§ VISCOUNT HARDINGEasked the Under Secretary for War, Whether it was intended to revise the musketry regulations of the Volunteer Force? The noble Lord said, that the War Office Committee had lately reported on the whole question of musketry instruction, and had made recommendations, most of which had already been adopted in the Regular Army. They stated in that Report that although the Volunteer Forces exhibited excellent shooting at Wimbledon and elsewhere, they believed that the majority of the Force were not superior to the Line as marksmen. He fully endorsed this opinion, and attributed this to a great extent to the system which enabled them to earn the capitation grant by merely firing the regulated number of rounds. They often fired off nearly the whole of this number without the supervision of an officer. The consequence was that they knew they could earn nothing extra for their corps; they fired carelessly, and failed to get into the 2nd class. He thought a portion of the grant might be made to depend on their getting into the 2nd class, or else that some additional inducement should be given. He was sure the noble Earl would agree with him that it was abso- 1840 lutely necessary to encourage good shooting amongst all branches of the Auxiliary Forces.
THE EARL OF LIMERICKasked whether there might not be some difficulty in applying the new regulations to the Militia?
THE EARL OF MORLEYsaid, with regard to the Question of the noble Earl (the Earl of Limerick), they were anxious to keep the Militia at as high a standard as possible. The only solution of the difficulty referred to by the noble Earl was by extending the period of training; but that would mean a considerable increase of expenditure, and would cause great inconvenience to the men and those who employed them. As to the Question of the noble Viscount (Viscount Hardinge), he was ready to admit its great importance. It was essential that the Volunteers should be efficient, not merely in drill, but also in shooting. From statistics of the shooting of Volunteers for the year before last—the latest he could obtain—he found that out of 154,000 efficients in Infantry Volunteer Corps, 16,000 men shot away their 60 rounds each, and failed to get into the second class. That was about 10 per cent of the whole number of efficients; 70 per cent passed into the second class, and 20 per cent into the first class. Those figures did not give so unsatisfactory an account of the shooting of Volunteers as he was led to expect. There were several questions affecting this part of the Volunteers' training. In the first place, they were very anxious to do nothing to press unduly upon the time and labour of Volunteers. In recent years they had increased the qualifications required for efficients, and he was bound to say that to all the new demands they had made the Volunteers had responded in a spirit of the greatest loyalty and energy. They were, therefore, unwilling, unless it were absolutely necessary, to press the qualification to an extreme length. In the second place, he thought that if all Volunteers were required to reach the second class before they could obtain their qualification of efficiency, it would act somewhat unequally on different corps, because while some corps had adequate and convenient ranges, others might have have to go long distances, and could only shoot as occasion offered. Another difficulty was with regard to supervision, 1841 It was impossible that they could have the same supervision in the case of the firing in the Volunteers as they had in the Line. He mentioned these facts to show the difficulties which surrounded the question; but he admitted that the present test was unsatisfactory, and he thought it very desirable that a greater number of Volunteers should be encouraged to take sufficient trouble with their shooting to enable them to obtain a place in the second class. When the Martini-Henry rifle could be issued to the Volunteers—and he could give no definite information when that would be—the present musketry regulations for Volunteers would require revision, and that would be a very convenient time for also taking up the question to which the noble Viscount had called attention.