The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-06 00:00:00

all things, as we have no doubt they do, but they
would pro!iably obtain more reputation for know-
ledge if they wrote somewhat less. Why were
these two watchmen taken away ? Because they
were found not only to be useless but dange-
rous. They could not be kept on board a ship
through the long dreary nights of winter with-
out firing of some kind or another, and
from the use of firing more accidents were likely to
occur, and did, we believe, occur, than they could
ever prevent. They smoked their pipes too, they
sometimes got tipsy, for there was no guarding
against that, and •the ships were safer without
Ciem. But how could two men in a large ship
like the St. George, or the Talavera, or the Cam-
p:A-down, guard every part of such a ship through
a long night—for it was only by night that they
were placed there ? They could no more do any
such thing effectually, every part of the ship being
in darkness, than two policemen could, through
the livelong night, watch every alley in London.
TO place two men on board a ship, and to make
them answerable for her safety, was calling on them
to be responsible for an impossibility, even if they
had been the most vigilant watchmen that ever took
care of the public welfare.
It certainly happened in the case of the Talavera
that if there had been a watchman on board, and
lie had chanced to have been perfectly sober and
wide-awake all night, and not suffocated by the
smoke stealthily pervading every part of the ship
before the flames broke out, he might have given
the alarm somewhat earlier than it was given, but
that is all that the most vigilant watchman could
have done, or could have been answerable for not
doing. But to make so very rare a circumstance as
that a reason for condemning the Admiralty, be-
cause there was no such watchman in the ship, is
abut as absurd as to assert that the police are
greatly to blame because, if one of them had been
at Mr. WESTWOOD'S shop-door, that unfortunate
man would not have been murdered. It is a sin-
gular thing that the sentinels and policemen on duty
did not detect the fire before it had pervaded the
whole ship—a pretty strong proof, by-the-bye, that
it had, like the fire attempted to be kindled
in the Camperdown, been kindled below and
at both extremes of the vessel, in the cockpit and
the carpenter's store-room, or in the fore-peak, where
the fire could make head before it could be disco-
vered ; but nby should it be supposed that what
the sentinels and watchmen stationed round the
ship, and relieved every two or every four hours,
did not discover, would certainly have been disco.
voted by two ship-keepers, who, not being expected
to keep awake the whole night, would sleep through
it from dark till light ? Really our Tory Contem-
poraries had better look out for some other lever
than the want of two ship-keepers on board
the Talavera to overthrow the Admiralty.
If the Times and the Herald, and the Post,
and the Dahlia Evening Mail, and the whole
tribe of Tory journals, ale ignorant of the fact, we
beg leave to inform them that these ship-keepers
were, in the majority of instances, aged and orn-
cut men, and that the appointment was made, in
nine cases out of ten, much more with a view to
provide for old servants, and favourites, and worn
out labourers, than actually' to take care of the
ships. What necessity, too, is there, let us ask
their sagacity, to appoint men to take care of build-
lags which may by possibility be burned ? When
a ship is in dock, clean swept out from the keel to
the quarter-deck, there is about as little chance of
her catching fire as that London-bridge should
fall down. True, she may be set on fire, but so
may every corn-stack or hay-stack in the king-
dom ; and it is only necessary to read the pas-
sages we have quoted from the Times
to be satisfied that, as far as human
prudence goes, her MAJESTY'S ships and arsenals
are infinitely better protected against danger than
the combustible produce piled up and exposed in
almost every farm-yard in the country. Tu put
ship-keepers on board a ship in dock, when every
approach to her is carefully guarded, when watc

men, sentinels, and police, are all round the yard,
is a far greater absurdity, notwithstanding it is
patronised by Herald, Times, Post, and Standard,
than appointing two men all through the night to
watch every hay and corn-stack in the country.
Deplorable as is the calamity at Devonport, and
doubly deplorable in our situation, from its being,
we believe, the work of an incendiary—who has no
doubt fired the Talavera, just as the Catuperdown
was attempted to be fired, at both ends and Mow,
and with similar materials, all found in every dock-
yard, resin, oakum, birch-brooms and all—it could
not have been prevented by half-a-dozen ship-

kerpers. There is no guarding against evil d;s-
posed and wicked men, no barring out the conse
quinces of deep bred discontent and thcrotol hatred.
With ail the possible precautions which slave-owners,
from a dire necessity, continually take, their houses
are sometimes burned by their oppressed victims,
and they cre massacred. Have those who talk

about two ship- keepers preventing incendiarisrr
forgotten the conflagrations, which no police caul(

prevent, in 1830 ? Does the London police put
a stop to burglary and murder ? Unless there be
a policeman to every other person, and two to
some individuals, and some person also to answer
for the policemen, it will be impossible to prevent

mischief in a community composed o' great masses
of discontented men. Punishment will not root

out the discontent ; coercion cannot prevent its con-
sequences. Instead of more ship-keepers and an
extension of a police force, the way to save our
ships from conflagration is to make every man feel
that he has an interest in everything belonging to
the public, and to take a pride in preserving it.
In our country, unfortunately, the public wealth
the public stores, and public offices of any import-

ante belong chiefly to the aristocracy, and the bulk
of the people are little better slaves. We say not

that political discontents, or class discontents, or
professional discontent :s the source of the destruc-

tion, bat where they abound, instruments to execute

the ?:Llarious designs of enemies may easily be
found. Suppose such
_discontent would be great
amcng the workmen of the Dock-yards—and
the Times and Herald have frequently talked of

late about insufficient wages, and the hard treat

ment they receive—would it not be possible tha
some of them may be excited to perform such cvi
deeds ; and, should they be ill-disposed, what ship•

keepers or what pike could effectually guard

against their designs ? We are not alarmists ; but
if the aristocracy think that they can have all the

advantages of the sccial union, all its safety, all
its honours, and all its emoluments, and that others

are to hear all its burdens, while they are denied
any share of its blessings, the aristocracy reckon
without the democracy, and conflagrations, or some
other equally alarming tnischief, will continually in
form them that they have much to pay.