The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-07 00:00:00

MAROCHETTI'S CEUR DE LION.

NAPOLEOA 111. AND THE ENGLISH

VOLUNTEERS.

Lord Bury, in a letter to the Times, says :
Will you allow me to say a few words on the sub-
ject of an article which appears under the above
heading in one of your contemporaries of Satur-
day ? The article contains a letter from M. Moc-
guard, the Emperor's Secretary, in answer to one
sent to his Majesty by a certain Mr. J. Klotz Row-
sell. Mr. Rowsell, whose letter is not published,
appears to have proposed that an excursion party
of British Volunteers should proceed to Paris. The
Emperor declares himself favourable to the plan,
and promises a warm reception. Mr. Rowsell
has, according to the Morning Chronicle, had inter-
views with the Commander-in-Chief and the Sec-
retary of War, who have both " spoken most
approvingly of the project," and who consider it
" very favourable to the maintenance of friendly
relations between England and France."
Mr. Rowsell has "made application to the rail-
way companies in France and England," so that
" as great a number of Volunteers as possible may
visit Paris, where the most brilliant reception
doubtless awaits them."

The expedition, then, appears to be in process of
active organization. The whole Volunteer service
are invited to send representatives. Will you per-
mit me to mention a few of the more prominent
objections to the plan P
The Volunteer service is the embodiment of a
belief on the part of the English people that cer-
tain armaments which were going on in Europe
were calculated to inspire distrust. We did not
remonstrate ; it would have been useless and un-
dignified ; we did not increase our army ; it might
have been construed into an answering threat; but
we raised force well adapted for defence, but
powerless for aggression—a force, therefore, at
which no foreign sovereign could take umbrage,
or even affect to regard it as a menace.
There is but one Sovereign against whom these
preparations can have been made, and if our Volun-
teers, as Volunteers, go over to exchange compli-
ments with M. le Prefet de la Seine and his official
brethren, the position which England has assumed
will lose its significance—we shall commit an act of
extreme bad taste ; and if, as Mr. Rowsell suggests,
we go " to fraternise with the Army," we shall run.
more than a risk of making ourselves supremely
ridiculous.

It is hard to imagine what must have been the
feelings of the Emperor of the French whet he read
the letter which Mr. Rowsell addressed to him. His
Imperial Majesty could hardly answer that the
Volunteers, if they entered his dominions, would be
badly received ; but is it really possible that the
British Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of
State for War have "expressed themselves delighted
with the proposal ?" There must surely be some
mistake in that.

The excursionists are to go in uniform ; the gist
of Mr. Rowsell's scheme is their appearance as
volunteers. If in uniform, they will march, when
occasion serves, in some sort of military formation.
Of course they will have neither rifles nor side
arms, and will consequently look rather like pri-
soners of war. I pass over that, but I should like
to ask Mr. Rowsell whether any officer has been
selected for the command ? If so, is it sure that
the members of the various corps composing the
expedition will obey the officer so selected ? Vo-
lunteers are not under martial law, and cannot be
ordered to perform the smallest military act—not
even to keep their ranks or te form four deep,
unless they so please. Even if this difficulty be
overcome, are there subaltern and non-commissioned
officers told off in sufficient numbers to assist the
officer in command ? and will the rank and file of
the excursionists obey them? If all this be answered
in the affirmative, the Volunteers will, at best, have
to do under disadvantages, and under the eyes of
the " most military nation in the world," what they
have hardly yet learnt to do thoroughly with
every advantage. If Mr. Rowsell answer that no
military formation is intended, then the excur-
sionists differ only from other excursionists inas-
much as they are clothed in a uniform for the
credit of which the English people are keenly soli-
citous.