Itsimmense rhetorical exagge-
rations and suggested facts which are wholly ficti-
tious convey a totally false impreesion. The whole
article is a pros of triumph, as though the work
were virtually accomplished when it has all to be
done, and will prove no such easy task. The forma-
tion of Rifle Corps is a practical business to be set
about in a serious spirit, and accomplished only by
good stow, patient energy, and resolute perseverance.
It is no trivial matter to be settled out of hand by a
transient fit of me 10-d ramat ic excitement, and a sudden
outburst of half spurious and wholly ignorant enthu-
siasen.The weak and noisy bl uster,the childish clapping
of hands and throwing up of caps, is ill-timed and outer
place. "Of course, t hers will be volunteering enough'
says our contemporary. "It is easy enough to form
•• a Volunteer Corps." There is no such " of course"
in the matter; nor Is it so absolutely easy to form
there corps even under the regulations which General
PLP.I. has just issued for that purpose. The regula-
tions are derived from a law whose provisions are so
narrow and exclu,ive as to be absolutely unfit for
present use. It dates from a period when the
Government had a deep-seated jealousy of the
people, and was indeed designed in part
to meet the anticipated contingency of a rebellion.
This is apparent enough from its special provisions.
The members of the company are to be enrolled only
under the sanction of the Iced-Lieutenant of
the ci.uoty ; and each man is to provide his own
a►ms, uniform, sad equipmeate. The officers, too,
are to be appointed ►y the Lord-Lieutenant, and
will thus is all probability be selected for personal
end local reaaeas which have little to do with
relative Gums oe merit. Those regulations
would do very well for amateur companies of
aristocratic sportsmen. But this is not what
we understand by Volunteer Corps, nor at
all the kind of force the country needs at present.
To be really effective, the movement must be s
popular one, and the rank and file of the corps
wi I therefore necessarily include representa-
tives of the intelligent trading and artissa Cilliele
of the community. Get as many volution, of
course, as possible of a higher social grade t bat
after all, if the faros is to be is uy adequate seem a
national one, these are the classes to which we vas
look for recruits, and on which we must to a great
enema rely. They alone ran make the rifle a
national arm," and secure for it the formidable
meows which belonged to the old English long-
bows. With proper and suitable arrangements, this
result, we have no doubt whatever, might be brought
about.

The regulations issued by General PEEL wilt, boa-
ster. contribu'e little toward* the kesastion of snob
a national arid I fretiVi volunteer brie. They will
ra, her tend on the contrary to paralyse the movement
io this kirection that had already commenced. These
regulations restrict volunteer enlistment to those
who are tolerably wealthy and well.to-do. At the
very lowest the uniform and equipments would cost
between twent and th;rty pentode, and very few
actin" young men in bovine,* have this sum to
apse*. obvioa.ly the necessary expenses of
thaw who enrol themselves ought to be gas-
nuitesd. Tbey volunteer ali they have to give—
their timer sad asap, sad and sorely this is
sufficient. They might mot to tie rejected became
they hats no deport ia ll* bank, no store of ready
moony by them. We hops, then fore, that some
more suitable and effectual proviiior will be wade
by the Government for the formation .4 Voluntesr
Corps. If well orgabived and well trained they
would prove at once the most simple, effcnive, and
permanent means of national defence the country
could possibly possess.
Regular training is absolutely neomeary to the
effleisniy of Volunteer Corps. Mtn firing at *
mart
will not do. Riffs Clubs for this purport
might Do doubt be formed at once without modal
sanction from the Government. Thos, though of