THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 16, 14 December 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION.

(From the Saturday Review.) It is a common, and, for the most part, a well-founded boast of Englishmen, that no undertaking of recognised national importance is ever allowed in this country to languish for want of funds. If there is any great work to be done, the only difficulty is, in general, to find men to start it and to carry it on with vigor. When there is nothing questionable about the object, and no blunderiug or jobbery in the management, it is usually taken for granted that the means will not be wanting, and the expectation is seldom disappointed. If, besides having a good working staff, a national enterprise happens to be patronised by Koyalfv, and warmly taken up by men of high social position, it is, as a rule, in much greater danger of embarrassment from excessive wealth than from any backwardness iv the supply of the needful subscriptions. The British public believes itself to be very critical and | discriminafing in the exercise ot its liberality, but when once its judgment is satisfied, there seems to be no limit to the support which it lavishes upon any undertaking wliich is really worthy of encouragement on public grounds. The niggardly spirit which prompts a man to say or to think that a plan is a good plan, and worthy of encouragement from every one except hiinseif, s essentially un-English. \\ hat your thoroughbred Briton approves, he likes to help, and. he would be but hallsatisfied with a success to which he had not in some measure contributed. This disposition may sometimes be chargable with no small waste of money on chimerical schemes of supposed public interest, but a t'tw mistakes of tiiis kind are well repaid by the enormous strength which the more energetic benefactors of society derive from the knowledge that any n ally sound project for the general good is sure to be backed by the whole strength of the country . There are so many thousands of illustrations of the good which has resulted from this liberal temp.-r that, when an apparent example to the contrary is met with, it is almost always safe to assume that, rightly or wrongly, tlie public judgment has not been satisfied as to the feasibility or the value of tlie project. Vie can end to mind but one exception to tlie s-.vay of what we have called liberality, though we might mere aptly have used the term public spirit. The excepti n, however, is a flagrant one, which it is almost impossible to account for. The one neglected institution in this country is the National Kifie Association. Why it should have be»n so — unless, perhaps, from the notion that it. was so sure to prosper as to need no support — we are at loss to s.iy. It "has from the first, satisfied all the conditions which ordinarily attract, the fu'lest measure of sympathy and aid. Whatever doubts c-i small minority may once have felt a-; to the persistency of the spirit which crc.tted tlie volunteer army almo.-st in instant, have been long since dispelled Now no one ever dreams of questioning the vital importance of our civilian army, nd the most experienced officers have unanimously concurred in the opinion of the Commander-in-Chief, that in time of trouble the Volunteers would be a most valuable auxiliary io the regular army. The National Kifie Association is the keystone of the whole structure, and we are echoing the opinion of all who know the Volunteers when we say that it is mainly due to this Association t.V.t, in the fourth year of its existence, our national troops show no signs of wearying of the engagements which they have undertaken. Nor are the purposes of the Society confined to those who have come forward to take an active part in the defence of the country. To ensure the permanent efficiency of the system of Volunteer defence, a broader basis is needed than the 1.00,000 who have enrolled themselves in the ranks. If behind every Volunteer we have a score of practised riflemen from whom to recruit our forces in time of need, we may be sure that, if occasion called for instant exertion, the nucleus of drilled men would be multiplied tenfold in the course of a [ew weeks. The National Rifle Association has always wisely kept sight of its twofold object — the encouragement of the Volunteers themselves, and the establishment of rifle shooting as a national pastime and an incalculable source of national strength. It is needless to argue that such an end is worthy of all the effort which can be directed to it, for, among the millions who cannot claim to have shared directly or indirectly in the work, those who would disparage it might be counted perhaps by hundreds. Certainly it is not in the objects of the Association that we are to seek an explanation of the seeming indifference with which it has been treated. Still less can it be imagined that the prevailing apathy has been caused by want of confidence in those who have taken the lead in tho movement. Nothing could surpass the energy, the patience, and the judgment with which,

often under very adverse circumstances, the Council of the Association have toiled in their national enterprise. The continued absence of the substantial evidences of public sympathy in itself makes the conduct of such an enterprise a trying task. Besides this, the conflicting opinions which had to be reconciled, the crotchets which required to be humored, and the unceasing trouble of harmonising large aims with small means, have called for an amount of tact and administrative skill which has fortunately never been wanting. Whatever could have been done has been done by those who have undertaken this business with a determination not to be baffled, happen what may. And their success has been large — far larger than could have been hoped if it had been foreseen how entirely the brunt of the work would be thrown upon a mere handful of resolute men. The last Wimbledon meeting is tlie best proof of what may be done by energy with very slender means, though the results attained are nothing to what they might have been if this national enterprise had received the support of the nation at large. For four years the Association has been in the receipt of subscriptions of about 1,2000 a year. With this narrow income, they have already plact d England first among nations in the use of the weapon by which modern victories are won, and no one doubts that they will do tar more than they have yet done if they ireet with a tenth part of the support to which they have shown themselves entitled" And there is an almost unlimited field for future exertions. Brilliant, in one sense, as the progress of rifle shooting has been, it is only a fraction of the people who have yet been reached. Some thousands of excellent shots prove what the country is capable of producing : but we are a long way yet from realizing the aim of the Association to make the rifle as familiar a weapon to men of every deg'ee as the long bow was in the time of the Plantagenets and Tudors. Whether this good measure of success will ever be reaped, dependsentirely on the response which may be made to the appeal lately issued by the Council of the Association. It is a little humiliating that the managers of a society such as this should be compelled, at the end of four years of ster- j ling work, to lay before the public its difficulties and its needs. A thousand subscribers, they tell us, are all who have come forward to their assistance, and of these there are but few who are not themselves accomplished rifimCn. The world at large has not been stirred with the faintest desire to foster an instil aiion which promises to double, and more than double, the defensive power of tile country. The consequence has been that an annual expenditure of more than LS,OOO has been of necessity met by means to which it is not right that a public body of the character of the National Kifie Association should be driven. The Council say themselves that they have had " to extract by all manner of devices/ from the competitors at Wimbledon, the money necessary for the support of the Association ; and we think that they cannot be wrong in the expectation that it. is only necessary that their unsatisfactory financial position should be known to draw forth ample subscriptions from all who approve the objects they have iv view, and possess the means to further them. It is impossible to bolieve that the strange neglect which the Association has met with can be simply due to the niggardly temper which will do nothing to aid a cause of acknowledged national importance ; and it is much more probable, and more consistent with the character of Englishmen, to suppose that support has been withheld because it was imagined that the Society stood in need of assistance. This delusion, at any rate, is now dispelled, and tbe need of effective help is openly proclaimed. That the wealthy classes will redeem their past indifference by raising the Association above dependence on the fprccarious income to be earned by the annual show at Wimbledon we cannot doubt, without impeaching the honesty of those warm professions of sympathy with which, on all suitable, and some unsuitable, occasions, if. is the universal fashion to greet the "S oluiiteers.