The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-31 00:00:00

a greater man than ever in his own opinion. He
is now entitled to beard all the countries in the
world, although he is not, in fact, master of his own.

American papers now tell us that the precautions
suggested by Mr. SEWARD to the Governors, of erec-
ting defensive fortifications on the coasts, were
due to the possible occupation of Mexico by
Spain. Mr. SEWARD, with all the South be-
tween him and Mexico, is going to compel
Europe to respect the MUNROE doctrine—.
Europeans are to occupy no part of America
because Mr. SEWARD, at Washington, forbids !
Lucky for him that Europeans are not so touchy as
he ; otherwise they would, from resentment merely,
plant themselves in Central America again, and bid
him come and dislodge them. It seems as if no
humiliations, of which the North has had its fill
lately, could teach our Yankee cousins modesty.
Spain, France, and England will, however, certainly
pay no attention to Mr. SEWARD.

It is always pleasant at this dull season of the
year to meet with one of those rural meeting's that
break the monotony, in some degree, that inevita-
bly prevails when the political and fashionable
world of London is out of town. On Tuesday last
the South Avon Agricultural Society celebrated its
anniversary at Christchurch, Hampshire. The Earl
of MALMESBURT, the patron of the society, occupied
the chair, and thus the interest was of course in-
creased considerably. His Lordship's speech on the
Volunteers is well worthy of consideration, and the
opinions he expressed will be endorsed by all right
thinking members of the community. He observed
that there were two great dangers to whil they
were exposed; one was the idea that it was impos-
sible to attend to their duties as volunteers at the
same time that they fulfilled the calls of private
business. This the noble lord fully explained to be
a mistake, inasmuch as it was not necessary to be
as proficient in military exercises as troops of the
line, and if they attended the first year of drill
" they should know sufficient to form the nucleus of
a body of men who, when the occasion arrives,
which GOD forbid, in a month or six weeks would
make effective soldiers." The second point to which
he referred is the following :—" The other is an
opinion which I have heard advocated by some
men, that the institution of the volunteer force will
enable is to reduce our regular army. Depend
upon it that is a very great mistake. It would be
unfair to this country, and terribly unfair to the
volunteers themselves. Take, for example, the
habits of discipline, of life, of the class of men who
form the volunteers, and compare them with those
habits and customs of discipline and of order which
regulate the Royal army. It ismpossible, perfectly
impossible that you should change human nature
so completely. If you could transform them into
irregular troops, and subject them to some such
discipline as regular troops are subjected to, yet
if they were not always under those regula-
tions they would not be effective as a regular
army. They would be effective in their own way ;
they would be effective as a supplementary army,
relieving the troops in case of war or invasion in
toils to which they would otherwise be exposed ;
and they would be effective, doubling and trebling
the amount of the efficiency of regular troops by
enabling them to act together instead of employing
them in duties which the volunteers are able to
perform ; but to trust the safety of the country to
a body of men whose habits do not accustom them
to the stern discipline of the line, would be a most
dangerous and fatal thing to the country itself and
to the volunteers themselves." It is to be trusted
that no mistaken notions of economy will lead our
administrators to carry out this idea, as the
day that sees the army reduced will be
one of bad augury to the national
prospects, and then we lose the advantages we
now enjoy of being forewarned and forearmed.
His lordship concluded, amid general applause, in
these forcible words, "Do not, if you ever enter-
tained it, foster the opinion that, brave as you are,
patriotic as you are, you can act without the assist-
ance of the regular force, but consider yourselves
supplementary to that force, and be ever ready to
double its exertions and its usefulness." Amid
the many and varied orations, whose name is,
indeed, legion, that have been made on
this subject since the system of the Volunteers
was first inaugurated, there have not been any
which surpasses the one under our consideration
in the importance of advice tendered, and in the
right views entertained by the speaker on this
momentous question. If now by indifference or
inattention the Volunteers lose their pre-eminence
before the day of danger comes, it will be indeed
disastrous ; and again, if following the absurd doc-
trines of the peace party our rulers stultify them-
selves by decreasing the army, it will be a calamity
to the country, and a lasting disgrace to them
selves. The mere whisper of such a design is-
enough to call forth the most decided negative
from all ranks and classes. Long be the day dis-
tant when an invading force shall approach our
shores ; but should it come, it will not be the
votaries of the new school of progress and enlighten-
ment that will drive it back discomfited, but those
who keep alive in their hearts the old English
spirit of independence. Those who persist in say

ing that there is no likelihood of invasion, and no
need of preparation, will be the first to be panic-

struck when the time really comes; and it
is of the greatest consequence that all should
know their duties, and be certain of what

they can do and what they cannot do. In

the remarks which he subsequently made in re•

turning thanks for the " House of Peers," Lord

MALMESBURY seemed animated by the desire of
justice and fair play to all classes, and to entertain
none of those sectarian and prejudiced views which

are so often attributed to those in his position. He

spoke truly and forcibly of the importance of free

discussion in all places and especially of its value in

the House of Commons. He observed, "It is good
for this country that the voice of the people
should be heard in its proper place, and if
disagreeable truths and disagreeable assertions

were not allowed in the House of Commons
we should have much more of them in the streets
than we do now. It is, therefore, most desirable
that in the House of Commons the nature of the

people should be expounded. The House of Lords,
an hereditary assembly, is of a different kind ;
an assembly it has been unjustly said of men wish-

ing to curtail the liberties of the subject, for we
should be ungrateful to our ancestors if we did not
recollect that it was in the House of Lords that the
first liberty of England dawned, and that it was from
the Barons of England they received the charter of
their liberties. It is not agreeable to boast of
those honours which are but an accident of bitrh,
but it is impossible not to feel
longing to a bodylastly and an order of men who have
formed a part of the greatness of England's career
for so many centuries. The noblest spirits have
been proud to be in that house; the noblest spirits
have aspired to gain that honour ; and who
shall forget the chivalrous heart of NELSON

when boarding the Spanish ship, he shouted—"

Peerage or Westminster Abbey." The noble lord

concluded his eloquent address by referring to the

responsibility that he felt appertained to all in his

position who were responsible to GOD and their