Volunteer Corps for Ireland.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3006, 3 October 1878, Page 1

Volunteer Corps for Ireland.

(fbom the times.) '' , In the House of Commons: last week a few Irish members opposed the vote of.. £485,000 for the pay and allowances of the Volunteer forces on the ground that it was unfair to make Ireland pay her share of this money while she was not allowed to participate in the honour of bearing arms for the defence of tbe United King* dom. Neither the manner in which the question was raised nor the spirit shown by those who raised it was favourable to the professed- object. On the following day, howerer, a deputation of Irish gentlemen, headed by Lord Monck, waited upon the Chief Secretary and urged more persuasively tbe claim of Ireland to be admitted to fellowship with Great Britain in the privilege of organiza--1 tion for the national defence. We ' ! could wish that Mr Lowther had | been able to return a more favorable ! answer than that with which he cour-"' teously, but unbendingly, dismissed his i petitioners. The language of the Secretary for War on the previous evening had," indeed, been less discouraging. Colonel Stanley, speaking, as he said, from amiliv tary point of view only, and leaving to his ' colleagues the duty of considering the political aspect of the demand, admitted that "he had never been able entirely to see why some step should not be taken in |hat direction." The question thus suggested, we may assume, is answered in the official sense by Mr Lowther's reply to the; deputation introduced..by Lord Monck. Assuredly we do not wish' to urge upon the Cabinet the adoption of any measure which in their judgment there are good reasons for rejecting. They are responsible Ministers, and they must b» the judges of their own responsibilities. But we know that many questions of this characr; ter come to be dealt with as matters of routine when there is quite room enough for doubt and choice with respect to them to make the application of a fresh and unbiased intelligence to their consideration expedient. It has become an official tradition that it would be unsafe to permit the organization of Volunteer corps in Ireland, and Mr Lowther on Friday cited once again the declaration of Lord Palmerston 1 tthat such a concession would be trouble-" .some, if not dangerous, to, the Stale. But it is time surely to review on its present merits a claim of which Lord Falmerston may very possibly have disposed in. tbe most prudent way nearly a score of years ago. Since Lord Palmerston was asked to decide whether volunteering should be made lawful in the sister island the most , imfortant relations between Ireland and the Imperial Government have been radically altered by economical and social no less than by legislative changes. Even if we attribute ,to Palmerstonian statesmanship an infallibility which the present age would probably not concede, it would be no more than reasonable to admit that the time may be now come to revise its conclusions. ;. There are political associations in' Ireland connected with the-very name of the ■v Volunteers" that have helped to make official persons shy of encouraging the movement to cross St. George's Channel. The Volunteers of 1782, it is remembered, used their arms and organization to extort from the English Government, then exhausted by the struggle with the revolted colonies of North America, the legislative independence which Ireland enjoyed for eighteen years of brilliant and corrupt Parliamentary Government. But the forces which assembled in response to the stirring call of Gratten at Dungannonhad little in common with the steady-going, workmanlike regiments whose motto is " Defence, not Defiance." Irishmen-have a natural aptitude and taste for a military life; they enjoy handling the rifle* and they do not object to the severe exercises of tbe drill-ground. Ireland has supplied some of the finest soldiery that ever fought under our standards, and the quality of the raw material she sends us has not deteriorated in the present day. In the battles of the Peninsular War, at Waterloo, in ihe Mahratta and Sikh wars, in the Crimean War, during the Indian Mutiny, Irishmen, from the field-marshal down to the • private soldier, , rendered good services to the common country. Even in time of profound peace the Royal Irish Constabulary forms a military force ,of admirable quality, recruited and maintained exclusively in Ireland. The Irish Militia regiments are also kept on the regular establishment. But neither the Irish soldiers in the regular army nor the Irish Militia, nor the men in the Constabulary, have in recent times given the Government the slightest cause for uneasiness. They have neither shown the taint of disloyalty nor have they threatened disorder. Here and there a disloyal soldier may be found, and of course there are a good many disorderly men in the Irish regiments, but as a ! whole they may be trusted, and are trusted, as undoubtingly ns the Knglish or the Scotch. Yet it is.obvious that in the official mind there lurks a fear that disloyalty or disorder, or both, might make the Volunteer movement in Ireland formidable. The Government may have good ground for their fears, but it would only be fair, we think; to put them to the test of a candid examination, and not to accept them on the faith of loose tradition. At least if it were found to bo safe to permit the formation of Volunteer regiments in Ireland, the movement might be expected to have a healthy influence upon tbe people. The Deputation which addressed the Chief Secretary on Friday was.able to , furnish ■ proof of the spirit. with which large numbers of .Irishmen in every rank have lately offered their services to the Government, not for home defence merely, but, if necessary, for a foreign expedition. That volunteering as it exists in this country would be a success in Ireland we cannot doubt; .it would suit the tastes of the people,, and would strengthen their

character with wholesome mornl discipline. No race in the world is more easily debased by want of training than the Irish; none is so easily invigorated by Wise and timely organization. Apart from the physical benefits of military drill, there are certain effects upon character which may be noted among English Volunteers and which would be peculiarly ▼aluable in Ireland. The man who enters * Volunteer regiment cannot, even if he would, escape the influence which is called esprit decorps. He is enlisted at once on the side of " order; " he may have been inclined before to disorder, or even to sedition, but when once he becomes^ ■old;er, a citizen soldier, he feels that he has ranged himself on the opposite side to all disturbers of society, from the highest to the lowest. Those who are acquainted with the change that has taken place during the past twenty years in the habits and ways of thinking of the classes from which the preat majority of our Volunteers are drawn will admit that the social effect of,the movement has been excellent, while its political effect, whatever we may think of it, has been an unexpected dorelopment of Conservative feeling in large sections of the lower middle class. ' There is quite as much human nature in 1 Irishmen as in any other people, and we haTe no doubt that the indirect result of volunteering in/Ireland would be to rencfer sections of society which, are now troublesome, and even dangerous, not only tran quil, but anti-revolutionary. The men of of the J^rish Constabulary are drawn from the very social ranks among whom Nationalist dreams create most nerilous illusions; yet during the crisis, of Penianism the Constabulary faced a very great danger with unflinching courage, and never wavered for an instant in their' fidelity. The suspicion that the Irish Volunteers would be disloyal, and might, perhaps, use their weapons and their training to assail the Governmentih*some time of trial, is due to the idle talk of professional politicians, whose mission it is to prove that Ireland is always seething with political passions We believe, on the, .contrary, „,that there is very,little political agitation, ia Ireland now, and, having; removed every real cause for disaffection, it would be wise for us to assume that the natural results will follow, and; that the Irish subjects of the Queen, no less than her English and Scotch subjects, are- attached to the Government under which they live and thrive, and are willing to unite for its defence. " •

Even in the worst times of Protestant ascendency and Catholic, disability/"When the Irish regiments were' full of peasants who in their native countrywould, have /been rebels or rapparees, no British Generals had ever to complain that hi« Irish troops failed him. Why-should it be assumed that the more honorable tie of a Volunteer's allegiance would bind the consciences of Irishmen less effectually ? As for the apprehension that religious animosities might break out in the ranks, or that Orange, and Catholic regiments might use their arms against one another, it is sufficiently refuted by the experience of Canada, which Lord Monek governed successfully not many years ago. The whole of the, forces at, the disposal of the Canadian Government! consist of Volunteers, and in the Canadian towns —where, by the way, there t is a itrong Irish element—the Orange and Catholic fanaticisms run higher and clash more fiercely, than even in Belfast. Nevertheless, no case has been known in which the Canadian Volunteers have proved a source of danger,. while they have frequently been called out to repress disorders, ana hare responded without hesitation, whatever their creed. We cannot escape a feeling that in matters of this kind sentimental considerations should not be altogether put aside. The national susceptibilities of Scotland have been tenderly dealt with in such points as the names of regiments and the Highland dress. Yet when the Highland regiments were first enlisted, Scotland had been barely reconquered, and the Highlanders had been the,soul of the rebellion that had threatened to overthrow the House of Hanover. The time, perhaps, is at hand when we can afford to forget 1798 and 1848 and the later troubles of Feniauism, as the Government in the last century forgot the recent insurrections of 1715 and 1745, when it gave Scotland ample recognition in the military, system of the United Kingdom. . , .