The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-21 00:00:00

1,328,0531. The vote for yard wages in 1834 was !
348,0121.; in 1845 it %%as 649,1041. '1 he vote for
stores in 1834 was 499,190/. ; in 1845 it was
1,273,7891., with a supplementary estimate of 185,000/.,
making nearly 1,500,0001. in all. In 1846-47 the
vote was taken for nearly the same amount-
-1,694,1521. This expenditure was adopted by the
Government from no thirst for war, no desire fir in-
creased patronage; and it met with no opposition in
that House. Was it not unjust, then, to attack the
present Government for the amount of this expendi-
ture, just because it required a little moral courage on
the part of Hon. Members to tell the truth to their
constituents ?—(llear, hear.) In 1834 there was a
consumption of 11,551 loads of timber in the dock-
yards ; in 1845, 27,136 loads. In 1834 the cons
gumption of hemp was 3,898 tons ; in 1845' it was
6,063 tons. The consumption of copper was 601
tons in 1834, and 1,158 tons in 1845 ; of iron, 864
tons in 1834, and 2,897 tons in 1445. An overruling
necessity compelled the Government of that day to
take these steps. The Hon. Baronet the Member for
Southwark (Sir IV. Molesvvorth) congratulated the
Right Hon. Baronet (Sir J. Graham) on the mode-
rate amount of his naval estimates of 1834; but he
forgot that the last estimates of the Government
of which the Right Hon. Baronet was a member, and
for which he was just as much responsible as for those
of 1834, were the largest that this country had ever
known. The Right Hon. Baronet-and the then Ad-
ministration saw steam navies growing up around
them in France, Russia, and the United States. They
saw a new element of warfare, with which sailing-
vessels were alone unfit to cope, and they saw that
changes were indispensable. What others did, we
must do also, and if we left our pace we must leave
our superiority also.—(Hear, hear.) The Hon.
Baronet (Sir IV. Molesworth) said the increase was
totally uncalled for. The United States' ships were
meeting us in the Mediterranean, in China, and
everywhere; yet the United States were said to have
a small navy, and one unable to cope with us. The
Hon. Baronet forgot that Great Britain was a
great colonial and commercial empire; and, although
there might be " new lights" upon these points,
yet the House appeared to adopt the views of his
Noble. Friend (Lord John Russell), and consider
our colonies an important part of our commercial
strength and national pre-eminence.—(Hear, hear.)
The case was different with the United States, who
had no such extended colonial empire. The extent
of our colonial possessions was the cause of the mul-
tiplicity of our stations in different parts of the world,
and was the reason why we were forced to keep up
such an amount of naval strength as would enable us
to come into contact with the fleets of other nations
which we might meet there. In 1846 there was a
dispute between this country and the United States;
and, until it was settled, it was necessary to keep up
the amount of our naval force. Another reason for
the increase in the naval estimates was the false eco •
nosily R hich it was felt had been for a series of years
adopted, of not obtaining a sufficient amount of stores
to replace the consumption in the dockyards—of
living upon their capital, in fact, and so draw ing upon
the stock of timber, hemp, and other important arti-
cles of naval stores, that if an aggressive attack had
been made we should not have been in a position
to resist it. What had been the reduction of some of
the principal articles of expenditure when this great
economy was practised? In 1832 there were 64,023 loads
of shipbuilding timber in store in the dockyards, which,
in 1839, was reduced to 46,295 loads. In 1832 there
were 7,527 tons of hemp, which were reduced to 4,673
tons in 1339. In 1832 there were 36,041 bolls of canvass,
and only 17,427 bolts in 1839. In 1832 there were 101
sets of fitted rigging, which were reduced to 36 sets in
1839. The stores of sails, yarn, cables and cordage,
and lower masts were reduced in the same way, by not
making purchases each year to the full extent of what
had been need. The plan followed during those years
had been rightly described as " a spurious and bastard
economy," and could not be permanently adopted. It
might do very well to eke out the estimates of a particu-
lar year; but no wiser act was done by the Administra
tion of the Right Hon. Baronet than the immense addi-
tions to our naval stores made by the late Government.
Was that system to be lightly altered ? The present
Government might have claimed credit and sought popu-
larity by abusing the naval estimates of their predeces-
sors as extravagant. But such a course would have
been as unwise as it was unworthy; it would have been
attended with ruinous consequences, and the country
would hare been deprived of the benefit of all the very
considerable outlay that had been made. There had
been a large expenditure in all the principal dockyards
at Woolwich, Chatham, and Portsmouth, and this money
would have been thrown into the sea if the works had
been stopped. The present Government determined to
complete what their predecessors in office had begun,
and to carry on those works with vigour fur another
year, when they expected to reap the legitimate fruits
of that expenditure, so as to be able to make a reduction
in the estimates of 1849-50. He would take the largest
vote of this year, 686,6001 for new works. A part of
this increase was apparent, and not real, as some items
having been charged under this head heretofore in-
cluded under others, but it was, ho admitted a lary item.
Now, ho thought he could und-rtake to come to the
House in 1849.50 for a vote of 473,0001., being a saving
of 214,000/ in this item. When the Government pro-
posed an increase of the income-tax they intended to
have pushed on these new works, the execution of which
must now be spread over a larger number of years. He
thought it would have been better economy to have
finished the works at once, but the House had expressed
its opinion against the increase of the income-tax, and to
their opinion the Government must bow. The works at
Woolwich and Chatham had been finished, and the
works at Portsmouth, for which the Government took a
large vote, would be completed next year. At Malta the
Government had spread the expenditure over two years,
instead of completing the works at once. But the item
for new works would, he hoped, he reduced by 214,000/.
next year, and afterwards by 60,0001. or 70,0001, until
1854, when the whole of the works begun by their pre-
decessors would be completed, and the expenditure
would be reduced to 120,000/. or 150,0001., the mere
cost of superintendence. The next item was steam
machinery, one upon which there had been an im-
mense expenditure during the last ten years. The
vote for the current year was 280,0001.; but he hoped
that the vote which the Government would be able to
propose for 1849 and 1850 would be only 100,0001. Not
that the present amount was too large, for there were
some contracts yet to be fulfilled, and machinery to be
paid for; but the effect of this expenditure would be,
that on the Ist of April, 1849, this country would have
a steam navy of 45,000 horse power, and the naval force
at the beginning of that veer would be 450 ships of dif-
ferent rates and classes, including 121 steamers With-
out pretending positively to fix the relation which the
number of sailing and steam-vessels ought to bear
towards each other, or that the force he had named was
the proper and efficient force for the country, under all
circumstances, he was warranted in saying that
there was a probability of a considerable reduction
in the building establishments and stores after the
programme for the ensuing year had been car-
ried out. The article of such machinery as saw-mills,
&c., was very costly, and the public had a right
to expect a corresponding reduction of the manual
labour employed, but the Government were anxious to
make such reduction in a way that should not fall
heavily on the men employed in the yards. The Govern-
ment did not desire to swell the amount of unemployed
labour, and he wished to meet the necessity for some
reduction by limiting the number of apprentices to be
taken, and similar precautions, rather than by having
recourse to dismissals. He had put together with great
care the probable results which ho could hold out for
the estimates of 1849 and 1850, and he would state them
to the House; observing that he made the statement
with the approbation of Lord Auckland and other mem-
bers of the Admiralty Board. In the new works (No.
11) there would be a saving of 214,643/. In the steam
machinery (No. 10) a saving of 180,000/. ; in iron
steamers, the contracts for which were complete,
25,0001 ; in ships building at Bombay, where the
Government intended to discontinue the establish-
ment, 25,000/. ; in steam guard ships, the contracts
for which were complete, 8,500/. ; and in a schooner
for Bermuda, built by contract, 3,710/. ; making
altogether, 456,8531. If to that sum be added the
reductions under Nos. 8 and 10 for labour and stores,
amounting to 150,0001., it would give a total saving
upon the naval estimates for 1849-and 1850 of 606,853/.
In this anticipated saving, however, an ample margin
was left for all the important heads of naval expendi-
ture ; for there would be 100,000/. for new steam ma-
chinery, 135,000/ for repairs and factory wages,
473,000/ for new works, and 1,747,0151. for dockyard
wages and stores. With these reductions, it was thought
possible to combine a navy in a most thoroughly efficient
state, and, provided that object was secured, the country
had a right to expect a return for its enormous outlay
during the last six years. The outlay on steam ma-
chinery since 1835 had been 2,689,000/. ; for iron
steam-vessels, 503,7981 ; for stores, since, 1844,
without steam machinery, 4,444,9381. ; and for
works, also without steam machinery, 2 794 742/ , , .;
making a total outlay of 10,432,4781. upon those
four items up to the close of the year.—(Hear, hear.)
Surely, after such an expenditure as that, the time had
arrived when a return was to be looked for
and he thought the House would be of opinion that, by
persevering in the course he had stated, the Government
had succeeded in placing those great establishments,
upon which the security i 1 the country so much de-
pended, in a most efficient and available condition. About
the beginning of the year England would have a steam
navy of nearly 50,000 horse-power, while in 1835 she
had 4,153 horse-power. Those two groat establishments
at Portsmouth and Woolwich were in a perfectly effi-
cient state for undertaking all steam repairs. At Ports-
mouth, although it was not the intention of the present
board to proceed with those larger plans which had been
proposed by their predecessors, yet the whole space
marked out had been surrounded by a sea wall, and was
available at any future time, should it be required. The
great steam-basin at :Portsmouth was one of the most
magnificent works of modern times—(Hear, hear)—and
it would open during the ensuing month. The works at
Malta would be complete in the course of next year, and
Bermuda, after twenty years of neglect, was now
likely to become a station worthy of a great naval
power. When these facts were taken into account, and
when it was remembered that these works had
been effected under a system begun in 1844, and perse
vered in up to the present time, it, might be safely
asserted that the naval establishments of the country
had never been in a more efficient state, and that England
was never in a better position to preserve peace in
Europe, because she hid never been in a position in
which she would be more formidsble is war.--(Hear.)