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    Untitled Article

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    the Volunteers.

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    Untitled Article

    tliis would be a sufficient proof of education , and the-individual exhibiting his diploma , or evidence of his degree , should at once he entered on the register . Again , the difficulty in cases of foreign degrees or diplomas might be very speedily overcome by treating the matter as one of evidence . ' The trouble and expense would Tje on the claimant ; but if he made out his ease we most assuredly would not refuse him his vote . A man is not the less an English subject because he has graduated in a German university , and few in the present day will deny the excellence of an education obtained from such a source .

    sentation to a scattered constituency ; it does not reproduce a system fit only for the earliest ages of a constitution ; it occasions no jealousy among various bodies , but tends decidedly to harmonize all . All these objections apply in full force to Lord John Russell ' s scheme of enlarging- the educational franchise by giving members to the Scottish and the metropolitan universities . Finally , it seems much preferable to diffuse the educa- ' eational element through the whole mass than to separate it into a few exceptional constituencies . The one recognises the intelligence , the other the non-intelligence , of the nation at large .

    A clergyman usually has a vote from other qualifications , but in case oT his not being so placed there can surely be no harm in entering his name on the register , by reason of his intellectual as well as his social position . No one will dispute his educational fitness , and his presence at the poll will serve ,, if for nothing better , at least as a practical protest against the stupkl delusio ' n that " a clergyman has nothing to do with politics ;" an axiom which , so far " as it has any meaning at all , means that when a man is especially called to the service of God , he must leave ofl" , in the most important particular , the being serviceable to the men of his own generation f If a vote be given ex ajflcio to every clergyman of the Established Church , and the production of his letters of Orders be sufficient to ensure

    registration for his name , it will be at once evident that the privilege cannot be refused to the recognised dissenting minister . Dissenters themselves would be best able to . show how the qualification could be proved ; but certainly there would be no difficulty of an insurmountable nature in this matter . Physicians and surgeons , apothecaries and general practitioners , barristers , attorneys and solicitors , would claim as certificated members of professions pre-eminently learned and we are by no means sure whether pharmaceutical chemists should not be included in the same category . At all events , the interests of science require that Fellows * of learned societies incorporated by royal charter should be placed on a par with ten-pound or

    sixobjection whatever to a vote being given to the masters National and British and Foreign schools , always supposing them to have -the requisite . certificates . This will ¦ . necessarily illvolvo the right of teachers of a'higher class ; the masters of all endowed , all proprietory schools and colleges ; and the . conferring the franchise on the members of the , College of Preceptors will include all the most important of the middle class

    instructors . Examined and passed members of the Civil Service would form another class of educated voters ; and so far from looking on them as disqualified by reason of their being paid by the State , we would give the franchise on the same ground to nil officers of the regular army . mid navy , to nil militia , and even to all volunteer officers ; and this simply on the ground of their being men educationally qualified for the franchise .

    The first comment we Svould make on this plan is , that itwould hcjiiiat , it would never require adjudhiy . It would add very few new voters to the lists , and this , in many minds , would be ' an especial recommendation . Most of those to whom it would apply arc already on the register , or at , all events have the right to be ' there . But it would make a very great difference in feeling , nnd in the value attached to the franchise , whether a voter tendered his suffrage as a . small freeholder or householder , or as a Master of Arts ,, a member of the College of Physicians , n . Royal Academician , or a Fellow of . the JJoyul Society . It would be ' acceptable to all the , educated classes ; - would render the Ministry winch carried such a measure popular with nil literary men , and would give nn effective nnswer to those who say that art , science , and literature lmve no political value in England .

    The next point to be noticed is , that it is absolutely free irom objections . It entails \\ o expense on those whom it professes to . benefit ; it does not take them from their families or their pursuits ; it does not add to the expense of elections , either , on the part of voters or candidates ; it docs not give n local

    reprcpound householders , as the case may be ... Another elass pf-persons who ought to be enfranchised are the professors and cultivators of the fine arts . Tloxxil Academicians , Associates , and Associated Engravers ought to have votes ; and it would hardly be going too far-if it were bestowed on all who had publicly exhibited works of art at the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy . Music , too , has claims , and . might be represented by the "Uoyal Academy . of Music . ' And now avc come to a . question on which there ought not to be the slightest hesitation . In an educational franchise the educational profession ought not . be omitted . It is clear-that the National or the British and -Foreign schoolmaster must

    of stand higher than the majority : of . electors , in intellectual qualifications . " if the new lioi ' ovm Bill should- be so _ far carried ns ^ - ^ ^^ y- ^ ^^^^ Mlj ^ qia _ f ; j 1 ise . __ thcn this comparative superiority ; ' will be still higher than it is now . And we see no

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    nn HE Volunteers are " a great fact : " some people will say too JL noisy and visible a fact . Certainly , it is rather a nuisance to be constantly stumbling on the crowded pavements against two or three gawky young or pursy old gentlemen masquerading in some new and wondrous costume invented by an ingenious tailor , or the more pristine garb of old Gael , their faces presenting a singular mixture of proud self-satisfaction and conscious

    awkwardness , and their rifles presenting great dangers for the shins of Her Majesty ' s peaceable subjects . It is disagreeable , too , for philosophers like ourselves to be disturbed in the high speculations which must be supposed to engross us as we pass along the streets by the sudden irruption of a corps on its way to parade , heralded and supported by a troop , of dirty noisy little boys ; and it is still more disagreeable to have the steady How of our lucubrations hindered bv the strains of one of the " militarv " bands which bid

    fair to take the places of the poor organ-grinders as . public nuisances . It is' not . pleasant for those who wish to see in the movement an earnest , sober display of patriotic feeling to meet young fellows strutting about in their new uniforms on Sundays ami holidays , like so many turkey cocks with their hens around them ; and ' Volunteer balls and Volunteer bespeaks at theatres seem to be encouragements of an expenditure which some of the members can ill niibrd . We hear , moreover , of a great deal too much squabbling amongst the . officers ; and of some very absurd pretensions put . forward by them . Indeed , it seems asif most of the officers had onlv volunteered , for the purpose of acquiring

    the right to a few bows , and the privilege of -putting some kind of handle to their names . In the first place , quite forgetting that tho privates are upon a -pcrfrefc equality with them , " they want to be saluted by them at " all times , ' as are the officers of the regular firmy by their men—a most absurd and mischievous pretension . Then they- wont to be put upon the same footing as -officers of the militia , and be styled on all occasions by their respective ranks ; and a large meeting of Lancashire officers has gone into paroxysms of wrath , because it was reported that—poor injured innocents ' . —they could not go to Court in their uniforms . To read their eloquent outbursts about the ingratitude wit li Av ' m ^] rTlTGft ^ Tcnt ^ cmees ^ mid ~ sa

    clothes , and a great many public " fittings on " of them . 'Iliese gentlemen quite mistake the object and character of . the Volunteer movement . It was not originated that we might be Hooded , as in America , with a shoal of \ mslurd captains and colonels , owing here their rank merely to their influence with some Lord Lieutenant , but that the youth of the country might be . exercised in anus , and its safety from invasion thereby secured . In the main , these objects have bean effected . At" the young men who have enrolled themselves are at present rather too fond of showing their uniforms , the lever will soon pass away . They will think ' more of displaying their skill at the target than their clothes on the parade . The mere fops and snobs will give the fourteen ilavs' notice , and retire from u service which

    necessitates some ' labour . So will the majority of the oflicors—the poor creatures , who want , to be saluted and be-eaptnined , find entertain strange notions of astonishing ijLer Majesty and the Court beauties by their graceful figures in uniform ; their places will be taken by nVn who are really interested in the work ; and although the number of volunteers may be . diminished , their real strength will be increased , liven now it is surprising how much the men have accomplished . Looking at the twelve hundred young men who were inspected in Hyde Park by the . 1 > uke of ( . Umuri »<> k last clerks

    Saturday , one eouhl scarcely think that they were merely nnd warehousemen , whose ' trminiig hud all , been done m the hours they could te « l from business . Their efuVioney proved the natural adaptability of tho men , and the ,, zeal with which they had devoted themselves to the work . It is the same m other parts of the metropolis , ' nnd nil over tho country . With all tiio foppery and folly which attach themselves as excrescences to the movement , it " has given England an army of volunteers , upon which she ninv safely rely in the hour of danger . A year ago we were coinpuvativejy defenceless ; an cyiemy who should have

    Untitled Article

    May 12 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 441

    The Volunteers.

    THE VOLUNTEERS .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1860, page 441, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2347/page/5/