The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-13 00:00:00

THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT.

The review of the Lancashire and Cheshire Vo-
lunteers at Newton-le-Willows, on Saturday, proved
a great success. The only drawback was one be-
yond human control—the weather. The great diffi-
culty to be overcome was the placing of 7,000 men,
gathered from 54 cities, boroughs, and townships,
spread over all parts of the two counties to a dis-
tance of 40 miles, upon the field, within so limited
a period as is available in an afternoon at this time
of the year. The difficulty was much enhanced by
the claims of the public, always put forward with-
out notice, and as indefinitely as possible, in about
100 different towns, to be allowed the privilege of
looking at the spectacle. The lion's share of this
work devolved upon the London and North-Western
Railway Company, whose line from Manchester to
Liverpool, and their lines from the north and south
at Parkside and Warrington Junction, were the
only railways converging to the scene of operations,
and the work was efficiently and satisfactorily per-
formed. It is under the truth probably to say that
50,000 persons Shad to be thus accommodated. The
Lancashire and Yorkshire, the Lancaster and Car-
lisle, the Manchester and Sheffield, and the South
Junction and Warrington lines brought their quota
of passengers, but considering that the traffic of all
these companies had to pass upon the Manchester
and Liverpool line to near the rendezvous, it was
marvellous that the work could have been so effi-
ciently performed within the available time. The
review took place upon the racecourse, about two
miles and a half from Newton station, and the Vo-
lunteers and the public began to assemble upon the
ground a little after three o'clock. From this
time to half-past 5 o'clock, when Lieut.-Gen. Sir G.
Wetherall opened the review, the arrivals were in-
cessant. The rains of several previous days had
rendered the ground wet and uncomfortable, but
up to this hour only a few light showers had
fallen to check the general desire of the public
to witness the proceedings on Saturday. At
the moment of opening the review the spectacle
presented was a magnificent one. In the
centre of the ground the Volunteers were drawn
up in four brigades. The second, third, and fourth
Manchester regiments, 1,800 strong, covered the
front, farming a line of 300 or 400 yards. In the
rear of this line was the remainder of the first bri-
gade. In the rear of these again were massed the
three other brigades, the third occupying the centre.
The cavalry, 300 strong, eccupied a position on the
right flank to the front. The grand stand was
crowded by the rank and fashion of the neighbour-
hood, including a great number of ladies, and swelled
considerably by visitors from a distance. The other
stands were also very crowded, and a dense mass of
people lined the sides of the racecourse extending
to a considerable distance right and left of the stands.
In front of the troops and between them and
the stands were the General and his staff. Among
the lookers-on were some hundreds of gentlemen in
the various uniforms of the line, and of volunteers
not taking part in the proceedings. In rear of the
troops were some extensive marquees prepared for
their refreshment after the heat and burden of the
day- had been encountered. The evolutions indi-
cated in the programme occupied about two hours.

first time in uniform armed cap-a-pie, thus carrying
out Lord Elcho's plan of increasing the funds of
the corps by those boys who, being unable to join
as effectives, were willing to subscribe through
their parents. At 6 o'clock Col. Pipon arrived on,
the parade-ground, when the volunteers presented

arms, &c., the band playing" God Save the Queen."
After going through the usual evolutions and. ma-
noeuvres of a field day and light infantry drills, the

volunteers were supplied with 10 rounds of ammu-

nition, and were exercised in firing volleys by com-
panies from the right and in battalion, the firing
being delivered with great regularity and preci-
sion. The various military evolutions were performed
_ _

in a manner which would have done credit to tried
troops of the line. The long and severe attention

which the volunteers have paid to the minute de-
tails of drill, speaks well for the credit of the above
mentioned corps. Col. Pipon then addressed the

corps, and expressed the gratification he felt at
witnessing for the first time the highly creditable

manner in which all the evolutions had been per-
formed by a body of volunteers.
The Misses Rawson, of Nidd-hall, ladies of the
manor of Bradford, have offered to lease to the
Bradford Battalion of Rifle Volunteers, at a nominal

rent, a field conveniently situated at that town for
the site of an armoury, drill-room, and offices of a
permanent character which it is proposed to erect
for the use of the corps. It is estimated that the
buildings will cost about £l,OOO, and the money is
to be raised by a bazaar, to be held in St. George's-
hall next spring. A committee is forming to carry
out the project. It is stated that the Low Moor
Iron Company intend establishing a company of
rifle volunteers, to wear the same uniform as the
Bradford corps and to be attached to that battalion.

The Ipswich volunteers engaged in target prac-
tice for a prize cup on Friday at Landguard Fort,
Harwich. The cup was offered by a number of
Ipswich gentlemen, and the firing was in the fol-
lowing order :—Five shots at 650 yards'range, five
at 700, five at 800, five at 900. The competition
lasted four hours, and the highest number or points
was obtained by Mr. Pretty, jun., who made 12
out of 20. The second on the list was Ensign
Josselyn, who made nine points, and the third Ser-
geant Cresswell, who made eight. Mr. Pretty was
the youngest of the 12 gentlemen who took part in
the contest. He struck the bull's-eye three times,
Ensign Josselyn twice, and Sergeant Cresswell once.
Glocestershire is likely to be well supplied with
volunteers. We hear that the Duke of Beaufort,
contemplates raising a corps of mounted voluntee,..B,
to be armed with rifle carbines. They would not
interfere with the GlocestershireYeomanryCavalry.
This mounted corps would enable Glocestershire to
supply volunteers of all arms—horse, foot, and ar-
tillery. The duke gives £25 towards the prize
fund for the rifle shooting in the county ; the Earl
of Ellenborough also gives £lO and Lord Dynevor
£lO 10s. to the same fund.

On Thursday, the sth (Maidenhead) Company of
Berkshire Rifle Volunteers mustered 70 rank and
file, at their parade ground, and headed by the
drums and fifes of the Reading Corps, marched
through the town to the residence of their Quarter-
mastar, Mr. R. W. Grenfell. There a large assem-
blage of the neighbours were gratified by a sham
fight on a small scale.

The 16th (or Harrogate) Company of the West
Riding of Yorkshire Rifle -Volunteers assembled at
the Stray, High Harrowgate, on Wednesday last,
when a handsome silver bugle, which cost 60 guineas,
was presented to the corps by Mrs. Robert Reynard
(the sole donor), widow of Capt. Reynard, of Har- •
rogate. There was a large assemblage of military
and other persons on the occasion. The corps was
under the command of Capt. Harrison, who put
them through several evolutions, which they per-
formed in a very creditable manner.
The fete in. Alresford-park, near Colchester,
passed off very satisfactorily. A bugle, valued at
35 guineas, was presented to the Colchester Corps
by Lady de Crespigny, wife of Sir Claude de Cres-
pigny, Commandant of the Essex Battalion. The
entertainment afterwards given by Mr. Hawkins
was attended by 120 guests, among whom may be
mentioned Lord Braybrooke, Sir John Tyrell, Major
Beresford, M.P., Mr. Brampton Gurdon, M.P., Mr.
Papillon, M.P., Mr. Gurdon Rebow, Major-Gen.
Wood (Commandant of the Colchester camp), Col.
Dixon, Col. Haddon, R.E., Major De Morel, &c.
Lord Northwick called a meeting of his neighbours
and gentlemen possessing property in and around
Moreton-in-the-Marsh, where the counties of Glou-
cester intermingle, with the view of raising. a corps
of Volunteers for the district. The meeting was
held at Northwick-park, and there were present,
besides his Lordship, the Earl of Harrowby, the
Revs, C. E. Kennaway, G. B. Dodwell, IL Brom-
field,it
and G. H. Chance, with several laymen.
was resolved to get up a corps, and Lord orth wick
offered the use of some of his fields for target prac-
tice. The new corer willtake
the " North Cotswold," and itis understood that
of the
the na.me
gentlemen are ready to undertake the duties of
captain, lieutenant, and ensign.
at the Militia.-
On Saturday evening the members
.of. the. Ist Kent
Rifle Volunteers assembled barracks,
Maidstone, under the command of Major Scott, and
where, in the presence: of a large
company, marched thence to the Mote-park, the seat of the
Earlom of
onithneTwere presented with a pair of
caR
colours by Mrs. Randall, wife of the banker of that
name. The colours bear the inscription, " First
Kent," with the Kent arms and the motto, " In-
victa." Major Scott (commandant) briefly acknow-
ledged the compliment. The regiment then marched
past in slow and quick time, and having given three
hearty cheers for Mrs. Randall and the ladies, left
the park.

The arromgements for the great rifle prize meet-
ing and 33o,fkshire Volunteer review,
permission of her Majesty, will be held in
Windsor Great Park on the 13th of September,
are nowwhich, by
completed p 1 e
theted ,
regulationsand
a dop ted..
.1 s—
, rhe the
substance
811°°tinis will commence at half-past 9 a.m., to
be followed by athletic games at 11, the review
at half-pa.st 3, dinner at 6, and the "hole to
conclude at 8 o'clock. The subscription. . list makes
very satisfactory progress,
.but a consider able addi-
tional amkyint wi be required.

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, AUGUST 12, Is6o.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
68—highest since noon yesterday.
54—lowest this morning and during the night.
64—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-29.79.
Wirm—Northerly ; fresh breeze, and dull weather.

AUG. 13.
THZILMOILETEB, IN THE SHADS.
66—highest since noon yesterday.
55—lowest this morning and during the night.
69—this day at noon.

BARomETER-29.80.
WlRD—South-Westerly ; light, with fine warm weather,

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
To-monmow.-Morning, Bh. 43m.—Afternoon, 9h. 26m,
THIS DAY.—Morning, llh. 34m.—Afternoon, —h. —m

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~~~

THE SUN.

LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 1880.

Granted that so many of our dearest hopes in
respect to this Parliamentary session of 1860 have
been entirely disappointed—still we cannot look
back to it without expressing in its regards sen-
timents of profound gratitude. It has undoubtedly
failed to yield us any one of the great reforms anti-
cipated from it. It leaves again for another year
altogether untouched the paramount requirement
among all our great political desiderata—the re-
form of our system of popular representation. It
has left unbroken the most galling of all the links
binding Church and State together—that irri-
tating link of the Church Rates, fretting to
the quick so many millions of dissentient indepen-
dents. It has allowed once more to be " dropped
through"—" shelved"—" cushioned''—so very many
of those vitally important legal reforms which, in
the early spring time, seemed actually in the hol-
low of the nation's hand ; so entirely within our
grasp that our fingers had but to close upon them.
Insomuch that not only is the criminal code unad-
vanced by a single step, towards its yesterday's
seemingly inevitable consolidation, but even Sir
RICHARD BETHELL'S latest masterpiece, his com-
prehensive revision of the laws relating to Bank-
ruptcy and Insolvency, has vanished into thin air
leaving nought behind to tell of its where-
abouts—absolutely as though our lawgivers and
jurisconsults had been idly blowing soap-bubbles
like so many children. The session is bequeathing
to us, in fact, little beyond—that lamentable and
illusory Commercial Treaty, negotiated on the sly
and passed in a fit of delirium—that monstrous
experimental Budget which, almost upon the mor-
row of its triumphant introduction to the House of
Commons, suffered so ignominious a collapse—and
conspicuous among all the anomalies of that boasted
Financial Statement, the discreditable reimposition
(of all years—in the year 1860 !of all men—by
Mr. GLADSTONE !) of the most cruel and grinding of
all the taxes upon industry, the detested Income Tax
—an income tax o f 10d in the pound, or of £10,000,000
sterling within the twelvemonth ! Such are, un-
questionably, the most glaring among the sins of
this session—sins either of Omission or of Com-
mission. Yet—in spite of all which, in vivid remem-
brance of all which—are we still to the last, as we
have said, disposed to bear gratefully in our recol-
lection the political doings of 1860, to cast down
the apparently doleful vista of these last six
months a retrospective glance of absolute and undis-
guised exultation.

For this henceforth memorable Parliamentary
Session of 1860 is, at the very least, remarkable ;
for, inasmuch, as it has exposed at length
to richly•merited scorn and derision about
the most monstrous among all the politi-
cal impostors of our generation. Mr. JOHN
BRIGHT, M.P. for Birmingham, stands forth by
this time completely uncloaked and unmasked before
his fellow-countrymen. And he does so simply,
solely, and notoriously by a series of the most
suicidal proceedings. The impeccable tribune has
proved himself to be after all little better than the
moF.t sordid, the most venal, the most huxtering
of vulgar demogogues. The unrivalled debater
has turned out to be the merest flatulent windbag
--the archdebater has been dwindling down to
an unmitigated bore. One after another the
whole of the hundred arms of this Parliamentary
13 RIARE
us have been stricken with paralysis.
The boasted Boanerges of St. Stephen's has proved
so little of a Son of Thunder that he has
eventually been compelled—in spite of himself—to
sing small. We don't know any man who has
lapsed during this session into a position at once
so powerless, so contemptible, or so ridiculous.
Not even Mr. COLDEN, sneakint3
out of the way
there at Paris all this while Wfth his peddling
Treaty—unwilling to show his face even for a
single sitting, from February to August, in his
accustomed place in the House of Commons down
at Westminstmq Not even Mr. GLADSTONZ
with his Bu rst Budget, his shameless ro.
vival of the TrAelne-tax, his ruirted reputation as

a financier, his degraded position as a statesman,
and an administrator ! Pre-eminent, even beyond
these—stands forth, in kindred plight, Mr. BRIGHT,
the Bumptious BOANERGES of Birmingham.
If anything had been really needed to cap the
climax of Mr. BRIGHT'S proceedings during all this
session—that capping of the climax would incon-
testibly have been discoverable in the blinded
malignity and fatuity of his almost (even by him-
self) unparalleled proceeding's in the House of Com-
mons on Friday evening. As it happened, however,
those proceedings of Mr. BRIGHT'S came before the
House, and through the House before the country,
as a superfluous supplementary exposure at one and
the same time of his spite and of his powerlessness.
Judging of others, we are left to presume by what
he knows of himself, he could only attribute cer-
tain words, written or spoken, in respect to the
now intimately associated subjects of the Paper
Duties, and the House of Lords to the meanest mo-
tives well imaginable. The high-priced press
generally, but especially the Times--the Coalition
Cabinet generally, but particularly its veteran
chief Lord PALMERSTON—were grossly vilified by
Mr. BRIGHT for the course they had pursued
in this matter, affecting alike the repeal
or retention of the paper duties and
the rights and privileges of the House of
Lords—the Tisnes and Lord PALMERSTON with
peculiar roncour in every imputation against them,
were assailed by Mr. BRIGHT'S particularly viper-
like vituperations. Who was it, of whom Lord
BBOUGHAM once said—that while his mouth was
yet 'overflowing with venom as abundantly as ever
he had happily lost the perforated tooth through
which to squirt it? The remark is certainly at this
moment not wholly inapplicable to the member for
Birmingham. It is at any rate applicable
to his splenetic but wholly innoccuous
display of Friday. Lord PALMERSTON has
never, perhaps, in the whole of his long and
illustrious career in the House of Commons, re-
pelled the most malignant of his assailants with
a more.easy or a more dignified hauteur than he did
upon that occasion. Our leading contemporary
the Times has certainly never before vindicated
its character with more superb completeness, it
has never before justified more nobly or more
effectively its eminently, or rather pre-eminently,
powerful position in journalism, than it has in-
dubitably done now, in casting back in Mr.
BRIGHT'S face his paltry and disgraceful impu-
tations. Altogether, this really lamentable incident
of Friday—an incident so discreditable to its origi-
nator's character as a popular representative—
altogether we say, this really lamentable incident
serves only to recall vividly to our remembrance
that famous ejaculation with which the late Lord
DENMAN (then Mr. DENMAN) opened, and at the
same moment epitomized his retaliation upon the
Plaintiff in a memorable State Trial, in which that
great forensic orator appeared as the Advocate of
the Defendant. Applying to Mr. BRIGHT that same
historic apostrophe, we might here also epitomize
a whole retaliatory phillipic in these few words—
" Stand forth thou Demagogic Slanderer !"

Under the title, " The Conservative Reaction,"
the Quarterly has sung a kind of palinode in
regard to Mr. DISRAELI; not a very humble one,
for the boast really is that the young lord, or the
squad of young lords, have brought the great Tory
leader to repentance, or, at least, to what divines
tell us is the essence of all repentence—to Reforma-
tion. "We will not pay," says the Reviewer—
whom, of course, we take to be the same who did
not deny the authorship of the former article when
challenged with it in the House of Commons—
" We will dot pay the Conservative party the bad
compliment of believing that their leader is now
prepared to act on the principles which his
thoughtless advocates avow." Whatever his
past views, his conduct in regard to im-
portant measures this session is declared
to be without reproach. He has flinched
from no Conservatism, he has made no attempts
to " boil down" Conservative principles to suit the
palates of his Radical allies. The past was, indeed,
chargeable with " reckless ambition ;" but Mr.
BRIGHT'S "ferocious denunciations" show that the
Radical leader no longer calculates upon it. Credit
is also given to Mr. DISRAELI for being a genuine
convert—one who will not fall from the grace
given him in his new baptism. "We have a right
to assume that the change is permanent," says the
noble Reviewer, " and that Mr. DISRAELI has
abandoned for ever the unholy alliances and the
trimming tactics of which events have proved the
hollowness and the shame."

Not yet—says the Reviewer, very firmly, to any
needy Conservatives who may be gaping for the
spoils of office. The functions of Conservatism are
two—the first to maintain a " certain set of princi-
ples ;" and it has also to " obtain office for a number
of its principal debaters." The former is among "the
highest object to which a human being can devote
himself;" the other is rather a " matter to be ex-
tenuated and apologised for" by taking into account
the weaknesses of mankind. Office, to be sure, best
enables you to carry your principles into effect ;
but practically the choice, now, is between a
weak position in Government and a strong
one in Opposition ; and Lord DERBY'S hon-
ourable language in 1855 is quoted to
illustrate the writer's conception of the " humilia-
tion and impotence of an ill-supported Ministry."
Moreover much is held to be due to Lord PALMER-
STON for vindicating so nobly the right of the
Lords to tax the people. "Every Conservative
owes a debt to him for his manly and patriotic
bearing when the vote of the Lords was under
discussion, which it would be ingratitude for mere
party motives to forget." The state of affairs
abroad is also represented to be such as would
render it altogether undesirable to supplant
Lord PALMERSTON. The aspect of the political
horizon abroad, is, indeed, exceedingly well—be-
cause truthfully described, with the assertion that
party movements at such a time would be sicken-
ing to the country; and the implication that no
man would weather the impending storm better
than Lord PALMERSTON.

The grand object, indeed, of the Reviewer seems
to be, to show that Mr. DISRAELI serves Conserva-
tive objects better in opposition than in office—a
view of things, doubtless, unpalatable enough to a
great number of honourable members. They must
choose, he says, between tampering with their
principles in office, or upholding them in opposi-
tion ; and the latter he thinks infinitely the better.
In the former part of the Review the "Reaction "
had been illustrated, chiefly in connection with
Church-rates, the Reform Bill, and the Pap r
Duties—and it is observed that during the
past session the Conservatives have been able to
"expose and explode a Reform Bill, to save the
Paper Duties, and to give the movement against
Church Rates the most damaging repulse it has
received ? " It is then triumphantly asked, " Can
they say the same for the year they were in office ?
In which direction did these three questions move
during that short and disastrous triumph ? "
Questions these which surely justify the political
wisdom of those of us who declined to be parties to
any factious displacement of the Tories. There
L were not wanting at that time persons who sus-

pected, or professed to suspect, our liberalism—they
may now see how Tories, enlightened by events,
view the same things. Had Tories been continued
in office, we have little doubt that we should
have had a tolerably useful instalment of
Reform ; and, if they would not have
emancipated the penny press by putting
the penny on the poor Income-tax payers, they
would in all probability have brought us to the
close of the Church-rai'e struggle. The working of
things is too obvious to need explanation ; the
simple fact is that Tories are as liberal, in office, as
the Whigs are, That they of course do not oppose
their own liberal proposals, on which they rely for
popularity; that the Whigs, much as they would
like to do it, in opposition, dare not,—and thus we
get something. As to the personnel of Ministries,
we cannot comprehend how sincere Liberals should
not be most supremely indifferent to it.
A most amusing part of the noble lord's review
is the way in which he shows, too often with self-
evident truth, that Mr. BRIGHT has been this
session the most valuable ally of the Conservatives.
"Mr. BRIGHT has secured the Church-rate for this
year, perhaps for many years to come." Four Minis-
ters had already tendered their submission to Sir J.
TRELAWNY, and the cause seemed almost hopeless,
when Mr. BRIGHT'S unpopularity in the house
brought down the majority of seventy to its last of
nine ! So the maintenance of the Paper Duty was
the next achievement of " Conservative alarms,"
aroused by Mr. BRIGHT'S "unguarded tongue."
" This triumph was all his own," for Mr. COBDEN
and Mr. GLADSTONE were but " agents executing
his commands." And this was the " cruellest
blow of all," for the repeal of this tax was his own
darling project, and " it was a cruel freak of fate,
or rather it was a just NEMESIS upon his unbridled
and unscrupulous tongue, that his own should be
the hand to frustrate, upon the very verge of vic-
tory, the dearest object of his political career." But
this is not all, nor by any means the most important
service which Conservatives themselves now con-
fess Mr. BRIGHT has rendered to their cause. "No
one can fully appreciate the gratitude due from
Conservatives to Mr. BRIGHT, who does not take
into account his effective aid in resisting the Re-
form Bill." Everything, as the Reviewer shows at
length, seemed to indicate tliat a Reform Bill
must pass this session. It needed a man of
energy and attractive eloquence to reiterate
truths which it was wholesome for the nation
to hear, and "in the hour of her necessity
Mr. BRIGHT was not wanting to his coun-
try." He achieved the great object of showing
the middle classes that Reform " was only desired
for the purpose of laying the whole burden of tax-
ation on the shoulders of a single class." We fear
there can be little doubt that the bold threats of
Mr. BRIGHT and Mr. GLADSTONE, that next year,
it would be for enlarged constituencies to decide
whether direct taxation should be increased or not,
had more to do with the indisposition of the House
and the constituencies to urge on the " poor little
Bill" than any other cause. The middle-class
electors were frightened.
The reviewer says that to breathe into the nos-
trils of his subsidised organ, the breath of a genuine
circulation, was a necessary condition of maintain-
ing the position of Parliamentary umpire, into which
he had dexterously struggled"—and the letter we
publish to-day certainly seems to show a very close
connection between one penny paper, its whole
staff—editors, writers, contributors, and partizans—
Mr. BRIGHT—and the Manchester school. The
writer expresses himself warmly, with all the ear-
nestness of a zealous politican, but his facts he is
in a position to give correctly, and we have not yet
seen their falsehood exposed, though the "subsidized
organ" naturally denies them. Refutation would
be more to the purpose. We have, indeed, no more
suspicion than the reviewer, of persona/objects on the
part of Mr. BRIGHT, but we can as little doubt, in
assenting to his view, that he bas been the great
Conservative Helper, the great Liberal marplot of
the session. We may certainly adapt to him an
old motto—nihil tetigit quod non ornavit, et—PER-