The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-31 00:00:00

0

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM TILE MORNING PAPERS or THIS DAY.
TIMES.— Mr. Cobden is beginning to render
scene account of his travels. He is not the man to
give us his journal right on end, but wait, and we
shall have it all in due time. It is evident, from his
speech to his old allies at Manchester, that he had his
eyes open and his wits about him abroad as much as
at home. Some people regretted that, when her
Majesty's present Ministers slipped unaccountably
into the seats of the last, there was no place found
for the hero of free trade. Mr. Cobden, however,
being a modest man, declined that advancement, and
has since been content with doing the duty of all
her Majesty's Ministers, the Commander-in-Chief,
and the whole diplomatic body at once. It was in-
sinuated, when he crossed the Channel, that he was
glad to be out of the way for a while. Nobody,
however, seems to have been more in the way where-
ever he went. Had Paul Pry himself visited
every harbour and metropolis of Europe with
his quiet and unobtrusive inquiries, he
could not have picked up more valuable
information. France is the first country on which
"our Commissioner" presents his report. The state
of the French navy, the pacific disposition of the peo-
ple, the great subdivision of property, and the pains-
taking, scraping, higgling, and huckstering qualities
of the five or six million proprietors and taxpayers
come under review. Putting the nervous old Duke
and all his military compeers quite out of the ques-
tion, Mr. Cobden claims for civilians the exclusive
right of deciding how many soldiers they shall main-
tain. Just as a manufacturer determines for himself
how many watchmen or bulldogs he shall keep on his
premises, and how many bars on his windows, or just
as a traveller carries a pistol, or a good thick stick,
or nothing, at his pleasure, so he vindicates for us cot-
ton spinners, hardwaremen, colliers, or what not, the
liberty of keeping as many red coats and blue jackets
as we please, and no more. The gist of his remarks
is, that of the two he would rather be eaten up by a
French army than an English one ; that is, he
would rather take his chance for the former, than
aggravate the certain nuisance of the latter. From
France to Portugal. Upon Spain, if we remem-
ber right, we had a return on a former occasion,
when the maufacturers, that is, the smugglers, of
Catalonia, got their deserts. The Commander-in-
Chief having been disposed of, and Lord Normanby
supplanted, it is now the Foreign Secretary's turn
for "an airing." At Lisbon Mr. Cobden appears to
have fallen into the hands of the party which we have
no doubt has a good deal to say for itself, but which
is best known to the British public as having lately
held Oporto for some time against Donna Maria,
and having ultimately fallen chiefly through the
quiet capture of its `fleet by a British squadron.
These gentlemen seem to have indoctrinated Mr.
Cobden with a very strong view of Lord Palmerston's
interference. He takes, however, an economical view
of the subject. Our ancient ally is not worth the
continual presence of we know not how many British
men-of-war ;—we shall soon hear how many, for Mr.
Cobden has moved for a return. He has no great re-
spect
for their Port wine—a natural consequence of
his not being a university man ; and as for their Hes-
perian climate, and their geraniums in the open air
in January, these are very pleasant for the naval
officers living at our expense on the shores of the
Tagus, but unfortunately are not articles of commerce.
If, therefore, the earthquake that demolished Lisbon
in 1753 should come again and swallow up the
whole of Portugal, it would be an immense gain 1
to the British people. So says the deponent, but
between the depreciation of their wine, the ca-
tastrophe suggested for their country, their
slight mercantile value on the great British
ledger, on the one hand, and the admiration of
their political spirit, on the other, Mr. Cobden's
Lusitanian allies will be somewhat puzzled how to
take his reflections on their country. From the
Tagus the Plenipotentiary of the British people pro-
ceeded to Malta. The Lords of the Admiralty are
now overhauled. No salutes were fired, or yards
manned, when Mr. Cobden made his inspection ; nor
are we told that the authorities accompanied him in
his perambulation. If they did, we must say he has
treated them very ungratefully. While he was there
one of our ships arrived from Portsmouth with 999
men on board. As Mr. Cobden saw it lie in the
harbour of Valetta, he naturally contrested its tiers
of portholes with the successive stories of a factory,
its hundred guns with so many power-looms, and its
crew with the same number of human beings en-
gaged in any productive employment. Pos-
sibly, also, the same reflection occurred as that
which ha mentions on the subject of Portugal.
However, Mr. Cobden left Malta, and went
a round by Naples, Egypt, and Greece. When he
came back to Malta there was the big ship still,
" eating its head off." Her chief officers had been all
the time lounging at the clubs, while the subs and the
rest of the crew had been trying to kill time and keep
up a decent exterior of employment by hoisting up the
sails and taking them down again, and scrubbing the
decks. This did not accord with Mr. Cobden's ideas
of the public ser% ice, and he reports accordingly. He
gives also some hints from the American Consul, who
considered our navy very " slack," and who mentioned
that the two or three ships kept by his own Govern-
ment in the Meditteranean were always busy and in
motion, scouring the sea for pirates, though we should
think even so small a vessel as a United States' frigate
would not be very effective against those light gentry.
Mr. Cobden, of course, appreciated advice which
smacked of simplicity and shrewdness, and which
di;posici to ifibte"alrfinZitn.Xs;.,kmt sorne people will be
not to keep so many ships, and those not so large as at pre-
sent. Mr. Cobden's conclusions may be reduced to two
heads, which he states with his usual clearness and
emphasis. We will take the lesser point first. He
considers that our navy is ill employed and ill
stationed, converted into a job for this amusement of
such officers as possess interest at the Admiralty—a
sort of yacht club, maintained out of the operative
pocket, and leading to no end of demoralization.
The proof of this is that our ships are not sent to
Hamburgh or the Baltic, where we have so much
trade, where, however, sea and land are equally
destitute of.attractions ; they are not sent to the
United States, which yield one-fifth or one-sixth of
our foreign trade, but to Malta, to the Tagus, and the
Douro. Now, here we think our Commissioner a
little too prompt in his conclusions. We send our
ships to those parts of the world where they are likely
to be wanted, or to certain central " stations" within
reach of a summons, and convenient to their probable
destinations. The prospect of a war in the Baltic is
very remote indeed. The United States, too, du not
require very close watching, and there are serious
reasons against allowing a Queen's ship to remain
any considerable time in a North American port. In
fact, she would not bring half her crew home. Then
Mr. Cobden himself would hardly recommend us to
send our ships about the world in quest of bad cli-
mates, rough seas, dangerous coasts, and, to crown all,
disagreeable company on shore. We opine, however,
that the Mediterranean fleet is stationed where it is
for direct and positive reasons. For instance, if the
presence of a British ship should be wanted on the
coast of Syria, or of Greece, or at Palermo, or Naples,
or Tunis, or at any Mediterranean port, what station
is so handy for all as Malta, which al,o, besides being
a port, is a British fortress and arsenal ? The distri-
bution of the navy, we must say, in all deference to
that distinguished civilian the Member for the West
Riding, is mixed up with some considerations of a
purely nautical, and others of a purely military charac-
ter. The general question of our naval and military,
armaments Mr. Cobden does not settle so expedi-
jously as he does the unfortunate man-of-war at
Valetta and the ships in the Tagus. Like most other
late and tax-payers in the kingdom, he feels a de-
cided objection to increasing the present outlay of
17,000,0001. on this very unproductive investment.
His anticipations are hopeful, and we will make an
effort to go along with them. In a few years civil
speeches are to do the work of broadsides, and tracts
of grapeshot : chambers of commerce and free-trade
halls are to prove stronger than fortifications, ship-
loads of piece-goods to win their way where war
frigates are successfully denied, and the talismanic
name of Richard Cobden is to compose animosities,
whether domestic, international, or inter-cantonal,
which Lord. Palmerston with all his foreign Ministers,
can only handle to make worse. Mr. Cobden ever y.
-where found friends, for he everywhere found mer-
chants, and commerce is the conciliator of nations.
A safe trade, and good returns, he found more desired
than glory, and a handsome per centage sweeter than
political revenge. We credit and accept his testimony ;
we will not, however, go further than he does at
We are not for reducing our armaments
P resent. Just now. Why ? Because the question of peace
and war is not in the hands of merchants or of wise
and good men, or of public opinion, or of the people,
in the widest sense, or in any sense at all. It is not
even in the hands of Ministers or Kings. It is in the
hands of fools and madmen, of dotards and striplings,
of tyrants and ruffians. An idiot throws the torch
that lights up a conflagration. A fanatic strikes the
blow that sends a dynasty to its account, and nurses
another in the cradle of war. A sot may sway the
destinies of an empire, and so of the world, till the
nuisanoe is suppressed by an adultress and an assassin.
A headstrong admiral, or a raw lieutenant; a word
of rash encouragement from royalty or power; a mis-
token signal or an unintelligible dispatch, may begin
those bloody retaliations which an age cannot close.
In a word, no mortal man can answer for'peace and
war. We can do something, and certainly the posi-
tion of this country for thirty-three years shows what
can be done. But that length of peace itself is mil
element of danger. When we have retained our pre-
sent armament some years without augmentation, it
as ill be time to think of a reduction.
CllltaNkclaE.—With every desire to find our-
selrir tait'same side with our old friends of
Mger;si Trade Hall--"a desire which is t
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