The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

STATISTICS OF THE FRENCH NAVY.

A report on the French navy by M. Dams, Minister
of Marine, has appeared in the Moniteur. The Minister
shows that, with a budget of 40,000,000 f. less in amount
than in the time of Louis Philippe, he has increased the
power of the French navy to an extent that was never
before witnessed in the same period of time, and has
nevertheless a surplus of 10,000,000 f. on the budget of
1852. He proposes to return half that surplus to the
Treasury, and to apply the other half to the present
budget. The following is an analysis of the report :
The budget for the navy, it states, was fixed for 1852
at 117,225,778 f., and for 1853 at 117,181,001 f.,
less beings
Iby 40 000 000 f than the budgets of 1847 and 18
4
, , .
The following are some of the advantageous results ob-
tained :-Ist, the previsions of the budget only applied
for 1852 and 1853 to 130 armed vessels, .bu
'
been kept at sea. 2dly, these
sameprleB9 previsions
en
and 2s only
have
,2 19
ap-
plied to 30,745 able-bodied seamen for
for 1853, whereas the average number has "been 33,675 ;
idly, France possessed only one squadron of eight
line-of-banle ships, whereas at present she possesses
two squadrons, composed of fourteen ships of the
line, exclusive of a proportionate augmentation
in the number of frigates and steam corvettes ;
4thly, the French navy did not comprise any steam line-
of-battle ship, completely terminated, but the Napoleon
has been finished, and for the last year has formed part
of the Mediterranean squadron. sthly, the navy pos.
sessed no mixed line-of-battle ship, whereas at present
it has four completely finished, and nine others in the
course of tran=sformation, and the engines of which are
on the point of being delivered. These nine vessels can
be put to sea at the end of the year. 6thly, six new
steamers on the model of the Napoleon have been laid
on the stocks ; by the end of the present year they will
be urged on to the 12-24ths of their completion, and will
be launched at the end of next year. 7thly, the greater
number of the steam frigates which were disarmed have
been placed in " commission de port." Bthly, the penal
settlements of Guyana have received their first establish-
ment, and nearly 3,000 convicts have been sent there,
9thly, the works in the port of Cherbourg have been
urged on with great activity, a sum of 4,000,000 f.
having been accorded to them from the present
budget. 10thly, the works at Castignau, which are
to complete the port of Toulon, have been under-
taken with the ordinary resources of the year,
and have already received a first sum of 1,000,000 f.
llthl y, a careening dock was wanted at Rochefort ; it
has b een commenced, and has already received a first
credit. of 200,000 f. ; and 12thly, a number of matters
connected with the navy have been undertaken without
any e xtra resources, such as the reconstitution of the
reser cc, the augmentation of the pay of the non-commis-
sioned officers, the amelioration in the quality of the
bread. for the navy, &c. The expenses of all these im-
provements have been defrayed from the ordinary re-
sources of the budget ; and far from the sum appropriated
to the purchase of stores having been augmented, they__
have left a sum of ten millions disposable from I,Srobm
'_Chat
iat sum arises from three several causes—first, f
t he postponement of seveial important contracts,ednePy_e_d.
b y the circumstance of force majeure. Steamt va.±nee osf
t. )ols, and large supply of stores, tode_cered
3„800,000f., which were to have been
in until 1853
in the
la st months of 1852, were not sent
se ;condly, from reductions effected in various
tl ie service ; and, thirdly, by the ri„ sitTnan-ecitsncoe
. and over the
e xercised by the ministers at all moments,
fthe ten millions by
ninutest details of every departmento of the navy. The
report then proposes to dispose
easury, and carrying over
restoring
thethe budget of 1553. By means
the other fifiv'ee millions ttno
of this latter sum the re b` declares all the engagements
-t to 3,800,000 f. will be de-
frayedalluded to above, an-foul,
,intxtahnedpyr,iczc.o,f various stores,
to the extent of
; also the inceiaosees
si Leh as corn. flour,
whilst the other 5,000,000 f. will serve to
1 ,400,000 f. ;
r aeet the expense
caused by the creations of a second
,qua necessary by the
of events in the east. By the appropria-
tion of the 10,000,000 f. remaining over from 1852, the
minister declares that he will be able to meet all the ex-
penses, ordinary and extraordinary, of his department,
without making any new demand on the public treasury.
e repo
suggestions of the minister.

This time they took for the basis of the real value the
ancient gold piece of 20 piastres, and they fixed at 110
the relation of the piastre to the pound sterling. At the
same time an imperial ordonnance interdicted the circu-
lation of all foreign money, and of all the ancient foreign
money which had induced so much speculation.. These
were received and changed in the Mint. As to the
foreign moneys the exchange was facilitated by transac-
tions with Europeans. The subjects of the Grand
Seignor, howover, were prohibited from receiving them
in payments. These resolutions, notified to all tire em-
bassies, and put into force did not excite any serious re-
clamations. All the financial agents had at their disposi-
tion the necessary funds to operate the exc•h anges.
Abuses re-appeared in proportion, and with the conse-
quences of political commotion in Europe there w ►as In
the end a financial crisis disastrous to Turkey. Such
are at the present moment the consequences of the :i;buse
of foreign money. Constantinople is not only the 15rinei-
pal entrepot of the commerce of Turkey, but it is : it the
same time the point through which pass all the co loniald
Asia. The s tuffs
1 ORDNANCE R
fporrodpueeres,iaaanndd allthe the manufactured
oafnulfvacetsuterernd
Aarstliac.les intonde
an official visit to tleiee,
the Board RoiNQUannLaEnd MUSKET. Captain Sir Thomas
andmea n
stheof faabrivcesryof
active
elaanndd penetrateeztendced
ueciusnat la.l:itbabnyd
and i 'Hastings,
h Gunner, Esq., two officers of
trade into the provinces
into the heart of Russia.
cealveberbateeedn forfir somem
of dayscv eps,a sto
z oAEfilvettrhhyeistimmeertchhisaur
it,sdPuizsesiains
gun-
paid for in Russian carborta makers, Birmingham, relative to an order, issued by the
isigher:
oidthuaenedittsol Master-General, for the immediate supply of 20,000 rifle
Pof them ; and NN that hap-real value, there is an !. ux muskets, of a similar bore to that hitherto made for the
I use of the Ordnance corpc—Kentisle 111Creurg.
Why the Turkish iveeran rateat en t h
money obtains at Constanfflinneroo.
pens ?

The East Lancashire Company have had a train con-
stantly running on their line for six weeks, fitted with
this apparatus, making 1,600 stoppages in that time ;
and it is reported to have kept in perfect order, and to
have answered on every occasion. As the train on the
Ist of October, which consisted of five carriages and three
breaks, was going from Manchester, the driver perceived
that a pair of facing points to a siding before him, near
Accrington, had heen left Open. He signalled the guard
with his stea,in whistle. the breaks were let go, and the
train went into the siding against some waggons. The
distance in which it was necessary to pull up to avoid
the danger was said to be only 20 yards, yet the train
went into the siding at a speed so reduced that the col-
lision with the waggons was scarcely felt, and no injury
was done either to the passengers or rolling stock.
About the 3d or 4th inst., on a foggy morning, as a
train was approaching Bury, it came upon a fog signal,
and the break stopped the train in 30 yards. The rail-
way superintendents present on Saturday said that trains
going down the Accrington bank would be able to run
these two miles, hitherto considered so dangerous, in
four minutes less time than with the ordinary breaks.
The patentee says :
" It is not required that every carriage should be
supplied with a break, but in every train there should
be a sufficient number of break-carriages under the con-
trol of one guard, so that he may be enabled to stop a
train in a very short distance. Those carriages not
fitted with breaks need only the simple connexion to be
continued over the top, so as to carry the communica-
tion to the engine-driver or fireman. For my own part,
I cannot see the use
i of signal between guard and engine-
driver when there s danger of a collision, unless the
guard or driver have power at hand to arrest' quickly
the train on which they are travelling. There is another
great advantage in using, a number of breaks at once,
which consists in the saving of wear of wheel! and rails."
The self-acting power of the breaks was so adjusted
to the train on Saturday as to bring the utmost resist-
ance to the motion of the wheels short of stopping their
revolution ; but the apparatus is so contrived that the
guard of a train can, if he thinks it desirable, by a mere
turn of any one of the wheels and pinions fitted to each
break carriage, entirely lock the wheels. Railway en-
gineers hold it highly desirable to prevent the sliding of
trains, it it can be effected, because at present not only
do the wheels get much damaged by having flat surfaces
worn upon them, but they become dangerous agents for
mischief afterwards, each wheel so flattened not being
any longer a mere revolving machine, but striking the
rails at every turn like a hammer, and becoming so much
more likely to break the tire, besides battering and in-
juring the permanent way.