The Press.
London, England, 1857-05-02 00:00:00

The King of France, with forty thousand men,
Marched up the hill, and then marched down again.
They did not care about learning, the history
of the campaign ; they saw the case as it stood,
and that it was not satisfactory, but they did
not anticipate how Sir Charles Napier would
scandalise the public service and blacken him-
self by publishing to the world confidential
letters on her Majesty's affairs, and reveal to
the gaze of the world things which should be
kept concealed from the enemies of England.
Sir Charles Napier made enemies of many of
the Ministers in office ; and by his absence of
self-respect, and by the unscrupulous use of a
correspondence which, in point of fact, be-
longed to the Sovereign, the gallant admiral
(and we cheerfully admit that he has more
than an ex officio right to the conventional pre-
fix) alienated from himself the sympathies of
all the right-feeling classes of the country.
Opposed to Admiral Napier in politics, and
to those who nominated him, it would be open
to us to mock at the scandals of a Whig-Radi-
cal admiral, entertained at the Reform Club
and panegyrised in the Liberal newspapers.
But we have no taste for doing so. The poli•
tical part of the question was discussed else-
where, and we shall address ourselves to the
literary portions of this disagreeable volume.
The future historian has not much to learn
from its contents, for the reasons we have
already stated. The interest has been fore-
stalled. There are still, however, a few bits
which require attention. The voluMe thus
commences :

On the tith of duly, 1833, Sir Charles Napier addressed
a letter to Lord Aberdeen, then at the head of Her
Majesty's Government, in which letter he pointed out to
his lordship the all but certainty of war with Russia, and
at the same time the ill-defended condition of our coasts,
in ease of war. He apprised bis lordship that Russia had
in the Gulf of Finland twenty-seven sail of the line, besides
frigates and smaller vessels, and that she had also a large
disposable army at St. Petersburg—with all, or any of
which forces, she might, in the event of war, menace the
English coast at a moment when we had no available force
to oppose to her. The Admiral pointed out to his lord-
ship that, as our trained fleet was in the Mediterranean,
the only available force, to meet any sudden demonstra-
tion on the part of Russia. was little more than the guard-
ships, block•ships, and ordinaries, at the varicms naval
ports, whilst these were between three and four thousand
men short of their complement. He represented to his
lordship that the Emperor of Russia was a bold man, who
was playing a great game ; that, if he were aware of our
want of means of def.mce, he might as easily make a dash
at England as we could send the Mediterranean fleet to
Constantinople; and that, should he do so, the confusion
on our coasts would be extreme. It was thus evident that
in the event of sudden war this country was not safe ; that
if Russia lost her fleet in a sudden attack on our shores,
she would care nothing for the loss; but that if we lost the
few ships which could be opposed to her, the nation would
ha ruined.

This passage reminds us that Sir Charles
Napier had for some years been something of
au alarmist about the state of our navy, and
we cannot forget that the gallant admiral ad-
mitted the great service of Lord Derby's Ca•
binet in demanding a grant of five thousand
additional seamen for the fleet. The Reform
Club dinner is thus touched upon :

A farewell dinner was given to the Admiral by the
members of the Reform Club, at which dinner Sir James
Graham took great credit to himself for the selection of Sir
Charles Napier; and for this selection Sir James really
deserved great credit, as it had been made in opposition to
strong family interest. One Lord of the Admiralty was
already in command of the Black Sea fleet. Another,
Admiral Berkeley, who had never commanded a fleet at
sea, or, indeed, a lineofbattle ship more than a year or two,
afterwards admitted in Parliament that he " had run with
Sir Charles an honest race for the command." To the
great credit of Sir James Graham he disregarded such
influence. and conferred the much-coveted honour on Sir
Charles Napier, who never in his life did a more unwise
thing than to accept the command of such a fleet, in such a
sea, and under such circumstances. His patriotism must
certainly have outweighed his interest.

Of the " revelations" (which it must be re-
collected are ex part•) in the volume, the fol-
lowing is a specimen

Though few in point of numbers, never, perhaps, had
finer ships left our shores; yet never before had a squadron
sailed so deplorably manned. The subsequent testimony
of one of the Lords of the Admiralty on this point was,
unhappily, as true as significant :—" if you find three
hundred able seamen on board each ship I shall be agree-
ably surprised." Nor was the following, from the same
source, more satisfactory :—" The Emperor of Russia
should try his strength with you while he musters double
your numbers, and your bands are so miserably raw !"
This description of tile squadron by those who maimed it,
as frankly recorded as it was true, was by Admiral
Berkeley.

Thel assertion in thit, paragraph has been