The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-28 00:00:00

THE NAVY.

(From the Times.)
In the suspension of other and more ephemeral, though
perhaps mote seductive matter, we are satisfied that few
things can be more beneficial to the country than an attempt
to familiarize the public mind with the attributes and cha-
racterrtica of tgat noble service on which our existence as
a powerful nation depends—we mean the British navy.
In Friday's Times (hire was contained a notice of, and
quotation from, a little manuscript treatise, written by a
veteran, though not highly educated, seaman, which is re-
plete with reasonable suggestions, the result of long expe-
rience and solid judgment, for working out a system
of prac-
tical amelioration in the general condition of our navy.
Our readers, doubtless, are well aware that the excel-
lence of a navy or army, as a whole, must result from the
proper adaptation of a vast variety of minute and homely
details, each to the production of its own peculiar influence
upon some given portion of the general aggregate of science,
discipline, conduct, and efficiency in either service.
The soldier who has the cleanest belt will probably keep
his firelock in the best order, and use it most formidably on
the day of battle. Attention to one detail of duty promotes
the habit, and facilitates the tack, of mastering every other.
The seaman who makes it his business to be first aloft will
probably also give his mind with most keenness and dili-
gence to the helm.

We have heard that the Duke of Wellington, the victo-
rious leader of 100,000 men, and the political arbitrator of
such complex interests, and so many jealous and intractable
nations—we have heard that this great man, for whose sa-
gacity no knot was too intricate, and no object too large
for his contemplation, used to be considered the best com-
pany officer and the best regimental officer of his day, as Sir
John Moore bad been before him.

Lord Howe was distinguished in early life among the
most effective commanders of a single ship that the British
navy could boast of. Lord Nelson was said to be intimately
acquainted with the disposition and qualities of every sea-
man on board his vessel.
Let us not tern away, then, fastidiously and unwisely,
from the consideration of those nzinutia of the marine,
which, according as they are well or ill directed, contribute
to its prosperous or calamitous sum-total. Tho writer to
whom we have been just referring is obviously a proficient in
matters of detail, whilst, like all men of real ability, he ar-
gues and treats particular questions with reference to some
wide and important principle of common sense or acquired
knowledge.

He recommends, what it indeed surprises us has not been
already introduced into the navy—a uniform for the crews
of her Majesty's ships of war. This proposition, too, he
supports on something like professional principle:. He
thinks that the service would appear " more attractive" in
the eyes of young seamen, and their pride of place and
station more flattered by it, if a neat and becoming uniform
were established and provided by Government for the use
of the fleet. For the officers it has long been in use; and
though capriciously, absurdly, and injuriously played with
and metamorphosed from time to time, still there is a naval
uniform for officers—a badge of their brotherhood in the
same national calling, and a constant appeal to their self-
respect and consciousness that by them their country's livery
and those insignia which are common to thousands of other
English gentlemen with themselves shall not in their per-
sons be degraded. It is notorious what a bond and cement
of the regimental service in our army is the scarlet jacket,
the blue, or green, or yellow facing, or the brass emblazon-
ment on the schako ; and, moreover, what a feeling of at-
tachment or companionship is created by the similarity of
costume between officers and men. We see no manifest
cause why the seamen of the fleet should be shut out from
the operation of those outward fellowships which are found
to bear valuable fruits among the military, apart from that
expediency which we admit to be far more absolute in a
force serving on shore than for one on shipboard—viz., that
of rendering soldiers a class distinguishable at first sight,
and easily separable from the body of the people.
Our author would have the name of each individual
stamped upon every article of clothing supplied to him by
the Government, and a law passed making it penal for any
person not in the service to have such articles in his pos-
session, save only when the mark of " discharge" was also
affixed to such habiliments, on being given up to the sea-
man when his period of service had expired. This plan is
insisted on, and we think justly, by the writer, as a power-
ful means of preventing desertion, trafficking in necessaries
for grog when on board ship, &c., with sundry other advan-
tages enumerated in the subjoined extract. We must add,
that the observations made by the worthy author on the
natural connexion between a personal uniform and a unifor-
mity, steadiness, fixedness, and publicity in other branches
of internal economy and arrangement throughout the ser-
vice, whereby the capricious wantonness and despotic levity
of commanding officers, insisting on this and that useless
crotchet, and each, in his turn, on appointment to the com-
mand of a ship, superseding the regulations and discipline
of the former captain, or introducing such as none of his
successors can approve of, are in the highest degree worthy
of serious attention on the part of our naval authorities.
We
shall not now continue this subject any longer, but sub
mit the following extract from the manuscript
41 UNIFORM FOR SEAMEN IN TIIE NAVY.
" It has often occurred to me that the service would appear

CF CARRYING ON DUTY.
" Few men have served long in our service without having
been annoyed with the capricious changes made from time to
time by the same individual, or change of executive officers,
saying nothing of the thousands of pounds which it has cost
the country to effect them. Were it necessary, I could enu-
merate sufficient, which have occurred under my own observa-
tion, to prove what I now state. How many ships' companies
have become disaffected, and almost mutinous, by a change of
captain ; for so much is left in his power, that he may not
only overturn all the plans and arrangements of his predeces-
sor; but establish an entire new system of his own, which
every person is expected to fall into as it, were by instinct, and
these changes are frequently made so suddenly, and enforced
so rigorously, that few escape blame or punishment; and, al-
though it is utterly impossible to tic commanders down to
fixed rules on all points without cramping their abilities, or re-
tarding improvement, still there are many points of general
service that it would be well to make fixed as far as circum-
stances will admit. These are long established, and which
will not admit of altering or improving. In a service like the
navy every ship should he governed as nearly alike as possi.
tele. Were such the case, a man need not he under any ap-
prehension as' to what ship he sailed in, or how often he
changed his captain or officers, although it must be allowed
that those ships' companies are best affected and the ships
more effi lent where these changes do not take place. The
attachment of seamen to old ships and old officers is prover-
bial, and the a ivantages great. Sir Philip Broke commanded
the Shannon near eight years with little change of crew pre-
vious to his brilliant action with the Chesapeake. For my
own part, I do net knots of any reason why Jack Ratline cr
Jack Junk should not be as peppy and contented in the
Britannia with Captain B. as he would be in the Caledonia
ith Captain C. Any man who comes boldly forward to
serve his King end country ought, and deserves to be (if his
conduct he correct), made happy in every ship, and have
nothing to fear from change of ship or officers."
" Except they bore the mark of discharge, which might
be put on each and every article when the man was paid off,
or left the service."