The Express.
London, England, 1861-10-12 00:00:00

NAVAL AND MILITARY.

Lieutenant-General Sir Hope Grant, G.C.8.,
will leave England to assume the command of the Madraa
Presidency on the 20th of next month.
The erection will be shortly commenced of a
fort and casemated barracks ►t Mosley Paint, on the
Suffolk coast. at a cost of about 25.0001.

ADMIRALTY, OCT. 1L —AreoINTMENT. A SAil•
tent Pumaster .I. Campbell, to the Cumberland.
Mr. F. L. Partridge hss base nenthiated to a nasal cadet.
ship.

WOOLWICH, Ocr. 11.

Tlie crew of the Recruit, 6, steam vessel, Coin-
metider Spain, which arrived last week from the blediter-
ntnean, assembled on boanl this day, and after inspection by
iktinniodon,Superintendent Sir E. W. E. Nicolson, Bart.,
C. 8., were paid off, and granted the usual leave of absence.
The following government steam vessels are ordered bona
to be paid off :—From the West Coast of Africa, the Buffalo,
Commander Brown. Front the Pacific, the Calypso, 18,
Commander C. F. B. Montresor. From the Fist Indies
and t'hina,theCambrian, 40, Commodore J. J. M'Cleverty ;
Renard, 4, sloop, Commander J. G. Goodenough. From
Australia, the Cordell, 11, Commander F. A.. Home.
From the Cape of (hood Hope, the Lyra, 9, sloop, CUMULI].
der Oldfield ; the Wasp, sloop, Commander Front
the Meditenaneau, the Greyhound, 17, Command*
Sullivan ; end the Actreon, sailing vessel, from surveying
service on the coasts of China and Tartu''.

CHATHAM, Ocr. 11.
The government having decided on erecting a
breakwater on the eastern mat, in the neighbourhood of
Scarborough, a number of convicts are to be sent from the
prison, to be employed on the undertaking directly the
authorities have finally determined that the works shall be
commenced. YesteriUy Lord Palmerston paid. visit to the
breakwaters, fortifications, and casemated bartacks at Port-
land, over which he was conducted by Colonel Jervois, and
3fsjor Nugent, Royal Engineers, the object of his visit
being in connexion with the new breakwater to be erected
on the Yorkshire coast.

-By direction of
the ordnance Select Committee, a careful
survey i■ to be made of the whole of the cast iron guns,
mounted and dismounted, on the %mom forts and batteries
in the United Kingdom, in order to ascert.un correctly their
present condition, and to prevent as much as possible acci•
dents from carrying on practice with guns over-vented, or
which contain fissures in the diameter of the bore.

HISS NIGHTINGALE ON THE VOLUNTEER
MOVEMENT.

On Thursday evening the Winslow and Bucking-
ham Corps of Vo!unison; proceeded to ClayiMu Home, the
magnificent residence of Sir H. Verney, M.P., who had in-
vited them to partake of his hospitality. In the course of
the evening Sir Harry read the two following letters from
Miss Nightingale:
" Hampstead, Oct. 8.
"My dear Sir Harry,—l like to hear of your volunteers.
I wish I could be with you. But my heart is with you all.
At the beginning of this year we had 150,000 volunteers—
and already we hear, from the best military authorities, that
they are capable of numteuvring and executing movements
with regular troops. To one who knows the stuff of which the
Anglo•Seson is made (no man knows him better than I doh,
this is riot surprising. These volunteers are of the same
race with that handful of men who defended their trenches
at Sebastopol--as the Greeks held the position of Thermo-
pylre —and who when dying of slow torture in hospital drew
their blankets over their heads, and died without a word, like
the heroes of old. Thank God. our volunteers have not to
undergo these slow agonies in the defence of their country.
But 1 for one (tied I speak notwithstanding an experience of
the horrors of war which no man has had) was not at all
sorry to see the spirit of war brought home to our people's
lives io the glorious rising of the volunteers. A country
needs retempering sometimes. England, from her grand
mercantile and commercial successes. has Leen called sordid ;
God knows she is not. The simple courage, the untiring
patience, the goodsense, the strength to suffer in silence—
what nation shows more of this in war than is shown
by her commonest soldier? I have seen men dying
of dysentery. but scorning to report themselves
sick lest they should thereby throw more labour on their
comrades, go down to the trenches and make the trene'oen
their deathbed. There is nothing in history to compare
with it—other nations may do it for glory, but we for duty,
'as the Duke of Welliogtoa said. I say nu outsbaa seen the
horrors of war as I have, yet I was glad to see the spirit of
war arising in our volunteers. If both French and English
statesmen have recorded, upon their own observation, that
the most intelligent, the most 'well-doing, the must respect.
able, in the best sense of Caat word, in any French village
or district, are always those returned from serving out
their time on conscription, and if this is the
case with ':hose who have given a compulsory
service for a government which we English cannot
respect. what ought not the wen to become who
give a free service for a free country, like our volunteers!
Say what men will, there is something more truly Christian
in the man who gives his time, his strength, his life, if
need be, for something not himself, whether he call it his
Queen, his country, or his colours, than in all the
asceticism, the fasts, the humiliations and conies-
alone which have ever been made ; and this
spirit of giving one's life, without calling it a sacri-
fice, is found nowhere so truly as iu England. This
is a spirit which animates our armies and our volunteers.
But there must be mere drill, more discipline, as the muse
of Leeching bow orders ere to be obeyed, more acting in con-
cert to make our volunteers perfect—and our volunteers
mean to be quite perfect. It is wonderful how much
they have done already in precision. On the saddest night
of all my life, two mouths ago, when my dear chief, &bey
Herbert, lay dying, and I knew that with him dial much of
the welfare of the British army—he was, too, so prowl, so
justly proud of his volunteers—on that night I lay listening
to the lands of the volunteers as they mime marching ID
successively—it had been a review day—and I said to my-
self, The nation can never go back which is capable of such a
movement as this, not the spirt of an hour. These are men
who have all something to give up; all men whose
time is valuable for money, which Is not their god,
as other nations sometimes say of us. One of
the beat appointments my dear chief made was Colonel
M•Munlo, the Inspector-General of Volunteers. I knee
him in the Crimea, where he executed the most difficult ser-
vice, that of organising the Laud Transport, with the utmost
success ;no doubt the volunteers have full confidence in
him. It was whispered to me in Sidney Herbert's time that
Buckinghamshire had been behindhand in Ler tribute
volunteers. le that the cam now! 1 hope not. But if so,
it makes those who have volunteered all the more worthy.
If I might venture to do so, I would gladly ask you to offer
them from me a pair of colours. Probably, however, they
have them. If so, I can only offer them from the bottom of
my heart the best wishes of one who has • fought the good
fight' for the army seven years this very mouth, without
the intermission of one siogle waking hour.
" FLORME NIGHTINGALL"
" (, 9.
" I should have thought it a presumption to write to the
volunteers if not desired by you. Itly point, if there ass
one, was to tell them that one who has seen mom 0311 :lay
man what a horrible thing war is, 3et feels more than any
man that the military spirit in a good cause, • that of ones
country,' is the finest leaven which exists for the national
spirit. I have known intimately the Sardinian soldier. the
French soldier, the British soldier. The:San:lint:in lesses:li
better appointed than we were. The French were both nom
numerous and more accustomed to war than wo were, vet I
have no hesitation in saying that we had the better
military spirit, the true volunteer spirit to endure hardship
for our country's sake. I remember a sergeant. who, on
picket, the rest of the picket killed sod himself battered
about the Lead, stumbled Lack to camp, soil so his way
picked up a wounded men and brought him on his ale:edam
to the lines, wheu he fell dowa insensible. When, after
many hours, he recovered Lis senses, I believe,
k after trepanning, his first wants were to asek after
his comrade, •Is he alive? ' Comrade, indeed, yes,
lie's alive—it is the general.' At that moment
the oeral. though badly woneded, eppeared at the
r • Oh, general, it's you, is it, I brought in ?
I so glad, I didn't know your honour. But, -—, if I'd
it was you, I'd have saved you all the same.' This is the
true soldier's spirit. Lastly. I would impress on the yeller
teen the necessity of drill, practiro. exercise, brigade
movements. Garibaldi's volunteers did excellently In
guerilla movement. ; they failed before a fourth-mte re
a galas. army. We trust that our voluuteers will never
koow what real war is ; but they must make thenieelveis
reputation to be feared by the enemy, in order not to ere
that enemy ever at their own hearthstones.
" FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
After a number of toasts, amongst them Lady Verve!.
the sister of Miss Nightingale, had been given and responded
! to, the guest. adjourned to an adjoining saloon for coffee,
, and afterwards marched home, highly gratified with Ms
proceedings of the evening.