The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-02 00:00:00

1i EPIIESELVTATION O 1 SOUTII irA AK.

SIR CHARLES NAPIER.

A meeting of the friends of Sir Charles Napier was hel4
in front of the Brown Bear, Southwark-bridge-road, at si)
o'clock last evening. A very numerous crcwd assembled
the broad street beneath the platform which had bee!
erected from one of the windows, and upon which the hoi,
and gallant admiral, with his immediate supporters am,
committee, had taken their places.

Mr. HENRY HART occupied the chair, and briefly intro-
duced the candidate as a sincere and open-hearted reforme,
to the meeting, by whom his appearance was hailed witl,
cordial applause.

Sir CHARLES NAPIER said he thought he had explained
already, as clearly as it was in the power of any man to
do, what were his political views and sentiments, and ii
the electors agreed with him, and thou.ht him a fit man
to represent them in Parliament, he hoped for their sup-
port on the day of election. To go over the ground which
he had already gone over in his former speeches would
neither be interesting nor amusing, but he would give tht
meeting, if they allowed him, a short description of the
campaign in the Baltic, which he had the honour to cow
nand. (Cheers.) As we all knew, we wero rather long in
making up our mind, and in making our preparations for
war. We had numerous and pretty strong hints from
the Czar as to what were his intentions, and if we had
made up our minds a little sooner, perhaps we might
have prevented the war altogether. (Cheers.) However
that might be, after he was appointed to command the
Baltic fleet, he was detained but a short time to make
preparations. He received his final instructions on the
Wednesday, went down to Portsmouth on the
Thursday, and sailed on the Saturday. (Cheers.) In
fact, he lied so little time that he could not get a ser-
vant. He had neither pot nor pan to make his dinner
with, nor plates and glasses to eat and drink it in.
However, he sailed with the fleet at the time announced.
It was in the month of March, and what the weather would
be in that mouth, in a northern climate, we might all
judge. In spite of all that the fleet sailed for the Baltic,
passed through the Belt without pilots, but in safety,
placed buoys in all the channels, and took soundings of the
most intricate and shoaly passages. Having arrived at the
capital of Denmark, he thought it his duty to pay his re-
ap cts to the King, in the hope of inducing him to join the
Western Powers in resisting the aggressive designs of Rus-
sia ; but although the people of Copenhagen were well dis-
posed to the policy of the Western Powers, which were
fully understood and approved, there were peculiar cir-
cumstances which made it impossible to get the King upon
our side. Having done his best, however, to effect that
object, the fleet proceeded. It got iuto a Swedish port,
when he (Sir Charles) thought it was likewise his duty to
pay his respects to the King of Sweden, to get him to sup-
port the Western Powers. He was received at Stockholm
with the same enthusiasm as he was now received by the
people of Southwark. (Cheers.) The Swedish people were
all agreed about the justice and necessity of this war, and
were all ready for war. The King honoured him with a
kind reception, and entertained him sumptuously, when
he (Sir Charles) entered minutely, as he did upon other
occasions, into the reasons which he thought should induce
the King of Sweden to join with France and England in
this war; but Sweden was a small power, as they all
knew, and the King did not see his way clearly to taking
a decided part. No blame to him for that; as the guar-
dian of Swedish interests it was hie duty in the first place
to act a cautious part. But now the campaign of 18J5
having been brought to a close, he would say that our Go-
vernment ought to use the most strenuous ataxia to induce
Sweden to adopt the policy of England and France.
Sweden, though relatively weak, was a strong maritime
power, having 60,000 men and 200 gunboats, and it
would be of immense benefit, therefore, to gain her assist-
ance in any future campaign in the Baltic. After what
had happened, and after the design which Russia had pro-
claimed her determinatioe to carry out, he did earnestly
hope that our Government would use every effort to induce
Sweden to join the coalition iu the campaign of 1856. To
return to Lis narrative, he took the fleet into one of the
most difficult harbours of Sweden, exposed to fogs and gales
at that time of the year. After waiting some time for
weather fit to get into the Gulf of Finland, at last he had
an opportunity, and the fleet sailed; but in the very
middle of the passage a severe fog came on, in which one
ship could net see another, nor see the rucks which sur-
rounded them. By the ability of the officers and d iscipline
of the men, they got without any loss out of that trying
position, hen one might have feared lest half of the fleet
should be cast ashore. (Cheers.) That showed what could
be dune by men whose hearts were right, and who were
rightly commanded. The fleet next made its way to a
Russian port, in the hope that a Russian fleet might be in-
duced to meet it, for in that port he knew there was a
Russian fleet of 36 sail of the line. But as he believed the
Russians would not show their faces if we showed the
whole of our fleet, he took half of it into an extremely
difficult harbour, full of rocks and shoals, hoping the Rus-
sians might be encouraged to show fight ; the other half of
our fleet was left outside, to give assistance if the .Russi ins
should be enticed into a battle. Unfortunately, they hard
heard of us, and did not like our look, and so this offer of
battle failed. He then collected our fleet, and, with the
ships of our brave allies the French, went to Cronstadt,
the great naval stronghold of Russia in the Baltic, to see
what could be done there. But when the fleets got there
they found a less draught of water than the ships required
to approach Cronstadt, and it was useless attempting any-
thing there. There was an impression when he left England
that the fleet could sail, not only to Cronstadt, but St. Peter-
sburg, or even to Moscow. Well, after examining the de-
fences and forts of that stronghold, the admirals came to
the conclusion that they could not, with the means then at
their disposal, attack it without risking almost certain de•
struction, and they returned to the mouth of the Gulf of
Finland to attack another strong fortress Bowarsund. It
was his intention, and that of his French ally, to attack it
with the fleets alone, and they firmly believed that they
might have overcome it; but the Governments of France
and Euglaud thought fit to send land forces to join in the
attack, and make the result sine. How speedily and com-
pletely it succeeded we all knew ; but few wero aware of
the importance of that victory ; for Bornarsund had been
built expressly to overawe Sweden, if not for the purpose
of conquering Sweden. Immediately after that the weather
became very bad, the short summer of those latitudes end-
ing in the middle of August ; but before ending the cam-
paign the allied fleets thought they would look at another
great Russian fortress, Sweaborg, where a large Russian
fleet was lying. Having examined Sweaborg most care-
fully, however, it was found perfectly impossible to attack
it at that time, and with the means which the commanders
had. The British people had blamed him, at first, for not
attacking that !lace ; but he knew his duty—he knew from
long experience what ships and men could do; and it would
have been wrong for him to attempt an operation which
was perfectly certaiu to cause the less of half our fleet,
without any advantage whatever to our side. He would not
speak of the manner in which he had been treated ; but he
was satisfied with the course ho had pursued, the more so
because the campaign of 1855 was now ended, and Sweaborg
was not yet taken. He hoped now that the Government
would set every dockyard in the country to work, and pro•
vide an efficient naval force of all kinds for the campaign
of 1856; for in proportion to their vigour in carrying on the
war, its termination would be hastened. He hoped we
were all prepared for that object, even to bear increased
taxation in patience, but nut to have the taxes wasted
upon an idle or inefficient navy. Another reason was that
there appeared to be difficulties between us and America.
The Americans were our brothers, but they were extremely
ambitious, and had been looking iu a sneaking way after
Cuba, and it was our duty to prevent them flow taking
possession of it. lii such matters the American Govern-
tue.nt were unable to control its own subjects, and we
should therefore help it in putting (town such attempts.
No doubt the French would assist us, if ever it came to.
war with America; and we must depend, in all cases,
upon our ships, engines, and men. With regard to the
present situation of the war —in the Black Sea ell looked
well, under a bravo and able admiral. In Asiatic Turkey,
the troops were commanded by Otner Peelle, whom he (Sir
Charles) knew well ; for in Syria lie had, as well as the
fleet, an army of 10,000 men under his corninan.l, and oa.er
Pacha was under him, ago brave, and clever officer.
Now, everybody at home suffered from taxation and the
high price of bread, which neither Government nor any-
body could lower whilst the war lasted, and which we
must bear with good humour. The gallant admiral con
eluded by expressing his readiness to answer any ques-
tions, and his pleasure at seeing so many friendly faces.
He had gone through some of the Southwark manufacto-
ries that day, and visited the masses of the work people,
for it was impossible, with onepair of legs, to visit 10,000
electors at their houses, and he had met with the most en-
thusiastic reception ; he was not even obliged to ask for
their votes, but they came forward voluntarily to promise
them, and to promise that they would bring their friends.
He did cot ascribe this to any merits of himself, but to
the desire of the people to see fair play, which he had not
received from the Government, and which was always dear '
to Englishmen. (Cheers.)
Dr. EVANS moved a resolution, declaring the.t the meeting
was perfectly satisfied with Sir Charles Napier's statement,
and determined to secure by every legitimate means his
triumphant success. He remarked that it was important
at this time, whilst the Admiralty had the expenditure of
so many millions sterling, to send seine men to Parliament
who were, like Sir Charles Napier, practically acquainted
with that department.
Mr. BARNES seconded the resolution, with some re-
marks upon the pretensions of the rival candidate, who
was not the only successful tradesman in the borough, and
who, if he did employ a number of men, did so for his
own profit. He compared such local claims with the na-
tional reputation of Sir Charles Napier.
The resolution, having been carried by acclamation, was
acknowledged by the hon. and gallant admiral, who said
that he was very highly gratified with so large a meeting,
which consisted, in his judgment, of not fewer than four
or five thousand.persons. He moved a vote of thanks to
the chairman.

Dr. ROBERTS, in seconding this, answered a question
which had been asked by the party of Mr. Scovell, namely.
why so many medical gentlemen were active on the side of
Sir Charles Napier? One reason was, ho sail, that they
wore displeased with the conduct of one of their profession
in coming to the borough three days before Sir William
Molesworth died, to warn Air. Scovell's friends that there
was likely to be an election. Another reason was that Sir
Charles had done much to improve the situation of navy
surgeons, and to promote medical reform.
This terminated the proceedings, and it was announced
that Sir Charles Napier wiald address another meeting
this (Friday) evening, precisely at 6 o'clock, at the Duke
of Clarence, near the Obelisk.