The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-02 00:00:00

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As representing a seaport town he could speak from per-
sonal experience of some of the evils of the existing system.
Lord C. PAGET thought that the practice, in which the
hon. and gallant member indulged almost weekly, of bring-
ing before the house a recapitulation of details as to the
discipline and management of the fleet in one stereotyped
speech, was not conducive to the interests of the service for
which the gallant member professed great anxiety. (Cheers.)
He would not enter into all those details, but would endea-
vour to inform the house, from official sources, of the ac-
tual position of the reserve and the fleet. With regard to
the motion, he believed it was founded on many misconcep-
tions, and he should therefore ask the house not to agree to
it. The first part expressed "the regret of this house that,
instead of a reserve of 70,000 men contemplated by the
manning commission, there only exists 6,362 Coastguard
men, including officers, 1,900 district ships' companies,
1,400 revenue men and 600 cruisers' men, and 6,000 or
6,000 coast volunteers, not to be depended upon." He
thought that was offensive to the seamen of the country.
(Cheers.) The coast volunteers were enrolled for service on
the coasts, and not for foreign service, which was a very
different thing. He maintained that they wore to be de-
pended upon, and that the contrary assertion was offensive to
the seamen and the public. (Cheers.) The Commission
on Manning the Navy recommended various improuements
in the position of the men with regard to pensions, pay,
provisions, and clothing, many of which had already been
effected. The commissioners then recapitulated their pro-
positions for the service of the country, and to those points
he wished to limit his observations. They proposed that
there should be reliefs in the home ports to the number of
4,000 men. Every gentleman connected with the Admiralty
was equally as desirous as the commissioners to see that car-
ried out, and he believed that this year, supposing they got
all the men for whom Parliament had ♦oted the money,
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there would be a considerable number of reliefs in the home
ports. (Cheers.) As to the Coastguard, to which the hon.
and gallant member next referred; he stated the other day
the amount of that invaluable force. In the Coastguard
there were 6,862 sailors, officers, and boys. It might be said
that the number did not represent the true strength, because
the officers were included, but men without officers were a
mere rabble, and in a reserve force there must be a "Lumber
of officers corresponding with the number of men. (Hear.)
There were nearly 7,000, besides 476 Marines, who were
attached to the Coastguard, and, in spite of anything which
might be said to the contrary, he maintained that in any
emergency it would be found to be a most invaluable force.
(Hear.) There were besides 1,381 civilians, about whom
he would only say he believed that they would, if neces-
sary, do good service. The gallant admiral said it was de-
sirable that the Coastguard should be increased to 12,000
men. He agreed with the gallant admiral, and knowing
the extreme value of that body, the Admiralty were daily
increasing the numbers. It was not the work of this par-
ticular Board of Admiralty ; but for years it had been a
rule that whenever a man-of-war was paid off every seaman
who had served seven years, with a good character, was
allowed to go at once into the Coastguard. The result was
to increase the Coastguard, but, at the same time, to lesson
the number of men fit for petty officers. They could not
eat their cake and have it too. If they would have a nu-
merous and efficient reserve of Coastguard they must take
the best men from the fleet. (Hear.) With regard to the
blockships, the Hastings at Liverpool had been replaced by
the Majestic. Again, at Portland, where there was a good
harbour, the Colossus, or a sister ship—an 80-gun ship—
would be placed there. But there was expense attending those
changes, and he wished the, gallant admiral would always
mention the cost when he alluded to those notices. (Hear,)
There was besides great difference of opinion as to the policy
of placing seagoing ships as Coastguard ships. (Hear.) The
gallant officer desired that the Admiralty should be able
to put men on board their ships, make them ready for sea
in cases of emergency, and that the ships should be in good
order and prepared to fight the enemy next day. Well, the
Admiralty had just had a proof that, without making this
change, ships might be made available in a few hours. Not
many weeks ago it was decided by the Admiralty to place
the Majestic at Liverpool, instead of the Hastings, and orders
were accordingly sent to Liverpool that the crew of the Hast-
ings should proceed to Sheerness, and that the men should
take possession of the Majestic and proceed to sea. The men
left Liverpool at 8 o'clock one night, and having reached
Sheerness went on board the Majestic, and were ready for
sea the next afternoon. The next point to which the gal-
lant officer's motion alluded was the number of the naval
volunteers, and he stated that the number, now under 1,000,
should be completed as soon as possible. He must first of
all say that the gallant officer was incorrect in his figures.
The naval volunteers did really amount to 1,000; and, con-
sidering that the force had been scarcely more than two
months in existence, he thought the progress made satis-
factory. He did not believe that a great volunteer force
could be raised suddenly. Seameh's wages were now £3105.,
and there was a great scarcity of men ; and as a great force
could not be got suddenly, the Government must be satis-
fied with a gradual progress, if made on sound principles.
The suggestions which had been made by the members for
Oxfordshire, Northumberland, and others, had not been
neglected, and shipping masters had been consulted with
respect to them. (Hear.) The hon. and gallant admiral,
among other proposals, recommended that instead of paying
the men at the end of the quarter in which they were en-
rolled, the Government should pay them on enrolment; but
he had received a letter begging that such a plan might not
be adopted, as it would disgust the good men who honestly
came forward, for they knew that others would ask to be en-
rolled for the sake of getting Ll 10s., would get drunk -•n the
money, and disgrace the rest of the force. With respect to
the short-service pensioners, the gallant admiral asked why
they were not allowed after a short service of 10 3 ears
to go into the reserve, joining the naval volunteers, instead
of being kept in the ship. Such A proceeding could not be
adopted without damaging the fleet. If all the men of 10
years' service in the fleet were invited to join the volunteers,
what was to become of the fleet ? There would be no sea-
men in it. The country had got a young fleet, and he was
about to show the house what the Government had clone
within the last year in creation of a fleet ; and, so far from
the state of things being matter of regret, it was a subject
for congratulation that in so short a time so many men had
been raised for her Majesty's service. He had stated what
had been obtained in the coastguard. The commissioners
recommended that there should be a body of marines on
shore amounting to 6,000. This was not included in the
gallant admiral's view, because that gallant officer's object
was to show the poverty of the nation's forces, and the
gallant officer had entirely overlooked the fact that the body
of marines on shore amounted to 6,178, being greater than
the Commission recommended. With respect to the short-
service pension marines the same argument held good as
with respect to sailors, for, if all the marines who had served
10 years were to leave for the purpose of joining the re-
serve, the best men would be lost to the active service. No
doubt, in some years hence, when this matter was on a
good footing, and the men could be spared, it might be de-
sirable to have recourse to the short- service pensioners.
The number of men enrolled in the Royal Naval Volun•
tcers from the Ist of January, 1860, to the 30th of April,
1860, was 894 ; and the number of applications await-
ing verification of service before the grant of certifi-
cates was 83, making a total of 077 men ; and he had since
seen a return, according to which the number was stated
to amount to 1,000 ; and there were now on the re-

gisters, available for immediate service, 7,015 Royal
Naval Coast Volunteers. These were very, important
points ; but the most important point of all related to the

boys ; for, let what would be done with the reserve, the
means of enabling the country to have a really efficient
navy must depend upon educating the boys. (Hear.) A
statement for the years 1857, 1858, and 1859 would show
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the increase which had been gradually taking place in the
establishment of the boys, as the Governments of the day
perceived the necessity for an augmentation. In 1857 the
number of boys was 1,898, in 1858 the number was about
the same, but in 1859 the number had increased to 5,147.
At the present time we had no less than 8,535 boys. (Hear,
hear.) Opinions might vary as to the percentage of boys
which it was desirable to have in the fleet,,and he did not
think that point was yet satisfactorily ascertained. It was

still under the consideration of the Admiralty. The per-
centage at present of boys was about one-sixth, but some
authorities thought it ought to be as high as one-fifth,
However that might be, the fact remained that we had at
present 8,500 boys, who would become in a short time first-
rate seamen. The hon. and gallant admiral had talked of
the impossibility of getting mon for the navy—that our
ships were under-manned, that the men were discontented
and were unhandsomely treated. The answer to that was,
that in the whole Channel fleet, consisting of 12, sail of the
line and three large frigates, there was only a deficiency in
warrant and petty officers and able seamen of 377. (Hear.)
In the Mediterranean fleet, of about the same strength, the
position was almost precisely similar, and a 'draught of
about 150 men were on their way out to fill up those vacan-
cies. Those facts did not justify the gallant admiral coming
down to the house and asking for a censure upon the Go-
vernment, past as well as present, for not creating a re-
serve as fast as his imagination led him to believe it could
be create I. The next point he would mention was as to
training ships, for it must be borne in mind that a naval
reserve could not be kept up solely by the pay allowed to
those who entered it. Training ships were a most impor-
tant portion of the scheme, and he would state what had
been done in that matter. For the naval coast volunteers
there was the Hastings at Liverpool, which had been
transferred from the Coastguard, and the Castor at Green-
hithe. Those ships were fitted up as complete
men-of-war with bedding utensils; boats, &e., because
the men lived on board during their month's drill.

There was also the the Brilliant in the City Canal,
which was not so fitted up, because the men only went on
board during the day, and there was the Trincomalee fitting
to be sent to the north of England. A smaller steamer, the
Weser, was also being got ready to take men to the mouth

of the Thames in order to practise firing at targets. Those
training vessels were only in addition to the innumerable

guns and batteries all over England. For the training of
boys one line of battle ship was fitting at Devonport, and
she, no doubt, would be the forerunner of others. (Hear.)
There were also the four brigs—one at Cork, two at Ports-
mouth, and one at Devonport. He thought he had shown

by the facts he had adduced that tho Admiralty had endea-

voured to increase our naval reserve, and by promoting the
introduction of boys to create a nursery for seamen. There

was only one other point to which he felt it necessary to