The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-08 00:00:00

TIIE VOLUNTEERS.

A meeting of officers of volunteer corps, convened by
Lord Ranolagh, was held on Friday, at his lordship's
residence, New Burlington-street, to take into considera-
tion the alteration proposed by the Secretary of State for
War in the government of the force. About twenty gentle-
men attended, several being officers of metropolitan and
others, officers of county corps. Lord Rancla,gh presided.
Lord Rixsammir, inopening theiproceedings, expressed a
hope that he had not been presumptous in asking the
officers to meet together. Several years ago he took a
similar course when he thought it would be for the
benefit of the service; and when recently several
gentlemen asked him to call a meeting of his brother
o'ficers, ho at once assented, thinking there would
b 3 many men in London who could not attend the meet-
togs in their own counties, and certainly not the usual
metropolitan meetings. Formerly five of the metropolitan
oTecers summoned the meetings, giving several days'
n 'tic° ; but this time that course had not been
fillowed, for some reason -which he could
not explain. He regretted that the meetings
of metropolitan officers had taken place so soon, because
t'ie documents embodying the alterations and regulations
w are not issued until Wednesday next. He would ask the
g mtlemen present to confine themselves to discussing
wleether these alterations and regulations would be
beneficial to the force or not. For bi 3 own
pert, when he read them ho was perfectly aghast.
H. was greatly astonished, and could not help remem-
boring how severely, and, indeed, maliciously, ho had been
handled for applying the word " sham " to the volunteer
force ; and he was amused to find the War Office and its
committee saying the same, in so many words, of the effi-
ciency of the force. He came to the conclusion
that, as a whole, these regulations ought to bo
rajected. His-lordship complained of inaccuracies in the
account of the meeting of the previous day, which ap-
peared in the newspapers, saying that these arose from the
press being excluded. One of these errors was the state-
ment that the metropolitan meetings were unanimous in
thanking the Secretary of State for the great pains
he had taken in7elrawing up his report. The
fact was exactly 'the contrary, and several gentlemen came
prepared to show that the statistics were fallacious. He
would refer briefly to the proposed alterations. The

whole thing seemed to him to be ;mockery from beginning
t) end. The first paragraph alluded to a closer
connection of the volunteers with the regular
f3rces ; but so long as there was peace he did
nit see tiie necessity for this, while ho believed
such an arraw,-emeixt would be, fraught with danger. If
tie were to be kept in camp, as suggested, ill feeling

would arise between the officers of the two forces. The
alterations affecting lord-lieutenants . and officers of
g :noral districts certainly would not lead to the "unity
aad simplicity," which was so much recommended. It
w proposed to withdraw the cmtra pay to the sergeants.
P.at even now these officers could not be got with the
Givermnent allowance, and this proceeding would amount
to offering them less nay than the militia. it was the
g moral opinion that the clothes could not be expected
ti last more than four years; and that five years
w .8 too long a time. With regarao efficients, surely LO,OOO
wAI-drilled men, even although they had not bad time to
attain the suggested skill in firing, constituted a force
which a large army could ill afford to lose. (Hear,
h:ler.) And it must be remembered that in
an :emergency these men would have to tale part in
firing and would become excelled marksmen. If they were
. _ _

tD begin by rejecting such.men vhere would the reduction
c :a;e ? (Hear, hear.) The requirement that agood marks-
man should go through a certain amount of volley-
firing was an absurdity, as all officers knew that

volley-firing was merely a question of smoke. (Hear, hear.)
There would be found to be a groat difficulty in providing
rangers, and in the result they would have coroner's
inquests all over the country, while volunteers would
b: no bettor for the practco. It did not seem
a wise provision that th 4 militia, who never
ficed were to hand over to the volunteers their
old arms and receive in return the newest rifles.

No animadversions had been passed by inspectors on their
battalion drill, and he thought that in this respect that in
company drill the volunteers lad better be left alone. He
did not see why they should change their system of
ftaance.

Captain HOWARD, M.P., of ihe oth Bedford, suggested
that the meeting should be postponed until answers had
been received to the questionsto be sent out-from the
metropolitan meeting.
Some discussion took place on this point and onthe pro-
ceedings at the meeting on the previous day, the speakers
being Major Wilbraham, Major Dunney, and Colonel Wil-
liams. It was decided to continue the meeting.
Colonel THOMPSON observed that he, a commanding
officer.of a metropolitan corps, hal not received a copy of the
War Offie circular, and advised tlat country officers should

plrticipate in all tho delibeations on this subject ;

!or a great wrong was about to be done to the volunteer

force. He proposed the foll)min,g resolution:—'
this meeting believes that the adoption of some

•" That

of the alterations in the volunteer force pro-

p3sed at the interview between certain command-
ing officers and the Secretary of State for

War, on the 21st and 23rd of December, so far from
increasing the. efficiency and permanency of the force,

would tend rather to effect a large and immediate reduc•
tiou in its strength, and ultimately produce the annihila•

tion of many efficient battalions.

Colonel ROBERTSON AIK3fAN (V.C.) seconded the motion
Colonel Ward, Colonel King (of Crewe), Colonel Vickers,
C.,lonel Taylor (of Gloucester), and other gentlemen coin-

mented on the resolution, condemning more or less the

War-office scheme.

Finally the resolution was carried unanimously, and the
meeting separated with a vote of thanks to Lord Eanelagh
for affording this opportunity of consultation.

The Levant Times says renewed attention has been
attracted to the feasability of connecting the Black Sea
with the Gulf of Isnid rid the Sakaria River and Lake
Sabanja. Engineers assert that this project offers no diffi-
calties whatever, and was pronounced practical by the
Romans in the time of Pliny.
SNAKE BlTES.—Authentic cases of the successful
treatment of snake bites are of some interest. Dr. Bell
(according to Nature) supplies two in his "New Tracks in
North America." On the Rio Grande, in October 1807,
two horses were bitten by the same rattlesnake,
while grazing. A few hours afterwards the sub-
maxilliary, parotid, and all glands situated about the
head and neck were greatly enlarged ; from the nostrils
and gum:,,, a clear, mucous discharge ran down ; the eyes
were glairy, with the pupils greatly dilated, and the coat
was rough and staring. To each animal Dr. Doll gave
half-a-pint of whisky, with a little water, and half-an-
ounce of ammonia, while the wounds were fomented with
a strong infusion of tobacco, and afterwards poulticed with
chopped tobacco leaves. Both horses recovered. One,
although reduced in flesh, and thrown out of condition,
was fit for work in a week, but the other only just
escaped with his life, becoming a perfect skeleton, and
only commencing to mend at the end of three months.
Dr. Bell adds that a little wccd, common throughout the
Western Statcs (called by Engelman, Euphcrlia laia, and
by Torney, E. dilatata), is said to be a specific for the bite
of the rattlesnake, but at the very time the plant was
wanted it could- not be found, although continually met
with elsewhere, along the route,!9 that, the caperimait
eguld n 94 in WWI