The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-25 00:00:00

OUR (i UN- B 0 A TS.

At the time of the Crimean "War the sudden col-
lape of our military system raised an outcry which
forced the Horse-Guards and the Admiralty to
humiliating confessions, and to promises of reform.
Far be it from us to wish for a renewal of the eon-
trovers:es and the rancour of that terrible time.
We are now at peace,no immediate danger threatens,
oar only war is with a remote and feeble empire;
although heavily taxed, the country is prosperous,
and can afford both money and time to replace what
has been destroyed by the negligence or fraud of
those who serve it. All that we desire is that a ROI
examination should be made into the reports now
current respecting the state of the navy, and that
calmly, but without fear or favour, the matter
should be sifted and a remedy applied.
At this time, we are told, there are 47 gun-boats,
besides mortar vessels, hauled up at Haslaryard. AII
the world remembers the paean which was sung
over this miniature fleet. Christened with coquettish
little names, the gun-boats, built according to the
newest model and commanded by gallant young
officers, were the pets and the pride of the country.
Their qualities were invidiously contrasted with
those of the heavy line-of-battle ships and frigates,
which crept cautiously about the shallows of the
Baltic,'or watched sluggishly opposite the entrance
to Sebastopol. It as told how after the war they
were all drawn up ready for use on the shortest
notice, how they could be brought down to the
water in less than an hour, and the cn9tny con-
fronted in less than a week with an extempore fleet
as formidable as any that could issue from Cher-
hour,. The Government appears to have been as
much impressed as the public with the 11,A:ruin( ss
of these craft. They had done good service at Sxe.o-
borg, they had ascended the rivers of China, and
were again to be despatched to that distant region
to bring the Emperor to reason. Accordingly the
shipwrights have been at work on them with no
little activity. Twenty-two, we are told, have been
repaired at a great cost, and, with the exception of
coppering, are fit for launching. Nine vessels are
under repair, fourteen are waiting examination.
These repairs began more than three years ago,
and have been continued at intervals to the present
time. It will appear singular that vessels built
only in 1854 and 1855 should so soon require such
extensive reconstruction. Very quietly do these
repairs seem to have been carried on, and no com-
plaints of the contractors have been allowed to be-
come public. The decay has been attributed to the
fact that the gunboats had been stripped of their
copper, and placed high and dry in a current of
air. But now it is announced that the decay
must be attributed to another cause. Some gun-
' boats which had been kept afloat have been hauled
up, and have been found to be " far more de-
fective than those stored beneath the sheds,
and the only conclusion which tern be areived
at is that the whole of our gunboats afloat
are unf t for service." They have been con-
structed with the most reek !ess disregard to the
quality of the material. if those which have
been examined are a sample of the whole, we are
at this moment without an efficient gunboat.
Scaecely a sound piece of wood can be seen about
them, every part bearing marks of" sap," and some
of the ribs are completely enveloped with it; the
pressure of the hand on their frame crumbles it to
dust. Much more to this effect is given in our
Naval Intelligence. The copper bolts, also, which
should have gone through and been clinched on
each side, " were found to have been changed into
short ends of about two inches, driven in on each
side"—a fact which, if correct, convicts either the
builders or their workmen of a deliberate and most
disgraceful fraud.
Of course, this abominable history must be fully
inquired into. Here we have the country, when
hard pressed by war, and unable to furnish the ne-
cessary number of vessels from the public yards,
applying to the first private builders in England,
and concluding contracts with them for the con-
struction of vessels. The contracts are taken, the
vessels are built, the country imagines that its naval
force is considerably increased, and now, at the end
of five years, we find that neither the watchfulness
of the Admiralty nor the honesty and patriotic feel-
ing of the builders have prevented us from being
cheated as grossly and impudently as the poor wo-
man who gets 200 yards of threed on a reel purport-
ing to hold 300. We might have much to say on the
carelessness of the authorities which accepted such
fraudulent handiwork. Surely green wood can be
distinguished from seasoned timber by dockyard offi-
cials, and a copper bolt driven through a vessel's side
and clinched must present a different appearance from
two boltheads merely tacked on, one inside and the
other out. But these considerations are forgotten
in the shame we feel on reflecting that firms hold-
ing a high position in the English mercantile world
should be guilty of such baseness. It is impossible
to believe that such universal inferiority in the ma-
terial of the vessels could be accidental. One or two
gunboats might be built of green wood by mistake,
but such a state of things as is reported to exist can
only be the result of general unscrupulousness
among those who took the contracts. It may be
that the Government price was too low, and it is
said that the only two sound vesels were built by
a firm which lost money by their construetioe. But
that cannot be an excuse fir the others. The pub-
lic will demand a searching and unsparing inquiry
and if it should time or
into these delinquencies,
that men holding a foremost position in the com-
munity have been guilty of such malpractices, they
should be duly exposed and punished. Such doings
are a discouragement to every one who wishes to
see the natural sluggishness of the official world
compensated by the enterprie of private hon-es.
It has been the argument of the Admiralty, the
Horse Guards, and other departments that their
worst faults were as nothing to those of the men
whom public opinion held up as their models. The
Circumlocution-office, at any rate, did not job, and
swindle, and make money out of the public ruin.
This plea will now have double force, and, though
we feel sure that the commercial business of this
country is mainly conducted in a high and honour-
able spirit, the administrative reformers Neill he
taunted with the rotten timber of the gunboats built
in private yards, unless their builders can clear
themselves from this charge.— Times.