The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-26 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

It has now been decided to despatch the sth
(Capt. W. B. Gossett's) company of Royal Engi-
neers to Canada, instead of Bermuda, as previously
arranged, orders to that effect having been received
by telegram yesterday at the headquarters of the
Royal Engineer establishment, Chatham, by Col.
Harness, C.B. The sth company has been aug-
mented to 120 men of all ranks, and is composed of
skilled mechanics who have completed their course
of engineering instruction. It has been inspected
by Major-General Eyre, who expressed himself in
very complimentary terms on the general excellent
appearance presented by the men. According to
present arrangements, the company will leave head-
quarters to-morrow morning. An additional party
of telegraphists, surveyors, and photographists have
been selected from the most intelligent and skilful
of the Royal Engineers connected with those de-
partments, and will leave Brompton Barracks to-
morrow morning. They will be inspected, previ-
ously to their departure, by Major-General Eyre.
About 400 miles of telegraph wire will be
despatched to Canada, to be laid by the party of En-
gineers to be sent out for that purpose, the Govern-
ment having decided on connecting, as far as
possible, the whole of the stations at which troops
will be quartered, so that the commander-in-chief
may be in instant communication with the entire
force under his command:

Lieut. M. J. Wheatley, Royal Engineers, has
joined at Chatham and assumed the duties of Adj t. on
the Staff of the Royal Engineer establishment, vice
Capt. Gossett, who has been appointed to the com-
mand of the sth Company, which proceeds to Canada.

An intimation has been forwarded to Chatham by
the Deputy-Adjt. Gen. that the wives and families
of non-commissioned officers and men of the Royal
Engineers who are not. to proceed with their hus-
bands to Canada, will not receive the Government
allowance. An announcement to that effect was yes-
terday made to the companies by Col. Harness, C.B.
who stated that, in consequence of this decision,
subscriptions would be opened among the officers
and men to raise a fund to assist those left behind,
and that any donations would be very thankfully
received.

THE VOLUNTEERS,

LORD LLANOVER AND THE MONMOUTH.

SHIRE VOLUNTEERS.

In pursuance of an invitation which had been ad-
dressed by Lord Llanover as Lord Lieutenant of
Monmouthshire to the officers of the Volunteer force
of tho county, about 70 officers met his Lordship at
the King's Head Hotel in the town of Newport.
There were present—Colonel the Hon. Frederick
Morgan, commanding the Ist battalion ; Colonel
Bird, Commanding the 2d Battalion ; Major the
}lan. James Fitzwalter Butler, Captain Sir George
Walker, Captain Lyne of the Artillery Corps, &c.
Lord LLANOVER, after adverting to the death of
the Prince Consort, said he would proceed at once
to the business for which they had been convened,
and he would lay before them certain matters which
required their consideration. In the first place, his
attention had been necessarily drawn to a circular
which had been forwarded to the commanding
officers of the different corps in the county. It was
dated from the head-quarters of the Gloucestershire
Rifle Volunteers at Bristol, and was to the follow-
ing, effect :
"Sir,—lt is proposed to hold in the ensuing sum-
mer a retiereview of Volunteers of this city and the
neighbouring counties on Durdham Down a piece
admirably adapted for the manceavres of a large
force. The necessary sanction of the Secretary of
State for War, and of the Lord Lieutenant of the
county of Gloucester, has been obtained. As the
preparations will occupy much time, I take this
early opportunity of addressing you, and request to
be informed whether there is any probability of
the corps under your command taking part in the
review ; and if so, in what numbers it would be
likely to attend.

'C ROBERT BUSH,
" Lieutenant-Colonel, commanding Ist Glow
cestcrshire, Bristol Rifle Volunteers.

" P.S. A working committee, composed of the
Government officials, commanding officers of volun-
teer corps, and the civic authorities, will be imme-
diately formed."
Soon after his (Lord Llanover's) appointment to
the lieutenancy of that county he saw Lord Ducie,
• who is Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, and who
idesired to know whether it was probable the Vo-
luntee
,the
review, which
.th. is part of the country would attend
impossible
for him
would be on a large scale. It was
until he had seennitthos give any definitive answer
different corps on the sueobra.eTn.dbiuntghoefficersofthe
suggested-
-Ist, that the review should 3
be fixed for such a
-
.period as w (' 01-4 au interfere with those occupations

in which many of the Volunteers were engaged ;
and, next, that the day should be selected so that
the tide would allow of steamers making a to and
fro passage from Newport and Chepstow as regarded
the county of Monmouth, and from Car,iff for the
county of Glamorgan ; and he had sin e received a
letter from Lord Ducie in which he was assured
that these suggestions should have full consideration
in fixing the day for the review. The next subject
upon which he desired to enter was the desirability
of their having three or four regular brigade days
in the course of the year. when they all could
meet together. When he was in town he saw
Colonel M‘Murdo, and ho strongly recommended
three or four brigade days, and promised that he
would come down to review the brigade himself,
and that on the occasions when he could not do so
some officer of the regular army would attend. He
(Lord Llanover) had considered the eligibility of
different places for such meetings, and he thought
that on the whole the neighbourhood of Newport
was the best, on account of the facility of access ;
but this was a point that must, of course, also be
considered by those he saw around him, and he was
sure that they would give every attention to the
subject. The third point which he wished to bring
before them was one of a more difficult nature to
deal with, he alluded to the great dissimilarity of
uniform now existing. If they went to the review
at Clifton next year they would see the Somerset-
shire Volunteers, consisting of 20 corps, which were
three times the number of the Monmouthshire
Volunteers (the former county being large and the
latter small), and all those Volunteers would appear
on the ground dressed as one man. When the
Somersetshire Volunteers were first established ho
believed that there was the same desire for a variety
of dress in that county as there was in their own
county; but, fortunately, that desire had not been
acquiesced in, and now the Volunteers themselves
were most thankful that no difference existed from
one end of that large county to the other. He
hoped, therefore, that they would determine to
submit to him such a uniform as he might be able
to approve, so that when a renewal of clothing was
necessary the present dissimilarity of dress and dif-
ferences in colours might cease to exist. The last
point he would now touch upon was the propriety of
obtaining a fund for prizes to be shot for by the Volun-
teers. In the month of Febrnary,lB6o,his predecessor,
Mr. Hanbury Leigh, called upon the deputy-lieu-
tenants of the county to subscribe for that object.
Mr. Hanbury Leigh headed the list with £2O an-
nually ; Lord Tredegar, himself, and many others
added their names to the list, but some obstacles
appeared, and nothing further was done. He had
determined on reviving the attempt, and he had
every reason to hope that he should succeed. He
would himself give a prize of £2O annually ; Lord
Abergavenny had kindly promised to give £10;
the trustees of Mr. Hanbury Leigh had done
the same ; and ho had no doubt that Lord
Tredegar would assist him in the same manner
that he offered to assist his predecessor. Mr.
Herbert, of Llanarth, and every other person he
had as yet asked had promised their sup-
port, and he had no doubt that he should be
able to obtain a sufficient sum for the purpose.
He believed one great objection entertained to the
proposal was the apprehension that it would inter-
fere with the prizes which were given by the diffe-
rent corps, and which were shot for by the members
of those corps respectively, and which he might
term local prizes. He had no such intention—on
the contrary, he was sure that it was extremely de-
sirable that these local meetings should be main-
tained. What he proposed was, that those local
prizes should be continued, but that they should be
shot for at such a period of the year as would allow
of a certain number of the successful competitors of
each corps competing for the general or county prizes
some day during the fine months of the autumn, and
thus they might have, as it were, a large county
Volunteer Rifle competition. He had touched on
the several points upon which he had considered it
advisable to confer with them, and before he con-
cluded he would again thank them for their attend-
ance, and take the opportunity which was thus
afforded him of assuring them personally of his in-
tention to co-operate with them in carrying out the
great object they had been engaged in: The noble
lord resumed his seat amid much applause.
A good deal of discussion followed, especially as
to the subject of similarity of clothing throughout
the county, and one officer suggested that one bat-
talion might be of one colour, while the other bat-
talion might have another.
It was proposed by Capt. CATHCART, and seconded
by Capt. STEEL, that there should be one uniform
for the whole county, which resolution was agreed
to unanimously.
It was then resolved that the captains of the dif-
ferent corps should form a committee for the pur-
pose of carrying out the above resolution, and to
confer with the Lord-Lieutenant upon that subject,
as well as the arrangements for the meetings for
the county prize shooting and other matters.
On the motion of Lieut.-Col. BIRD, commanding
the battalion, seconded by Lieut.-Col. the Hon. F.
MORGAN, commanding the Ist battalion, a vote of
thanks to the Lord-Lieutenant, for having called
them together, and the interest he had taken in the
Volunteers of the county, was agreed to.
Lord LLANOVER returned thanks, and the pro-
ceedings terminated.

Lieut.-Col. Money, commanding the North-East
London Rifle Brigade, is about to deliver a course
of lectures to the battalion, comprising the 4th and
Gth Tower hamlets Volunteers, on Tuesday even-
ings, in their new drill hall, on the principles of
musketry, &c., illustrative of the practice at the
Hythe School of Musketry, from which he returned
a few weeks since. At a recent muster of the batta-
lion the Colonel inquired if he had their authority
to offer their services to her Majesty in any way in
which they might be available for home duty, and
was most enthusiastically answered in the affirma-
tive by the whole of the men present. _

On-Saturday, the 14th inst., the members of the
Broadwood Company, Queen's Westminster Volun-
teers, marched from the Horseferry-road, Westmin-
ster, to Wormwood scrubbs, to compete for a rifle
presented by Ensign Algernon Black, to those mem-
bers of the company who were not already holders
of prizes. There were 66 entries. The range was
confined to 300 yards, 15 shots each man. The rifle
was won by Private Temple with 15 points.
The final competition for the markmen's prizes of
the South Middlesex Rifles took place recently at
Beaufort-house, the regimental head quarters. The
range was at a distance of 300 yards, at a single
target, 10 rounds each, kneeling position, and the
10 best men from the previous competition were
selected for the final trial. The following is the
score :—Private Wilson, No. 2 Company, 16 points;
Lieut. Hawker, No. 7, 14; Sergeant Bacchus, No. 4,
14; Private H. Radcliffe, No. 10, 13; Sergeant Bur-
man, No. 7, 11; Private Biggs, No. 5, 11; Simons,
No. 5, 10; Hutchins, No. 7, 10; Burne, No. 10, 7 ;
and Corporal Stevenson, No. 7, 5. The previous corn.
petitions were at 700 and 800 yards, when the fir-
ing was very good, but the best was at the final
trial, showing that marksmen accustomed to long
diitances can afterwards make better practice when
brought to a smaller object at short ranges.
In a challenge match between the 2d and 4th
comescompanies
d oe
nf theon 2sOotthuMr
diodyd,l e st ehxe s hlo4ttho ffi
nasttt. iarpbtu tt s
ain
Time, of the 4th company, made
nine
in all
150, five at
200, eight at 250, nine at 300 yards,
Pri-
vate Absolon, of the same company, n
fiv five at;
t;
150,
eight at 200, six at 250, and seven at 300, inalhlt at
and Private Caines, of the 2d company, eight
150, eight at 200, five at 250, and four at 300, in all
25. The total made by the No. 4 company was 126,
and the total by the No. 2 company 105.
A match for the Harrow Challenge Cup took
place on the 17th inst., at the Civil Service Volun-
teer range, between the present holders of the cup,
the Ist Inland Revenue Company of the Civil Ser-
vic3 R:,giment, and the Ist company of the Sout't
Middlesex. The 'Let Inland Revenue Company were
successful, defeating their adversarstoeustbhymlBidpdoleinsetxs ;
they made 13 hits more than the
.The Essex County Rifle Associationhas
report
dirtst
first annual meeting. It appeared from the
presented that the general county competition at
Southend was considered to have passed off satis-
d factorily, the shooting being regarded as creditable,