The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-14 00:00:00

SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON ON THE

NATIONAL _DEFENCES.

The first of a series of lectures on " Common
Thin gslunder the auspicesof theGlasgowAbstainers
Union, was delivered on Monday night in the Mer-
chants' Hall, by Sir Archibald Alison, on " The

Best System of National Defence." The hall was
very well filled.
Sir ARCHIBALD ALISON said the subject he had
chosen was one in a peculiar manner connected
with the subject of the Abstainers Union, for it was
upon the sober part of the community that the
stability, the liberty, and independence of the
country most depended. (Applause.) It was upon
their young men who went out sober, and vigilant
to exercise themselves in arms to defend their coun-

try they would look to maintain their national in-
dependence, their freedom and liberties ; and those
who indulged in ardent spirits with debilitated minds
and bodies, would be found perfectly inefficient in
the day of battle, as they always had been found in
the struggle and battle of life. (Loud applause.)
The volunteer movement was one upon which he
looked back with peculiar pride and satisfaction.
He still recollected that it was in November last

that the first meeting on the subject took place in
the City Hall. Then it was in its infancy. There
were, he believed, about 1,500 men in uniform in the
room that night, and even the most sanguine could
not anticipate at some distant period more than
perhaps 4,000 volunteers enrolled in the entire
county of Lanark. But ten months had only
elapsed since that time, and he had the joy and the
pride of seeing reviewed in the Queen's Park,
Edinburgh, 21,400 volunteers from Scotland, of
whom no less than 9,000 came from the county of
Lanark. (Cheers.) It should be strongly borne in
mind, however, that this great movement was the
base only of the national defences. The volunteers
at the present moment were said to number
130,000, perhaps 150,000—that number, great as it
was, was not nearly so many as he wished to see
enrolled, and the reason of that he believed was

that it was entirely intended to be self-supporting
so that it was necessary to find persons in certain
stations of society. Now, he fully appreciated the
independence and public spirit of the gentltmen
who engaged in this undertaking, but he should
like to see a force of 300,000 volunteers. (Hear,
hear.) He wished to see volunteer corps in every
part of the country—the privates of which were
men who were just as much attached to their coun-
try.as the volunteers who could afford to pay for
their clothing, but who unfortunately were not in
equally affluent circumstances, but who came for-
ward and said,—" We have nothing else to give to
our country, but we are willing to give our blood
and our lives." (Loud cheers.) He should like to see
a local force in every county to be called out by go-
vernment, paid by government, and armed by
government, and exercised 40 days in the yea.
(Hear.) This was the only way to provide a force
adequate to any great emergency. But a volunteer
force of that sort could not be considered as move-
able columns, they were all necessarily chained to
one particular spot. One hundred and thirty thou-
sand men scattered over the whole country, the
force that could be brought to bear on any one point
in case of invasion was extremely small. In order
to provide for the defence of the country, then, two
things were necessary. In the first place, a large
and powerful standing army which might be moved
with perfect facility between one place and another,
and in the second a great volunteer force amount-
ing to not less than 300,000 men—one-half of them
maintaining themselves, and one-half paid by Go-
vernment. But had they a regular force sufficient
to meet invasion. (Hear, hear.) The army at pre-
sent consisted of 230,000—but they could not
suppose that more than 200,000 would be effi-
cient. Well, 80,000 must be devoted to India,
40,000 spread over the rest of their colonies, and
30,000 in Ireland—leaving 50,000 regular soldiers
to defend Great Britain. (Hear, hear.) In case of a
serious invasion the volunteers would be found of
immense advantage in defending forts and in act-
ing on the flanks of an invading army, but if we
came to battles on the field the weight must rest
upon regular soldiers. The question then was,
how was the regular army to be increased ? He
would just tell them how. By raising the pay of
the soldier from ls. ld. to ls. Bd. or 2s. per day.
Why, in the country a man could earn 25., 35., 45.,
and ss. a day, and they could not be surprised that
if a man could get that he was at all likely to be-
came a soldier when only offered ls. Id. a day,
one-half of which was stopped for rations.
If this were done, and if we had a force of 100,000
regular soldiers capable of giving battle to any of
the great continental armies, and supported by
300,000 volunteers, he was perfectly sure we might
bid defiance to " the world in arms." (Applause.)
There was another consideration which pointed to
another danger even more setinuo than that of in-
vasion, to which the volunteer movement, he re-
gretted to say, gave no sort of security, and that
was the danger of a national blockade. (Hear.)
We stood in a very peculiar situation, and our
danger in that respect had been augmented in a
fearful proportion since the last war. Till 1836
the nation was self-supporting. In 1835-6 the
wheat imported was 26,000 and 28,000 quarters,
but in 1859 we imported 13,138,000 quarters of
foreign grain. Fancy the result of a blockade of
all our harbours in case of war with France and
Russia ; and what security had we against such a
catastrophe as that ? He observed it was said
that we had 52 sail of the line fitted with screws
and in efficient condition, and that there were 8
more blockships. The French had just about an
equal number, and the Russians in addition
had some 25 sail of the line in the Baltic, and
thus the French and Russians combined stood
to the British fleet as 75 to 50. That was a most
serious consideration ; because a single defeat in
the Channel would bring more danger to Britain
than twenty defeats on the Rhine would do to
France. England once defeated in the Channel,
and followed by a blockade, the export of manu-
factures and the import of grain would cease, and
we should be compelled to surrender at discretion.
Therefore he said that the country could only be
in a secure state when it had such a navy as would
enable them to cope with the three greatest mari-
time powers of the world—Russia, France, and
America—(hear, hear)—or any two of those who
might be united together. But ships was not
enough, we must have sailors; and Sir Archibald
urged an increase of pay. In the merchant service
the sailors were paid 525. a month, but in the royal
navy they had only 31s. per month. He advocated
expenditure of the money recently voted by Par-
liament for fortifications ; and, as to the country
having reached the maximum of its taxation, he
said that in 1815 the country did not contain more
than 19 millions of inhabitants, and it raised
£72,000,000. The population of the country was
now 28 millions, and yet they were told that
the country could not afford to spend £76,000,000.
It was perfectly ludicrous to say, as the advocates
of peace at any price said, that we could not
afford to spend eight or ten millions on fortifica-
tions. When he saw the national expenditure up
to £130,000,000 he should then think we had
reached the maximum taxation which the
country could stand, but not till then. (Hear,
hear.) There was the greatest danger of a
general war breaking out in the unsettled state of
Europe—either from the ambition of France, which
would next be directed to the acquisition of Bel-
gium, the Rhenish Provinces, arld Antwerp—the
state of Italian affairs—or the Eastern or Syrian
question. These were three great questions, any
one of which occurring was sufficient to bring on a
general war. The lecturer shortly afterwards con-
cluded with an eloquent peroration, in which he
expressed his belief that Great Britain was as able
to repel and defeat any combination of the Conti-
nental powers as she was in the days of the first
Napoleon.
On the motion of Mr. I. LANG, a vote of thanks
was unanimously awarded to Sir Archibald. for his
interesting and valuable lecture.

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THE FRENCH TREATY AND LOCAL DUES.—At a
meeting of the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce, held on
Monday, Mr. J. Jobling in the chair, a short conversation
took place on M. de Fanelli's (the French consul) letter to
the Newcastle corporation, claiming that under the treaty
French vessels should be placed on the same footing as the
Newcastle freemen with regard to town dues. The general
opinion expressed was that it was exacting to claim such
immunities and that they should not be conceded. The
secretary said that he was afraid the Frenchman had a bad
case. There were no coals whatever exempt from some
dues, by whomsoever shipped. They. all paid the same
duty, and the corporation received it. What the corpora-
tion did with the dues the Frenchman had nothing to do
with.
EXPLOSION AND Logs OF SIX LIVES.—On Monday
morning last, at eight o'clock, a fearful explosion took place
at the Melfort Gunpowder Mills, which are situated about
15 miles from Oban, in Argyleshire, by which dreadful
calamity six human beings were instantly killed, five of
them, unfortunately, leaving wives and large families.
One of the bodies was found in the mill race, another in
the middle of the river, and a third was seen in a field some
distance from the mill, but so frightfully burn', and dis-
figured as not to be recognised. Some fingers were found
road leading to the works. The explosion was die-
' Bonaw, 30 miles from Melfort, and was
*".nto for thunder.