The Express.
London, England, 1859-10-25 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY. OCT. U.

THERE is no disguising thof►ettL! • heavysh•dow
of mistrust confirms to overheat the peaceful
interests of Europe. In all the eammercial centres
of the tootine•t, in every industrial market through.
out England, the same disquiet, the ammo =certainty
prevails. A vague tremor of angry and about eager
preparation to meet some sudden and unprovoked
assault para:3 us the confidence which is the life of
enterprise, and makes sober men of business lift up
their heeds and pray for the dispersion of the
thundercloud, though it be in a tempest of
fire, and for the bunting of the sultry
mist, though it be in a rain of blood. A
nation that does not fight far idem, and holds
the trade of glory cheap, may he driven to prefer
the worst of certainties to the fruitier anxieties of a
prolonged suspense, and even war itself to a precut-
outs and unsettled peace. What honest and harmless
householder te there who, living in a dangerous
neighbourhood, and beset with incessant warnings
against burglar'', would not rather fight it out at
once that go to bed night after night with a loaded
revolver under his pillow ?
This is the feeling which, wherever two or three
men are met together in the way of business, or
travel, or social festivity, or public assembly, liade
vest in talk about the national defences ; and we see
constrained to own that the instinct which expresese
itself more or less clumsily, ardently, or discreetly
on these occasions, is a sound and natural one, and
commends itself alike to patriotism and to com-
mon sense. The responsible directors of opinion,
however, have another duty to perform than simply to
echo convivial panics, or to lend the sanction of next
morning's cooler judgment to after-dinner alarms. It
is their office to give the right direction to the public
impulses, and to subdue to serious uses the national
vigilance and susceptibility. There is no fear of any
government's adopting all the measure, of safety
which are so freely thrown out, regardless of ex-
pense, by speakers, and letter writers, and pant,
phleteens without number and without end. But it
is conceivable that to the official and the courtly
mind there may be something attractive in the
clamour of gratuitous advisers who demand a oom-
siderable increase of the army, the development of
an elaborate system of comet fortification, and all
sorts of ways and means of jobbery and patronage,
besides that nsainteuance of the highest naval
efficiency which not even the Pesos Society pretest&
to discountenuoce, and those volunteer auxiliaries who
are so cordially welcome at the Haeu►Onards. We
believe we shall neither be unfaithful to liberal trs.
ditioes, nor incorrect interpreters of the public mind,
if we express our conviction that this country is per.
fleetly able, and perfectly determined, to disperse
with any lame= to the standing army, and that it
is equally able, and equally determined, to commit
the defence of these islands to their natural bulwarks
—Bntish shipe, manned by British sailers. As to
the Army, we grudge no expenditure that will main-
tain it iu the fullest efficiency, and ries the ample*
=deflection to its high dewed ; betide to oar ships and
our sailors in the hrst and in the last resort that we
have to look for the preservation of our independents,
our liberties, oar r;ghtt, our strength, our dignity
as • sovereign nation and a world-wide empire. No
wonder that how to man the Navy is universally
and instinctively felt to be the question above all
questions, and the problem which we must solve or
perch. Were the Admiralty to propose a prize
=ay on this vital topic, the world would
hardly contain the answers to the invitation.
Every intelligent foreigner is convinced that the
alleged difficulty of manning the British Navy
is a monstrous mystification, considering the
sources of our vitality, and the power of our tradi-
tions se a conquering and commanding island reek
Not • schoolboy in the United Kingdom but would
fill a quire with demoostrations of our =approach-
able capacities as a ses-gaing, sea-faring,
sea-loving people, and the esesequest ease with
which we ought to man our ships of war es readily
as we launch them. And yet then is the startling
phesomenon of British men-of-war begging for crews,
and even with the rash offer oft bounty scarcely able to
get real stamen to join. It is purely a money Tuitions
shoat half the admirals, all the clerks, and all
the shrewd commentator, who are =either the ems
nor the other, in the face of the failure of a Bounty.
Apparentl7, therefore, the simple mosey question is
not quite so simple ea it seems, and admits of mere
than ace solution. Your bounty system fails to draw
the right sort of seamvo, or fails to keep them; pro-
bably bee.sote it is neither a premium on good ser-
vice nor an assurance of good treatment, but simply
so much salt on the tail of birds rather difficult
to catch, and still more difficult to cage. There
is no difficulty in persuading Jack of the
virtue of • tea-pound note, but as soon se he
has spent it on the objects of his ever gashing charity,
and on the recreation of a run ashore, he is not a bit
more reconciled to the restraints and discipline of
the service than he was before be jumped at the
bait. Of course we are set condemning the Bossily
System as • last rend; we are pointing oat its ob-
vious evils as a first. le a country like oars,
where the national naval envies competes with •
vast and mercantile =rise, the manning
question is in • considerable degree a money quondam.
but evidently this quest los is cot solved by • bounty.
A system of continuous service, the Nemec= of •
reserve, • ',stem of training ships for lads caught
young, an math and all excellent as far as they gore