The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 13, 1860,

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17

NOMINATION OF SHERIFF ti.

Yesterday being the morrow of St. Martin, the ceremony
of nominating the sheriffs for the several counties of Eng-
land and Wales for the year ensuing took place in the
Court of Exchequer after the ordinary business of the Court
had concluded. The following is a list of the gentlemen
nominated, with the exception . of those for Cornwall and
Lancashire, who are nominated by the Prince of Wales :

LORD STANLEY AND LORD ELGIN ON
VOLUNTEERING.

The presentation of prizes to the successful
competitors at the great rifle and artillery contest
at Hightown, took place last evening, in St. George's
Hall, Liverpool.
S. R. Graves, the mayor, came upon the dais
about a quarter after ten o'clock. He was accom-
panied by the Right Hon. Lord Stanley, M.P.,
Lord Elcho, who wore his own neat uniform of
grey, with brown leather accoutrements and
knickerbockers; Lieutenant Colonel Wilbraham,
adjutant-general of the district ; Colonels Turner,
Gladstone, Bousfield, and Brown ; Majors Bu-
chanan, Walter, Tinley, Gregg, and Halkett ;
Captains Melly, Falkner, Hornby, &c.
After a few words from the MAYOR and Lieut.-
Colonel WILBRAHAM,

Lord STANLEY, who was received with hearty
cheers, said—l should nothave thought it necessary
to trouble you but for the fact that I have been
called upon by the Mayor to move a resolution ;
and as obedience to constituted authorities is
equally a civil and military duty, I am prepared
to do so and will read the resolution, which is to
this effect:—

That in the opinion of this meeting it is desirable that a
County Association should be formed for the encourage-
ment of the Volunteer Movement, and the promotion' of
rifle shooting by annual matches to be held within the
county at a place or plaxes to be hereafter decided upon.
There are few persons who are less entitled than I
am to speak with authority upon this volunteer
movement, for my personal share in it has been but
small. But I cannot look around this room—indeed
not around this platform—without seeing some gen-
tlemen who have given to its promotion their time,
their energy, and their pecuniary means to an ex-
tent that makes one proud of English perseverance
and of English patriotism. (Cheers.) We are all apt
to exaggerate the importance of events that are
passing immediately before our eyes. The occur-
rences of the day look larger to us than they will to
our successors, or even to ourselves, some 15 or 20
years hence. But making all due allowances for
that liability to exaggerate, I believe that when the
history of the present generation is written, there
are few events in connection with it that will take
a more prominent place than will this national
armament—this arming of the people that has
taken place in the last and present year. It has
been, as we all know, a popular and spontaneous
act. No Government nor any individual can claim
more than a limited share of credit for promoting
it. No one probably, in the first instance, dreamed
of the extent to which it would spread, and the
more numerous the points of view in which you
consider it, the more clearly you will see the ad-
vantage and the benefits which it has conferred
upon English society. (Cheers.) Financially,
although a Volunteer force can never be a substitute
for a regular army, yet it is impossible to doubt*
that the extent to which the arming of the people
has been carried has to a great degree done away
with the necessity which public opinion would
otherwise have impcsed upon the Government of the
day, of a large augmentation of the regular force.
Politically, it is equally impossible to doubt that
the Volunteer movement has greatly increased the
power and the influence of England in the councils
of Europe. It has done that far more than any
action on the part of the Government could have
done; because tit has shown that in this country,
whatever it may be elsewhere, the Government and
the people are one in their determination to main-
tain inviolate the safety, the honour, and the influ-
ence of the nation. (Cheers.) Socially, I believe
that the Volunteer movement has done more than
anything else which has taken place in our time to
bring together classes which are usually separated
by a difference of habits and difference of ideas;
and if we are to look upon it in a point of
view to which some perhaps will attach less im-
portance—if we are to look at it as it concerns
the individual units of which the Volun-
teer force is composed—we see many thou-
sands of young men brought up in the great
towns of this country leading a sedentary life,
leading a life which is often unhealthy, liv-
ing many of them without that amount of air
and exercise which is indispensable to a sound. con-
dition of body, growing up therefore unhealthy,
and, because unhealthy, discontented and dissatis-
fied with themselves and with things around them
—we see, I say, thousands placed under these cir-
cumstances to whom this movement has furnished a
pursuit which combines, for them, with a sense of
public usefulness, all the advantages of health and
of strength which they could not have acquired but
for that peculiar attraction which military exercises
appear to possess for those who have once formed a
taste for them. And, lastly, I believe that this arm-
ing of the people is in itself essentially a movement
in favour of the continuance of an European peace.
It is so not merely in the sense in which that ex-
pression is often used—because it has a tendency to
deter other nations from attacking us—but it is so
likewise because it has a tendency to render us less
willing to engage in quarrels with other countries.
That may appear at first sight a paradox, but I can
explain is a very few words what I mean.
I believe that whenever a cry for war spreads
through this country—we have known such before
and may possibly hear them again—one of the
motives which most powerfully influences the public
in favour of war is an uncomfortable suspicion that
people abroad believe that England is not prepared
to enter into a war, and a still more uncomfortable
suspicion that in that belief it is possible that the
people may right. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) It
is in the body corporate, as in the physical frame,
weakness and irritability go together. (Laughter.)
I-, is with nations as with individuals. Those who
are strong and know themselves to be so, can afford
to be good humoured and forbearing, and. to pass
over petty annoyances and strife, and it is those
who are distrustful of their own position, who are
distrustful of the opinion formed of them by others,
who, in order to vindicate that doubtful position,
are always ready to rush into a quarrel at a moment's
notice. (Hear, hear.) If you think thus, as I be-
lieve you do, of the Volunteer movement, let us
consider what it is that we can do to keep up
and even to increase its efficiency. I think that
there was great truth and sense in the warning ad-
dressed lately by the Chancellor of the Exchequer
to his audience at Chester, when he told them that
in taking up this movement in so signal and con-
spicuous a manner before the eyes, as it were, of all
Earope, the people of England had involved them-
selves in a great responsibility,
.for that, although
the thing might, at first, have been let alone with-
out any reasonable cause for reproaches, yet still,
having been once taken up in so signal and public
a manner, it could not be let drop without national
discredit and even national disgrace. (Hear,
hear.) What, then, can we do to keep up the effi-
ciency of the force ? There are two things, I pre-
sume, without which no force, and especially no
Volunteer force, can be efficient. One is the collec-
tive efficiency of the corn, i that compose it, and the
other is the individual skill of the men in the use
of the weapon which they handle. Those who
know more of military matters than I pretend to
know tell us that in war nothing, or next to no-
thing, can be done by the isolated efforts of mere
marksmen, if they are not able to combine fqr pur-
poses of joint attack and mutual defence—(hear,
hear)—and, on the other hand, it is quite plain that,
however well you may drill and discipline men,
lowever steadily you may get them to stand in a
ine, however firmly they may resist attack, still
they will be of comparatively little value in the field
unless every man can so use his weapon as to bring
dawn the enemy at whom he aims. Of these two
requisites, one—l mean discipline—ought to be pro-
rded for by those frequent drillings which I be-
lieve no well-organised corps will neglect ; by occa-
eienal reviews on a larger scale, and by inspections
by experienced and competent officers, such as every
Voiunteer corps ought from time to time to undergo.
The other requisite that of individual skill, is
necessarily more difficult to attain. The best means
of securing it, I believe, will be found in bringing
into play that principle of competition which is
fount to be so greatly, effective in many other
branches of human attainment—that principle of
competition of which a signal instance has lately
been given in this neighbourhood. As to the desira-
bility of such matches as that at Hightown we
should all agree ; but then the question arises,
under what conditions, and on what principles,
ought each matches to be conducted? I shall not
enter into details, but there are one or two prin-
ciples which ought to be regarded when it is
sought to form an association by which rifle con-
tests are to be made a permanent part of our in-
stitutioas. In the first place they mast be local,
but the area should not be too limited, (Hear,
hear.) There is danger both ways. If the area
is too large, you will get none to compete for the
prizes except a few crack shots—there would
no feeling of general interest or of general
_.;
emula-
tion. On the other hand, if an association
itself to a single town or neighbourhood, Sou
prizesyou will
not attract sufficient public attention. I
which are offered will not be sufficiently valuable;
the distinction of gaining them will not be
equally great. In the
agricultural districts,
therefore, it might be wise for two or three
counties to unite in a eingle association ; but here
in Lancashire, with our extensive area, our
vast population, and our
I unlimitedtetelmsinhoaud
be sorry if nld
both of capital and of labour, confess. that
had not a County Rifle Association
of our own—(cheers)—and I suould be equally sorry
if, from local jealousy or any other cause, the single
association which we project were to fall through
and its place were to be taken by two or three small
local associations, not occupying as they fleece-
eerily would not, the same space in the public eye.

(Hear, hear.) What I say does not at all exclude
the possibility of matches being held from time to
time in different parts of the county. Personally,
I think it better that they should be so held, and
the County Association should be to them what a
County Agricultural Association is to local ones of
that nature. I think that our county associations
ought to be placed under the authority of the Lord
Lieutenant, and that there ought to be carefully
trained and experienced officers to act as judges,
and inspect the proceedings so as to give them as
much as possible a really military character.
There is another question upon which I think it is
possible that, in the future, great discussion may
arise—l mean as to how far membership of the
Association or admission to compete for the prizes
should be limited to Volunteers. I don't want to
see that limitation made absolute. It will be well '
enough that a few prizes are open to all comers ;
but as a general rule, I think it desirable to connect
the rifle match of the county with its Volunteer
force, and chiefly for this reason, that rifle contests
are popular and interesting, while drill is not to all
persons very interesting, and is not always consi-
dered agreeable. It may, therefore, be well to hold
out the privilege of competing in these county
matches as a sort of reward to those who have gone
through the labour and trouble of training them-
selves to act in a regular Volunteer corps.
(Applause.) Lastly, I think it will be well to
secure that the regulations shall be so framed as
to prevent all the prizes falling into a few hands.
(Hear, hear.) There are many ways in which
that may be done, but it is essential for us to re-
member that our object is not to show in Lanca-
shire merely the half dozen best shots in England,
but to produce a high average of good shooting—
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that as to the artillery practice at the range of a
of an ordinary size that might have been
attempting to enter the Mersey for a hos-
tile purpose. (Cheers,) Let us hope
that no local jealousy, and that no rivalry
(always
riva ry
(always the greater the more zealous men
are in any object they pursue), may interfere with
the progress of a movement upon which, in no
common degree, the honour and safety of this coun-
try depends. (Loud cheers.)
Lord ELcuo, who was received with much ap-
plause, said it was with heartfelt satisfaction that
he seconded the motion proposed by Lord Stanley
—a motion vc hick he hoped would have a most
material and beneficial effect upon the volunteer
movement in the county of Lancaster. (Applause.)
Occupying as he did a certain official position as
Chairman of the National Rifle Association, he did
not hesitate to accept the invitation to aid in the
foundation of a similar association in Lancashire.
The objects of the National Rifle Association were
well known, but perhaps all did not know that one
of the founders of the association (which he hoped
would have a long career of prosperity before it)
was Col. Gladstone—(applause); and with reference
to this point he might say that the National Rifle As-
sociation was about to publish a little pamphlet—
it was only a shilling, and he hoped all present
would invest that amount in the purchase of the
work, giving a clear and succinct account of the
origin of the Volanteer movement. The object of
the National Rifle Association was to give perma-
nence to the Volunteer movement ; and the forma-
tion of the Association naturally arose from seeing
in other countries—Switzerland, for example—the
benefit consequent upon every man being trained to
the use of the rifle, The National Rifle Association
had not got that number of members from Liver-
pool which it ought to have ; and though the people
of Liverpool took great interest in their local asso-
ciation, yet they should recollect that, like the
Royal Agricultural Society, they wanted a cul-
minating society, which would be the means of
finding out the crack shot of England—(ap-
plause)—and which could bestow some honour
which no local association could. (Applause.)
That was the system which prevailed in Switzer-
land, where each canton had its local association,
and the different cantons met together once in two
years to compete for prizes. With reference to
prizes, he knew that all the Volunteers would agree
with him when he said that they ought not to look
too much to their money value. It seemed to him
that the Hightown prizes were rather too large ;
and he would remind them that they must not only
look to the permanence of the Volunteer movement,
but to the 'permanence of the means by which they
could make that movement permanent. (Hear.)
They should get the Volunteers not to look so
much to the prizes as to the position they gained in
the contest. In our army the highest honour a
soldier could gain was a bit of bronze ; and the
National Rifle Association wished their bronze
medal to be considered the highest honour
open to the competitors. (Applause.) Nothing
had given him greater pleasure than to see that the
gentlemen who had conducted the Hightown con-
test abstained from offering medals. The army
won their medals at the risk of their lives, and he
should not like to feel that he was going about with
medals which had been won only in peaceful con-
tests with the rifle. (Applause.) It was on that
account that he would restrict the prizes to money
or plate; and there was no better means of hus-
banding their resources than by offering challenge
cups. In the formation of their County Asso-
ciation, he should wish them to connect it with

the National Association, simply because it was
desirable to have a culminating point. If anyone
said that the Volunteers had any hostile intention,
he would refer them to the speech of Lord Stanley;
and if another proof was wanted he would point
to the Commander of the Ist Lancashire Artillery
—Colonel William Brown. (Applause.) The
recent speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
was also an important feature in the volunteer
movement, because at first the Chancellor was not
very favourable to the movement, but now he gave
it the benefit of his eloquence. He (Lord Elcho)
was quite sure he gave utterance to the sentiments
of every volunteer when he said that in taking
up the volunteer cause as they had done, it was
with a determination that our country should be
strong and secure, and that England's voice should be
heard, without fear of the consequences, in the cause
of liberty and civilisation. He had always wished to
feel that the hands of our Foreign Secretary were
untied, and that his despatches were dictated solely
by a feeling of right and justice without fear of
consequences. (Hear, hear.) In concluding, as
was his custom, he would give the Volunteers a few
words of advice :—Let nothing induce them to relax
their efforts, but let them stick to their work like
men. And all he hoped was, that the ladies of
England, who had shown such a deep interest in
the movement, would, if they saw any symptoms
on the part of the volunteers to relax their efforts,
make them stick to it, for no man knew better than
a volunteer tlee magic effects of woman's smile or
woman's frown. (Much applause.)
Colonel WILLIAM BROWN then proposed a vote
of thanks to the Mayor for presiding. The motion
was seconded by Major Tinley ; and the Mayor
having returned thanks announced that the
remainder of the evening (it being then ten o'clock)
would be devoted to a soiree dansante.