The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-05 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 1853.

A Commission to inquire into the important
question of Manning our Fleets, with a view to
the improvement of the Naval Service, and the
increase thereby of the general defences of the
country, was organised (it will be remembered)
by the late Government. Perhaps, of all the acts
of the DERBY Cabinet, the very best was the ap-
pointment of that Commission. Certainly, among
them all, it is the one most calculated to reflect
honour upon the patriotism of the departed
amend4chninistration. It was a proceeding that
long been required by very pressing
eltraordin.ary circumstances, but which had,
nevertheless, been hitherto set aside pertinaciously,
time after time, by the successive Ministerial ad-
isers of the SOVERETGN. It had been argued by
pamphleteers. It had been urged upon the con-
sideration of the authorities by journalism. It
had been the subject of one or two petitions to
the Rouse of Commons, and of one or two
speeches from some of the more energetic of the
Popular representatives. All in vain. It was a
movement calculated no doubt to enhance the annual
amount of the national expenditure--and yet one
which Mr. Hun might have regarded with bowels
of compassion, and for which even Sir JOSHUA
WALDISLEY might have found reason for some en-
couragement. Notwithstanding all which, it was
a theme that appeared to be virtually tabooed by
the Admiralty. Nobody apart from the profes-
slifon was allowed to talk of the matter seriously.
any response was occasionally extorted. from the
Lords Commissioners, it
a threat of reviving the old press-gang abom3aa-
tion, that pet panacea. of the Quarterly Reviewers.
Nothing consequently could have been better timed
every thing considered, under existing circu ,
than the organising of that Commissio instances,
n
supposing there were actually nothing else to do
so, would of itself, we cannot help reiterating,
render most creditably memorable the career of
the DERBY-DISRAELI Administration.

Very recently the Report has been issued by
these Naval Commissioners, showing the fruits of
their elaborate and sustained investigation.
Rather, perhaps, it should be said, to speak more
explicitly upon a matter of such vital interest to
the community, a number of important sugges-
tions have emanated from the Commission, with
a view to the carrying out of a comprehensive sys-
tem of improvements. Those suggestions have been
alopted by the Government and sanctioned by the
S"ZREIGN. The character of the proposed
changes will, doubtless, have been observed within
the last few days through the medium of the
document published lately in our own columns, a
document duly authenticated by the signature of
the Ron. and Gallant Gentleman the Secretary to
the Admiralty. From that document it will have
been perceived that the intentions kept in view upon
this subject by our maritime officials, are neither
s'irterficial in their bearing, resolved upon hastily,
Or about to be carried out with precipitation.
In
Sad and serious earnest there has, indeed, been
ample time allowed for forethought and premedi-
tation. Whatever may be said depreciatively of
these and other efforts at the Board of Admiralty, it
cahoot at any rate be
been, f insinuated that there has
rom first to last, in all this anything
iii the smallest degree approximating to haste
in the ordering of the arrangements. Instead
of this, we have been dawdling on, apparently in-

different to the more urgent entreaties for innova-
tion. Like the Merry Monarch, we have shown
a wonderful aptitude for " sauntering " through
the drowsy regions of those Lotos-growing dock-
yards. Experience has proved, indeed, that, in
all human probability, we should still have con-
tinued in that uninterrupted state of torpor
as to the advisability of any general mari-
time reorganisation, but for the "uncommon and
really startling circumstance of a flag officer hav-
ing, once in a way, as a sort of agreeable novelty
we presume—a pleasant kind of unexpected inno-
vation, been placed—marvellous to relate—at the
head of the Lords Commissioners ! That a Gene-
ral should be placed in supreme authority at the
Horse Guards, was simply a matter of course.
But that an admiral should be put in chief
command at the Admiralty, was not for a
moment to be counted upon as among the
list of Ministerial probabilities. We should
almost as readily have expected to see the NELSON
Testimonial completed—or to have witnessed the
extension of a grant to HORATIA by the munifi-
cence of the Imperial Parliament—or to have
observed any other astounding testimony that
England does not always appreciate the value of her
wooden walls, and treat the bravest of her naval
defenders with systematic ingratitude. Fortunately,
there was this exceptional case of the nomination to
the head of the Admiralty of his Grace the Duke of
NORTHUMBERLAND—fortunateIy, for has there not
already been sufficient evidence of its beneficial in-
fluence in the appointment, and organisation of
the before-mentioned Commission Y Unquestion-
ably; and that Commission has already, we rejoice
to think, found its proposals cordially welcomed
by her MAJESTY, and frankly acceded to by her
MAJESTY'S Government.

Will men be ever warned by experience ? Will
any number of formidable or even fatal accidents
stimulate parties into activity, or arouse them
from the almost criminal lethargy in which they
repose, so far as the lives of themselves and their
companions, and also of strangers, are concerned ?
If salutary precautions be prescribed, either for
the purpose of averting a serious catastrophe, or
being made available for the preservation of the
sufferers during the emergency, they are either
totally disregarded, or, if procured in contempla-
tion of such events, are so safely stowed away as
not to be forthcoming at the critical moment.
Nothing will be in readiness, so that, in place of
being prepared to meet the trial calmly and ener-
getically, to take advantage of every favourable
opportunity, and turn every circumstance to ac-
count, all is confusion and disturbance, and pre-
cious minutes are wasted in bringing things into
the state in which they might have been kept at
all times with the most ordinary care, and with
Scarcely any additional trouble.
It is in mining accidents and shipwrecks that
this gross apathy, this culpable negligence, is
most strikingly apparent. We hear of explosions
of fire-damp, by which sixty, seventy, or eighty
human beings have been hurried to a premature
grave, all arising from the want of ordinary pre-
cautions. Due attention to ventilation would pre-
vent the accumulation of the noxious gases to any
formidable extent. Constant supervision, coupled
with careful examination, would enable the work-
men to have ample notice of the dangerous
state of the mine. But the overlookers too
frequently disregard their duty, a lazy fit,
a participation in a drinking bout, any trifle will
induce them to leave matters to chance for that
tzme: The premonitory symptoms then are dis-
regarded, while the working men equally careless
as to their own security, although furnished with
safety lamps, continually remove the wire covering
in order to obtain better light for their operations.
In like manner we find a case in which the im-
proper condition of the rope by which the men
were lowered into the mine, had been a com-
mon topic of conversation among the men, every
one of whom was daily imperilled by its want of
strength, but nothing was done, until the accident
so often anticipated, really occurred, involving the
death of several persons, any one of whom, by a
single word of complaint, might have prevented the
fatal occurrence. In another, the management
of a steam-engine, winding up parties to the sur-
face of the earth, was left to a child wholly incapable
of controlling its effects. Again a fatal result—
another nine days' wonder—and the matter is
forgotten, or only talked of. The fearful lesson
has not led to any practical results. There will
again be found, in the very district where all
were once horrified, similar negligence that might,
very probably, lead to similar calamities. The
parties cannot be taught. In a few short months
they will be just as unready—just as unprepared
as ever they had been.
But if this be the case in mines, it is far more
so on shipboard. We shall not now speak of the
singular neglect of attaining the art of swimming
manifested by sailors. A very slight practical
knowledge of the art might save many lives ; and
yet it is notorious that there is no class more
ignorant on the subject than mariners, who seldom
pass a day in which their very existence may not
be jeopardised by the strange and inexplicable
omission. Again we too often hear of collisions.
No lights are exhibited on the one side—no care-
ful look-out maintained on the other. Each vessel
will have boats that could rescue a large propor-
tion of the crew and passengers if she should her-
self founder, and pick up many of the sufferers

from the wreck of the other. But, alas ! the
boats are so secured that they cannot be let
down at the proper time—frequently they are
upset or staved in, causing the destruction of all
that took refuge in them ; and if they should
reach the water in safety, the chances are that the
plug cannot be found, or that the oars have been
removed, so that the ill-fated victim of undue
security only exchanges a sudden for a more
lingering death. Before the emergency arises, all
is joyous carelessness. It would almost appear as
if such an untoward occurrence were not possible.
Too late they deplore their own blindness, and
bewail the ridiculous folly that led to the melan-
choly termination of their lives.
It is the like among those entrusted with the
custody of articles used for rescuing shipwrecked

persons. It would almost appear as if they thought
that when the hour for testing these precautions
arrived, they would have ample time and leisure
for rendering the different machines operative.
We ridicule the Irish fisherman who puts
off the repairing of his coble, or mend-
ing his net until the shoal of fish ap-
peared off the coast ; but surely the want of
preparation for gathering in the profitable harvest
is less deserving of censure than a similar omis-
sion where the lives of ourselves or our fellow-
creatures are at stake. The one is merely a mat-
ter of £ s. d. ; the other may occasion irreparable
mischief.

Within the last week there have been three
accidents at sea, two of which ended fatally ;
and it was more by good fortune than proper
vigilance that the other proved less fatal. In all,
the same unaccountable want of care was per-
ceptible. In the Minerva,
which swamped an
unknown schooner, every soul on board of which
perished, there was
no suffic;_ent look-out to pre-
vent the collision, and when it occurred the boats
could not be let down
Twenty to rescue any of the
sufferers.
minutes elapsed before the
crew were even preparing
the boats for being
lowered. In like manner, in the •
lance Arthur,
" there was no knife at hand
to cut the
lashings of the canvass cover of the quar-
ter-deck boat, which it took five minutes
to lower." While at Aberdeen the key of the
apartment in which the rockets and life lines were
stowed away could not be discovered, and when
the door was broken open, there was no powder (!)
to fire them off. That evil was only remedied by
sending down to the town to obtain the necessary
charge ; and when at length it arrived, none were
present who knew how to use it ! ! I It is not too
much to say that fifteen out of the twenty lives lost
were sacrificed through this unparalleled care-
lessness, and yet recent accidents on the same
coast might have served as a sufficient warning
against the repetition of such improper conduct.
Something must surely be done to induce persons
to pay greater reverence to the sanctity of human
life, to prevent the recurrence of these de-

plorable and harrowing catastrophes, and to
turn the dearly-bought experience to some
advantage. It is plain that we cannot trust men
with the guardianship of their own safety or those
of others unless some suitable penalty be inflicted
for neglect of duty, and that "whether the danger
against which they were bound to guard" should or
should not have arisen.