VOLUNTEER CAMPAIGNING. T HE Volunteers have now made two experimental cam-
paigns, on a very minute scale, and the result has made good the objections we took some weeks ago to these exhi- bitions. We ventured to state that the men were not fit for any large movements, and that the officers were less able to direct than the men to execute. We said that the move- ments of masses in these so-called sham battles would teach the officers but little and the men less, and the proceedings at Wimbledon and Brighton have verified this view. As a holiday for the men, a show for the public, and a gratification, to commanders and staff-officers, Brighton was all that could. be desired. But it was not a school of instruction for the men, and the only officers who gained any practical experi- ence were just those who will never have any use for it—the commander-in-chief and his brigadiers. At Brighton every- thing was favourable for the display—the splendid open country, the brilliant sunshine, the high-spirited troops, and the not too unreasonable public. The movements were of the simplest kind—line, column, and square ; no elaborate changes of front, no skirmishing, no relieving of one body of troops by another ; in short, nothing half so difficult as many battalions execute every week. This is very creditable to Lord Ranelagh and his advisers. These simple move- ments were very well done, and deserved the praise bestowed upon them by Sir James Scarlett. Then the men were moved on to and off the field in admirable order. And when we have said this we have said all. It was a pretty review, made more interesting by a plentiful expenditure of blank cartridge. At Wimbledon, the rival exhibition, something much more elaborate was tried, and it ended in failure. The lecture of Colonel M`Murdo at the close of the day is a commentary on the proceedings, full of warning and instruction. It is true that the rain fell heavily, that the ground was rough and marshy, that there was a crowd of spectators,—all these were obstacles, but the simple fact remains that the officers tried to do more than they had the faculty to do, that the men got out of hand, and that the great test of discipline—a rapid and steady change of front to a flank—proved the weakness of the machine. It follows that either the men were not yet well drilled enough for this ambitious piece of work, or that the officers did not know their trade, and had not their men in hand. Had the Wimbledon manoeuvres been as wisely limited and simple as those of Brighton, probably they would have been as well done. But Lord Bury tried too much and failed. Now we submit that this is not the way to make use of the volunteer force. It is merely playing at soldiers for volunteer officers to go beyond their battalion duties. Reviews of large bodies, like the reviews in Hyde Park, at Knowsley, at Edinburgh, and York, are excellent things, because they display the force, and obtain for it direct public recognition. But sham fights, except on a small scale, are a comparatively useless waste of force. We do not mean to say that the men who went to Brighton and Wimbledon gained nothing by the excursion, but we do mean to say that they gained little com- pared with what they might have gained from a field-day on a smaller scale. For a small body can be taught how to hold a particular positien, how to skirmish in front of it, how to get away, re-form, and attack again, especially if another body represent an enemy. But a large body can only be marched about ; it cannot be taught anything ; and although in actual combat the soldier should only obey, he knows not wherefore, yet he will light more steadily and usefully in real battles because be has been told the reason why in sham battles. And we contend that a simulated combat on a small scale would be more interesting, as well as more useful, to the men, than these large developments which please the eye of the public and the vanity of commanders. Another reason why sham fighting and sham campaigning on a large scale is objectionable is that they take battalion officers from duties they are appointed to perform, and impose on them duties they will never be called on to perform. Neither Lord Bury nor Lord Ranelagh would be entrusted with either a brigade or a division if the country were invaded. Lord Bury would have to be content to command the Civil Service, and Lord Ranelagh the South Middlesex ; and it would conduce far more to the efficiency of these fine regiments if they were manceuvred against each other upon some well-defined plan of operations, than if their commanders were to lead divi- sions at Brighton and Wimbledon every week in the year. Volunteer officers must really content themselves with doing all they can to make ordinary drill interesting, and to impress upon their men the necessity, for the honour of the corps, of taking the advice of Colonel M'Murdo to heart, and of becoming thoroughly broken in to company drill. A well-drilled company of volunteers, who had never moved with a battalion, ought nevertheless to be able to fall in with a regiment of the line and not disgrace it, but until company drill is more thought of than battalion drill, the volunteers cannot be considered effective. If the present spring and summer were wisely used, the volunteers might with advan. tage have sham fights on a small scale in the autumn. At present, these sham fights can only be regarded as holidays for a number of men in uniform, who agree to amuse them- selves by word of command. Let us repeat the words of Colonel Maturdo, and commend them to the thoughts of our volunteers. "I regard a company as the unit of an army," he said, at Wimbledon, " for where the men in each company are steady and well drilled, the whole army will be steady and well drilled likewise. All that you have learned in the way of shooting—all your zeal and patriotism will be of no avail in the day of battle, without a thorough know- ledge of company drill. I harp on company drill because nothing else will do. I beg you, therefore, not to think that excellence in shooting is everything.; it is nothing unless you have perfect steadiness of formation under fire." These words ought to be printed in letters of gold, and displayed at the head-quarters of every regiment and company in the kingdom ; and the advice they contain ought to be got by heart, and followed to the letter.
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