The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-14 00:00:00

rifle is the great weapon to be cultivated. It is
the skill with which the Americans use it that has
rendered them so formidable in the fiel I and
the revolvers for close action will be all-, owerful.
Let our volunteers render themselves peeect in the
use of these weapons, and they will, with the true
courage which is the characteristic of the Anglo-
Saxon race, be enabled to defy any enemy,
even
should they be enabled to obtain a landing on our
Shores.

So much for the personnel ; but we are still
better off in the materiel of war. Our ordnance
has in every respect been placed on the most
effective footing. Thousands of cannon, with all
the deadly appurtenances to render them effective,
millions of cartridges for the minie rifles, and every
thing sufficient to carry on war on a gigantic scale
for years, are in readiness, while we have the power
of increasing them to any extent that may be re-
quired. These effective preparations will ensure
peace to the United Kingdom, for none will be
anxious to attack so formidable an opponent.

" Riflemen, form"—is good, worthy of TENNY-
SON, worthy of Englishmen ; the War-office notice
is good, worthy of a patriotic Government, and
worthy of being listened to by all who can afford
the time and money. The Poet and the Secretary
for War have our heartiest commendations ; the
one for his song, the other for creating soldiers to
sing it. But we want something more. It is not
enough that all who can afford outfit and time for
full drill should form themselves into volunteer
corps, who shall be virtually a part of our army ;
England may be made, at a comparatively small
cost, much more formidable than such volunteers
alone can make her, and we trust she will be.
In addition to the proposed volunteer corps of
the classes able to defray entirely their own ex-
penses, why should not the classes below them be
encouraged and aided in rifle practice ? The less
wealthy classes are no longer to be distrusted,
as if the only use to which they would
put their rifles would be to shoot the more
wealthy ; unhappily, were such their disposition,
the means, as Ireland is witness, would not be
wanting. On the contrary, the patriotism of the
many is as devoted as that of the few, and their
courage, to say the least, quite equal. The profes-
sional classes and higher tradesmen certainly do
not surpass our stalwart workmen in the matter of
personal bravery and readiness to face danger.
And, should England ever hear the cry,--" The
French have landed," or the Russians, or any
foreigner whatever, our cottages would send forth
as much deadly wrath as our offices, our counting-
houses, and our shops. It were, indeed, the greatest
mistake possible to suppose that the working men
of England need the drill of the soldier to give
them the spirit of the soldier. It is because they
have the soldier's spirit that they make such men
when drilled; because they have innately the proud
consciousness of being Englishmen; the fixed con-
viction of every man's obligation to do his duty ;
the willingness to bear up under prolonged hard-
ships and dangers which demoralise most continen-
tal troops ; and, that steady purpose and hand in
execution of their task, which distinguish the
Englishman as a workman, be his handicraft
what it may—it is these things which make our
working men so well worth drilling.
We want to use our third class, as well as our
first and second classes. We want to encourage
among them the feeling that they, too, can contri-
bute their proportion towards their country's de-
fence. They do contribute one-third of our taxa-
tion. We believe that, handled well by a spirited
Administration, they would contribute much more
than a third to our volunteer defences. If they can-
not afford each man his rifle and accoutrements, that
is no reason why—what is far more valuable than ac-
coutrements—their courage and their skill should
not bristle formidably in the eyes of foreigners.
If 100,000 volunteers, capable of defraying the cost
of their equipments, can be found among the richer
classes, well ? Call them forth, embody them,
bring them to the highest state of efficiency you can.
But shall we overlook the 200,000, or, it may be,
doublo or treble that number, who, were they well
practised in the use of the rifle all over the country,
would make it hot work, indeed, for an enemy to
move from the shore on which his steam-bridge
might have landed him. We soy, take measures by
all means to encourage our working men to prac-
tise rifle shooting.
The way in which it could be best effected is
well worthy of careful consideration. For years
the subject has dwelt on our minds as a very im-
portant one, and our readers will probably remem-
ber that we have not been silent on the subject.
Perhaps at the time they did not think it of the
importance we did, and might even have passed
over our remarks. Now a change of opinion is
rapidly coming overall, and we shall have attention.
Long reflection has not suggested to us any better
plan for working men, and even for our shopmen
and apprentices —what a brave body were the
London apprentices once !—than that which first
occurred to us. We proposed that the Govern-
ment should find the rifles and ammunition for all
those who could not afford it for themselves ; that
in every town and large village where sufficient

youths and older persons could be found willing to
enrol themselves as practitioners under reasonable

conditions, that a small depot in charge of an old

soldier should be formed ; that he should have

charge of all the arms, &c., which belonged to the

Government, and that he should be the trainer of
the peasantry and operatives who desired to be

taught. This is the essential part of the scheme.
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Whether they should be made good marksmen at
known distances, or taught also to estimate dis-
tance well, or instructed in acting together in

larger or smaller numbers—all such details would
depend upon what could be done in each locality.
The grand point we take to be, that good marks-
men should be formed in vast numbers all over the
land ; men who could handle the rifle with the
precision of the best deer-stalkers. Of such men,
whether drilled to act together more or less in their
ordinary practice, a formidable body of drilled rifle-

men could always be made in an emergency.
The grand thing—the confidence that they could
hit an officer or an artilleryman at a thousand
yards off from behind a hedge, and make him
repent of following a despot to spoil our

towns, or to dishonour our families, would have

been already acquired. Why, even in very
small bodies men might be taught to estimate

distances, to avail themselves of every shelter, to

make shelter rapidly if needed, and all that per-
tains to the individual handling of the weapon. It

must be remembered that the rifle makes defence

much more a matter of personal and individual

prowess and skill than it was in the days of
" Brown Bess." The country which has the most

men who can do with the rifle what our fore-
fathers did with the bow, will be the country most

formidable to an invader ; and England has every

facility for being that country. The tens of thou-

sands of ploughmen who can plough straighter
furrows than any ploughmen in Europe, and the
tens of thousands of operatives whose eye and hand

can work with a truth and fidelity which makes
our machinery the best in the world, these men

have the faculties which would make them the best

rifle shots in Europe, too. We plead for inviting