The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-29 00:00:00

NOTICE.

All remittances are, henceforth, to be made to
Mr. JOHN CHAPLIN, at The Sun office, 112,
• Strand, who has been appointed, by the Lord
Chancellor, Receiver and Manager of The Sun
newspaper, and the outstanding debts due in
respect thereof. _

,d.
... A r,.... 41,....z 4ZP,:,,
,) e..,,..,,„A
-.51:,',--:, c-... el-, '.- \-- _;i_
7 ..,,
tet4,;,„ . ~'' e-:.:l7tl:s:<::=4,'-4'..ri;ai.' ' ~.r.-..„1
, .-.,-, 4...
1.,•.0 .
~_ ,;,,/,..!-::, •," •- • -,./...----,„

);

THE S UN•
LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1862.

The Commissioners on National Defences have at
length issued their Report on the proposed system
for the fortifications at Spithead. Remembering—
as who can fail to remember it just now P—the mo-
tion set down upon the papers of the Commons by
Mr. STANSFELD for a day as yet unnamed, this
Report of the National Defence Commissioners will
be looked to by every one with lively interest.
For it is precisely upon the maintenance or the
abandonment of this scheme of South Coast Forti-
fications that the whole of our problematic financial
difficulty may be said (at least in a very great mea-

sure) to depend. The alternative of Surplus or
Deficit, we might assert without extravagance,
oscillates at that extreme point of Spithead !
It will be observed that the Report of the C om-
missioners has been subdivided by them into exactly
two dozen sectional paragraphs. These reaoh their
climax in the twenty fourth, which runs, in point
of fact, in the manner following :—" The fore-
going considerations lead us to the conclusion that
fortification is a necessary element in any arrange-
ment for our permanent security, and that the con-
struction of forts at Spithead is essential for the pro-
tection of that anchorage. In proportion to the
development of the power of artillery, the value of
the forts will be increased, and the space to be de-
fended by floating batteries diminished, But, what-
ever that space may be, the support of forts is
necessary to give the defence a superiority over
the attack. We therefore adhere to the pin
expressed in our report of the 26thof
system of
February,
1861, appended hereto, that the combined
forts and floating batteries therein recommended
will be not only the mosteeonomicoarb thbedenc
onlyuttfheeeof
really efficient mode of providing for
Spithead." So that--resolute persistence in the
scheme originally projected a whole year and a quar-
ter since, the Commissioners may be said distinctly
to pslee,g the e Government. themselves, and with themselves, of
our
Let it be once formally
course,
decided that the project sketched out on the
26th of February, 1861—a project now delibe-
rately endorsed under date the 20th May, 1862,
by the whole eleven Commissioners, to wit—
HARRY D. JONES, Lieutenant-General, GEORGE
ELLIOT, Rear-Admiral, F. ABBOTT, Major-General
A. COOPER REY, Captain, R.N., J. H. LEFROY,
Colonel, R.A., JAMES FERGUSSON, members of the
Royal Commission; and RICH. COLLINSON, Cap-
tain, R.N., J. ST. GEORGE, Colonel, R,A., WM. S.
WISEMAN, Captain, R.N., H. D. HARNESS, Colonel,
R.E., associated members ; with WM. F. DRUM-
MOND jERTOIS, Lieutenant-Colonel, R.E., and As-
sistant 1.G.F., Secretary. Let the project proposed
in the February of 1861, and now in the May of
1862 confirmed as the most advisable among them
all, be but once fairly entered upon—and all the rest
follows by a sort of necessity. More, far more, will
be involved in such a decision as that, than the
mere covert insertion of what is familiarly
spoken of as the small end of the wedge.
A metaphor that which necessitates a succession of
blows, more or less violent, with a view to driving
the said wedge—slowly or swiftly, as the
case may be—home ! Whereas, in the in-
stance immediately before us, the sequel would
work itself out naturally and necessarily.
Let Parliament, in obedience to the recommen-
dation of her MAJESTY'S Ministers (themselves
acting under the earnest and deliberate advice
of the Royal Commissioners) once distinctly re-
solve
upon the carrying out this gigantic scheme
of land fortifications and floating batteries
together, and the expenditure will increase and
increase upon our hands as inexorably and un-
avoidably as by the principle of gravitation.
It is in consideration of this that compels us
all alike to recognise the perfect opportuneness
of Mr. STANSFELD'S motion, and of the searching
discussion that must arise out of it, and out of
the two important amendments appended to it—
the amendment, first of all, of Mr. HORSMAN, and,
secondly, the amendment of Lord ROBERT MON-
TAGU—the former of these so outspoken, the latter
so oddly enigmatical; the first such a direct home-
thrust, the second such a dazzling, but apparently
idle, and, to all appearance, perfectly harmless
flourish of a buttonless foil! Of course—if the
Commissioners can be proved to be arguing upon
sound premises, the Cabinet and the Com-
mons have no alternative whatever. Cost
what it may—what must be must—in regard to the
adequate defence of the nation_ Even though it
should necessitate the indefinite continuance for
years of the dreaded and detested income tax; even
though it should cause all hope of any considerable
surplus in the next balf-dozen Budgets to fade away
in perspective before our keen and eager anticipa-
tion—England must at all cost be placed as
speedily as possible, and as securely as pos-
sible, in a proper state of defence.
The question still remains, however, as to
the best way in which this should be done.
Shall it be done by enormous floating batteries in
combination with gigantic stone fortifications P
Lord PALMERSTON answers decidedly in the affir-
mative. His colleagues go with him, even his re-
luctant and agonised Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The royal commissioners deliberate and report upon
the matter, and confirm the Administration in its
expensive resolve, In simple and honest truth,
however, we cannot but protest that we ourselves
remain altogether unsatisfied as to any such neces-
sity. Demonstrate that it is " a necessity" at the
same time, and we will no longer demur. As it is
the Commissioners have wholly failed to convince
us by their Report. The only decision of
theirs that we can really go heart and soul
with them in, as thoroughly rational and
perfectly national, or patriotic into the bar-
gain, is—the Twenty-Third. Where their Coro-
missionerships declare—as certainly becomes them

in their capacity as Britons, while it peculiarly
and especially befits them in their character as the

•' beloved" and chosen advisers of the Sovereign—

hat " In any general system of defence that can be

proposed, the Navy, whether it be of iron or of

wood, must be, beyond all question, the arm on which
the country must mainly depend, whether for the

purpose of protecting our commerce, of offensive

operations against the enemy, or of opposing a
descent upon our shores." Here the Commissioners
add, however, immediately, "But, if the naval

resources of Great Britain are to be applied to the
best effect, our defensive arrangements should be

such as to require that the number of ships and
sailors fettered to our ports should be as few as
possible. Any means that can be adopted to re-
duce
the number of vessels and seamen required
for the defence of our arsenals is an addition to our
naval
Power. Fortifications at once increase both

our offensive and defensive power; for, by their
aid in the defence of our bases of operations at
Portsmouth and elsewhere, we are enabled to apply
our naval mean, in such a manner as to afford the
greatest amount of offensive power against the
enemy, and of defensive Power for the general pro-
teation of the kingdem.”
%L. E. non D ! Certainly
it is" not" demonstrated by this report of the Com-
missioners. And as matters at present stand in
respect to the state of our Defences, on the one
hand, and of our Finances, on the other, we do cer-
tainly hope and pray with all imaginable fervour
that, while they are about it, the Commons will
think twice before finally committing themselves to

this enormously expensive scheme of Stone Porti-

lication. It is manifestly a hobby of our noble and

veteran Premier's, to begin with. Let us see that

it don't run away with him—and with us also!

So far, in this crisis of the prevailing anxiety

about it, in these last moments of deliberation as to

the alternative whether the scheme under notice is

really "to be or not to be"—Mr,STANSFELD'S motion,
with Mr. HABS3fAIeS an.endment upon it, and Lord

ROBERT MONTAGU'S to boot, Will jet,..llnw oppor-

tunely enough hard upon the heels of the Commis-

sioners, now that they have just come forward with