The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-24 00:00:00

OUR NATIONAL DEFENCES.

The Times considers thai Lord Carnarvon made him-
self yesterday the spokesman of all those who have been
declaiming during the recess against things in general.
Complaints of the smallness of our army, the want
of weapons and stores and munitions and trans-
port and fortifications, have alternated with ad-

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vice, more or less open, that we v should give
something more than goodwill to struggling France.
That we are utterly unfit Tor war, and that we had only
to threaten hostility in order to strike terror into the
armies of Germany, are propositions which have been re-
ceived with almost equal favour during the last few
months; so that some people rather dreaded the meeting
of Parliament, lest all these mighty discontents would
gather to a storm, and impel Government to some act of
folly. We did not share these apprehensions, for a con-
siderable experience has taught us that the meeting
of Parliament generally puts an end to all the vague
expectations and feverish agitation of the recess.
It is hardly necessary to follow Lord Carnarvon
into the details of the alleged mismanagement of the
Army. There has been no proper gunpowder ; there has
been only one torpedo, though a committee had recom-
mended torpodoes ; there has been great delay in supply-
ing breech-loaders. Woolwich still exists, though a Com-
mission some years since had recommended a central
arsenal at Cannock Chase. The Government works and
stores are at the mercy of an enemy. The education of
the officers is bad, and they are as much unlike
as possible to the strategists of Moltke. Unfortunately,
there never has been a time when accusations such as
these could not be brought against the War Office, or the
House of Commons, or whatever authority is held to
be responsible. Certainly they have been launched
so long as we can recollect against every suc-
cessive Government, and, whatever reforms may
be devised, we believe complaints of the kind
will never cease. There is, in fact, very little chance
of such a state of perfect military preparation, accom-
panied by strict economy,as shall ever satisfy a censorious
Opposition. Indeed, we believe that successive Govern-
ments have done their best to keep things in order and
efficiency, and that they have, to a great extent,
succeeded. Considering that they have not had
the aid of a strong popular impulse, they have done
better than could have been expected, and the Army is,
on the whole, very superior to that of the old days pre-
ceding the Crimean war. There probably will never be
a time when something in a machinery so little under-
stood and so carelessly watched by the nation at large
will not be falling out of gear, and give the opportunity
of criticisms having a certain plausibility and finding a
wide acceptance.

The Standard observes :—The House of Lords took up,
in its turn, last night the great question of the day. The
Earl of Carnarvon criticised, in a long and able speech,
the policy of the Government on military matters, and de_
monstrated the complete inadequacy of the scheme of
reorganisation by which Mr. Cardwell has undertaken, at
the cost of an additional three millions, to secure
the defence and maintain the influence of
the country. The main point taken by Lord
Carnarvon, and it is one which must be
insisted upon, is this. This Government reorganisation
scheme is substantially nothing more than one of those
increases of the number of men and additions to stores
which have been so common since the Radical party gained
ascendancy in Parliament. What the country wants
is a system which will be permanent and pro-
mises to be efficient ; a system which will re-
lieve it from the grave inconveniences of credulous
security and sharp panics ; a system which shall
be really economic because making the best use of the
great resources England undoubtedly possesses. What
are we to get for the fifteen milions sterling we are to pay
if these estimates are accepted ? asked Lord Carnarvon.
The price is an enormous, not to say an extravagant, one.
Lord Carnarvon considers that the military Pxpenditure
now proposed by the Government is far higher
than would be necessary for the defence of the
country if the State would make use of the
free, or, as we would rather say, obligatory, services of all
or of a large portion of the able-bodied men in the militia.
The Government scheme only professes to give the State
these services at a time when, as the experiene of recent
wars shews, they would hardly be worth having. Lord
Carnarvon 's objections appear to us to have been
established, and the whole proposal of the Government
to put the country in a state of security amounts
substantially to an increase of men and an increase of
charge which whenever a Liberal Government has next
need to bid for popularity it can propose to strike off.