On the important point of the number of attendances at drill, the regulations require that every volunteer must attend at least two drills a month, until he has obtained the standard of an efficient. An efficient must be able to perform in a satisfactory manner the duties of any number except No. 1 at heavy gun exercise, or at revolving gun exercise, as applicable to the 64-pounder guns mounted in gunboats; and he must be possessed of a good knowledge of the manual, platoon, and cutlass exercises.

Service afloat not compulsory.

It has already been explained that these qualifications may easily be acquired in a fortnight of continuous attendance at drill, by the application of a very ordinary amount of intelligence and attention. The regulations expressly avoid the imposition of any compulsory service afloat in time of peace. Target practice afloat is obviously essential to the efficiency of a naval gunner; and it is therefore desirable that every volunteer should have a fair number of opportunities of taking part in this useful exercise. In a long summer's day, the members of the London Brigade may embark in a gunboat at Erith or Gravesend, proceed to the Maplin Sands, off Shoeburyness—which is the most convenient place for firing practice over a sea range—and return to London by a convenient hour in the afternoon or evening. It will doubtless be the desire of every naval volunteer to avail himself of a sufficient number of opportunities for target practice, to secure his own efficiency. But, as there are many who will be anxious to have a greater amount of exercise afloat, every volunteer, who wishes it, may embark once a year, and remain for a period of eight days in a gunboat, manned by a crew to be furnished from the battery to which he himself belongs. It should, however, be observed that, when called out for actual service, the volunteers will not be liable to embark in sea-going vessels. Whenever so assembled, they will serve on board any of H.M, ships employed in the defence of the coasts of the United Kingdom; unless, indeed, they volunteer for, and are found capable of doing duty in, sea-going cruisers. They will not be required to go aloft, or to attend to the fires in the stoke-hole. They will, however, have to accommodate themselves to the berthing and messing arrangements usual for the seamen of the Royal Navy.

Regulations issued by the Admiralty.

The regulations recently issued contain ample information as to the organisation of the Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers; and their practical effect will be summarised in the following extracts from the code of rules.

The Volunteers are raised under the Act passed in 1873. They will be called out by Royal proclamation, and will be liable to serve in any vessels employed for coast defence. They will be liable to perform all the ordinary duties of the vessels in which they may be embarked, in the same manner as those duties are performed by the regular crews of Her Majesty's ships, except those duties that can only be performed by practical seamen.

The Royal Naval Artillery Volunteer force, for administrative purposes, will be formed into brigades, and each brigade will consist of four or more batteries of from 60 to 80 men. Each brigade will be designated by a local name.

The following table contains the authorised establishment for brigades and the batteries composing them:—

BatteryBrigade of four batteriesBrigade of six batteriesBrigade of eight batteries
Lieutenant-commander 111
Sub-lieutenant1468
Chief petty officer1468
First-class petty officer281216
Second-class petty officer281216
Buglers281216
Leading gunners and gunners (equivalent to leading seamen and able seamen)71/51275/195421/301563/403
Lieutenant-instructor 111
First-class petty officer instructor1468
Surgeon 111
Bugle-major 111
Armourer 111
Total enrolled80/60320/240480/360640/480

In this table, two numbers divided by a line signify the maximum and minimum strength—thus 80/60 means not more than 80 and not less than 60.