The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-10 00:00:00

THE .111LITIA AND VOLUNTEERS.

(Front the Anglo -American Times.)
The Militia of Great Britain is its Constitutional
Force, and is purposely by the law placed in this
respect in striking contrast with the regular army.
Americans may not know that the very preamble
of the Act which legalizes a standing army declares
its maintenance to be contrary to law unless sanc-
tioned by Parliament. So jealous is the Legisla-
ture that it limits the Mutiny Act which legalizes
the regular army to one year, renewing it at the
beginning of each session. If that Act were not
passed, the whole military superstructure would fall
to the ground. A private might knock his colonel
down and be liable only before a magistrate to be
fined five shillings fur assault and battery ; trial
by court-martial would become illegal, and the
Sovereign's Articles of War, which are based on
the Mutiny Act, would lose their foundation and
force. On the contrary, the Militia is a con-
stitutional army, each county having its orga-
nization, the men being liable to be raised by
conscription, and the officers appointed by the
Lord-I ieutenant of the county. There are so
many volunteer militia men that conscription is
not necessary, their services being only required as
a rule for three weeks of each year, when little
agricultural work is doing ; and the country lads
regard that spell of drill as a pleasant change to the
county capital where the muster is made. During the
time the men are called out, they are paid, clothed,
and fed as is the regular army ; the officers, who are
in the same proportion as a regular regiment. rank
with, but after the same grades of the standing
army. They dine at a mess, which, being long esta-
blished, is generally as well supplied and orna-
mented as those of their regular brethren. The
men are usually quartered in barracks, and come
under a Mutiny Act applicable to the militia, the
powers of commanding officers and courts-martial
being much the same in both services, but the
officers of the one cannot sit on the courts of the
other. After a militia regiment has been some
time at drill its appearance and composition are
so similar to those of the ordinary line regi-
ment that it requires a practised eye to tell the
difference, and frequently these regiments, being
called out for permanent service, take their places
is tbe barracks of Aldershot, when to all in-
tents and purposes they become ordinary march-
ing regiments. When the supplies are voted
Parliament grants the sum necessary to meet the
estimates for the current year's training, and the
only cost in the interval is the maintenance of the
permanent depots, with an adjutant at the place
where the regiment annually musters, together
with a sergeant-major, whose business it is to look
after the arms, clothing, &c., to keep the rull, and
otherwise to have all maintained to meet require-
ments. This force consists almost wholly of in-
fantry, as the other branches of the service need a
training impossible to acquire in so limited a period,
but there are, more especially on the southern
coast, some excellent batteries of artillery, where
the men are exercised to handle and use heavy guns
and to man fortresses. In every county there is
a cavalry, by no means to be despised, called the
yeomanry, composed of perhaps the best material
of which soldiers can be made, small farmers, led by
the sons of the great landowners, who supply their
own horses, and form here and there well-mounted
troops and squadrons. Throughout the United
Kingdom the militia is formed from the genuine
material of the county to which it belongs, and in
this respect differs from the regular army, where
men of the three kingdoms are mixed in mostly all
regiments, even in many supposed to recruit only
in some particular spot. Thus the Highland militia
regiments are really Highlanders, which is far from
being the case in many of the most celebrated
regular Highland regiments. So, in Wales, and
perhaps in both, men often join who cannot speak
a word of English. This force is the old constitu-
tional levy of England, the offspring of feudalism,
and being admirably adapted to throw the military
defence of the kingdom into the hands of the great
landowners has been by them cherished and preserved.
Composed of their labourers, and officered by their
nominees, maintaining, too, a county character it
could not be otherwise ; and through it England has
managed to keep the liberties which great standing
armies crushed, every where else in Europe. When the
feudal means of offence and defence began to change
to standing organizations, England went through
the horrors of a civil war, and Cromwell ruled by
the power given him by the finest standing army
England ever produced. Indeed, the struggle be-
tween his followers and the Crown, at least in its
latter stages, was a fight between a regular army,
mainly organized by him, and th militia, the levies
of influential landowers in their counties. Not only
did he totally defeat the cavaliers, but he so ruled
them that he left the memory to be handed down
as a tradition from generation to generation of aver-
sion to such a force—fortunately for England ; for
had the Stuarts, on regaining their throne, been en-

abled to command the services of such an army as
that controlled by Cromwell, the whole political, ma-
terial, and religious aspect of England might at this
day be totally different. Hence the striking con-
trast in the preambles of the Naval and Military
Acts. In the former, Parliament commences by
ass:rting that the fleets are essential to the honour,
glory, and security of England, and declaring the
national pride in this darling service ; whereas,
with the army, as we have before observed, it
begins by stating its maintenance to be illegal, and
only to be endured by the necessity of preserving
the balance of power, and adding to security
against a foreign invasion. Throughout, the sams
spirit may be observed, a jealous guarding against
the improper employment of the force. Indeed
some of the sections are a curiosity in this way,
and have reference to a danger long since passed and
gone. That year by year Parliament should have
repeated this Act, shows the lasting impression made
by Cromwell's Ironsides, as well as James ll.'s
attempt to organize a force independent of Par-
liament, for England has experienced no army mu-
tinies, though the same cannot be said for the
Fleet. Perhaps more numerous, and of a totally
different class, is the Volunteer organization which
has recently risen into what we believe to be
permanent importance. After Waterloo, the Bri-
tish Army gradually dwindled into insignificance,
and came to be regarded as an obsolete and useless
machine, naturally assuming under such circum-
stances that character. Invasion panic, followed
invasion panic, and the reform in arms, organiza-
tion,
and equipment of the regulars was not the
only result, for by some sudden national movement
the Volunteers sprang into existence. Although
eight years have elapsed, that force continues to flou-
rish, many of the regiments being composed of good
material fairly trained. Generally, the mnrare from
cities, where alone they could be found in sufficient
numbers, living so near each other as easily and quickly
to muster on the training ground and sufficiently well
off to afford the time. Parliament sanctioned the
organiz ition, ordering an issue of arms to every
battalion, and a stipulated sum in proportion to the
numbers drilled in each regiment in aid of its main-
tenance. Military rank was given to the officers,
whom soldiers of the line are ordered to salute.
Young men in counting hotises, and clerks of all
sorts from shops, joined the regiments of their re-
spective localities—the universities furnished their
quota, as also did the professions. One of the
finest regiments has been nick-named " The Devil's
Own," being composed wholly of lawyers. There
is a striking difference between them and line regi-
ments. Wanting in the Precision—in the solid,
massive, wall-like aspect, the machine-like move-
ments of the highly-trained regulars, the Volunteers
present a more easy, jaunty, springy gait, greater
quickness and intelligence. They dress gene-
rally in grey or green, either copying the Rifle
corps or adopting something new in dress. By
those who strangely overlook the service for which
they would be required, the objection to them is
that they have no cohesion, no departments by
which armies are held together. But what is the
use of:ak commissariat, of, transport, of hospitals, to
those Who, if they fight at all, must fight in Eng-
land, where railways lead everywhere, where food
is abundant, where hotising is ample, and surgeons
and all medical appliances are scattered throughout
the Wail. The fact is overlooked, that in case of au
invasion the whole resources of the country are not
asluid for, but taken by the Government, and
Britain becomes the camp, the battle-field, the
hospital of the armies. An invader is compelled to
be the attacking side. The moment the enemy
ceases to move onward he is lost. The defenders
must be attacked where posted and beaten, or the
invasion fails; hence the Volunteers will not be
required to manceavre, fur there is but one line of
advance and one objective point. le position, these
troops would be found difficult to dislodge and
destructive to an attacking party, being well armed,
and for the most part skilful shots. Tue orgamz i-
tion then required for the defence of their native
country is very different from that necessary for
carrying on war in another, even if that other be
the land of an ally. For the purposes then that
the Volunteers of England are waned they are
well fitted, and the tendency is greatly to rely on
them, for the policy of the Government is to steer
clear of foreign complications, and to use a military
organization almost wholly as a means of defence.
The militia is the makings of England's best force,
and a Parliament of the people could through the
machinery it supplies turn the country into a for-
midable military power. Custom, tradition, and
laws long ago enacted would compel Englishmen
to bear such a levee if they believed it to be neces-
sary, and the Government would possess in it did
that necessity arise, a weapon more mighty than
other nations believe possible. Indeed the idea on
the Continent of Europe is that England could not
be strong as a military empire, but this error would
be rudely dispelled if the people were aroused. The
regular army is a mere toy, but behind it lies a
formidable force, and one which may yet astonish
the world.

The Mechanic's Magazine says that a great dis-
covery in connection with gun cotton has been made by
Professor Abel and Mr. Brown, of the Royal Arsenal,
Woolwich. As we have regularly described the progress
of discovery with this important explosive, we need
only recall the last stages—the preservation from de-
composition by the use of a weak alkali, and the em-
ployment of compressed charges. Used in the last-
mentioned form, we have said that gun cotton, lighted
by the ordinary fuse, has about six times the destruc-
tive force of an equal weight of gunpowder. Messrs. Abel
and Brown, however, after experimenting with gun cot-
ton saturated with nitro-glycerine, igniting it necessarily
with the detonating fuse, tried the experiment of igniting
gun cotton alone in the same way. The results showed that
cotton exploded in this way has, perhaps, greater destruc-
tive force than nitro-glycerine. This is a great and va-
luable discovery, for we have here the comparative safety
of the gun cotton the tremendously destructive powers of
nitro-glycerine. For mining and quarrying purposes it re-
moves the only source of danger 4om the use of gun
cotton, for no hard tamping is necessary. It is sufficient
to fill up the born with sand. Gun eaten, as we have
recently shown, may be carried and stored with perfect
safety from explosion. The detonating fuse can be inserted
in the charge when it is required for use. As with nitro-
glycerine, the explosion of one charge provokes the ex-
plosion of another. Thus, if it were required to destroy
a stockade, it is only necessary to place the charges at
distances round the enclosure, and explode one. The
explosion of all follows with instantaneous rapidity.
The New York Nation tells the following story,
as within its own knowledge, illustrating the tale of cor-
ruption which is said to be driving vast numbers of the
inhabitants of New York to New Jersey, and the neces•
sity of working for a reform independently of all party-
motives. "Two years ago the corruption on the j udicite
bench of the city was nearly, but not quite, as bad as it is
now. It was certainly less bold and unblushing, but it
was gathering strength. A bill was introduced and
hurried through both branches of the Legislature,
putting the whole chamber business of the Supreme
Court into the hands of one judge, leaving the
governor to select the judge, and it was well
known to those who watched the bill that its promoters
intended that the judge selected should be the very one
wLo is now accused of complicity in the late election
frauds, and whose character was at that time every whit
as well known to the bar and the newspaper world as it
is now. The effect of the bill—which was, however,
not apparent on its face, and which escaped the Go-
vernor's notice—would have been to place about
twenty million dollars worth of property and the per-
sonal liberty of everybody iu the district at the judicial
disposal of one man, without appeal—an amount of
power such as has never, we venture to say, been con-
fided to a single officer under any system of jurisprudence
in any civilized country. In fact, it was a gigantic scheme
of plunder of the worst kind. But this was not the worst
of it. It was supported in an indirect way by the leading
Republican paper in this city ; and a large number of
wealthy and prominent men—Republicans, too— signed
a paper urging the governor to appoint the judge afore-
mentioned to the place thus created, believing, with that
silly confidence in other things than character, which is
one of the curses of the time, that, owing to his baying
recently quarrelled with the " Ring," he might be depended
on to use his newly-acquired and enormous power against
it. and it only. The governor was happily made ac-
quainted in time with the real character of the measure,
and never signed it, but while it was lying waiting his de-
cision, with this scandalous pressure in its favour weigh-
ing on him, the matter was brought before the Union
League Club by the executive committee, and resolutions
were introduced denouncing- it in strong tetras. They
were tabled almost without debate. One speech—showing
that the measure had Republican friends, that the judge
had Republican friends, and thut the subject was not a fit
one for the club to entertain, and that the resolutions, if
pressed, might divide the club—killed them.

THE "WASHINGTON CHRONICLE" ON THE CIVIL
SERVICE BILL.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
We thought that if there was a measure the
benefit of which could not openly be disputed it
was the Civil Service Bill of the Hon. Thomas
Jenckes. That it would be as hateful to the crowd
of office-seekers as Grant's system of dealing with
their applications, all can readily believe ; but we
did not think it was open to the bitter attack which
has been made in the Washington Chronicle. There
it is objected to as an attempt to ape the illiberal
and arbitrary system of monarchical Europe, as re-
lieving the President of his responsibility for execu-
tive appointments—that it prevents the people from
selecting the candidate, as the Board can assert his
inability to pass a satisfactory examination—as if
the people troubled themselves except about the
great appointments (they should be checked if they
did), upon which their influence is decisive ; or as
if the President's responsibility was more than
mere cypher, a delusion, and a snare. Look at
the gigantic system of fraud which has grown up
under Andrew Johnson's Administration. Who can
fix on him the responsibility ? All acknowledge his
personal honesty, while openly saying that for party
purposes he rather protected and fostered dishonest
officials than checked them, and threw the blatne of
the result on the Republicans. A small civil service
may be controlled, as was formerly that of the
United States, but with such a Civil Service
as the one to which that of the United
States has now grown the attempt is not only
absurd, but disastrous. Take the case of Mr.
Spencer M. Clark, head of the currency and
bond printing bureau, whom Secretary M'Culloch,
for more than three years, was trying to remove
from the post, convinced that he was not a proper
man. The administration of the bureau's affairs
had long been suspected in and out of Congress. We
will venture to say that no department in the service
required a character of more strict integrity, offered
more temptations to dishonesty, or from which
evil reports could have been used more inju-
riously on the money markets. Yet a man in whorl'
no one appears to have had confidence remained
there for more than three years, while his chief was
all the while anxious to dislodge him. This is 3
sample of the President's responsibility ; and sup-
posing (which we have no reason to suppose) that
some fearful frauds are detected in that bureau by
the Retrenchment Committee of Congress, now
about to make a new and more complete examina4
tion of its affairs, what would be the use of a Presi-
dent's responsibility ? No, let us have some effec"
tual and no such bogus checks.

J. S. Clarke, the comedian, after a successful
engagement in England, it is announced, is to return to
America this winter.

Lingard, now performing at the Theatre COMiqlie'
New York, has received $33,742 as his share of the re-
ceipts of the last six months. In New York the theatre6
and public halls are to be examined by an official coran3ls-
- to ascertain whether they are safe.
The Richings Opera Troupe are playing in Chi'
cago.—Carncross and Dixey, at the Seventh-street oper,
House, announce the Grand Duchess "R"constructad'
and the "L‘ncashire Lass."—Blind Tom has began $ll
engagement at the Concert Hall, New York, appeariag
every evening and on Wednesday and Saturday after
noon s.

M. Du Chaillu is again lecturing in New York'
—Miss Piney W. Forsythe has succeeded her father 35
proprietor and editor of the Liberty (Miss.) Advocate."'
Ralph Waldo Emerson is said to be getting deaf.
The New York Albion establishment has been
sold by W. H. Morrell to Mr. Kinahan Cornwallis. 'II:
consideration paid is said to be over $20,000, and it 1.
understood that the new proprietor will make 6°l;
important changes in the character of the sheet. 0
weekly review of financial and commercial affairs W'
be given, and questions of political economy will be
discussed. •

Frank Leslie announces a new weekly news'
paper.
Mississippi is to have a new magazine, called the
"Coloured Citizens' Monthly."
ifi
A CHINESE NEWSPAPER.—The Chinese o cli
organ, the Pekin Gazette, is said to be prepared in the feo;
lowing manner:—There is in one of the departments,
,„
" boards," of the Government a copying office for the Pr to
mulgation of official matter. A large number of copy's
are employed therein. Besides the copies of decrees fe;
quired to be made, to be sent officially to all the higb°
mandarins, the clerks are allowed to make copies for Per;
sons who desire to obtain them on the day of their pabld''
cation. Most of the embassies and foreign residents!;-
Pekin subscribe to these copies, which are really the offi-
cial gazette. Mr. Burlingame's secretaries inform me, silY;
a writer in the Galaxy, that in all not more than 90 Pe':
sons thus subscribed. The subscription price for the
manuscript copies is seven dollars per month. They f
issued daily. The price obtained is really a perquisite ilea
the copying office. Thousands of persons are l
emPhy,
throughout the provinces in making copies, in wht:ro
or in part, of the contents of this organ. The Priu'itlA
of the Gazette obtain their copy from the office, to
publish the same two days, after its publication Woo,
manuscript form. Officially, nobody is supposed to ss-
how the printer gets his matter, yet its publication its
cepted as on official promulgation. Copies of the Gatrg
are made, by permission of the proper official, by PriOtte
in the large cities of different provinces. The ur";:er
office, as well as the provincial printing office, °c
rr
sionally issue bulletin slips containing some aeW,t,,,,,,0
garding the rebellion, or similar matter, which is woo
bought with avidity by the people. The subsertf;yier
price to the Pekin Gazette is about a half-dollar in sit
per month. The Official Gazette has become dpoteat Peri
useful auxiliary of the Imperial Government, and of
effort is made to increase its influence. An examfeatwb-jelf
its pages will curiously illustrate the methods by, Wioii•
the Manchoo dynasty, as well as the Chinese adr°,oop
trative system, has been able to maintain itself SO
It is a so-called paternal autocracy, tempered by °,lO,
cism of its abuses. The traditions of the people Woo.
rizo and demand this, and the safety of the dynasty °
.nest
pels its attention. Wendell Phillips will find his plat ere
words outdone by the censures and complaints whi° ther
continually sent to Pekin against the provincial.aed°o3
local authorities. Those are inserted in the Gazette 0
sent over the emp're to be met and confuted or prove'' or
fge case may be. The action of the imperial dynastYi; vo
the reigning member thereof, with his counsellors, 13.1. e
means escape this censorious and critical spirit. It i•
powerful manifestation of public opinion which the rola
nistration cannot ignore. These criticisms, as d
come from some member of the literary class,
those who, having passed the necessary exanlin**rotol
have not afterward availed themselves of the righ"o,llo,
given to enter on an administrative career, but p%'
living as private citizens, have, by virtue of their TO
nized abilities, acquired the personal character 7...d0
justifies them in the voluntary exercise of the Om-
functions. 01'0
uovnarissusxT.)—ttenceorth no one will doubt the Alil'itgo
properties of Du Barry's health-restoring Revalents,,,oo
Invalids' and Infants' Food, since to the thousands of 5-',4110'7,0,
it has already received from Invalids whose position *,,0
deemed hopeless, we may now add that of his Holiness
whose health has been perfectly restored by it after thirtY leetgoli
ri
unsuccessful medical treatment. We quote from the " e'
Midi," July 25th :—" Rome, July 21,1866. The health of t
rep 3
Father is excellent, especially since, abandoning all 0t.,,,efa1e,,1-
dies, he has confined himself entirely to Du Barry's
Arabica Food, of which he consumes a plateful at elaitll,
It has produced a surprisingly beneficial effect on his
his Holiness cannot praise this excellent food too hiPc",a/njil
extract a few out ofmore than :—Cure o. "yof,oo.
the Marchioness de Brehan, ofeven years' liver el,oftilkifr
wasting away, debility, nervousness, with a nervous l's,;-,oot (10
all over, bad digestion, constant sleeplessness, and ths,tort,iip
tolerable nervous agitation. Cure No. 1.771 : Lor
ears 4 fdpePs'o,,
Denies, Lord-Lieutenant of Waterford, of many y Att.o."spePoo,
No. 49,832: "Fifty years' indescribable agony from'''ooo)jf
nervousness, asthma, cough, constipation, ffatuleuel'l7o:
189
sickness, and vomiting —Maria Joly " Cure No. 46. loll'
James Roberts, of Frimley, Surrey, of 30 years' disee.,s!,oo.
spitting of blood, liver derangement, and partial desie;orehtiio
portant Caution—Beware of the many unsavoury and
sloppy imitations to which, without authority,
name is most audaciously attached. 1f 0
In tins, at Is. lad. • 1 lb. 2s. 9d.; 2 lbs. 4s. 6d.; 5 lbs,
225. ; 24 lbs., 40s.—Also Du BARRY'S BEYALENTA A8A8!;19.,.:;t1e,
LATE POWDER is packed In tin canisters; for 12 cups 71.510",
cups at 3s. Gd., for 48 cups at 65., for 288 cups at 305., t% 550 oco
at 55s.—being about one penny per cup. The 30s. Anrot dip
are sent free of carriage in England on receipt of treett
Order.—BAßßY DU BARRY and Co., No, 77, Regent's
don; and all Grocers and Chemists.
fro -

i r
at h s .a toe
ASTLEY—On the 7th inst., t L mmas-hall, I'l°f° .0
ic w
wife of F. B. Astley, Esq., of a son.
ELLlsort On the 7th inst, at Boultha 11 Lioc(l-1
m-ha ,
e,
Ole
wife of Major . G Ellison, a son
SOLTYKOFP—OnR G.
the 9th inst ,of at 11,. Eaton-Will—
Princess Soltykoff, of a son and heir.
l'
Marriages. obe,c
BAKER—NEWKAN—On the Bth inst., at St. Lul'ei°o:llo,
sea, John Baker, Esq., of Portman-square, °Willi
widow of the late Wasey Jas. Newman, Esq,
sure
Essex. o
MERRICK —JOIINSTONE—On the Bth inst., atWOt°-n del
ly,
Mare, Major T. C. Merrick, Bengal SIC , to 1:109to"
youngest daughter of the late Spearman J.'
Esq., of Driughouses, Yorkshire.
Deaths.
v; oi"'
+7. -...44
GUINNESS—On the. Bth inst., at 24, Lower - -.- 0:
street, Dublin, Dublin, Benjamin G. Grattan GuiuD°
.01,
M.D. dellll3T
PHILLIPS - On the Bth inst., at Hollow Combe, ,-40 of
suddenly, Henry Wyndham Phillips, second 6
ed
Phillips, Esq., R.A., aged 48. or ,
e Oll
VIRTUE—On the Bth inst., at 7, Porchester-n OA
suddenly, George Virtue, Esq., of Oatlands-P'
ton-on-Thames, aged 75.

1009 0;4
London : Printed and P.tblished by WILLIAg 14' go of
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Tits SUN 011e''02a,//
Strand, in tns Precinct of the Se voY, th.
Iliddlesex.--Thursday, December 10, 18418.