WIMBLEDON COMMON.
QUEEN VICTORIA has inaugurated what we trust will henceforth
I be a national Sport. Athletic games are the proper counteraction of the sedentary life of three-fourths of the Englishmen of the nineteenth century. We have not hitherto altogether lacked these healthy recreations of out-door life. Cricket, boating, fox-hunt- ing, walking tours, have formed the sole opportunities of physi- cal dev lopment. They are admirable in their way, because the ■ all de and nerve, they are all dangerous in some degree, they all . tend tc try the bodily qualities of men, and furnish safety-valves
for th escape of instinctive animal forces, which accumulating I- „unuse4 are apt to corrupt and certain to decay. But military - exercises and their complement the rifle match excel in useful- to be serviceable to his country. The land all the other games we have mentioned. They have a high and noble and useful end in view. A man not only develops his physical capabilities, but he knows that in developing them he is placing himself in a position , sense of utility increases the enjoyment of every exercise. A volunteer rifleman knows that every step he makes towards excel-
- mien of arms enhances not only his own power as a human being, but as a member of the state. Even if he never fire a shot in anger he is not the less an additional element of force in the nation, because the knowledge that he is there one of some tens of thousands like unto him, exerts a moral influence in Europe, and acts as a preventive, if not to evil designs, at least to the execution of them. A nation is respected in proportion to the actual amount of force it has at command; and it is none the less respected because a eery large portion of its force is devoted exclusively to defensive purposes. A nation that is strong finds its friendship and affiance coveted, and a nation that is strong and just finds that its influence is doubly enhanced. Queen Victoria has always been ready to bestow honour and encouragement upon her soldiers, and to stimulate them by fre- quently appearing at their head. The Volunteers have now shared in the attention bestowed on the Regular army—they have been reviewed in London, they will probably be reviewed at York and somewhere in Scotland, and now the Queen has fired the first shot in the first National Shooting Match, setting a good example by hitting the bull's-eye at four hundred yards, and scoring three points. What her Majesty did from a fixed rest, every volunteer should strive to do from the shoulder or the knee. The Queen's shot it has been said, should be the standard of excellence, never absolutely attainable with certainty perhaps, but always to be approached. Let us hope that the double example set by the Queen will be imitated all over the land ; that those who should take the lead in the country districts will imitate her in giving their countenance and support to local trials of skill, and that the country volunteers will imitate the precision of her aim. No sport can contribute more to keep up a manly activity and healthy temperament in Englishmen than the sport over which Queen Victoria presided on Monday.
But we must not over-estimate the value of these rifle matches in a military point of view. We are told that 200,000 marks- men would be very formidable, and nothing is more certain that they would be in a mountainous country like Switzerland, or the Tyrol for instance, or upon vast plains, or in dense jungles. Bit= in a country like England, where there are no mountains and no forests, the 200,000 must be something more than marksmen. They must be able to move as well as shoot, and able to shoat after a toilsome or rapid march, as well as shoot in the practice- ground. Moderately good shooting power and first-rate marching and manceuvring power will always carry the day. Steadfast- ness, when the order is to buage not an inch; mobility, when a position is to be seized, or a n, nk to be turned, or a junction ba- be effected ; shooting as emur\ te as possible, when at rest in po- sition or skirmishing in front - an enemy ; these are athe reque- sites of the soldier. The power f moving in concert 1.-staet never be neglected for one moment. Due attention to tlai Hythe regulations will snake men very serious opponents even if they have not fired a shot : a fact proved by the fair practice of Volunteers fresh from drill who never handled a rifle before they pulled a trigger in their preliminary firing. But nothing, except practice, can enable men to move with preeision and in almost mechanical obedience to orders”, and nothing except a vast deal of practice can enable them to skirmish with anything approaching to efficiency. The ataxia' firing of ball cartridge is far less important than corevanY, bat- talion, and brigade drill. Unless the Volunteers are made a moveable force, they will be of comparatively little use. And we cannot help repeating that this part a their schooling depends upon their officers, nor can we bap again drawing the attention of the inspectors to the vital necessity of a very strict and con- scientious discharge of their duty on this point. The value of the shooting-match on Wimbledon Common lies in the fact that it affords some means of estimating the already at- tained efficiency of picked Volunteers as marksmen. But far more useful indications of efficiency would be furnished by local contests among the ordinary rank and file. This can be brought about if the men and women of influence in our counties and country-towns will make the rifle match a village institution.
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