The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 5, 1860

policy of a strong Italy first, and then a leisurely
dealing with Rome and Venetia, is the one which
must, we think, be ultimately successful.

The Volunteer Movement of 1869-1860 gives
promise of far happier results than those which
sprung from its prototype of 1803-1804. Far
happier, because auguring permanence ! The pre-
parations made fifty-seven years back for the re-
pulse of any possible invasion of these shores were
the precipitate consequences, as history relates, of
a temporary enthusiasm. It was known at that

time that the First Consul of the French Republic
was actually in readiness at Boulogne to cross the
Channel, at the earliest available opportunity, at

the head of a powerful force there gathered
together for the express purpose, with the
openly avowed intention of descending upon

the shores of Great Britain for the subjugation o:

its Government. BONAPARTE'S army, there and

then assembled upon the heights of Boulogne for
the carrying out of this audacious design, was, in
point of fact, distinctly designated the Army of
England. It numbered, curiously enough, the iden-
tical total which has already been attained
in these times by our Rifle Volunteers.
The Volunteers of 1860 numbered 150,000
Riflemen ! The soldiers of the Army of England,
the soldiers, that is to say, who were, in 1802, col-
lected upon the heights of Boulogne by the French
Republican Consul,General NAPOLEON BONAPARTE,
for the conquest of the British Island, numbered
also 150,000 men—being one entire moiety of the
disposable force of 300,000 men then carrying the
tricoloured banner of the Republic—those tri-
coloured banners which were so soon afterwards to
be crowned by the Imperial eagles of the later and
greater CHARLE3IAGNE.
In the presence of the spontaneous movement for
the national defence now in this year of grace,
1860, actually accomplished, or in process of ac-
complishment—it is instructive to remember
what were the precise means adopted by our
sires and grand-sires, in 1803, with a like
view to the better and surer maintenance
of the national independence. Then, in 1803,
the patriotic ardour displayed simultaneously
by the people, the Parliament, and the Government,
was, in all essential respects, as conspicuously
manifested as it has been very recently, and one,
everything considered, quite as deserving
of admiration. It was the same, however
—with a difference. And the difference notice-
able is one alike of kind and of magnitude.
For example, the movement now witnessed in
this country is proportionably extended by
reason of the increase of the population, by reason
of the increase of the national wealth, by reason of
extraordinary advances made during the interval
of half a century which has elapsed since the
former movement of a like kind was manifested,
the enormous and astonishing advances made since
t]en in the general development of all
the marvellous forces, moral and physical,
scientific and political, of modern civilisation. As
indicative of the larger scale upon which nations
and Governments have to act nowadays, it would
be almost sufficient to direct attention for a
moment to the one simple fact that the aggregate
of the French army then in 1803, under the
greatest military adventurer that, perhaps,
in the history of this world (certainly in the annals
of modern times) ever agitated the destinies of the
human race—the aggregate of the French army in
1803, under the First Consul, NAPOLEON BONA-
PARTE, amounted, as we have already intimated,
to a force of 300,000 men—exactly one-half
of the total of the French army now
owing allegiance in a time of peace to
his nephew and successor, the present NAPO-
LEON BONAPARTE. Again, as indicative of
the advanced scope of things in 1860 (amongst our-
selves), as compared with what they were (amongst
ourselves) in 1803—let it be remembered that
whereas then, in a time of war, our total
war expenditure amounted to £23,590,757
upon army, navy, and ordnance—now, in a
time of peace, we have, during the present
twelvemonth, been expending upon our maritime
and military armaments upwards of thirty millions
sterling ! Nay, the total amount of our expendi-
ture, during that warlike year of 1803,
reached an aggregate of precisely £48,998,230
—while we know but too well nowa-
days that, daring the eurrent peaceful
year of 1860 the aggregate of the national expen-
diture has exceeded seventy millions sterling ! Yet,
recollecting the difference referred to, therefore, we
maintain it is still instructive to remember the con-
trast presented to view by the nature and extent of
the preparations made in England for the national
defence in 1803 and 1860. Fifty -seven years ago then
—our predecessors prepared against the probabilities
of a threatened invasion as vigorously as in their
way, according to their means, as we have very re-
cently been preparing against the possibilities of
any such imperilment of our independence—as
vigorously, but, we repeat, N., ith a difference !
Beyond a militia force of 80,000 men (called out on
the 25th of March, 1803)—beyond the regular
army of 130,000 men—the House of Commons on
the 28th of June, 1803, agreed to the unwonted ex-
pedient of raising 50,000 men additional by pro-
scription ! This extraordinary measure being
adopted with a view to raise the aggregate of the
regular troops in Great Britain to a total of
112,000 men, exclusive of the troops scattered far
and wide over the globe in our distant colonies.
The 50,000 additional soldiers obtained thus by
proscription being raised in the proportion of
34,000 for England, 10,000 for Ireland, and 6,000
for Scotland. Added to which there was intro-
duced in the Legislature on the 18th of
July, 1803, the memorable bill enabling the
KING to call ont the levy en masse, and authorising
the lords-lieutenant of the shires to enlist all the
male adults- in the United Kingdom between the
age of seventeen and fifty-seven—a proceeding that
resulted in the enrolment, within a few weeks, of
300,000 men fully armed and rapidly disciplined !
Whereupon, in the presence of that majestic move-
ment—not a word more was heard then of that
(thanks be to GOD !), in England, unusual expedient
of a compulsory proscription ! Recollect the Volun-
teers of the metropolis alone amounted to a total of
nearly 50,000, namely to 46,000! Recollect, too, that
in the October of 1803 King GEORGE 111. reviewed
in Ilyde Park—(it reads like the record
of a more recent incident under his royal grand-
daughter)-27,000 of these patriotic Volunteers.
But—in the remembrance of all that enthusiasm of
fifty-seven years ago—let it be borne in mind that
the reply of the people was then given to the visible
threat of a most formidable invasion prepared
against these islands by NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
Now—all that we have been doing is in answer to
vague rumours of the mere possibilities of invasion.
Let the war-trumpet but actually sound against us,
and we may rest assured that our 150,000 Volun-
teers would soon enough be multiplied to an
aggregate of half-a-million. Under any circum-
stance,
ise,we may confidently assert that the peculiar
difference discernible between what has been done
nowadays in 1860 and what was done formerly in
the fact that the movement of 1803 died
Out vrithtb.e disappearance of the danger threatened,