The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

the case ; so that, except on the ground of health,
or of special occupation, it will be regarded as
effeminate not to belong to a volunteer corps. In-
deed, the two classes which we naturally think of
as exempt—the clergyman and the medical
man—will probably put in their claim as
professional volunteers. Each corps will have
its honorary Chaplain, and its honorary Sur-
geon ; the latter undertaking, gratuitously of
course, only such accidents as may occur in the
service. This is the picture of things which we
form to ourselves of the Volunteer movement by
the time ten or fifteen years have elapsed. We
trust it is not enthusiastic or unreasonable. We
see so many physical and moral, as well as political
advantages in the Volunteer movement, that we
shall regard it as a national calamity if it does
not carry, eventually, the whole community with

This being our general view, we must also insist
on the close connection between the Volunteer
movement and National Education. If ten years
hence all the healthy boys in our schools ought
to be volunteers, then, by all means, let the
school help to prepare them for it. They
learn there that they have an old and
glorious country, as well as one in which they were
born, to defend ; let them learn also something of
the art and science of national defence. In our great
grammar schools the art of personal defence has
always, and deservedly, held a high place ; the
drill sergeant, and even the teacher of the rifle, will
probably be welcome enough there. If to those be
added the British and national schools, all, indeed,
which are supported by State aid, then the middle
class private schools will be compelled to come in ;
indeed we have little doubt they would generally
be willing enough to do so. Parents will come to
regard a school, where drill is not taught, as defec
tive in an accomplishment which their sons ought
not to be without. Music, drawing, this language or
that, may be passed over if necessary, but the father
will not like his son to appear among the awkward
ones at drill or parade. " Military drill carefully
taught" will soon occupy a conspicuous place in
every school programme.

Now is for the Government, both through the
Committee of Council on Education and through
the Horse Guards, to forward this national object.
Yes, even the Horse Guards must buckle to, and
that cheerfully. One of its future merits, one of its
best future titles to respect should be to stand at the
head of the Volunteer military education of the
nation. It should be the military university to all
the other schools. It will have no cause for jealousy.
All the genius it calls forth in military matters is
sure to tend towards itself, and to form part of its
strength ; and it will thus obtain a place in public
respect, and even attachment, hitherto unknown.
When the most energetic portion of the population
all look up to it, not as its rival, but as its cordial
instructor, the reconciliation between the public and
the Horse Guards will be complete. It will stand
first in military skill and knowledge, and its pre-
miership will become matter of pride with the
hundreds of thousands, the millions we hope, who
will see in it a generous teacher as well as a standard
and model.

It is for the Committee of Council to require the
instruction in the schools it supports, and for the
Horse Guards to provide the means. It will in
many cases be a work of a little time, but yet it
can surely be easily done. Let the rule once be
laid down by the Council that at the earliest reason-
able time, the boys are to be taught such portions
of military drill as at their age they are capable
of, and then let the military authorities proffer
the requisite instruction in such ways as are most
convenient to all parties, and we believe that in a
very short time drill would become common in a
large part of the schools, while the rest would be
sure to follow as soon as they could. In some
neighbourhoods it would be easy at once for a re-
cruiting sergeant to make the round of several
schools, and he might rely upon the imitative
young rogues repeating his lessons freluently
enough in the intervals of his visits, and no doubt
the neighbours would soon begin to witness their
mimic evolutions as they paraded the streets on
their return home. But a chief reliance should be
the teachers themselves. To them special training
should be offered, with certificates of qualification of
a very precise character ; and beyond question, some
small but reasonable emolument in the school

should follow success in drilling the lads. We would
have a fair-minded military inspector ; a man fond
of boys, with a genius for interesting them. There
are such men, and they would not be in a school
five minutes before you would detect them ; and
on his certificate the teacher should receive a suita-
ble reward for his efforts in this way. Quite sure
are we, that if capitation money, and pupil teacher
payments, be a legitimate use of the public money ;
payment for imparting to the lads the elements of
capacity to defend their country would be so. That
is, indemiably, a public object.
We need not now advert at length to the physi-

cal and moral advantages to the children, of the
cause proposed. Mr. CHADWICK has already done
that well. The habits of implicit obedience, of
subordination and order, and of co-operation in ac-
tion taught by military training, are confessed ad-
vantages ; especially among a race like ours, in
which there is no danger whatever of the love of
personal and social and political freedom being in

the slightest degree suppressed. Physically, we

have no doubt that the substitution of drill for a
short time daily, not the addition of it to existing
school lessons, would not diminish the work done
in the schools, while it would materially add to the
pleasure with which it was done. And we pre-
sume the " doctors would not differ" as to the de-
sirableness of such equal development of the mus-
cular system as is given by drill. On the other
hand, we are aware of no objections to these views.
What we advocate appears to be all clear gain—
the gain of all our boys acquiring aptitude for mili-
tary training, just as they acquire aptitude for
reading, writing, and arithmetic. No aptitude, as
the rule, equals that which is acquired by the
training of our earliest days. The proof is every
man's experience. We hope, therefore, this subject
will soon receive the fullest attention from the Go-
vernment.

ADELPHI TIIEATRE.—Mr. William Smith, the
acting manager of the Adeiphi Theatre, announces his
annual benefit there for next Thursday evening. The pieces
selected for the occasion are, " Masks and Faces," in which
Mr. 'Webster will sustain his original character of the poor
poet Triplet, and Mrs. Alfred Mellon that of Peg Welling-
ton. The musical farce of " Loan of a Lover" will be
played by Miss Rebecca Isaacs and Mr. W. Smith, in the
parts of Gertrude and Peter Spyk. Mr. George Hodgson,
the delineator of Irish character, and Mr. J. L. Toole will
appear as Pat Rooney and Tom Dobbs, in the farce of the
" Omnibus," with which the performances are to conclude.
PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY.—The following gen-
tlemen passed the major examination of August 21as phar-
maceutical chymists 7 —Richard James Bearcroft, Chelten-
ham ; Henry Clayton, Lewisham ; William Hodges, Rams-
gate; Jelin Burton, Nottingham; Frederick Win. Kent,
Southampton. _ _

TIIE COMMERCIAL TREATY.—The inquiry re-
lative to the trea'y with England is drawing towards its
close. The Superior Council of Commerce, presided over
by M. Rouher, last week held five sittings instead
of four. The first two were devoted to matters con-
nected with the silk trade, and the three others to the
fabrication of spirits and of chemical products. About
150 manufacturers, representing these three branches of
French industry, were examinad by the council. The last
sitting concluded by an interesting deposition of M. Bou-
tarel, proprietor and director of the large dyeing establish-
ment at Clichy-la-Garenne.—Galignani.