The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—It is very satisfactory that a subject
which has been so long in men's minds as the re-
spective merits of public and private manufactories
should have been brought before the House of
Commons by a member like Mr. Cobden, who may be
trusted to say all that can be said against the system
which has lately received the preference of the
Government. There is, we presume, no ono who will
refuse assent to the chief propositions which Mr.
Cobden lays down. There are valid objections to the
too great assumption of industrial enterprises by the
Executive of a country. Where the stimulus of pri-
vate gain is wanting there must be in some degree a
tendency to slowness, to indifference, to routine and
poverty of invention. Time is likely to be wasted
by those who do not see their direct and immediate
interest in alacrity; improvements must come slowly
when the duty of each man is only to work under a
system already settled, and to satisfy official superiors
who are rather irritated than gratified by discoveries
which involve troublesome changes. It is quite
true that the existence or great Government facto-
ries checks private competition—that it tends to at-
tach the Admiralty end the War-office to certain
inventions and certain mechanical theories, instead
of leaving their minds open to the reception of what-
ever is best, come from whatever quarter it may.
Then there are the favcur shown to official designs,
the difficulty which outside merit has in gaining the
ear of the Departments, the jealousy, the complaints,
and the suspicion on the part of the public that it is
not served in the best manner—a suspicion which,
whether well or ill founded, is productive of no little
harm. These objections must have occurred to the
mind of every one who has thought on the subject,
and as they are ever and anon urged in Parliament,
besides occasionally appearing in print, it is quite
worth the while of the House of Commons to make a
searching investigation of the system, to discover its
weak points, to see how far the public interests are
really neglected, how far the private manufacturer
suffers injustice, how far the inventive power of the
country is discouraged. Mr. Cobden and those who
think with him are entitled to demand that the Go-
vernment shall fully prove the advantages of the
system which it has developed to so very great ex-
tent within the last few years. The result of such
an examination may possibly be to show that a
greater reliance on private enterprise is possible and
that a greater readiness to accept the suggestions of
the outside world would be becoming. But taking
the manufacturing establishments of the Government
as a whole, we are not prepared to say that the na-
tion would be a gainer by abolishing them, and by
depending entirely, as Mr. Cobden advises, on con-
, tractors chosen by ordinary competition. It. must, in
the first place, be admitted as an argument in favour
of Government works that they have been the result
of experience dearly earned in a calamitous war.
Mr Cobden dwells ou the circumstance that these
establishments were founded or greatly enlarged
since the Crimean campaign, and he compares the
free-trade system of buying cannon and muskets
which prevailed ten or twelve years ago with the
monopolies which the Government has now estab-
lished. But so far from this being an argument on
his side, it rather tells against him. What means
this general abandonment of the contract system,
this setting up of workshops where everything can
be made by Government hands to Government
order, except that in the opinion of those most
conversant with the former system it was no longer
sufficient for the wants of the country P Does it
not seem to indicate that those responsible for
the safety and honour of the conntry, acting upon
the best scientific advice end receiving the
sanction of the Legislature, established Gee
vernment factories because they found that the
materials of war obtained from these works were bet-
ter in quality, and could be more regularly and
rapidly produced than by private contractors ? We
believe that this is the real state of the case, and that
it furnishes a reasonable and valid defence of the
present system. On the system, we must repeat, we
do not look with especial favour, eVe quite recoge
nise its advantages, of which the greatest, no doubt,
is the temptation to persist in the use of antiquated
models because the Government establishment has
been fitted to produce them, and to reject or ignore
the suggestions of the outside world. Nor can we
without further evidence accept the official assur-
ance that these establishments are more cheaply
worked than private firms. We think that, if the
capital sunk in them and every outgoing were taken
into consideration, the result would rather confirm
the views of Mr. Cobden. But when the nation,
after the Crimean War, extended the principle of
Government manufacture to the greater part of what
was wanted for the public service, it did it well
knowing these objections. It did not believe that
the establishments would teem with original genius;
it did think that they would be marvels of economy.
But it had other objects in view, and, looking at the
subject calmly, we believe that these have been at-
tained. The first was to insure excellence in every-
thing that was supplied to either service, whether it
were a cannon, or a rifle, or an article of clothing,
or food. Now, on this head we have never heard
two opinions. Every one conversant with the sere
vices will admit that, whether cheaply or not, the
British soldiers and sailors are now provided with
the best. When a ship of war goes to sea it has
the best wood, the best iron, and the best workman-
ship that can be applied to anything that floats.
The bilis may be heavy, but the work is not
" stamped ;" no one has to fear unsound timbers
or a leaky ship. Now, with due respect to the private
shipbuilders of the country, we do not think that
their work would be so generally excellent, particu-
larly when vessels were required in a hurry. We
need only remember the gunboats built by private
firms in the Crimean war. The same may be said of
minor articles. In time of peace no doubt all would
go well. Things would only be wanted in moderate
quantities and at regular intervals. There would be
time to examine and reject, and to check the con-
tractor in the approved way. But it must be re-
membered that armies and navies are not wanted
for peace. It is the hurry and push of a war which is
the real test of a system, and unless it can stand
that it is useless. 'I he contract system is we suspect
essentially one for peace. It is when large quanti-
ties of munitions are ordered on a sudden, when
there is no time to examine and reject them and
wait for others that the country might suffer greatly
from having no establishment on which to rely, Re-
collect one 'or two incidents of the Crimean War- A
large quantity of boots was ordered for a regiment
then setting off for the East. They weie to be sent
to Matta, and, in due course, the cases would pro-
bably only have been opened on Turkish ground.
Bat the troops for whom they were destined were
detained here, and the boots were delivered before
they lett England. It was found that they were
wholly useless. They would have fallen to pieces
in a day's march. What would have been the fate of
a body of men who had been supplied with them in
presence of the enemy ? A week's campaign would
have laid up three-fourths of them. Do not let us
forget, either the intrenching tools furnished by con-
tract about the same time,---how the iron of spades
and picks bent double in the hands of our men, ems
barrassing to the utmost the oocrations of the siege.
Turely, the conviction that we can always have a
good article and plenty of it at the hour of need
may well be purchased by a little extra expense.
The Government establishments insure the nation
not only excellence of materials, but independence
in the supply of them. They enable almost any
amount of whatever is wanted to be tuned out on
any sudden emergency, and preserve the country
from being left at the mercy of any trade at the
hour of need. As regards the production of articles
for which there is a great demand in the Army or
Navy, and which are not likely to be superseded
by the progress of science, we think that Govern.
ments works, producing them regularly, rapidly,
and of the best materials, are advantageous to the
nation. Where, however, the manufacture is in a
state of transition, and the model of to-day may be
superseded by tht,t of to-morrow, there is undoubt-
edly much to be said in favour of Government
keeping itself unpledged to any particular system,
and free to choose amid the workshops of the
country.
PosT---It is now just three weeks since we pub-
lished a very remarkable series of despatches be-
lieved to have passed between the Courts of Russia,
Austria, and Prussia. These pointed in unmise
mistakable language to the reestablishment of the
Holy Alliance. The authenticity of the documents
was denied by some of the Governments from whom
they were supposed to have proceeded, and those
who regard official denials as conclusive were
doubtless convinced that this singular correspon-
dence was spurious. But there were others who
were not prepared to accept without reserve the
tlsseverations of the Cabinets of Berlin and Vienna.
If the documents in question were forged, it was
impossible to deny that the forgery was so skilfully
effected as to defy detection, except when submitted
to the searetung glances of Count Rechberg and
Herr von bismark: But, indpendently of that air
of genuineness which an examination of their con-
tents did not fail to discover in these despatches, it
so happened that surrounding circumstances tended
to corroborate the c _lnclusion to which their perusal
irresistibly led. It was not merely as if the Go;
vernments of Austria, Prussia, and Russia had inti-
mated a desire to form an alliance for the protection
of teeir common interests, and for the establish-
ment of a pure despotism in Central and Western
Europe, but those overt acts which they were daily
committing, and which were patent to all the
world, by a curious coincidence pointed to a pre-
cisely similar result. In Northern Europe a war has
been raging since the beginning of the ettr, which
the chief adviser of the Prussian King, in a moment
of unaccountable frankness, declared was mainly
directed avulse liberal tn3;ituttotr. "So boog,e