The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-12 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUG CST 12.

TUERE iz reviewing at Spithead and reviewing at
Chobham. Our sailors and soldiers have been ex-
pending a vast quantity of powder, without any in-
tention of finding the ordinary " food" for it. It
may be all very well for Military and Naval amateurs
to make holidays to see thousands of men playing at
soldiers and sailors, and it will be still better if any
practical utility can be deduced from this gigantic
game. But what advantage will the nation get from
all this Naval manwuvring ? It must be remem-
bered that the evolutions of a large Naval and a large
Military force differ from each other in a most re-
markable manner. The one are distinguished for
their simplicity, the other for their complication.
Neesos showed clearly enough the nature of naval
tactics, when he said that, in case of any uncertainty
with respect to instructions, no captain of a vessel
could be wrong who laid his ship alongside of one
of the enemy's and commenced an attack. Now
a general who should issue an order before a
battle, to the effect that no colonel of a regiment
could do wrong by charging that regiment of the
enemy which happened to be nearest to him, would
most assuredly make admirable preparations for s
defeat. In a naval engagement tactics go for little,
while the perfection of the individual vessels is almost
everything. In a military engagement, tactics are
all in all. If every man-of-war, including that
of the Admiral, comes into action thoroughly pre-
pared, the work of the Admiral will not greatly
extend (after the first general order) beyond fighting
his own Alit. A General, on the contrary, has Lie
whole anxiety directed to the manoeuvring of masses
of his forces. All this shows that while a plea can
be made out, with some modicum of plausibility, for
occasional reviews of troops on a large scale, very
little can be said in favour of naval reviews. The Navy
depends for its efficiency upon the perfection of the
single vessels of which it is composed ; the Army, on
the contrary, places its great trust on the genius of
its Generals. The show at Spithead was a show, and
very little more. It could scarcely teach any indivi-
dual captain to work his vessel with more precision
than before. Any commander who did not know as
much the day before yesterday as he knows to-day is
not fit for the grave responsibility he incurs when
he assumes the command of a man-of-war.
Neverthekrs, a show was wanted, and the
show took place. Whether it was ima-
gined in certain quartets that the Conti-
nental powers needed some information as to the ex-
tent of our resources of offence and defence, and
that the steeliness of our display at Ceobham needed
the exhibition of a much larger display at Spithead,
we kuow not. The only thing certain is that JOHN
Bret. has had his show, and spent an enormous quan-
tity of money and powder upon it. The Portsmouth
review yesterday excited all the elements of a nine
hours' wonder to an exaggerated degree. The town
was crowded with thousands, who caught occasional
glances of the water by looking over each other's
heads, and hundreds of whom will return to town,
innocent of seeing one single incident of the
great transactions of the day. The innkeepers
and lodging-house-keeper obtained fabulous sums
for doubtful accommodation. Provisions were at

famine prices. Not a boat was to be obtained for
love or money. In the meantime the two Houses of
Parliament were enduring sea-sickness with a mar-
tyrdom worthy of senators. The high legal func-
tionaries of the kingdom were sighing for the trou-
bled waters of the law, as they were heaved
pitilessly upon the unquiet waves of the ocean.
The SOVEREIGN, whom no fatigue can subdue, whom
no weather affects, was gliding, like the Spirit of the
Scene, over the waters, untouched by any of the
ailments which subdued many of the sturdiest of
her subjects.
We do not intend to give up so much to criticism
as to deny that there were numerous elements of
grandeur in the display of yesterday. The fleet was
the noblest fleet in the world, albeit its occupation
was unnecessary. The manmuvring of the vessels was
all that could be desired. It was consolatory to
refleet that the men engaged on the vessels
could easily turn from play to earnest. After
looking upon the evolutions, few persons would be
cynical enough to deny to the mast unsteady of young
gentlemen proceeding home from supper in the even-
ing, that " Britannia did not need any bulwarks
other than her men-of-war, or that her home was
"on the deep." There would be as little disposition
to investigate the title of the said lady " to rule the
waves," or to express any doubt as to the correctness
of the assertion that as long as this would be the
case " Britons never, never, shall be slaves."
The sight of yesterday was not without its effect
in clenching these national traditions with a
still closer rivet. In a word, the review gave
reasons for believing—what, perhaps, we have been
too content to believe without reasons—that our
naval force is still supreme. What we protest
against is any course of proceeding which shall tend
to continentalise us with martial shows, or shall
tend to fester in the minds of Englishmen a silly
idle desire for sham soldiering or saibaring. Let us
be prepared to fight when the time requires it, but
do not, by needless military and naval displays,
foster a false national 'spirit, which may hurry us
into quarrels, out of which we shall not be able to
emerge, without a terrible ruffling of the plumes on
which we have so much prided ourselves.

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