The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-22 00:00:00

Olifinduff .11111;

LONDON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1849!

A wonderful amount of parade is just now being
attempted by the naval authorities respecting what
they are facetiously pleased to call the expedition
evinced in manning and fitting out British vessels.
Occasionally, it is true, when the voice of popular
displeasure at the indolence and mismanagement per-
ceptible in the maritime service becomes too audible,
spasmodic efforts:are made to assuage the general
indignation. Of late this has been conspicuous.
Several vessels have filled up their necessary compli-
ments within comparatively brief intervals. In the
Leander, for example, 500 men within thirty days
were entered ; a similar period enabled a crew of 200
to be drafted into the Firebrand, an equal number to
be passed into the Encounter, and 160 to be collected
together in the Cormorant. About a month
after its pendant was hoisted on board the
Spiteful it obtained its complement of 160 men, and
proceeded up the. Mediterranean. Precisely the same
amount of crew was assembled, in twenty-five days,
on board the Scourge, and on board, likewise, of the
screw-steamer Conflict, lying off Devonport. let,
with all these energetic endeavours which are made,
every now and then intermittently, the service is
compelled to languish in consequence of some rational
and really economical arrangement for the retention
of those able-bodied and efficient seamen who are
scattered abroad upon society every time a ship is
paid off, on returning from a foreign station. Nay,
simultaneously with the recurrence of such
circumstances as those just enumerated, the
public is made aware of some grievous mismanage
ment, like that witnessed at present in regard to the
manning of the splendid eighty gun man-of-war, the
Superb. As recently as the 14th of this present
November, that magnificent vessel was, by 180
mariners, short of her required complement of 750.
although for eight or nine months she has been lying
off Spithead, mobile hundreds, or rather thousands, cf
prime first rate seamen have been from week to
week disbanded in her immediate vicinity. Conse-
quent upon this lamentable carelessness, stupidity, or
procrastination, she is now compelled to take whatever
men come to hand, good, bad, or indifferent, and to
scrape the necessary increase together with a " hurry-
scurry" of the most ominous description. To
obviate henceforth the ceaseless:repetition of these
evils to the service it is incumbent upon
.the authori-
ties at the Admiralty themselves to take the initiative
in the way of innovation and improvement ; other-
wise the task of effecting the changes now altogether
inevitable will devolve immediately upon the Par-
liament. Professional men are proverbially jealous
of the interference of non-professional men in the
alterations introduced into their respective depart.
ments. If the naval authorities, therefore, are really
solicitous to retain in their own hands exclusively
the conduct of their own service, we would
certainly commend to them the advisability of exa-
mining how far changes are demanded in its organi-
zation; fur most assuredly come those changes will
—either from the Admiralty itself, or from the
wholesome pressure from without, or from that
instinctive intelligence from within which has not
unfrequently been evidenced by the Legislature.
The grievance of the present system, or rather we
should invariably say, of the present want of system,
has become altogether too glaring to be endurable.
Common sense, right. reason, a moment's considera-
tion, alike assure us that no course more effectually
than the one hitherto pursued fur the purpose
of manning the navy could entail greater expense
or more intolerable difficulties upon the country, a
larger amount of anxiety, and annoyance upon the
officers, or a more pitiable degeneration upon a class
of men whose efficiency should be our pride, whose
esprit de corps should be cur boast, and whose col-
lective vigour and unremitting activity should be the
themes of our national glory and exultation.
Another evil, of a very different description, is at
the same time visible in the general conduct of the
maritime force of England. Those who are familiar
with the condition of this great service—the principal
(muse of our national greatness, the chief instrument of
our national defence, and the sole guarantee for the
conservation of our naval supremacy—will not be
slow to conjecture that the evil to which we are now
making allusion is that which is, without question,
sufficiently manifest in the construction of the vessels
constituting the British Navy. It appears to us, it
must appear to any rational observer, that the habit
has too lung prevailed of permitting naval officers to
exceed, with overmuch temerity, the due limits of
their very responsible and very distinguished profession.
To subject the labours of shipbuilding to the superin-
tendence of a man simply because he happens
to
wear a blue uniform coat and a
couple of epaulettes, appears to be rather an
ingenious method of embarrassing the difficulties of a
science of itself sufficiently onerous and intricate,
icate, and
* capital contrivance for frittering away much ability
and no small amount of the public moneys. In
illus-
tration of our opinion upon this point, it may roVe
prove
somewhat appropriate to apply to the tsrgumentbeforeUS
a passage penned upon a very different subject. namely
upon the Civil Disabilities of the Jews, by no less
distinguished a writer than the essayist, poet, and
historian Mae sneer. It will be seen at once that
in the subjoined paragraph our author has evidently
taken as his text the somewhat hackneyed motto
Ne sutor ultra crepidom. He says—" The points
of difference between Christianity and Judaism
have very much to do with a man's fitness to be a
bishop or a rabbi; but they have no more to do

with his fitness to be a magistrate, a legislators or a
minister of finance, than with his fitness to be a cobbler.
Nobody has ever thought of compelling cobblers to
make any declaration on the true faith of a Christian-
Any man would rather have his shoes mended by a
heretical cobbler than by a person who subscribed all
the Thirty-nine Articles, but had never handled an
awl. Men act thus, not because they are indifferent to
religion, but because they to not see what religion has
to do with the mending of their shoes." Now the ap-
plication of this mode of reasoning in the present instance
must be sufficiently obvious without any very elabo-
rate explanation. The knowledge of how to manage
a vessel at sea, or of how to keep its crew in proper
subordination, has surely no more to do with the
science of ship-building than the belief in Judaism or
in Christianity has to do with the skill or activity of
a cobbler. And yet, perceptible, ridiculously
perceptible as the truth of that assertion is, the
authorities of the Admiralty now for some years past
have appeared to consider otherwise. At any rate,
whether they consider so or not, they have unques-
tionably acted as if they considered otherwise. Of this
the enormous disbursements required for the experi-
ments of Slarstort DS and others in the cultivation of the
science of naval architecture afford ample and most
melancholy testimony. We would see this eccentric
predilection for amateur performances in the way of
ship-building replaced by a reasonable preference for
the aptitude of men who have adopted that description
of labour systematically from the outset as their pro-
fession. We would see the capabilities of the science
developed by a wholesome and not merely
an idle and speculative scheme of competi-
tion. 'We would see the risk and the respon-
sibility of expenditure, in the way of mere experi-
ments, transferred at least now and then to the
voluntary efforts of men capable of entering upon an
honourable rivalry—a rivalry which would not only
redound to their own credit, but would materially
forward the interests of the naval service, while it
would prevent any repetition of useless and unfortu-
nate extravagance on the part of the Government.

Both in v the want of some proper arrange-
ment for the better manning of the Briti3h
navy, and in the necessity for some less
expensive and more effectual plan for the
construction of its vessels, there is visible a great
and importunate necessity. Let the authorities at the
Admiralty recognise the existence of this necessity
before the opportunity of rectifying matters them-
selves has passed altogether beyond the reach of their
influence, devolving upon the energetic and practical
civism of some nom professional Member of the Com-
mons [louse of Parliament. Promptitude is incumbent
upon them if they are solicitous to retain within their
own hands the privilege of naval jurisdiction.

The Ulster Orangemen and their sympathisers
continue with unabated malignity to grumble forth
their slanders against Lord CLARENDON. Old and
refuted lies are repeated with a circumstantiality of
time and place which does infinite credit to their in-
genuity. A mere dull, common-place falsehood ex-
pressed in vulgar generalities was not found sufficient
to stamp a clear-headed statesman with the gross
folly and inconsistency of secretly arming the Irish
Orangemen, and they have been compelled to " come
it a little stronger." They have been obliged to re-
sort to the usual trick of adepts in misrepresentation
to give the air of probability to their inventions by a
detail of minute particulars.
It is now openly put forward by some of the
Orange organs in Dublin, that the Orangemen were
regularly drilled by some of her MAJESTY'S troops in
a house in William-street and in Whitefriars' Hall;
and it was arranged that they should receive a pass-
word to insure their recognition by the military on
duty—
" And that the signal for 'turning out' was to be com-
municated by the bell of St. Anne's Church tolling three
distinct strokes, which signal was to be repeated there-
upon from the other parish steeples throughout the city.
A book was regularly kept, containing the names and
addresses of the Orangemen so organized, and an oath
Nes administered to each on receiving his arms and ac-
coutrements. But this book has been, as Colonel Phavre
in his circular declares, day acted, and is now nowhere to
be found."
-•- -•- • • -

And Lord CLARENDON, they aver, did all this in the
teeth of his express directions to every functionary in
Ireland to whom was intrusted the distribution of
arms. We are called upon to believe that one of the
ablest men that ever represented the QUEEN in Ire-
land entered into a secret combination with the low
Orangemen of Dublin, and for what end ? Why should
he deal in any secret mystery with 'f RESIIAM GREGG,
And the silly brawlers of Whitefriers' Hall ? If he
could rely upon the loyalty of any of the Dublin
Orangemen, surely he would be perfectly justified
in supplying them, in common with every other loyal
subject in Ireland, with arms to be used in defence
of the QUEEN and the laws. Their being Orange-
men would not at that time have justified the Lord-
Lieutenant in excluding them as a body from the
:est of allegiance and loyalty, to which he had invited
the well affected of all classes and creeds in Ireland.
He would have been no more justified in refusing
arms to the Orangeman who was vouched to him as
a loyal subject than he would have been in refusing
them to the liberal Protestant, or the well•disposed
Catholic. Yet, in the teeth of this plain fact, the
absurd tale is reiterated that the Viceroy secretly
countenanced the mysterious drilling and organiza-
tion of the Dublin Orangemen, but, alas! the book
that could have proved all this is nowhere to be found;
indeed we believe not, for in truth this
black book had never " a local habitation" beyond the
fertile brain of the reckless inventor of this egregious
absurdity. But nobody beyond the murky precincts
of an Orange lodge could give it the smallest
credence. " The three strokes of St. Anne's bell' will
appeal in vain to the senses of even the most credu-
lous beyond the dark porch of some Orange conclave.
Now let us for a moment suppose that the Irish
Government on an occasion when the country was
threatened with rebellion did place confidence in the
Orangemen aril their leaders, let us for the sake of
argument suppose that the Government supplied them
with arms to aid the authorities in maintaining
order and crushing insurrection and disloyalty, let us
iuppose that they were sworn to use those arms in sup•
port of the military against the QUEER'S enemies, would
this justify them in turning these weapons against their
unoffendiag fellow-subjects ? Would this justify
them in using these arms to shed innocent blood ?
Are they to turn the arms with which they were
entrusted to use against the rebellious and disaffected,
against the peaceful subjects of the QUEEN ? Surely
the old woman of seventy was no rebel, the playful
child was no rebel, the poor demented being whose
skull was shattered was no rebel. If they obtained
the QUEEN'S arms—as their organs assert they did—
and used them for this unholy purpose, what does it
prove but that they deceived the Government, be-
trayed the trust reposed in them, and added duplicity
to murder ?

The argument of the Orangemen and their organs,
if it mean anything, amounts to this, that Lord
CLARENDON is answerable for the innocent blood shed
on the 12th of July, because he supplied them with
arms from the QUEEN'S armoury. If the Lord-Lieu-
tenant did this it would, no doubt, be a grave
error. If he supplied these miscreants with arms
and accoutrements, in order to indulge in insulting
processions, and to parade, like a gang of ruthless
bandits, through the country, spreading terror and
devastation around, he would not only prove himself
unfit for the high place, the arduous duties of which he
has on all occasions so ably discharged, but he ought
to be at once impeached for treason against the Con-
stitution and the laws. We entertain, however, little
fear that he gave the smallest countenance to such
atrocities ; and we believe that he will be able fully
to crush these foul slanders on a fitting occasion, and
before a proper tribunal.
But the public have a deeper interest in this sub-
ject than the mere question between Lord CLARENDON
and the Orangemen. It is now of minor importance
whether the arms were supplied by Lord RODEN
or Lord CLARENDON. The purity of the administra-
tion of justice is at stake. The great and
important question, whether Ireland is still to be
governed by and through a faction, or not, is involved.
These are questions which affect the interests of the
community. The blood of the innocent has been
shed.
It concerns the public to know whether men
can countenance scenes of massacre, and then use
their high office to shield murderers from the ven-
geance of outraged law. These are the serious ques-
tions with which the public have to deal—these are
the principles which that public requires Lord

CLARENDON to vindicate; his character demands no
vindication. The absurdity of the Orange slanders
carries with it its own refutation.

These fanatics would seem to say :—" My Lord
CLARENDON, you gave us arms to aid in crushing
rebellion, but our services were not required. The
army and the police were found sufficient for the
purpose; you deprived us, by your timely and ener•
getic measures, of the pleasure of shooting the Papists
under cover of the QUEEN'C troops ; you must,
therefore, allow us to indulge in a little sport on our
own account by burning a few cabins, and shooting a
few old women. You allowed us, my Lord, to march
in grand procession, in 1848 ; true, the game was
scarce in the route we then took, we had not much
sport. On that occasion we were only able to get a
stray shot or two at a Popish priest ; you did not
appear angry then. Why, my Lord, should you visit
us now, in 1849, with our displeasure, for merely
wrecking a few houses and shooting a few beggarly
Papists ?"
These are the absurd arguments with which these
insane bigots would attempt to justify the revolting
atrocities of Dolly's Brae ; these are the fatuous
puerilities with 'which the Irish Orangemen would
presume to insult the common sense of the British
empire.
At this moment the Orangemen are sitting in
secret conclave in Dublin, every moral cloaca in that
wretched land has discharged its inal-contents upon
the metropolis. The evil spirits of the island are
pent up within the walls of Leitrim House, whence
is to issue the dread explosion that is to annihilate
Lord CLARENDON as a statesman, and hurl him from
his high office a disgraced and dishonoured man. But
let not the members of the Leitrim House cabal
delude themselves with the notion that they can, by
insane resolutions, or furious invectives against Lord
CLARENDON, shield themselves from public reprobation,
while they avow themselves the abettors of the crimes
of their bretheren of Castlewellan. They must purify
themselves from the imputation of the blood of the
innocent ere they can appear before the high court of
public opinion with clean hands. The ravings of
surpliced fanatics and furious bigots, who glory in
such triumphs as Dolly's Brae, are but little calculated
either to win public sympathy or dethrone a Viceroy.
We believe many indiscreet but amiable persons
have been seduced into the Orange Society. We
have no doubt many young persons, otherwise ra-
tional and Christian, have, through curiosity,
fashion, or the persuasion of friends, been drawn into
the vortex of this absurd and mischievous mysticism.
Now, we would seriously ask these persons, IVhat is
the use of Orangeisni ? It is useless as a system of
defence—the laws are sufficient to secure the life,
liberty, and property of every British subject. It
cannot be based on the principles of the Christian re-
ligion—the faith of CHRIST repudiates the sword,
and enjoins peace, and love, and charity.
It is useless as a manifestation of loyalty—true alle-
giance requires not the aid of secret signs and pass-
words. Uses, it can have none, but, alas !it has many
evils. It is the nursery of evil passions, it is a moral
pestilence tainting the young Protestant mind of
Ireland, spreading hatred and all uncharitableness
through the land, disgracing religion by assuming its
garb, and putting humanity to the blush by the re-
volting misdeeds of its misguided votaries. There
can be no peace or hope for Ireland while such a nui-
sance is tolerated, and we hope one of the first acts of
the Legislature will be to put an end to it for ever.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The Assembly on Tuesday discussed the proposition
of M. RASPAIL, interdicting any banker from holding
the office of Minister of Finance. The following is
the report of the discussion, which was throughout
one scene of confusion :

M. Raspail, jun., developed his amendment. He
argued that any minister who chose to speculate at the
Bourse could make large gains by using the intelligence
which he might receive in his official capacity.—(oh.)
He meant nothing personal to any member of the pre-
sent Ministry.—(Loud laughter at this allusion to M.
Fould.) There were honest folks in every station—
A Voice—Even amongst the Reds.
M. Raspail, jun.—There were honest folks in every
station, even amongst the Ministers. But was it to be
supposed that a man accustomed to stock-jobbing could
all at once renou❑ce that practice because he became
minister ?--(Enough 1 enough Igoonlgo on 1) He
maintained that the minister would always remain
banker. But the interests of the country were at stake,
and something ought to be done in the matter. Would
it not be well to declare that an ex-banker could not be-
come minister until five years had elapsed from the time
that he had ceased to form part of the banking class ?
(Loud interruption.) If that were not done, ministers
ought to be selected elsen here.
A Voice—From the Mountain, for instance ?
(Laughter.)
M. Raspail, jun.—Could not an instance be found
where a minister had saved 1500,000 f. out of his salary
of 100,000f.—(Loud i❑terruption on the Right.)
Voices—Who? who? Name I name I
The President—An attack like that cannot be allowed
to pass unnoticed.

On the Right—Name, name, whom do you mean ?
On the Lett— Go on, go on I
The President Twenty or thirty Ministers of
Finance have quitted office with an unstained reputa-
tion. You cause a calumnious allegation to weigh on
them all.—(Hear, hear.)
On the Left—Do not reply to these interruptions.
The President—The Hon. Gentleman must give some
explanation, for we cannut allow—(lnterruption on the
Left.)
M. Raspail, jun., bad only spoken or a -vague re-
miniscence.

On the Right—No, no ! Not a word of that
was said.

M. Raspail, jun. (turning towards the Right)—
The Gentlemen at that side could better tell the names
than he--

On the Right—Order, order I You are an insolen
fellow.

The President—When whole classes aro attacked,
they defend themselves by their own furce against
calumny ; but when a person individualises, he ought to
give names. _

On the Left—No, not
On the Right—Yes, yes!
The President—You must give the name, or I shall
call you to order.

Oil the Left—lt is downright tyranny.
A Member of the Extreme Left here rose, and said
something with great animation, which we could not

The President-13y such vivacity, you encourage the
Hon. Gentleman to go still further. I call you to order.
M. Bourzat—lt will be said next that no minister
was ever guilty of peculation!
A Voice on the Right—We never belonged to the
Provisional Government.

M. Raspail, jun.—When I refer to a reminiscence
which I draw from history, I am called to order. I
submit to being so called to order.
On the Right—Your history is calumny!
The President—You are unable to state the fact. I
formally declare it.—(Hear, hear.)
Great agitation was hero raanifested. Loud exclama-
tions were uttered on the Right, whilst on the Left we
caught the words "Peculating Ministers—Teste—
Cu [Ares."

111. Raspail, jun.—l am really astonished that this
question has raised such a tempest. —(Loud interrup-
tion.) _ _

The President—What, you insult a large portion o
the Assembly, and you are surprised that they are in.
dignant I
Several Members of the Right at the foot of the tri.
bune, and amongst others M. 13eae, cried out, " Name
name I a e insist on it."

M. Raspail, jun. (with great apparent unconcern)--
Contemporary history
Oa the Right—No, no I Name, name !
The President, to M. Raspail—lf you continue in the
same strain, I shall consult the Assembly as to the pro-
priety of publicly censuring you.—(Applause.)
M. Bac approached M. Raspail, and addressed some
observation to him. 151. de Panet spoke with energy to
Bac.

The President—l allow Hon. Gentlemen to ascend the
tribune to discuss and not to insult.—(Great agitation,
which lasted some time.)
M. Raspail, jun.—l regret having alluded to a fact
which has so moved the Assembly, when I could have
cited others which could not have done so.—(On the
Right—You cite no fact 1) Can you forget the case of
M. Teste ? Did he not yield to the solicitations of an
ex-Minister of War and a banker ?—(Great agitation.)
I cannot say if justice strikes the guilty in proportion
to their position. Ido not think it does ; for we every
day see poor devils condemned for a paltry theft, and
sometimes when only intending to procure bread for
their families.—(Violent murmurs.)
The President—You attack everything, even what has
bees judged, and those who judged iti—(Turault on the
Left.)
M. Dude —lt is you who attacked him just now.
The President—l recommend M. Duct. 6 to use less
violence, or I must call him to order.

On the Left—lt was the Right who interrupted just
now, and it was we whom the President called to order.
The President—There was on the Right just now a
legitimate indignation, and on the Left a violence with-
out example—an illicit support to a calumnieus assertion
—a struggle against the President himself when endea-
vourin7,- to enforce order.—(hear, hear.)
M. Raspail, jun.—Was not a letter found on the 24th
of February at the Tuileries, in which I forget what
King wrote to Louis Philippe: —" Your Ministers ma-
naged badly, else assuredly you would have realised
millions of profit."—(Loud exclamations.)
On the Right—lt is a lie
Other Voices—lt is alike ridiculous and odious.
The President—Once for all, I call ou the lion.

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