The Express.
London, England, 1868-12-22 00:00:00

THE MINISTERIAL ELECTIONS.

TAP: FIRST LORD OF TLIE ADMIRALTY.
Mr. Childers, in returning thanks for his to-
auction for Foutefract, aid he had never wavered in the
maaleat from Lis lel:keel opinion- • he had azeept
office simply to miry out what he had uni-
somay advocated in parliament and before his
owastimenta sinus they tint °lamed him. (Cheers.) Mr.
GLZE.4 Led ataaal.v:ad admirably in briugiag together
me most able of all sections of the party. (Cheers.)
The department at the heel of which he haul the honour
to be latel.d in resent rears hail had much attention tiraWa
to it. lath in parliament and in the country at largo. Its
eetntxtution was a re aa.lable one, because although it
led at its head one wtw at a minister and us a member of
the cabinet of coulee m rat have the pre-eminence in its
administration, yet the administration was asuisted by •
beard consistino chicks ot nerd officers, and the pemli-
arity of which, ;avoiding to its technical arrange-
ment and nohnt, d.O not give any responsibility to
any one member more than another. The result
of this arrangement. which existed not in the
Admiralty elone, but in several other depert-
remits of state, had Levu that misunderstanding had armee
which had tended very much to weaken the opinion ia
favour of the present temstitution of the departineut
which had town, in fact. condemned by one most impor.
taut connunie. —had brim subject to debate+ in parkas
went, and- he would nct my injurious to its efficiency—
/mit had given very Lent trouble iu carrying out ILA
efficiency tlio.oughly. -Now he had immuhd office with
the char understanding on his part, and on the part of
three who actual with him on the Board of Admiralty,
that the respon-ibihty for all affairs of Admiralty. elinims.
tration should It placed in his hands as the minister re-
niowible to wham, rat, to the Queen, and to the country
for carrying out their wishes with re„ and to the
navy. (Cheers.) And those who were aseaciated
with him us members of the Board of Ad-
miralty recognised fully that in him that revonsibility
lay. and that the amocuition between them was the same
as that which existed in other departments of stat • —thit
was to say, that they were each entrusted with their
piquet share of busturee, in direct subordination to the
nnenter who formed one of the cabinet. That, in very
few words, was his poeition as First Lord of the Admiralty.
His object would be to do his utmost -not by the and
starts. net all in a day, not to do something now and then
to think he had finished doing—but his object would be
consistently and steadily to do two things: to increase to
the utmost the efficiency of the navy ; Wput the navy of
I.ligland, or to continue the navy of England in the state
in which Ft:gland expected her to be; that navy being
her greatest prine, and her first protection in the
event of foreign differences; and at the mane time,
while he would he the last to, permit or do any act what-
tam% a ah. r of 'tummy or anything else, so far as he was
ecueciutai. which would allow that navy to fall below
what she eugLt to be, lie would do his utmost to lop o/
them escluista cces or redundant portions of her admin..
tratinn which were us cause- of strength. bat ou the other
'rind lath(' weakness. What we wanted was a
atmug navy- a has% wt ore appliances were the best that
could be uot, in h all the improvement.' of modern
prince M. re bro. ght to hear, in which the men were
traimd umd cip.ined to the utmo-t. and noun whose
!flaky we putid ; and he hosed and believed that
that might lie mr.t are,itively *maul at thc saute
1;r :• coo : lone. with a tu.l.zytion of the
y al•lic l aztl tut..acid so to tha sati,faohon it; the rate-
ry• is of I•. ;(I.evrs.) Ile 641 down two prui-
eir!ts as Li, 1:" tl.e responalile rusk an he a'•
eeptid. If he tai's lit would not be from anxiety on his
pant Sc. u.k. his duty : if he suemesled .t would he eatisfa.:-
t. to I in. 10 km ew that he hal been put into otlim to
catty omit the cpr u.i , s and that determinaticu which
he lid nla ay, as.vmated and cupreised a.. 433 out of
of'ce. or whit al sing the elestors of Foutefract, or
speaking in parliament. aulie..rs.)