Good Marksmanship essential.

13

to be more or less marksmen, or their respective battalions would not have sent them to Wimbledon. The result of the first year's shooting for Mr. Mullens' prizes discloses the unpleasant fact that all save fifteen per cent. failed to hit the target. The force cannot be too quickly raised out of this lamentable condition of its shooting. It is the very opposite of expert; and, unless speedily and effectually remedied, would cause the Volunteers to be anything but "defenders in whom to trust." Each year, however, we may expect-as the result of Mr. Mullens' well-timed efforts to see such shooting greatly revolutionized, as it needs to be.

Firing at a rate of four shots per minute, fifty men under cover should deliver their fire with great exactitude into a very small space; and at this rate a battalion of 800 marksmen could, within half an hour, pour some 80,000 or 90,000 shots into a foe advancing against them. It needs little to show the almost overwhelming strength of 200,000 skilled riflemen posted by able strategists. A torrent of lead would pour on the enemy at every and all points. They must, however, be men who have received proper instruction. Constant firing at a target on an ascertained flat range is not calculated to make good marksmen for situations on service so utterly dissimilar. No troops could stand, much less advance, in the teeth of such bodies of men trained to their arms. No falling back need be feared so long as the men know how properly to handle their rifles, and never wastefully expend a charge. The waste of ammunition and consequent loss of opportunity with troops face to face in war, is something beyond credibility. We cannot be too appreciative of Mr. Mullens' wise corrective, and which could be applied to every branch of the service.

The presumed superior intelligence of the Volunteers, should render them capable of the highest training as marksmen; all that is needed is the raising up friends of the Mullens stamp, so that the men may be stimulated in a large proportion to excellence, and in every instance to the degree of skill bringing each individual under the classification of marksman. This designation means that each and every such man has acquired the merits of rifleshooting, so well described by Colonel Loyd Lindsay, V.C., as "giving a man when going into action the fullest opportunity of carrying out his object, which is to kill his enemy and to prevent his enemy killing him." The same distinguished and gallant officer of the new school wisely insists that the spade, through its powerful help, is destined to become an implement second only in importance to the rifle, for by its use a man can place himself in a position of comparative safety, which enables him to devote his whole attention to firing.

In chapter v., page 154, reference is made to the writer's interview in Paris with the late Napoleon at the time of the 1859 Volunteer agitation. The issue of the writer's Volunteer "of Age" volume brought communications from many eminent men, notably from distinguished military authorities profoundly impressed as to the nation's unsafety: many satisfied that much remains behind yet untold. The writer feels it a duty openly to avow the fact of his close acquaintance with Louis Napoleon when resident in England, prior to his seizure on the government of the French people. Neither will he seek to disguise his knowledge of the beliefs, tendencies, and declared purposes of his "brother special constable," then by our wiseacres styled "the madcap," though afterwards, when in the purple, exalted by the same authorities to the

Louis Napoleon's Prophecy of England's downfall. 15

title of "the most sagacious ruler in the world." At that time the future ruler of France had not developed. He was generally regarded throughout England as “a rather shady party." Such was the term then applied to him in a sketch in a popular periodical. Many went to the extent of "mauvais sujet " classification, and, to say the least, he belonged to anything but "the upper

crust."

This said Louis Napoleon had, in frequent conversations with the writer, pointed to the downfall of England as an inevitable certainty. "The handwriting was on the wall," he was then accustomed to repeat. "ENGLAND'S DOUBLE UP"-these were his wordsonly awaits further development through future greatly increased population, and dependence on outside countries for food."

66

There then lived many others who, during his residence as an exile in England, the result of worse than ludicrous Quixotic attempts to lay hold of the governmental power of France, knew this said Louis Napoleon well, and to whom he ofttimes revealed his more than belief in the possible conquest of Britain. One and all testify to the solemn truth of the historian Kinglake's stated facts and conclusions as to the means used to overturn freedom, and seize with tiger-like ferocity the French nation's throat. That eloquent and hard-factdealing historian of the Crimean war's statements as to the elevation of Napoleon III.'s tools and creatures are beyond all question. As time progresses, so will this be proved by corroborative testimony yet withheld.

It was Louis Napoleon's wont to say among friends in England, "Bread will storm the citadel ! Bad seasons will be the enemy's opportunity!"

In those days (the writer earnestly desires to avoid all political bias in speaking of the critical condition of the country) Free trade had not developed, and we were only in a comparatively small degree dependent on outside sources for our food. The prognostications of this remarkable man, who, to say the least of him, possessed marked insight into the character and proclivities of peoples, and especially their weak points, did not until years rolled by, strike those to whom expressed as meriting any special heed.

After years of profit through the associateship of England, and the acquirement of respectability through her alliance, and especially through ties of friendship with our gracious Sovereign, ever ready to sacrifice individual feeling to the nation's weal, the French Emperor became an object of suspicion. The far-seeing Prince Consort, ever ahead of statesmen, whose heart and thought dwelt only on the good of his adopted country, was never hoodwinked by the until then successsful actor of the day. The Earl of Derby was amongst the early-awakened from the dream; Lord Palmerston later on; and it was after several interviews of the writer with England's powerfully-eloquent exChancellor, Lyndhurst, in George Street, Hanover Square, and the disclosure to him of certain facts connected with the Emperor, that his lordship roused the peers by his ever-to-be-remembered fulmination.

With these facts before us, and with the knowledge that all Europe have an eye to our nakedness, the writer, in common with others forming the little band of 1858 and 1859 pioneers, feels there yet remains need for effort. Much has been done. The country has acquired a quarter of a million of true soldiers: this without pay

War must imperil England's Food Supply. 17

or any reward save the conviction of duty. The main point now is to make every Rifleman what his title declares him-a marksman. Unless he be this, or is determined to become such, he is a sham, and a source of weakness rather than of strength. He must keep at heart the lessons received at Isandula, Maiwand, and Majuba, where his fellow-soldiers fell victims of ignorance of the proper usage of the weapon in mockery

borne.

Do our statesmen of either party reflect on the consequences of our getting engaged in war at a time when requiring vast imports to feed our people? These seasons of outward dependence seem to be increasing, and forcing themselves to the front, foreshadowing to some that we shall ere long have to rely on outward sources for the great bulk of the necessaries of life. There would seem to have been more prescience in the conversations of the "hare-brained hero of Strasbourg and Boulogne" than the world at the time credited him.

In the event of war and a combination of Powers against us, and who dare prescribe the limits of its deferment ?—how and by what means is food for our people to be obtained? The peace-at-any-price folk would not secure it for us, even by handing London over to the aggressor without firing a gun or lifting a hand in defence. Our existing naval strength would not be equal to the emergency. The fact of wise folk of St. Stephen's house of talky-talky wringing their hands in despair as news came of the enemy landing at probably ten or a dozen points on the coast, each army corps directing its face towards London, would not help the matter. What a cry of woe would arise as the telegraph proclaimed that, simultaneously with this, the

C