Colonel Tilney and Pioneers of Volunteer Movement. 43

Association adding a money prize thereto. Tilney succeeded Gladstone in the command of the Liverpool Rifle Brigade, and is deservedly the worthy successor of his high-minded, gentlemanly fellow-pioneer. Her Majesty has conferred the honour of C.B. on Colonel Tilney. The force realizes that it could not possibly have been more worthily bestowed.

Colonel Bousfield, of the 1st Lancashire Rifles, is rightly brought to the front as one of the early pioneers. He drilled a company of riflemen several years prior to 1859, and received a sword of honour and a purse of 1800l. from his fellow-townsmen. A like pecuniary gift was at the same time offered Major Walter by Benjamin Heywood Jones, on behalf of himself and other bankers and merchants of Liverpool, but was respectfully declined by the writer on the ground that the force itself needed any and all money support obtainable for it. Among those associated with Colonel Tilney in the outset were T. A. Bushby and Henry H. Hornby, each of whom in turn became Colonel of the 4th Lancashire Artillery.

In the spring and summer of 1859, London, Edinburgh, Bristol, and other large towns were following the lead of Liverpool. Seventeen editions of Major Walter's exciting pamphlet, the first of which appeared in Liverpool, calling the youth of the country to enrol themselves as Volunteers, had penetrated all parts of the country.

Unquestionably the Honourable Artillery Company of London is the oldest volunteer organization. Henry VIII. gave it a charter as "Overseers of ye Scyence of Artyllary, yt ys to wyt, for long bowes, cross bowes, and hand gonnes. It was the leading corps of the London levies which drove off the cavalry of Prince Rupert; and yet, strange to say, Prince Rupert, Prince Charles, the Duke

of York, Charles the Elector Palatine, and other royalists, were members of the force. This body enjoys the honour of embodiment under the sole authority of the Crown, entirely without the intervention of Parliament. No Volunteer corps can be jealous of its precedence, for if the House of Commons should at any time stop the supplies, the Honourable Artiilery Company would be the only Body Guard left to the Sovereign. The King or the Heir Apparent is commonly, a Prince of the Blood is always, Captain-General and Colonel of the Company; and since 1842 the field officers, since 1849 all the officers, have held the Queen's commission, even when the militia and Volunteers held from Lord Lieutenants of their counties. The 1st Middlesex Rifles are entitled to the honour of embodiment long prior to the movement of this generation. It is just to allow it the succession to the Duke of Cumberland's Sharpshooters of 1803, and which in 1835 obtained, through the Duchess of Kent, the authority of the Princess Victoria to use her name, and thus they became the Royal Victoria Rifle Club. Colonel the Hon. Charles Hugh Lindsay and Majors. The 1st Devon Rifles also come under the category of priority to the 1859 movement.

The 1st Surrey Rifles and the 3rd Middlesex, the latter organized by the veteran Alfred Bate Richards, were in the van of the earliest accepted. And now a legion of energetic spirits sprang to the front: Lord Ranelagh, Lord Truro, Lord Radstock, Colonel the Hon. C. H, Lindsay, Lord Elcho, the present Duke of Westminster. Captain Templer, Colonel Tom Hughes, Colonel Bigge, Lord Bury, Colonel Brewster, the Marquis of Donegall, Lord Enfield, Captain the Hon. T. C. Bruce, Major Jeakes, Captain Phillips; among whose lieutenants and

The Organizers of the Volunteer Movement. 45

ensigns were A. J. Lewis, J. E: Millais, and Frederick Leighton; Colonel Robert Bridgford, Colonel David Gamble, and Major Ashton, of Manchester; Sir Richard Cross, Major Gray, of Bolton; Colonel Deakin and Major J. Snowdon Henry, of Manchester; Major Hill, of Salford; Colonel Marcus Beresford, Sir T. Gresley, Colonel North, M.P., Colonel Vincent A. King, Sir Charles Shakerley, Colonel Moorsom; Colonel Moncrieff and Colonel David Davidson, of Edinburgh; Sir Claude de Crespigny and Colonel Capper, of Essex; Colonel Potter, of Tynemouth; Sir M. R. S. Stewart, Lord Spencer, Sir R. Loyd Lindsay, Colonel Bush, and Major Samuel E. Taylor, of the 1st Gloucestershire; Sir Archibald Campbell, Colonel Crawfurd and Major Patchell, of Nottingham; Colonel F. Winn Knight, Colonel J. O. Mason, Colonel O. J. A. Grimston, Major Vallancey, Colonel G. M. Hicks, Major G. A. Spottiswoode, Colonel the Hon. W. E. Duncombe, Colonel J. S. Walker, Major Samuda; Major William Chambres, of Wallasey; Major Wilkinson, and Major Whitehead, with many other equally zealous spirits, were organizing and drilling.

In the pioneers of the artillery were Major Potter, Colonel Sturdee, Sir Warwick Tonkin, Colonel Estridge, Colonel Wellwood, Colonel Gilbert, Colonel Sir J. Gardiner Baird, Colonel C. A. Ellis, Colonel William Brown, Colonel Dougall, Colonel M. Samuelson, Major Saville, Colonel Chaloner, Colonel Lloyd, Major Salkeld, Major Earl Vane, now Marquis of Londonderry; Captain Allhusen, Sir Arthur Elton, Sir J. W. Ramsden, Major Walter, and Major George Melly, an untiring leader. Among the earliest Engineers was Colonel MacLeod, of Macleod. In the limits of a commemorative volume it is impos

sible to name the numerous officers and equally energetic privates, many of whom were the most thorough of the force, and whose untiring labours built it up and secured its existing consolidation and efficiency. As loyal servants of their Sovereign, their complete success in creating the Volunteer army is the highest reward men can covet.

Lord Elcho, the present Duke of Westminster, Lord Bury, Lord Ranelagh, and a host of others then sprang to the front, and the nation soon became alive to its duty. The Artillery arm assumed the position its necessity pointed out for it on our coasts.

General Sir William Fenwick Williams of Kars, convinced of the kingdom's defenceless state, and, being drawn into friendship with the writer, was moved to attend a Liverpool meeting, at which, in a speech of much ability and earnestness delivered in the Sessions House, he pointed out the weaknesses of our defences, and urged the formation of Volunteer rifle corps for the country's protection. Sir William was much impelled to this action by the study of facts and reasons disclosed to the writer by General Sir Charles Napier when in district command at Chester, and which had been communicated to him. In common with every other really able officer, he thoroughly appreciated the splendid military qualifications and sound judgment of the hero of Scinde, a man who loved his country and his country's good with true fervour of heart and was above every Sir Charles, during a period of several years' intimacy with Major Walter, had impressed with great force the necessity of a Volunteer army in England. With his known terse manner he said, "Public men and precious freedom will never see the devil until his head is shoved through the window and the house is on fire."

meanness.

General Sir Charles Napier's opinion.

47

In a letter, he had long before expressed his conviction in these words:-" We need a protective force; it must be a thoroughly Volunteer one, for the public will not pay the piper for regular soldier fellows, whose forthcoming would be more than doubtful, even if the gold dust were down on the nail."

Sir Charles Napier knew, perhaps better than any other man, the close shave we had passed through in India, and no mind grasped more fully the nakedness to which the home kingdom would be exposed, if through an emergency, Indian difficulties should require the greater portion of the regular military force of the country to be drawn off thither. It would be unwise to make public the weak points in India military governance known to exist so strongly in the great General's mind; his well-timed exhortation, written long prior to the Volunteer embodiment, is here quoted simply to show how strongly he felt the urgency of a strictly Volunteer force for home purposes. How gratifying it should be to his son-in-law, General McMurdo, to have rendered the good service he has done in organizing and advancing the efficiency of such an army as his distinguished relative and exemplar so ardently desired for his country! Napier's words at the time referred to, prior to any sounding of the tocsin, were, "A protective force is needed; it must be Volunteer, for the public won't pay the regular army piper continuously, and it is doubtful if men would be forthcoming, even if the money to pay them was. If the young men of the cities would make the exercise of arms a pastime, and the means needed for force organization and maintenance could be provided, all would be right. But it must be on some lasting basis. Nothing could be more ridiculous or contemptible