The Express.
London, England, 1867-06-12 00:00:00

THE MILITIA AND VOLUNTEER&

The Daily News supplements the late discussion on the
militia and volunteer services with further statements, re-
ferring to the scarcity of militia officers and the diminution
in the professional classes who enter the volunteer ranks.
The young clerks and artisans who now come in the latter
body do so on condition of being required to give nothing
more than their time, and so the choice of officers is re-
stricted to wealthy men. But a system which procures
recruits through • tax on the pockets of officers must
engender a spirit of dependence among the men, and
gradually foster the growth of the same evils that originate
in the purchase system in the army. The remedy is, if we
need the force, to pay for it ; and if another pound • head
would provide the necessary inducements, to grant it. A
soldier after all is very cheap at 21. a year, which,
be it observed, is only paid in respect of those
who have done their nine drills a year. For the officer
sad non-commissioned officer the Doily Nara contends
nine drills a year are not enough, and at present the
majority of the officers have neither accurate instruction
nor frequent practice. The Daily News, while nipporting
the prayer of the officers that the state should relieve them
from expense, cannot agree with them that the state's
subvention should be handed to the commanding officer,
to be used at his discretion, but contends that the applica-
tion of all state pay should ,be entrusted to the com-
manders of battalions. The assumption of a commanding
officer to treat his battalion as if it had no more inde-
pendence than one of regulars or militia will speedily be
fatal to its existence.

Returning to the discussions upon the War Office circular,
the Star insists that the duty of the War Office was
simply to have declared that in 'pursuance of the under-
standing which existed when the volunteer force was or-
ganised, the volunteers were liable to be called on to use
their weapons and their organisation for the defence of
their country against invasion, and for no other purpose
whatever. The orders now issued are worse th►n useless
for the purpose the War Office seems to have bad in view,
and will be regarded as an:udious blunder by the country.

:S TOPICS.

The entertainment at which the city of Paris made
ducks and drakes of 36,0001. at the Hotel do Ville was un-
precedented, the Tines says, in the recollection of all pre-
sent, emperors and kings not excepted. Such are the
advantages Paris possesses over all the cities of the world
when she undertakes to play the hostess to the crowned
heads of Europe. She lives under the rule of a first magi'.
trate to whom " money is no object." That each a policy
would find little favour with our own statesmen or with
our own people is no argument against its being eventually
the wisest and most provident, as it undoubtedly is the
moat splendid and magnificent, among our neighbours.
The Herald remarks that the case of Savage v. Madder,
decided on Monday in the Court of Exchequer, will be •
cause ellibre in the legal chronicles of sporting men. The
plaintiff had backed Lord Lyon for last year's Derby, end
the defendants were the stakeholders. The race was run,
and the plaintiff's confidence was justified by the favour-
ite's performance. Thereupon he applied to the defendants
to hand over his own and his opponent's stakes, when
the defendants being for some reason unwilling or unable
to pay, raised the plea substantially that the entire trans-
action was null and void, and could not be legally enforced,
and the court decided in their favour, and that the
case was one for which the statute was intended to pro-
vide. The crowds of people who bet on races ought,
therefore, to recognise the fact that when they put money
in an agent's hands, in blind reliance on the tips of some
infallible racing prophet, they have absolutely no security
that, even if they win, theybrill ever again handle their
coin. The whole affair becomes a debt of honour.