The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 17, 1860.

PORTUGUESE .RAILWAYS ROYAL COM-
PANY.—Capital, 35,000,000 francs (X 1,400,600), in 70,000
Shares of 500 francs (X2O).
The SUBSCRIPTION to the above is OPENED at Messrs.
C. Devaux and Co.'s, 62, King William-street, Where the
Prospectus may be had, with copy of the statutes as approved
by Royal decree of the 22d December, 1859.

N. ETROPOLITAN, COUNTIES, AND
"--a- GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY.
27, Regent-street, Waterloo-place, London, S.W.
Life Assurance, Annul ties,Fndowments and Loans.
F. FERGUSON CAMROCX, Manager.

WESTERN RAILWAY.-
EPSOM SPRING RACES.
GREAT METROPOLITAN STAKES, on THURSDAY,

SOUTH

11th, and FRIDAY, 20th April, 164.
Frequent Trains will run dining these days from Waterloo
and Vauxhall Bridge Stations to Epsom.
Ordinary fares will be charged down to Epsom till 11.15
a.m. and up from Epsom after 7 p.m., viz.:—
Single Journey 2s 3d is Id is 2d
Return Tickets 3s Od .. 2s Gd .. is Od

Passengers holding theme Return Tickets cannot return
from Epsom until atter 7 p.m. on each of the race days.
Additional Special Trains will run from Waterloo-bridge
to Epsom from 11.30 a.m. till 1.20 p.m., returning, from Epsom
from 3.30 p.m. HU 7.0 p.m., during which time the ordinary
trains to and from Epsom will be suspended.

Fares by tlise Additional Trains :
To Epsom and Back
To or from Epsom

No particular class of carriage can be guaranteed.
A Special Direct Train will leave Waterloo-bridge station
for Epsom at 1 15 p.m. punctually on each of the race days.
Steam boats call at Waterloo and Ithugerford Bridges
going up or down the river nearly every five minutes.
Tickets may be procured on and after Tuesday, 17th April,
at Messrs. Tattersalls' ; the Universal Office, Regent-circus ;
Griffin's, Green Man and Still, Oxford-street; Golden Cross,
Charing-cross; 53, King William-street, City ; the Swan with
Two Necks, Gresham-street, City; and at the Waterloo,
bridge station.
Waterloo-bridge Station, April, 1860,

By Order.

111DUBLIC HOUSE.—The City Arms Tavern,
Hammersmith Bridge; Leaseholds, Tichbourne-street,
Edvware-road.
TO BE SOLD, pursuant to an Order of the High Court of
Chancery. made in a cause of Palmer Ir.. Goren," with the
approbation of Vice-Chancellor Sir Richard Torin Kinders-
ley, in',Two:Lots, by Mr. CHARLES FRANCIS HUMBERT,
the person appointed by the said Judge, at the Auction Mart
in Bartholomew-lane, in the City of London, on THURS-
DAY, the 3rd day of May, 186 ), at 12 o'clock at noon pre-
cisely, the following Copyhold and Leasehold Estates ; that
is to say—Let 1. A Copyhold Public House and Premises
called`or known as The City Arms Tavern, near the bridge
at Hammeramith, in the county of Middlesex, with a small
Messuage at the end of the Garden,and also two pieces of Copy-
hold Land or ground adjoining thereto, and held therewith.
These Premises (except the said two pieces of land or ground)
are to be sold subject to a mortgage for £l,OOl at 5 per cent. The
said two pieces of land or ground are subject to the dower or
freebench of a lady in the 49th year of her age, in the event of
her surviving her husband, who is in the 65th year of his age.
This Lot is held of the Manor of Fulham at it nominal fine.
Lot 2. A Leasehold Messuage and Premises, No. 24, Tich-
bourne-street, Edgeware-road, Middlesex, held for the resi-
due of a term of 91 years and three-quarters of another year,
from the 24th day of June, 1828, at a ground rent of .£7.
Particulars and conditions of sale may be had gratis of Mr.
Edward Doyle, of No. 2, Verulam-buildings, Gray's-inn, so-
licitor ; of Mr. James Goren, of South Molton-street, Oxford-
street, solicitor; of Mr. Eyre, of George-street, Mansion-
kouse, solicitor; of Messrs. Crane, S.m, and Fesenmeyer, of
Bedford-row, solicitor.; of Sir. Haut, of Great James-street,
Bedford-row, solicitor; at the Auction Mart; and of the
Auctioneer, at Watford, Herts.
CHAS. PUG 11, Chief Clerk.

tion whether there was not some method by which the in-

fliction of the lash might be very much diminished. The

petty officers ought, in the first place, to he put on a better
footing ; and when that was the case, and a more respec-
..

table class of men was secured, there would be no necessity
for corporal punishment as regarded them. He did not
approve of the manner in which these men were punished
at present. The captain now had the power of disrating a
petty officer, and then if he committed any other offence
he mightbe punished for it. That was a great power to
put into the hands of captains, and he did not think they
ought to possess it. These petty officers should be so-
lemnly tried by a court-martial ; this court would be able
to dismiss a man from the service, and, considering that
he would lose alt the time he had served and his rating,
this would be a very severe punishment. If necessary,

also, imprisonment might be inflicted in addition. Then
how was-the sailorto ba punished ? It should be remem-
bered that a seaman worked Tery hard to get 6d. a-day for
10 years, and that te must work still harder to get ls. a-

day. If he conducted himself improperly therefore he
should be tried by court-martial, and the knowledge that
lie was liable to be dismissed from the service would have a
considerable effect in deterring him from the commission of
offenoes. Looking at the few instances in which, accord-
ing to Parliamentary returns, corporal punishment had
been inflicted by sentence of court-martial, as compared

with the number of cases in which it had boon inflicted by
order of the captains, he thought that this power should be
taken away from the latter. There was now a great feeling
in the country a;ainst the lash, and it would be impossible
to maintain the punishment do its present footing. Then,

. _
again, a new code should be established, instead
of the bloodthirsty cod© which obtained at pre-
sent. According to the Articles of War, almost
every offence was to be visited with death. How
could any man ha expected to enter the service if he read
the Articles of War and saw that this extreme penalty
awaited almost 'every offence ? Another complaint made by
seamen was of the discomfort of the hulks. Now, there was
on board the hulks groat disorder and want of discipline,
but under the present system there was no necessity for
hulks at all. Ships were now perfectly ready to receive men
in our different ports ; they were fitted out quite ready for

sea, except as to perishable stores. Then as to the mode of
paying off ships upon arrival in this country, he found the
Admiralty had repealed the order which had been so much
complained of in former times. Admiral Bowles had shown
how men coming home after a long absence would naturally
desire to see their wives and families, and it was contrary
to human nature to keep them alralidon boff.oaHrdeuangrtieledallwtihthe
was impolitic and
sAtodrmosirwaleßreoil-velteusrntheadtasnudchthao
pshroiic)eeding
unwise. It was bad economy, too, as he knew from expe-
rience ; for captains and crews were alike impatient of
leave, and consequently the stores were dealt with in a man-
ner that was not for the public benefit. Ha thought the ship
on arrival should be turned over to the superintendent of
the dockyard, who would see that the stores were returned
in a proper manner. The Admiralty would fail in carrying
out their order, as they had failed in the case of the Princess
Royal. The order to turn the crew over to another ship pro-
voked a mutiny, for which 180 men were tried in block by a
court-martial—a thing never heard of before. The men were
tried and sentenced to imprisonment ; but then, having im-
prisoned the men, the Admiralty repented and released them.
He thought he could suggest a plan by which we might have
10 additional sail of the line ready for sea without increased
expense. He would have a line- of-battle ship at each of
the different largo ports. The Admiralty had at last
managed to place a real ship at Liverpool, and to withdraw
the block ship, which was an object of derision to all the
sailors visiting that port. At present there were eight block
ships, which, if an emergency arose, would be compelled to
remain in port and run great risk of capture by the enemy.
Yet those block ships were considered as our reserve in case
of war, to be manned by the coastguard, assisted by the
coast volunteers. The house had been much misled as to
the numbers of the coastguard, and he had unintentionally
assisted in misleading it. He had stated last year that the
number of the coastguard was 8,20), and the manning com-
mittee recommended an increase to 12,000; but Admiral
Martin, who had been at the Admiralty himself, had pub-
lished a sensible pamphlet, in which he stated that the total
reliable number of coastguard mon was 3,200. The balance
were shoregoing men, who ought to be got rid of and their
places supplied by sailors. Tf Admiral Martin's figures
were correct (and he was but recently from the Admiralty)
that was a miserable reserve for this country. True, there
wore the coast volunteers, but they could not be relied upon.
Ho would recommend that the old system of sea fencibles
should be adopted, but if that could not bo done ho
would take the coast volunteers for what they were worth.
Very few of them could go aloft, but they wore exercised
at the guns, and were intended to assist in manning the
block ships at the different ports. Ho would remove the
masts and yards from those vessels (for they could neither
sail nor steam), and would allow them to remain for the de
fence of the ports. ' Then, if there wore eight or nine ships
of the lino ready at the different ports, directly a war broke
out the Government could send down orders for manning
those ships by the coastguard, and they would be at once
ready for sea. He came now to tho question of a reserve.
He found, on the last occasion on which he made inquiry into
that subject, that the number of men on the reserve list was
only between 600 and 700; so that, adding those to the Coast-
guard force, estimated at 3,200, we could not count on more
than 4,000 men, if so many, coming within the description
of a reserve. They had been told, both by the Secretary to
the Admiralty and the member for Halifax (Sir C. Wood)
that France could man the whole of her foot whenever she
pleased. The men destined to serve in the French navy
were all regularly organised and could be promptly draughted
on board of ship. On the other hand, the men we had en-
listed on the reserve were far from being efficient. They
were not oven so good as those who served in the Baltic. He
was not blaming the Admiralty for that ; they were doing
their best ; but ho blamed the Government for reducing the
bounty from £6 to £2 or £3. (Hear, hear.) The Manning
Commission of last year,directed attention to the extreme
importance of encouraging seamen to qualify themselves as
seamen-gunners. He was anxious to hear from the Secre-
tary to the Admiralty to what extent that recommendation
had been carried out. Again, the system of allotments
called loudly for improvement. At present an interval of
nearly six weeks must elapse before a wife or relative of a
seaman in the navy could receive a single farthing of his
embarked. What, in the name of God,
obaer.a)vallilaeblceotonteanaidedan,sthwaitfethfroe
malltohte-
avlelroyt mmeonrot
amuotnheoy '
mwasentshmeotnoedyoowuigthhtout it in his absence ? (A laugh.) Thet(ne
commission of 1852, composed of excellent officers, recome
mended that, besides the Channel fleet, 10,000 men should
always be in the home ports. A later commission proposed
to reduce the number in the home ports to 4,000, exclusive
of the Channel fleet. A subsequent commission, for which
he moved, recommended that the number should be 4,000
besides those serving in the Channel fleet and the harbour
guardahips. The commission of 1852 recommended that a
largo ship, like the Britannia, should be stationed at Ply-
mouth, with four additional training ships; but that had
not been done. Another recommendation was that school.
ships should be established. He asked the Secretary to the
Admiralty whether that suggestion had been carried out.
[Lord C. Paget.—One is preparing.] He was glad to hear
it. It was also recommended that the Merchant Seamen's
fund should be re-established. Had that been done ? The
noble lord (Lord C. Paget) held his tongue, and ho (Sir
C. Napier) took it for granted that it had not. Again,
there was probably no gentleman in that house who did
not believe that Greenwich Hospital had been otherwise
than a boon to the seamen. But he (Sir C.
Napier) would be very much mistaken if hon. members
were not thunderstruck when they came to learn from the
report of the recent commission the disgraceful manner in
which the hospital had been managed for God knew how
long. Another recommendation of the commission was in
favour of a better regulation for the payment of wages when
a ship was fitting out. Tie believed the Admiralty was con-
sidering this point, but they always considered things so
long ,that probably a year would elapse before the recom-
mendation of the committee mild be carried out. The
commission recommended that a reserve force of not less
than 70,000 men should be established. This number of
men they were not likely to get under the present system.
If the Admiralty were to give the short service pension
mon to understand that if they joined the reserve allow-
ance would be made for past services, they might be induced
to come forward; but at present they would not do so,
especially as they were liable to be sent off immediately to
distant parts of the world. The commission wound up by
expressing their opinion that the reliefs at the home ports
should be speedily raised, but they all knew that they were
not being speedily raised, and that a period of seven years
might elapse before the reserve could be established under
the present system. He deprecated the expenditure of
money for the erection of forts at Alderney and other places
where they would not be of the slightest use. It would be
infinitely better to spend the money on Armstrong's guns,
not one of which had yet been placed on board a man of
war. (Hear, hear.) His own opinion was that the only
certain way of manning the navy in case of war was to call
the seamen out by proclamation and by classes, imposing a
penalty on all captains of merchant ships who retained men
falling under the proclamation, and ho would either give
the men a high bounty or high pay. They would never get
sailors to defend the country in time of need unless they
offered them liberal inducements to enter the service. He
defied any ono to say that the British fleet was now in such
a position as to meet a well disciplined enemy, and to be
morally certain of vanquishing him in whatever part of the
world he might present himself. On the contrary, if an
enemy's fleet put to sea immediately, we could not be so con-
fident of victory as formerly. There ought, however, to be
no doubt on such a subject, and unless the Government
acted with spirit and yigoi,ile §hyuld bring fuward a pub-

stantive motion with the C.iew of obliging them to put the

country in a proper state of defenco. (Hear, hear.)
POST.CAPTAINS ON THE RESERVED LIST.

Sir J. ELPHINSTONE rose, pursuant to notics, to call
attention to the case of post-captains on the reserved list.
He regretted that the advocacy of the claims of these gen-

tlemen had not been undertaken by some officer belonging
to the Royal navy ; but at least it could not have fallen
into the hands of any ono who was more thoroughly con-

vinced of the hardship of their treatment, and ho trusted

that he should be able to induce the Admiralty to grant
their prayer, and to give them in their old age that increase

of pay which was manifestly their right. On the 25th of
March, 1851, in consequence of the overcharged state of the

Navy List, an Order in Council was issued, beginning a

system of retirement, and as an experiment 50 commanders
were selected for their eminent services as being proper to

be placed on the reserved list, for the purpose of being pro-

rooted to the rank of post-captain, and to rise (as he should

show) by seniority to the rank of Admiral. The Order in

Council stated that the number of commanders on the active

List would be reduced to 450—firstly, by promoting 50 com-

menders to the rank of captain ; secondly, by increasing to
100 the list of commanders promoted to the rank of retired

captain under the Order in Council of 1810 ; and thirdly,

" By placing on reserved half-pay all commanders who
have not served afloat, or in the packet or revenue service,
within 20 years, or who are physically incapable of service,
and by continuing from time to time to remove such officers
from the active list to reserved half-pay. Officers who may
be thus placed on reserved half-pay will be allowed tb re-
tain all the advantages they now enjoy of rising in pay or

rank, or of receiving the Gicenwichoiit-pension."
[Lord C. Paget.—" Read the next paragraph."] The next

paragraph was as follows :

" The system of promoting by brevet will be abandoned.
Fifty lieutenants, however, will bo promoted by selection to
the rank of commander, to be placed on reserved half-pay,
in the same manner as specified in the case of commanders
promoted to be captains.
The letter to the 50 commanders thus promoted to be cap-

tains; from the First Lord of the Admiralty, stated that in
consideration of their services he offered them this promo-

Lion, and that if they accepted tho offor it would not prevent
them from being eligiblo for a commander's out-pension for

Greenwich. In 1851 Capt. Allen was appointed to a Green-

wich out-pension, NA subsequently two other captains on
the reserved list received similar appointments. But ano-
ther captain was refused the out-pension, on the pretext
that by a recent regulation he was not eligible to be put

upon the Greenwich out-pension. Ho held in his hand
the commission issued to these officers, which in till respects

resembled that issued to post-captains, except that the

words, " for rank only," were inserted in the Corner. An
hon. and gallant gentleman now no more (Capt. L. Ver-
non)—to whom ho could not allude without expressing the
great loss which the house had suffered from his untimely
fato—(hoar, hear)—had recently road a letter from an
officer high in the Admiralty, calling upon a gentleman
(Mr. Churchward) to continue a series of graphic sketches
of the services of those very officers, in order to satisfy the
country that they were entitled to be placed on the reserved
list. One of these officers, Captain Gordon, applied to be

admitted to an out-pension at Greenwich, and he received
an answer, signed by Mr. Phinn, stating that his name had
been placed in the list of candidates, and that at the proper
time his claims would be taken into consideration. At the

same time he was informed that the object in granting
these pen,sions was the relief of officers who might be old,
wounded, or disabled, and that if the pension were granted
he would be ineligible for further employment. It ap-
peared, therefore, that his application had been entertained
by the Admiralty, and that he had received intimation that

it had been duly noted. When Captain Gordon rose to the
grado of captain, which entitled him to have his pay in-
creased to 12s. 6d. a-day, ho wrote to the Admiralty on the
subject, and was informed that being on the reserved list he
was not entitled to any increase of half-pay. Ho renewed

his application, but the Admiralty refused to enter further
into the question. Having hoard it hinted that the ser-
vices of the officers to whose case he referred were not suffi-
cient to entitle them to be placed on the list, ho had con-
sulted Byrne's Naval Biography, and found such over-
whelming evidence to the contrary before he :got to the
names commencing with C, that he did not think it neces-
sary to go through the whole list. The services of those
under the letters A, B, and C wore numerous and distin-
guished, and no doubt the same might bo said of all of
them. He hoped the Admiralty would consent to grant

these officers the privileges to which they were in strict jus-
tics entitled under the terms of the agreement, and which
they were deprived of by a more quibble. These gentlemen
were most of them seventy years of age and upwards, aid
could enjoy the benefits they claimed for only a few years,
if conceded, as he trusted they would be.

Mr. LINDSAY admitted that the case of the reserved
post-captains was entitled to consideration, but begged the
house to reflect upon the enormous cost of the half-pay sys-
tem. For the present year more than £690,000 was absorbed
in half-pay, and £148,000 in pensiois and allowances, and
yet the arrangement was as unsatisfactory to the officers
as it was inexpedient for the country. It was high time,
he thought, that the whole question of the reserved and re-
_ _

tired lists should be looked into. To increase the number
of midshipmen in the navy would tend only to enlarge the
half-pay list, and he believed the better plan would be to
give petty officers a higher grade and permit them to dis-
charge some of the duties of midshipmen. As was well
known, he disapproved the report of the Commission on
Manning the Navy, and held that the proper remedy for
the present state of things was to give the officers of the
mercantile navy a status as officers of reserve. It was only
due to the Admiralty to say that they had used every ex-
ertion possible to carry out the recommendations of the
Commission on the Manning of the Navy, and for his own
part he believed that in the event of invasion the sailors
in the merchant service would to a man come forward to
defend the country so as to render recourse to the old sys-
tem of impressment unnecessary. But ho wished to direct
at ten tion to the enormous and constantly increasing amount
of the expenditure under this head. In 1852 the expendi-
ture for the navy was £5,800,000 ; in 1853, £6,300,000 ; in
1858, £8,800,000; in 1359, £11,770,000; and this year it,
was £12,800,000. At the same time, there was every pro-
spect of the estimates next year being still further increased.
Every one seemed to feel, but no one seemed to say against
whom we were arming. It was best to be honest and say
at once that we were arming against France. (Hear, hear.)
France was also enormously increasing her expenditure in
armaments. It was because we were afraid of France and
France was afraid of us. The two countries were entering
into treaty engagements and mutually professing great
friendship, while they were each showing the mockery of
those professions by increased expenditure and increased
taxation. He felt sure that if the right means were adopted
something could be done to prevent such a monstrous state
of things, and it was his opinion that we had no need to
be afraid of France, that France had no intention whatever
of attacking England, and that the Emperor was much
too enlightenel not to perceive how much it was his
interest and the interest of Europe to be at peace with
England. But, assuming that it was necessary to maintain
a vast fleet, there could be no objection to reduce the ex-
penditure if it could be proved that the fleet could be main-
tained as efficient as at present for less money. The Dock-
yard Committee appointed by the Admiralty, and consist-
ing of Admiralty mon, reported that 20 per cent. could be
saved in the cost:of new works alone. They said that great
changes were, necessary in the mode of superintending the
men, and that additional machinery was required to save
manual labour. Even now the cost of the same sized ships
was different in different dockyard'. The committee wont
into details of eight corvettes of 1,400 tons each, which had
been built, and it appeared that while the cost in Davenport
dockyard was £4 Bs. 3d. per ton, the cost in Woolwich
dockyard was £6 17s. Bd. per ton, A 51-gun frigate had
cost £5 ss. 10d. per ton at Portsmouth, while another 51-
gun frigate of rather less tonnage had cost only £3 17s. 9d.
per ton at Chatham. Tho Mersey had cost £3 19s. 71d. per
ton, while the Orlando, a vessel of exactly the same charac-
ter, had cost £5 4s. Bd. It might be that the materials cost
more at one yard than another, but he had been unable to
find any satisfactory explanation of this different cost at dif-
ferent yards in the counter reports presented by the naval
authorities. It would be of great service to the public inte-
rest if the First Lord of the Admiralty would consent to the
report of the committee and the counter report being sub-
mitted to :a select committee of the House of Commons,
which might in pure into certain allegations made in the re-
port, and decide which were in the right, the original com-
mittee or the naval authorities. If there were doubts as to
any of the statements made in the report or counter report,
the select committee might have both parties before them and
cross-examine them on the points at issue. After the ground
had been properly cleared a Royal commission might then,
perhaps, be appointed with advantage, to see whether it
really was possible to reduce tho dockyard expenditure by 20
per cent. At present the dockyards' accounts were made up
in such a form that they were a complete puzzle, though tho
present Secretary had certainly made a beginning of what
would be a groat improvement. In July last he had called
attention to the fact that we were paying for anchors
£3,434, the market price for which would be only £1,428. A
return was subsequently laid on tho table, from which it
appeared that the- prices had been reduced, and that from
1842 to 1849 the cost of anchors of 20 cwt. and under 30
cwt. was £1 16s. ; of those over 30 cwt. and under 50 cwt.,
£2 Bs. ; over 50 cwt. and under 70 cwt., £2 17s. , and of
those over 70 cwt. and under 95 cwt., £3 ss. But a docu-
ment bearing the signature of Mr. Dundas, storekeeper to
the navy, showed that no reduction had been made, but
that the price of anchors in 1845 was the same as in 1841.
The question, therefore, presented itself—was this a reli-
able return, or could the statement in the letter be inaccu-
to the contractors 180 s, per cwt.,
inaccu-
rate? (Hear.) He had made a calculation of the price of
four anchors ranging from 20 to 70 cwt., and found that the
tAir ci9rTiaZwt 7leti;Y:lM set lip t 9 pi tic oppeti-