Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-08-02 00:00:00

THE DISARMAMENT IN FRANCE

The important announcement in the Maniteu r of
the reduction: of. the French forces to a peace footing
is remarked on in terms of great satisfaction by the
Paris journals, 'ln most of them the observations
made are exceedingly brief, the great fact announced
speaking for itself. 'W subjoin extracts from 'seYeral
of the'papers, commencing with the Constdutiwinel,
which says :

"France disarms!her and her fleets are in
regiments
'short time to be brought within-the restricted strength of
peace establishment.' We tiOnot yet know what effect wi
be, produced abroad by this, important measure, which' i
due to the generous initiative of the Emperor. In Franc
i
t ought not to surprise anyone, for it is there .well know
that -the imperial word is not an emptYone, that his Ma
jesty hOlds to what lie' promiSes, and aecompliShes what 'll
announces, and in bur eyes the programme of Bordeaux ha
retained all its .e'est toujours . la paia
After a campaign of, two months, which history will se
down' as one of the most glorious on xecord, after Navin;.
placed himself at the headof his Marshalg, as,he has place
himself at the 'head of 'the statesmen of Europe, the'Em
perer may' with pride tell France to la)t, aside her arms-an
resume' the works ,of peete. She has too well proved .e
strength for anyone not to, henceforth respect her repo-s'.',
The Loebats expressesiitself in these terms
" Thq declaration made ly the GoTernment will, n
doubt, produce more effect on the EngW'
recent note in which the military and naval: budgets of t
two nations were' compared.;' 'it is to be hoped that the n

ill press than tti,

lire our neigh-
*urs, and -induce them to follow our exarople.";
The following i& from the.. Courrier de. Paris :
"The ,twolines in the officiaflournal will suffice, at least
it :s to be hoped, to put an enc.-ft° all the rumours, conjec-
tures, and in4nuations which, since the peace of Villa-
franca have been put in circulason tn. t nnn nui,„ ;„

cltA t; Ifl puinic
opinion a disquiet-Ude and anxiety which, nothing justifies.
'Victorious France, without occupying herselrwith what is
said abouther, Bi- the first td.:disarm. The anuotmeement
of this- measure will be reeeivecifirith satisfactiOn through-
put, the country.. Disarming is.,z for the, populations the
completion of peace. It is to be-hoped also that the reso-
lution taken by thee Emperor will also suffice.to.reassory:our
neighbours on the other sidePrthe -a late
,speech, Mr. Disraeli, after doing the most complete justice
to the moderation; prudence, and upright intentions of the
Emperor-Napoleon; demanded a disarmament, as a- striking
pledge of- the pacifteintentions,of France and of her Sove-
reign, -as the means- of promptly gutting an elidlo all pre-
judices, :and, of dissipating all the -clouds which- existed
L.etween the. two countries. That disarmament is now
ordered."

The. Preys makes thefolllwing obseryatians
The ofliciaedecidratioh iiroves in a striking inarnie-r the
straightforward character of the Emperor's..goverriment. It
is a decided reply to' all the malevolent insinuatiolii. directed
against Frazee by the foreign press,. 'lt can no longer be
sail that foreign powers arm because we aim. France re-
places her, sword hi the scabbard, and the example. will be
followed, .at lcast we hope so, by the other powers of
Europe."

~ . .
-The Patric, in speaking, of the intended.-idis,arraa-
meiit, takes occasion to point- out a , mistake - into
which several, of the. London journals: have fallen,
and which. has .caused them to , argue an
data,.. It says .

erroneous

"After the• announcement in, the • ilioniteur,;; it would
mosfeertainly be superfluous. to ;take any further notice-of
the arguments:ealledforth, in the :English press,,.hy- the note
of Tuesday, on, the comparative., war- budgets of England
and of Trance.. But, with sespeet to this flrstinote; a sin-
gular fact has occurred which we cannot suiller to pass
unnotieed. By a mistake of the..felegraph—for we cannot
think that bad faith would be carried so farthe year 1853,
given in the Monitevr. as the point_ of comparison of the
French, war budget,
,before the campaign in the Crimea, is
changed' in several of ,the English journals, .and ,certainly
in the Tinies and Mornbig -Post; into the year 1813. It
is easy to see the effect which must result in arggment from
the -substitution of ;the yea-0813i when the grand coalition
of all.Etirope against France was formed, kr- the year 1853
a state. of pence. We hoc that the' EngliA journals, will
correct this great mistake,•anct that the Times and Morning
Post "u
ill havelhe good faith to: acknowledge that, having
taken 1813 for 1853, a state of war for a state' of, peace, all
their argunients ron the subject' stand for. mailing;
The Gazette de France- alone has. a captioris, ill-
natured article, arid, far from endeavouring to smootk
dawn the irritation which has beenlManifested in the.
London piess; it seems to take' a, pleasure in erir-
. .
'47aYouring to increase that feeling- It says
•
" Who. t. a Peace. footing for the, French army. and‘nuty?•
Such-is the question which naturally suggests itself on read-
ing the official note. The: peace . footing is an, organisatiOn
capable of receiving 600,000. men, .the,. effective foree• of
which several journals gave a table before the war in Italy
showing that, without extraordinary. levies, Franco, could.
have in a month 560,000 soldiers tinder arms. .As for our
navy, the .vessel,s.alreadylannolied will. probably not be laid
up and, dismested, the WorkS suspended,: and. the cannon
thrown into -the sea. The French- navy will remain what
it . was and must, bet. ever ready for the _defence. of the
country, and constantly, profiting by all, the , im,provements
that experience and kienee may suggest. The. terrors of
ourneighbours must not have the result of arresting the
4eveiopmOit of our fleet, which has 'beep. in Con-
stant 'progress ever since the Restoration, and has put
us in possession of the finest naval force in the. world.
It is well'-known '.that we have always
.thOught that
France ought to extend her colonial possessions and
'utilise her .naval forces in the protection of the national
establishUients abroad. Beeping these projects in view, we ,
think there- is not, properly speaking, any such thing as a
peace footing' for the French-navy—that is to say, any pos-
sible reduction in the naval strength. If England sees any
cause of alarm in this state of our forces, she is free to in-
crease her own; but it is impossible to admit that, in order
to allay the fears of our ally, we ought to abandon projects .
which are the base of our commercial *development in- the
world, the first'condition-of 'the seentity and prosperity of
our colonies.."''"'' j"'''"'''

[ADVERTISEMEII

TO THE EDITOR OF. THE NORTHERN DAILY TIMES.
Stit,--11aving been one of the passengers on board the
Sea King, on the2lth ult., and a man of long experience
at -sea, I must say I was somewhat surprised on reading the
letter in the Post,"Signed by the owners of the Lion, espe-
cially as they 'say there were many nautical men among
their passengers who support the assertion of the, captain, of
the Lion, which' U, that the captain of the Sea King alone
. ,
was to blame f,or the collision; theysay, also, had the ladies
and 'gentlemen who signed their names to the statement
been 'better acquainted with 'the rule laid down for oue
steamer passing another in a narrow channel, they would
ha've- censured the , officers of the Sea King rather than
those who were in charge of 'the Lion. Now,, really, Mr.
Editor, I am not aware that the., long-laid-down rule of
porting the helm ih all cases of one vessel passing another
has been abandoned; and, if not, certainly the Sea King
was obeying that rule by attempting to pass the Lion on
the'starboard side, which' she would have done without any
collision had the Lion 'not pressed her so close on the Brazil
Bank, in
,the vicinity of No. 6 Buoy of the Rock Channel,
that unless the ran on the bank it was impossible to port
any more.
-- These gentlemen say again, had the Lion attempted to
steer to the other side of the channel the movement would
..certnitily have seemed to indicate a wish to cross the bows
Of the Sea King. Now; I should like any nautical wan to
Say hoW•this can lie. The Lion was on the port-bow of the
Sea Ring, bath boats steering to the 'westward, and of
course by steering to the other, or south side of the Channel,
would have gone right away frorn the Sea King, as the
latter did from her after reversing clear of her stern, proving
that on the port-side' of the Litin at the time of the collision
there was ample room to have used the starboard helm,. and
have given the Sea King
room to pass. They also speak of
the heavy cargo on board the Lion : for thy part, I neither saw
Cargo nor passengers worth speaking of, whereas the Sea
King was crowded with the hitter, and a fair proportion of
the former.