The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

POST.—A few evenings since Lord Palmerston, in
reply to a question put in the House of Commons,
stated that, although reductions would probably

. -
be made in the estimates for the forthcoming year

for the military and naval services, the efficiency
either of the army or of the navy would be in no
wise impaired. This country pays largely for the
maintenance of both its armies and its fleets, and
not unnaturally receives with gratification announce-
ments that the annual estimates for their support

have been materially reduced. So long as the nation
is at peace, persons are apt to imagine that the mil-
lions which are yearly taken out of the taxpayers'
pockets for military and naval purposes are so much
money thrown away. Of what avail is it, they ask,
to have thousands of men quartered in barracks
throughout the country whose sole employment con-
sists in attending useless parades, and in owning
fleets of fast sailing frigates and impenetrable iron-
clads which are from year's end to year's end either
quietly riding at anchor or listlessly cruising from
one part of her Majesty's dominions to another !
Those who indulge in this strain, however, forget
that the maintenance of these armaments and the
preservation of peace stand to each other in the re-
lation of cause and effect, and that it is precisely
because this country possesses well appointed armies
and efficient fleets that those armies and fleets are
happily kept in continual idleness. When, how-
ever, circumstances arise which promises to test the
capabilities of the country, either for purposes of
sell-defence, or for maintaining in the eyes of the
world that prestige which constitutes no unimpor-
tant element of national greatness, those who cavil

most at the expenditure occasioned by the suppor
of our military end naval armaments evince the
greatest anxiety lest in the hour of trial they
should be found inefficient, and watch with more
than ordinary jealousy any attempts to reduce
them. At the present moment the nation is at
peace with every European Power, but there is
only too great a probability that that peace may be
of no long duration. At such a time, then, the
nation would receive with anything hut satisfaction
an announcement that the Government deemed it
expedient to reduce materially the power of either
the military or the naval branch of the public ser-
vice. The navy estimates for the ensuing year have
now been laid before Parliament, and it is gratify-
ing to find that, whilst the perfect efficiency of the
navy is secured, a decrease of upwards of £300,000
will be effected in the expenditure demanded for
its support. The total sum required for the service
of the navy for the year 1864-5 will be £10,432,610 ;
the last vote having been £10,736,032 ; show-
ing a decrease of £303,422. There is, how-
ever,always a difference between the sums demanded
from Parliament and the estimated net expenditure,
arising from various causes, and we accordingly find
that the latter for the ensuing year will be
£10,169,022, or somewhat more than a quarter of
a million less than the amount actually required to
be voted by Parliament. The decrease in the esti-
mates now before us, though considerably less than
that effected in the estimates for 1863-64, as com-
pared with those of the year preceding, is, however,
such as codid scarcely have been anticipated consi-
dering the comparatively trifling modifications made
in what may be termed the existing standard of the
navy, and is mainly attributable to superior
management on the part of the Admiralty. The
net expenditure for the year 1862-63 was upwards
of eleven millions and a half; whereas that for the
following year was less than ten millions and a half,
giving a decrease of upwards of a million. The
difference, however, between the estimates for the
two years was mainly occasioned by the extraordi-
nary expenditure occasioned in the former year in
commencing the construction of our iron-clad fleet.
Last year the estimates were reduced to their normal
limits ; and if, this year,they have been still further
reduced, the circumstance must be attributed, as
we have already observed, to the more careful
management of those entrusted with the disburse-
ment of the public money. A reference to the
several items of increase and decrease in the pre-
sent estimates confirms the accuracy of this im-
pression. In the following items reductions have
been made ;—The vote for wages to seamen and
marines will be £47,304 less than that of last year,
while for their victuals and clothing there is a
decrease of £112,867 in the sum demanded. The
amount granted to the Storekeeper-General of the
Navy for naval stores and for building and repair-
ing vessels is reduced by £169.951. and that for the
Comptroller of the Navy by £195,137. Under the
item of half-pay to officers there is a decrease of
£21,551; in that of civil pensions and allowances
£949; whilst the vote for medical stores is reduced
to the extent of £1,650. The estimate for wages
to artificers abroad is diminished by £752, and that
for scientific experiments by £685, making the
total for the reductions for all those branches of the
service £550,846. As against these, however, we
find that the Admiralty-office will cost £3,283 more
than it did last year, and that the vote for the Coast-
guard Service will be increased to the extent of
£1,023. Her Majesty's home establishment will
call for au additional expenditure of £9,258, and
those abroad of £3,296. The estimate for wages to
workmen employed in the home establishments
shows an increase of £162,438, and that for new
works either projected or in progress in the dock-
yards, an excess of £16,000. The votes for miscel-
laneous services and for military pensions are in-
creased by about £lO,OOO ; whilst for the army
department and the conveyance of troops, the esti-
mates show an advance of upwards of £44,000 on
those of the past year. As, however, the total of
the items of increase amounts only to £247,424
there is a net decrease on the entire
estimate to the extent mentioned above.
The present state of the navy of this, and indeed of
every other country, is one of transition, and so long
as teat continues to be the case we can look for
no surprising reduction in the navy estimates.
The largest item of increase will be found in the
vote for wages to our dockyard artificers, and that
the item in question does not show a still greater
increase is a matter for congratulation. On the
other hand in the decrease in the estimates for
the Storekeeper's and Comptroller's depart-
ments we find those evidences of economy and re-
trenchment which the nation has so long sought,
and sought in vain, in the several departments of
the Admiralty. Ten millions sterling may seem an
extravagant sum to pay annually for the mainte-
nance of a navy, but when it is borne in mind that
it is to our immunity from the aggressions of other
States the sum will not be considered preposterous.
As a nation, we find it profitable to insure the
peaceful prosecution of our commercial pursuits, and
we therefore regard the expenditure occasioned by
the military and naval services in the light of pre-
miums annually paid to secure that end.
lIBRALD.—No ono doubts the perfect accuracy of
Lord Russell's statement as to the date on which
the detention of the rams was determined ; but it is
to be regretted that the noble lord's explanation was
not a little fuller. As the case stands now, it would
appear that Lord Russell came to the decision to
stop the rams on the 3d of September; and, strange
to say, Mr. Layard on that very day wrote to
the Treasury, desiring that the rams should be
stopped. Obviously Lord Russell must have
been so convinced of the necessity of losing no
time that he telegraphed to his subordinate in
London. Mr. Layard carries out Lord Russell's
instructions and writes to the Treasury. But on
the 4th September, the day after Lord Russell
telegraphed the order for the detention of the rams,
he writes to Mr. Adams to state that the subject is
under the consideration of her Msjesty's Ministers,
and only on the Bth is the determination of the
Government to atop the rams announced to Mr.
Adams, and even then in a form not requiring Lord

Russell's signature, and probably dictated 'oy a
telegram. So that although poor Mr, Adams was
awaiting in the keenest anxiety the effect of his
threatening letters, he was unnecessarily kept out
of the secret some three or four days ; Lord Rus-
sell's haste and Mr. Layard's ready obedience were
entirely thrown away by the tardiness of the Trea-
sury authorities. Lord Russell's remarks on the
insolent dispatch of Mr. Seward were even less
satisfactory. His lordship does not think it worth
his while to take notice of this Yankee trick ; and
Northern citizens, estimating the honesty of Eng-
lish statesmen by that of their own, will of course
believe that the offensive dispatch was really com-
municated and had the required effect. Surely a
Government that was fully conscious of its respon-
sibility and dared to do what was right, would, in
some way or other, mark its condemnation of the
insulting language published by Mr. Seward as
correspondence with the Government of this
country. Lord Russell, however, shuts his eyes
to Mr. Seward's insolence, and can see only
Mr. Adams's amenities. We candidly admit that
the latter gentleman has discharged a very difficult
task with great temper and tact. But no one denied
this ; in fact, Lord Derby, on a previous occasion,
expressly complimented the American Minister on
the mode in which he had conducted his relations
with the Foreign Office, It was entirely beside the
question to panegyrise Mr. Adams, in answer to a
remonstrance against his placid submission to Mr.
Seward's insulting threats. However, the artifice,
transparent as it was, was not quite so bad as the
unwarrantable charge made against Lord Derby of
deliberately feigning an ignorance of correspondence
which he " must have read." The latter nobleman
at once repelled the charge, and it should never
have been made. One is tempted to ask what can
be expected of one who so recklessly imputes to a
statesman of Lord Derby's standing the meanest
" dodges" and pettiest of motives, and whether Lord
Russell, of all men, is not a little incautious in his
readiness to put an uncharitable construction on the
language of a political opponent.