The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

In expressing our lively satisfaction at the impetus which
has been given to public feeling throughout this country
with regard to the half-ruinous condition of the navy, it is
do more than our bounden duty to remind the public, that
the chief part in the production of so great a benefit be-
cngs to a gallant member of' that noble service, namely, the
" Flag Officer." whose short, pithy, and rousing letter to
the Duke of Wellington was, at the first moment of its pub-
lication, transferred to the pages of this journal. Official
persons, however high in station, or however subordinate,
whether occupying posts like that of Lord Minto, whose
knowledge of our marine amounts just to a familiarity with
the secret of turning his patronage. as First Lord, to his
profit as a Cabinet Minister, or like that of Sir John Bar-
row, whose knowledge (for of ignorance we acquit him),
whose prejudices, jealousies, and sorenesses, he being
a fixture of the Whitehall edifice, are all brought into ac-
tion by whatever his habits have prepared him to look upon
as an intrusion from without—such official gentlemen, we
say,have displayed a good deal of starched and sullen arro-
gance, at what they go so far as to term the " treasonable"
violation of professional duty perpetrated by naval officers
who have brought to light the criminal neglect or incapacity
of Lord Minto and his colleagues. The charge is, that the
" Flag Officer" and Captain Craufurd have been guilty of
some monstrous misdemeanour in disclosing to foreign 'Go-
vernments facts connected with the fallen state of the Bri-
ti-h navy, an arqaaintanee with which facts may be used to
the detriment of Great Britain. Now, there is not a de-
cently-informed foreigner, nor any Englishman above the
rank of an idiot, who does not know that the business of every
foreign Ambassador in this country (and of every British
Ambassador abroad), is to obtain, by all the means within
his reach—those means being innumerable, and easily acces-
sible everywhere—the most exact information respecting the
public force, military as well as maritime, of the Govern-
ment to which he is accredited. British Ambassadors
to the several ruling Powers of Europe, Asia, and Ame-
rica—and even British Consuls, in whatever city of the
earth, would, if this Whig Ministry were like any other
Ministry, incur prompt dismissal on the earliest evidence
afforded of their ignorance or misinformation touching the
resources, naval, military, financial, or commercial, of the
country wherein they were stationed. It is a farce, there-
fore, and an impudent farce, for men in office here to make
believe that they " are afraid of foreign Powers acquiring,"
from pamphlets published by individual Englishmen, one
particle of insight into :the re::! position, the wants, and
weakness of our national establishments, beyond that
which they are already and have long since been possessed
of. Why, it would be as ridiculous to imagine that any
novel facts were conveyed through such channels to rival
or hostile Courts as that the " Flag Officer " or Captain
Craufurd had made the Russian Government wiser than it
was already, by detailing for the information of the people
of England the number of vessels, men, and guns, which
composed the strength of the Baltie fleet or of the squadron
in the Euxine. Yet part of Sir J. Barrow's vituperation
launched against the above gallant officers seems actuary pro-
voked by the crime of their publishing so accurate a state-
ment of the naval force of foreign Powers, that such Powers
themselves would thus become more formidable by reason
of the new light imparted to them by a British visitor con-
cerning their own armaments and resources! The real
offence, however, is simply that the pamphlets which we
refer to have succeeded in effecting the honourable and
patriotic work which they were designed for—viz., opening
the eyes, not of foreigners, but of the British nation, to the
manifold dangers and disgraces which impend over them,
which have originated in the supineness and miserable self-
ishness of these same official intriguers, and of which the
exposure has done more towards destroying the foundations
of the Melbourne Government than the failure, or even
than the threatened success, of any one of its measures of
internal policy. It is clear, upon the face of these profes-
sional statements, and still more so from the reluc-
tant acknowledgments of Sir John Barrow—first, that
Russia has of ships in commission just double the num-
ber of line-of-battle ships which he (Sir John Bar-
row) assumes, and incorrectly assumes, are now ready
for sea on the part of England. Russia, accord-
ing to his avowal, has 40 sail of the line in commission (be-
sides 24 heavy frigates), of which 27 sail of the line are
fully armed, manned, equipped, and provisioned for four
months, within, a week's sail of Hull or Edinburgh, while
England, according to his assumption, has 21 sail of the
line in commission (with only nine frigates), of which 21
sail of the l:ne three are without their lower-deck guns, and
three others—to wit,the guardships—without hands enough
to navigate as many frigates ; so that the total of our effec-
tive line of battle ships does not exceed 15 sail in commis.
sion, manned with only the peace complement ; of which
15 sail not a single ship, save one at Sheerness, is sta-
tioned to the northward of the Downs, and not so
much as a watch or sentinel has for these four years past
been so placed on any part of the eastern coast of Great
Britain as to give the alarm in case of an enemy's fleet
passing the Sound towards the westward. But as for fight-
ing such a fleet, or snaking even a show or mockery of
resistance, the British Ministers have never dreamed
of it. They have left the shores of this great kingdom
utterly defenceless, without either ships to prevent an
enemy's landing, or troops to punish him for having done
so ! Sir John Barrow tries to sneer at all this, and would
actually persuade the people of England that it is a mere
joke to talk of Russia with a well-prepared fleet of twenty-
seven sail of the line, and without the chance of meeting
a solitary British frigate on their passage, having " had it
in her power," any time these four years, to despatch the
said fleet against any port of England that she pleased,
landing her troops wherever she pleased, and committing
whatever destruction of life and property it might suit the
caprices of her semi-barbarous myrmidons to inflict upon us.
Why, let us ask, what was to hinder the Russian Govern-
ment from invading us if it had thought proper ? We seek a
reply to the question. What hindrance had she to fear?
Was it the Admiralty telegraph at Whitehall, swinging
about its helpless arms, fatiguing the eye of foot-passen-
gers with its interminable contortions, and beating the air
with signals to the out-ports, which there was not a
single sloop of war to obey ? Was the obstacle
that scared the Government of St. Peterslaugh no-
thing more than a broadside from the Secretary of the Ad-
miralty, in the form of a contemptuous appendix fired at
the head of the Russian Admiral, as a similar battery has
recently been discharged at a " Flag Officer" of the British
navy, and with an effect so pitiable ! We ask again, srliat,
when the frost breaks up, two months hence at the latest
—what is still to prevent the Russian fleet from attacking
the shores of England this very coming spring, if Nicholas
feels that he has any just vengeance to satiate on Viscount
Palmerston ! Will there be a fleet, or a squadron, a squa-
dron even of steamers, ready for service in the North Sea
this spring ? Are the smallest preparations made for it ?
Have any ships been put into commission since the Ganges
and the Powerful, both destined for the Mediterranean ?
We apprehend not one. Fortifications, proh pudor .1 are
erecting in the Thames to save Sheerness, about 40
miles east of London, from falling by a coup-de-main,
with its fine basins, dockyard, ; but of our wooden
walls we hear no syllable ; from Mexico to Cron-
gtadt there waves not a British pendant, A valu-
able hint was thrown out by the " Flag-Officer," ad-
vising the convcrs;on of a good number of the old eighteen-
pounder 46-gun frigates into 26-gun corvettes carrying Bft.
2-pounders on a single deck. They would then become
truly formidable vessels of a class which is deplorably
wanted, far superior to the Curacoa, once a 42-gun frigate,
and since cut down to a24on a single deck. The stability
of the above description of men-of-war would thus be
sensibly increased, their draught of water much reduced ;
they would become buoyant and lively as seagulls, and the
fastest Sailing vessels in the navy. Arm them as they
were formerly, with 28 18-pounders and 18 32-pound car-
ronades, and there is not an American or French corvette
of 20 guns that will not be sure to capture them. But
make them razees, and arm them as now proposed, and no
corvettes equal to them will swim the Atlantic Ocean.
,However, the neglect of this improvement forms but one
amongst innumerable heads of charge against tha
Mints, dynasty. Sir John Barrow may attempt to snub
down and intimidate the free expression of their sen-
timents by officers of the marine of England. But it will
not do. We have before us a short pamphlet by a
o Naval Officer," who tells the officials of the Admiralty
some ::!Ime truths. It is entitled " Observations upon a
"Letter au
'“-iressed.PY to the Earl of Minto, by One of the
people." In „ P
1 to the author of the last-mentioned
publication, who rei'm
mends "for our defence a flotilla of
war steamers, in the asts4ence .
„of ships of the line, the
Naval Officer' asks, very nail'. ally, where is that flotilla
to come from ? ' Where are 12, or 6, armed steamers to
be found in our ports ?
We are just as destitute of
steamers, fit for war, as we are of every other naval
defence.'" In fact, Sir John Barrow, in his table,
acknowledges that of war steamers actually afloat
(besides five which are only building), Great Britain
bas not more than seven, while France has twenty-
eight—four to one ! and Russia eight. Sir John
indeed, attempts by an inuendo to smuggle the unarmed
and undersized Post-office packets of England amongst her
steamers fit for war, but that is ludicrous to any judge who
bas seen the packets. The " Naval Officer" then goes on
It is not one flag officer, or one captain, or one lieu-
tenant, in the British navy, but the generality of naval
officers (not allowing party feeling to interfere with their
judgment of what is for their country's interest), who coin-
cide in the remarks and facts contained in the " Flag Offi-
cer's" letter. Naval officers are not dispirited from want of
zeal, but from knowing that if a war should find England
in her present state, they must be blockaded in their own
ports, and this, Sir, you carify when you say we are now
relying on the forbearance of 7 In short, the un-
pavy has been
varnished state o ' the navy is that !he