Our Volunteers had a good deal to put up with in the first few years of the movement from the street arabs and other idlers, who could find no better employment than to fling all kinds of rough sarcasm and what may appropriately be termed ‘gutter criticism’ at the members of the different corps. An unfortunate Volunteer, for instance, was fined for shooting a dog on Blackheath Common as he was going to drill, and almost immediately every Volunteer was hailed in the London streets with the cry of ‘Who shot the dog?’ Again, when the Volunteers met in the public parks for drill they were closely surrounded by a critically tantalising crowd, which obstructed their movements and laughed heartily at their mistakes. The comic papers were also filled with amusing caricatures of our citizen soldiers; and a great deal was done even in high places to throw cold-water upon this patriotic and popular movement. It has now, we are glad to record, outlived all this, and has become enthroned in the hearts of Englishmen as one of our greatest institutions. It numbered at first some two hundred thousand men, but this included persons of all ages, sizes, and classes; and after the first flush of enthusiasm passed off, the motives which actuated many of them were not so much military zeal or any of the more solid military virtues, as a love of novelty and a taste for good-fellowship.
The Volunteers are now organised upon a somewhat different footing. No one is accepted as a recruit who is not physically able to undergo military work and marching; but should the Volunteer wish to quit the service, he must comply with the following rules as laid down in Regulations for the Volunteer Force. He must give to the commanding-officer of his corps fourteen days’ notice in writing of his intention to quit the corps. He must deliver in good order—fair wear and tear only excepted—all arms, clothing, and appointments that may have been issued to him. And he must pay all money due or becoming due by him, under the rules of the corps, either before or when he quits the corps. When the above regulations have been observed, the Volunteer is free to bid adieu to the ranks. His uniform is supplied to him free, but only on condition that he shall make himself an ‘efficient;’ a condition which if fulfilled, will earn for the funds of his corps the government capitation grant of thirty shillings per year. Efficiency is gained by attending a certain number of drills and parades and gaining a regulated score of marks for rifle-shooting.
Thus at a small cost to the state the different corps are made self-supporting, the Volunteer himself being put to no expense beyond the time which he gives up to the necessary drills and parades. The Volunteers have now learned what military discipline is, and have, by their attending the exercises and manœuvres of the regular army, shewn themselves willing to submit to it. Most Volunteer officers also take a pride in knowing their duty, and are no longer helplessly dependent on the adjutant and the drill-instructor. Instead of being regarded in the light of a novelty, volunteering is now looked upon as a serious business by all engaged in it, and as a task which in its perfect fulfilment will render them worthy citizens of a great and widely extended empire.
The service which the Volunteer movement has rendered to Britain is of incalculable value, for besides giving us a defending army of nearly two hundred thousand ‘efficient’ men, trained to the use of every weapon known in warfare, it has been a school in which, during the twenty years of its existence, thousands have learned those elementary principles of military life which, in the case of an invasion, would enable them again to come forward in defence of their Queen and country. The very fact of Great Britain possessing such an army would deter, and for aught we know to the contrary, may have deterred hostile nations from invading her shores.
The two largest Volunteer corps are Scotch—namely the 1st Lanarkshire Artillery with seventeen batteries, and the 1st Edinburgh (Queen’s) Rifle Brigade with twenty-five companies; these being the only two corps whose strength entitles them to two adjutants each. The militia and yeomanry trainings of 1876 were attended by seventy-six thousand, and nine thousand five hundred officers and men respectively; while the annual inspections of the Volunteers for last year resulted in an attendance of 159,378 men of all ranks.
We find by reference to the Annual Returns of the Volunteer corps, that no fewer than 16,306 officers and sergeants obtained Certificates of Proficiency in 1877. These are facts which it is consoling for the public to know, for they ought to dispel in the future any fear of the consequences of foreign invasion.
The Civil War in America shewed us what a Volunteer army could do; and it behoves this country now to see that this magnificent force which it has at its disposal should be placed on such a footing in relation to the other forces as will for ever secure its services. Our Volunteers constitute a force to which no other country can present a parallel; and as such, irrespective of its being the means of doing away with the evils of conscription, is worthy of all the support which the state can give it, for certain events within the past few years have shewn us to what straits a country is driven, and how great is the misery of its people when it has been successfully invaded. As a sign of the times too, we may note with satisfaction the patriotic feeling which has, in the present crisis of our national history, induced many Volunteer corps to offer their services to the government for garrison duty at home, in the event of our army proceeding abroad, one regiment—the London Irish—even going so far, we learn, as to place itself at the absolute disposal of the government for service either in or out of the United Kingdom.
Long may it be ere these shores are ever again approached by an enemy bent upon our destruction as a people; but we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that such an enterprise would perchance ere this have been effected if it had not been for the patriotic conduct of our youth, who have enabled Britain to cover herself with an impenetrable shield, and to find in the arms and hearts of her own sons that indomitable strength which is best and most appropriately expressed in the peaceful words that form the motto of our citizen army—namely Defence, not Defiance.