The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-23 00:00:00

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other evening were simply unequalled ,ma I,z,
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The ladies there collected togetherilviertiin ..\.7c;:i;7
the prettiest women—(loud and ehitingtiii,,H:4o \Zif,,4
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ing)—and he had had a pretty lorig:teiPiriiiit' It
he had ever met with. (Applause.)'' 4itii)
....)in all quarters of the globe, but he luid-ikev'e?-i-Oiav
such a number of pretty women as those'atembleil S
at the Town-hail on Friday night. (Loud cheers.)
His worthy friend on his left had just hinted to.
him that " it was a very pretty story to talk in;
that way," and no doubt it was, and ono upon.
which be should like to enter upon rather
more fully. (Cheers and laughter.). But he had
to talk of a graver subject—and that was the
Mayor and Corporation of Liverpool. (Cheers and
laughter.) No one could pay a visit to Liverpool
without being struck with the cleanliness of the
Place and the excellent sanitary arrangements
wawnehdl il et
thhhaet
ct prevailed.ahuoss ee s
intrusted
tf r
udSsettaaettdhi s
witha inesi
te
aohiproveds:d:aiei
governmento inhtsao had been
etabhleet
ehnoti
town
re-
moved
hsse
—the registrar's returns showed how carefully and
from its midst. Now, these things could
not be looked after uniess there' were 'working men ;
place did work, and that in the rf,;ht direction, was
proved by the high sanitary
(Hear, hear.) There was another wetter which to
him had the greatest interest as the _Admiral of a
fleet, from which there were necessarily .a good many
sailors always on shore. Of all the place's at which
the Channel Fleet had yet been, there Lad been
fewer reports of misconduct on the pare of the
sailors at Liverpool than at any other place. He
believed that was owing, not to the fact that Liver-
pool had a better police, but because the sailors had
been better treated. " Jack" was a knowing fel-
low : he knew when he was well off, and would not
kick up a row. (Laughter.) With respect to the
entertainment to the sailors on the morrow, be
would take the opportunity of expressing the feel 7,,
ing of pleasUre which himself and his brother offs''
cers felt at this display of kindness. At the same
time, he did not conceal from himself that the thing
was an experiment, but it was an experiment which
it would have been unworthy of his position to have
forbidden. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) It was now'
for the men to show their appreciation of the kind-
ness exhibited towards them by not abusing it. He:
valued the men who formed the British navy as
much as man could do, and though they had their
faults, yet they had a hundred good qualities. (Loud
cheers.) But he would beg of them not to be too
kind in their hospitality. Those connected with
the Channel Fleet had been eating cake all round
the coast, and he expected some of them would be
getting sick of it. (Laugher.)
The MAYOR (Mr. R. C Gardner) responded.
Lord STANLEY then proposed " The Town and
Trade of Liverpool," for which Mr. RANKIN, Chair-
man of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, re.
tuned thanks.

—..4d.
STAMPED

this. Don't let me be misunderstood. I should
like to speak in returning thanks as well as the
gentlemen who proposed our health, but that
gift is not given to me. But I have got one knack
—and that is of saying what I mean. (Applause.)
I would not for anything give up the command of
this fleet, for two reasons—first, because I see all
this enthusiasm given to the navy, and in the next
place because I command some of the finest officers
and gentlemen I wish to be among. It would be
unworthy of you, and it would be unworthy of mc,
if I drew the slightest comparison between our re-
ception at one place and another. Liverpool, lam
sure, needs no praise for her hospitality from me,
and good wine needs no bush. Bat in Liverpool
there is this advantage, that you have the ships
lying at your own doors. You see them, and you
know them as well now as if you had seen them for
months. You, gentlemen, have paid a good deal of
money for these ships ; you now know the terms of
your insurance, and I hope you are satisfied with
them. (Applause.) Two or three of the speakers
who preceded me have spoken on the importance of
keeping up a naval force, and this is a fact which
cannot be too much impressed. It is not the fear
of invasion, for I believe that our army and our
volunteers, whom nobody values more highly than
I do—(applause)—would be of the greatest service_
But I should like to know how you, gentlemen,
would look if the French fleet had the command of
the Channel for only one week. But when I say
that I would impress upon everybody the necessity
of keeping up the naval resources of this country,
I refer also to the naval reserves. The reserves of
this great commercial port, I understand, are
only 1,009. I should like to see the reserve in pro-
portion to the number of sailors, so that if we are
beaten in the Channel—which I do not expect—
there will be plenty of sailors to go on with. There
is plenty of courage in the merchant service. I was
in the Crimea with hundreds of merchant sailors,
and I believe there are as good officers among them
as any of us—(applause)—and as they are British
sailors they are sure to fight well. We must have
something to fall back upon. The Government find
ships, but the country must find men. Gentlemen,
I thank you from my heart for the very kind way
in which you have drunk the Navy, for it is a pro-
fession which I glory in belonging to. (Applause.)
Admiral DACRES then proposed " Commodore
Graves and the Members of the Royal Mersey Yacht
Club."

Captain HORNBY, RN., of her Majesty's ship
Edgar, proposed " Tne Ladies," on whose behalf
Mr. R. HUTCHISON, ex-Mayor, responded.

Commodore GRAVES responded, and proposed
''the Two Houses of Parliament."
Lord STANLEY, on rising to respond, was received
with long-continued applause. He said,—l thank
you, Mr. Commodore Graves,—I thank you, gentle-
men, not only for the kind and cordial reception
which you have given me in this room, not only for
the flattering things which have been said personally
of myself, not only for that which 1 value far more—
the enthusiasm with which you have welcomed my
father's name—(great applause)—not only for the
terms of respect, just and well deserved as I believe
them to be, in which you have spoken of the great
legislative body of which I am proud to be a member,
and which exercises practically at the present day
supreme power in the State, and uses that power on
the whole with judgment, with moderation, and with
fairness, but I thank you far more for the opportunity
which you have given me in my own.name, in my
father's name, and I think I may say in the name of
the inhabitants:of this:neighbourhood, of thanking
Admiral Decree and the officers under his command,
for the honour of this visit paid us by the Channel
Fleet, and expressing the gratification which we have
all derived from a sight which is not only interesting
hut unique. (Cheers.) I believe the chairman was
strictly correct when he told 3 ou that at no time since
Liverpool had been a borough—certainly at no time
since the Channel Fleet has been an institution of this
country—has the Mersey ever been visited by so con-
siderable a portion of the Royal Navy. We hope
that the first visit won't be the last. Admiral Dacres
has found his way here once, and we will take very
good care that he finds it again. (Cheers.) And
without disparagement to any other place, I am
sure I may say this—that there is in all Great Bri-
tain no town where naval men are more honoured
or naval acts more appreciated than here in Liver-
pool; the sea has made it what it is, and Liverpool
men take pride in the sea. We have, as it has been
said, in our yacht club no contemptible naval re-
serve, and though we cannot locally pretend to com-
pete with those magnificent vessels which are now
lying in our waters, yet I think we have a navy of
our own not wholly unworthy to compete even with
them—a navy existing, indeed, for purposes exclu-
sively peaceful, but not the less a triumph of human
industry and skill—those vast ocean steamers which
have joined the New World to the Old, and crossed
the Atlantic with the regularity of boats crossing a
ferry at a speed which is only surpassed by the rail-
road. (Cheers.) But, gentlemen, it is not only to
us, it is to every person, of whatever country he
may be, that the sight of such vessels as we have
now witnessed is not only interesting but novel.
We are seeing that which is strictly an experi-
mental fleet, a fleet in which almost every vessel is
an experiment, or, perhaps I should say, a combi-
nation of experiments. (Hear, hear.) We have seen,
probably, the last of those old wooden two-decked
line-of-battle ships which will ever carry the flag of
a British admiral, and certainly a more splended
vessel of her class than the Edgar never sailed the
sea. (Hear.) Wo have seen the first of these noble and
mighty engines of destruction which are revolution-
ising naval warfare, and 'which our friends on the
other side of the Atlantic are kind enough to us to
be trying on so large a scale at their expense and
for our instruction. Gentlemen. I confess I wish that
the House of Commons as a body could feel what
you and I have witnessed, for seeing is believing,
and I am sure that sight will have impressed
upon every mind two great facts which have been
very strongly impressed upon mine ; one, that for
the money which we have expended pretty largely
of late years we have value received; the other,
that in this naval architecture we are literally feel-
ing our way (Hear.) I can speak of course upon
this subject only on second hand, but if I may ex-
press what seems to be a very general opinion
among those best competent to judge, it is more
than doubtful whether we have as yet got that gun
which is to be the gun of the future, and it is per-
haps open to doubt, splendid as are those ships
which now lie in our waters, whether we have got
the exact mould of a ship which is to be the man-of-
war for the future. Now, I think it is our duty, as
members of the House of Commons, to bear in mind
specially the tentative and experimental character
of what we are now doing. It is our duty to
grudge no outlay which is necessary for purposes
of efficient defence, and that is a duty from 'which
assuredly we shall not shrink. It is our duty above
all to shrink from no outlay which may be neces-
sary for the purpose of experiment, but it is not
the less our duty at the same time to avoid that
fault into which we have often fallen before, and
into which, while men remain what they are, it is
always possible we may fall again. I mean the
fault of being satisfied with what we have accom-
plished, of resting upon our oars, and of essuming
that what we consider as the perfect model of the
day will be an equally perfect model ten years
hence. (dear, hear.) Pardon me, gentlemen, for
referring very momentarily to such a subject; and,
as brevity is the order of the day, permit rue at
once and without further preface to return you my
thanks on h017,1f cr the House cf Commons.
(Applause.)
" The Mayor and Corporation of Liverpool" was
proposed by Admiral DACE.ES the following
terms :—lt was quite unnecessay for him to speak
of the magnificent hospitality which they had re-
ceived at the hands of his worthy friend, the Mayor
of that town. (Applause.) Iu Liverpool, where
everything was carried out in the most princely
style, his Worship had excelled in his display of
hospitality; the ball and dinner that he gave the

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.

A naval court-martial was held on board the
flagship Victory at Portsmouth yesterday for the
trial of James Petly Symes, assistant-paymaster of
her Majesty's ship Pioneer, on the charge of being
on or about the 17th of September, 1863, fraudu-
lently deficient in the public moneys in his charge
to the amount of £44 125., and for making or caus-
ing ,to be made erasures or alterations for the pur-
pose of showing a balance of £276155. 1 J.d., instead
of the true balance of £314 Bs., certified by the ex-
amining officers on the 31st of March, 1863. The
Court was composed of Capts. Seott and Seccombe,
and Commanders Curme, Lowther, and Simpson.
The prisoner was found guilty, and he was sen-
tenced to bo dismissed from her Majesty's service
with disgrace.
The Pioneer, 6, screw gunvcssel, Commander
Robinson (acting), was paid out of commission yes-
terday afternoon alongside Portsmouth dockyard.
Of the squadron of screw gunboats and mortar
vessels attached to the three divisions of the Chat-
ham steam reserve in the Medway, nearly the
whole, constructed for the Government during tho
excitement of the Russian war, chiefly by private
builders, those which upon survey have been found
unfit to be retained in the service are to be for-
warded from Chatham to Deptford dockyard to be
broken up. Provided it be practicable the engines
and machinery of the condemned gunboats are to be
taken out before their remoN al to Deptford. A his-
tory of these gunboats and the vast sums lavished
on their construction would contain some singular
disclosures. Scarcely one of the gunboats now be-
longing to the navy has been built more than nine
years, and yet of the 190 which figure in the Wary
List fully one-half would, upon survey, prove to be
unfitted for active naval operations. With regard to
the fleet of mortar vessels lying at Chatham no orders
have yet been received, but directions have been
given to the dockyard officials to adapt them for
dockyard lighters and transports, as they may bo
required. For this service their size and great
strength render them well adapted. There is still a
fleet of iron mortar vessels of large size lying high.
and dry at Chatham dockyard. These are all housed
over, and each boat is carefuhy covered with a thick
coating of red lead. Notwithstanding the care taken
to protect them, it is believed that several of these
would upon examination be found unfit for the ser-
vice for which they were originally intended.
While the Medusa, 4, 312-horse power, paddle-
wheel steamer, was being removed from Chatham
harbour into No. 3 dock at Sheerness, a day or two
since, an accident occurred to the vessel, resulting in
rather considerable damage to the hull and machi-
nery. The ship was shored up before she had pro-
perly settled down on the blocks, so that on the
water being pumped out she came down with a sud-
den crash on to the blocks. A survey was yester-
day made to ascertain the extent of the damage
done, which is estimated at from £5OO to £l,OOO.
The screw gun-vessels Alacrity, 4, 200-horse
power, and the Reynard, 4, 200-horse power, both
just paid off into the Chatham steam reserve, ace to
have the defects to their engines and boilers made
good, but previous to their being taken in hand
both vessels are to be surveyed by the dockyard
officials in order to ascertain the state of their hulls.