The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-04 00:00:00

come of Brighton ? another takes the alarm for Worthing
another sees Bognor sacked ; another contemplates the
ravages of Ramsgate ; and there are folks who look to the
burning of dirty, swampy, unhealthy, misplaced Sheerness
in the light of a calamity to be averted at the expense of
MOMS huudredi of thousands, though no enemy could be
wished worse than the occupation of it.
tii ccebem mat is the irresistible argument. Your if was
once a great peace-maker, but if now is the maker of all the
muniments of war. Possible risks are pointed out ; but how
is it practicab:e for men or communities to go through the
world without possible risks d Prudence diminishes mks up
to a certain point, but does not attempt the absurdity of
excluding them altogether. In every act of life we take our
chance of dangers more or less remote, preferring the
chance to the sacrifices attending the avoidance. An in-
dividual that guarded against all possible dangers
would have no fire, lest he should be burnt;
would not stir out of his house, lest he should be run
over, or have his brains beat out with a chimney-pot;
would not sleep, lest robbers should surprise him ; nut eat,
lest a hasty morsel should choke him. Nations, like indi-
viduals, cannot make sure against all contingencies, and take
the part of wisdom in leaving to the chapter of accidents
provisions and precautions too large and costly for the
chapter of prudence. Protection is an excellent tning, but
, it is quite possible to pay for it more than it is worth.
As the mealy-faced ghost of Gaffer Thumb rises in 'he
I burlesque, predicting all sorts of horrors to King Arthur, so
Lord I.Alesmere appears in the Tinges, warning this unhappy
country of frightful insea'urity, and what must happen to
it if the French should some Rae day happen to land 50,000
men. " Awake, arise ! or be for ever fallen!" is the motto
of his lordship's fee-fa-funs epistle, to which we should reply,
changing a word of the old epigram—
" Lie still it you're wise,
You'll be tax'd If you rise."
Lord Ellesmere has made the notable discovery
That for a considerable period, of which It is diffic.ilt to fir the pre-
cise commencement, the instinct ofself-preservation has beer. in

stemma and suspension in this country.
To spend no more than sixteen or seventeen millions yearly
in soldiers and sailors is evidence of the suspension of the in-
stinct of Pelf-preservation. Assuming the fact to be so, a
bleared thing has been the abeyance; for here we are in
safety after all, having saved some thirty or forty mil-
lions, which the instinct of self-preservation, in the super-
abundant activity Lord Ellesmere would give it, 'would have
cost us since the peace in unnecessary tomes.
There is no quedion that steam-navigation has afforded
new facilities to aggression, butlord Ellesmere very much
overrates the advantage it would give to France in the event
of war :
We have ceased to be an island; we have approximated in the
opinion of all observing and reflecting men to the condition of a con-
, tinental state. .

If the channel has dwindled to a ditch, this much is
certain, that the French swim their boats very badly in it
Their steamers are continually meeting with disasters. They
cannot go from port to port without some distress from the
most lubberly bungling. In the late gale the King's yacht had
to make the short paste from Havre to Cherbourg. To do
this she was taken an tow by amen of war steamer in the teeth
of a rising gale. The strain upon the towing vessel of course
soon disabled her, and obliged her to beer up, which she did
so cleverly as to leave the yacht adrift without either sail or
steam, and she lay tossing and tumbling about like a log.
The vessels saw ne more of each other, and the yacht was
next heard of in the Downs. This is no unfair sample of
French skill in steam navigation. The history of their
act- mpta to cress the Atlantic demonstrates still more
strongly their miserable comparative inefficiency.
But supposing a fleet of steamers to bear an army to our
coasts; the difficulty of a landing is always overlooked, and
the disembarkation of a large body of men is talked atriut as
if it were as easy a thing as the proceeding of passengers
quietly stepping out of a vessel to a quay ; but they who
have seen the disembarkation of even a brigade, and in a
friendly country, know that the operation is not so simple
and expeditious, especially if it is to be performed in boats.
One ally of aura, whose force is always unnoticed, is sea-
sickness, to which the French are more liable than any
other people; and 50,000 shipped heroes would, upon
landing, be 50,000 wretched helpless invalids, nauseating
even glory.
But armies of 50,000 men aro not to be concentrated in a
day or a week, nor can they come upon on like a thief in the
night. They must have a fleet to transport them, and such
a fleet his yet to be provided. It will be time enough to
think of augmenting our army when we see the French pre-
paring and manning the steam-ships to throw theirs on our
coast. Confident we ate that we shall find soldiers sooner
than they will find ships and sailors—the indispensable
machinery for invasion.
We are sorry to see some assertions thrown out in Lord
Ellesmere's letter which will be greedily accepted in France,
and which are as little calculated to discourage any propen-
sity to aggression that may exist as to do honour to the
English character.
If the French were to appear at one end of London, the wisest
movement the Guards could make would be to march out at the
other. For the rest three howitzers would be sufficient, and the Lord
Mayor would soon be busy with the details of billets, and whstee, r
eoutribuuon might be accepted as u commutation for indiscriminate
plunder. Let them come, I .den hear it said; they will never return.
Don't let them come, I say ; but if they do, let them return as won as
they can be induced to do pi. I really do not re why they should
partieulatly wish It. In the present state of this country 50,04,0
Frenchmen would find England os rife sad pleasant a domicile as any
In which the soldiers of Napoleon ever luxuriated.. . .

The homely proverb says, " It is a dirty bird that fouls
its own nest." If England were as weak and spiritless as
represented, it would be as well not to divulge so degrading
• tact inviting to aggression; but we thoroughly believe that
foul iblibtice is done to the courage and patriotism of the
population. It is true that we are not a military people,
but an immense proportion of men are skilled in the
use of fire-arms from sportiog habits; and circum-
stances which depressed the spirits of the country during
the period when Napoleon threatened invasion have
since given place to others inspiring confidence, Up
to the time of the Peninsular campaigns • notion
prevailed of the invincibility of the French arm. ;
the pres'ige of anemia was against us ' • Englishmen
thought themselves doomed to be worsted by. land ; but
now the pristige is the other way, and raw levies would go
to the field to fight, fur home at least, with as much conti
dencc an the raw levies in the Guards' uniform marched to
the field of Waterloo. This country with its mighty ener-
gies, must be as capable of self-defence as it is proved capa-
ble of every other feat and duty.
While deprecating demands for defence proportioned to ex-
aggerated fanciful alarms, we are far from conearr nc in
Mr. Cobden'e opposite argument for a reduction of establish-
ments,

P.t mod= in rebus, vault nerd deniqun finer,
QUM ultra eitraque acquit cambium rectum.

For present exigencies our army and navy are not larger
than necessary, and it must be some time before the inte-
rests springing out of extended commercial relations can en-
able us to dispense with any t f our defensive powers. As
the slender roots of grasses knit the surface of banks, and
give them stability, so free trade will bind together the parti-
cles of interest forming the great dykes of peace ; but the
growth requires time, and meanwhile other appliances for
security cannot prudently be withdrawn.
Indeed we see more reason for adding to our means of
defence, short of extravagance, than for reducing them, and
should be glad to see the force and efficiency of our steam
navy augmented; and also some system adopted like that of
the French national guard, instructing the people in the
use of arms, and practising them is the manoeuvres by which
bodies move with order and precision. A day's drill now
and then could he no great hardship to people between the
ages of eighteen and fifty ; and if ten of the men so trained
were only equal to one regular soldier in efficiency, the re-
sult with such numbers would be an important consideration
for an enemy meditating invasion.