The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-19 00:00:00

INSURANCE COMPANIES.

Mr. SHERIDAN moved for have to introduce a
bill to regulate insurance and assurance institutions,
and to arrange for their iucorporatioo. The law with
regard to these companies was in so uncertain a state
that it had become positively necessary that some legiF
lative enactments should be introduced to meet the evil.
He there bad taken the question up, in the of being able
to deal with it, but as an arrangement had been come to
with a gentleman opposite, that the discus ion on the
bill should be postponed until the second reading, he
should not deem it ceceseary to enter into its provisions
upon that eccasion•
The motion having been seconded, leave was given to
introduce the bill.
CONSPIRACY TO MURDER IN IRELAND.
Mr. BLAND moved to introduce a bill repealing so

much of the 10th. of Geo. ?V., chap. 34, as related to

, .
conspiracies and solicitations to murder in Ireland. The
hon. member proceeded to observe that in the di,cussion
on the bill introduced by the noble lord the member for
Tiverton, it bad been pointed out that the law with re-
gard to the crime of conspiracy to murder, was different
in Ireland to what it was in England, and it was ad-
mitted that the law as it existed in Ireland required al-
teration. Accordingly, by a section of the bill of the
noble lord, it was enacted that henceforward the law of
the two countries should he assimilated, and that the
crime of conspiracy to murder should be made a felony
punishable with transportation in both. Well, the prin-
ciple was approved of, and all he now asked the house
to do was to sanction its adoption in future.
Mr. GREEN seconded the motion.
Me. WHITESIDE promised that the Government
would give their fullest consideration to the assimilation
of the law of conspiracy to murder in both countries. At
the same time it must be distinctly understood that he
would give to any proposal for the repeal of the act of
Geo. IV. his most decided opposition. That act was
passed to meet cases where conspiracy to murder was
followed by the perpetration of the deed, and had no re-
ference to cases of conspiracy where the intention was
not executed. He was happy to be able to state that
the crime of conspiracy to murder had become much
rarer •l late in Ireland, and that unquestionably some
ehoinge in the statute law was therefore necessary, an
that in the character recommended by his hon. and
learned friend Mr. Bland. Perhaps, therefore, his hon.
friend would consent to leave the matter in the hands
of the Government, and withdraw his motion.
Lord J. RUSSELL said there was no doubt that the
whole subject of the law upon the point of conspiracy
to murder was in a most unsatisfactory state, so much
so that the better opinion seemed to be that even if Dr.
Bernard had been found guilty by the jury, he must
have been finally discharged upon the decision of the
judges, ae the crime with which he was cbarged was
not reeJgnisarJle by the law of England. Now, if that
were the case, it was evident the state of the law re-
quired consideration.
Col. FRENCH begged of his hon. and learned friend
to rest sati.fied with the assurance or the Government,
and to withdraw his motion.
Mr. DOBBS considered the law in Ireland was much
too severe on this point, and that it ought to be modi-
fied. _ _

Mr. BLAND then withdrew hie motion.
PUBLIC PLAYGROUNDS.

Mr. SLANEY moved for leave to bring in a b:11 in
order to enable grants of land being made near popu-
lous places for the use and regulated recreation of adults,
and as playgrounds for children.
An HON. MEMBER here suggested there were not
40 members present ; however, by the time the Speaker
came to count the house, the members present were so
recruited as to justify the prolongation r.f the sittin4.
Mr. BRISCOE seconded the motion of hi 3 hon. friend.

Mr. WALPOLE, on the part of the Government,
would not offer any opposition to the introduction (.1
the measure. _ _ _

Accordingly, the hon. member obtained Lave to in-
troduce his bill.

MANNING THE NAVY.

Sir C. NAPIER, in pursuance of notice, proceeded
to bring forward his motion for a commission to inquire
into the best means of manning the navy. He said, th,
time bad corns when the House of Commons, the Go_
vernment, and the country Elvrild iay their shoulders to
the wheel with the vie R of devising some system ef
manning the navy in a manner worthy of the country
and of the service itself. He should, cf course, be told
by the First Lord of the Admiralty that this was not
t Froper time to bring such a sill jct under the notic,-
~f the house ; but he had waited for upwards ( f 40 year
—(a laugl.)—,ver since the peace of 1815—in the hope
that this i aiportant question would have been taken ui
by some Government, either Whig or Tory, but he had
waited in vain. He bad been making suggestions to the
Admiralty for the last 40 yeah for the improveme
the navy, but they bad produced little eff,tct. As far
back as 1816 he had written to the Admiralty against
the system of impressment, and frequently since he had
proposed schemes to modify or put an end to it ; but
bnothing had
vned
that yetif t
hb
ee
ye nwde or
en et
otoreacbuorlitsohirathperessysmsteenm.
t

the seamen would not stand it—they had got a better
notion of their rights than they formerly had, and they
would resist any attempt t o impress a man on board
ship- Formerly the horrors of the system were very
great. If a wife wanted to get quit of her husband, a
father of his son, or a son of his father, they had only to
bribe the pressgang, and the poor victim was forced
into:the service. Even the Speaker of the House of
Comonons, if he had once got into the hands of the press-
gang, would have found it impossible to get off. (A.
laud.) They would have paid no attention to his re-
morestrancee, or would not have believed him. He knew
something of the subject, for long ago he had been en-
gaged in these transactions himself. (Hear.) Unless
Parliament were prepared to resort to some regular
mode of manning the navy it must again have re-
course to the system of impressment—a system under
whiola the sailor was subjected to a degree of slavery
whirl), he coutended, ought not to prevail in the case of
any class of rata in a free country like England. But
the real question for the consideration of the house was
what were the best means for manning our navy which
could be adopted ? In order to attain that object, he
thought it expedient that the greatest encouragement
should be held out to those who entered the service. He
would, for instance, have the pay of the petty officers on
boiled ship increased, and would allow them to rise to
the rank of mate, affording them every facility possible
for obtaining a good e lucation. He felt assured that if
that course were pursued, and the seaman was afforded
the inducement of having within his reach the attain-
me of rank in the service, the best possible results
would be found to accrue. He did not, however, think
that means which he had just mentioned would be in
themselves quite sufficient to effect the object which he
had in view. An additional encouragement might be
found in the re-establishment upon a better footing of
the merchant seamen's fund, with the management of
which the sailors had become so disgusted that they had
alraost altogether given up being subscribers. He believed
that fund now received from the Treasury a sum of only
65,0001, per annum, but if the amount were considerably
increased sailors would be induced to become regular
contributors to the fund, and the means would thus be
furnished of providing pensions for their widows and
orphans. That much good would thereby be effected he
had no doubt, and his own views as to the expediency of
taking some such step were borne out by the opinion of
a gentleman who was conversant with the subject, and
with whom be had been in communication with respect
to it very rscantly. A commission had been appointed
in 1853 which bad recommended that a bounty should
be given to sailors, but upon that, as well as upon seve-
ral other recommendations of the commission, Parlia-
ment had not thought proper to act. He might further
observe that the authorities by breaking faith with our
seamen had caused a loss of confidence upon their part
which was calculated to operate most prejudicially. Nut
very long ago, for instance, a gratuity used to be given
to sailors for good conduct to the amounts of 61, 71., and
101., but the Admiralty in its wisdom had not hesitated
to take away that trifling boon even from those sailors
who had entered into the service in the expectation that
they would be entitled to the privilege. (Hear.) Re
might also mention that the system prevailed of grant-
ingtoprithvileemgeen, stripes on their arms as marks of distinc-
tion, each stripe being accompanied with additional pay.
This
they withdrew, so that when
the men became petty officers they did not receive more
than before. He believed that lately the Admiralty had
reinstated matters, and had allo wed the petty officers to
gain the stripes, so that this groin(' of complaint had
been taken away. In 1857 we had as fine a navy—at
least, what remained of it—as could possibly be, yet
numbers of the men who composed our crews entered in
1858 as raw recruits. He was informed that tbe mer-
chant fervice only furnished 400 seamen to our Baltic
fleet in 1851 and 300 in 1855. When the House of Corn-
MOPS was asked to reduce the navy in 1857, and eight
sail of the line were paid off, the continuous service men
who had enlisted for 10 years' were not told that they
wereturreeerdut, but that they Might go if they liked.
The' nien availed themselves Of the privilege very largely.
'ln 1857 there were 17,432 continuous service men in the
fleet, of whom 2,973 were discharged. Howeverehe did
not approve the 10 years' continuous service system. He
believed that Sir James Graham's plan was wiser—to
enter the sailors for five years, but he would only take
practically three years' service out of them. If the ships
were kept in commission five years—and their stores
would last that time—the officers might be relieved
every two years or two and a-half years, so that other
officers would have an opportunity of seeing service.
Otherwise there would be continued the state of things
described by his hon. and gallant friend (Admiral
Walcott), who for 20 years went on his knees to the
Admiralty to allow him to see active service, but in
vain. He would keep the ships constantly moving
about. The soldiers were removed from Gibraltar, to
:delta, the lonian Islands, the West Indies, &c., and he
would do the same with the sailors. He would let them
coins home occasionally to see their wives and friends
and have a run on shore. When he first knew the navy
the sailors scarcely knew where the shore was. They
never saw the face of the fair sex, and this was a hor-
rible state of things. (A. laugh.) Tee men in the West
India squadron of Sir W. Parker were never ashore for
three years, and other fleets were the same. Wnen he
went out in command of a squadron the !ate Lord Auck-
laud asked him whether he ought to let the men go
ashore He said he would let them go ashore, whether
they got drunk or not, for the evil would right itself.
(Hear.) When they got to Lisbon the scenes were very
bad. lie recommended the authorities to put all the
drunken sailors they could find into the guardhouse, and
keep them there for two or three days. The Govern-
ment cempained, but he resisted. The Queen sent a
me maga to him not to let the sailors come ashore. Still
be persisted, and the result was that in a short time the
men wh elwere allowed to go on shore behaved as well
as the officers. (Hear, hear.) Under the ten years' con-
t;nuous service system the tie between the Royal Navy
and the merchant service would be almost severed, be-
cause the vacancies would be so few that they would be
filled up by the boys. But if the men were taken for five
years they would then probably take their turn in the
merchant service, and tell the men there that the Royal
..Navy was not so bad a profession. This would be better
for the navy than ten years' continuous service, which
the men did not like. The late First Lord of the Adam
ralty said it was true that the men were discharged with
their own coneent in 1857, but that they had passed over
the quarter-deck and entered themselves again for five
years' service. He had ascertained how the case stood,
and he found that only 63 men had crossed the quarter
deck and entered again. In 1857 the Admiralty paid off
eight ships of war, on the ground of economy. It was sup-
posed that a saving of 100,0001, or 150,0001. would be
thereby effected. But those ships could not be put in the
same state under 200,0001. A ship newly fitted out would
last five years., but if it were put out of commission at
the end of one or two years, there were sure to be com-
plaints of inefficiency, and the ship was usually newly
caulked, coppered, masted, and rigged at a great ex•
pence for very trifling defects. The Act of 1835 was
amended by the Act of 1853. The double bounty was
repealed, and the register was abandoned. He disap-
proved both those alterations, and thought the Act of
1835 would have been much better amendel if the Actof
1853 had merely provided that extra pay should not be
given to seamen unless in time of war, and that the men
should be called out i© classes. He did not say that they
should begin the register over again, but some means
ought to be found for enforcing the calling out men by
proclamatioa. ([Tear.) The manning of the fleet was as
simple a thing as could possibly be. Supposing the Chan-
nel fleet was to be composed of ten sail of the line, three
of then, should be flagships. He would discharge from
the ships in time of peace one-half the marines. Those
matinee should garrison the whole of the seaport towns.
In the event of war they would go on board again, and
the militia would walk into their places. In a case of
emergency they might discharge one watch to another
ship. The cats -guard men must remain to take care of
the revenue ; but if they called out the Coast Volun-
teers, they might, by his plan, muster men enough for
50 sail of the line within a fortnight, and that torce
would be completed in a very short time. He did not
say that Louis Napoleon was going to invade this coun-
try. God forbid ! He hoped he would not, but Louis
Napoleon might not be his own master. (Hear.) The
French army had lately been increased by 40,000, and
now numbered 500,000 men. According to the repro-
sentaione of the late First Lord of the Admiralty, while
we had 42 screw ships, France had 40. Franca had 70000
trained seamen for fitting out a fleet. A quarrel might
arise. They very nearly had one the other day and he was
not quite sure it was overyet. People armed to tbe teeth
at all points could pick a quarrel whenever they pleased.
(Hear.) He woul I ask the house what position England
would be in if t iey hard tsanorrow there were
14 sail of the line manned at Cherbourg and 40,000 or
50,000 tr iops snt there by the railroads. What would
be the etrel; on the funds People would be running
aboet right and lert, but there would be no means
of
defence. He spoke plainly, because it was quite imma-
terial whether he did so or not. The French knew whet
we had in cur ports, just as well as we knew what they
had in theirs. We e ere in a defenceless state. We
would not
believed
p atyina
that
ifi ntshuertii,niciam
of triuoi
nuirs
ry lives
stoodau and
ip properly.
in h i;
lie
Place and said he a weld not be reeponsiale for the safety
CI the kingdom unless there were ti n sail of the line, the
whole c uetry would cheer him from one end to the
other. (dear.) The ceuetly did not understandit, nor
did members ef Pardaenent, nor merchants of the city
of London. (Hear ) The time was come when they ought
not to defer for a day longer the put ing the navy in a
proper state. The re must be a fleet indep.mdent both
of the c east-guard and of this volunteers, who formed
only a res,..rve fur cases of emergency. If the
French were to make a descent upon our coast
what should we do ? Tire Commander-in-Chief could
not take the field with more than 30,000 men, while
topl'
ras
ten sand
eht oai :nt
interests
statrhsmearyns 'daft
honour
ouorloonf wren,etree arid
properly
countrywopeehr lay:
utnroo fleet
shipspe t-
oueht to be put to sea certain of victory. In the battle
of the let of June the Ft ench fleet was not manned or
officered as it ought to have been, owing to the Revolu-
tion ; but, in soite ;fall this, never was an action Letter
fought, and the enemy never hauled down their flags
until nearly heaf their ships' crews were bore de com-
bat. Now, the French sailere were as well dis
i-
plined as ours—in feed, better ; both men aid officers
were con tartCy employed, anti the rnen, afte eu-
p'oyment f tr live years all to, were li eble to serve
gain if ca led upon. Sure y he had sail c n nigh. to
,how that it behoved the eaiiii-aer, whoever he murk
oe, to come down to tei house and say, " I nUS
:wore at my dieeosal a proper fleet." He (Sir C. Na-
pier) did not a any ex ravag int expenditure. 'There
were many ways in which a great deal of money could
ee saved. Far example, he believed that 20,0001. or
30,0001. might be saved by putting a stop to the nonsense
which now went on through having an Admiralty at
Whitehall, d another at Somerset-house. He wanted
a commission to inqu're into all these things—not only
;he questiou of manning, but one which would investi-
gate everything in the dockyards, to see how it was that