Irtttrs In nr ettitsr.
VOLUNTEER RIFLE UNIFORMS.
London, 2d January, 1861. SIR—Will you kindly allow me a few lines, to mention again a matter of considerable importance ? In all the discussions about the comparative merits of different rifle uniforms. I have heard no allusion to what seems to me a strong argument for uniformity. It has been brought home to me by experience—the surest teacher, as we have learnt from our Latin Delectus; but I know of several others in similar case to my own. I am a migratory bird, seldom staying above two years in the same place; but, in my last place of abode,—in the South-west,—fired with martial ardour, I volun- teered to serve my: country, by joining a rifle corps ; and, besides my subscription, I paid reasonably enough for my uniform. Now, on coming to live in town, I find neither my work nor my inclination allows me to Join the corps whose uniform most nearly resembles my own ; and, at the same time, I do not care to go to the expense of a different uniform while the other is is perfectly good condition. I should add that, before leaving, 1 offered to give my uniform to the captain, for the benefit of some poor mem- bers of the corps (and it includes several men too poor to buy their own), but he assured me he found the greatest difficulty in inducing any of them to put up with second-hand clothes. I am accordingly saddled with a suit which no gentleman could wear, except on duty, and which I cannot dis- pose of easily at a gift.
Why should not the officers of Volunteer companies agree to adopt one pattern for all, or rather patterns with such slight differences of stripes., facings, &c., that the alteration from one to the other would be easy ? I cannot help thinking that, when the Volunteer service grows a little older, and the number of cases like my own is multiplied, the present plan will have the effect of depriving the force of many valuable members. This is notoriously the case with the University corps.
A VOLUNTEER OUT OF WOE.K.
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