THE DEFENCE OP MELBOURNE.

Southland Times, Issue 1569, 26 April 1872, Page 3

THE DEFENCE OP MELBOURNE.

The Melbourne Daily Telegraph, of 2 ad April makes the following remarks on the Easter Volunteer campaign : — After yesterday's military display, an optimist might write an aecouut (if the defence of Victoria that would make an intending enetny think twice before making a dash at Melbourne. A man with a tint of rose color in his spectacles would dwell upon the elan and iuteliigence of the land force ; its fine stnff - r its skill with its special weapon, the rifle ■ and the ease with which it could double its numbers from old service men, whom a fortnight's drill would render thoroughly serviceable. " Victoria," he would declare, "can put 5,000 men in the field, and it is of no use landing with less than 10,000, for the men are not merely chips from the old block, but are the old block itself, and would fi^ht their best, as their ancestors did at Ayincourt and Waterloo, at Plassy, and at the Ink^rinann, against odds. The Bay," our friend would continue, "is impregnable There is afloat there a hideous, indescribable monster, which would hold the port against any vessels built with the weakness incidental to sea-going cruisers constructed to face raging storms and live in violent seas. Tou cannot get across the ooean in a submerged vessel with nothing visible but a shot-proof turret, and such a craft you ] would have to meet when you arrived here. Tou would "encounter an enormous mass, which could hit you with a terrific momentum, and which you could not hit in return. No one," the critic would continue, " ever doubts the offensive and defensive properties of the Cerberus ; every one admits she must, as a matter of course, crumple up every wooden cruiser that faces her, provided she is well manned ; and I do not think," an honest writer would say, " the crew of the Cerberus is to be despised. On the contrary, it is the strongest part of the Victorian force. Don't come," would be the conclusion of the critic, " unless you can come with such an army as has never yet crossed the line in a single expedition, and with such a fleet of ironclads as England will never let leave a hostile port until she has been ' wiped out.' " And this writer would transmit far more truth than is usually written on the defence question. "His tale would not be the whole truth, no doubt. It would coatain no allusion to shaky batteries, nor to our rifles being old-fashioned muzzleloaders ; but even if he dwelt upon them, his tale would have its effect. Burglars feeL nervous, though bolts and bars are shaky, when they learn that traps and terriers are kept on the premises.