The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-02 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

The following General Order respecting the new
system in the Royal Artillery has been recently
promulgated to that arm of the service :

"Horse Guards, April, 1859.
" His Royal Highness the General Commanding-in-Chief
has much pleasure in promulgating to the Royal Regiment
of Artillery the consent of Her Majesty to the establish-
ment of a School of Gunnery at Shoeburyness, to take effect
from the first of April, 1859.
" His Royal Highness avails himself of this opportunity'
of impressing upon the whole regiment of Artillery a sense
of the great benefit which ought to be derived by the corps
from the advantages which a school of gunnery presents to
all who shall enjoy the facilities which such an establish-
ment will afford for individual improvement, as well as for
the advancement of artillery science in general.
"As some little time must necessarily elapse before the
details of a first-rate system of artillery instruction can be
arranged, his Royal Highness will on the present occasion
content himself with indicating thegeneral principles which
will guide those officers of the corps whom he has intrusted
with the preparation of that system, and, although time and
experience may suggest improvements in the details, the
broad outline of the system will doubtless undergo little bt
no change.

" An artilleryman should unite with proficiency in his own
branch of the service many of the qualifications of a cavalry
or infantry soldier, and it is therefore hoped that, while
officers will naturally use their, utmost endeavours to
train efficient gunners, they will not lose sight of the great
advantages to be derived from a thorough knowledge of the
drills and manoeuvres of both services, in enabling them to
conform with confidence and judgment to conbined move•
ments of all arms. For the furthering of this object the
directions contained in the recognized manuals are to be
strictly adhered to, and it will be hereafter pointed out in a
course of instruction' what portion of the infanry
manoeuvres may be dispensed with by the Royal Artillery.
As an infantry soldier is not considered fit for the rank of a
duty man until he is well versed in the proper management
of his weapons, so an. artilleryman is to be considered a re-
cruit until he is properly instructed in the essential requi-
sites of an artillery soldier. Commanding officers of artil•
lery will therefore bear in mind that gunners are not to be
detailed by them for 'duty' until dismissed gun drill. Thus,
if attached to a brigato liable to coast duty, a course of gar-
rison gun drill must be completed. With a view to ren-
dering this period of probation as short as possible, 'system'
is absolutely necessary, and this system will be the subject
of mature consideration by the Staff of the School of Gun-
nery.
" At all artillery stations opportunities are afforded for
instruction in those mechanical operations (commonly called
the repository course) which form such an essential portion
of an artillcryman's training, and commanding officers must
adhere strictly t. the distribution of time as allotted to the
various departments of instruction, in order that uniformity
of system may be maintained.

"-The instruction in the management of rifled ordnance
nfifdrosretmnieentshoteafnthceestaff subject of special arrangements, and will in
becaorrfitedheosnchuonodl of
ertguhennimemrye,diath and
besuper
IS
gra-
dually disseminated throughout the corps. It would now
be premature to enlarge on this portion of the subject.
With regard to the theoretical instruction of the non-com-
missioned officers and men of the artillery, his Royal High-
ness would remind officers of the numerous opportunities
which offer of impressing upon those under their command
how inseparable artillery practice is from the deductions of
theory, and how a knowledge of the general rules of mecha-
nical science will facilitate all operations, whether as regards
the acquirement of good gunnery or the management of
heavy ordnance and military machines. Such opportuni-
ties should not be thrown away, and his Royal Highness
trusts to the officers of the corps to impart to all under their
instruction as much as possible of that theory which is the
groundwork of all gunnery. Difficulties will, doubtless,
present themselves, but his Royal Highness is convinced
that a 'determination and cheerful co-operation on the part
of the officers of the Royal Artillery will tend to obviate
such difficulties, and that such assistance will be afforded
him his previous acquaintance with the artillery service
leaves him no room to doubt.
" On the formation of the School of Gunnery the Reposi-
tory at 'Woolwich will be placed entirely under the Com•
mandant, with an officer of the school to carry on, under
his orders, the gunnery instruction of the garrison; and
should the Commandant find it necessary,-he will detail
subaltern officers to assist this officer in his Mies.
" The following is the detail of the Staff of the School,
viz. :—one Commandant and Superintendent, one Field
Officer and Chief Instructor, three Instructors in Gunnery,
one Brigade Major, one Adjutant and Quartermaster, one
Captain. Instructor (carbine), one Schoolmaster, one Ser-
geant-Major, one Quartermaster-Sergeant, six Sergeant..
Instructors, one Sergeant-Conductor of Stores, two Orderly-
room Clerks, two Storemen.
" And his Royal Highness has appointed the following
officers to the School of Gunnery, viz. :
" Commandant and Superintendent—Colonel Mitchell.
" Chief Instructor—Brevet-Colonel Gardner.
" Brigade-Major—Brevet-Lieutenant-Colonel S. E.
Gordon.
" Instructors in Gunnery—Major Ward (Woolwich),
to
proceed
artillery
Captain Hay, and Major Taddy.
4,,
BC Carbine
Adjutantr
command
nm ein aanudd oQf Instructor—Captain
erDlßoyalas tenr
Highness
c.
aßrown.ptain
as fol-
lows the General c€4l-
-
Alderson.
mending-in-Chief.
guniidcteCr.hmAieen.WtiEonTed
Gibraltar,
were required in garrison orders of
Woolwich, to be held in readiness
lows :—Captain Blosse's battery forat
Cap-
tain M'DougalPs for Malta,
and Major Strange's
for Corfu. The following removals
Were likewise
ordered to take place :—Cuptain Green's battery
from Aldershott to Wee,lvrioli, Captain Travers's
from Aldershott to Woolwich, Lieut.-Col. Morris's
from Sheerness to liroolwich, Captain Forbes' from
Major Strange's from
Sheerness to W°°l
Sheerness to Wool:vviiech, h
, Captain Wragge's from
e:yonport, Major Cat thew's from Pem-
,
Sheerness to DelvnPort, Major Williams' from.
itdoeng
Capt. Vernon's from Alderney to
Portsmouth, Mal or Talbot's from Shorncliffe to Bal-
bLriovke re PtoooAl
lincollig, Capt. Mercer's from Ballincollig to Shorn-
cliffe, captain Brent's from Woolwich to Devon-
port, Major Tngilby's from Sheerness to Ports-
mouth, Captain Gabbett's fromWoolwich to Guern-
W; Lieutenant-Colonel Wright to proceed from
Woolwich to Devonport.
-The Norfolk Artillery Militia will leave Great
Yarmouth early in May for Sheerness, where they
Will perform garrison duty.

The terrible game has been duly opened. There
is no longer any doubt that a war has commenced,
of which it is impossible to predict the results, or
to say what Powers will be involved in the contest.
The energetic and able exertions of the British
Government have been for the present neutralised.
It has been admitted on every side that nothing
was left undone to preserve the peace and tran-
quillity of Europe. But where there is an in-
flexible resolution to proclaim hostilities where
similar obstinacy is exhibited on every side, and
captious objections are taken to even the most
reasonable propositions, it would be utterly impos-
sible for even the most talented and earnest nego-
tiators to prevent the outbreak of hostilities.
Austria has unquestionably invaded Piedmont,
and she justifies the step on the ground
that its neutrality had previously been violated
by the reception of French troops. Under such
circumstances she felt that the step was essential
to prevent her adversaries from obtaining an ad-
vantage. It was, as asserted by the Cabinet of
Vienna, an indispensable proceeding ; more par-
ticularly as the revolutions in Tuscany, Massa, and
Carrara, and the disturbances at Rome and in
Sicily have rendered immediate action necessary.
It is asserted by the Viennese journals that a
sharp contest took place at the Bridge of Buffalora,
and that the Austrians had obtained a decided
victory with considerable loss to their adversaries.
This statement must, however, be taken cunt gran°
salis, in the absence of authentic intelligence from
other quarters. It is only from Vienna that we hear
of this alleged triumph ; but then it is more than
probable that if resistance was offered the result would
have been in favour of Austria, whose forces were
quite sufficient to overwhelm any that could for the
moment be brought against them by France and
Sardinia. There seems to be no doubt that the
towns of Sutra, Pallauza, and Arona, on the Lago
Maggiore, have been occupied ; that twenty bat-
talions and eight batteries of cannon also entered
the Sardinian territory by way of Gravellona, and
had seized on the province of Novara ; while a
third took the road through Abbeate Grasso, and
advanced during the night to Casale.
Meanwhile VICTOR EMMANUEL has not been
idle. lie has, it appears, placed himself at the
head of his army, and has been surveying the line
of the Dora, probably with the intention of im-
peding the ,progress of the invading army, and
preventing their arrival at Turin before the
French auxiliaries are enabled to afford adequate
assistance. The fortress of Alessandria, as
may be anticipated, will be defended to
the last. Its preservation is essential to
Piedmont, and, if secured by Austria,
it would materially add to the existing difficulties
of Sardinia. Austria is for once thoroughly in
earnest. She will neither consent to any of the
much-required and anxiously looked-for reforms in
the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, nor will she even
abandon her undue interference in the quasi inde-
vendent states of Italy. France is also equally
solved;l but should she meet with the success she
antieiPates , we fear that the advocates for Italian
liberty will find that it is only an escape from what
the homely proverb terms " the frying-pan into
the fire,"
and that Fiance will be scarcely more
13
liberal in •
1 treatment of what it will
be disposed to consider as conquered territories than
Austria itself with all its admitted maladministra-
tion.

It would be well if either party should gain so
decisive a triumph as to lead to au early settlement.
There is one chance at least for
-n arrangement.
The Austrian Exchequer is wholly
I'llllk apt. A loan
of 200,000,000 florins is imperatively
-r
required, but
as it is significantly remarked, the contrad
for the
present being impossible, the National tank is
to advance two-thirds of the amount in new notes,
which for the present would not be redeemable it
specie. This would be a wise and prudent step;
but that, unfortunately, the first condition which

would render such notes unavoidably acceptable
throughout the empire is dispensed with. They
will not be received in payment of taxes, which
must be liquidated either in silver or coupons of the
national loan. This unfortunate error on the part
of the Viennese Cabinet will neutralise all the ad-
vantages that would otherwise have followed so
decided a movement.

France also wants a similar sum. She has largely
increased her debt since the accession of the EM-
PEROR, and it is more than doubtful whether
the people will be inclined again to pro-
duce their secret hoards to gratify the
Imperial ambition. Russia, too, asks for twelve
millions. We do not, however, think it probable
that any of the parties will have their little bills
discounted in Lombard-street or Capel-court. The
brokers and jobbers have already had sufficient
cause to deplore their transactions in foreign stocks ;
and although many temptations may be offered, we
trust that English capitalists, as well as the Eng-
lish Government, may observe a complete and per-
fect neutrality between the contending nations.

"Si cis pacein para belluin." The true policy of
a peace-loving Power is to prove, beyond the possi-
bility of doubt, that it possesses the means, not
only of defending itself, but of inflicthag severe
injury on any nation or coalition by which it may
be assailed. The motto to the truly illustrious
Order of the Thistle, " _Nemo me irnpune lacessit,"
and that of the chivalrous Scottish knight, " Ready,
aye ready for the field," afford the best illustrations
of this great principle.
The money expended in increasing our armament
in time of danger may be regarded as an assurance
fund against losses and calamities that would gladly
be averted by the account one hundred times told.
We rejoice then to find that Lord DERBY'S Go-
vernment have adopted the wise course of largely
increasing the available resources of the British
Navy, our " stronghold and great tower of defence."
It would be an act of folly—aye, of crime, to neglect
placing our wooden walls in the best possible
position, so that they may be enabled to resist
any possible coalition that may be brought against
them. Should Britannia abdicate her position as
Mistress of the Waves, should she ever relinquish
her maritime superiority, she would sink into a third-
rate power, and no longer exercise the influence in
the councils of Europe which she now justly
possesses. Every true-hearted Englishman must
have hailed with intense satisfaction the royal
proclamation which appeared in our impression of
Saturday, offering a bounty of £lO to all able-
bodied seamen not above the age of 45, or under
that of 20; £5 for all ordinary seamen fit for ser-
vice, and 40s. for every able-bodied landsman not
above the age of 25 nor under 20, who should
voluntarily enter the naval service before the 15th
of June next. Sir JOIIN PAKINGTON is
entitled to the thanks and gratitude of the
nation, for this judicious and opportune proceeding
which could not have been taken without the assent
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who has the
difficult task of providing the ways and means for
this extra expenditure. It has been said that
ten thousand additional seamen are to be engaged,
but the Royal Proclamation makes no limitation.
It addresses itself to all who may offer themselves
before the 15th of June, and the greater the num-
ber the better -would it be for the country—the
more certain would be the preservation of British
neutrality—the more efficient any intervention
on our part between the belligerents. With
twenty or fifteen thousand additional seamen, our
maritime superiority would be unquestionable.
With ten thousand it would be maintained, but
there might, in such cases, be a doubt, and that
should be averted at any cost or any outlay. The
great thing is to render our navy not merely effi-
cient, but overwhelmingly superior to any other that
could be opposed to it, and it is but justice to Sir
JOHN PAKINGTON to say that he has done more to
obtain that object than any of his predecessors in
office for a long series of years.

It can but he gratifying to us to observe that a
subject to which for years past we have every now
and then invited public attention, is at last likely to
receive it. We refer not to the use of the rifle for
the army merely, but to the training of volunteers
throughout the country to its skilful use. The
Edinburgh Review has adverted in its last number
to the value of rifled guns, and brought together
much information and some striking facts. Letters
on the formation of volunteer corps, both horse and
foot, have been sent to the daily press, and the
Times itself has nodded approbation. Two volun-
teer corps exist already ; one here, the Victoria
Rifles, whose merits we described shortly after
their formation, and urged general imitation ; the
other at Exeter; and now, we find a third seeking
formation and embodiment at Birkenhead. We
can hardly doubt that the project, if general atten-
tion be drawn to it, must be taken up extensively.
The merely routine prejudices of burly old colonels
and commanders will give way to fact and common
sense. If they can see no advantage in anything
but soldiers of the line, and in militia as a nursery
for it, and can but barely tolerate yeomanry
cavalry, while anything beyond that is horribly ir-
regular—absurd indeed—they will now be told to
look to their own regulars, and to mind their own
business, but not to interfere with mmt who are de-
termined to make an invader dread, even more
than those who face them in the thin red line, the
unrecognized army of free citizens whose bullets
they will feel, but whose faces they will hardly
ever see.

We scarcely need dwell now on the difference
between any good form of the modern Rifle and
Brown Bess. Every one has heard that the latter
is absolutely innocuous at 200 or 300 yards, no man
being certain whether he could hit a haystack or
even a church at that distance, but rather having
every reason to bet twenty to one that he should
not hit it ; while the latelGeneral JACOB produced
a short-barrelled rifle with which a tolerably good
shot could hit an object the size of a man once in
three times at the distance of I,oooyards, while the
deadly force of the ball would not be expended at
2,000 yards ! The question is settled for ever that
nothing inferior to a good rifle can ever again be
put into a regular soldier's hands. It were to
be guilty of murder in regard to our men, and of
throwing away victories in regard to any war we
may be called on to wage. The general merits of
the Rifle, however, have been so completely de-
monstrated at Inkerman, and in the Crimean war,
and in the Sepoy revolt, that probably o,oy will
never be disputed again. But how strange that
our military authorities did not learn the lesson
taught them in the American war of Independence,
by the surrender, virtually, of two armies to the
almost invisible rifles of enemies whom they could
hardly ever get to face them.
But there are two points, having a close connec-
tion, to which we would call special attention, be-
cause others have been more fully noticed elsewhere
—the wisdom of taking decided measures to train a
large portion of our youth, and adult males too, to
rifle practice, and of forming them into companies
for practice throughout the kingdom.

What the Old Regular Officer thinks most of, is
well drilled men ; fellows who can go through

every evolution with precision, and who would
march anywhere if ordered—up to the mouths of
any guns in the world. Far be it from us to
undervalue all this; but there aro some things
quite as terrible to officers and to men as to meet
others as well drilled as themselves, and that is to
run the gauntlet of a country, every hedge and ditch,
and hovel, and old tree, and furze bush, of which con-
cealed a rifleman or two, too scattered to be attacked,
too familiar with the country they live and work
in to be drawn from concealment, or followed into it,
except at the peril of being shot down by one while
following another. By all means let us have the
regular army we ought ; but a population of first-
rate riflemen, even if but scantily drilled, yet well
led, and burning with indignation at wanton in-
trusion, would be the deadliest of antagonists to be
met by a foreign foe.
But then these men would want one kind of
training—the training of early and long practice
with these weapons. Arms of precision, whether
the slings of the Cretans and the Balearic Islanders,
or the longbows of our renowned ancestors, or the
rifle, acquire almost all their value from the prac-
tice which trains the eye and the hand, which
gives them fatal certainty, and which, like every-
thing in which excellence is required, is far more
efficient in youth than in later years. The care
and pains taken by our forefathers in teaching the
inhabitants of all classes the use of the bow is astonish-
ing. Some of the means would now be deemed
tyrannical, nor are they necessary. Express
statutes forbade a great many athletic games ;
quoits, bowls, and tennis ball even, were forbid-
den, as well as games of chance, 'that. the people
might be driven to archery for amusement on holi-
days ! So Tale as HENRY VIII, a statute required
every subject; except some necessarily exempt, to
keep a bow and arrow in his house, and to exercise
himself in shooting. Fathers, guardians, and
masters of apprentices were required to teach the
male children under their care the use of the bow,
and compel them to shoot on holidays and at con-
venient times. No person above twenty-four years
of age was permitted to shoot at a mark nearer, than
220 yards—a distance at which, with " Brown
Bess," he could rarely indeed hit it-and every
parish must have its shooting butts. Thus it.was
that the archers were provided who were the real
conquerors in so many battles.

But these
.severities would, even for the same
object, be now, we believe, useless. What we
plead for is not merely gentlemen rifle corps, but
for a whole male community encouraged and ac•
customed to use th 6 rifle. Till facts preiVe the con-
trary, we shall take leave to believe that the youth
of our towns would like rifle practice. :They need
manly exercises. It is not worthy of us that the
great majority of our town lads could hardly hold
on a horse or hit a barn door with a fowling-piece.
Such habits tend to effieminacy. Give them half-
holidays. Utilise their long summer evenings.
Offer them the use of rifles, kept in charge of a
public officer, himself, of course, competent to
teach. Enrol those who were skilful and steady
when they were of full age. Confer a status on
the enrolled—let them, as volunteers in the service
of their country, enjoy the franchise proposed by
Mr. WALroLE for militiamen—encourage them in
every way, and several hundreds. of thousands of
practised rifle shots would make any hater of Eng-
land think twice of it before he threw his soldiers
into their hands.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA, COVENT-

GARDEN-.

Rossini's celebrated opera, " La Gazza Ladra,"
was repeated at this theatre on Saturday night
before a large and brilliant audience. Mdlle. Lotti's
performance of the arduous part of Ninetta
has been criticised on previous occasions. On
Saturday she was again most successful, and ob-
tained immense applause. Mdlle. Didiee, as Pippo,
appeared to great advantage. In the long and
difficult duet with Ninetta, in the prison scene, she
particularly distinguished herself. Gardoni, as the
soldier-lover,.Ronconi, as the unworthy magistrate,
and Tagliafico, as the father of Ninetta, were all
admirable. . The orchestra participated in the
succ+s, for they gave the fine overture with so
much spirit and precision that it was redemanded.
The house was fully attended. •

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THE SUN.
MONDAY, MAY 2, 1859.