The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-07 00:00:00

EARL DE GREY AND RIPON AND THE

VOLUNTEERS.

A deputation from the commanding officers of the
metropolis and county of Middlesex attended at his
Lordship's residence yesterday by appointment to
present an address upon his retirement. The
following commanding officers were present:—
Lieutenant-Colonels Lords Elcho, Radstock, Col-

ville, Ranelagh ; Lieutenant-Colonels Lindsay,
M'Donald, Colvill; Majors Beresford, Hughes,

Wilkinson, M‘Leod of M‘Leod ; Captain-Command-
ants Murray, Phillips, Templer, Hilliard, &c.
Lord Elcho, as chairman of the meeting at which
it was adopted, read the following address :
"The undersigned officers commanding Volun Leer
corps in the metropolis end the county of Middle-
sex have heard with regret that the advancement
of the Secretary of State for War to the Peerage
has had the effect of removing your lordship from

the War-office to the India
" For upwards of 18 nonths—that is to say, for
all but the first four months of the period during
which the Volunteer force has been in existence,
you have had the virtue.: direction and supervision
of the movement on the part of the Government ;
it is to you that we have all been referred, and with
you we have always corcmunicated.
" We who have always taken an active part in
the organisation of our ovn corps, and in the move-
ment generally, can apireciate the difficulty of the
task which has thus been laid on you, and know
how much hard work, ail well as firm and delicate

__... _
management, it has taken to bring this force to its

present state.
" You have had to rerresent us officially in Par
liament, and on public occasions, to manage our re
lations with the Hors 3 Guards, to consider and
sanction in all cases, ani to initiate and carry out
in many, the arrangement of those great gather-
ings of our force which (we hope we may say it
without boasting) have astonished and gratified the
nation in the course of he last year. In addition to
these public duties, you have also been in constant
communication with us personally, and there is not
one of us who has not received the most ready
attention and courtesy on all occasions, and
most valuable advice and help whenever you have
had the means of rendering them. In estimat-
ing your work it must be remembered that you
have had no precedents to follow ; you have had
to lay down the principles and to organise the
official machinery upon which the Volunteer
forces of this country are founded, and by which
they are to be carried on. We believe that the
principles which have been laid down are true, that
the machinery is efficient, and that your successors
will find their work to consist in enforcing those
principles, and in watching and keeping in order
that machinery.
" We therefore think that we are justified in tak-
ing, and are bound on public grounds to take, the
somewhat unusual course of thus addressing you on
your retirement from office, to express, on behalf of
the corps which we respectively command, our
thanks to you personally for your kindness and
courtesy, our respect for your judgment and dili-
gence, and our hope that the great department in
which you have worked so well will at some future
time again have the benefit of your energetic and
able assistance.
" Time has not permitted us to invite the com-
manding-officers throughout the country to join
with us; but although strictly we can speak only
for ourselves, we are thoroughly persuaded that in
this address we convey to you the sentiments of the
entire Volunteer force throughout the kingdom.—
We are, your Lordship's obedient servants,
(Here follow the signatures of the commanding-
officers of the metropolitan Volunteers).
I Earl De Grey and Ripon, who was evidently
highly gratified, returned the following reply :
" I return you my most sincere thanks for the
expression of your regret at my retirement from the
office of Under Secretary of State for War contained
in the address which you have just presented to me,
and which I receive with feelings of pride and gra_
titude.
" The duties which I have had to discharge during
the last 18 months in connection with the Volunteer
force have been full of interest to me, and I shall
always consider myself most fortunate in having
been officially engaged in the establishment and
organisation of that most valuable addition to our
national means of defence.
" Acting under the directions of the Secretary
of State for War, and conforming myself to the
principles which he laid down for my guidance,
I was, it is true, through his confidence, intrusted
with a large discretion in the management
of the volunteer business of the War-office; hut if
success has, as you intimate, attended my efforts, it
has been mainly owing to the wisdom and excel-
lence of the rules whic Lord Herbert established
in the first instance, and to the supervision which
he afterwards exercised over the mode in which
they were applied.
" The great principle which has directed all the
feelings of the Government with the volunteers has
been that, while it was our duty to maintain and
enforce adherence to certain broad rules of order
and discipline, without which no body partaking
of a military character could exist for any useful
purpose, it was essential to the success of a move-
ment of this kind, popular in its nature, ate *ring.