The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-26 00:00:00

TEE FRENCH NA V:

PART 11.
(Continued from The Sun of M
The commission gives an unqualified
system of Prefectures Maritimes establii
during the Consulate. The coast is div
dissements, of which the great naval
...1 centres. There are five arrondissem,

quarters of which are Cherbourg, B)
Rochefort, and Toulon. The Prefet rep"

ntroduced

nal, and has supreme command, under the Minister, of
the naval establishments on shore, and of the force afloat.
The Prefet is a vice or rear admiral, with a junior

admiral or capitaine de vaisseau, entitled "Major-
General du Port," and a staff of naval officers under
him. He unites in his own person the functions which
with us are divided between the Port Admiral, and
the Admiral or Captain Superintendent of the dock•
Yard•
The following extracts from the report of the Conseil
d'Etat to the First Consul show the objects with which

-
his important element in the French system was first

" To build the ship, to supply it, and to employ it, con-
stitute the sum and substance of the marine. These threeservices should go in concert. Bnt who shall direct their
march ? Who shall make the different co-operators unite
for the same object, by exciting their emulation, and not
their jealousy? This is the grand question that, after 100
years, is not yet solved. This fluctuation in the system of
the government of the ports proves that no superiority
should exist on the part of the naval officer, the adminis-
trator, or the constructor. It is necessary to render their
functions independent, and to make them work together
for the same object. In the same manner as the Minister
at Paris is the principle of life of the marine of the
Republic, we have thought that his delegate at a port
should fulfil tho same position, arrest rivalries, limit each
of the authorities in their functions, remove local obstacles,
and, by the unity of his power, concentrate all the means
for the success of an operation. This chief we shall call
Prefet Maritime.' Placed at the head of all, the Prefet
will give to each of the several chiefs the orders for the
conservation of the ports and harbours, and for the con-
struction and armament of the ships."—(Vol. 1., p. 650.)
The Sub-Commission, proceeding with its report,
says :

" In the inquiry no criticism has ever been directed
against the system of Prefectures Maritimes. This is a fact
worthy of remark, and proves the wisdom of the Conseil
d'Etat of the Year VIII., as well as the high sagacity of
the Consul. The Minister of that period, Forfait, and
subsequently Admiral Decres, intrusted to the Prefets the
execution of general instruction ; the Administration
Centrale was not yet drawn into a multitude of details,
fertile in superfluous correspondence. The Prefets under
the Empire did more and wrote less ; it is this usage we
would restore. All that does not affect in the highest de-
gree the responsibility of the Minister should be left to the
Prefet—all that refers to the inferior employes, so worthy
of interest, and necessarily ill-judged of from afar—all that
concerns discipline, which delays must weaken. On these
conditions, the Prefet in the arsenal will be what he should
be and what he was—the centre of action, the arbiter of
differences, the source of recompences. He will be elevated
in the eyes of the subordinates, by the increase of his in-
fluence both within the arsenal and outside it."
The Conseil d'Administration, composed of members
of the various departments in the arsenal, was instituted
to assist the Prefet, by the regulations of the Year VIII.
The Sub-Commission advises the number to be limited
to six members ; and, after recommending a slight ex-
tension of its functions in one particular, thus guards
itself from being supposed to limit the authority of the
Prefet

" But we may here repeat what was said by the Conseil
d'Etat in the Year VIII. ; that the object of this institu-
tion is not to bind the Prefet in the exercise of the func-
tions which belong to him. The object is to regulate the
co-operation of the chiefs of the services under his orders.
At equal distances from him are those assistants, called
upon to give him periodically sincere opinions, and not to
raise difficulties. That which the ordinance demands of
the Prefet is to inform himself before he decides—that
which is permitted to him is to decide for himself, that
which is required of him is to take care his decisions are
executed."

The opinion is unanimously expressed that the Prefet
and the departments in the dockyards should be placed
on a footing analogous to that existing between the Mi-
nister and the central boards at Paris, and that the cen-
tral boards at Paris should bear a similar analogy to the
several establishments in the dockyards.
This view is insisted on by Admiral de Mackau in his
evidence before the Commission :

"Every creation is to be feared that might affect, directly
or indirectly, the authority of the Prefet, which should be
as complete in his arrondissement as that of the Minister
in his Ministerial department."
The report of the Sub-Commission observes :
" The ports have to execute the dispositions ordered
by the Minister ; to establish a regular system of govern-
ment, and to prevent delays and disputes; the central orga-
nisation must be placed in harmony with that which is
adopted in the arsenals."

The complaints are universal of the complication of
the system, and of the excessive multiplication of forms
and correspondence. The Sub-Commission says :

" We see around the Minister of Marine an Administra-
tion Centrale, five inspectors, two councils, two committees,
six commissions, without counting 15 or 18 commissions
formed by order of the Minister to deal with certain
special questions, the solution of which is often long
delayed.'
The Minister, M. Ducos, observes :
"The simplicity of the administrative machinery, the
promptitude of execution, the unity of the central direc-
tion, are the indispensable conditions of all good naval or-
ganisation. The multiplicity of chiefs retards the activity
of the orders, paralyses the authority of the command, and
weakens the responsibility of the decision. Employ S's too
numerous and badly paid produce but little work and take
little pains. Agents well rewarded and few in number talk
less and do more. These are the considerations which have
suggested my project. The more important orders and the
immediate direction of the fleet should emanate directly
from the Minister, who is alone responsible, and who alone
knows the private thoughts of the Chief? of the State.
The movements of the naval forces, the maritime opera-
tions, the armament and disarmament of ships, and the in-
structions to the commandants, shall be henceforward con-
centrated in the Cabinet of the Minister, where should be
at the same time combined the unity of command which
adds to the force, and the secrecy which is often one of the
best conditions of its exercise. The Minister will know at
each instant the forces ho has at his disposition. He will in
some sort hold in his hand all the active fleet, and will always
know all his resources without having to refer to offices out
of reach. The Marine Department comprehends too many
directions. The Minister works directly with eight supe-
rior chiefs, comprising that of his Cabinet. This is a
machinery multiplied, useless, and expensive. Its incon-
venience betrays itself by the complication and the con-
tradiction of its movements. The Administration should
be adapted to the service of the fleet, for which it is insti-
tuted. The most simple idea is that which prevailed in
times when the power was great, and was not obliged to
borrow its strength from personal considerations and in-
fluences. The fleet is constituted by means of men, ships,
and money. Beyond these three necessities of the first
order there are but secondary and accessory wants. Tho
constitution of three great administrative branches cor-
responding to each of these fundamental necessities will
then easily and completely satisfy all the exigencies of the
service, under the titles, simple and rational as themselves,
of Direction du Personnel,' " Direction du Materiel,' and
Direction de la Comptabilite Generale.' All the affairs
of the Marine are inevitably hound up together. They
must be adjusted one to the other, and they require an
absolute union of ideas common among the chiefs of the
service. It is necessary that the Minister should be con-
stantly on his guard against the want of unity of under-
standing that arises sometimes from the nature of things,
and more often, it must be said, from the antagonism of
the uniform or the rivalry of the function. I have had
the honour to lay before yon, Monseigneur, that too many
envployes injure the administrative service. I have already
made some reductions ; I reckon on effecting more, as
soon as circumstances permit. With this object, I shall
apply myself, above all, to reduce the mass of writings of
every form and sort which, without real necessity, over-
whelm the administrative agents. Business will thereby
gain in dispatch, the details will no longer absorb matters
of principal importance, and the public money will be ex-
pended in a worthy manner for I cannot forget that the
sums devoted to useless employments and expenses are to
the prejudice of the fleet, and that every such diminution
of the resources of our marine produces necessarily a cor-
responding reduction in the naval power of the State."
The decree of the same date reorganises the Central
Administration. The Cabinet of the Minister is placed
under the direction of the chief of his staff, and
is divided into two bureaux. The first has the secret and
reserved business, the " centralisation du travail avec le
Chef de l'Etat," the private correspondence of the Min-
ister, audiences, &c. The second, the movements of the
naval forces and maritime operations, instructions to the
commandants of the naval forces, to the inspectors-
general of all branches of the service, &c.
The first direction manages the personnel, and is di-
vided into five bureaux, each charged with a specific
branch of the service.
the
eecsatimone has the mamatoci
gielou
disTtrhiebusterdnd
hinThe third direction is charged with the colonies.
The fourth direction has the Compatabilite Generale,
.iwr the
bureaux.
work
with its duties divided among five bureaux.
The Cabinet of the Minister and these four directions,
with the addition of " l'Establissement des Invalides"
and Le Controle Centrale," complete " l'Administra-
tion Centrale," and the system appears very ably con-
stituted with a view to fulfil the conditions of secrecy,
unity, and dispatch, so strongly urged alike by the Com-
mission and in the Minister's striking and able report to
the Emperor.
The contrast b 'tween the French and English sys-
tems is very apparent, and, though some advantages
Tons' head
may belong to the latter, upon the whole the ba-
lance seems much against it. Under the French
e
" Prefectures Maritimes " there is one r%
the centre of a system complete in all its
capable of performing all its functions byPvirrtst2ueanocif
its own internal machinery. In the English a
dock-
yards the authority is divided, and there is no supreme
head upon the spot with sufficient control to insure the
harmonious and efficient execution of the public service.
The Admiral Superintendent hascharge of the ships in
ordinary ; the moment a ships commissioned she is
under the Port-Admiral, and wheni repairing she is under
both. The perpetuala _intervention of the Admiralty is a
partscarcely o f t the system,
o n
a t
the machine could
all. Hence arisesa mass of correspon-
dence,nd, without it
and a great amount of additional work devolves
upon the Admiralty. The confusion of the executive and
administrative duties undertaken by the board almost
overwhelm it, even now ; in case of war, it would be
too late to reorganise our system when events called for
energetic action. With regard to our central adminis-
tration, one of the first objects is to place the several
branches of the service under the same roof. The Ad-
miralty communicates with Plymouth now in three
minutes. The communication by writing between
Somerset-house and the Admiralty takes often nearly as
many days. The necessity for writing, in nine cases out
inseparable and
of ten, would cease, and with it endless inconvenience,
are
loss of time, which expense, from
the present preposterous errazigemout