The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-27 00:00:00

THE EARL OF ELLESMERE ON
OUR NATIONAL DEFENCES.
The following lengthy epistle was published, on
Saturday, by the Times :
Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen !"
Sir,—As the subject of this letter stands for early
discussion in both Houses of Parliament, the propriety
of this intrusion into your columns, on the part of one
who his de jure a voice in the Legislature, may fairly
be questioned. I trust my justification may be found
in the circumstance that the state of my health allows
me no prospect of a de facto exercise of the privilege
I possess.
It is now rather too late to consider whether a
gentleman who assumes the initial of " P " for his
signature has been governed by a wise discretion in
communicating his apprehensions of invasion, and the
grounds of those apprehensions to the public. I
confess myself to be one who, having long entertained
those apprehensions, and having been equally cognisant
with " P " of the facts on which he vindicates them,
have hitherto, for reasons which seemed to me impe-
rative, refrained from publishing them to the world
at large. I have not, however, abstained from stating
them in other quarters, and I do now see reasons for
contributing what support I can to an appeal which,
whether discreetly or nut, has been made to the com-
mon sense and patriotism of this great country.
Whatever may be the result of these discussions, or
whatever the fate and fortunes of this enormous em-
pire, future historians will have to record and explain
the fact that for a considerable period, of which it is
difficult to fix the precise commencement, the instinct
of self-preservation has been in abeyance and suspen-
sion in this country. It is difficult, I say, to fix the
precise limit of the commencement of this eclipse of
the common sense and foresight which Providence
has given to reasoning man for his guidance—to
the coward alike who flies from danger, and to the
brave and wise who arm themselves to meet it. Some
may date it from the year when the report of a Par-
liamentary Commission first gave scientific assurance
that the Irish Channel might be crossed with equal
safety and with greater speed and certainty by steam
than by canvass. When Sir A. Campbell in
the Rangoon river made use of a war
steamer to convey troops, to batter stockades,
and to run down the war proas of the Bur-
mese, I think it was time for military and naval
men at least to look forward to the further develop-
ment of the agencies so employed. When, however,
Sir R. Stopford made his feint at Beyrout, and Sir d.
Napier dashed across Djouni bay, end effected the
lodgment of the force at his disposal in the teeth of
the hosts of Egypt, I think the reign of judicial blind-
ness had manifestly set in. From that hour to this
the professed economists have pursued their old habit
of pressing for further reductions. Within a few
days of the time I am writing, one who has acquired
no inconsiderable influence over public opinion in this
country, in an address to an important constituency,
has held out to them the old and hackneyed delusion
of the feasibility of making large reductions in the
expenses of the army, navy, and ordnance.
The mere fact that such a topic can be so handled
by a popular orator before an applauding assembly,
at once demonstrates the prevalence and intensity of
the torpor with which a long peace and the absence of
visible and conspicuous danger have benumbed the
faculties of the nation.
For the man who thus gives the weight of his autho-
rity to such dangerous delusions I entertain, in his
character of political economist, a respect founded on
accordance with his views, as well as on the acknow-
ledged ability which he brings to their advocacy.
With him I look forward with hope and confidence to
the eventual consequences of that increase and multi-
plication of our commercial relations which he
endeavours to promote. Can any man, however, be
sanguine enough to suppose that these results,
whatever their eventual value, will be arrived at per
saltum, or imagine that, when attained, they will era-
dicate evil propensities, obliterate recollections of
former national rivalries, or stifle every cause of fresh
discussion ? It is the failing of successful propaga-
tors of systems that they almost invariably ascribe
universal as well as specific efficacy to the offspring of
their invention, their talent, and their perseverance.
This propensity has now led Mr. Cobden, while he
gravely proposes to denude this country of the
notoriously insufficient means of defence she now
possesses, to descend from the station of a leader of
the intelligence of the people to that of a representa-
tive of its ignorance.
There are two modes of refutation or consolation
by which Mr. Cobden, and the disciples who cheer
to the echo the dangerous doctine he has uttered, may
endeavour to soothe the apprehensions or confute the
predictions of Cassandras like myself. They may
hold that the attempt at an invasion of these islands
is either absolutely impossible, or too improbable to
be admitted into calculation • or, secondly, that if at-
tempted, this country has already the means to frus-
trate and chastise such attempt. The first mode
appears to be that adopted by Mr. Cobden ; the se-
cond, no person of any authority has yet been rash
or ignorant enough to maintain.
Mr. Cobden's opinion on the naval and military
question of the possibility of the landing of an in-
vading force in this country, being worth as much
as mine would be on the merits of a new mordant
for printing-calicoes, time would merely be wasted
in its discussion. The poisibility of such an opera-
tion rests upon authority entitled to as much weight
as human authority can claim. The probability of
such an attempt is certainly one of those political
questions which defy exact calculation, and which
afford no data to the actuary. The expediency of
effecting an insurance, and the amount of sacrifice to
be incurred for that purpose, are to be measured
rather by the magnitude and value of the stake than
by the probability of the occurrence. That stake is
neither more nor less than our capital, our arsenals,
our lives, our property, our wives, our children,
which I, for one, believe a few hours might, in our
present state of military preparation, place at the
mercy of an unscrupulous and resentful enemy. I
do not believe that it would be impossible, in our pre-
sent state of preparation, for a French Minister of
War, favoured by circumstances, to land on British
ground a force sufficient in numbers, discipline, and
equipment, to march in any direction along the turn-
pike roads of England.
That direction might depend on the place of land-
ing—it might be Portsmouth, it might be Chatham,
it might be the capital. In each, in any case, with
our present means of defence, I believe resistance would
be hopeless, and an attempt at armed opposition only
productive of useless bloodshed. To oppose in the
field such a handful of regular troops as we could
muster, scarcely provided with artillery, and totally
destitute of a reserve, to a French army, such as
under my supposition would be brought against
them, would be an act of useless desperation. If the
French were to appear at one end of London, the
wisest movement the Guards could make would be to
march out at the other. For the rest three howitzers
would be sufficient, and the Lord Mayor would soon
be busy with the details of billets, and whatever con-
tribution might be accepted, as a commutation for in-
discriminate plunder.
Let them come, I often hear it said ; they will
never return. Don't let them come, I say ; but if
they do, let them return as soon as they can be in-
duced to do so. I really do not see why they should
particularly wish it. In the present state of this
country 50,000 Frenchmen would find England as
safe and pleasant a domicile as any iR which the sol-
diers of Napoleon ever luxuriated; but if not, the
country which sent them here would consider the
mere insult to perfidious Albion cheaply purchased
by their ultimate sacrifice. It is necessary to look
at facts as they are, not as they ought to be, or we
could wish to make them. Thirty years of peace, of
close and pacific, if not cordial, intercourse, ought, I
admit, to have obliterated the recollection of former
quarrels, and stanched the old sources of bitterness
and In England much of this effect has
been produced. There is neither contempt nor
hatred here for France or Frenchmen. In France I
know not which feeling predominates towards Eng-
land. Both are rife enough. In England, if she
were to be involved in a quarrel with France, which
Lord Palmerston could not justify on the strongest
and most palpable grounds of stringent necessity, a
unanimous vote of the House of Commons would
deliver him over to be torn to pieces and devoured
by Mr. Urquhart. Let M. Guizot tell the Chamber
of Deputies " I have insulted England in a manner
which no nation can be expected to put up with,"
and a war supply would be voted by acclamation, and
the Conservative Minister would be carried home to
his hotel on the shoulders of the people. This is very
unfortunate, but it is neither unaccountable nor un-
natural. In the first place, there is the old standing
grievance of the long and bloody game which was
played between the two countries, and which was
won by England—fairly won, as we think, by pluck
and perseverance—won, as Frenchmen conceive, by
a combination of accidents which can never again
recur. The aspiration to balance this account will
not become extinct with the generation which has
seen the English encampment in the Bois de Bou-
logne. These burning memories of the past are be-
queathed from father to son. It is not confined to
the partisans of any political creed, or to any class
of the community. Rich and poor, Carlist and Phi-
lippiste, alike entertain it—none more than those who
in their own persons, or those of their kindred, shared
the protection and the hospitality of England during
the emigration, and who, Waterloo apart, have in
some instances at least, a kindly recollection of that
circumstance. "Une bonne victoire," said one of
these, "et nous serous les meilleurs amis du monde."
Is the intercourse with travelling and migratory
England calculated to remove or mitigate these un-
fortunate feelings ? For reasons too many now to
enumerate, and too many of which it is not pleasant
for an Englishman to admit, still less to detail, I can
only
on a
thesenswe groundsrsuch andaques mtionainy nthotehs, Sir,neergativel
am
not
of opinion that the mass of the French nation (I do