The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-04 00:00:00

LO

a passport, and his attaché had to hunt Talleyrand through-
out the provinces of France before he could get one ; ',and
it was, not till the following May that the two countries
came into collision.— (Hear,• hear.) France could view., it
as no light matter to be brought into collision with a people
eo brave, so energetic, and possessed of such great resources
as the people of England.—(Hear, hear.) But then it is
said that the present ruler of France is` not to be
trusted—that he is a man who would disregard all inter-
national -considerations of policy and justice. Now, , what-
ever may be said of the present ruler of France, if merit is
to be taken as a test of success—and I am afraid we are all
too much disposed to regard it in that light —Louis Napo-
leon had shewn no want of talent. Whatever may be thought
of his moral sentiments, he has shown that he was no block •
head. -(" Hear, hear," and laughter.) He had reached the
highest. pest. in the state, the people seemed to acquiesce
in hie rete and he obtained a larger civil list than the Queen
of. Fneland --- (Hear, hear.) It was all couleur d rose with
him. and yet we aro told- that this man is going to depart
Irene all recognised principles of international action, and
that he is, going to invade our ' shore-•.—(Hear) I have a
friend in. France whose name, if I quoted it, mould he re-
ceived with respect not only in this House, but everywhere
in Europe. I wrote to him on this subject, to ascertain if
he could give any information to confront the Most silly panic
that ever was known in this country. Here is his answer,
comprised id two linee:—" Louis Napoleon, if he made ware .
musr do• it through one of his generals. If that general
was successful he would eclipse him • if he was not he would
ruin him."—(Hear, hear.) But understand that lam not
here asking you to trust the good faith or forbearance of
anybody—(Hear)--but I say. that Louis Napoleon is not
so foolish as to contemplate . anything so suicidal as a
buccaneering attack on our shores would be.—(Hear, hear.)
When we hear that he is dispatching astute diplomatists to
the north and to the south, and that he is everywhere
carrying on negotiations to attach persons to his interest
and cause, was it to be supposed that at this very time
1 he was going to run his head into a war with England,
and that he was going to invade us with some 15,000 or
20,000 men ?—( Hear, bear.) . I have heard it said by the ,
Noble Lord, the Member for Tiverton, that it was possible
for the present ruler of France to invade this country by
sending 50,000 or 60,000 men from Cherbourg in the night.
When I hear such statements as that, it accounts sufficiently
for all the old statesmen sitting on this side of the House out
of office.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) And Ido not wonder
that Lord Derby should hope to find new a n digg•k 's" and
new veins, and that he should discard the old
" placers."—(Much laughter and cheering.) Surely it
is little less than an 'insult to the good sense of the country
to make such a prediction as that.—(Rear,
hear.) Will
any man say that 60,000 men could be brought to Cher-
bourg, and landed in this country without our having a
month's notice of it?—(Hear.) I wish we had a Committee
sitting on the national defences, and I should be glad to in-
quire of the Adjutant-General the necessary equipment to send
60,000 men into a country, and more especially into a country
that had a hostile fleet which. ruled the seas, and was ready.
to intercept and cut off all retreat.—(Hear, hear.)
I should.
for I like to ask what cavalry would be required, presume
that when this army lands here, they do not mean to run
about and catch horses.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) I
should like to know what amount of artillery and commis-
sariat stores would be requisite.—(Hear.) Such a statement
as the one to which I have referred is a mockery of the good
sense of the people of England; and the people of England,
by the public meetings which they held on this subject,
and the petitions which they presented to this House,
showed that they did not,believe in the possibility of such
a sudden invasion.— (Hear, hear.) But this argument is
used, that the application of steam' to the purpose of naviga-
tion exposes us to invasion. I believe lamto be followed by
a gentleman wliohits more experience and technical infor-
mation in these mattersthan I have, and he will tell you how
absurd it is to suppose that the application of steam to navi-
gation has given advantages to the other nations of Europe
over us. Why, coal and iron, the chief elements in steam
navigation, we possess in greater abundance, and of finer
quality, than all the nations of Europe put togethen In
cotton-spinning'oi manufactures did steam give greater ad-
vantages to other countries than to England?--(gear.) If
. not why should steam give them greater advantages in its
application to navigation ?—(Hear. ) But it is said steam-
boats would enable an enemy to leave their ports at any
time to invade. England. But did not steam enable us
also to send out our steamboats to the ports of France ?
—(Bear, hear.) Formerly the same wind that blew the
French versels towards our ports, prevented us from, meeting
those vessels--(Hear hear.) It was then impossible to
sail a line-of-battle ship in the wind's eye; but now,, hove_
ever the winds blows, we can send oar vessels to Boulogne or
to Cherbourg; and, what is more, they can remain before
these ports like a rock, thus hermetically sealing up these
ports.- (Hear, hear.) When Lord Nelson was blockading-
the port of Boulogne' he was frequently driven away for
three weeks together, but that could not occur now with
steam-vessels.—( Hear, hear.) The authorities of the Post-
office can tell you how often their steam-vessels have failed
of reaching that port. Now this gave us a greater advan-
tage than any other country, because we had a far greater
steam force, and I have no doubt it increased our defensive
power ten times.—(Hear, hear.) A return had just been
laid on the table of the House, from which it appears that we
are possessed of 1,300 steam-boats. This IS a larger
number of steam-vessels 'than is possessed by all the
nations of Europe put together. (Hear, hear.)
And we are now building others, whicli would give
as double as many as all the nations of the continent of Eu-
rope possessed.—(Hear, hear.) I could not say thesame of
sailing vessels, because there are a largo number of sailing
vessels building in the Baltic ports, but there are no.
means of constructing steamers in these ports.— (Hear, hear.)
I will quote to you the evidence of naval men on this sub-
ject. Admiral Berkeley, on the 31st of March, 1845, before
this absurd discussion arose, says—" The Executive Go-
vernment of England had it in their power, at little or no
expense, to have a fleet of steamers equal not only to France,
but to the whole world. Let them look at the ports of Lon-
don, Liverpool, Glasgow, and all our out ports, and they
would see what a vast number of steamships might in a very
short time be made available for the purposes of a steam
war." Admiral Dandas said, on the 26th of July, 1844,
that we possessed 1,000 merchant steamers, 280 of which
were large enough to carry 32-pounders—a force which
is sufficient to overcome the combined fleet of the rest of
the world. The Right Hon. Gentleman the Secretary
to the Navy under Sir R. Peel's Government (Mr. Corry)
said that in case of a war we were able to command ten times
the force of any country on the continent, and that three
months after a declaration of war not one of the merchant
vessels could ba found at sea.—(llear, hear.) Do you sup-
pose that the French Government—do you suppose that
Louis Napoleon, who resided in this country—are ignorant
of these facts? —( Hear, hear.) Why, France :does not pos-
sess a single ocean steamer, and my Hon. Friend the Mem-
ber for Orkney says that we have in our mercantile marine
20-horse power in steam for every one-horse power possessed
by France, and I believe be has not exaggerated in the least.
—(Hear, hear.) We are told that this steam navigation has
made abridge over the Channel, and this parrot cry has been
taken up, and repeated from one mouth to the other. But I
hope that in future we are done for ever with this foolish no-
tion. Well, then, if steam has been
of such
ene-
mies by sea—an advantage which we
sharech use
eq too our
equally
ll
ywith
them—how much had railways added to our sense cf security
in affording us increased facilities for the transmission ' • o f
troops from one part of the country to . a 1
another ?—k car./
I have here a few lines from the evidence Gof Sir W. or -
don, the Quartermaster-General, give
Committee in 1844, in which, spe,khin before the Railway
he stated that in two years from Deceg ion this very point,
De-
cember 31, 1843, there were 130,174 persons—officers,
31, 1841, to
women, and children—moved by railroad under men,
lions in England. Speaking of railw under his difec-
-43'8 generally, he said—
" I should say that this mode of railway '
abled the army, comparatively to the d conveyance has en-
it, a very small one, to do the work ofemands made upon
You send a battalion of 1,000 men from a very large one.
London to Mulches**
ter in nine hours • that same battalion
take seventeen 'slays ; and they arrive at the
marching would
end of nine hours just as f
as when they started." Well, herresh, or nearly 50,
that we are enabled 'now, by meanse we
have the fact
of r
ac-
complish within the Space of nine hoailways, to
seventeen days. o effect in the time of turs what it took us
ther, we are told that we can transportpke gates: Far-
as of
largo a body
troops as we could assemble in Scotland
from Edinburgh to
Dover in twelve hours; whereas this
to be done under
,twenty-four a"
Is not this
was formerly not
an enormous advantage? And does
immense control over the army we
it not give us an
ashamed to pursue this sabject furrssess? I am really
lieve that there is any man—at ieeeaer, and I cannot be-
intelligence—who places any confidence on man of sense and
have 'had lately about our defenceless in all this talk we
hear," and " Oh, oh," from the Opposition condition.—(" Hear,
proved to yon that there is no reason foron benches.) I have
I suppose in the minds rot some persons
all this alarm; but
protection and such other superstitionsns who still believe in
, there may be found
to exist some fears of a French invasion.—(Laug,hter.) I
really have to beg pardon of the French '
common sense of this countr f nation, and of the
even to such
dangers, though I even do so butch
YPother ii alluding
I myself
have not the smallest idea that an s'leaY•
than there did two years ago, and ,0.3..' such exist more now
you were then. All I will say is, t"haarte
iafs strong now as
forcing forward this Militia Bill, at all eventsou insist
.on
taint your fleets, and let the people of the
first bring
country ascer-
hat the money which has oeen aire
been properly expended, and let the _tdy laid out has
• -Nrench nation see
that it, is not the people of England ,
v but the Execu-
,
tive Government of the co. nntry that 4
re-
sisting imaginary dangers. 1 would is bent on..
beg Honourable.
Gentlemen to consider for one rnoinent the 0_
gross that is being made in these days in
and
pr ,
tures, and in all the works of ingenuity and ;LW, manufac-t '
believe that all we have been hearing in ti_.srt. I do no
the tendency towards peace is anything mere House about
and delusion. When I have heard Honourable than clap-trap
on both sides of the House express their belief
Gentlemen
derful advance that had been made in in„t"inat t in the won-
tigatioes—when they talk ot the great discovereileortant inves-
of the electric telegraph, the extraordinary rec_hssof the age,
communication that we poseess—why, a say 14
of inter-
to be sincere; but I, at all events, have a full believeconviction
them
the tendency of all these great improvements is tion that
peace, and not towards war. Sir, because / towards
danger because believe., no
to exist to this country, and no
been given that we require further defence,l proofs have
resist thero-
grass of this Bill;' and I hope, at all events, that though the
Government may not be willing to withdraw their Bill, they
may not refuse the returns I am looking for, which will
enable -the people of this country to judge how far these ad-
ditional defences are called for.—(Loud cheers.) The
Hon.
Gentleman concluded, by moving as an amendment on the
motion for going into Committee on the Militia 131
11, " That
to enable this House the better to consider the provisions of
the Militia Bill, a return of the effective force a the royal
navy on the 31st day of March last be laid on the table of the
,* House such return to contain the following particular. viz.
First. The names, armaments, number of crews and 'of.fieers
of all her Majesty's ships then employed in active service,
the stations on which they were employed, and the length
of time each vessel has Linen employed on each station re_
spectively, distinguishing, steam-vessels from sailing-vessels,
and also steam-vessels etropelled by screws from those pro-
'pelted 'by paddle-wheels, and stating the nominal horse-
power of the enginen of each vessel. Secondly. The same
theports • e
of all eeserVe or advance ships, with . . at which
statement of the period they are now 'placed, and a etatei
'would be required to send them to see in. a fit state for
actual service. And, that the consideration of the 1341 in
after the production of such
Committee bo postponed untie aft
return."
'
Mr. ANDERSON', in rising "to second the amendment,
• eo from no factious feel-
begged to assure the House he did • .
ings or party motives. While the Hon. Gentlemen opposite
sat on the Treasury benches he was quite willing to support
them in any good measures which they might propose,
while he was equally prepared to oppose all their obnoxious
propositions. For this reason he had opposed the second
reading pf this Bill, as he should
have done that of the late
Government, as well as the amendment of the Noble Lord the
Member for Tiverton. The House, moreover, had resolved to
consider the Bill, and therefore it was of the utmost
importance - that they should have the largest possible
amount of information before them, to enable them to de-
cide on tbe'requirernents of the measure. For that reason,
he helieVed, that the returns moved for by his Hon. Friend
the Member for the West Riding were highly,111111;" necessary for
tile Proper consideration of the Dill in "4", He