The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-08 00:00:00

THE SUN,' %01s1DON, WEDNESOA V EVENING, MAY 8, 1867.

Volunteer Movement, it was the movement which
sold the book.

It must be remembered that this Rifleman's
Manual of 1858, which did not go off, was not even
an advocate of the present Volunteer Movement,
and that it contained the following passage :......

" All those who duly weigh this matter must
consequently admit that volunteer regiments, if they
can but be obtained from the higher classes of the
community, would prove the very best adjunct to
the defence of the country that she could possess.
One regiment of such men would be worth half-a-
score composed of clodhoppers and counter-skippers."
On the contrary, what bad I then written ? I
may fairly say, that it is proved by a hundred pas-
sages from my writings, that I had prefigured the
volunteer movement as it exists in a remarkable
manner, numerically, politically, and socially. See

" Proofs," &c.
But let us see how I advertised Captain Hans
Busk's " Rifleman's Manual" better for him than he
managed to do for himself. One day in March,lBs9,
I called on him, and he lamented that his book did
not go off, and was a dead loss. I told him that if he
would help me to get up a public meeting to inaugu-
rate rifle volunteers throughout the country, that
would sell his book. He replied that he was sick
and tired of it, or to that effect, and asked me to
distribute some copies. When I determined, in
spite of every obstacle, to summon the meeting of
the 16th April, 1859, at St. Martin's Hall, I urged
you suggest of attending
him very earnestly to come. In a letter dated March
13, 1859, he says, " I am afraid I shan't be able to
spare p
volunteera r e time -
different" to the " inauguration of a volunteer
army ?"

After the meeting I went to Ripon as a candidate
for Parliament, and spoke then on the hustings as
an advocate of a volunteer rifle army. Within a
month after the meeting of April 16, the Govern..
ment circular was issued and a War Office copy
addressed personally to Sir Duncan M'Dougall,
who came to the meeting, and who has since
declared publicly that but for me the move-
ment would not have taken place. See Army
and Navy Gazette, October 27, 1860, and the
Times, Telegraph, and Star of August, 1861. Then
Captain Busk advertised his book anew, having
first altered it to suit the occasion, and soon after
he began to lecture and utilise the movement. It
has been asserted, if not by Captain Busk yet with
his sanction, that this was all for love. Let me

quote another letter, July 2, 1860 :—" I told Lever-
son a few days ago that if the Garibaldi Testi-
monial Committee liked to take a suitable room,
and announce that I would lecture there on the rifle
corps and rifle shooting, I would do so, and would
consent to hand over half the net proceeds to the
fund. I have not had a reply, but if they are in-
clined to the proposal, I should like to know."
The generous offer was not accepted. I think it
sufficient to prove that Captain Busk did not, as
has been pretentiously asserted, decline any emolu-
ment from the volunteers, but that, on the contrary,
he sought it, and in very bad taste.
Emboldened by his reception as a lecturer in the
provinces, Captain Busk then conceived the idea of
advertising himself as the " Originator of the
Volunteers," and accordingly he had his portrait
taken in that capacity, and advertised it and him-
self freely in the newspapers. I was naturally much
surprised when I saw in the Volunteer Service
Gazette a letter from him stating that he had never
in his life heard me :speak on the subject of the
inauguration of a volunteer army. This drew me
out, and I replied to him in that journal. Subse-
quently a paragraph and a letter from him were
inserted in the Times. To the letter I replied,
Nov. 3, 1860, but it was not inserted by the editor,
although it appeared in several other papers.
With regard to the paragraph 1 have now to record that
which gives me much pain. Captain Hans Busk issued it
very exteesively, but in an altered form. I have a printed
"Syllabue," as he calls it, issued by him, which contains
the altered paragraph in a most conspicuous position.
Concerning this, Mr. P. Miles, the correspondent of the
New York Herald (who was present and spoke at the meet-
ing at St. Martin's Hall, and who recorded it in his letter
to that journal as a great event, and subsequently chroni-
cled its results), sent Inc the following pointed compari-
son of the paragraph as it appeared in the Times and the
paragraph as it appeared after undergoing the process of
manipulation to support Capt. Busk's "theory."
"Mr. Hans Busk has printed and given a wide circula-
tion to the following, quoting it as an extract (an original
article) from the Times ,newspoper. Certain words and
phrases are here given in italic for reasons that will appear:
"THE ORIGIN OF THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT.—SeveraI
persons are vehemently contending for the honour of hav-
ing taking the initiative in a movement which has had so
signal a success as to have produced a costless, disciplined
army of 150,000 marksmen. We have been appealed to,
an 1 names we have never heard of have been placed be-
fore us as deserving of public gratitude on this account.
" Of course this great work arose mainly out of the circurn-
slances and exigencies of the day, and it sprang from an
trnanimous feeling of the necessity of preparing for de-
fence. The earliest and most strenuous advocate, however,
of the Volunteer system was, as we know, Captain Hans
Busk, who has continued lecturing, and writing, and coun-
selling upon this subject up to the present hour. He was,
as we are well aware, for some time quite alone in pressing
this subject upon the public notice; to him, therefore, if to
anybody, the credit is undoubtedly due of having laboriously
aided at the birth of this institution."—Times.
Now the actual statement of the Times, instead of the
last paragraph of the above (as may be seen in the copy of
that journal for Sept. 15, page 9), is verbatim as follows—
the portions altered and omitted by Mr. Busk being shown
in italics :
" of course no individual can have any claim to the merit
of haring originated thie great work. It arose out of the cir-
cumstances and exigencies of the day, and it sprang from
an unanimous feeling of the necessity of preparing for de-
fence. The earliest and most strenuous advocate, however,
of the volunteer system when in its infancy was,so far
as
we
know, Mr. Hans Busk, who has continued lecturing and
w
for some time alone in pressing
the subject upon the public notice, and to him, if to anybody,
credit is duo for having laboriously aided at the birth of
d counselling
as zee kel upon this subject up to the present
hour. riting
Hae n
was, know,
this institution. The volunteer army, hoverer, is not an in-
vention, and no one has a right to patent it."
Mr. Miles advised me to send the above to all the news-
papers. I did not, but I do now, because I am compelled in
my own defence; for, if the pamphlet now issued by Cap-
tain Busk is correct, as I read it through Lloyd's Newspaper,
lam a pretender. If Capt. Busk's assertions regarding ma
are correct, I have tacitly allowed a number of gentlemen
to put forth on my behalf claims to the gratitude of the
nation, whereas I ought to be dubbed a charlatan and an
impostor. Let me continue the story.
In the latter part of 1860alocaltestimonialwas bestowed
upon Col. Bousfield forhaviogsent the earliest offer of ser-
vice to the Government after the meeting of April 16, 1859,
just before the Governmeet circular came out. Upon this
Capt. Busk wrote to me (of whom he " had not the remotest
"s'elf to be "out-jockeyed" by Bousfield, who
ks- e• &c.) Nov. 24, 1860, asking me how I came
troecaolllloewctimony,
had got all the substantial benefit "we ought to have
shared?" I replied to that letter saying that I for one did
not grudge Col. Bousfield the honour that had been given
to him, but applauded it, and I answered as to the "part-
nership" as I thought its suggestion deserved.
On the Ist December, 1860, Capt. Busk again wrote, and
apologised for having attacked me in the Volunteer Service
Gazette. He stated it
was "more in a spirit of badinage
than anything else that he dashed off a reply" to a letter
iu that journal. "As for the much-mooted originatorship"
he adds, " I do not look upon it as a question on which it
is worth while for
us to dispute. lam quite willing to
concede that you have done
quite enough to have earned
a statue and a snug resting-place in Westminster Abbey."
He then goes on to say that neither he nor I will ever be
rewarded, for that "some lucky charlatan" will obtain
" the fruit of our arduous toil," and he finally recurs in a
bitter spirit to the recognition of Col. Bousfield.
And yet he would now ignore me altogether, after I re-
pudiated the "partnership" which he offered! The Daily
Telegraph recommended Captain Busk to take an adver-
tising panel in the Crystal Palace ! The Standard also in
an exhaustive leading article on the subject, Nov. 2d,
1860, utterly disposing
of Captain Busk's pretensions, and
at the same time gave
the the chief credit as promoter of
the Volunteer movement of 1859. Colonel Sir Duncan
M‘Dougall, a hero of the Peninsula, and the American war,
in his "History of the Volunteer Movement," certainly
accords Captain Busk a distinguished place, attaching
full credence to all that Captain Busk could urge on his
own account. But Sir Duncan undoubtedly gave me the
principal honour, as he subsequently again recorded and
said. But what did Sir Duncan say about Captain Busk's
claims as "originator ?" He wrote to me Nov. 17th, 1860,
"It would be difficult to find any one who gave more
proofs of patriotism and foresight than you have done
The Man in the Moon has as much claim to bo considered
the originator of the Volunteer Movement as a great
national defensive measure as Captain Busk has. The
proofs are unquestionable of your prominence as a promoter
of the great defensive movement."
All the letters and papers from which I have quoted
I am ready to show, and it is my intention to
get them at-
tested.
I thiulr that I have sufficiently answered captain Busk.