General Meeting at Audit Office.
The Volunteer Force of to-day, as everybody knows, sprang into existence in the year 1859, and was occasioned by the warlike attitude of the Emperor of the French and the blustering threats of his generals. The notable circular of the Secretary of State for War to the Lords Lieutenant, which called the Volunteers into existence, was dated 12th May, 1859, and on the 18th May a meeting, which had been formally convened “to take into consideration the formation of a Rifle Volunteer Corps from the Members of the Civil Service,” was held at the Audit Office. Mr. F. A. Hawker was the prime mover in this proceeding, and he presided at the meeting.
Now, if everything had proceeded as satisfactorily as the energetic and spirited action of these early pioneers deserved, the “Civil Service” would have been one of the first Metropolitan Corps formed, and its order of precedence would therefore have been far in advance of what it ultimately became. But, unfortunately, we have here another example of the old proverb, “the more haste,” &c., for, notwithstanding the circular of the Secretary of State, the War Office were by no means ready to respond with any degree of generosity to the crowds of enthusiastic civilians who at once cried out on all sides to be armed.
The utmost conceded was that Volunteers should be allowed in certain cases to purchase their own arms and equipment.