The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-04 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

rcollsn,s7,rNidDaEyNTli
!ening.
Some of the Paris papers,
.whieh a few days ago
expressed deep grief and anxiety at the prospect of
(FROM OUlt OWN
war, seem to be equally sorry thata pacific arrange-
ment is almost a matter of certainty. This position
of affairs stops the game of fabricating sensation
and alarming reports, which, like the razor of Peter
Pindar's razor man, were made " to sell" their
papers.. Thus a small portion of the Paris jour-
nals, and a few of the German papers, spread a re•
port that Prussis has not agreed to the evacuation
of Luxembourg, but has consented to the Confer-
ence without at all pledging herself to adopt the
concession of that point, as the basis upon which
the discussions of the Conference are to be
founded. Other journals, which do not go so far
as to deny the adoption of the preliminary
step of conciliation by Prussia, endeavour
to detract from its importance and value by argu-
ing that the details of the question, when di-cussed,
will raise up obstacles of the most serious character,
and again place the question of peace or war in the
balance. Another argument is, that unless Prussia
shall deliver up the fortress at once and before the
Conference commences the discussion, it will prove
that she will not do so afterwards unless compelled.
On the other hand, a Brussels paper (the Inde-
pendance Beige) asserts, upon alleged good autho-
rity, that all will run so smoothly that
the Confer-
ence will be able to settle the matter in two sittings.
This nay well be if the question should be confined
to Luxembourg, and the large ci •
rcle of the many
treaties be not entered u pon.The evening papers
are conspicuous for their inventions. The Avenir
National publishes a pretended despatch from Ber-
lin, stating that Prussia •
did not consent to the Con-
ference, and that M. l3ismarek declared if Luxem-
bourg were neutralised it might remain • •
within the
Zonverein.

M. Jonas, Councillor of State, has remitted to
the Minister of Foreign Affairs the letters which
accredit him at the French Court as Charge'
d'Affaires of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
DI onseigneUr Furinez,
who lately resigned the
Bishopric of Farautaiss, has been appointed canon
of the first order to the Imperial Chapter of St.
Denis, in the room of Mons. Cruise, deceased.
On Wednesday morning the Emperor reviewed
the Tuileries and the Place
in the Court of
Carrousal the second division' of the first corps
d'arniee (General Decaen), the third brigade of the
division of cavalry, the troops of artillery (General
de Bentzman), and several
corps not brigaded. The
whole of these troops
were under the command of
General of Division Soumaiu, Commandant of the
Place of Paris, and were drawn up in nine lines.
His Majesty successively passed before each line,
and was cordially
greeted with cries of "Long
live the Emperor !" " Long live the Empress !" and
" Long live the Imperial Prince !" The
Emperor distributed medals and decorations.
His Majesty was
accompanied by the Minis-
ter of War, Marshal Canrobert, Com-
mandant of the First Corps d'Artnee ; General
Fleury, Grand Equerry, Aide-de-Camp ; General
of Division de Failley, Aide-de-Camp ; General de
Courson, Chief of the General Staff of the First
Corps d'Armee ; and the
officers on service in the
military household of the Emperor.
A despatch from the Havannah states that Vice-
Admiral de la Itouciere de' Notary,
in command of
the ironclad squadron of the Imperial navy, left

that port on the 27thof March for llalifax, Nova
Scotia. At the same period the Themis, bear-
ing the flag of Vice-Admiral Didelot, had sailed for
Port-au-Prince, from whence the news was satis-
factory. The provisional Government of General
Nissage Saget appeared to afford guarantees of
order, and the fear of a violent reactio❑ was dis-
pelled forthe present. Admiral Clone, on board the
frigate Le Magellan, and followed by the gunboat
Adonis, had again put to sea with the intention of
proceeding direct to Franco.
A tremendous storm, unexampled for violence,
prevailed all day on Sunday last at Bordeaux, and
the inundation in the streets stopped the circulation.
It was about four in the afternoon that the storm
was at its height. Trees were blown down and
chimney-pots dashed to pieces, and houses were
unroofed. No personal injury, however, was sus-
tained.

In restoring a buiding at Stanz, in Switzerland,
a beautiful fresco painting has been discovered, re-
presenting the descent from the Cross and the de-
posit of Christ in the tomb. This picture was
executed in 1570, at the expense of M. tieing, the
head of the Municipality of Uri, whose coat of arms
and that of his wife figure in this ancient work of
art. The colours are still fresh, and indeed it is
altogether in good preservation.

The police of Geneva, assisted by two bankers of
that city, have just arrested some English malefac-
tors implicated in a charge of fraudulent bankruptcy.
Among the number is a man named Sichmon, who
fled from London about about a year ago, carrying
away diamonds and other precious stones to the
value of a million francs. The police of London
had offered a reward of £2OO for the capture of this
thief, and, it is said, went to New York after him,
being deceived in consequence of his having left
orders to have his letters directed to him at that
city. The band consists of three men and two
women. They were in possession of much valuable
property, including a magnificent painting of
Raphael, which the Marquis de Champana of Rome
intrusted a few years ago to Sichmon to sell for
him. This picture was valued in the catalogue at
800,000 fr. An English police-officer was expected
at Geneva to take charge of Siehmon.
Considerable excitement has been created at
Lyons by the murder of M. Josephin Gouvalant
under extraordinary circumstances. He was what is
called un homme d'affaires, that is to say, he kept
an office in the Rue Ferraudiere, where both ladies
and gentlemen went to consult him upon business
of any kind. He found husbands for ladies and
wives for gentlemen, servants for masters and
masters for servants, and he acted as agent for the
purchase or sale of property. M. Gouvalant was
about 35 and unmarried. He had valuable jewellery
and property of other kind at his house, and was
fond of exhibiting his treasures. This will explain
the motive of the crime which has thrown the city
of Lyons into agitation. The mutilated body of
the unfortunate man was found a day or two ago
in the Rhone, not far from the city. The head was
cut off. There was a mortal wound on the left
breast, which the surgeons believe was inflicted
during life. The arms and legs were cut from the
body apparently by a skilful person. From certain
circumstances the identification is complete. The
deceased had been missing from his house since the
24th of April. On searching the house, it was dis-
coverei that all his money and valuables had been
taken away. It is not supposed that the deceased
was murdered in his house, but the probability is
that he was decoyed to some lonely spot and then
murdered. The assassins took away his keys, which
he was in the habit of carrying about with him, and
then went to his house and carried off his property.
The Lyons Courier says that there is reason for
suspecting that a young woman of bad repute has
played a principal character in this terrible drama,
so surrounded with atrocity.
The weather has been fine and warm to-clay,
without rain, but there are still indications of
change and storm.

The Exhibition has been much crowded to-day ;
in fact., each day it incr,ases in interest and attrac-
tion, in spite of a few ill-natured but foolish and
impotent attempts to depreciate its grandeur and
agn iticen ce.

In the Legislative Body to-day an important
communication was made on tho part of the Go-
vernment, to the effect that Austria, France, Great
Britain, Prussia, and Russia, in accord with Hol-
land, had consented to a Conference to settle the
difficulties relative to the Grand Duchy of Luxem-
bourg, on the principle of neutralisation, and that
the Conference would assemble in London on Tues-
day next.

The Origin of our Volunteer Army.

TO TILE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—In your columns yesterday there appeared
the report of a meeting convened to pre6ent a testi-
monial for services rendered in connection with the
origin of the Volunteer movement. At that meet-
ing Lord Banelagh seems to have made a most un-
necessary and wholly unprovoked attack on Capt.
Hans Busk.

I trust, therefore, that in common fairness, I m
be allowed space for a few observations in reply.
Lord Itanelagh stated that Captain Busk took credit
to himself for having been cheered in Hyde-park as
" the originator of the Volunteers," on the occasion
of the memorable review in June, 1860. Very little
turns upon the fact, but that the circumstance re-
ferred did occur is sufficiently attested by the fol-
lowing paragraph which appeared in the Brighton
Guardian of June 27, 1860, quoted, if I mistake
not, from the 7inzes :--"AN INCIDENT OF THE LATE
REviEw.—As the troops commenced their march
past the Queen considerable interest and curiosity
were manifested by many of the spectators to catch
a glimpse of Captain Busk, who has attained such
celebrity as the great authority of the day on all
matters connected with the rifle. As the VICTORIA
RIFLES advanced with that manly bearing Which so
pre-eminently distinguish them from other Volun-
teer corps they were received with deafening cheers,
and Captain Hans Busk was loudly greeted from
various quarters as he was recognised at the head of
his company. The spectacle displayed in Hyde
Park on the 23d Juae was, unquestionably, the
grandest that has been witnessed by the present
generation, but for obvious reasons it must have
been peculiarly gratifying to the gallant officer
above alluded to," •

Lord Ranelagh furtip=l., by a garbled extract
from one of Captain Busk's works, altogether per-
verting the author's meaning, took upon himself
to affirm that Captain Busk had spoken disparag-
ingly of volunteers in general. his lordship alto-
gether ignoring that the sole purport of the book
was strenuously to urge the organisation of such
forces, and with which it was that the raw materials
of militia and line regiments were unfavourably
contrasted, the reason given being, that as the latter
troops must necessarily be taken from a class lower
in the social scale, they could not be expected to be
animated by the chivalrous feeling, the energy, or
the indomitable pluck of an army having to so large
an extent among its rank and file men of the same
grade as the officers in line or militia regiments.
That this was the meaning in which the passage
was accepted is sufficiently obvious from a review
by Mr. A. B. Richards himself, who, alluding expressly
to the portion of the volume iu question, thus
wrote :

" This is au admirable treatise, the concluding
portion ought to be printed in gold, and hung over the
elnuaney-piece of every man who has a spark of the
°ld feeling of Crecy and Agincourt smouldering in
his breast."

Lord Itanelagh went on to say that " Captain
Husk had better not have exhibited himself as
originator, as he only it fi)r SELF. lie puts
himself forward most improperly, and in a way not
creditable to him."

The first part of this sentence sounds strangely
from one who at the very time was actually soli-
citing pecuniary contributions for a personal testi-
monial to a friend of his own ! The fact being,
that on every occasion from 1803 up to the present
hour, when a similar recognition of Captain Busk's
eminent and acknowledged services has been p o
posed, he has invariably and persistently deelintd
to accept the smallest, token of public gratitude, or
any emolument of any description ; and at this
moment, a considerable amount haying been iub-

scribed, Captain Busk has most spontaneously and
disinterestedly proposed that the fund should be
devoted to the establishment of a lifeboat on the
South Coast, instead of being presented, as in-
tended, to himself.

M for Captain Busk " putting himself forward'
in the matter, Lord Ranelagh is evidently ignorant
of the fact that Captain Busk was known and ac-
knowledged from one end of the kingdom to the
other as the " originator of the movement" years
before any coadjutor in his great and important
work had appeared upon the scene. In corrobora-
tion of this I might adduce overwhelming and con-
clusive evidence. I will, however, content myself
with the following selections froln an immense mass
of similar testimony.
Some six or seven years ago the Times, alluding
to the origin of the Volunteer movement, stated :
" Several persons are vehemently contending for
the honour of having taken the initiative in a move-
ment which has had so signal a success as to have
produced a costless disciplined army of 150,000
marksmen. We have been appealed to, and names
we have never heard of have been placed before us
as deserving of public gratitude on this account.
Of course no individual can have any claim to the
merit of having originated this great work. It arose
out of the circumstances and exigencies of the day,
and it sprang from a unanimous feeling of the ne-
cessity of preparing for defence. The earliest and
most strenuous advocate, however, of the Volunteer
system, when in its infancy, was, so far as we know,
Bans Busk, who has continued lecturing and
ivriting and counselling upon this subject up to the
present hour. Ile was, as we know, for some time
alone in pressing the subject upon the public notice,
and to him, if to anybody, credit is due for having
laboriously aided at the birth of this institution.
The Volunteer army, however, is not an invention,
and no one has a right to patent it."
The Law 7 iines affirmed—

" We can vouch for it that long before the subject
had been mooted in the newspapers, or even whis-
pered in the columns of the Times, Captain Busk
was actively recruiting in the hall of the Middle
Temple, and successful in persuading a large num-
ber of its learned members to enlist, and that his
exhortations were precisely those which the Times
long afterwards urged so powerfully and with such
excellent effect. That was undoubtedly the begin-
ning of the movement, and Captain Busk was as
undoubtedly its author, and to him should the credit
be given."

We think the Government will do well to con-
sider whether, while rewarding every bringer of a
recruit to the regular army, while offering fees to
recruiting sergeants, and commissions to gentlemen
who induce 100 men to join the ranks, it might not
advantageously confer some honourable mark of
distinction on the man who has brought to its sup-
port the services of 150,000 volunteers.—Manchester
Express.

Captain Hans Busk, so well known as the suc-
cessful originator of that great movement which has
resulted in the establishment of an army numbering
upwards of 130,000 men, delivered on Tuesday one
of his popular lectures ou "The Rifle, and How to
Use it," at the Eastbourne Assembly Room.—East-
bourne Chronicle.
Captain Busk is fairly entitled to the honour of
having placed at her Majesty's disposal the most
magnificent army which the world has ever seen,
with the formation of which his name must conse-
quently ever be proudly associated. —Northern Ex-
press.
Captain Busk was the advocate of this Volunteer
movement before a ripple was discernible on the
face of that ocean of opinion which is now moving
onward in au irresistible tide, at a time, too, when
the timid predicted failure and the witling ventured
to sneer. Nobody sneers now.—Newcastle Express.
At the close of an address at Leicester, the Mayor,
proposing the best thanks of the meeting to Captain
Bwik for his interesting and most eloquent address,
said Captain Busk was a national benefactor. They
should recollect that he was the very earliest origi-
nator of this movement. They must aslo remem-
ber that he had consistently pursued his noble
efforts in its behalf for many years at very consi-
derable personal inconvenience and expense to him-
se f.—Leicester Chronicle.

Captain Hans Busk, not content with having
converted us into a nation of soldiers through his
unwearied advocacy of the Volunteer movement, the
importance of which he was the first to point out,
has been lecturing lately in various parts of the
country on " Rifle Corps and Rifle Shooting" to
very crowded audiences.—Brighton Herald.
Captain Hans Busk, who is incontestably the
originator of the rifle movement in England, lately
delivered a most admirable, instructive, and deeply
interesting lecture on the above subject at Shrews-
bury.—Shrewsbury Journal.

Yesterday evening Captain Hans Busk, TIIE
ORIGINATOR OF THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT, gave
a lecture on the above subject in the Exchange
'IA.—No/tint/ha 711 Express.
"Is there one," says John Hunter, " whom diffi-
culties dishearten, who bends to the storm ? He
will do little. Is there one who will conquer?
That kind of man never fails. " Such a man
apparently is Hans Busk. Once convinced of the
importance and necessity of the movement he was
4, unceasing," to use the language of the 7-
Times "in
lecturing, writing and counselling on this subject.
He was, as we know, for some time alone in press-
ing the subject upon the public notice; and to him,
if to anybody, credit is due for having laboriously
aided at the birth of this institution."—The Volun-
teers' Book of Facts.
Having availed ourselves of the greatest national
benefit that has been conferred on England for
years, we may well look round inquiringly to find
out on whose brows the reward for so unprecedented
a boon should be placed. Captain Maus Busk has,
in expenditure of time, money,
in purity of idea,
and interest, in single-hearted labour to further the
good cause, indisputably won the distinction of
distinction of being the "Father of the Volunteer
Movement." It is disheartening enough that after
the sacrifice of so much to such an end the hero of
our system of " Defence, not Defiance" should see
his well-earned honours questioned; it is hardly less
so, it seems to us, that his services should still be
without a due meed of recognition from his country.
" Captain Busk, as is well known, declines any
pecuniary recompense for his praiseworthy efforts.
Cau nothing else be suggested that should mark
our sense of an achievement at least as honourable
as laying the foundation-stone of an asylum for
idiots, or opening the City gates on the occasion of
a Royal entry ?"—Court Journal.
A contributor to the Sporting Gazette, speaking
of the formation of our Volunteer army, writes :
It seems to me one of the greatest and noblest
services that a subject has ever rendered to the
Crown—and for such a piece of work it is sought
not to confer any substantial mark of gratitude on
a national benefactor, but absolutely to wrest
from him the ' barren honour' he has acquired
with so much toil. The claims of other aspirants
to the distinction of having originated the Volun-
teer movement may be easily disposed of, but the
absence of a fitting testimonial (I hate the word,
but what can one say ?) to the man who conceived
and helped; to carry it out is not so easily accounted
for, and I do trust that in the fulness of time the
reproach may be taken away from the nation. "

I could without difficulty have filled many
columns with additional proofs. I will conclude
with the observations of Sir Duncan MacDougall
and of Lord Mount-Edgcumbe—" Sir Duncan
MacDougall, in March, 1861, wrote to Captain
Busk, as follows—' It would indeed be the greatest
gratification to me if national as well as Ministerial
gratitude led to your being rewarded in the manner
I think you deserve.' The Right Hon. Lord
Mount-Edgcumbe (then Lord Valletort, M.P.) on
introducing Captain Hans Busk to a public
audience at Plymouth, October, 1860, observed—
" The Volunteer movement had extended from
John o'Groat's to the Laud's End, and if asked who
was the initiator and promoter of the movement,
he felt certain the would all reply, Captain Hans
I3usk."

I think I have said enough fully to vindicate
Captain Busk's claim to his honourable and hard-
earned title of 4' Founder of our noble Volunteer
Army."---Yours, F. G.
Royal InotitutioD: May 2, 1867.

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