The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-13 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1849.

Speaking of the wise and glorious government of
OLIYBR CROMWELL, " the greatest prince who has
ever sat upon the throne of England," Mr. MACAULAY
observes in his criticism on Mr. I:W.lam (Essays,
Vol. 1., p. 185), that "he took a peculiar pleasure in
encouraging that noble service which, of all the in-
struments
employed by an English Government, is
the most impotent for mischief, and the most power-
ful for good." Perhaps the most unpopular of all our
sovereigns, the unfortunate though able and energetic
King JAMBS the Second, was conspicuous for the interest
with which he fostered the maritime profession of Great
Britain—that gallant and heroic profession which has
transferred to our " snug little island " the supreme
dominion of the seas, planting the royal standard in
every clime, and carrying the enterprises of com-
merce and the researches of science to regions where
the Dutch, or the Venetian, the Genoese, the Por-
tuguese, or the Carthaginian had failed to penetrate.
Most profoundly is it to be hoped that what was
attempted by the last of the STUARTS, and aspired
to by his highness the LORD PROTECTOR of the
British Commonwealth, may be accomplished in the
golden days of VICTORIA, when England, according
to the felicitous remark of Mr. Itoenucx, presents
to Europe the majestic spectacle of a crowned Re-
publicanism, and a royal Democracy.
Only the other evening, when referring to the
mismanagement of the national Exchequer, we ob-
served that even the enemies of a financial retrenchment
confess that according to the present system noless than
1,250,0001. of the naval estimates are wasted. sow,
we are clamouring neither for a reduction nor for an
increase of our naval estimates —we are only solicitous
that henceforth 1,250,0001. shall not be squandered
without eny adequate compensation, we might
even say without any good effect whatever,
but that by a judicious reorganization of the arrange-
ments relating to the great national service, these
1,250,0001. shall be applies to the advantage of a
noble set of fellovve, one of the finest races of men
in the empire, the renowned and lion hearted sailors
of England. For it is monstrous, it is absolutely
monstrous, to reflect that in a great maritime country
like England we have a large standing army and no
permanent navy—on the contrary, an entire absence
of any plan by which the British tar might obtain
continued employment. As matters are at present
,managed, or rather, we should say, as they
are at present mismanaged, the ablest seamen,
after toiling for a number of years in the service, and
becoming in the highest degree proficient in the
discharge of their duties, may be turned adrift, are
actually turned adrift upon society to go to the dogs,
go to the devil, just as
or to accident may lead their
fiatithes, Fine stalwart fellows, ready to stick their
fiste into a tar-bucket, or, according to their own
Hithe atri gallant expres,ion to " work with a will"
whenever the boat3wr,io pipes his whistle, are by this
re'chei system pai I cif in some one of our seaports,
dilipelled thenceforth to shift for themselves. The
once of this is, that we are going the very best
erk to estrange the hearts of our breve
from a service which was formerly the object of
their love and enthusiasm ; besiLies which every year
increases the difficulty of manning a vessel just put
in commission. For the life of him, the captain has
no notion where to go for his proper complement—
so that he is at last forced to tout for mariners in
one port or another, and to content himself with the
stragglers picked up in any pot house or brothel.