The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-07-16 00:00:00

NEW WRIT.

On the motion of Sir W. JOLLIFFE a new writ was
ordered for the County of Dorset, in the room of the
Right Hen. Geo. Bankes, deceased.

MEMBER'S QUALIFICATION,

Mr. ROEBUCK presented a petition from Mr. William
Lovett, a person well-known in the political circles for
his advocacy of people's charter, praying for the abolition
of property qualification of members of parliament, and
the substitution of an intellectual and moral qualification
of a high standard. The petitioner also prayed that a
public court of examiners might be established, before
whom candidates for seats in the legislature should
present themselves for examination, and without whose
diploma they should not be entitled to represent any
constituency.

COAST OIIARD DEFENCES BILL.
On the order for the second reading of this bill,
Sir CHARLES WOOD entered into a lengthened explana-
tion of the present state and efficiency of the navy. No
one who had taken part in the ad uinistration:of the navy
could have failed to observe the difficulties that stood in
the way of manning the navy on an emergency ; the great
wealth of the country enabled it at all times to provide
ample stores and material, but there was ever this diffi_
culty standing in the way, that no means could be devised
for securing a nucleus for the navy so far as its living
fora) was concerned. Men, like ships and ammunition,
could not be created and stored up for the period when
they might be wanted, and the great aim of all naval
authorities had hitherto been to devise some scheme which

The late

should, to some extent, supply the deficiency.
war, to some extent, had helped us to the solution of part
of the problem, but there still remained much to be learned,
and the measure now before the House must be taken as
only part of one great plan for always ensuring the effi-
cient manning of the navy. The idea of reverting to the
old system of impressment was quite out of the question ;
indeed, it appeared to be quite unnecessary ; for during
the late war we raised no less than 12,000 men, within a
period of eight or nine months without impressment.
That feat was accomplished through the agency of
increased pay and bounties, and having this experience of
the working of a new system before them, it was for
Parliament 'to determine how far it was possible to place it
upon a pernaanent footing. At ail events it was necessary
for the defences of the country that measures should be
immediately taken to secure at any time the efficient
manning of the navy, Prance and Russia had for years
been a'ale to keep up a much larger naval force than
Engls'And both in point of men and ships, and self-defence,
as ',sell as policy, dictated that for the future we should
st ,and in no inferior position to that of either of those two
'great maritime Powers. Their most pressing want
ifitherto had been ships and material ; they had never
been able to excel or equal us in that respect, but both
,having a conscription applicable to seamen, they had
never experieuced.any want of men, while of late they had
'made, and were still making, the most strenuous exertions
to supply the deficiency of vessels and material. Accord-
ing to the best authorities, France could always command
the services of 40,000 seamen, with great facilities of con-
centration, and the object the Admiralty had in view was
to place England in a similar position. He did not mean
to say that this bill, alone, would accomplish the objects
but go :far to pave the way to do it. Hitherto, England
had only had three sources of reserve for the navy, viz.,
the riggers, the coast-guard, and the pensioners ; but
eluring the late war we were not able to draw more than
:2,500 men from these sources. Certainly, if he were to say
'3,000, it would be over the mark; and he was sure the
Mouse would agree with him that it was neither for the
security, nor the honour of the country, that such
a state of things should be allowed to continue. The
main oNect of the bill was to extend the number
of the coast-guard, which now counted some 5;000
Irsen, and render it more naval in character and employ_
spent. The men would be discharged from the force at a
anuch earlier period than usual, so as to keep a large
'number of young men constantly in reserve, and the
maximum of the force would be fixed at 10,000 men. He
did not mean to say that so large a number would be
raised at once, but the coast-guard would never exceed
that strength. There were persons connected with the
coast-guard who had not been trained to a seafaring life;
these would not be disturbed in their regulations, but
their places would not be filled up when they died, or
were pensioned off. The existing coast-guard was most
inadequate for the duties it had to perform, in preventing
smuggling; but as a means of defence, in its present.
strength, it was quite powerless. The House was aware
that there had been frequent complaints of the defence-
less state of many parts of the coast, and to remove those
complaints, it was proposed by this bill to place ships of
war in most of the ports and open places of the coast,
each 144ard ship having some of the gun boats raised
during the late war attached to it as tenders. Under the
existing
-aw the Admirality had power to raise 10,000
naval coast volunteers, but for the want of means of train-
ing only a portion of that number had been enlisted, and
it was proposed by this bill to supply that deficiency, and
so gradually bring up the strength of the corps to its full
onupliment. These were the principal provisions of the
bill, and it now oily remained for him to move the House
to give it a second reading,
Sir J. GRAHAM supported the bill, believing that in the
absence of such a system of registration as that in force
in France we had no alternative but to resort to such a
scheme as this measure embodied. At the same time it
would not be prudent entirely to give up the principle of
enlistment ; it must still be ,retained as a last resort in
future contingencies, but though it would be retained he
was Yet decidedly of opinion that, as a rule, the
could only be recruited by attraction, and not b navy
y force,
, Sir F. BARING supported the bill.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said if he had to
decide this question simply upon the amount of saving it
would secure to the country in the management of the
coast-guard, he should object to it ; but, looking at the
necessity for increasing the defensive resources of the
c (entry, he had no alternative but to throw aside mere
fiscal considerations and to assent to the bill. At the
earns time the amplest provision would be made for the
protection of ,the'custorns revenue, which he need hardly

THE

remind' the House yielded something like £23,000,000 a
year, although in future years the items for the coast•
guard would come within the navy, and not the customs,