The Press.
London, England, 1858-08-14 00:00:00

786

Cherbourg as compared with our largest harbour. The
largest harbour we have is that of Keylisru-1 mean the
new harbour and dockyard near Devonport. When
completed that harbour will occupy an area of 72 acres. It
has two basins, with an area of six acres each. It has three
large dry docks, and it has the usual number of storehouses
and workshops of various kinds. Now, mark the contrast
with Cherbourg. Cherbourg occupies an area of no less
than 220 acres, an area three times larger than our largest
dockyard will be when completed. It has three basins,
one containing 15 acres of water, another containing 16
acres, and the third containing 'dl) acres of water—five
times the water space of Keyhole. Each of these has thirty
feet of water at low tides. Along the quay walls of these
basins twenty-five of the largest line-of battle ships could be
moored head and stern Running in connection with the
dockyard is the railway to Paris and the whole of the in-
terior of France. Down Out line of railroad, the opening
of which formed part of the sights to be seen at the great
fête—down that railway could be whirled in a day the army
of France ; 11)0,1) NI men could be marched from the its•
tenor to the railway station, and from the railway station
right on board the ships of war, at any time of the tile, and
these ships could sail at any time of the tide. Now there
is something very striking iii all this, and I said to myself,
What can all this mean ?" Docks, torts, and a railway
which could bring 100,000 men dawn to Chet bourg, and at
a moment's notice, as it were, carry them to the shores of
England. But wh-n I looked over the ships and compared
them with our own ships, I said to myself," You may bring
your soldiers down to your dockyard's, but before you call
get them to England you must command the Channel ;
and you must have a different class of ships to what ycu
now have." I thought it my duty to examine the ships.
I accordingly went on board the Bretagne, and examined
her with Sir Charles Napier. She struck me as a very
magnificent ship indeed. I afterwards went on board our
own Royal Albert, a ship not so large as the Bretagne, but
of a similar class. My feeling, after the inspection of
both vessel+, was this : the Bretagne and the other vessels
there may be very fine ships, but if both of them were
manned by Frenchmen I would prefer to be on board the
Royal Albert, foe I believe she would soon sink the other.
When I looked at the sailors—chose who got up to the
trucks of the masts ( while the Frenchmen could get no
higher than the yards), and there waved the flag of Eng.
laud with one hand, standing on one leg and swinging the
other to and fro—l thought the Royal Albert would not be
long in making short work of the Bretagne. When farther
I looked at what was perhaps one of the most magnificent
sights I ever saw—between 30)) and 400 beautiful yachts.
the property of English noblemen—manned by 3,000 or
4,000 of the fittest sailors in England—:he magnificent
shies belonging to that company who were good enough to
give us a free passage to Cherbourg—when I thought that
they were not mine than one-half of the ships owned by
the same company—when I leaked to the maritime habits
of our people—when I looked at the tine class of fellows
who commanded them, the stalwart forms of the noblemen
and gentlemen of England at the helm, and recollected
that these gentlemen could 'light in the hour of need as
well as their sailors—when I looked at the skill and know-
ledge of the people, to which my esteemed friend referred
this morning, I said to myself, Well, well, we have
nothing to fear from France, even though she have her
mighty dockyards arid stupendous arsenals opposed to us."
France, in the construction of that mighty arsenal—and it
is a melancholy fact, but it is a fact which I must tell
you, for we must not despise our neighbours—France in
the construction of that mighty arsenal mast have
hid some ulterior object in view, because when
the British vessels left Cherbourg that mighty dockyard
must have been almost deserted. And it struck me, " What
object can France have had in view in comstructing such a
mighty arsenal and such immense forts? " Why, depend
upon it she did not build these docks unless she had some
idea of building ships to put into them. It is a very
melancholy fact, and I fir one regret, deeply regret, that a
feeling of doubt on the part of one nation towarile an-
other should have arisen ; but we cannot shut our eyes to
the great fact we have seen, that there is one thing in
which we are deficient. We have abundance of seamen—
we are a maritime people—out in the hour of emergency
we have had a difficulty in obtaining seamen to man our
ships. Bnt lam happy to tell you that the Government
are now zealously devoting themselves to the question.
They have appointed a royal commission, of which I have
the honour to be a member, and I do hope, as the result of
our labours, that a plan will be prepared, which will re-
move the only thing which we have to fear—the manning
of our ships ill the hour of need. One wore before I COll-
- I referred to the fact that one great secret of our
strength was our knowledge. I am sure Napoleon himself,
when he sailed through that harbour end inspected his
ships, must have said within his own mind, "I may create
mighty arsenals and build great dockyards, and even
launch great ships of war, but I can never make my people
a great maritime nation, unless I can get them to own
such magnificent merchant ships as those I see around me
now—unless I can get my nobility and gentry to turn their
attention more earne ally to yachting and kindred pur-
suits, it is vain fur me to attempt to rival Eng-
land as a maritime people—as vain as it would be
for England to attempt to rival the great nations of
Europe as a military penile." 13nt he must have
felt, too, that another great source of our wealth was
our knowledge, the skill of the working classes, the in-
dustry of our arttrints—that industry which was en-
couraged by the opening of such iontituUons as these—
which encouraged onwards those hardy sons of toil who,
after all, are the true secret* of a nation's wealth and a
nation's power. These men, ladies and gentlemen—it is
these men, the mechanics, the hardworking, industrious
mechanics of this country, which have made England
what she is—great and powerful throughout the nations of
• the earth.

Mr. ROEBUCK was received with great enthusiasm.

iilip.