The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-02 00:00:00

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LONIPLY. WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 2.

CEUTA'S Ministerial journals affect to believe that
Farthing ut upon its re-assembling will be asked to
sauctita, an increase of the army, and rumour vari-
ously interprets this semi-utticial intimation as im-
plying .in augmentation of the regular troops to the
extent of twenty or thirty thousand men. We shall
he stun in yielding any credit to a supposed inten-
tion on the part of Lord ABERDEEN'S Government DO
11111113%ourable to its character for practical sagacity
and rction. Any measure of the kind above in-
dicated would, in the present state of our relations
with tuceign powers, be both a great crime and
a great blunder. For purposes strictly defensive
a coast fencible force may be excellent, but
the additional enrolment of twenty regiments
of the line ought not and cannot bo necessary.
Our true and legitimate means of national self-pre-
servation consists in an efficient fleet in our own
waters, with such a reserve of ships ready to be put
into commission, and of competent seamen and gun-
ners ready to man them, as would in a few hours
make short work of it with any hostile armament
that could possibly put to sea. For this purpose such
a force as that suggested, under the name of coast
fencibles, would be certain to find acceptance
and approval from the great majority .of
reasonable persons of all shades of opinion.
A marine police, inexpensive in times of tranquillity,
and ready to act at the shortest possible notice,
should any exigency require, could scarcely be over-
ruled. Suitable additions to the strength of the
Ordnance department would be likely to provoke
as little objection as wise re-organization with a
view to strengthening the Navy. But •to talk
about more regiments of soldiers after the enrols
mint of a Militia is another matter altogether.
An addition of 20,000 men to the regular
would in every sense be infinitely objectionable7li
France it would be very like the raising of a Bag
of defiance. France does not complain, aid
can never have any right to complain, of the
perfection of our fleet, or the establishment of ass
lencibles. With an Empire scattered over every peel
of the globe, no moderate addition to eau anal
equipments can fairly give offence to our Mind,*
neighbours. But a standing army in England Nee
siderably greater than that which fur 33 yam IN
have been contented to maintain, will natty* be
taken as a menace, and be resented as sand If wain.
been hitherto satisfied to keep one soldier vase ems
in the United Kingdom for every six siebdebsed fa
prince, who can wonder, or how can we complain if
the law of proportion is applied by NAPOLEON 111, to
oar new levies? And if ones this international Ogee et
Bug begins, who will venture to foretel hi vim*
kinu ut ruin it may end? Let us imagine fbr a
moment the nature of the diplomatic interrogations
and replies which are likely to ensue should any pro.
position of the kind we are queationif g be delibe-
rately.laid before Parliament. The Cabinet of the
Tuileries has every right to ask for what purpose are
new regiments to be raised in England. And the
British Minister cannot reply that they are
seeded for garrison duty. With irresistible
cogency the French Minister would urge that the
creation of a fore not requisite for real defence must
be he:il to imply designs of a very different kind.
We know, to oar cost, how often during the last
hundred years an adventurous minister has been
tempted to make pee of troops abroad which might
be spared at home. Hundreds of millions of debt are
the muuument of these achievements. The military

glory ws i salacity, but, on behalf of the tax-
payers of these realms, we are bound to say that we
have bad quite enough of them. It was specially,
moreover, on the round that public opinion would
not endure the maintenance of a supernumerary force
of regular troops at home, that Parliament was in-
duced last session to pass the Militia Bill. The
advecites of that measure repeatedly urged the in-
noxious character of a purely domestic and therefore
strictly defensive force, as contrasted with a leas
nunietous addition to the troops of the line. But is
he country now to be told that, having got the
militia, it must likewise submit to the other alterna-
tive, and augment the standing army ?
We have said enough of late to show how widely
we dissent from the theory of National Non-Resist-
ance, and how little disposed we are to push the
spirit of disarmament to a hazardous extreme. For
purposes of adequate defence there is no expedient
we should not think justifiable, and no necessary
expense at which we should murmur. Bat with an
efficient fleet and a suitable body of sea fers-
eibles, with an improved Ordnance aprIIIIIIS
and a national militia, with the troops *ow
wasted in useless Colonial detachments called hook
we cannot regard the idea of a permanent augments".
tion of the regular army as warrantable by any leeri
emergency than that of actual war. But in a time
like this of general peace, a measure of the kind on
the part of this country would be taken as a signal
of distrust and alarm by. every civilised nation, and
would re-echo as a tocsin of war throughout the
world. Counter manifestations and counter arms-

ments on an infinitely greater male would doubtless
follow. And new weights would thus everywhere
be added to the fetters wherewith the captive liberty
of nations is held down.

Ova remarks on the ill-treatment which emigrants
often receive at sea, and on the difficulty ofenforeing
contracts made on land when the contractors and
eontractess are thousands of miles apart, with an
osean between them, have not given satisfaction to
shipowners. It was not likely they should. No
man is a safe judge in his own cause. A parliament
of soldiers would mike expensive work of " the na-
tional defences." Bishops have never been found
very active church reformers. Until suitors took the
work in hand lawyers got on but slowly in the task
of mending the Court of Chancery, and substituting
common sense for common law. Was there ever a
farmer who thought wheat could be too dear, or a
gamekeeper who objected to unlimited increase of
hares and pheasants ?
Shipowners, however respectable, wealthy, and
pious, are still men. The worship of " the almighty
dollar" is cultivated with seal by the traders in emi-
grants on both aides of the Atlantic. All know
that the three things which the emigrant most re-
quires—provisions, water, and spsoe—cost money.
If on the food of five hundred passengers during a
thirteen weeks' voyage two shillings a head per week
can be saved, that will be 13.101. in the charterer's
pocket. If ten per cent. be deducted from the space
in which, according to law, emigrants may be
heked, and five hundred only be sent, instead of five
undred and fifty, there is a discount of one
thousand pounds in the money, calcu-
lated at the moderate rate ortaiwTy pounds a head.
Au extra number of water-closets over and above
the minimum required by law, wash-houses, and
baths, and ventilating tubes, encroach on space, which
during the emigration fever can be sold for a round
sum. However much ten per cent. of the space and
other conveniences may be needed—and they are
needed for the health and comfort of passengers—they
will not be conceded by the general run of shipowners
any more than covered carnages would be conceded
to third-class passengers by railway companies,
without the pressure of an Act of Parliament.
We cannot rely upon the influence of competition
alone to make emigrant ships what they ought to be;
for emigrants are a class of customers whom the re-
cipients of their money only see once and never ex-
pect to see again. When thousands are bidding
against each other, ship-room and berths are en-
gaged months in advance, it is sot likely that ship-
owners will voluntarily give up the space for air
which they can sell for gold. nothing less than a
second Parliamentary Inquiry and a second Amended
Passengers Act will protect from the devastation of
fever, begotten by foul air, the armies who are now
wildly cramming themselves into Australian ships.
Under the present system, as long as all passengers
are in good health and the weather fair, all may go