New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-07-13

awaking some bright morning. that he had landed
on her coast during the night, and was Fastening
10 pay HIS respects to the Queen at the head OF
two hundred thousand veterans. SO she is pre-
pairing to increase her coast defspses at cost OF
Sixty Millions of Dollars, and 10 at the same time
embodying and drilling Volunteer force, which
already exceeds One Hundred Thousand men, and
is destined to reach much higher figure. And
this force. however amenable to military criticism,
being drawn from the best blood of the kingdom,
and composed of men who have wives and children
to protect and property to defend, is destined to
play serious part in any future contest with an
invader of the soil of Great Britain.
IT should not be forgotten that the great battles
which have rendered British valor llustrious,
though fought on what is now (but was not theu)
conceded to be foreign territory, were won by ar.
mics as spontaneous as this. The Englishmen
who followed their kings and feudal chiefs to the
since famous fields of Crecy, POicters, AID Asin-
court, were fresh from the farms titled by their
stout arms and those of their fathers before them
A standing army is modern device, tardiy
adopted pecemeal by the British nation, to whose
free spirit it was never corgenial. The British
army has always been relatively small, yet large
enough to partly absorb and wholly debilitate the
military spirit of the people. The awkwardnesS,
the uncouth aspect and practical inef6ciency of a
voluntary force, are constant themes OF waggery
and ridicue among the inartinets of the regular
army, who see with alarm and hatred their social
Importance and prestige diminished by the exist
cnce and popularity of this force. In every coun'
try, the Army aud Navy officers form an exclusive,
aristocratic CASTE constantly intriguing for more
pay, more allowances, greater privileges, greater
consideration; though this is nowhere else quite 30
papable as in this country, where with the eKceP-
ton of the great shareholders, they form the only
aristOcracy in existence.
If our Federal Government shall now be wrested
from the hands of the sayc-breeding oligarchy, we
trust that one iruit Of that change will be the dimi
mutton of the strength and consequence Of the
Standing Army and correlative increase of the
consideration accorded to our Militia. We could
wish to see the rank and file OF the Army reduced
to one third of its present amount, to be replaced
by calling out an adequate force of Militia when
ever actual service shall be required Let our
officers from West Point be apportioned among the
States, ard employed in organizing aud drilling the
Militia, under the direction of their respective
Governors; let the most effective arms, with due
accouteiments, be- placed within reach of every
citizen who viii use them; and let our young men
of eighteen, nineteen twenty be called out for
two or three months steady drill at such time Of
year as will least interfere with their industry, and
subsisted and moderately paid by the Government.
Let each exposed frontier be diTided into conve-
rient marches each guarded by competent army
officer with The requisite subalterns with authority
to call out militia, mounted or otherwise, wheaeyer
q public exgency shall require it. The sbsurdity
of sending rude Dutcbmen and Irishmen to repel
and punish an Indian raid-which is like sendiug
tortoise after sHanow-would thus be throtilcd;
a competent officer would have his inca oil picked
beforehand, know that they were effectively armed
and mounted, and that on the lighting Of beacon,
the firing Of cannon OF rocket, these would
come galloping in to the appointed rendezvous, pre-
pared 10 follow an IHdan trail wi b unerring sa-
gacity, and competent to battle the wes as well as
to ferret out the lurkDgplaces and scatter or des
troy the warriors of the crafty and treacherous foe
Such system, wisely organized and economically
administered, need not cost more than half the
twenty millions per annum which our Military SER
vice now costs, while it would gradually organize
and discipline army cOu tess in nuin eers, daunt
less in spirit and tolorabe in discipline, for the
defense Of our soil against European invasion-an
army with which an efficient commander would not
hesitate to confront an equal force of veteran
cenaries after two months drilling and marching.
1t was by such an army that Greece withstood the
innumerable legions of Xerxes; by such armies
Rome vauquished successfully Brennus, Pyr-
rhus, Hannibal, and extended her sway from the
Euphrates and the Eu1iue to the German Ocean
and the Pillars OF Hercules. But We need no army
for strictly defensive purposes, and for these
embodied yeoinanry is of oil forces the surest,
cheapest, and best.