The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-16 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Tuts Dior.—Morning, h. m.—Afternoon, 12h. 20m
To-monaow.-Morning, 12h. 46m.—Afternoon, lb. 8m

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, SEPTEMBER 15, 1861

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
64—highest since noon yesterday.'
45 —lowest this morning and during the night.
50—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-29.76.
WlND—Easterly—with squally and dull weather.
SEPT. 16.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
56—highest since noon yesterday.
49—lowest tnis morning and during the night.
57—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-29.98 ; rising.
WIND—N.-Easterly—rather fresh ; with dull, cloudy
weather, and occasional rain in the afternoon.

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THE SUN•

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPT. 16, 1881.

One of the most graceful tributes of our aristo-
cracy to the popular sentiment of the day is their
hearty acceptance of the Volunteer Movement.
There were not wanting a few of their number at
the beginning who treated it coldly and suspiciously
—a few even pronounced the sacred word "game,"
as if their pheasants or partridges were in danger
from a class so respectable as would constitute the
Riflemen of the counties. A few more shrugged
their shoulders for the Horse Guards, and did not

quite relish anything not directly under the corn

mand of the Duke of CAMBRIDGE, and
indirectly furnishing good appointments for
the military pets of the Court. Some,
here and there, fancied we might wish to save a
little income tax, by cutting down the regulars and
patronage together, if the nation found that it could
furnish both rifle and artillery volunteers by the
thousand. The great body cf our nobility awl
aristocracy, however, taking the manly, sound, and
English view of the subject, spontaneously headed
the movement, and encouraged it by every
means in their power. They opened their purses
to offer prizes for shooting, and their purses and
their parks, too, to facilitate and enliven reviews.
Nor were the aristooracy of our manufacturers be-
hind - hand. Captain RATCLIFF, for instance,
the brother of the popular Mayor of Bir-
mingham, was amongst the foremost to en-
courage the formation of Volunteer Corps in eon•
nection with the great gun-making town, both by
his personal exertions and by the prizes which he
offered not only for shooting, but for such things as
proficiency in the various parts of drill ; the prizes
to be awarded by competent military examiners.
M. DUPIN speaks of the efficiency of our " admi-
rable Volunteers in manning our fleet"—our
Volunteers themselves, we doubt not, are far more
modest. They do not contemplate ever acquiring
their sea legs, so far as we know. What they
do contemplate, and what they have achieved, and
will yet achieve far more perfectly, is to be com-
petent to back our fleet—to be the reserve defence
of the homes, of the wives and families, the fathers,
mothers, brothers, and sisters of our sailors, should
that fleet by any possible mismanagement—a defeat
we do not believe possible—suffer an invading army
to effect a landing. That is the occasion, and the
only occasion, for which the fleet, with all the rest
of the country, looks to its Volunteers. Should a
marauding body of 50,000 French glory-hunters be
smuggled unto the English shores, favoured by night
or mist, or by some almost unsupposable cause, then
we look to our Volunteers to present themselves in
front of the enemy till our
Navy should collect in
his rear, and enable us to carry them all off, as
the rebels have just been carried off from Cape
Hatteras to New York.

We need not, however, conceal the fact, that in
due time the numbers and efficiency of our Volun-
teers will tell upon the charge for the Army. It
cannot be that we shall need as many regular regi-
ments for home defence as we did before the move-
ment began. The larger colonies are to provide for
their own defence,an d they will have, in no long time,
regiments of volunteers as efficient as our own at
home. With better colonial arrangements for our
army, and with a volunteer army, of which fifty
thousand are, on high military testimony, competent
to take their places with the regiments of the line,
it would be too bad to maintain our present exact-
ing military taxation. The tax really contributed
by the Volunteers themselves is immense ; and they
and their families will have good reason to complain
if our incomes are to be taxed at the same rate for
a vet, 17 _
th : army as if we had no Volunteers taxing
mine, I. t: do their work. It must be borne in
D class, t the Volunteer class is the Schedule
already taxed so disproportionately for the ,

increased cost of our army during the last few
years. The self-assessment under Schedule V. ought
to lessen the amount of unjust self-assessment under
Schedule D.

Whatever the future effect of the volunteer Army
on our military financial expenditure, the country
noblemen, and gentry, and the volunteers continue
to display their zeal and jnterest:in the cause of na-
tional defence. Two very successful reviews came
off in the country only last week, one at Holkham
Park, the seat of the Earl of LEICESTER, the other
at Studley Park, the seat of Earl DE GREY and
RIPON. About five or six hundred collected at
Studley Park, and went through their evolutions
with what is now becoming the customary success.
The Earl could congratulate them on their " good
drill and soldierlike bearing," and on their deter-
mination to form a permament part of the institu-
tions of the country. We have no doubt that
this determination will be considerably strengthened
if the Government takes the course we have sug-
gested, and diminishes the national charge for a
regular aamy iu proportion to the success of the
Volunteers. It will be the most honourable tri-
bute which can be offered to their merits, that they
fill up the place of a large number of regular troops ;
and a stimulus to perseverance and permanency
when they see that the Government and the coun-
try have confided in them as a trustworthy army.

The Review of the Norfolk Volunteers in
Holkham-Park was a much larger affair. Not
fewer than 1,850 Volunteers actually dined
there after the conclusion of the work of the
day. The review was looked forward to with
some interest by the military authorities and by

,he Volunteers themselves, as affording an oppor-

tnnity for comparing the proficiency of the town
and country companies. The latter live, of course,
at greater distances from each other, and cannot
meet so often, or meet at all without a great part of
them travelling a considerable distance. They can
seldom make up a company, and not very often a
sub-division. They can only practice, their ma-
noeuvres for the most part with their few comrades.
Acting with large numbers especially in a review,
is therefore, to a great extent new work to them.
We are especially gratified therefore by observing
that the Ist county battalion under Lord SUFFIELD
distinguished itself well, and, in many respects, was
not surpassed by any troops on the ground. The
county men are already and naturally excellent
marksmen, and in a year or two will be finished
soldiers. In the agricultural districts, too, notwith-
standing the difficulty of meeting—the first enthu-
siasm has nowhere abated.
At Studley Park the clergy were toasted, and the
Bishop, who was present as an honorary member of
the corps was called on for a speech. He remarked
that he only followed the example of the venerable
Archbishop of CANTERBURY, who was also member
of a volunteer rifle corps. He justified their posi-
tion by alleging that the volunteers were the best
security for peace, Of this, indeed, there can be
little doubt. We hear nothing of invasion panics
now. The vast expense which we are incurring on
our army and navy is due to no fear of attack, but
partly to the enormous cost of new inventions in
offensive and defensive arms, and chiefly to our
desire not to be reduced to insignificance in Euro-
pean politics by the immense armaments, naval
and military, of our ambitious neighbour. He
chooses not only to have an army so largely out-
numbering ours, but a fleet too, if we will let him,
which shall be equal or superior to ours, He will,
however, keep the peace with our Volunteers. He
sees, in the reviews in English noblemen's parks,
what can be seen nowhere in France—a country
and its natural leaders doing their military work in
their own way—with an almost invisible minimum
of Government aid—a spontaneous organisation to
bid French ambition and love of glory look in some
other direction than that of England.

Once again things look a little brighter for the
North. The expedition to Cape Hatteras has been
completely successful; without the loss of a single
life the fort of the rebels was taken, and happily
but few of the rebels themselves were killed. The
importance of the movement would appear to be
considerable. It destroys at once the chief nest of
the privateers, which have annoyed so much the
Northern trade, and it turns the very position they
had chosen into the means of further threatening
the rebel flank and rear. North Carolina was
previously the shield of the Slave States south of
Virginia, and her railroad their grand means of
access to the Atlantic. They are now watched from
a position of more importance, we should suppose,
than was Fort Sumpter itself; certainly nothing
can go out or come in, while it would seem to be
easy to make the forts the basis of operations on
the main land. •

On one point there seems to be some doubt—Mr.
RUSSELL in his letter tells us that the surrender
was with, under present circumstances, the all-

important condition that the men should be treated
as prisoners of war ; and that the articles of capitu-
lation show not only the name of the United States
general, but that of "Flag-officer BARRON of C. S.
Navy !" This is, of course, an acknowledgment
at once of the belligerent position of the
Confederate States, and of the title of their officers.
Hitherto Mr. LINCOLN has persisted in ignoring
the status assumed by the rebels ; but if he ratifies
these acts of General BUTLER, he, and of course we,
must entirely drop that word henceforth. It will
probably be very mortifying to the PRESIDENT to
find', that our Government were practically right
in the first stage of the contest in taking the
humane and civilised view that seven States which
had then seceded were entitled to the rights of
belligerents. It is singular, however, that the
New York, Times, of the same date as Mr. RUSSELL'S
letter—Sept. 2—states explicitly " that the sur-
render was absolute and unconditional ; Gen. BUT-
LER refusingto treat on any other terms." The paper
states also that it has its information from its " ape
cial correspondent who accompanied the expedition.';
How to reconcile such an important discrepancy
we hardly know. Washington being so much nearer
Cape Hatteras than New York, ought to have the
earliest and fullest information. Mr. RUSSELL must,
we may also presume, have his inform ation from
Government sources, where the conditions would
hardly be acceptable ; and it is possible that the
" Special Correspondent" did not consider the formal
Confederate signature and the men being treated as
prisoners of war as any conditions at all; more espe-
cially as it is likely Commodore BARRON, C.S. Navy,
had at first asked concessions, which were more
obvious conditions.

An equally important fact, now confirmed, is that
Col. FREMONT has not only proclaimed martial law
in Missouri, but the liberation of slaves belonging
to rebel owners. Mr. RUSSELL would hardly state,
what before we mild only consider as a rumour,
from Washington, as c. fact, unless it were so. Now,
this is precisely the measure which we have always
held to be completely within the fair right even of
a Presideat who was too much in love with a radi-
cally vicious and immoral constitution like
that of America. Rebellion de facto cancels the
political rights of rebels. And when the

iniquitous clause in the American constitu.

tion, which was drawn up to recognise the accursed
doctrine of property in man, became the very