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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 51, 28 February 1878, Page 4

At a banquet given by the Corporation of Brighton, General Grant spoke of the English reserve! forces. He said:— "They are what the Englishspeaking pebple have to rely on iu the future. I believe tbat whenever there ia a great war between one great civilized nation and another it will be these forces iu which they have to place their confidence. We Englishspeaking people keep up the public schools in order to maintain and advance the general intelligence of our coubtry, and in time they fit our people for volunteer service and for higher training. You will always find men atoong them who are equtM to any occasion. In the course of day experience I went out as a volunteer, and I had occasion to baild a bridge 2000 feet long across a very rapid stream, and I found that tbe volunteers weire capable of doing the work. It was during the Vicksburg campaign, and the succors of my scheme was due to that. I always find this among voluuteers, but never among regulars. We don't find tbat intelligence in the rank and file of the regulars. They can do manual labor, but among the volunteers you find tbat you have mechanics and men of every profession and capacity, so tbat with them I built 2000 feet of bridge wbere there was great depth of water aud great swiftness of stream, and that, too, with very little delay. That is where tho volunteers -come in and play the most active part, and the ablest part,"