The Express.
London, England, 1868-01-17 00:00:00

THE VOLUNTEER ARMY A SHAM.

10 1113 111DITO1 OP ?El IMPllaa.
Sra,—l have allowed a reasonable time to I
elapse in order thoroughly to ventilate the sub-
ject of the utter absence of any real organization,
and consequent absolute uselessness of the Volun-
tear Army, whiod I again mooted some weeks
since, before taking any step to confirm or justify
the opinions I then expressed.
Those opinions have been variously canvassed.
Some of your contemporaries have coincided with,
while others have opposed them. The head and
front of my offending with the latter seems to have
been the term " sham," which I applied to the
CriOMB of the Vetenteer Army m relation 10
cedble requirements at the hands of the nticm. I feel like the painter, whose critic, after a
minute examination of his work, could only com-
plain of the inappropriateness of its frame ; for if
my opponents can see nothing in my matter but
the terms in which it was discussed to quarrel
with, I must assume that I have not wantonly
thrown down the gauntlet.
I used the word " sham " with premeditation.
I am prone to call things by their right names, and
I have not miscalled the Volunteer Army. As a
matter of theory, I take it that there are few who
would have the temerity to contradict me in the
assertion that 180,000 or 200,000 men in battalion,
without administrative staffs for its command or
supply of any sort, is a mere crowd of coated play-1
things. That the word was only too appropriate
was not the sole reason of its pre-considered use'
by me. I believe that the end justified the means,
and to give my opponents a cudgel to fight me with
and to force discussion would be the best means of
obtaining my object, viz., the constitution of the
Volunteer Army as • feasible and practicable foroe,
ready, if need be, to prove the efficiency and
good training which characterise the entire body,
but which—as, indeed, all else, pecuniary or other-
wise—has been thrown away in the absence of
necessary organization. They are as the tire of •
wheel without spokes or axle. And to send them
as at present organised into the field would be to
act Montana over again, on a larger scale of failure
and disaster. The remedy is simple ; and not
only simple, but perfectly inexpensive : let the
proper authority be ceded, and I will undertake
that the Volunteers, as an army of reserve, shall be
prepared for any duty or emergency at the shortest
reasonable notice.
If my heart were not in this subject, and were I
not confident that the shortcomings I myself dis-1
cern were not equally patent to all thinking sol-
diers both here Alld on the Continent, I should'
not have entered on the thankless task I have
undertaken, but which I am determined to perse-
vere in by all constitutional and legitimait Intone.
—1 am, &c., HANELA.Oti.
Heron-court, Jan. 14.

'OPENCE

HAYMARKET.
A little oomedietta, with lively dialogue, and a
pleasant, If not very original plot, was produeed at this
house last nights ea operdag piece, under the title of The
Brokewlleatiad CM, the author being Mr. Stirling
Coyne. The " club" is a body of ladles, who for various
fattish moons have determined to out themselves off
from the society of men, and who, on the first opportunity,
break through their determination and rush into the
arms of their sweetheart& Played by Mies lone Burke,
Hrs. Chippendale, and other good-looking ladies, the
little pion was made light and agreeable, and it con-
cluded before the idea was run to death. The oornedietts
was originally published in Warne's last Christens'
AnnuaL