The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-18 00:00:00

THE NAVY ESTIMATES.

Prom, the Time:.

The discussion of the Navy Estimates, which will take
place this evening in the House of Commons, raises in a
more practical form than it has yet assumed that ques-
tion of national defence which is at this time the most
interesting subject under the consideratien of Parliament
and the country. We have no doubt that Sir James
Graham will show ample grounds for the maintenance of
a fleet in our ports superior to any maritime force that
could be brought against us, and that the Govern.
ment will be cordially supported in providing the sup-
plies required for the efficiency of the most popular
and essential branch of our defensive service. Nor is
the proposed increase in these supplies a large one.
It amounts to 399,9051. in addition to the vote of
last year, and this sum includes the supplementary
estimates for additional seamen, marines, and steam
machinery which were proposed by the late Government,
and voted WM. CO7l. in December last by the House of
Commons. In cons dering this subject, the state of the
maritime forces of foreign powers, and especially of
France, is as much an element of the question as that of
our own navy, and as very conflicting assertions, not
unmixed with exaggeration, have been made with refer-
ence to the amount of preparation to assist this part of
the discussion by producing a certain number of facts
which we have been able to verify. Whatever may be
the course of policy which the Government and the
Legislature may think fit to pursue, it is clearly of
primary importance that our measures should be based
upon a correct knowledge of the facts in the case.
Lord Mount-Edgcumbe has recently stated, in a letter
published in these columns, that he has access to infor-
mation which- convinces him that extensive and unusual
preparations for maritime warfare are going on in the
French dockyards. Lord John Russell, without cor-
roborating this statement to its full extent, has not con-
tradicted it. And we have before us a pamphlet pro-
fessing to be a comparison of the steam navies of France
and England, in a letter addressed to the Duke of
Northumberland by a Vice-Admiral who is understood
to have great practical knowledge of the matters in
dispute. The object of this writer is to show that the
French steam force at home is considerably greater
than that of the English steam force on home service, in
the proportion of 22,322 horse power in the French to
to 12,689 horse power in the British navy, and he cer-
tainly conveys a most formidable impression of the
superior strength of our neighbours. We think he
would have arrived at less alarming but more correct
conclusions as to the real character of the respective
vessels if he had examined them not upon paper, but
upon the water.

The strength of the French army was regulated by
an ordinance of King Louis Philippe, of December,
1845, and we are not aware that any augmentation has
taken place since that date in the scheme of the French
naval establishments. In fact, the number of vessels
contemplated in that ordinance is still by no means com-
plete, as was demonstrated by the searching inquiry
into the state of the navy undertaken by M. Dufaure
and a committee of the National Assembly in 1851. The
scale thus established was as follows :

Afloat. Building.
. 20 ... ... 24
. 40 ... ... 26
. 60
. 60
. 40
. 20

Line-of-battle ships ...
Frigates
Corvettes ...
'Smaller vessels ...
Armed transports
besides a steam navy of 100 vessels-10 of 600-horse
power and upwards, 20 of 400-horse power, 20 of 300,
30 of 180 to 200, and 20 of 90 to 100. Such was the
plan in 1845, and at a period of profound peace. We
can affirm, upon the best inquiries we are able to make,
that no force of this magnitude is at present in existence,
and the present Government has not gone beyond, or
even come up to, the official provisions of the last reign.
Great attention has deservedly been excited by the
Napoleon and the Charlemagne, two screw steam-ships
of 90 guns, which have attained a high degree of speed.
On the Ist September, 1852, the Napoleon performed
the voyage from Toulon to Ajaccio—which is a distance
of 119 marine miles—in 9 hours and 48 minutes, her
average speed being 12 knots. She has 8 boilers,
and burns from 95 to 100 tons of coal in 24 hours.
Her screw has four vanes and a pitch of 9.342 metres.
Her engines, at 26 revolutions per minute, work up
to 1,500 horse-power, though rated at 960. Upon
the whole, she is probably as fine a vessel as the
Agamemnon, though we see no proof that she has either
greater power or equal capacity. The Charlemagne
is an inferior vessel of only 450-horse power,
but she is probably superior to our next best screw
steam-ship, the Sanspareil. But here, with respect to
the " Vice-Admiral," our comparison must cease, for
the names of the other French vessels cited to confound
us cannot be admitted to have much weight without
further inquiry. For instance, the Montebello, quoted
as a third screw line-of-battlo ship, is, in truth, an old
vessel, built in 1812, and recently fitted with an engine
of 150-horse power, which propels her at the rate sf
four or five miles an hour, if she has not already broken
down. The Islay, ranked by the Vice-Admiral in the
first class of' French steamers, and said to be su-
perior to our Terrible (800-horse power), has at
present turned out a failure. The Mogador,
the San 4, the Descartes, and the Vauban are fine
paddle-wheel vessels, built and launched in the years
1845 and '46 ; the Gomer is still older ; but all the other
first-class steamers with which we are menaced are our
old friends the Transatlantic packets, built after M.
Tillers' orders in 1840—useful for purposes of transport,
but extremely ill adapted for the severity of maritime
warfare. If they are reckoned as an important part of
the French steam fleet, we ought to take our fleet of
royal mail steamers into account, which are fully their
match. The actual force of the French steam navy is
therefore by no means equal to our own in screw ships,
if we reckon, as we are bound to do, our guard-ships
of 58 guns, and 450-horse power—the Ajax, the Edin-
burgh, Hogue, and Blenheim ; our frigates the
Arrogant, Amphion, Dauntless, and Impdrieuse ;
and our guard-ships of 24 guns—the Horatio, Eurotas,
Forth, and Seahorse. The French have but, one screw
frigate afloat—the Pomone, of 220-horse power. We
are told that they are constructing a first-class screw
line-of-battle ship of 1,200-horse power, to be called the
Bretagne ; but we may match it with the Duke of
Wellington, now fitting at Portsmouth, though we are
sorry to find the engines of that colossal ship are not so
powerful as they ought to be, having been constructed
by Mr. Napier several years ago for a vessel of a different
class. The French are also building three vessels of 450-
horse power and some smaller craft. The Austerlitz,
the Jean Bart, the Assas, the Ulm, and the Annibal new
line-of-battle ships, building at Rochefort and Cherbourg,
will probably be fitted with screws, but these ships have
been on the stocks from 20 to 30 years already, and
we have no reason to believe that they are preparing
for sea. On the other hand, we are build-
ing for screw machinery the James Watt (90), the St.
Jean d'Acre (100), the Tribune (30), the Euryalus (50),
the Caesar (90), the Hannibal (90), all in a more or less
advanced state ; and we believe that the British navy
will possess 15 line-of-battle ships fitted with screws
before the end of the year.
We have ascertained from competent evidence that no
signs of extraordinary activity prevail in the French
dockyards, though the number of workmen has been
increased at Brest, and in all of them there is a full
amount of labour. No contracts for urgent works
have been issued by the Government ; no un-
usual tenders for stores have been demanded ; and
the amount of steam machinery now in process
of construction in France is not large, though
orders may of course have been given to foreign manu-
facturers. We must also add, that we have received
from the French Department of Marine
a positive state-
ment (which must be taken for what it is worth) that
the French navy estimates for the current year will be
about 40 million francs Jess than they
.were in the last
year of Louis Philippe's reign, when Prince de Joinville
had given a fierce and feverish activity to the navy. As
these facts are favourable to the maintenance of peace,
and as the only rational object of any party in this ques-
tion is to ascertain the truth, and to act upon it,
we give them publicity. We certainly do not
credit the alleged superiority of the steam-power of
France even on home service, though our navy
is necessarily much more dispersed over the globe
than hers ; and we are confident that, in the event of an
emergency requiring both countries to put forth their
power, our strength on the ocean would be twofold that
of any other nation. And so it ought to be ; for, as it
is acknowledged that the organised military forces of
the continental States are at least fourfold those of this
country, it is our superiority on another element which
alone restores the balance and provides for our security.
As long as the French Emperor has an army of 400,000
men who might be concentrated within sight of our
coasts, it is not by the naval power of France, but by her
'military strength, that we must regulate our defensive
maritime armaments ; and though we have never pro•
fessed to share in the lively apprehension of an invasion,
we cordially concur in the votes necessary to maintain
the navy on such a footing as to preclude the possibility
of any dangerous attack. The course we have to follow
lies midway between puerile exaggeration and excessive
confidence. It is not necessary to prove an imminent
danger to induce us to prepare to avert it, or to stimu-
late the British navy by overstating the maritime re-
sources of France. But neither shall we be persuaded to
throw off our oldest and best protection at the voice of
Mr. Cobden, " charm he never so wisely," or to ex-
change an English fleet for the confidence he would have
us entertain in French policy and the Imperial Govern-
ment. •

ACCIDENTS ON THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY.—
The Great Northern Railway Company have had a suc-
cession of accidents during the past week, which, though
not attended in any case with fatal consequences, have
entailed on the company considerable loss in the way of
damage to their rolling stook. An accident at Offord,
near Huntingdon, and another at Carlton, near Newark,
were recorded on Saturday last. On the Monday night
following an engine running at full speed from the South
thepske
ipulled
111Faniere,ssladRn
same
I lent hsteekDe Clyde,Perths
Yorkshire line into the Great Northern station at Don-
caster dashed into another engine which was standing
partly on a siding and partly on the main line, threw it
off the rails, and greatly damaged both machines. On
Wednesday night, as a coal train was about to leave
Doncaster for York, the engine which was to have
taken it forward ran into the tail end of the train,
smashing the hindmost waggons and so damaging the
engine that another had to be sent with the train to
York. The 8 p.m. passenger train, which arrived
shortly afterwards, was delayed some time in COESe•
quence of the accident. In both cases the persons in
e of the engines had a narrow escape from being
G,
haAens ciGolol
icwe ROWlNGlrytshdaet
numlredaennydh, I \eateish,li declining
Cif . Tl 2 i s
long-
disputed match seems likely to be brought to a conclu-
aitgihee toll
itaaoruchg
raha,veefnoirtt
them.—North Britislt, Daily Mail.