The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-17 00:00:00

THE VOLUNTEERS.

On the 7th of last month a meeting of Volunteer officers
was held in the Merchants'-hall, Glasgow, to consider the
propriety of memorialising Government for further aid.
The meeting was well attended both in point of numbers
and from the position of those present. Resolutions wore
unanimously passed in the sense that further Government
aid is imperatively necessary, and a committee was ap-
pointed to prepare a memorial to the Secretary of State for
the Home Department, and to co-operate for the proposed
object with other officers throughout the country. The
committee appointed by the meeting in question have not
allowed the grass to grow on their heels. They have
already forwarded a memorial to the Government in sup-
port of their views, and have prepared a petition to Par-
liament, which is now in course of signature, or possibly
may have been already presented, though we have not
seen it yet in the notices of presented petitions. Had
the matter rested here, we should not have a
word to say. Of course, we are in a thorough
sympathy with the Glasgow meeting. Our great object,
as well as theirs,
tis to make the Volunteer movement per-
manent; and though we might, perhaps, differ in details
auto what and how much Government aid will best con-
maientaouthis end, we should most assuredly agree in the
,„, • tit the committee have done more than
this. 1r e_
officers
of :',Orhave sent a circular letter to the commanding
putting certain other
the country, in which, after
in view the BuceZeguestions, they proceed :—" Having
meeting of officerslllia and influential character of the
Lot:there held in the Thatched-
house Tavern, in
ne& last spring, arc you pre-
pared to attend, or
went to a meeting of
represent,telegate from your regi-
force of the United Kingdom, to tbi:es from the Volunteer
1 in London on an
early day, for the purpose of takinglll,€:
ivemeasures to
impress upon Government and the Mon
impress Commonsez the
, s urgency and importance of the applications

THE SUN, LONDO

part of the Volunteers ?" Now it is upon this circular, and -
the kind of action which it is calculated, if not intended,
to foster, that we should like to say a few words. As a
general rule, the more intimately the force is bound
together throughout the country the better. We be-
lieve that discipline and thorough effectiveness are more
likely to be attained thus than in any other way. We be-
lieve, too, that as we are able to draw the bands of our fel-
lowship closer the real wants of the force will come to be
hotter understood, and those whose business it is to urge
them will be able to do so with far greater weight than now.
But what we have a serious dread of is lest the machinery
suggested by the circular in question—of mass-meetings of
delegates from corps for the purpose of putting pressure on
Government and the Houses of Parliament, or, indeed, for
any similar purpose—should ever come to be adopted by
Volunteers. We must urge on the able and influential offi-
cers who composed this Glasgow meeting tbat they are, in
this last proposal of theirs, taking a step in a wrong direc-
tion. If successful, wo believe they may do very serious
harm to the Volunteer movement, if not ruin it altogether.
Since their cii cular has been out we have heard its contents
discussed in several quarters, and it is commonly sup-
ported by the argument that agitation out of doers is
the only way to get anything out of the Government or
Parliament, and by references to the success of the Corn
Law agitation. Now, we are not careful either to admit or
deny this position. Our own opinion, stated over and over
again in these columns, is that the present Government and
the pressent Parliament are ready and anxious to give us
help without pressure. But we do maintain that, whether
they are or not, we, the Volunteer force, shall be stultifying
ourselves, undoing all thegood we have done, earning for
ourselves anything rather than the thanks of our country,
if we lend ourselves deliberately to an out-of-doors agitation
such as many of the supporters of the views of the Glasgow
meeting would contend for, and are ready (thought-
lessly, wo believe) to take part in. The anti-Corn-
Law League had a good cause, no doubt, and won a
great triumph. But let any Volunteer who remembers the
League's method of action, and the sort of speeches which
used to be made by their leaders, just ask himself whether
the same sort of action or speeches could be for a moment
tolerated in an armed force, professing itself to be a dis-
ciplined military body under the control of constitutiona
authority. This fact shouii`,.lways be borne in mind in
these questions of what volunteers ought or ought not to
do. We are still civilians, no doubt, with all the rights of
civilians, including those of congregating in public meet-
ings, organising, speechifying, &c. But we are civilians
with arms in our hands—armed civilians, who have been
accepted by the country as a part of its defensive
organisation. Therefore we ought to be the very last por-
tion of the nation to take part in any internal agitation
whatsoever. Conceive the army holding mass meetings of
delegates from all the regiments, to agitate for an increase
of pay, and to take effectual measures to impress on the
House of Commons the urgency and importance of the ap-
plications made on the part of her Majesty's land forces !
We all see at once what that would lead to ; but such a pro-
ceeding on the part of us volunteers is only just one degree
less objectionable. And it seems to us not only objection-
able, but unnecessary, Why should we go out of our way
to do unconstitutionally what we can do much better and
more effectually in a strictly legal and constitutional man-
ner. At this very time the Volunteer officers, in both
Houses of Parliament, are considering what aid they can
fairly ask for this year from Government, and the most effec-
tual means of acting, when they have come to some con-
clusion on tha subject. Many of the very best and most
influential of our leaders are among these gentlemen; in-
deed, we could scarcely put the matter in better hands than
theirs, if we were to pick from the whole force. Let us
strengthen their hands by all means, as the Glasgow com-
mittee have already done, by sending up petitions as strong
and as many as we can get. If we do not get what we want
this year, let us bear silent protest, by turning out without
bands—if necessary, even without uniforms; but do not let
us go in for, or allow ourselves to enter on, any path which
may possibly lead to an out-door agitation, for the purpose
of putting pressure on Government or Parliament. We
do, therefore, hope that those Volunteer officers, and others,
who have, with the best possible intentions, as we most
readily admit, set this stone rolling, will lend a hand to stop
it now, while there is yet time. We are quite surethat they
do not wish to bring us into collision with Government or
Parliament, but they may well do so by pressing this mass-
meeting.—Volunteer Service Gazette.

DR. GUTHRIE ON AMERICAN VANITY

The Rev. Dr. Guthrie delivered an address on the
evening of Friday week, at the Dundee Chamber of
Commerce. Conversazione, in presence of a very
numerous and fashionable assemblage, including
the principal mercantile and professional gentlemen
of the town. The attendance was large. The rev.
Doctor, in the course of his address, said of the
Americans :

" I dq not rejoice in their calamity, but, at the
same time, while I know many excellent Americans
for whom I have the highest esteem—while I know
their missionaries to have been the noblest mis-
sionaries in the world, and I believe no Church
in Christendom has such missionaries as
the American Churches have—l am bound to
say that our friends across the Atlantic—our cou-
sins over the great fish-pond, as they call it—had
become very vain. (A laugh.) There was a pride
and haughtiness—for I have met them—and an
assumption about our friends in America that I
must say, while it was very ridiculous, was very
intolerable. Just think of a people that hold four
millions of their fellow creatures in chains !—and
sell them by the pound. I saw a gentleman who
was in the Southern States not very long ago, and
who told me he was present at a slave auction ;
I said to him, ' What did you see, sir?' Why,'
he said, 'I saw a beautiful boy of twelve years of
age put on the auction-block, and on one side of
him stood an old grey-headed negro—it was plain
he was his father—and he kept his eyes on the boy,
and the boy kept his eyes on the old grey-headed
man, and the tears rolled in silence down the cheeks
of each. On the other side of him stood a ruffian
with manacles.' Near beside us there stood a little
lady, very little either by me or by the speaker,
and I shall never forget the flash of her eye, or the
clench of her hand, when she looked up to this tall
traveller, as he told of the manacles, and said,' Did
you not knock him down, sir?' I felt that was
the voice of nature. Well, I say for a country such
as that to talk of itself as standing in the van of
freedom—in the van of freedom!—and waving over
tour millions in chains the vaunted flag with the
motto, ' All men arc born free ! ' is not that a
mockery ? (Applause.) After all, lam not sorry
that the wind should betaken out of them. (Laugh-
ter.) There was a friend of mine who, talking of
another man who was rather vain, said, ' Oh, he is
a mere windbag.' Now, I must say our friends in
America are rather like a windbag—(laughter)
—but I am sorry that it should be the
knife that is being used to take the wind out
of them. I am sorry it should be taken out
in such a way ; nevertheless I am bound
I to say, in regard to that country now learning
the evils of war, that there was a haughty inso.
lence about these men that was really intolerable.
(A laugh.) And what vanity was that that made
them think—and I read the American newspapers
every week—what intolerable vanity is it that
makes them think we are envious of them, and
makes them say we are now rejoicing in their
disasters, because we are jealous of their republican
liberty ? Envious of them !—(with great irony)—
envious of them. Britons are envious of none'
(Applause.) We have no cause to be envious. We
have a Sovereign enthroned in the hearts of her
people—(loud applause)—with whose tears we have
mingled our own, and who has mingled her tears
with those of the poor bereaved widows of the
Hartley Colliery. (Renewed .applause.) And I
venture to say, if American or Frenchman, or any
man, dared to touch a hair of Queen Victoria's
head there are 10,000,000 arms would rise up in
Britain to defend her. (Great applause.) Well, we
have a Sovereign enthroned in the affections of her
people. We have a Parliament—l don't say the
Parliament always behaves as well as it should do
—(laughter)—but, considering all things, it does
marvellously well, and, on the whole, reflects the
mind of the public. Then, we have a free Press'
and then we have free tongues, and we have:no
tarring or feathering in our country. (Laughter.)
The only use we make of feathers is to make soft
pillows, and the only use we make of tar is to pitch
the bottom of our ships. We never pitch into men
in that way, whatever we do in other ways.
We have no cause to be envious of any country ;
• and I take this opportunity of saying that our friends
\ in America are labouring under the greatest of all
possible delusions in fancying that we rejoice in
their disasters or are in any way envious of them.
If people do:rejoice, I am sure they do not rejoice in
their disasters, but I am free to confess that we
do like to see a vain people a little humbled.
Nobody likes pride. I hate ecclesiastical pride; I
hate national pride; and above all things I hate
purse pride. There is a word for you merchants
of Dundee. (Laughter.) Well, you know we do
not object much to see the pride a little taken out of

N, MOND EVFi NI NG, rvi mze a. 17, 1862.

people, just as you see a man come strutting down
the streets of Dundee tailored to the top of the
fashion, sailing by everybody as if they were the
dirt on his feet, and treating the earth as if it was
beneath his notice, carrying his head as high as if
there was nothing below the stars worthy of his
notice, when by comes a gust of wind and carries
off his hat—(laughter)—and his wig too. (Renewed
laughter.) Then he scuds away, not under bare
poles, but under a bare poll—(great laughter)—in
pursuit of his hat• Now, really you cannot hinder
the people to laugh. (Laughter.) Ido not blame
them for laughing ; I laugh myself, and the more
proud the man was I laugh the more. And then
they laugh the more when the man gets up to the
hat, and just when he is about to grasp it, the hat
—oh, that wicked hat—(laughter)—as if it had a
pleasure in making a fool of him, starts off on a new
journey and goes rolling away into the mud, until
the man has got no cover either for his head or for
his confusion. (Laughter.) You see we all like to
see pride taken down a little. But, with regard to
America, God grant that the troubles of that
country be soon over ! We have no hatred towards
America; I am sure it would be well for Dundee
if peace were restored in that country ; and God
grant that it may be soon. But I heartily say that
I for one would say No peace' so long as there is
slavery in America! God send no peace till that
evil, that cancer, is thrust out of their land ! I
have no hesitation in saying that ; but I hope in
God's Providence that the grand result of these
troubles will be freedom to the slave. We have
heard of fasts in America ; the fast I want Presi-
sident Lincoln to proclaim is that fast which God
says he has chosen, to break the bonds of wicked-
ness, and to let the oppressed go free.' "—(Loud ap-
plause.)