The Sun.
London, England, 1840-02-25 00:00:00

fist, r

into nou

s!yly con:jaru:Aed tLe Marquis on his having Lo'

takenke under his august protection the men who,
when in the field, he had so incessantly vituperated.
The Noble Earl defended the Spanish Government,
and proved, what was hardly necessary, for the Noble
Marquis is a notorious blunderer, that he was both
1 incorrect and inconsistent.
The Noble Marquis withdrew his motion for a re-
turn of the decisions of the War-office respecting
pensions and compensations granted to theofficers of
the Legion, which he had made the peg of his oration.
In answer to Lord ELLENBOROUOII, LordMELBOURNX
stated that no arrangement had been made with the
India Company, as to the expenses of the Chinese ex- 1
pedition, and that no communications had passed on the
subject.
The Lords adjourned at twenty minutes to Seven
o'Clock.
A considerable number of petitions were presented
in the Commons, as usual.
Notices of motions were given by Mr. LAMETON, in
Committee on the Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues
Bill to appropriate the revenues of Cathedral prefer
ments to the religious ministrations of the Establish.
ment, and by Mr. GOULEIIIN for a Committee to in-
quire into the expediency of extending bonding to
nland towns. Mr. Hula said be should, to-morrow,
ask the Lord Steward whether the Government meant
to move the botanic plants from Kew.
The House went into Committee on the Municipal
Corporation Bill (Ireland), and was occupied with that
all the evening. Several amendments were moved,
which were lost by majorities of two or three to one.
At Two o'Clock the House adjourned.

The country has now been exempt from war
for twenty-five years. Since we had any great
naval contest a new generation has completely
grown up. In the time of their fathers the great
complaint was that men could not be got for the
navy. Then the great demand for the purposes
of war was assigned as the reason for the impossi-
bility of getting seamen, and the necessity for im-
mediately having them was urged as the pre-
text for stealing them, and the excuse for not
taking any methods to form seamen, Then,
that is towards the middle and the close of the
war, our ships were half-manned with landsmen
and foreigners, and in the majority of cases when
our single ships came into conflict with the fri-
gates of the United States, they were found no
match for the Yankees. Before the close of the
war, the many evils connected with our defi-
ciency of seamen, and with the imperfect mode
in which our ships were manned, had attracted
considerable attention, and a great number of
writers had endeavoured in vain to induce the
public and the Admiralty to adopt some re-
medy. "We can do nothing while the war
lasts," was the saying at the Admiralty
" Nothing can be done while the war lasts,
was echoed in the country : " It would be madness
to attempt it." Five-and-twenty years have since
elapsed, and what has the Admiralty done—what
has' the enlightened and wise public compelled our
rulers to do ? We answer, nothing, absolutely
nothing, to procure men for our ships. The
wearying complaints have been repeated year after
year for twenty-five years, and in the debate on
Friday evening, again the word was, we have
plenty of ships, but cannot get men.
Lord INGESTRIE said he doubted whether we
could send forty sail of the line to sea both as to
the ships and as to manning them. He confirmed
Captain MA RRYAT'S statement that our best
seamen go to the United States. "VIT. MoRI
OTERR A L vouched for the number of our ships,

but said not one word about the men. Admiral
ADAM talked, indeed, of 200,000 registered sea-
men, but he meant the seamen engaged in the mer-
chant service, who are scattered over the wide
world, who will not serve in peace, and, still less,
will they willingly serve in war, when thy get more
wages in merchants' vessels and more kicks in her
MAJESTY'S. Those 200,000 men are not, and
and
.will not be, available for our men of war. If
the Government should dare barbarousgy to seize
them, as in the olden times, they would resist the
Government, and, aided by Chartists and
other discontented persons, would render the situa-
tion of the country one of extreme difficulty and
peril, if they did not succeed against the Govern-
ment. Admiral ADAM and the country must not
deceive themselves by talking of 200,000 registered
seamen, for not mote than the tithe of that mum-
' ber would be obtained by our fleet, even with the
help of impressment, at the breaking out of war.
If there is now great difficulty in procuring sea-
men for omr peace establishment, if the services o:7
the merchant registered seamen could not be ob-
tained at the breaking out of a war, what is the
means provided for manning a fleet, in case of
emergency ? We answer—none, absolutely none.
The few seamen we at. present have in our ships
are known to be of an inferior description. They
are mixed, too, with great numbers of landsmen anu
soldiers, and would want large additions to make
up the war establishment, and enable them to fight
their ships with advantage and success. Admit-
ting, therefore, that we have, as Mr. M. O'FErt-
RAL said, an abundance of ships, it is a

, .
fact that the ships in commission are
wretchedly manned, the crews are short of their
complements, and the seamen are of ar: inferior
description, while no well devised plan has been
adopted by the Admiralty, after twenty-five years'
peace, to obtain a sudden and a large supply of
seamen, should an emergency arise.
And who knows how soon such an emergency
may arise ? Who can tell how soon France may be
the victim of another revolution, when the Bona-
partists and the Republicans—men whose bosoms
rankle with embittered and disappointed feelings,
caused by England—may get the upper hand, and
be eager to take advantage of our internal dissen-
sions to revenge Trafalgar and Waterloo ? Who
will answer for Russia, jealous or even angry with
our interference to preserve Turkey from her claws
—remembering still the encouragement our people
gave, and still give, to the grieved, insulted, and
oppressed Poles—wrathful, too, that she is pre-
vented from domineering in Europe by our alliance
with France, which she would gladly put an end
to—and, finally, alarmed at our progress in the
East, lest we should take Persia out of her hands, and
play it against herself : who will answer for Russia,
with so many causes of jealousy, anger, and disap-
pointed ambition to rouse her into hostilities with
England ? Who will answer to the country that
Russia will not profit by our weakness, this very
coming Spring, to revenge what her Government will
describe as several insults and restraints ? Again,
have we nothing to fear from America ? To the
disputed boundary question, the latest arrivals from
the United States have made us acquainted with
another cause of quarrel. The Americans at Can-
ton have protested beforehand against our intended
blockade, and out of that protest and blockade a 1

naval war may grow with America.
Should either or all these contingencies happen,
have we any means of repelling insult, or providing
for our safety ? We believe not. We have noble
ships, but not willing men. Great pains have been
taken to improve the form of our ships—none
whatever to change the disposition of our people.
Our ships are built larger and stronger ; they are
beautiful models of naval architecture ; they carry
their guns high out of the water ; they ride on it
like ducks, but they have no soul. They are like
Greece, as described by Lord BYRON, as beautiful
as of yore, but they are no longer instinct with life.
If half, even if a tithe of the pains—the just pains
-e which have been taken to improve the hulls, the
dead wood and iron,
had been bestowed on win-
ning living m
theyentonsoewrveairne,thceomst,lythmeoynwumouellits
would not
have been, as of
weakness.

We do not
jdAimreEcts theseG remarks against the
Whigs.
rooffimeeed,
y the
Sir
opinion,tttHAM made, when in
some,evil, but stillill-judged attempts to
in our
he
ofmade attempts, which
no Tory did. It is the fault ill-conditioned,
half popular, half aristocratic, despotic Government,
thhesAdminis-
or. another.
and it is the curse of the country,
tration is chiefly conducted, and ever
serve the purposes of one faction a • been, to
Who shall get in—who shall promote their friends?
are the questions that have engaged all the ener-
Gies of our statesmen. None of them have
L.,
thought of providing for the security or promoting
the happiness of the people. Their eagerness one
to prove the other wrong, is indescribable ; to do
right is the object of neither. That the fleet was
not efficient in 1829, is the standing complaint of
the Whigs ; that it is not efficient in 1840, is the
perpetual theme of reproach in the mouths of the To-
ries. We tell both parties, the Whigs, for nearly ten
years, and the Tories for fifteen years, that they
have both grossly, shamelessly, and scandalously
sacrificed the ti ue interests of the country to their
faction fights ; and that neither has ever thought, for
one moment, of winning our population into the
merchant service, by providing a good mercantile
code for our seamen, and winning the merchan. t

seamen and the elite of our population into the
navy by good wages and just and honourable treat-
ment. Both parties are alike in this, that they have,
though the subject has been frequently pressed on
their attention, refused formally to abolish im-
pressment, and both have clung with desperate
and deadly pertinacity to that brutal punish-
ment, the cat-o'-nine-tails, inflicted at the ar-
bitrary caprice of captains. Both parties then,
though the Tories are the worst, are barbarous,
cruel, and unjust, and the reliance both Whigs
and Tories have always placed in the power
of the state to resume at its pleasure the villanous
practice of stealing the seamen, and of logging
them into obedience, has made them careless or
utterly negligent of all honest and honourable
means of providing men for our ships by voluntary
enlistment. The result of their conduct is now
apparent, and the apathy of the public, which
has permitted their continual injustice, is
deservedly punished by a great annual expense,
more than would otherwise be necessary, while even
that great expense for our navy does not secure
us from great and continued apprehension.
We may perhaps say• something more on the
subject to-morrow; we shallnow conclude by remark-
ing that our statesmen pursue a stupid half and half
course, which is consistent neither with liberty nor
despotism. Let them either carry out the principle
of liberty, consistently with our institutions, to its
fullest extent, and trust wholly and at all times
to voluntary zeal to supply our fleet with men,
adapting our system, by promotion from the ranks,
by adequate pay, by honours, and rewards to stimu-
late our youth to enter the naval service ; or let
them carry out the principle of despotism, as is
done in France and Russia, and have a regular ma-
ritime conscription to man our ships, which will be
ten times less cruel and less revolting, with our par-
tial liberty, than the brutal system of impressment.
But they will do neither the one nor the other.
There is too much rivalry amongst the great num-
ber of them to allow of their being thorough and com-
plete despots, and too much selfishness for them
to tolerate complete liberty. The voluntary
system of manning our navy implies patriotism in
our rulers. It is incompatible with jobbing the de-
fence of the nation. Ali the navy funds must then
be devoted to encourage merit and reward service,
and an end would be put to the practice of quar-
tering the relations and dependents of the aristo-
craey on the navy. Voluntary service implies dis-
interested, patriotic rulers, which, as long as the
Government is the prize of factions, we never can
have. To easure the public safety, by procuring
the voluntary services of brave and willing defenders,
the Government must be reformed, and it must
cease to be conducted on the principle of giving a
riumph to one faction or another.

Last night Mr. LABOUCHERE postponed
till the 9th of March his motion for leave
to bring, in a Bill to regulate navigation bysteam,
steam, c'Tvhen we confidently trust the subject
will be brought forward without further delay.
'I he numerous frightful accidents that have within
the last few years occurred through the negli-
gence and: cupidity of steam-boat proprietors, and
the anomalous state of the law as regards this new
and constantly increasing mercantile navy, have
long pointed out to the Legislature the absolute
necessity .of taking some steps to guard against
the recurnence of such heart-rending scenes
as those -which happened at Hull, in the
Clyde, and off the coast of Wales. At the
close of last Ses:.ion, it was confidently ex-
pected that: something would have been done, buy.
Mr. POUL ETT THOM-SON excused himself, on the
ground that there had not been time to consider
the Report .of the Commissioners, in order to legis-
late on the subject. Now there is no such excuse.
The Report: has been for many months before the
public, and, looking at the evidence, together with
the decided opinion of Captain PRINGLE and Mr.
PARKES, a fearful responsibility must rest with
those who may throw any serious obstacles in the
way of such t. humane and just measure. Both
these gentle man, and many practical and scientific
men, stated tlult no vessel was so seaworthy as
steam-ship, when well-equipped and under proper
management,. and • that, with scarcely one excep-
tion, the fatr,:l collisions, the bursting of boilers, and
the loss of st( ,am-vessels in the open sea, could In
traced to the defects in the machinery or to culpable
negligence.
There is .another subject, however, connected
with steam w hich also imperatively demands the
interference of the Legislature, namely, railroad
travelling. In an excellent letter, given in
The Still this day, it is stated that certain
of the Dim -!tors of the North Midland Railway
seriously con template the stoppage of the trains on
Sunday ! Is not this outrageous proposition—this
attempt to cc ntrol the movements of the public—
;to block up the QUEEN'S highway, and writ the
Sabbath in", o a day of gloom, and drive men to
public-hosts ;e0 or Socialist meetings, sufficient of
itself to wt trrant the interference of the Govern-
ment ? In religious matters, or more properly
speaking int matters that are brought forward under
the sacred raame of the Christian religion, but which
have no earthly connection with the law laid down
by its Divirne Author, no proposition is too absurd
for the reception of theaPharisees and bigots of the
present day ; and it therefore behoves the guardians
of the pub' is good to provide against their meddling,
unchantali le, and vexatious interference. The di-
rectors of i a turnpike trust might, with the same
' propriety„ shut the toll-gates on Sunday, slop the
mails for t wenty-four hours, and, to a great extent,
obstruct t.tl re whole
gratifieatiobusinessof the
gratification
some superstitious
sopcountry
er for
stitieus the
miserabl gratification of some superstitious cr
caprice. If these men will not listen'
ht
allt o.
they
ye°t
eac
csr
ooi
the
so,, aI It t
lttdihi
the great
listen
gersetaatm setnantt,doa Scripture,
rwhich,
o fliketheir
faith, and abovethe
J.eawsd,
they will der
rrn that a Sabbath-day's journey was
exabrei p
permitteder
tetseslm y x.. pt,erhmiei
wii t
tteed,
this
sr
,t and e
country,
stopve
n
tmeasuredintercoursete very
royuwt Su
absurdity
i l nevci
never
of the pi .oposition only proves the necessity feir
passing s mme legislative enactment to prevent any
class of r ae n from interfering with the comfort and
rights of the great body of the people.

We di; pct attention to a brief account which ap-
pears in :4 "he Sun, of the commencement of an
Anti-Corn -law Association in the Metropolis.
It is not for the first time that we have re-
proached tl ie Metropolis with being sadly behind
in this grey .t •and good cause. Now that it has
begun to la ir, we hope it will make up in the rapi-
dity of its progress for the tardiness of its corn-
mencemen ,t . Nothing, we verily believe, can save,
even if tl as .t can, the State from great and serious
disasters, bat the repeal of the Corn-laws, which
will enal i.le the bulk of the community,
with full stomachs and ease of mind, to
set about needful political reforms. It will be
pregnant wi th ruin to have a hungry, disappointed, '
and discontented mob dictating laws to the whole
society. T he words hunger and anger have otH
viously the s same origin, and the obvious method to
put an end to the vast anger of the people is to put
an end to their hunger. If they were all as wel.
fed as Ale le rmen, what possibility could there be
of a polit icol convulsion ? We do not ask the
landowner s t.o work for them, and give them food ;
we only as k them to let the people get food for
themselves and not to take it from them. We
ask nothin .g of them but to refrain from pillage.

The Pe ,ris Journals of Sunday cuntain no domestic
news of i; stet est. Tile Journal des Debate eontradicts
a report in the other papers, that the KING bad
given C )e nt MOLE authority to form a Cabinet, of
which the Covnt was to be the chief.
Latex, from Alcoriza, of the 15th, state that the
third division of the Queen of Sram's army had taken
up a. po; ;ition at Estercuel and Alloza, and that tile
fourth dil vision and the advanced guard brigade had in-
vested thh e fort of Segura. Two batteries of heavy ar-
tillery id ; Alcaniz on the 14th for the besieging corps,
under thill ! escort of the provincial regiment of Oviedo,
and a ttc ivadron of the cavalry. On the 17th, five
16-poun Z .srs, as many 24• pounders, and two howitzers,
were se IA from Saragossa, for the same destination,
with a large convoy of ammunition. The Carlists
were co, titesitrating their forces in the direction of Vii-
arlueng o.
C auit ems; was reported to be certainly dead for se-
I'lvo
veral vs, a.n k..s. A party of Carliet Cavalry had far
0A) a interrupted all intercourse between
Sarago
sta. and Yaadrid. The weather was dreadful
Ad'' ices of the 14th inst., from Alexandria, mention
m
the P t
.arz nee 017 the plague in that city. Some case!:
/a.
d reEadi
el
tEr
h eNd
et ETnhiela AL
oittua
were rep ort,..:d on .board the Turco-Egyptian fleet. To
tsitlialeh white-
washed,iiinh :
l
the I a' /ea this calamity,
sinetissdttoor ebb-eae
a
11
..he ivarz
amine-laws,; indcomma ordered
Isea at lea at once in twenty-four hours. An Ambassador
from tkel :ICIIAn Of Persia,with presents for theVicEaor,
1 had ari iv( 'd at Cairo on his way to Alexandria.
M. ( 3 tr. izta, the iecently appointed French Amhas.