The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-26 00:00:00

but who are treated with far too little considera-
tion when their hard services demand reward.
HENRY KINGSCOTE.
96, Eaton-place, Oct. 21, the anniversary of
Trafalgar.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY NEWS.

Sir,—The speech of the Earl of Hardwicke at
the Cambridge Agricultural Association is well
worthy the serious attention of the whole nation.
His lordship, who is a member of Government, and
who of course is aware of the real facts of our posi-
tion, publicly and distinctly says " that he believed
the condition of our navy to be weaker than at any
period—certainly absolutely weaker than that of
some great powers near us." His lordship also
states " that, as a member of Government, he had
seen experiments which proved to him the miser-
able inefficiency of our present ships for war pur-
poses"—" that in ships of the line we arc inferior
to other nations," and "that for the purposes of war
our sailing ships of war are at an end." His lord-
ship then states that " the army, as a profession,
might be useful when the foe reached our coasts,
but that we should be prepared with fleets ready
to put to sea at any moment to prevent them reach-
ing our shores." He confeises " that those who
conducted the affairs of the naval profession were
not altogether settled in their minds as to the most
expedient way of laying out the public money in
the manner best calculated to promote the public
good, for so rapid was the progress of science, and
so variable the minds of inventors, that not six
months elapsed without some change ;" and in his
difficulty his lordship advocates that press gangs
may be once more at work, when the lives, the
properties, and the wealth of the inhabitants of this
great nation are at stake.
If Lord Hardwicke be correct in these state-
ments, our position is dangerous, the more so if
those who are at the head of the naval profession
are in difficulty how to act. His lordship states
that the army as a profession might be useful when
the foe reached our coasts. I cannot for one
moment allow the possibility of British fleets being
defeated, but will allow my imagination to take a
flight, and suppose that an enemy is making pre-
parations to disembark an army. The great
loss to the country would be the burning of
our arsenals by the sudden attack of an enemy's
fleet. The remedy for this danger is simple
and easy. All our seaport towns com-
municate by railway with Coventry, Weedon,
and the centre of England. Arsenals may be
there placed, free from all danger, and an order for
the equipment of our ships of war can from these
inland towns be as easily, and nearly as quickly,
executed as from Woolwich, Portsmouth, or Ply-
mouth Dockyards. The mercantile community
would purchase the government warehouses at the
sea-ports, the purchase money of which would
lessen the prices of those built inland. Lord Hard-
wicke declares our sailing ships of war totally use-
less as ships of war. Sell them at once to our
merchants.
In this manner the arsenals of the nation are as
available as at present, and in complete safety ;
and the nation's ships, which are useless, are dis-
posed of. I have presumed to make these simple
suggestions solely because Lord Hardwicke says
that those who are conducting the naval profession
do not see how to spend the public money in the
manner best calculated to promote the public good.
But allowing that the enemy has beaten our fleets
or attempts to land, is there any real danger to the
nation ? Decidedly not. If proper, simple mea-
sures be taken, and with very little outlay of money,
no enemy from the sea can possibly disembark on
our shores and advance into the country. I will
even allow the enemy by the heaviness of their
ship artillery fire to have cleared our troops from
that part of the shores where they intend to land.
Their heavy guns from their ships may possibly
hit random shots at 600 or 800 yards inland, and
they may have even mastered our artillery on Mar-
tell° Tower and sea coast defences. But they are
not one step further advanced in the invasion of
Great Britain. Our second or chief line of defence
is 700 yards inland. Artillery, even light, is very
difficult to land ; and even if landed can produce
little effect at 600 yards distance. If we had
heavy artillery in our second line of defence
we could in all safety smash their artillery
and destroy their boats, without the loss of a man
on our part, it being quite indifferent to us
on land whether the enemy be destroyed in deep
water by our fleets at sea, or in shallow water by
artillery and rifles firing in security in our second
line of defences. S'ach defences, in my opinion,
should be made according to the admirable new
system of fortification of Mr. James Fergusson, but
as engineers doubt his science, I will show another
so simple that it cannot cause any jealousy on their
part. By calculations made by railway contractors,
100 men can in ten hours make 100 yards of a
ditch, 21 feet broad at the top, and 12 feet deep,
with the earth thrown inwards as a parapet ; there-
fore 10,000 regular " navvies" could be forwarded
by railway to any particular spot, and in ten hours
could make such a ditch (or form an impediment) of
51 miles. We here see that if an enemy was on.
the coast how easy it would be for " navvies" to
throw up lines of defence quickly out of the reach
of the enemy's artillery. I here show this very
simple plan to prove that even if Lord Hardwicke
is right as to our fleet, there is no fear, and I trust
some of your military writers will try to point out
the impracticability of this simple plan, so that
something better be fixed upon. I can show that
if each Coast Guard Station was furnished with
four of my rifle batteries, they could assemble at
the rate of 7 miles per hour, and throw in a more
destructive fire upon a disembarking army than
10,000 infantry ; but thinking that Lord Hard-
wicke's speech may produce an erroneous and un-
favourable impression, I now only show how the
army as a profession might be useful when the
foe approached our coasts. From a knowledge of
the feeling of the public, I may say that his lord-
ship's plan of again resorting to impressment is
utopian ; but as there are not less than 50,000
sporting licenses granted, we can always depend on
having 25,000 of the best shots in the world ready'
to be employed after the manner above professed
in the defence of their country.—l am, &c.,
London, Oct. 19. CHARLES SHAW.