The Express.
London, England, 1847-04-13 00:00:00

of the Vice Admiralty Courts. On the part of the govern.
meat there was every disposition to ensure to the officers and
men engaged in this arduous service the fullest extent of re-
ward to which their exertions entitled them. Measures had
also been taken by the Admiralty to render this service
lighter and less unhAilthy th n it had herztofore been.
Llder those new regulations, Moue, the Ma/it:IWO period
of service on the African station war fixed at two years, it
seldom exceeded eighteen months. The squadron was also
assisted by • force of steamers which was employed in
keeping up a constant communication between the cruisers
and home, and in conveying to them constant supplies
of fresh provisions. Orders bad recently been issued by Sir
C. llotham, the commanding officer on the station, by which
the men would not for the future be employed, except in
cases of great emergency, on the African rivers, where the
deleterious induce* of the climate was moat severely
experienced.
The motion for the address was then withdrawn, and the
house went into committee* of supply.

NAVY ESTIMATES.
42,2701. for wages to artificers employed in the estab-
lishments abroad. On this vote,
Mr. WILLIAMS, in reference to the question of the
expenditure of the navy, said that is two periods of the last
fourteen years the difference had been very great, for from
1831 to 1840 the expenditure on dock-yards, wages, stores,
&c., was 7,900,0001., while in the seven years from 1841 to
1847, the expenditure had been 14,913,0001. He wished
to understand why this great difference should exist.
The ship which had been built in that period'were pro-
nounced to be unfit for the British navy. The naval esti.
mates had inetaued (very year since 1834, and while this
was the case, there should be some efficient supervision of
the building department of the navy. He hoped in the neit
year that there would be a reduction in the estimates, which
might be dune without interfering with the effkiency of the
seivicv,

Viscount INGESTRE complained that all the students of
the school of naval architecture had been subjected to perse-
cution, and had not, as they were taught to expect, been
allowed to fill the superior poets in the dockyard as they
became vacant. He regretted that the house did not
possess sufficient information as to the result of the
lute experiments made with regard to naval ships. There
were several scientific men at that moment who
were able to build better ships than those of the
surveyor of the navy ; and it was certain that the steamers
built under that gentleman were very defective. He trusted
that some permanent tribunal would be established fur the
encouragement of reel talent
Mr. WARD said there were almost as many opinions on
the building of ships as on mattersof religion. It had been
decided that the Princess Royal should be altered, and that
she should be reduced nearly two feet in breadth.
In many instances adduced by the noble viscount with refe-
rence to the experiments on the ships, the advantage had
been as he had stated, though perhaps not to so great*
degree. By the contemplated improvement in the dock-
yard schools, it was antiemated that a good supply of practi-
cal ship-builders would be secured. He thanked the noble
lord for the many excellent hints he had thrown out, which
would have due weight with the government.
Sir C. NAPIER was glad to find that the government
had at last opened their eyes to an evil which he had been
pointing out for the last five years. At present, there were
five 92-gun ships on the mocks, the orders for which had
been given so far back as 1835, and which were building on
the same plan as the Aboukir and Exmouth. It was on
record that these ships rolled so tremendously that it would
be impassible for them to use their guns; sae of them rolled
43 degrees to leeward, and 4,5 to windward. It was absolute
waste to expend another shilling oa those two ships; the
best economy would be to break them up. It was • great
risk to proceeed with the five three-deckers, before the merits
of the plan had been tested. It was said by the hon. the
Secretary of the Admiralty that the plan had been altered ;
and he understood that • plan had been sent in by the sur-
veyor of the navy, but he doubted whether that plan bad
been approved by the committee to whom it had been sub-
mitted. The surveyors had no right to build ships; fifty
years' experience had convinced him that the system
was a bad one; and he rejoiced that the government
had adopted the plan of letting the master of each yard
build • ship on his own plan, and the duties
of the surveyors ought to be confined to inspecting
the quality of the materials used in the various dockyards.
Bo thoroughly was he convinced of the way in which the
public money had been wasted, that when the vote far stores
was proposed he should divide the committee in favour of a
smaller sum. He should allow these two votes to go on, but
when they came to the stores he should certainly divide the
home.

Captain GORDON wished to know what were the respon-
sibilities of the Committee of Construction, and whether
the government were determined to act on their advice ?
Admiral DUNDAS said that their suggestions would be
taken into consideration, but that the government would not
bind themselves to act on them.

The vote was then agreed to.
On the question that 1,556,4951. be granted to the naval
store. for the building, repairs, and outfit of the fleet,
Mr. HUME said that he wished the report of the com-
mittee of construction to be laid on the table, as he believed
that it would prove to them that the whole plan of Sir W.
Symons for the construction of vessels was bad, and that no-
thing but abuse had taken place since his system had been
adopted. Not one ship that he ever launched was correct
in floatage, or was fit when constructed to go to sea.
Capt. BERKELEY said, that while Sir J. Graham and
Lord Minto were connected with the Admiralty, moat
favourable reports came before them of the vessels which
were constructed by Sir W. Symons. Of the Vestal, Cleo-
patra, and Vernon, the highest reports were received by the
Board of Admiralty. The Board of Admiralty were, there-
fore, fully justified in going on with his ships ; and though
he failed in his line-of-battle ships, yet the system which the
committee of reference adopted, was only a modification
of his.

--
After a few worts from Lord Inonstatn,
Sir C. NAPIER moved, as an amendment, that 1,550,0001.
be voted instead of the sum proposed, and he would take
that opportunity of saTing that to the observation, which he
had made aa to Sir Vi in. Symons ships, he limited himself
to his line-of-battle ships and steam-boats, and therefore he
could not go the length of saying that all his small Tenets
had not answered well; on the contrary, he believed that
many of them had.
Captain PECHELL thought the country was much in-
debted to Sir W. Symons for introducinitthe service a
most valuable set of cruisers and small frigates for the sup-
pression of the slave trade. Whilst upon the Tote for stores,
he would ask his hon. friend, the Secretary for the Ad-
miralty, what had been the result of a valuable invention by
Mr. Alfred Jeffery of certain glue for the caulking of ships,
which he had understood was most useful in hot climates.
He believed it would save thirty or forty thousand a year to
the country.
Mr. WARD said the trial of the invention bad been most
satisfactory, and he hoped at a future time it would be con-
sidered by the house.
Captain PLUMRIDOE hoped that the hon. and gallant
gentleman (Sir C. Napier) would not divide the house, as it
would be tantamount to a vote of censure on Sir W.
Symons. He thought it would Ise better to ask for a com-
mittee.

Sir C. NAPIER merely complained of the waste of the
public storeß, and did dot wish to pass a vote of censure on
Sir W. Symons. He had no objection to a committee.
Mr. WARD said the Admiralty were disposed to carry out
every practicable reform, and he hoped the vote would be
lees n•xt year.
After a few words from Mr. Hume, Captain Gordon, and
Sir C. Napier, the amendment was withdrawn, and the vote
was agreed to; as were the following:
539,6001. for new works, improvements, and repairs in
navel establishments.

22,8391. for medicine and medical stores. And
59,8471. for miscellaneous service.
On the next vote of 725,7881. for half•pay and retire-
ment to ofileen of the navy and Royal Marine being
przposed.
apt. PECHELL tailed the attention of the committee
to the claims put forward by the master', paymasters, and
pursers, in memorial' to the Admiralty, and in petitions to
that house. The master' laid claim to be put on a footing
of equality with the lieutenants, and the paymasters and
pursers claimed an increase in the amount of their half-pay,
misaideration of their surrender, in 1832, of a part of
their emoluments whit serving on board, namely, a per
tentage which they had formerly been allowed on the waste
provisions, and the difference in met prices. The amount of
the surrender was 7,8001. He urged the claims of
both these dares of meritorious officers upon the liberality
of the Board of Admiralty as at present constituted.
The present board had done some 'notice to the pursers, but
still one grievance remained uu . The retired list
for the third elan should be fifty instead of thirty, as at pre-
sent intended.

After an observ►tion from Captain GORDON,
Admiral DUNDAS said that he bad received severs
letters from persons approving of the present arrangements.
Capt. PECHELL was determined to delay the vote
until he received an answer to the case he had stated on be-
half of the pursers.
Capt. PLUItRU:KiE thought the parsers had a fair claim
on the consideration of the government.
Sir C. NAPIER thought that the masters in the navy
were not placed in the position to which their merits and
importance entitled them.
The vote was agreed to; as were the following:-
486,4471., fur military pensions and allowances ; 153,4381., for
civil pensions and allowances; 243,2024., for freight on
account of the army and ordnancedepartments ; 21,6741., for
conveyance of convicts, on account of the Home department;
564,3371., for packet service, on account of the Post-office
department.
be house then resumed, and the reselutions were ordered
to be reported this day.—The house adjourned at a quarter
past one o'clock.

GRAND DUCHY OF BADLY.—The Frezburg Gazette
of the 30th of Much announces that the Grand Ducal
government, considering the present want of priests in the
Roman Catholic Church, has been induced to have the aunt
of 3,600 florins to be distributed in stipends among those
scholars in the Lyceums who have revilved to devote them-
selves to the study of theology. The Frezburg adds : " The
government justly chooses this remedy to the seminaries for
boys, proposed by the archbishop's ordinance, which would
probably he little calculated to make the young priests sc.
quainted with the various relations which the nature of the
can affords."

CHEAP METROPOLITAN TRAVELLING.-Yesterday,
omnibuses commenced running from Battersea to Houton
conveying passengers the entire distance, about nine miles,
for sixpence. The Ant and Bee, steam vessels, running
from London Bridge to the West End, reduced their farts
to one halfpenny; and the Citisea Bteam.boat Company
commenced running their vessels to Hammersmith, Wands-
worth, and Putney, at reduced fares.

71h8 o4' pproji.

MAILS.

The Hod India Malls, excluding those for Mexico, Honduras, and
the tlavannah, will be made up on the morning of the 17th April.
The mails for Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Madeira, and Gibraltar,
will be made no on the morning of the 17th April.
The overland mails for Gibraltar, Malta, Greets, the lonian Islands,
Carpi, Aden. Ceylon, iaiia, llosg-Kong, and China, Ha Southampton,
will ►e made up on the morning of the 10tti April.
The overland closed reads, rim Marseilles, to the Mediterranean,
Egypt, Aden, C.evlsei, Jodie, Moog Kong, &e., will be made up on the
evening of the 21th April.
The malls for New South Wales Van Diemen's Land, and New
Zealand will be made up on the evening of the 30th April.
The mils for British North America, Bermuda, and the United
Mates, will be made op on the evening of the 3rd May.
The mails for the &mile, the Hirer Plate, Monte Video, Pernam-
buco, hails, Madeira, and Buenos Ape*, will be mole up on the
evening of the Ith May.

.... Adrertiontenta intended for TM &p m*, London evening paper,
melt be et the Moe by Two o'clock on the day of publication.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.
Tun DAT—Normng, 0 min. past 0; Afternoon, 30 @tin. past 0
To4lonsem—lforning, 5 min. past 0 ; Aftsrucan, 19 inns. past 1.

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 13.

THE House of Commons resumed its sittings
yesterday. Lord CHARLES RUSSELL took his seat
fee Bedfordshire, and Lord Jc.ur4 RCRSELL gave
notice of his intention on Thursday next to move for
leave to bring in a bill for the suppression of va-
grancy in Ireland. On the question of going into
committee of supply, Sir HOWARD DoucLas brought
under the notice of the house the cases of paymasters
and surgeons in the army, who had not been in-
cluded in the limited list of retirement in common
with other officers in the various branches of the see-
vice; contending that this was a distinction which
ought to be abolished. Mr. Fox Mat;LE admitted that
the officers alluded to formed most meritorious I
classes of the British army, but as regarded pay-
masters, seeing that their retiring allowances had
been increased so lately as 1846, it would require a
very strong case to be made out to justify a departure
from a rule so recently established. The case of
surgeons was more worthy of consideration, but they
were on a different footing from paymasters, inas-
mach as there was a regular system of promotion
from the highest to the lowest, as affecting this class,
in continual operation. He could assure the gallant
officer that the government had every disposition
to place matters with reference to the army on a fair
and liberal footing, as far as was consistent with the
finances of the country, which had been evinced by
grants which had already been made during the pre-
sent year. Mr. HuME contended that the expense
attendant upon the late brevet had been thrown away,
calculated as it was to increase the follies of officers of
the higher classes. Colonel LINDSIY admitted that
the government had done a great dent for the benefit
of the army, but thought a good case had been made
oat for the surgeons. Sir De LACY EVANS
drew the attention of some honourable members
who thought the army a mere unproductive mass,
and that money spent upon it was thrown away, to
the fact that Mr. M'Cullloch, whose authority on
other matters they respected, was of an entirely op-
posite opinion, and the French army, whose labour
was as nothing compared viith that of the English,
had more than double the *nount of money expended
upon it. The subject then dropped. Sir DE LACY
EvsEs then proceeded, in an explanatory speech of
some length, to move an address to the Crown,
for an inquiry into various subjects con-
nected with the army, particularly as regarded
soldiers' rations ; commuted pensions ; barrack
accommodation, and decent quartering of the mar-
ried non-commissioned officers and privates; the
. . •

claim of old Peninsular officers who had sold' their
commissions, to the medal ; and that of retired officers
to the advantage of the brevet, from which they had
been excluded. Also, as to the expediency of modi-
fying the system of promotion to the responsible com-
mand of regiments ; and why it is that general officers
of the Engineers, Artillery, and the East India Com-
pany's army are ineligible for appointments on the
general staff wherever their services may be avail-
able. Also, as to the warrant of the Ist of May last,
regulating the pay of the higher class of officers, and
the system pursued in respect to the Military Coll me
of Sandhurst. Mr. Fox MAULE proceeded to reply
in detail to the various propositions submitted to the
consideration of the house by the gallant member for
Westminster, several other hon. members taking part
in the discussion, after which, the motion was with-
drawn. The house then went into committee of sup-
ply on the Navy Estimates, the discussion on the
votes proposed occupying the remainder of the
sitting.

SIR DE LACY EVANS called the attention of minis-
ters and parliament last night to several important
points of military reform, such as the providing
more healthy and decent secommodatioa for soldiers,
especially married soldiers. If the story of three
priestlings in a bed was so effective in inducing the
house to vote the grant to Maynooth, the description
of soldiers and their wives pigging in a barrack-room
ought to have added a figure to the estimates.
The important question of military promotion was
more touched upon than developed by the gallant
general, and yet the great defect of our system la, un-
doubtedly, that money is the great test of military
merit, and the only means of advancement.
To change so deeply rooted a system altogether
would, no doubt, be dangerous and difficult.
But it ought to be modified in practice.
And even allowing that birth, and the wealth which
represents it, should continue the great title to military
advancement., still a certain proportion of advance-
" ment ought to be reserved for merit. Even seniority
is a fallacious guide, especially in the higher ranks
of the army, and has been known to produce the most
monstrous and laughable absurdities.
Coupled with the difficulty thrown by this very law
of seniority in the way of government's appointing the
ablest officer to command, is the absurd exclusiveness
and distinction of services. Who can have read the life
' of General Norr, or any one of the military accounts
of the expedition to Affghanistan, without being
struck with the monstrous disadvantages and evils
arising from the slur thrown on the Indian service?
Were not all oar disasters at Cabool owing to the in-
capacity of the commander ? And was not the appoint-
ment of that superannuated and incapable com-
mander owing in a great measure to those very
trammels, which we complain of? Her Majesty
and the government ought to have ample liberty
to appoint the commanders whom they judge
most capable ; the very nomination bestowing the re-
quisite superiority and rank. Our great school of
military experience is India. Company's officers
have more, if possible, of that experience than the
officers of the line. The only mode of giving the
country the full advantage of its military talent
I would be to render it equally available to Her
Majesty in whatever service it was acquired.
These considerations are of more importance,
because the pending measures of military reform
are by no means complete in themselves. The
bill for shortening the period of enlistment of
the army strikes us in somewhat a similar light
with the Irish Poor Law. Both are good mea-
sures to begin with, but one and the other are
utterly inefficient alone to effect the improvement
sought by them. In the mood in which most
young men enlist, ten years or twenty years are
of very little difference to them. This is proved by the
period of short enlistment being never thought of or
insisted on hitherto. We do not think that a farmer
or his dame would be reconciled totheir son's enlisting,
by promises that he would come back in ten years. Ten
years is a man's youth, a man's life ; it is a period
that no hopeful arrangement of life, either in the way
of trade or marriage, can overlook or overleap. It
is a length of time that stifles all dreams or plans of
affection or earning. Ten years a soldier, always a
soldier; if the ten years amassed a fortune, or put a
man in any way of civil life, then indeed the youth of
the middle or lower classes might sacrifice the ten
years. But this is not the case. And when a young
man enlists, the beet thing his friends can hope for
him is that he may become a soldier, and of course
serve out his twenty years; for no other mode of life
will he be St.