_Question._ Why did you become a member of a Volunteer corps?
_Answer._ With the intention of strengthening our national defences.
_Q._ Then you think such a proceeding patriotic?
_A._ Not only patriotic, but necessary.
[Illustration]
_Q._ You probably have some recollection of the French collapse in
1870-71?
_A._ Yes; but I have been chiefly influenced by considerations of a
mathematical character.
_Q._ Make your meaning plainer.
_A._ I mean that it stands to reason that as only a small percentage
of our people are trained to arms, and ninety-six per cent of our
neighbours are converted into soldiers, the latter, in the case of a
quarrel with us, would have the upper hand.
_Q._ And you think a quarrel entailing the arbitration of the sword
might be sprung upon us at any moment?
_A._ Precisely; that is entirely my opinion.
_Q._ And, consequently, you take a serious view of Volunteering?
_A._ Assuredly, or I would not give up most of my leisure time to
master drill in all its branches.
_Q._ Do you obtain any social advantages by wearing the uniform of a
Volunteer?
_A._ No; on the contrary, the grade of a private in the long run
causes considerable expense; and the commission of an officer is
inseparable from large expenditure and a loss of self-respect.
_Q._ Why is the holding of a commission of a Volunteer officer
"inseparable from a loss of self-respect"?
_A._ Because, in the general estimation, the holder of a commission in
the Volunteers is worthy of ridicule, pity, or contempt.
_Q._ Can you give the reason for this impression?
_A._ It is probable that it has been created by the consideration
that a Volunteer officer is chaffed by his friends, sneered at by his
enemies, and mulcted of much money by his comrades.
_Q._ Then a Volunteer officer or private usually joins the force from
the most patriotic of motives?
_A._ Certainly. Nine-tenths of the rank and file and their commanding
officers wish to qualify as soldiers capable of repelling a foreign
invasion.
_Q._ And this being so, they do not wish to spend three or four days
of training in practising "marches past" and other man[oe]uvres of a
more or less ornamental character?
_A._ Quite so; not even when the practice terminates with a review in
a royal park, and a salute performed to the strains of the National
Anthem.
_Q._ Nor do the Volunteers desire to be made into a raree show?
_A._ Not even to make a cockney Bank Holiday.
_Q._ And if you are told that this is the sort of thing that the
Volunteers want, what do you reply?
_A._ Nonsense.
_Q._ And if it were added that more serious work would be unpopular,
what would be your suggestion?
_A._ Try and see.
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MEM. FOR VETOISTS.--It is the question of "tied" houses which makes
the compensation question so knotty.
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