PETERSFIELD.
Agent—Miss DUPLOCK.
YOUNG MEN'S IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY.—The weekly meeting of this society on Tuesday evening was what is termed an ‟open night,” of which there are usually three or four in the course of a session, when the public are invited to hear the discussion. On the present occasion the subject was ‟The Volunteer Movement, is it consistent alike with England’s precedents, and her declaration of ‛Neutrality’?” The Rev. T. Field, Vice-President, had undertaken to open the debate, which he did by reading a very able and interesting paper on the subject, in which, taking his audience back to the time of Alfred, he showed that (allowing for the altered condition of the country) a precedent for the rifle movement might be traced even at that remote period. The King’s exchequer did not admit of his keeping up a large standing army, and the forces by means of which he repelled the incursions of the Danes were mainly volunteers. Passing on to the feudal Barons, thence to the time of Edward the First, and on by successive stages to Elizabeth, and down to periods within the memory of living, men, he shewed that there were numerous precedents for the movement, and then with regard to its consistency with our declaration of neutrality, the rev. gentleman contended that, as that neutrality could only be taken to mean a determination not to take part in any armed interference with the internal affairs of other nations, and as the volunteer movement was for purely defensive purposes, there could be no inconsistency, here especially, as it was distinctly understood from the first that ours was to be an armed neutrality. On the conclusion of the essay an animated discussion ensued, in which the following members took part:—Messrs. Meeres, F. Henson, Boswell, Privett, W. Carter, jun., Thomas, Whereat, Atkinson, Duplock, and Macfarland. The latter gentleman occupied the chair on the occasion, and very appropriately, as he was one of the first members of the society who joined the Rifle Corps, and has from the commencement taken a lively interest in its success. The discussion was adjourned on the motion of Mr. Meeres, who will re-open the subject on Thursday evening next.