The Express.
London, England, 1861-02-04 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, FEB. 4.

Ur to this time the action of Government in re-
ference to the Volunteer movement has been, if
slow and hesitating, at least in the main in the di-
rection of encouragement. The fears of placing
arms in the hands of the people, which have so
heavily weighed on the spirits of such of the Tories
of the old school as yet are to be found among
rural game-preservers and Pall-Mall philoso-
phers, and which have found ezpresaion in the
speeches of certain Lords Lieutenant, have not till
now been openly professedbyourrulers. They have
accepted the services thrust upon them by the nation
of an army of a hundred thousand men, they have
received with a good grace • national contribution
which, had it been levied in taxes, would have
added ten millions to their Estimates for the year.
All that they have been 'eked to do, and all that
they have done for this, is to supply such
arms as the regular troops might not
require, to permit the purchase of super-
loom; ammunition at cost price, and to spend a
few thousands in the salaries of Inspectors and
Adjutants. What more has been done has not
been in the way of assistance, but of regulation
and restraint. The common law right of the in-
habitants of this country is to wear arms at their
pleasure, to use them in such exercises as they
think fit, to form such associations as they choose,
to appoint and remove their own commanders as
they deem proper. All these natural and inhe-
rent rights of free men have been taken from
Englishmen by statutes of no venerable antiquity.
The reign of Gwent 111., when the need for
reform in our political institutions first began to
be whispered, was the epoch when this restraint
upon our personal liberty was first imposed.
What Government has lately done in permitting
the Volunteer movement has been no more than
the relaxing of prohibitions which Govern-
ment so recently enacted. All the labour which
certain Departments have undergone, and for
which they claim so much credit, has been caused
by the retention of the powers which Government
en recently assumed. But for these recent prohi-
bitions and powers the movement would have
sprung into full organization by the force of its
innate vitality. AU armed, the Volunteer Army
would have leaped from the national brain and
heart. It would have drilled itself, officered
itself, established its own rules, supplied its own
equipments. It is well to remember, when
Grrvernment asks praise for its fostering patronage,
that without Government interference in any
shape, left only in poseessionof those rightsof which
till half • century ago we were in immemorial
possession, we should hare had long ere now a
larger, better organized, better disciplined, and
better officered army than even that of which, tied
down by red tape as it has been, ore are so justly
proud.

But the War-office Circular of the ith January,
which we printed a few days ago, appears to inti-
mate that, even in thus merely relaxing prohibi-
tions, Government begins to think it has been
too liberal. Lord Hassear has chosen the mo-
ment of his quitting the House of Commons to
show his distrust of the people whom that House
represents. finder pretence of a boon, an insult is
offered. The Minister recites the successive steps
which Government has taken in supplying rifles to
such corps as might require them ; he then an-
nounces the wish of Government to relieve corps
which had purchased their own rifles of the cost
they had incurred ; and he concludes with declaring
that whether or not they choose to sell their rifles
on the terms offered, they will not be permitted
to use at drill or on service any but those fur-
nished by Government, and of which the property,
and the power of resumption, rests with Govern-
ment. Now that we may see the true sense and
purpose of this Circular, let us look first at the pre-
tences which are put forward to justify it. First, we
are told—or seem to be told, for the Circular is in-
genious in its casuistry of phrase--that Govern-
ment from the first wished to supply rifles to all
Volunteers. But the records of the Wei-OSM
themselves bear witness that no corps was at first
accepted except on condition of equipping and
arming itself without cost to the country, and
that the supplying of a few Government rifles for
immediate drill was, long afterwards, the first germ
of the idea of furnishing arms to all Volunteers.
In the next place, Lord H enlarges on the
necessity of • uniformity of arms. Nothing cer-
tainly can be more essential, to the extent of being
fitted to use the same ammunition ; but he admits
that all the rifles now in use, whether public or
private property, are of the Government gauge of
bore ; and it is the fact, that in the regular service
two varieties, differing only in length, and in being
fitted with sword or bayonet, are now eased, and
that the arms of the Volunteers are, with-
out exception, of one or other of these regula-
tics patterns. It may be added, that it is the short
rifle, which the Horse Guards has deemed
the most suitable for the Rifle regiments of the
line, that has been selected by such corps as have
purchased their own rifles ; and that if in a bat-
talion there be some armed with short and some
with long rifles, there has been found no difficulty
or inconvenience in distributing them in separate
companies. Finally, Lord H alleges the
importance of keeping the arms clean and in good
order. This also is an undeniably true persposi-
ton. but it scarcely needs to be asked whether a
man is likely to take most care of • rifle which
belongs to Government or of his own. In both
cases, certainly, care ought to be enforced; in both
cases inspection should be systematic and frequent ;
in both cases officers and men should be held re- I
sponaible for due attention to so necessary an ele-
ment of efficiency. But will any inspection, any
responsibility, be so powerful to secure the result
as the mere fact that the arm, belong not to