The Press.
London, England, 1854-02-04 00:00:00

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in 1829, only the exponent of the policy of the
Duke of WELLINGTON, who was then Prime
Minister, and therefore responsible for what
occurred. The impression which Lord ABER-
DEEN attempted to convey to the House of
Lords, that he was merely the organ of the
Duke of WELLINGTON, and that there existed
between him and that Illustrious man n com-
plete understanding on Turkish affairs, is, we
regret to say, not correct. It *is far other-
wise. How Lord. AsEftutew,
.with. the recol-
lection of the private engagement that he
entered into with Count MATOSZEVICH as to
the blockade of the Gulf of Enos, which would
have starved the Turkish army at Adrianople,
and other similar matters, and which the
Bake violently forced him to repudiate, Could
have made this declaration in the House of
Lords, is marvellous !
Lord ABERDEEN is indignant that he is
described as the tool of Russia, and to prove
his independence vows that he has, when
Secretary of State, written very " acrimo-
nious" despatches against that Power.
Secretaries of State ought never to write
" acrimonious" despatches. This proves too
much. There is no quantity of " acrimonious"
despatches that Russia will not digest, if they
be accompanied by blockades of Enos and
treaties of Adrianople. If the letters of Lord
ABERDEEN to the " foreign conspirators, " who
are his correspondents at Paris and elsewhere,
had been a little more acrimonious as regards
Russia, affairs might have been better, nor
should we have Count MEYENDORFT at this
moment stating in the circles of Vienna that
the first idea of the Menstchikoff treaty was
given to. the Emperor of Russia some years
ago by Lord ABERDEEN himself.
But there is another " calumny," and that
Is, that Lord ABERDEEN is the tool of Austria.
We do not exactly know who said this; not
ourselves; we rather believe a present colleague
of the noble Thane. They must settle it between
them- with other phrases. Lord ABERDEEN
knows nothing of Vienna " these forty years."
A very few years ago, however, he was proud
to tell the House of Lords that he had been
brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and for
all that he knew of politic lore was indebted
to Prince Marrramen. This frequent boast
used to make that illustrious Minister smile.
" Lord Aberdeen," he was wont to observe
with serene irony, " says he is my pupil ;
" there is, however, I believe, sometimes a
" difference between pupils and professors."
For nearly half a century Lord ABERDEEN
has been connected, in a certain sense, with
public affairs ; and he has failed in every great
enterprise in which he has embarked. He
talks largely of his relations with the Court of
Vienna forty years ago. The improper favour
of Lord CASTLEREAGH saved him from being
recalled from that scene of action. Selected
:by the Duke of WELLINGTON to deal with the
Turkish difficulty in '2B-29, his labours con-
, eluded with the treaty of Adrianople. He
boasts of being the founder of the entente cor-
diale ; it terminated with the Château d'Eu and
the Spanish marriages. Lord ABERDEEN, with
the aid of " foreign conspirators," then got up
an elaborate impeachment of Lord PALMERS-
TON. The speech of Lord ABERDEEN on that
. occasion, which should have been the greatest
effort of his life, is the most signal failure on
record. Finally, this sage Minister tries his
safe hand at Turkish politics again, and after
ti year of vacillation and incapacity confuses
all Europe, and perhaps involves his country
•in war. We assure Lord ABERDEEN that, in
treating of his conduct and career, there is no
necessity to have recourse to calumny.

MAIL-STEAMERS AND MEN-OF-WAR.
THERE is something ominous, yet opportune,
in the appearance at this moment of a parlia-
mentary paper headed " Mercantile Steam
Navy for t'urposes of War." The substance
of this document we propose to extract. Under
Lord DERBY'S Government, in May, '52, a
cogakaittee of officers was appointed to examine
how far, in ease of necessity, it might be possible
to arm the contract mail-packet steamers, or
otherwise to apply them to defensive or

THE PRESS,

offensive operations. These gentlemen were

instructed to ascertain the number of steamers

employed by the various oompanies—their
materials and utaks—the possibility of dis-
pensing with them iu regard of their ordinary
duties—the time required to fit them for
fighting—the cost of the process in each case—
with innumerable miner details not. necessary
tosbe inserted here. These orders were acted
upon; and the result is in Our hands.
It appears that the Penifisular and Oriental
and the West Indiari lines own collectively :
Vessels
I Collective tonnage
Collective horee•power 21,117 .
Of which, vessels built of wood are
in number BO
Their tonnage
Their horse-power • • 12,8Sti
Vessels of iron are 23
Their tonnage 29,189
Their horse-power
None of these vessels, however, are, in the

53

committee's opinion, efficient substitutes for
men-of-war. " Under a very pressing neces-
" city for home service " they might constitute
a kind of naval militia, but their principal
utility would be as armed packets and troop-
ships.
Out of fifty-three vessels, only sixteen ply
between Southampton and foreign ports, the
rest being intercolonially employed, or under
repair, or building, or otherwise out of the
way. But of these sixteen, five are of iron, an d
three of inferior construction and capability,
insomuch that eight only remain capable of
efficient service, and which might be rendered
available within nine weeks. They could not,
however, be spared by the companies except
in actual emergency, and at the cost of con-
siderable public inconvenience.
Independent of these considerations, the
construction of a passenger steamer varies
widely from that of a man-of-war, making the
union of both qualities well-nigh impossible.
Guns eould not be firod, otty tho committee,
from the stern, nor yet fore-and-aft ; the
machinery is exposed
•to shot and shell ; they
are undermasted ; the amount of fuel con-
sumed by them is enormous in proportion to
the guns they can carry ; they are not pierced
for guns, nor could ports easily be cut ; " a
" total change in the internal economy would
" be necessary ; " and it is, after all, doubtful
whether they could be made to receive the
requisite armament, stores, and provisions. In
plain words, they are unfit for fighting-work ;
they cannot be made fit for it except at vast
cost, and then inadequately ; and if employed
they might endanger the credit of our flag,
from the disproportion between their apparent
proportions and real efficacy.
As regards the vessels of the British and
North American Company, the report is one
degree more favourable. Eight steamers
belong to this company, being
Total collective tonnage
Total horse-power
and capable of being rendered serviceable,
not, however, without extensive alterations,
involving for each ship a cost of 3,0001. The
utmost number of heavy guns which they could
carry is ten apiece.
None of the other packet companies have
vessels fit for war purposes.
• The general result of the committee's report
is, that, out of ninety-one ships belonging to
different mercantile bodies, there are only
sixteen capable of being used as auxiliaries to
the regular fleet, and even of this number one-
half would, when fitted for the purpose, be of
very doubtful capacity.
The results of this inquiry tend to confirm
in a remarkable degree the opinion expressed
by us about four months ago, in an article on
the contract packet service—namely, as to the
inconvenience entailed QU companies by re-
quiring them to build vessels capable of being
armed in case of emergency—the delusive
nature of the guarantee thus obtained--and
its tendency, by encouraging a fallacious belief
in our strength, to prevent real and proper
preparation for war.

SATURDAY,

STRIKES AND SAVANS.
THERE is always something ridiculous in an

utter disproportion between means and ends ;
and not the strongest sympathy either with

the goodness of the design, or with the amia-
ble character of the nobleman who occupied
the chair, can lead us to treat otherwise than
as a philanthropic vagary the attempt of the
Society of Arts to settle the labour-and-strike
question by a single conference; at which all
kind of abstract propositions were to be dis-
cussed.

Lord R. GROSVENOR, after expressing regret
that custom forbade him to open the meeting
with prayer, proceeded to explain the nature

of the intended discussion iu terms of which

the solemnity would not have ill befitted the
inauguration of a new Parliament. The range
of topics was tolerably extensive and miscella-
neous. Combinations, whether objectionable
or no—strikes and their consequences—the
right of Parliament to interfere between mas-
ter and workman—the law of partnership and
limited liability—arbitration, its expediency,
and the best means of applying it—all were
tossed promiscuously on the table, to be dis-
cussed by a heterogeneous assemblage, in
which mere spectators formed by far the larger
proportion, and delegates from operative clubs
a considerable part of the remainder. It is
not too much to say that the questions thus
casually and collectively taken up would have
furnished materials for a treatise equal in
length to " The Wealth of Nations "—half a
Volume, at least, being devoted to each. And,
to add to the absurdity of the affair, each
speaker was limited to ten minutes, and the
general subject arbitrarily divided under three
heads, so that the whole argument could by
no possibility be grappled with by any single
orator; and he who rose, almost without ex-
ception, argued some point different from that
on which Ints ;niniediat. pa vtieuessor had peen
decfl.'..ming. But the climax of folly was
reached when the chairman, after requesting
that all demonstrations of applause might be
suppressed—a rule, of course, violated every
five minutes—announced it as his intention to
put no resolution to the meeting on which
unanimity did not exist, as if a resolution in
which every individual of a mixed multitude
professedly differing in opinion was likely to
agree could be a resolution worth passing
at all.
As might have been expected, so it proved.
One Chartist delegate contrived to introduce
his forbidden topic, and thereby infused a
momentary animation into what was otherwise
a very dull ceremony. It is a peculiarity of
these people, by the way, that they are all
more or less monomaniacs : if a meeting of
savans were called to discuss the potato-rot,
and one of them got access to it, be sure he
would be on his legs forthwith, and moving a
resolution in favour of the " five points?' /y/r.
ROBERT OWEN, or somebody representing him,
also delivered his sentiments, unfortunately
not upon spirit-Tappings, in which case his
harangue might have been more interesting
than it was. Here and there a bearded or
moustached figure jumped up to denounce
millowners and expatiate on the sufferings of
the poor, but no millowner replied ; and in
the absence of contradiction, and before an
unwonted audience, the rough energy of the
operative agitator deserted him, leaving only
a residuum of empty, tame, and dull verbiage.
This prevailing dulness was, however, -
ex-
ceeded by the loquacity of the listeners, three
fourths of wham had come, not to hear, but to
ifvo lgro,n
know not nolit after three
bad grammar and inconsecutive reasoning, we
retired in sheer weariness, wishing more wis-
dom to future philanthropists, and heartily
regretting a wasted morning.