The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-23 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY JAY 2;.

Tile controversy about procuring senmen for the
Royal Navy is practically reduced to ono point—to '
"provide against the emergency" of France being
able by "the admirable organisation of its whole
maritime population" to man and sand its entire '
tfeet to sea in a short space of time.- That danger
once past, there is not the slightest doubt " that the
resources and patriotism of the country would do the
rest." To pros ide against such an emergency our '
official men—our great First Lords of the Admiralty,
such as the Duke of NonrilumnsaLaND—with their
subordinate admirals, secretaries, and captains--
could for ages find no better expedient than impress-
ment; and as the temper of the times, which
has abolished the minor outrage of the slave
trade, positively forbids the authorities ever again
having recourse to this expedient, they are on
the look out for a substitute, and fancy that
entering seamen for ten years may serve the purpose.
When slavery was abolished apprenticeship was at
first substituted for the slave trade; the planters
then proposed an importation of negroes, and that
not being readily assented to, they had recourse to
Coolies and Chinese. Their whole system was based
on the slave trade and slavery ; they could not,
according to their customs, exist without slaves, mid
continue to this day to crave for a largo importation
of labourers. So the minds of our naval officials,
and our naval system having been modelled on the
one idea of providing by impressment against the
emergency of a sudden attack by a well organised
despotic Power, it is supposed that the nation will not
be safe unless a substitute be found for that intolerable
wrong. The argument, based wholiy on fear, is an
eulogy on despotism. The first duty of a Government
is to provide for the national dcfence,and, re gardless of
our liberties, we should—if adopting this principle—
imitate the despotic State, and subject our whole mari-
time population to a conscription for our lit et, and the
rest of the population to a conscription fir the army.
For the usual purposes of administration a central-
ised despotic Government is more effications than
popular representation, and the eulogy justifies the
readiness only too apparent amongst our statesmen
tosserilice whenever they can the public liberties to an
efficient government. But as national greatness is
born more of public spirit than of efficiency of admi-
nistration, there is plena facie ground for supposing
that preparations may lie nestle for the emergency
contemplated without borrowing a method from
despotism.
It is lamentable to perceive that notwithstanding
the immense sums lavished on the Navy, it is with
the multitude not a popular service. Several in-
stances have recently occurred, says cne of our con-
temporaries, of first-class vessels detained for
months for their complement of men ; and
the 5,000 additional seamen voted last De-
cember have not yet been entirely raised.
" So severe," says another, " is the competition which
the Royal Navy has at present to encounter, owing
to the activity which prevails in all branches of
our Mercantile Marine, that it would be unwise
to form extravagant expectations of the benefits
to be expected from the changes which we have
described." _ _

After all the care that has been taken to provide
better accommodation for the seamen, to improve

their diet, to preserve their health, to establish gra-
dations of merit, and give them rewards and pen-
sions, the Royal Navy manias a decidedly unpopular
*slice. The Mercantile Marine never watts sea-
men ; and our people, having a natural atfee:ion for
the sea, half man the ships of America as well as our
own ships. There is no other business of life—not
even that of the wretched agricultural labourer—
which cannot at all times procure an abundance of
men. There are always numerous candidates for
the most noisome and most dangrrons maps.'
tions, but not for the cleanly, safe, and almost idb
life of a man-of-war tailor. For situations so
officers in her MAJESTY'S ships there is no want at
candidates. The posts are eagerly sought after VI
scions of the aristocracy. There is something, there-
fore, peculiar to the Royal Navy which makes it die-
tasteful, or urea odious, to the bulk of our populs-
tion. What is it ?

We hare given it a bad name. We have com-
muted the yunishment cf crimes for service in the
Mary. II e have practically, by carrying off men to
serve, as they were carried into slavery, stigmatised
it as something horrible, and by such means have
made a profound impression in the minds of the bulk
of the people that the Navy is a kind of Pandemo-
nium, or almost as bad as negro slavery. Where its
true character is known, amongst the children and
relations of asen-01-war seamen, as at Plymouth and
Portsmouth, and their neighbourhoods, the impres-
sion is removed, but it is not effaced in distant places ;
sad these meal seaports supply fifteen times as
many MD= for her MAJESTY'S ships as the much
more maritime and populous neighbourhoods of
Liverpool and BristoL Our first and chief business,
in order to procure seamen for her MArrsrv's Ser.
vice,—without imitating the despotism which our
contemporaries, even while they abuse it, eulogise,—
is to make that service extremely popular. Do this
and you would have the same men enter again and
again under good captains, and a choice of the very
best seamen in the world would be obtained for our

n all fiestliths business of civil life the engagements
are for short periods, and generally terminable by a
notice on either side. To build and prepare etre!:
an emergency, shipwrights, sailmalkers, ca
&e., are as necessary as seamen. Many of these
are brought up as apprentices in the royal dock-
yards at quite as great an expense as boys are
brought up for seamen on board ship; but it never
entered the head of any alarmist Admiral or
Captain to bind these men to serve for
ten years, lest they might be wanted on
such an emergency. They can retire from the
service when they like, but they rarely do, and gene-
rally serve till superannuated. It is in a great mea-
sure optional, too, with all the officers of the Navy,
to quit the service, except when actually in face of
an enemy. They must not, indeed, desert; but
there is never any difficulty in accepting a resigna-
tion ; and, from a midshipman to an adman], if they
choose to give up expected promotion or half-pay,
they can always make themselves free. A resigna-
tion is, however, a rare occurrence ; and, though the
officers are not bound to serve for ten years--though
on an emergency they are as much required as the
seamen—no person ever dreams that naval officers
will be scarce. In the merchant service, men enter
by the month or by the voyage—at the end of the
month or voyage they are again free to make or to
seek a new engagement ; and there never is for a
long period, however rapidly the McrcantileNavy may
increase, any want of seamen. In the Royal Navy
it is different. The men enter for a term of five
years. Till the end of that time they cannot quit
the service. To leave it is to desert, and to expose
themselves to very severe penalties. In this respect,
then, they differ from every other class of men except
soldiers—whose racks, too, are not so readily filled
as those of other classes—they differ from merchant
seamen—they differ from naval officers—and in this
difference lies the cause of much of the unpopularity
of the Navy. The stipulation to serve for a
lengthened period continues, in fact, the bad name
long ago given to the Navy.
At the same time it doss not follow it there were
no such stipulation that the seamen would change
their ships or their occupation once a month.
That does not take place in the merchant service,
nor in any other service. It is not an easy thing
in our settled community always to find an
employment, or to change a pursuit. Once enter a
dockyard, or become a naval officer, and a man is
generally fixed for life. It may be laid down as a
rule that the more open and free is a service the more
acceptable will it be, and the more certain to he oc-
cupied. All the cotton-spinners, all the bricklayers,
carpenters, printers, and workmen, can quit their
employments at a week's or a month's notice ; and

because they can quit, they rarely do. If there were
any one of these employments in which men could
cal y get work by engaging fur ten years—i Call its
higher ranks were reserved for a caste, being made a
kind of preserve for an aristocracy—if the highest
position they could attain in it was that of di foreman
or leader, with a salary of 1201. a year—if they never
could rise to be masters, whatever might be' their
merits,—that employment would be at, a
di-count. Gentlemen in the City are now ex-
trem-ly eager to procure a seat in the Common
Council by the suffrages of their fellow-citizens, sod
though annually elected, are generally rc-elected as
long as they please to hold the office; but if at the
first election they were bound to serve ten years,
and could never be Lord Mayor, nor Governor of the
Bank, nor Chairman of Railway Board, a seat at the
Common Council would be as unpopular with the
citizens as her MAJESTY'S naval service is with the
maritime population. We doubt if any man would
pledge himself to be a member of the House of Com-
mons for seven years if he could not possibly leave
it, and must never aspire to be either a Chairman of
Committees or a Minister. The long and the fixed
period of service is the chief source of the unpopula-1
rity of the navy, and that will be much aggravated by
the proposition to lengthen the period, and to
require all boys to remain ten years in the service
after they have reached their eighteenth year. If it
be alleged thatein the late war men remained in the
Navy for a longer period, it must be answered that
almost every month then brought a hope of peace
and an expectation of the termination of the servi-
tude. The proposed plan, instead of providing us
with seamen on an emergency, will have the reverse
effect. It is an attempt to rectify what naval officers
regard as one of the evil* of liberty, by tempting
men to engage iu constrained servitude.
Our policy ought to be the very reverse. Men
should be entered for the Navy for six months
for home service, for twelve months for
foreign service, or for two or three years. The con-
sequence would be a greater amalgamation of the
royal and mercantile services. More mercantile
seamen would enter the navy, and a far larger pro-
' portion of men-of-war seamen would find their way
linto merchant ships. Now, after being spoiled by
I five years' idleness in men-of-war they are not liked
sees an rarely taken into the merchant service. The
knowledge of gunnery practice and the discipline
learnt in the Navy would be spread to a much
greater extent than at present through the mer-
chant service, and the bold and laborious habits of
the merchant seamen would increase the vigour and
the hardihood of the men in the QUEEN'S ships. A
correct knowledge of that service would then be
swiftly spread through the maritime community—
and with a few precautions which we need not
now enumerate the Royal Navy would in case of
an emergency procure any number of men it might
require. Voluntary service her short periods is, we ad-
mit, incompatible with the enormous arbitrary power
now entrusted to naval captains. The profession,'
therefore, scout the idea of entering men for short
periods, and recommend the Standing Navy system.
But when the question is, whether the safety of the
country shall be provided for on the principle of
freedom, or whether the arbitrary power, dignity,
and exclusive privileges of naval officers shall be pre-
served—the biassed opinion of officers, though they
be as high in rank as the Duke of NOnTIII:3II3EnLAND,
or have as much confidence in mere gunnery as Sir
THOMAS COCHRANE, is of less value than the opi-
nion of the lowest swabber of the fleet.