The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-28 00:00:00

THE VOLUNTEERS.

On Saturday a firing party of the 4th Middle-
sex (North London) Rifles, under the 'command of
Lieutenant Pontifex, proceeded to Plumstead to
conclude their prize firing for the season. The
first prize, a handsome silver. cup, presented by
Mr. Charles Wyman, and contended for at 200 and
500 yards, five shots at each range, was won by
Private Inglis, making 12 points; for the second
prize, a rifle given by Mr. Pantin, Sergeants Simp-
son and Lawrie, and Private Williams each made
10 points, but in shooting off the ties at 500 yards
Sergeant Simpson won. On Saturday next the pre-
sentation of the prizes won at target practice dur-
ing the season will take place at head-quarters, on
which occasion the brass band of the regiment,
which has been recently formed, will play for the
first time.

The annual contest for the regimental :prizes of
he 9th or West Middlesex Rifle :Volunteers com-
menced on Thursday, at the butts, on Wormwood
Scrubs. There was a good muster of the officers
and members of the corps, and the shooting gene-
rally was very good. The company's prizes, eight
in number, were sharply contested for on the first
day and were won by Capt. Fenton, Ensigns Arm-
strong
and Bartley, Corporal Baker, and Privates
Lefton, Harlow, Hall, and Messor.
On Saturday last the members of the 39th Mid-
dlesex (Finsbury Rifles) contended at Plumstead
for a handsome challenge medal, presented by Lieut.
Margetts, of the 2d company. The conditions were
five rounds at 200 and 300 yards, and the competi-
tion was very spirited, the prize being ultimately
won by Private Fox, scoring 12 points. A series of
prizes have also been recently competed for by the
different companies of the regiment. In the 3d
company a handsome silver cup, presented by Capt.
Virtue, was won by Corporal Harding, who scored
13 points at 200 and 300 yards; and a valuable
rifle was won by Private Fisher, making 12 points,
10 of them in five rounds. The 7th company con-
tended for their prizes at Hornsey-wood. They con-
sisted of a rifle and silver tankard, presented by
Capt. Pontifex, Lieut. Clarke, and Ensign Pontifox,
the ranges being 200 and 250 yards, five shots at
each range. After some good shooting, Private
Woodhead won the rifle, making 18 points, and
Sergeant Arch the silver tankard, scoring 12. The
match between 10 men of the 3d and 10 of the
sth company took place at Plumpstead, and re-
sulted in favour of the sth, who scored 80 points
against 56 made by the 3d. During the present
week
a: silver cup, a very superior field glass, and
silver medal, given respectively by Captain Turney,
iLtieuinernduebt edenrfaoonrft. u Mp
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ana
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d,
sacnofd
40 E()
marched
Rolfe, will be Saturdayeveningcon-
ehed
out preceded
corps totbhye
their brass band, under the command of Lieutenant-
Colonel Colvill.
On Tuesday a match for the champion's badge
among-some of the members of the St George's
Rifles took place at Wormwood Scrubs, under rather
trying a
p circumstances,e, the targets, especially the
long range, being partially obscured by fog and rain.
r
The contest end€d in favour of Ensign Hawkes
(champion), who s cored 20, he beating Sergeant
Waller by one point.
The members of the 4th Company of the 20th
(I\rprik-Wei3t) Middlesex Rifle Volunteers shot for

three prizes at the butts at Willesden on the 19th inst.
The shooting was very good, the three highest
scores being made by the following gentlemen :
Sergeant If. Clark, 28 points; Sergeant Scott, 28
points; and Capt. Tims, 25 point& On shooting off
the tie Sergeant Scott won.

It is expected that the London Rifle Brigade will
turn out to do honour to the Lord Mayor on the 9th
of November next.

On Saturday afternoon the members of the 22d
Middlesex (Queen's Westminster) Rifle Volunteers
shot for a number of prizes at the rifle butts on
Wormwood Scrubs. A silver cup, value 10 guineas,
the gift of four ladies, was shot for at ranges of
250, 400, and 600 yards, five shots at each range,
and, after some excellent shooting, was won by
Private Weatherden, with 15 points. Various other
prizes were shot for. They will be presented on
Nov. 30, in Westminster-hall.

The interesting ceremony of the presentation to
the 19th Middlesex Rifles of a handsome silver
bugle, subscribed by a number of ladies, took place
in the hall of the Metropolitan Institute, Cleveland-
street, Fitzroy-square, on Monday evening last.
Mrs. Whitaker presented the bugle to Capt. Shaen
with some well chosen remarks.
A new company in connexion with the Ist Mid-
dlesex Engineer Volunteers, of which Sir J. Bur-
goyne, R.E., K.C.8., is colonel, is now forming in
Holborn and Bloomsbury. The uniform is scarlet,
with blue facings. A corps bearing the title of the
Old Soldier Volunteers is also in course of forma-
tion in the metropolis. The regiment will consist
of members who have served in the army.

At a meeting of the 4th Tower Hamlet Rifles, to
consider the report of a committee, appointed in
July last, in reference to a question of amalgama-
tion with the North-East London Rifles, Major De
La Rue in the chair, it was resolved, with only two
dissentients, that the proposed amalgamation should
take place for drill and administrative purposes
only. The chairman announced that he had received
£5O as a donation to the corps from Mr. Appold, of
Finsbury. It was also announced that I:5 or £6
had already been subscribed towards a substantial
testimonial to Sergt.-Major Maslen, the drill in-
structor; and several other matters having been dis-
cussed, the proceedings concluded with the usual
complimentary vote of thanks to the chairman.

THE _FRENCH PRESS.

It is not without a certain feeling of professional
gratification that we bespeak the attention of the
public to a controversy now pending in France.
Most people. will remember that when the French
Government some years ago devised a series of
measures for the control of the Press, a "law of
signatures" was included in these restrictive enact-
ments. By this law it was ordained that every
article in a newspaper purporting to express the
opinions of the journal itself should be signed by
its actual writer, and the ordinance is in force to this
day. Although, however, this obligation was im-
posed upon newspapers, it was not extended to any
other publications. Arybody was at liberty to give
his own opinions, or the opinions of any other per-
son, to the world in an anonymous form, provided
only that he did so in a publication which was not
a newspaper. Pamphlets therefore were free though
the Press was not; and in no quarter was pam-
phleteering more in vogue than with the Government
itself. It was by the agency of anonymous
pamphlets that the French public was prepared for
each successive stroke of Imperial policy, and no
Ministerial " organ" was ever worked to better pur-
pose than this machinery. The system, however,
had its inconveniences. A" Government pamphlet"
was an imposing and a valuable species of publica-
tion, and, as such, was likely to be imitated. It was
a kind of literary banknote, tempting to forgery.
Accordingly pamphlets made their appearance in
forms so exactly resembling the " official" type
that people were misled by them, and the Govern-
ment was under the necessity of disavowing the
authorship. Presently it went a little further, and
complained of the evils arising from anonymous
pamphleteering. This remark has brought the in-
dependent writers of France into the field, and the
question of " Anonymous Writing" has been re-
opened for general discussion with an ability which
ought to insure a sound decision.
It is argued with a cogency perfectly irresistible
that the utility, and even necessity, of Anonymous
Writing for public purposes has been established by
the acts of the Government itself. When it was de-
sired to -weaken the effect of a publication Anony-
mous Writing was forbidden, as in the case of the
newspaper Press ; when it was desired to increase
this effect Anonymous Writing was resorted to, as in
the Government pamphlets. It is clear, therefore,
that such writing is really the most efficient, and if
Government reserves it for its own use it will be
tantamount to monopolising the3:chief means of
influencing public opinion. Of course, this argu-
ment, however keen, will glance harmlessly from
off M. de Persigny, who probably wishes for
nothing better than to retain in his own hands such
an arbitrament as this. If official opinions can
always be rendered influential and opposite opinions
ineffective by a mere variation in the form of pub-
lication, a very convenient power will be lodged in
the hands of the Government. What we wish,
however, to point out in this matter is the perfect
unanimity with which the value of Anonymous
Writing is acknowledged. The French Govern-
ment—all powerful as it is—adopted the practice
as giving it greater influence than ever, and the
French Press is now asking permission to re-establish
its power by reverting to the same custom.
It will not have been forgotten that the question
has once or twice been stirred in England, although
for the credit of the public, we must add that it was
never seriously entertained. The only persons who
denounced Anonymous Writing in England were
those who openly desired to deprive the Press of its
independent influence. They were consistent enough
in their designs, for they were endeavouring to de-
molish a power which conflicted with their own.
They wished to make newspapers mere vehicles of
their own opinions or the opinion of public men gene-
rally, and they deprecated the expression of any sen-
timents on the part of the journal itself. On these
principles a " law of signatures " might, undoubt-
edly, have been advocated, since its immediate
effect would be to deprive newspaper articles of half
their power. Why this should occur wo need not
stop to observe, though the French writers are
elaborate in their explanations. They say, truly
enough, that an anonymous article " represents a
body of individuals, a party, a power," while the
addition of a signature "always injures a produc-
tion, by confining its opinions merely to the writer,
and making us anticipate them from the qualities
dud opinions of the persons signing." There is
no doubt about this, but the argument is wholly
superfluous. Reasoning is superseded in this case
by experience. Ministers and writers in France
are alike convinced that anonymous writing carries
power, and that the power is lost as soon as the
anonymous character is given up. Nothing could
show better than this the true essence of the whole I
question. There is not the smallest doubt in any
quarter but that anonymous writing is the only
eligible or effective form of public writing. About
that fact there is no question at all. The only
question is whether public writing should be
allowed to be powerful or not—in other words,
whether the action of a free press should or should
not be tolerated.
That, and no other, is the question which lies at
the bottom of every discussion about anonymous
writing. Whenever such writing is forbidden the
press is muzzled, and there are persons, no doubt,
who do wish to muzzle the press, either because
they look with apprehension on popular enlighten-
ment, or because they are jealous of any public in-
fluence competing with their own. The simple truth
is that signatures in public writing must either be a
mere sham, or all that we understand in speaking
of "the press" must at once disappear. If news-
papers arc to continue what they are now, the sig-
nature of a name to a leading article would be a delu-
sion practised on the public. The responsibility of
the article rests with the conductors of the news-
paper. It does not represent, what a signature would
make it appear, the publication of an individual's
private opinion. It reflects the opinions of the
jou:nal, and it would be nothing but a fraud upon
the public if it were issued as the work of a

single man. A signature added under such condi-
tions, therefore, mast needs be a sham, while if the

conditions of public writing were so modified as to
render it a reality the character and functions of
the Press would be lost together.
It would be a mistake, however, to imagine that
revolutions of this kindhave been contemplated cx-

elusively in opposition to the Press. The system of
signatures has occasionally been advocated in the
presumed interests of public writers themselves. It
has been represented as unjust, and undesirable that
men with such talents and qualities as a successful
public writer must be reputed to possess should bo
thus lost in obscurity and made to sink their per-
sasopsemael distinctions in the power and reputation of
a journal. We have seen it argued in all sincerity
that e
cuahc, shua
cenrcdee
as st
credit,
ul
elbaudt
wa articlesitmh eouucluthastle tory
certaintydoie e aa
sm aat no npootli ot
ial
promotion. We
successfulonly
acknowledge the compliment im-
plied, but the
1
proposalt
thiseillcreosnsistent with the un-
avoidable demands o
be equally destructive vilieth
ers. Signatures would
appended for one