The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-27 00:00:00

VOLUNTEERS.

The following Circular•was issued from the War
Office yesterday :

"War-office, Pall-mall, May 25.
" With reference to the circular of May 12,
sanctioning, under certain conditions, the enrol•
ment of volunteers, it seems essential, in order that
the patriotic exertions of those who may come for-
ward may contribute most effectively to that which
they have at heart—namely, the defence and
security of their country, that they should not be
left in ignorance of the nature and character of the
service to which they are thus binding themselves ;
but that the objects which such bodies of volun •
teers should have in view should be clearly ex-
plained to them, as well as the peculiar duties
expected from them, together with the best means
of qualifying themselves for their effective discharge.
" Premising that these volunteers may be of two
classes, one comprising those who may be instructed
to act as riflemen or sharpshooters in the field ; the
other, those whose services may be rendered most
valuable in our seaports, and other coast towns, in
manning the batteries constructed for their defence,
it must be borne in mind that—

" 1. The first essential, without which no body
of volunteers, however composed or organised, can
hope to render available or really useful service, is
that it should be amenable, when called upon to
act, either in garrison or in the field, to military
discipline; for without such discipline no General
or other officer under whom they may have to act
will be able to place much dependence on their
assistance or co-operation in the hour of need.
" 2. In the second place, the conditions of ser-
vice should be such as, while securing
i and enforc-
ing the above necessary discipline, to induce those
classes to come forward for service as volunteers
who do not, under our present system, enter either
into the regular army or the militia.
"3. In the above view the system of drill and
instruction for bodies of volunteers should not be
such as to render the service unnecessarily irksome,
or as to make demands upon the time of the mem-
ders that would interfere injuriously with their
ordinary avocations ; thus either indisposing to the
service, in the first instance, those who might
otherwise have gladly joined it, or driving them
out of it, after a short experience of the inconve-
niences to which they have been exposed.
" 4. It should not be attempted, therefore, as re-
gards rifle volunteers, to drill or organise them as
soldiers expected to take their place in line, which
would require time for instruction that could ill be
spared ; but it should be rather sought to give each
individual volunteer a thorough knowledge of the
use of his weapon, and so to qualify the force to act
efficiently as an auxiliary to the regular army and
militia, the only character to which it can aspire.
"5. It is evident that this object will be best at-
tained by the enrolment of volunteers in small
bodies, in companies, consisting of an establishment
of 1 captain, 1 lieutenant, 1 ensign, and 100 men of
all ranks, as a maximum, or in subdivisions, and
even sections of companies, with the due proportion
of officers, and composed of individuals having a
knowledge of and thorough dependence upon each
other ; and it should rarely, if ever, be sought to
form them into larger corps, entailing the necessity
of a lengthened and complicated system of drill in-
struction.

" 6. The nature of our country, with its nume-
rous enclosures and other impediments to the ope-
rations of troops in line, gives peculiar importance
to the services of volunteer riflemen,in which bodies
each man, deriving confidence from his own skill in
the use of his arm, and from his reliance on the

support of his comrades—men he has known, and
with whom he has lived from his youth up, inti-
mately acquainted, besides, with the country in
which he would be called upon to act—would hang
with the most telling effect upon the flanks and
communications of a hostile army.
"7. The instruction, therefore, that is most re-
quisite is practice in the use and handling of the
rifle; and with a view to this sites for firing at a
target should be established, if possible, in every
locality where companies or bodies of volunteer rifle-
men are formed, and every encouragement given
to the men to avail themselves of them, leaving it
to themselves to select their own hours for prac-
tice, or for such further instructions, as sharp-
shooters, as it may appear desirable to give
them—namely, how to extend and avail themselves
of cover, to fire advancing or retiring, to protect
themselves from cavalry, or other simple movements
which, whilst leaving- every man his independent
action, would enable them to act together with
more effect. interested as the more wealthy classes
throughout the country will be in the efficiency of
such bodies of volunteers formed in their own neigh-
bourhood, they will doubtless co-operate heartily
with the Lords Lieutenant of counties in endeavour-
ing to find such sites for practice, and in whatever
else may tend to further the object in view.
" 8. Her Majesty's Government will authorise the
issue from the public magazines at cost price of
targets and
-of the regulated annual allowance of

practice and exercise ammunition for each trained
volunteer—viz., 90 rounds of ball and 60 of blank
cartridge, and 165 percussion caps ; and for the
training of each recruit 110 ball and 20 blank cart-
ridges, 143 percussion Caps, and 20 ditto for snapping
practice. Requisitions for the same to be made to
the Secretary of State for War, upon.forms which
will be supplied, on demand, from this office.
" With a view to the supply of ammunition from
the Government stores for the use of volunteers, it is
a primary and indispensable condition of their for-
mation that the rifles with which they are armed
should be perfectly uniform in gauge with those in
use by the regular army, and that there should be a
similar uniformity in the size of the nipple, in order
to suit the Government percussion caps.
"9. The apparatus for testing the gauge consists
of two plugs, one of •577-inch, and another •580-
inch. Each rifle, to be serviceable, must admit the
former and exclude the latter.

" All the barrel makers in Birmingham, and the
setters up' in that town, as well as in London. are
provided with similar plugs to those which are used
in the 'view rooms' at those places ; and as the arms
of each corps will be subject to an examination by
competent viewers from the Government Small Arms
Department, under the direction of Lieut.-Colonel
Dixon, R.A., Superintendent of the Royal Small
Arras Factory (for which purpose application must be
made to the War-office), commanding officers of corps,
and all who purchase arms, should hold the manu-
facturers responsible for the correctness of the
barrels and the nipples.
6, 10. It may further be a question whether it
would not be found advantageous, with a view to
the better preservation of the arms and accoutre-
ments of the company, to provide, if possible, in the
neighbourhood of the practice range or parade
ground of each company, a dry and airy building
or room as a store, where they could be deposited
and properly cleaned and attended to at the expira
tion of each day's drill.
" 11. It is also very.desirable that the uniform
adopted should be as simple as possible, and that
that of the differentcompanies
county should be assimilated, and
serving
though in each
this point
is left to the decision of the volunteers, subject to the
approval of the Lords Lieutenant, it is considered
that a recommendation on the subject would be of
advantage.
" 12. As regards artillery volunteers, their
their prim-
ary object will be to aid in the most efficient
man-
ner in the manning of the batteries erected for the
protection of our coast , towns, so that the Royal
Artillery and Militia may be, to as great an extent
as possible, digposable for other services.

‘; 13 These volunteers map consist of a different
class from that which will come forward for the more
active duties of riflemen in the field. Married men
resident on the spot, and such as either could not ab-
sent themselves, even for a day, from their usual busi-,
ness, or might be physically unfit for field duties,
might yet find ample time for learning how, to
work a great gun mounted in their immediate
neighbourhood, and might be fully adequate to
whatever exertion its exercise might require. The
interest they would have in thus contributing to
the security of their property and families, which
would be at once endangered by any hostile attack,
would be even stronger than that which would lead
volunteer riflemen to the field.

" 14. The same principle which is recommended
for the organisation of riflemen should be adopted
for the artillery, volunteers, except that the
latter should be divided into still smaller bodies.
For instance, the most effective system would
be that which would associate 10 or, at most, 12
[ men, all neighbours intimately acquainted with

each other, in the charge and working of a par-
ticular gun, mounted, so to speak, at their very
door.
" 15. One of their number should be.appointed
to act as captain of the gun, to the charge and
working of which their duties would be strictly
limited. They might arrange their own time for
drill and practice, an artilleryman being charged
with the duty of imparting the former, and all that
would be required of them would be that they
should be able to prove, on a half yearly inspection
that they had duly profited by the instruction so
given, and had qualified themselves for the impor-
tanttrust reposed in them.

" 16. Always working and practising with the
same
gun, they could not but become well acquainted
with its range, and the points to which it would
have chiefly to be directed.
" 17. In the same manner associations may be
formed in many of our commercial ports and open
rivers for manning and working boats or ship's
launches, armed with single guns in the bow, and
which might, on occasion, be even more serviceable
than the stationary shore batteries. Considering
the vast amount of property in vessels, docks, tim-
ber yards, &c., exposed in most of these rivers to
sudden attack from privateers, shipowners and
others would probably be well disposed, and think
it indeed only a wise precaution on their part, to
place any spare boats in their possession which are
adapted for the above named purposes at the dis-
posal of such associations, and even themselves to
promote their organisation."