The Express.
London, England, 1862-06-23 00:00:00

Vile erpreOlS.

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CORSICAN BNOTHARS. agora. Charles Kss Jordan, Shore,
Cathcart, Amok, Garden. and Meadows ;
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LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 23.

SIB G. Lofts has placed on the paper of the
House of Commons for this evening a notice of
motion for authorising the expenditure of
1,200,0001. on fortifications during the awning
year. It would seem, therefore, that Govern-
ment has resolved to stand firmly by the Report
of the Defence Commissioners, without regard
to the evidence adduced before them. Our
readers will remember that the relative posi-
tion of the Commissioners and of the witnesses

was in s general way that the former adhered to
their original ideas respecting the superiority of
forts over ships, while the latter confessed that
the introduction of iron ships was an ele-
ment which they had not before contem-
plated, and which now led them to the conclusion
that forts would not effect the purpose for which
they were designed. An old proverb tells us that
" a wise man changes his opinion often, a fool
" never ;" and without insisting too much on its
application, we may fairly claim a higher re-
gard for the evidence of those who frankly admit
that, in spite of prior prejudioe, they have seen
reason to alter their opinions, than for the dogmas
of those who tell us that the revolution in naval
warfare seems to them to leave the question of forts
precisely where it stood before. But the course
which the Government is about to take appears to
involve a further sacrifice to traditionary ideas than
even the Commissioners themselves have, at least

recently, sanctioned with their authority. The
battle has bean waged on the forts of Spithead as an
outwork, bat Government is determined to claim a
victory along the whole line. The vote which is
to be asked from the House of Commons is for the
fortification of the royal arsenide anddockyards, and
of the ports of Portland and Dover, as well as for
the acquisition of a central arsenaL Here, then, it
is no longer Spithead only that is to be con-
sidered, but all that is done, or proposed to be
done, in the way both of land and sea fortification,
at Portsmouth, Plymouth, Portland, Pembroke,
Chatham, Dover, and Cork ; and we are again
pressed with demands upon the country for funds
to carry out the whale enormous system of sta-
tionary defences which the Commissioners at first
recommended, and which Government has in prin-
ciple adopted.
It is indeed well that, if Government will not of
itself advance with the times, public opinion should
thus again have the opportunity of revising its
judgment on the propriety of carrying on these
prodigious works. Attention has perhaps been
too exclusively concentrated on the points of
interest which the Spithead forts suggested in con-
nexion with the course of American events, and
we have overlooked the fact that while the Govern-
ment has yielded to the general demand for the
suspension of operations there, it has nevertheless
pressed forward the execution of similar works
occupying a less prominent position. Thus, at
Plymouth, inside the breakwater, a foundation is
now being raised at the bottom of the sea to carry
a fort similar to those at Spithead; but as it was
not specifically referred to in the debate in
the House, it has all this time been proceeded with.
When the oversight was discovered, Sir G. Lawn
promised that though he would not suspend
the progress of the works, be would refer the
propriety of their being carried further to the
for re-consideration ; but