The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-20 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 20.

THE funds have risen, and the Bourse's inclined to
anticipate a peaceful solution of the Turkish difficulty.
One of the deepest interests of a season of suspense
about war or peace is in observing the effect of the
expectation on the popular mind. The Emperor of
RUSSIA and the SULTAN appear to be both well satis-
fied with the kind and degree of excitement among
their subjects. The Russian people are subjects :
subject in ideas more even than in anything else
and when their Emperor, as Gores vicegerent, tells
them that war is for the Faith, and' that the foe are
II GOD'S enemies, they cry out for war, as it appesrs
they are doing now. The Turkish nation and their
allies have nearly the same religious inducements,
and a good many political ones besides ; for there is
probably not a man in that empire who does not
know nearly as well as the Circusians themselves
who the Emperor of RUSSIA is, and wherein he is
a dangerous neighbour. So the subjects of the
Porte are flocking in, from far and near, with
such contributions as they can bring—corn, horses,
money, and, at the very least, eager hearts and
strong hands. Nobody seems to doubt what are the
emotions beating in many hearts in other continental
countries at the spectacle of the spark being struck
by a despot at last, and by neither Constitutionalist
nor Republican. While their hands are tied, they
us imperial bands setting to work with the flint and
steel,—the tinder being laid on a gaping powder-
cask. There can be no doubt that there is a great
stir in the popular mind, from the Baltic to Naples
and the Pyrenees.
_ _

So much for the peoples who have not liberty—
avowed or virtual What of those who, like our-
selves, are in possession of rational freedom ? As
far as appears, the sense and feeling of the country
are with its memory and its conscience. Our fathers
obtained our liberties in ways which are not forgot-
ten, nor likely to be; and our statesmen pledged
us, some years ago, to support the independence of
Turkey. So the country, while entirely free from
war tendencies, and indeed earnestly desiring peace,
sees it to be necessary to check Russian aggression,
and to keep faith with a weak ally, holding an all-
important position. We are told, indeed, in a tone
of sordid and insolent scepticism, that our labouring
classes would be against us if they were to be ac-
counted to for the expenditure of the taxes they
would pay towards a war. Let them be entitled to
such an account ; and we shall soon see that. But
they would not know what it all meant, we are told.
They did not know the meaning of the battle of
Waterloo; and how should they know anything

about the Danubian Provinces, and a quarrel be-
tween CZAR and SULTAN ? If so, whose fault is
that ignorance? Not a child leaves the National
Schools of Ireland who cannot put his Anger
at once upon Moldavia and Wallachia—those hard
names which are supposed too much for a peasant's
intellect. There is not one of them who cannot tell
within what longitude and latitude the Russian
empire is comprehended. There is not a human
heart within the British dominions that would not
yearn toward, our King ALFRED hiding from the
Danes in the herdsman's cottage, or throb with
anxious triumph over the discomfitnre of the Spanish
Armada, if we would but tell our whole people those
noble old stories. There is not a grey-haired man on
our southern and eastern coasts who cannot tell what
his peasant neighbours thought and did when the Bou-
logne flotilla was watched for from our cliffs. In those
most unfavourable times—more barbarous times than

can over

!'inking under the but-

dens of our last great war, there was virtue in our
lowest depths, u well u anger and despair. There
was courage in the soul of the sailor; there was a
sublime patience in the heart of the soldier's parents,
when they parted with him to the war. There was
heroic self-denial in the night watches of the poor
weaver, who sat at his loom by his single candle, to
earn bread for his children, when NAPOLEON made
our daily bread so hard to earn. And so it would
be again, if we were to make our whole
people understand that our liberties are,
with those of all Europe, imperilled by the
aggressions of despots, far or near. What we have
to do is to enlighten our whole people as to the posi-
tions and duties of nations, and then to admit the
whole sense and conscience of the nation to Parlia-
mentary Representation. If there is reluctance to
assert and guard national faith and security, it is be-
cause the management of our national crises is left
to the secresy of cabinets, and the decision to the con-
flicts of a handful of administrators who bring their
work to the light only when it is too late for recall.
When such decisions are referred to the national
council, and all the intelligence and virtue of the
country are admitted into that council, there is
no fear but that every momentous decision will be
one worthy of our honourable descent from the an-
cient patriotism of England—one never to be re-
pented of.
This would be eternally true, if our circumstances
were as mournful as they were in the beginning of
the century. But so mournful they can never be
again. Even then, a vast progress was made in the
arts which are called those of peace. Even then, in
our season of lowest depression, our manufactures
made their first great start. Science proceeded at
home, and we had our array of philosophers
in our island while our warriors were earn-
ing their fame abroad, and their labours bore imme-
diate fruit in the improvement of agriculture,
and accelerated production of food and clothing for
the masses. Machinery became a sort of institution
in those days; and in those days popular education
took its rise. And now we have an enlarged Repre-
sentation, a vast increase of wealth, and such freedom
of trade as places us beyond the reach of such suffer-
ing as our fathers knew. We have a more diffused
enlightenment, and of a kind which would be ex-
tended by the requisitions of any great struggle for
principle or honour. Education has other resources
than books. There is no higher education than that
of the exercise of our moral faculties under such
an appeal u that of despotism to the
love of freedom—of tyranny to the sense
of justioe—of selfishness to devotedness. The com-
rades of TELL and Ilona, of DE MONTFORT and
WASHINGTON, were not philosophers and statesmen,
but peasants and hard-handed labourers, who did
not need book learning or a seat in Parliament to
teach them the value of the firesides of the North, or
the vino and figtree of the South, when despots, at
hand or from the ends of the earth, would lay a
finger on men's lips, or crash human hearts and
homes. If free speech and national life can be pre-
served at a lean sacrifice than war imposes, every
man will rejoice. If not, national life must be pre-
served by means of such sacrifices. Of all proposals
the one which will be scouted with the strongest re-
probation is that of striving after a temporary and lo-
cal tranquillity, by calling forth the ignorance and
selfishness of our lowest classes—the ignorance and
selfishness which are our national guilt—to be the
vanguard of the Russian armies. We wish most
heartily for peace: but it must be that peace, as
heroic as war, which will not sacrifice good faith or
social duty to its own preservation.

Jr Acts of Parliament could perfect the condition
of her MAJESTY'S Navy we should have no reason to
complain of that branch of the public service. Two
new Bills on the subject stand upon the House of
Commons Orders for consideration to-day.
The great question which comprehends all this
discussion about the management of the Navy is—
how far is the naval service popular in this country P
That the seafaring life is natural to the English
everybody knows ; but this proposition does not in-
elude the first one, and we are afraid that the Navy
is not popular amongst seamen. We all remember
how, in NELSON'S time, NELSON himself entertained
a prejudice against it once. This was the reflection
of the feeling of the merchant service, and there is
no reason to believe that that feeling has ceased to
exist. The fact is one which is far more important
than the ingenuity of this or that bill for naval go-
vernment, and all legislation must be based on a right
interpretation of it. If men who spontaneously take
to the sea do not take to the Navy, there must be
something distinctly wrong. We must judge all
new bills by the capacity they promise of putting it
right.

Comprehensive Naval Legislation is a new affair.
Our ancestors made laws for governing seamen :
they got seamen without law. They accepted them,
or seized them, or ensnared them; and they did with
them what they pleased. The Nore Mutiny first in-
dicated how much matters were wrong in the Navy.
If in those old days ships were well fought, well or-
ganised, it must be attributed to the virtues of the
nautical character, to whatever was good in
natural English Conservatism, and to the per-
sonal qualities of its Br.snows, JEBVISES, and Cot,-
usowoons, who inspired loyal sentiment. Men
bore bad food, hardship, and severe control better at
sea than they did on shore. Of shore life those past
generations of sailors had no lengthened experience
they looked at the seaports as occasional places of
recreation; but they sought their food upon the
waters. The circumstances of naval life changed
with the other chaeges of the country—keeping,

however, always in the rear. Legislation looked after
convicts, labourers of all sorts, but interfered latest
for the benefit of seamen. War over, and pressing
having passed out of date, they scattered themselves
all over the world;' they began to look on them-
selves more tut skilled labourers wbo had the world to
choose from, and who were not naturally the servants
only of a national flag. Admiralties aided this ; that
is, Admiralties contented themselves with providing
seamen for the peace establishment, for the
supply of whom they looked to the influence
of the old traditions, and to the general
state of the nautical market. Accordingly,
the " manning of the Navy," has often been
a serious problem. In the Syrian difficulties of 1840
—when war with France was seriously apprehended
—the Mediterranean squadron was badly manned,

sad deficient in men altogether. Ships lay at our
ports, waiting men for weeks and weeks. Meanwhile
the American Government has usually had very many
thousands of our seamen. Naval officers did not fail
to remark, also, that of these many carried to that
nation the benefits of our gunnery training in the
Excellent.
The

of the Registry system was
one great step towards an organisation of our nand-
cal element. It was thus brought, at all events,
under observation, and a step taken towards bring-
ing it under control. We knew what our men
were, and who they were ; they no longer came sad
went from our shores as sea-strangers—as flocks of
sea-birds. The theory being, that the service most
look for its supplies to volunteers, all legislative msg.
sures are so many attempts (or ought to be) to
make the service attractive. To DIDDIN succeeded
COCKER and HOWARD influences—calculation, good
Genie, philanthropy. All these are excellent things;
but, in reforming, we must always remember what
kind of men we are legislating for.
In our own times, we have warnings given us to
look with ever-increasing watchfulness on the Navy.
All this improvement meets with opposition from
some, and is misrepresented for purposes of hostility,
because we are told that the country is unjust to
them, and only wishes to make tools of them. The
only answer to this is, to prove the opposite by actual
conduct—to satisfy our sailors that the Navy is the
best field for them by making it the best field for
them. There is no want (as we have remarked be-
fore) of candidates for admission as officers; and, in-
deed, within the last fifteen years, the pay of some
'rade. of officers has been increased, and the promo-
tion from the rank of mate (i. e. " passed-midship_
man," to use tho American title) to that of lieutenant,
very much accelerated. Yet, with the advantages of
being the government service in its favour (pensions,
Greenwich Hospital, medical care, and the rest of it)
the Navy has still to complain that it has not suffi-
cient nautical support.

We have before us three new bills on the subject
of seamen—two of which are to be considered to-night.
They are an " Entry of Seamen Bill ;" a " Naval Coast
Volunteers Bill ;" and one for the establishment of
" Savings Banks " for seamen. Let us glance at their
objects. To begin with the" Entry," men are invited
' to enter for" ten " years' service, instead of " five "(or
even a longer period, if they will) ; and to be held
liable, accordingly. Boys, again,entering at eighteen
are to be held to serve for " ten " years. It
is important that boys should be encouraged in the
service, brought up in it ; and having learned its,
ways, they will stick to it more than merchantmen.
It is not found that all thorough-paced merchant sea-
men serve more than a commission at a time in a
man-of-war; they do not " take to it," as naval men
know. Of coarse the success of an attempt to tempt
men for " ten" years must depend on the general
measures taken to attract them. The possibility of
further detention has hitherto—since the sth and 6th
of WILLIAM IV., when the " five" year arrangement
was provided for—been accompanied by an increased
1" one-fourth" of pay for the time of such deten-
tion. A change is proposed in that point, viz., to
substitute for the " one-fourth," twopence a day
increase. An " A.B.'s" pay being 11.145. per month,
this is a reduction of some shillings. The " double
bounty," promised by the last Act to men entering
after a proclamation, is repealed; and they are to have
whatever bounty the circumstances may prompt.
Then a " Proclamation" may extend the term of
service to "five" years, in addition to that which
may at such time have been gone through. While
these things are proposed, " pay in sick quarters" is
held forth as a medium of encouragement. A provi-
sion is made against the bringing of "spirits" on
board. Power also is given to " Courts-Martial "
to punish "desertion" summarily, and inflict six
months' imprisonment. The Act concludes with a
provision that seamen's widows or friends may re-
cover what is due to deceased seamen without " pro-
bate" or " letters of administration." Altogether

the provisions of this Act have rather a balance of
advantage in favour of the authorities.
As to the "Coast Volunteer" proposal—its ad-
vantages have already been pointed out. A body
of Sea Fencibles entered for five years, subject to
due training for twenty-eight days at a time in each
year, but not liable to be sent beyond a hundred
leagues from the kingdom, will be likely to attract
men, and be of high utility, particularly in case of
an emergency. The body is not to exceed " ten
thousand" in number. They are to have the pay
and allowance of able seamen while under drill or in
actual cruise, and will be protected from service in
the Navy, Militia, or as parish officers. The liability
to active service will continue for a year at a time;
or an excess of that period will be compensated by
extra pay of the nature of Bounty. There seems
little doubt that a body like this will be formed
without difficulty at the various places along our
coast.. The plan appeals to the steady and regular
part of our maritime population. For the
Savings Bank proposal, though praiseworthy,
it is not of supreme importance at present.
It is a very natural and reasonable wish
to endow sailors with prudential habits ;
but these are not the main constituents of
their character ; and we must first give them
encouragement as sailors, before we busy our-
selves with the philanthropic object of making
them thoughtful and saving citizens. The truth is
that too much of that kind of cast and supervision
deters men from entering under our flag. What
seamen want is genial and kindly treatment, with
such pay as shall be an inducement to them to sub-
mit to the restraints of the war service ; and we are
sure that much flogging is one of those things which
prevent the service from being sought after. The
Return on Flogging in the Navy is unfortunately
to be counted among the documents which show
what our authorities are doing with our seamen.
It is true that the punishments are lately less
numerous than those of other years. But it
is a mistake to suppose that the service in
old days was always more severe in this respect
than it is at present. The biography of CoLLING-
WOOD shows that the lashes inflicted on board his
vessels would have borne honourable comparison for
their small number with that registered in the last
Return. And the truth is, that flogging is the resort of
captains for the most part who have no qualities to
enable them to govern without it. At the same
time, it is impossible not to observe how large a pro-
portion of punishments are inflicted for " drunken-
ness" and offences which usually result from that.
This is not complimentary to the discipline of ships
where it occurs much, for drunkenness should be
attacked, not by flogging those who commit it
so much as by checking the means of it—only
it is easier to " flog" than to establish such
internal order and arrangement as shall ob-
viate the necessity of it—and thus flogging is as
much the sign of an incompetent officer as of a
cruel one. It would have improved the Return had
the number of men in each vessel been duly spe-
cified in it. "Theft," which forms a prominent
feature in the offences, should be instantly followed
by the culprit's dismissal, for no offence more tends
to disorganisation in a ship; and it is injurious to
the morality of the vessel to retain an offender of
this kind, who is only being punished for theft in
the same way that a man is punished for the
effects of an extra glass of rum.
On the whole, the proposed naval reforms are

_______--,
small instalments towards that measure of improve.
went which is due to the history of this country,
and to its future.

LATEST FROM THE CONTINENT.

DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES.
JASSY, JULY 8,
The Russian artillery has arrived to-day, with 72
heavy gum The number of troops which have up
to this date crossed the I'ruth is 40,000, and others
are following. The Cossacks are spreading them-
selves over the country.

AUSTRIA.
VIENNA, JtLY 15.
Last night a battalion of the regiment " Constar.
tine " left for the camp, near Peterwardein. On the
previous day a considerable number of pontoons were
despatched thither.

SWITZERLAND.
BERNE, JeLy 15.
The Federal Assembly is divided in opinion re.
specting the settlement with Austria. At the
suggestion of Franco and England, this power will
consider all her grievances satisfied if the Confedera-
tion will guarantee pensions for life to the friars ex-
pelled from Ticino. All the deputies consider this
proposition to be grossly unjust, lbilowing as it does
the expulsion of the five thousand Ticinese from
Lombardy; but somo nevertheless are inclined to
accept it as a compromise, and as a means of re-
moving the inconveniences of the blockr.de. M.
Karnicki has not returned to this capital.