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    June 9, 1860.J ine JLeaaer ana saturaay ...

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    THE VQLITNTEEES LEARNING' TO SHOOT. . WE...

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    ~——EtM\l-im^I0NS-^^^ — WE know pretty we...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Mail Contracts—Who Are The Del1xquents? ...

    tmo expenditure , such as these modern subsidies to steam companies , that the greatest ' opportunities , prevail for jobbery and corruption . ¦¦ - ¦

    June 9, 1860.J Ine Jleaaer Ana Saturaay ...

    June 9 , 1860 . J ine JLeaaer ana saturaay Jinaiysi D 3 y

    The Vqlitnteees Learning' To Shoot. . We...

    THE VQLITNTEEES LEARNING' TO SHOOT . . WE are not disposed to underrate the importance of drill , even for -Volunteers , and are far from considering the time which city clerks and warehousemen have been devoting out of their scanty leisure to that purpose thrown away ; but after all , the speciality of a rifleman-is not the ability to put himself through the postures of a soldier of the line , but to hit the bull ' s-eye at a distance of several hundred yards . This main part of his business , however , he has had little chance of learning . In some favoured localities , the corps have been at practice for some months , but the great bulk of the one hundred and twenty thousand young men who have responded to the appeals made ' by the Press and the magnates of the land have never discharged the weapon upon their skill in the use of which their value depends . The want of this skill is not a fault , but a misfortune ; and we refer to it not to throw blame upon the managers ef the different corps for the past , but to urge them to the utmost exertion for the future . Shooting grounds cannot be improvised .. The great range of the rifle makes it rather difficult to procure one anywhere , mid'in the neighbourhood of large towns that difficulty becomes very great . Highly as the public may value the protection against foreign invasion which the Volunteers are supposed to furnish , they would not be disposed to purchase immunity from a . problematical risk at the expense of a daily and certain- danger to life and limb . It is absolutely necessary that the riflemen should learn to shoot , but absolutely essential , too , that they should do so in a place where they can hurt nobody but themselves . Such places are very hard to find , and the Government has even been asked to take powers for the compulsory purchase of spots upon which Volunteer corps may set their fancy . We arc glad that it has refused , partly because the cost ' ., woujd _ have been enormous , the price- of land , as Mr . Sidney He-Hbiikt says , rising wonderfully when a Government surveyor looks at it , and partly because any further resort to Government aid would deprive the' movement of its great strength and chief recovmnemlationr With a certain exertion , fitting spots can be found , and all the corps ought by this time to be blazing away . Unless they can shoot , the Volunteers are fit for nothing but special constables . ; They won ' t be called upon to nianomvre sonic hundred thousand strong on Salisbury Plain against as many Frenchmen , but to scatter bullets with their lyillets clearly marked , from behind trees and hedgerows , or perhaps brick walls and earthworks . The National llifle Association is therefore doing a good work in offering every encouragement by its prizes for the attainment ^ f-d 41 J-fii ^ i ^ fii ^ . t . h < i _ i-i tip .. -is well as by the appeals it makes to the spirit of the nation . The annual meetings in different parts of the country to test the ability of the riflemen will supply a greater stimulus than the mere desire of men to do- . their work properly , or the applause of their own locality would afford , to say nothing of the advantages likely to be derived from the meeting of Volunteers from different parts of the country upon such occasions , although those cannot fail to be considerable . But , good as is the idea of the society , and excellent as are the intentions of its managers , we cannot sny that they go the best way to work to promote the result they have at heart . They know weil enough that the Volunteers have hardly begun to shoot , and that the only men in many corps who can aim at the target with any chance of going near it arc an officer or two who have availed themselves of the Government permission to practise at Hythe ; yet they have fixed the 2 nd July for the commencement of the meeting . Their reason is , that the Queen may attend it . Now , we are not in , the least disposed to underrate ! . the-value of I Ik it Majesty's presence upon any occasion ; and if it were a mere fancy fair to raise money for a band , the argument would be overwhelming . But the Itifle movement is n much more serious and important business . The object of the Association is to stimulate the skill of the Volunteers , and that end will not be attained by fixing the time for the competition at a date-which precludes the possibility of most of the corps taking part in the contest . The Volunteers don't require to be assured of Heu MA-JESSY ' S pntrpnage ; that has been sufficiently manifested , and we don ' t see how the most ainbitidus of thiiiii cart hope to signalise himself in the lloynl presence , when that presence can only last for an hour or two out of a contest oxtending over a week . However , no such objection can be raised . another year ; and , strong as we deem it this year , we yet recognise the good effect which the action of the Association is likely to have in quickening tlje efforts of the corps to provide themselves with practising grounds , and in stimulating their attempts to master their weapons .

    We are anxious to have the Volunteers in face of the target , not only because we wish them to learn their business , but because their adjournment to that position will probably get rid of some of the tomfoolery which has hung about them while their achievements" have been confined to parades and reviews . The officers , who are entitled to the credit of most of the " snobbism" which has attached to the movement , will then have less opportunity of exhibiting their ridiculous airs and strutting about in that little brief authority which influence with a Lord Lieutenant or Lord Mayor lias given them , and must signalise themselves , if at all , by their ability as marksmen . The privates will get their uniforms a little tarnished , and care less to show them in the streets . Anvthim ? which would remove , or

    even reduce , the " snob " and haberdashery elements would be a great service to the movement ; and if we did not believe that some change of the kind would soon take place , we should expect to see it fall to the ground in a short time . At present , these follies make the Volunteers themselves a target for scoffs and sneers . Such paltry pretentiousness as that which prompted the stuck-up gentility of the lawyer's office , the doctor ' s shop , and the counting-house in the north-west of London to refuse to admit some sixty linendrapers' assistants into its corps , almost justifies the absurd attacks upon the movement which have been made in some quai-ters . We-can , indeed , only laugh at the ridiculous discoveries of one or two sagacious journals , which have detected in the " Volunteer fever" a dire conspiracy to defeat the Reform lull , and stifle the liberties of the people ; but it is

    certainly most objectionable that any man or class of men should be rejected on account of a presumed social inferiority . Of the linendrapers of St . Pancras we say nothing more ; they are , we have no doubt , quite as respectable on every ground as the snobs who objected to their society ; and no class exclusion proper appears in their rejection . But if working men are willing to volunteer , to give up their time to drill , and if they can themselves find the equipment , or any person is disposed to provide it for them , they ought to be cordially received . Kay , the subscriptions which have been raised ought to be specially applied to equip any such men who may offer themselves- / ~ ~ We are glad ' , to say that this'liberal feeling has been evinced in at least one corps . The Scottish regiment which Lord Elcho—who if a little bit too fussy is yet thoroughly

    enthusiastic in the workr—commands , has admitted one or two companies of workingJmen , and , best of-all , in their working men ' s dress . We commend this example—given by a corps which numbers in its ranks ( and we who write this have no Scotch blood in our veins to make us vaunt compatriot worth ) gentlemen whose birth , talent , and position raise them far above the mock gentility of St . Pancras—to the imitation of the whole kingdom .

    ~——Etm\L-Im^I0ns-^^^ — We Know Pretty We...

    ~——EtM \ l-im ^ I 0 NS- ^^^ — WE know pretty well what would be the effect on the minds of a set of bricklayers , carpenters , and builders in the habit of scamping- their work , if they were told that every portion of it would be subjected to the inspection of an honest surveyor , and that the result of his survey would be made public ; the effect would be infinite cursing- sind reclamation on the part of the scampers , and a proportionate triumph amongst the honest workmen . Something 1 of this kind has happened amongst the pedagogues , to ninny of whom the idea of the middle-class examinations baa acted as a bombshell , to the damage of their profits , and consequent disturbance of their tranquillity . " As russefc-pated choughs , many in sort , Rising and cawing at the gun ' s report , . ¦ ¦ Sever themselves , and liuully swevp the sky ; so tlio school-speculators—we should-be ' wrong- in calling- them school-masters—have been in extreme alarm at the idea of having their work tested , which had so long- been taken upon trust , and passed vulgar muster . . It was high time-for a change ; even lads sent , up to the universities were , in many cases , shamefully ill-prepared ; of this we have had personally ample opportunities of judging . And if schoolmasters acquitted themselves but indifferently on those points and in those subjects which wore likely to bo brought to a public test , we may judge what must have been the state of lower schools , with lower tests , or no testa at all . Sud exposures of specimens of spelling , geography , & a . have from time to time been mude public , by means of some of our recent examination tests . Bosidus indolence , J £ noranco , and want of principle ampngst a grout many of our professed instructors , there have- been tunny flaune * fou this wrut ched »| atQ . of thiiig-s . Quackery—the quack cry of dabbling in a small way with threu or four branches at u time , of natural philosophy , n couple of" modern languages , added to a couple of ancient onus -the soothing ' " vatcm 6 f persuasion mul rewinds , the Arviul of oflonding 1 parents by refusing indulgences , such aa the relaxation of discipline , extru holi ' dnys , & c , nil these causes have brought us to the point nt which these examinations have found us . These remarlcH aro intimately connoeted with the caso of extreme punishment , recently made public . Tlio question ol what punish-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 9, 1860, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09061860/page/7/