The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-03 00:00:00

were most anxious to keep those volunteers in an
effective state, as it enabled them to send into ac-
tive service the regular troops if required, but it
was a difficult matter to do this. Regiments who
at the time of the "Threat" mustered 1,000, or 1,200,
or 1,400 strong, had fallen away to less than half
their original number. Any very important or
particular occasion brought out ah that were left
of them, such, for instance, as the grand review
in Hyde-park to be given in honour of our grand
visitors, the Emperor Alexander of Russia and
General Blucher, and a number of foreign princes
and general officers, who all came to this country
after the allies had entered Paris, and the Bourbons
had been received by the French nation.
Our regiment, the Loyal North Britons, being
commanded by a royal duke (his Royal Highness
the late Duke of Sussex), had the post of honour,
next to the royal troops, and as I had the honour
of being present upon that occasion, I can assure
my friends that we made a very respectable mili-
tary appearance, and that the pop, pop, pop of our
feu-de-joie was as regular as the pop, pop, pop of
the regulars. But when we marched in review past
the Prince Regent, his imperial visitor, and the
crowd of general officers, I remember feeling a con-
siderable degree of chagrin at the palty appearance
we made in point of numbers, and wished most
heartily that these foreigners could have seen the
" mobs" of volunteers, as they had mustered in that
park in 1803 and 1804.
After this review, our men retired from the ser-
vice, or rather went about their business, little

imagining that they would have been called out
again ; but they did rally round their colours once
more, when Napoleon or " Corporal Violet," as
he was then designated, returned from Elba. But,
after the battle of Waterloo, and the apparent re-
establishment of the Bourbons, the British people
awl the Government seemed to think that there
never could be any more risk of invasion—that
fighting was quite done with everywhere, and that,
at any rate, we were safe to the end of time—that
they had been assisting in the completien :of some
great work, which being now finished, the volun-
teers gave back their tools—fire-arms—to the Go-
vernment, conceiving that the swords were to be
turned into ploughshares and the spears into prun-
ing-hooks.
I have shown how the volunteer movement of

1803 began, how it flourished, how it went off, and
became extinct. At this time, however, it is
thought that these rifle corps will be kept up so as
to form a permanent and efficient force ; but from
my experience in these matters, and from a tole-
rable knowledge of tho strong business character of
our people, I doubt this, and believe that in a few
yeare hence, if all goes on quietly, and all appre-
hension of attack should cease, that these regiments
will disperse and merge into mere shooting clubs,
and who thus, in case of emergency, could give but
trifling assistance to our regular force ; and then
there would be the same national spirit displayed,
the same fuss, and the same long time required in
organising, and in the mean time an enemy might
pay us a visit before we were ready to receive him.
And I would, therefore, here call the attention of
the public to the sound military advice given by
one of the greatest generals we ever had, or the
world has ever seen, viz., his Grace the Duke of
Wellington, who when alive was constantly urging
upon the country the absolute necessity of being
armed and prepared at all times to encounter a fo-
reign war, come from what quarter it might.
Whatever feelings of anger I might have had
against General Napier, when I took this " Popgun"
in hand, have been fired off in the few pellets di-
rected against the officer, for whose very name and
family I have the highest respect ; and I should
not now return to the charge had he not in his
hasty letter attempted to pay a compliment to the
present3volunteers at the expense of their papas
and grandpapas, and I therefore proceed to see
upon what grounds he attempts to raise one
body of volunteers by depreciating the other body
of volunteers.
In the first place, let us consider of what material
and machinery an army is composed, and in the
next place, the nature and character of the country
in which it is to act. One system of tactics cannot
be applied to all kinds of land and climate, and when
a commander is about to campaign in a foreign
land, it is most important that he should, as far as
possible, make himself acquainted with its nature
and peculiarities, and the mode of fighting adopted
by its people. I could point to several cases where
our army have failed in accomplishing the object of
their attack, and others where there has been a
great sacrifice of life, with very little or no advan-
tage, solely from a want of the proper knowledge
upon these points.
From the various well-intentioned letters which
have lately appeared in the public press upon our
national defences it appears to me that many of the
writers have not a very distinct idea of the require-
ments necessary to constitute a regiment of infantry
soldiers. Now, as I understand it, a regiment may
be described as a sort of machine worked by words
composed of (we will say) 1,000 separate parts,
which are brought together by a word, or dispersed
by a word ; it has 2,000 eyes, 2,000 hands and arms,
and 2,000 legs and feet, all of which should tarn and
move simultaneously, to form in line, to wheel to
the right, to the left, to move forward, to move
backward, to go on, to stop, to form into squares,
right lines, and angles, to kneel, to lie down, to get
up, to go at " slow time," at " quick time," at
double-quick time," to rush forward, to retreat,
always in a compact line or mass, and if part of the
machine should fall off, the other parts to take its
place, and so on ; and all this time the hands are to
handle that machine with a sharp point (the bayo-
net), called a gun, with uniform rapidity, at the
word of command, and those machines, or regi-
ments, who can go through all the required move-
ments with the greatest rapidity, precision, firmness,
and promptitude, are the best trained soldiers.
The volunteers of fcrmer days were trained after
this fashion, and dressed after the fashion of the
regulars, i.e., in red ; and this is an important mat-
ter, in order that all should know who is on their
side by the uniform, for fear there might be some
firing upon our own men ; and again, supposing,
for the sake of argument, that the volunteer may
not be able to stand his ground as well as the re-
gular soldier—if this, in fact, offers a point of weak-
ness—it is surely not desirable to draw the enemy's
attention to that portion of our forces. Our national
military colour is red; but now, for these rifle
regiments, grey seems to be the order of the day.
This neutral colour may be the most preferable, as
less exposing the man as a mark to the enemy;
and if so, old England's soldiers ought all to turn
grey. There are the " Scotch Greys," why not the
English ? But if the regulars retain their scarlet,
and these rifles their grey, then the volunteers
ought all to have the same sort of hats or caps, in
order that our men might know them, as the sailors
say, by the " cut of their jib," and not mistake them
for enemies. _

But there are other qualifications required to
make what is called a " good soldier" besides
j
dis-
cipline, and those are, a good proportion of physi-
cal strength, firmness of mind, coolness of udg-
ment,:and courage of heart. Now all these requi-
sities a volunteer may have equal, if not in a
superior degree, to some of the regulars ; and the
only reason why he may not be quite so effective as
the regular is that in one case it is the regular pro-
fessor, in the other it is the amateur ; but if the
amateur is to be of any real service, he must be
disciplined so as to be able to take his position by
the side of the regulars in the battle-field as one of
an infantry regiment. Riflemen are no doubt, in
the present day, a most important arm of the ser-
vice, to go out skirmishing at the proper time ; but
the idea of two or three hundred thousand skir-
mishers is something to me supremely ridiculous.
Plumping shots into tho enemy at half a mile dis-
tance, as the general recommends, and then run-
ning back for protection of the Armstrong guns,
that make sure to hit at a range of two miles, these
are " long shots," and no doubt far superior to the
old short shots.

" Longrange," that fires and runs away,
Will live to fire another day;
But " short shot," that's in the battle slain,
Will never rise to fire again.—Longshanks.

I do not deny the long range; but in this hill-
and dale country it would be necessary to pick
out your ground, and select a clear day for the pur-
pose, tor you cannot always in this climate see very
clearly half a mile off, much less two miles. Be-
sides, how long is this firing to last ?—until the
enemy gains a position ? If so, look out for his
" long range." I do not wish in any way, as I
have before stated, to disparage or underrate the
advantage of having good riflemen and good long
shots, but let us mark this fact, that no nation can
be free and independent whose people are not able
to meet an invader in the open field, and fight him
there, and beat him there ! Ave, kick him out of
the field. Popping from behind hedges and
ditches, and stone walls, are all very well in their
way, but cannot secure the liberty of a country.
The Spaniards did all that sort of thing
-very well when they rose against the French,
who had taken possession of their country ;
the but be it recollected that it was the Englishman,
Scotchman, the Welshman, and the Irish-
man, commanded by Wellington and other British
generals,field, who met the Frenchmen in the open
and ultimately secured the independence of
Spain to her people
We are all lions,.
, of
know—British lions. The
lion is the champiort.y England. But when I say
all, I think I must qualify that, and confess that
there are some of us who are not the true lion, for
there is an animal in this
the lion, and who thinks himself
that is very like
of
our
one, but he is
not thorough-bred ; some naturalists class
him with another animal. But the courage of all