The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-16 00:00:00

RECREATION GROUND,

Mr. SLANEY moved that the Government or Parlia-
ment should take steps to secure open spaces in large towns
for the benefit of the working classes, and urged on the
house the necessity of providing places for the recreation of
'the people.
Sir G. C. LEWIS considered the proposed inquiry un-
necessary. The existing law and local acts gave facilities
by which objects such as Mr. Slaney desired could be to a
greater or less extent attained. 'Where obstacles arose, the
proper course would be for the local authorities to apply to
Parliament for further powers. If any amendment of the
existing law were proposed, he should give it attentive con-
sideration. "
The motion was then negatived without a division.
LIVING FEMALE MODELS IN SCHOOLS OF
DESIGN.

Lord HADDO brought forward his annual motion to
withdraw grants of public money from all schools of design
where nude living models were studied. This, he said, was
the case with four schools out of 12.
Mr. SPOONER seconded the motion.
After a few words from Sir G. C. Liwrs,
Mr. ADDERLEY strongly opposed the motion, and de-
fended the practice, under proper restriction.
Lord PALMERSTON said this was not a question for
the Government. What was the minimum of cloth-
ing which the noble lord would allow ? He should have
been more precise.
The house then divided, when there appeared—
For the motion ' 32
Against it
Majority • —lls
TURNPIKE ROADS AND BRIDGES.

Mr. ALCOCK moved for the appointment of a Royal
Commission to inquire into the existing system of taxa' ion
for maintaining turnpike roads.
Sir G. C. LEWIS thought it was fair that those who
used the roads should pay for them. He saw no use in
issuing a commission, and should therefore oppose the
motion.
The house then divided, when the numbers were—
For the motion
Against it
Majority —66

EAST INDIAN ARMY.—ORDER OF. THE BATH.
Sir H. STRACEY moved for copies of correspondence
between the Secretary at War, the Governor• General of
India, and Lord Clyde, on the subject of officers recom-
mended for the Companionship of the Bath.
Mr. S. HERBERT denied that there had been any par-
tiality in the distribution of the Orders of the Bath or other
honours. As vacancies occurred those recomrnentled by
Lord Clyde would have the Companionship of the Bath
conferred upon them. He could not consent to the pro-
duction of the correspondence.
The motion was negatived without a division.

GUN AND MORTAR BOATS.
Sir C. NAPIER moved for a.return of the names of the gun
and mortar boats with.the, short bolts, and the names of the
builders; and of those which were now fit for service. He
could not, he said, see why the Admiralty should screen
the contractors who had built vessels which were dangerous
to human life. Probably the contractor himself knew no-
thing of the insertion of the short bolts, which might have
been put in whilst he was sitting in his office, but still, con-
tractors who carried on business so carelessly should be
published and exposed. It might be hard to publish their
names, but it would be much harder to drown 150 men, who
after going to sea in full confidence in the strength of their
vessel found her go to pieces in the first gale of wind. On
the former occasion the noble 1 rd made no objection, and
he (Sir C. Napier) did not see any reason why he should
now change his opinion. It would in his judgment be
wicked to conceal the names of those contractors. Ho
wanted to know also how many of those boats were fit for
service; 164 had been mentioned in another place, of which
two had been broken up. He believed that the whole would
be found to be in a bad state. Si/teen, they were told, had
been repaired, and he wanted to know why at that time the
inspectors of the navy did not examine them and report the
result to the house. It was said that the Admiralty were
going to"prosecute ; if so, let the house have the names.
He knew the names and would hand them out. The builder
of the Caroline, which had 100 short bolts, was Mr. Green,
and if it was not Mr. Green, let the noble lord tell him who
it was. This story of the gunboats was a very serious thing,
for he very much feared that many of the larger vessels of
recent construction were as bad, and it was of importance
that it should be known whether the sail of the line we had
were efficient or not. He was in company the other day
with a gentleman, one of the largest shipowners of Ame.
rica, Mr. M'Coy, who told him that he had recently been
travelling in France with a Prussian gentleman ; that he
visited the port and dockyard of Toulon, and that our dock-
yards bore no comparison with what he saw there. There
were employed in Toulon dockyards, according to this gen-
tleman's statement, 116,000 men ; the works were tremen-
dous; they were fitting out, and could fit out and send to
sea in a fortnight a fleet of 20 sail of the line. They had
also at their command all the steamers belonging to Passe-
gems, or those employed for post-office purposes and the
conveyance of passengers. They had an immense amount
of material collected, and they had besides a number of
transport boats, 260 feet long each, capable of carrying a
large force of men and horses. He (Sir C. Napier) asked
Mr. M'Coy, " Can you tell me, or do you know of your
own knowledge that they could at Toulon within a fort-
night not only fit out these vessels but send 30,000 men to
sea in them ?" " I have not the slightest doubt of it," was
the reply. Then he asked, " And suppose they were to
send on by railroad all their men from Cherbourg and
Brest to man the fleet, could they in that case de it sooner ?"
The answer was, " Considerably sooner." Well, that was
the position in which we stood as regarded France. The
right hon. gentleman told them the other day that the coun-
try was not in a very safe state, and they had since heard
that Russia was collecting an army on the banks of the
Pruth, with what object it was not difficult to guess. The
late Emperor of Russia was looking out for the death of
" the sick man." But the sick man, by the aid of
France and England, recovered for that time; but
was there no reason to apprehend that the sick
man might not be again ready to receive medi-
cine, and that a severe dose might not be pre-
paring for him ? What security had we that Russia
might not propose the same game to France that she wished
us to join in ? It might be France had declared she would
enter into no arrangement for the dismemberment of Tur-
key ; but they could all recollect that last year France de-
clared she would not attack Austria, but she did, and de-
prived her of one of her fairest provinces. Again, they ,he.d
been assured that the Emperor Napoleon had no design 3
upon Savoy and Nice, and yet shortly afterwards they aaw
those territories actually in his possession. (Hear, hear.)
In the same way he might now tell us that he was not
going to do anything in the East, but had we any reason to
trust him ? Suppose there were a secret design on the part
of Russia and France against any part of the dominions o
the Porte—Egypt for instance-the first news we shonfla
hear of it would be that an expedition had sailed for Alex-
andria, and perhaps had landed, We had a respectable
naval power in the Mediterranean-12 sail of the line—lbut
tint would not be sufficient to cope with the 30 sail whiiel,
France could in a few days equip and send out from Toulon
fully manned. It was well known that the first news we
had here in England of the first 'Napoleon's expedition
against Egypt was the intimation that he had landed there
with an army of 40,000 men ; and at that time, be it remem• •
bared, there was nothing but sailing ships ; and now, wheel 1
the motive power was steam, the army might be transpertes
there in less than a quarter the time. He thought am 3
Government ought, at least, to be able to satisfy the home
and the country as to what was the exact state 'of our nab
—how many ships were efficient and sound, and how many
they could man in case of sudden emergency. In his
opinion, we could net man many more than we had now
in commission. The Government had not carried out the
recommendations of the Manning Committee--indeed, they
had done little or nothing towards it. He was mistaken
the other night when he said that we had a reserve of 7,300
coast-guard men. lie found we had only 3,200 regular
theycoastguard
lmy eln,,9ogood s
tsrie acmt esnh,
pfist, t c boB
peamn
ibea rs k ed
that; tlvh

to say, men to man the old hulks, and they had 1,5()c

revenue men, mere civilians, totally unfit to go on board a
man-of-war ; and they had, besides these, 600 men on boat •d,

he revenue cutters. The result was that—instead of an 3-

serve of 12,000 men, as recommended by the committee-
they had at most between 6,000 and 7,000 real good mel 1.
It was said they could not fill up the coastguard resory e,
but they might easily do so if they reduced the qualificatic

,o seven years service. It was said the other evening i

;he House of Lords that we could get as many sailors a s'

were wanted—that they were coming forward freely. If so,,
how was it they had not got the 4,000 mon which the com-

mitten recommended should be always in our ports ready b3l

be put on board ?
The SPEAKER begged to remind the hon. and gallant
mew* tA44 tll9 quosticqzW whether & retw plurplcl