The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-01 00:00:00

The Liverpool Volunteer Artillery.

O Saturday
were
On
Saty night the 4th Lancashire Artillery
Volunteers
inspected by Colonel Cox.
After the corps, under the command of Major
Bushby, had gone through the usual movements,
the inspecting officer addressed them to the following
effect : He was extremely pleased to have had a second
time the opportunity of inspecting the 4th Lanca-
shire Artillery Volunteers. He thought that upon
the last occasion he expressed his satisfaction and
pleasure at what he had seen. They made a very
great impression upon him on that occasion, and he
was happy to say that that impression was not now
lessened. He was very much pleased with what he
had seen that evening. The weather had been very
' unpropitious for such an inspection, but he was ex-
ceedingly pleased with the way in which they had
turned out. Their appearance on parade was ex-
tremely smart and soldierlike, their accoutrements
were well put on, and altogether they were a body
of men which the country might feel proud of. He
was very much pleased to see their four guns and
horses in the field ; he believed they were not pre-
sent on the last occasion. He was gratified to see
how well they were moved. Field artillery in the
hands of Volunteers had very great difficulties to
contend with ; having to manage untrained horses
was a matter of great difficulty for even well-trained
drivers. He had been very well satisfied with what
he saw. Their marching past he could not say too
much in favour of ; he was very much pleased with
it. Their movements generally, and their manual
and platoon drill were also well done, and he had
no doubt they would have been still better had it
not been for the weather. He had no fault to find
with them. lie was glad also that he had not the
fault to find that he sometimes had with Volunteers
—of speaking in the ranks ; on the whole, he
thought there was very little of that. He was gra-
tified to see that they had kept their distances fairly,
an important point in all infantry movements, be-
cause, although they might not see any difficulty
when alone, yet, when several brigades and corps
were together, the want of keeping their distance
threw out those in the rear. He had not yet seen
them go through their heavy gun drill; but he
trusted, when he had the opportunity that evening,
that it would be equally well done. This was the
most important part of their duties ; for in case of
actual service the great duty of the Volunteer Ar-
tillery of England would be to man the coast de-
fences. He was also glad to see that they had in
their shed two guns set on dwarf traversing plat-
forms. They had a great advantage over other
corps in ipossessing them, because these were the
guns with which our forts were principallyarmed.l
He only wished to impress upon them theimport-
ance of every man in the corps being thoroughly
accustomed to the heavy gun drill, so that they
would be able to work together without making
noise and confusion. They should be Ole to work
together like a machine. He was very much grati-
fied with them. He had inspected a very large por-
tion of the Volunteer Artillery in the north of Eng-
land, and he had always been able to hold up the
Volunteer Artillery of Liverpool as an example to
other corps; and lie must say that the corps he had
inspected that evening was second to none. They
had, however, rivals worthy of them ; and it was a
good thing for them that they were able to mea-
sure themselves with other corps equally efficient—
an advantage which the corps in smaller towns and
country districts did not possess. He was pleased
to see so good a parade-430 out of a muster-roll
of 550, a very good muster. He hoped they would
go on in the same spirit. The Volunteer Artillery
of England was a force of which the nation might
well be proud. No other country possessed such
a force. He only wished it was possible that the
Duke of Cambridge and the Prince of Wales
could have the opportunity of seeing the
artillery corps of Liverpool, and if he met their
Royal Highnesses at the York review he would
ex press his hope that they would take the opportu-
nity of doing so. lie had nothing further to say
except that he should make a favourable report to
the War-office.