The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-23 00:00:00

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service, because the troops are clothed with greater
authority, and everything must give way to mili-
tary exigencies. If Colonels were authorised to
issue certificates of indebtedness for what their
regiments required, Commissariat officers would
be almost useless in England. The difference
between feeding a volunteer army in the field
against an enemy, and one on an holiday review has
been overlooked, the former being the combined
effort of the nation, the latter only individual ac-
tion. Try soldiers under similar circumstances,
and we learn that volunteers are peculiarly adapted
for foraging, the sol Tiers being mere children, while
the others are able to support them-wives. Han army of
volunteers were collected together, would they be fed.
by ravens —the Pall 11,,1/asks —or, i t a Us, would they
not be more likely to feed any ravens that might be
forthcoming ? Now, the idea of an English army
on English soil starving when opiratin;• ag Linst arl
invader is preposterous. No armed men starve in a
district where there is plenty of fool, an I as no man
denies there is abund Lnce of food in England, and
easy carriage everywhere, it is ship), absurd to talk
of the men being starved by deficient organisation.
Shelter, clothing, and food, the great requirements
of an army operating against an enemy, would bo
supplied in overflowing abundance, and the most
perfect organisation to which an army ever attained
would be but a mere makeshift compared with that
which would furnish every requisite to the volun-
teers of England operating on English soil. Tents,
knapsacks, and such baggage so essential in other
countries, are to English volunteers comparativeAy
useless, for they are but a bad substitute for wb'at is
everywhere attainable in this island. So also with
hospitals and the medical branch. " Is there a single
surgeon to any volunteer regiment who has the faintest
notion as to what his position would be in active
service?" the Pall Mall asks. There is is no posi-
tion told off for surgeons in active service. On
every field the senior medical officers organise their
department according to circumstances. A certain
number accompany the troops in action, supplied
with tourniquets and restoratives for the exigencies
of the moment. But the main hospitals are always
established well to the rear, and to suppose that,
this branch would fail, where the country is so
abundantly supplied both with medical men, and
surgical appliances, is improbable. The question
of discipline is one easily answered. The moment
volunteer regiments take the field for war, the
Mutiny Act would be extended to embrace the
whole organisation, and not only would the same
laws control volunteers that control regular fsol-
diers, but they would be found less difficult to deal
with, belonging as they do to a more educated class
of society. Thus the question of their worth nar-
rows itself to the very training which the Pall Mall
despises—the knowledge of drill they have acquired
and the power of handling their weapons effec-
tively. The Pall Mall sums up all its queries as to
the volunteers in one :—" What are they except a
number of bands of brave and sturdy men, ac-
quainted with regimental drill, and in many in-
stances pretty good shots; and are not these just
the sort of men who were ignominiously routed at
Montana ?" The error which underlies the article
is this :—The supposition is, that the opposing
armies are operating on equal terms—a volunteer
army against a regular army—the field being any-
where, and the inhabitants averse to both. In that
case, all that the Pall Mall has urged would be
But that is not the case of English volun-
;eers—their own country being their field, their
camp their hospital, and their base. Change this,
and all is changed ; but adhere to it, and every
argument of the Pall Mall falls to the ground. This
is very neatly shown by the illustrations our even-
ing contemporary has selected. In every instance
the volunteers were the attacking party, having
constituted themselves into an invading army. A
volunteer organisation for the invasion of another
country is worse than useless, but the volunteer
organisation of England for the defence of the island
is effective and powerful. The first necessity of an
invading force is progress ; the invader mast move
on till he secures the vital point at which he aims.
If he halts and is checked, he fails; to I,iin defeat
is destruction, and lie must overcome all obstacles
on his road. It is in this fact that the strength of
volunteers lies. Place a volunteer army in position,
and let it await the approach of the invader, and it will
be found a very tough job for any army in Europe
of equal strength to carry that position ; yet the
invader must do this, or fail. Land the British
volunteers in Spain, and let them be opposed to a
French army, and it is probable they would all be
captured ; because they would have to manceavre
on equal terms, when the skilful training and careful
organisation of the French would overwhelm the
crude preparations and pluck of the British volun-
teers. There they might indeed be food for ravens,
but in their own country so totally different
are all the circumstances, that the invader would be
much more likely to form that food.

,rue.

The lessons of the battle of Mentana cannot be
construed into proofs of the worthlessness of
British volunteers, but a very strong instance
of the truth we advance. When GARIBALDI
defended Rome, acting as volunteers ought.
that is, at home, with a Roman mob he inflicted
heavy loss on a French army, maintaining for a
lengthened period his position in the face of a strong
effort of the greatest military power. When GARI-
BALDI attacked Rome, invading the Papal States
with a volunteer force, he was easily crushed. In
the first instance, he used his resources in a manner
for which they were adapted; in the second, he re-
versed the position, using volunteers as an instru-
ment of attack. He expected the citizens would
rise and place Rome b his hands. Failing this ho
was powerless, and failing this he would have been
equally powerless both in Sicily and in Naples. His
success there is no argument in favour of volunteers,
nor is his failure at Montana an argument against
them, as it is universally acknowledged that a vo-
lunteer army is not adapted for invasion. But
though this is true, it is equ•illy true that
the defective organisation which leads to failure
abroad may be supplied at home by the facili-
ties every civilised country offers, and in coun-
tries where these facilities fail in enabling the
people, through defective carriage and other
causes, to keep on foot numerous bands massed
together, the volunteers are compelled to resort to
another mode of warfare for which Spaniards have
supplied a name as guerilla. Thus in both civilised
and savage lands, the invaded inhabitants who are
determined to strike with courage for their freedom,
are supplied with the means, and when newspapers
discuss volunteer organisations they should do so
with express reference to the end proposed, viz.—
the defence of their own country and homes.—.
Anglo-A merican Times.

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