Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/318

Rh 294 VOLUNTEERS tion became an integral part in national defence. In that year, Ireland being threatened with invasion by France and Spain, a levy of 40,000 Protestants was made by the gentry in the north. The energy and patriotism thus promptly manifested no doubt averted the impending danger, but not without unexpected results, for the volun teers then enrolled availed themselves of the opportunity to assert claims on their own account for the extension of civil liberty. The close of the 18th and the early part of the present century saw in Great Britain itself a more com plete development of the national instinct for self-defence, when the aggressive wars of France, following upon the Revolution of 1789, threatened the safety of the United Kingdom. Between 1794 and 1804 successive Acts of Parliament were passed providing for the administration and discipline of the volunteer force, which, in 1805, when invasion by the first Napoleon was imminent, amounted to 429,165 men (70,000 of whom were Irish). AVhen peace, however, was restored, this force was disbanded, with the exception of the yeomanry or volunteer cavalry, which continues to this day. After an interval of nearly half a century the warlike attitude of France, under Napoleon III., caused the British once more to arm for the protection of their country. This long interval, however, had been used differently by the respective nations. England, from a questionable economy, had allowed both army and navy to decline in strength and efficiency ; France on the other hand, by the energetic development of her military anfl naval power, and the early application of steam to ships of war, brought the pos sibilities of the invasion of England in 1846 within measur able distance, while a feeling of hostility was fostered and inflamed by her political writers. England at this time was awakened to the gravity of the situation by the publi cation of a well-known letter from the duke of Wellington, then commander-in-chief, to Sir John Burgoyne, 1 followed by a well-timed pamphlet by General Sir Charles Napier, entitled The Defence of England by Volunteer Corps and Militia. This characteristic sketch of the true principles of defence for a free people became seven years later the basis of the volunteer organization. In 1857 the French press became more and more menacing. The United States had dismissed the resident British minister, and in consequence reinforcements had to be sent to Canada and New Brunswick. The war going on in China required an army and employed a fleet. The Indian Mutiny taxed the resources of England to the uttermost, while at home (save the actual garrisons) an unsatisfactory reserve of barely 36,000 militia was all that could be counted on. This threatening condition of affairs tended to aggravate, if not to produce, a serious commercial panic. It was then that the volunteer movement began, and by a popular impulse. A circular letter, dated 12th May 1859, from the secretary for war to the lord-lieutenants of counties in Great Britain, authorized the formation of volunteer corps. The statute under which the general enrolment took place was the same that had governed the organization of the volunteer force in the beginning of the century.- The main provisions of that Act, however, were found inapplicable to the altered conditions under which invasion was now possible (through the application of steam); they failed also to meet the new system entertained of main taining the volunteer force on a permanent footing in peace. A new Act was therefore passed, the most important provision of which 3 was that apprehended invasion should constitute a sufficient reason for the sovereign to call out the volunteers for service, in lieu of the old condition 1 Life and Letters of field-Marshal Sir John Burgoyne. 2 44 Geo. III. cap. 54. 3 Volunteer Act, 1863, s. 17- which required the actual appearance of the enemy upon the coast. To carry this provision into effect, the appre hension has to be first communicated to parliament, or if parliament is not sitting declared by the queen in council and notified by proclamation. The volunteers are there upon bound to serve in Great Britain until released by a proclamation declaring the occasion to have passed. When so called out, they receive pay on the army scale. The force thus brought into existence is composed of corps of light horse, artillery, engineers, mounted rifles, and rifle volunteers. There exist also in connexion with the Admiralty special volunteer corps for the defence of the coast-line, called &quot; Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers.&quot; The term &quot; corps &quot; possesses no tactical signification. Any body of persons, great or small, whose offer of service the queen has accepted constitutes a &quot; corps.&quot; The property belonging to the corps is vested in the command ing officer, and is administered by a committee of officers under the rules of the corps. These rules are in the first instance agreed on at a general meeting of officers and men, and, having received the queen s approval, become legal, and may be enforced by a magistrate s order. The commanding officer has power to dismiss a man from the corps, and a volunteer not on actual service may ter minate his engagement on giving fourteen days notice. Volunteers, when assembled under arms, whether for actual service or for exercise, are under the command of the commander-in-chief or of general or other field- officers of the regular army appointed to command them, who must be senior in rank to every officer of the volun teers present. But it is a fundamental law that volunteers are to be led by their own officers. For the purposes of training, a permanent staff of adjutants and sergeant-in structors is provided from the regular army. The formation of corps constituted as described was so rapid that in the course of a few months in 1859-60 a force of 119,000 volunteers was created. For adminis trative purposes, and for instruction, small corps were grouped in their several counties into &quot; administrative battalions.&quot; This provisional arrangement has since been abolished (a questionable measure), and the small &quot; corps,&quot; deprived of much of the status necessary as nuclei of battalions in time of war, are converted into constituent parts or companies of what had been their administrative battalions. These latter are now not only constituted &quot;corps&quot; in the meaning of the Act, but are called &quot; con solidated corps,&quot; though their constituent parts are widely scattered. Though this arrangement is convenient during peace, confusion would probably result under pressure of apprehended invasion. On the 7th March 1860 the queen held a levee in London, at which 2500 officers of volunteers were pre sented. On the 23d June a royal review was held in Hyde Park, when 21,900 volunteers marched past; and at Edinburgh on the 7th August another royal review took place, at which 22,000 volunteers from the northern corps were under arms. Public confidence was thus restored, but yet more remained to be done. An end had to be put to the ever- recurring panics that paralysed from time to time the commercial system of the country. The Government, which in the beginning had tolerated rather than en couraged the movement, now followed the lead of public opinion, and decided on maintaining the volunteer force as a part of the regular defensive system of the country. The personnel of the volunteer corps (with a few essential exceptions) thereupon underwent a change. The wealthy and professional classes, who had at first joined the ranks in anticipation of war, cared no longer to bear arms. Their places were taken by the artisan class, which added