The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—There was a supplemental American de-
bate in the House of Commons last evening. Any
sermon, it is said, may be preached on any text, and
so members will talk of what is uppermost in their
minds, no matter what may be the original subject
of discussion. On this occasion it was guns and coast
defences • but these were quite enough to give
Mr. Berkeley an opportunity of entering into
American politics, and denouncing " that atrocious
Monroe doctrine which was opposed to all rational
law, and to everything in the shape of civilisation
and civil liberty." Mr. Peacocke followed on the
same side, and made a warm Southern speech, eulo-
gising Mr. Laird for his efforts at " pacification" in
the equipment of the Alabama. This produced a
speech in the course of the debate from Mr. Forster
on the other side, and had not the chief speakers on
American politics had their say before there might
have been a regular discussion on, these important
matters. But fortunately the house was not dis:-
posed to be discursive, and so the debate was pretty
well confined to ships, guns, and fortifications, mat-
ters which at the present time never lick eager dis-
putants in any society. The complaint of Mr.
Berkeley and his followers is that the country is not
protected. Many of our harbours are not armed at
all, others are armed only with guns of obsolete
construction and inadequate calibre. The French
or Americans, or any other maritime Power, might
come into the Channel and sink, burn, and destroy
at will. On foreign stations it is just as bad. Mr.
H. Baillie declares that at Quebec obsolete guns are
mounted on rotten carriages which would break to
pieces at the first discharge. The same might be
said of our military stations. At Malta, Gibraltar,
and the Channel Islands, there is nothing but obso-
lete guns. What was worse, the projectiles were
obsolete. They had no steel projectiles,which were
necessary for modern warfare. Such were some of
the statements of the anxious partisans of more effi-
cient defence. The visions of these gentlemen are
most gloomy. To their minds we are always on
the verge of a catastrophe. We have no gun fit to
fight an. enemy, or ships to carry the guns if we
had them. In the port of our future adversaries,
on the contrary, are mysterious vessels which could
sweep our fleets off the seas, and then destroy
every sea-coast town of the three kingdoms. In
vain have we spent 60 millions within five years,
in vain do we purpose to spend 10 millions more
during the coming year. Whatever may be said
by the ignorant or the professionally prejudiced, it
is beyond a doubt, they think, that we are in danger,
and, in fact, depend for safety mainly on the for-
bearance of our enemies. It is rather reassuring to
an honest outsider who reads all these terrible warn-
ings to find what very magnificent notions are en-
tertained as to the arming of our coasts. In order to
avert danger from British property and possessions
Mr. Berkeley, for instance, thinks that " every
roadstead and place where merchantmen take refuge
should be protected by an adequate gun." In fact,
the alarmists would fortify us all over. The works
at Portsmouth, Plymouth, and the othe naval sta-
tione would only be the more prominent parts of a
system which would extend over every part of all the
coasts of the three kingdoms. Everywhere the Go-
vernment would have to place its new gun when it
gets it, and in the meantime to rifle old ones so
as to make the best possible defence against a
sudden attack. From the excessive demands of
these critics we may fairly judge of the unreason-
ableness of their fears and suspicions. When Mr.
Baillie suggests that Mr. Gladstone's expected sur-
plus should be expended in placing the country in
a state of defence, as otherwise, in case of war, we
" could not fail to have a great disaster," the public
may see how far these well-intentioned alarmists
would lead them. To spend a surplus in erecting
forts along 1,000 miles of Canadian frontier, and at
least that length of English and Irish coast, requires
a stronger conviction of coming disaster than calm
and self-confident Englishmen possess at present.
Lord Hartington explained at some length the actual
position of the country. It is true we have not in our
coast batteries guns capable of beating off iron-
clads, but what we have are completely efficient
against wooden vessels. The chief naval stations of
the country are armed with artillery quite able to
repel any attacks likely to be made at present, and
the new batteries which it is intended to arm with
the new gun are advancing slowly, and will not be
ready for arming for some time to come. There is,
consequently, time for consideration and for further
experiment, as it would be unwise and absurd to
hurry on the making of guns at a time when the
fortifications are not ready to receive them, and be-
fore the best principles of construction are fully un-
derstood. Nothing is more clearly the duty of Govern-
ment than to avoid any kind of panic, and to set
about the task of national defence with calmness and
good sense. If it be desirable to fortify the dockyards
and naval ports of England, it must be against a
Power capable of keefing the sea against us and of
sending a formidable force across the Channel or the
Atlantic. If the vessels despatched on this service
be of wood, there is probably at present a sufficient
defence;and it is not likely that any Power will be able
to send to sea a squadron of iron ships for some
years to come. The iron ships of our rivals are
few; they are, whatever may be said, inferior in
number and power to our own, and not likely to
bring us to extremities in our own waters. The
Government may then, with a good conscience, let
the construction of these fortifications and the
arming them with powerful guns be a leisurely and
well-examined process. It may be that we shall
never want fortifications ; but, on the other hand, it
is almost certain that if the construction and arming
of them were to be hurried on they might prove to
be useless in the hour of need, and the whole of
the guns mounted on them be found obsolete. It
should not be forgotten that the 68-pounder, which
is now considered as obsolete as Mons Meg, was
the very best gun only ten years since, and the
110-pounder Armstrong was only called into exist-
ence by the Trent affair. It is much better, then,
to wait until it is ascertained that we have got the
best possible gun before large sums are spent on this
branch of the national defence. England will really
be much more likely to avert a war by inspiring
foreign nations with a consciousness that her ener-
gies have not been too severely taxed, and that dur-
ing peace she has been adding to those resources
from which hostilities are maintained, than if she
were to mount a 600-pounder at the mouth of every
creek on the coasts of the three kingdoms. The
clamourers for more efficient defence leave out of
account the political influences which have so large
a part in determining the decisions of Sovereigns
and nations. They cannot see that the enemy which
an ambitious Power dreads is one capable of sup-
porting a long war, and one also so lightly burdened
as to be ready to act with alacrity and effect when
circumstances demand. Such will this country be
as long as it resists the tendency to mistake exces-
sive caution for wisdom and elaborate preparations
for strength. England in its immense industrial
establishments has facilities for war which are not
possessed by any other nation. Ships, guns, pro-
jectiles, and all the rest of the machinery of war
which Mr. Berkeley and Mr. Baillie would have us
store up in untold quantities may be produced, if
necessary, with a rapidity which no adversary could
rival. The duty of Government is rather to create
models on which the national defences may be inde-
finitely increased on occasion than to maintain
enormous armaments. It should make experiments
which will give the country the best ship rather than
a number of ships, the best gun rather than so many
thousand guns, and for the rest trust to the pa-
triotism and enterprise of the country, which such a
policy will invigorate by lightening its burdens. We
have now, we believe, the best ships and the best
artillery. In neither ought any nation to approach,
and we believe that no nation does approach, this
iron-producing country. What need is there, then,
for us to be periodically told that we have become
helpless through the stupidity of Administrations
and the alleged parsimony of the people ?
HERALD.—We have in the political market just
now two Whigs in a very high state of reservation.
One is anxious to find favour with the electors of
Leeds, the other with the electors of Westminster.
Both belong to the " families," and neither, as it
appears, has achieved what we may call years of
political discretion. Of the two, however, the Hon.
Captain Grosvenor,• who is anxious to sit in Par-
liament for the -metropolitan borough, is decidedly
the more advanced in opinion, taking opinion to
mean stability of thought. Still, this Pompey and
this Caesar are, indeed, very much alike ; for they
are both strongly marked by a desire to " re-
serve" their course of action, and to " have
liberty withal, as large a charter as the wind, to
blow on whom they please." Amberley the
Doubter is kept in countenance by Grosvenor the
Judicious, for while the one will not pledge him-
self to votei for a £6 franchise for boroughs, unless
he has liberty to change his mind, the other
will not vote for household suffrage, supposing such
a suffrage to interfere with the state of things con-
sequent upon the existing parliamentary representa-
tion. To this complexion has advanced Whiggism
come at last ; to this kind of shilly-shallying have
the cadets of the " families " descended. We must
take it that these men who ask the electors for sup-
port are either very clever and very tricky, or they
are very foolish. Lord Amberley really believes
that a lowering of the borough franchise would de-
grade the franchise, and yet, upon pressure, he con-
sents to the degradation. The Hon. Captain Gros-
venor knows well enough that an extension,:of the
franchise would alter the character of our parlia-
mentary representation, and yet he pledges himself
to a measure of household suffrage upon condition
that it shall not democratise the country. Are these
two gentlemen really cunning of fence, or are they
not? rave they sound opinions which they mean

artfully to manage, or have they no opinions at all
to which they intend to adhere ? To get money
honestly, if you can, but at any rate to get money,
was lago's advice to Roderigo. To get into Parlia-
ment, honestly if poSsible, but at any risk to get into
Parliament, seems to be the moving principle of these
Whig candidates. Do what they will, • the electors
cannot bind Lord Amberley and the Hon. Captain
Grosvenor. They are as shifty as Proteus, and their
politics are as many-hued as the chameleon. They
are favourable to causes without effects; they are
prepared to do anything pleasant the natural re-
sults of which can be avoided. Generally speaking,
when a man contemplates political or any other
action he accepts the necessary changes that such
action will bring about. If he opens a door to a
crowd demanding entrance, he agrees to an inva-
sion of his hall or a caucus in his drawing-rooin•
If he steps from this piece of firm ground to that
untrodden marsh, he must take the consequences
of so different a standing, and consent to the
penalties of his progress. Ordinary men, at least,
must do this ; but those extraordinary men,
Lord Amberley and the Hon. Capt. Grosvenor,.
have cultivated a theory that they can move on
and yet stand still. We have heard of running
with the hare and hunting with the hounds, and
we have thought the feat almost, if not quite lir,"
possible. But Viscount Amberley and Captain
Grosvenor think differently. In effect they are
sporting with the electors in this very way, and try-
ing to show how well they can do two exactly opPo'
site things at the same time. What is this but
blowing hot and cold in one breath ? They Warm
their hearers with promises, and then freeze them
with afterthoughtS and reservations. That everlast-
ing " if," which leaves the speaker open to take
almost any course, is always in their mouths ;
and with such political trimming they try
irte
beguile the electors of two great cities. 11'„e
venture to think that this is a question of poi"
tical morality. Whether Lord Amberley and
the Hon. Captain Grosvenor should or should
not sit in Parliament, must yield in importance to
the greater " whether" implied in the question—
Leeds and Westminster prepared to send to Parlia-
ment two gentlemen of immature opinions or of no
opinions at all ? When a lady receives the addresses
of a lover, Paterfamilias is apt to look in at the tryst'
ing place, and to ask Lovelace something about hiS
" intentions." Supposing the young gentleman to
reply that his intentions!are thoroughly honourable,
except that he reserves to himself liberty to marry or
notto marry, it is just possible that the enraged father
would violently ring the bell, call up the footman,
and send thehighlyreserved suitor abouthis business;
He might do more; he might kick this " unprepared'
candidate for marital suffrage down stairs. Tree:,
a borough is not so tender, so delicate a thing
a trusting woman. It may e deceived, betrayal,
and doomed to wear the political willow for a time,
and yet not lose caste, or be compelled to bring all
action for breach of promise to reinstate its charac-
ter. But even for a borough, it is as well not to bi
deceived. Parliaments sometimes are long-lived, an
~%`
even indignation meetings may not send a politeca;
betrayer to the Chiltern Hundreds. There is 31
Court of Divorce for constituencies and their Intl;
bers—no Sir James Wilde to pronounce a decree
a vinculo in cases where incompatibility of feeling,
accompanied by positive infidelity, renders a Sev6S:
ante between a borough and its representative 3
visable. A candidate should, therefore, not be takeo
upon trust—not be accepted because he may haPPedo
to keep his promise and cast away his reserve. Lee
and Westminster are asked to accept candidates,,e`
whom this can be their only hope, Leeds especiaillof
Westminster generally. The two gentlemen W,O
press for the electoral favours of these boroughs ',I
slightly loose in their politics. Their political cree:t
abounds in " ifs," and their speeches are full of tliso
kind of promise which looks made to be broken- 410
far as we are concerned, did Lord Amberley and, es
Hon. Capt. Grosvenor absolutely pledge themsel:vid,
to do all that they palter about doing, they low
of course, be beyond the pale of our approbation.
A
The principal 'measures upon which they
so doubtfully would, in our opinion, be alit et••
but salutary measures for the country at lark'
and so far, if we could approve of tergive'ce
sations upon important public questions, the clian,l
that neither Lord Amberley nor Captain Grosven,bue
will act up to their implied predilections, m 'IA
event of their being returned to Parliament, wt..
induce us to regard their return with equaninll.olo,
But one of the cardinal points of political
that
should be truthfulness, and to work with tools tnaali
we should decline to trust would be repugnant t°
Conservative feeling. To send these men to raA
liament would possibly be to disappoint the Liber::',„
electors of Leeds and Westminster, and to plan
a roundabout method, into the hands of {Copse 3
vatism. But, for ourselves, we should pi efer,es
plainer course, and decidedly favour candiaro
upon whose known and distinctly expressed opillic'to
we Could rely. So, no doubt, would the electors
whom Lord Amberley and the Hon. Captain Gros-
venor address themselves. But as the case statil::,
what the constituencies would prefer appears ter7ir
overruled by certain Whig influences of a pecaa_
character ; and these two vacillating politicians 1:
the shell are paraded at public meetings to halo',
themselves as they may. A queer business they
make of it, it is true ; and already there are symp-
toms that the unanimity they
to
pieces. How it may all end, at this early period
Westminster
it
is impoSsible to say. But Leeds and gentle-
man for is goin.g_
should really not be made the sport of one
who does not know his own mind and another
who professes political stultification.