The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-21 00:00:00

to practise economy, and which are practically .be-
pond the control of the officer reputed to be their
controller. Is it any wonder that for the " enor-
mous sums of money annually expended on the
navy" the country should " receive no equivalent
return ?" Is it necessary to imagine a popular
prejudice in explanation of the public discon-
tent ? Is there not rather an antecedent pro-
bability in favour of all that is said by Mr. Seely
and his supporters? What, however, is the remedy ?
Sir John Pakington consistently looks for it in an
accurate, comprehensive, and intelligible system of
accounts, and to obtain this he naturally looks for
a qualified accountant. Accordingly, he proposes
the appointment of a Superintendent of Dockyard
Accounts, who is " to give his whole time, with such
reasonable assistance as he may require, to the con-
stant control and management and superintendence
of the great financial expenditure which the Dock-
yards incur." By this method it is hoped that we
shall get plain facts and figures to go by, and, if the
expectation is fulfilled, we shall then be able to see
whether the outlay on our Fleet expresses extrava-
gant waste or only unavoidable costliness. But we
should be understating the question if we repre-
sentedit as financial only. It turns mainly upon
money, no doubt, but still there would probably be
little debate about our naval " expenditure" if the
country were satisfied with its Navy. Mr. Seely,
however, justly observed that the Admiralty could
not " challenge us on the results." The Fleet pro-
duced by all this outlay is not a good Fleet. We do
not mean to disparage our present fighting ships,
but simply to say that the Navy is never acknow-
ledged by naval men to be at any given moment
such a Navy as it ought to be. Just now we are
perhaps less in arrear of the age than usual, but the
First Lord of the Admiralty, however he may
qualify his words, has said enough to show that our
position is not satisfactory. We complain, there-
fore, not only of expenditure, but mismanagement;
and, indeed, it is mainly for the purposes of ad-
ministrative reform that a verification of expendi-
ture will be useful. This verification, as the first
step to improvement, we hope soon to see, but in the
meantime we must protest against the charges of
exaggeration and credulity which some very young
officials brought against the press and the public.
Enough was said in the debate, enough has been
quoted in these remarks, to justify all the discon-
tent expressed out of doors. We have no doubt
that the Dockyards contain, as Sir John Pakington
plaintively alleged, " gentlemen of as high honour
and as sensitive feeling" as Mr. Seely himself ; but
when it is admitted that they are all working with-
out the least motive for economy, and pith a laxity
characterising the whole system, it is surely
reasonable in those who must pay the bill to find
some fault in the proceedings, and to require some
effectual reform.
THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE ON THE DOMESTIC
AND FOREIGN POLICY OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.
—There is often a close connection between the
domestic and the foreign policy of sovereignty.
A monarch that shows little regard for the rights
of his subjects, little regard for the feelings and
the interests of the several orders of the State,
will not be very scrupulous in the observance
of treaties, or very equitable in his dealings with
neighbouring nations. Thus, to give but one
example, the flagitious partition of Poland by
the Governments of Russia, Prussia, and Austria
in the last century, was but a too faithful
symptom of their violent assaults on the civil
liberties of their people, the rights of the Church,
and the doctrines of Christianity. And as the
Constituent Assembly of 1789 develoyed
i the re-
volutionary maxims of despotic sovereigns n regard
to the Church and the people, so that Assembly
and its successors failed not to carry out the
lessons of international law which they had learned
from the same august authorities. The foreign
policy of the present Emperor of the French has
been determined by his internal system of go-
vernment. I attempted to show on the last occa-
sion the course which he might have pursued, and
which would have redounded to the happiness of
France, and might, I think, have eventually proved
beneficial to his family. And I did not conceal
the fact that even with the best intentions the re-
vival of the Imperial rule was beset with the most
formidable difficulties. These difficulties, how-
ever, which from the state of parties in 1850, and
by reason of the failure of issue on the part of the
Duke de Bordeaux, and on account of the unpopu-
larity of the House of Orleans with the Catho-
lics of France, were not so great as they might
at first appear—might by honesty and wisdom
have been overcome. Imperialism, founded on
popular election, possesses not the same stability
as Royalty, based on hereditary succession ; and
when, moreover, it has by its policy alienated
from itself the clergy, the nobility, and the wealthy
and intellectual classes, it must seek its support
sometimes in the disorganised masses, devoid as
they are in France of all corporate rights ; some-
times in the military force, making the one or the
al nr ;TA s+riirno.n+. of ;fa a Tni an Im-
perialism, the heir of so much martial dory,
and
withal of so much civil tyranny and disorder, was,
perforce, driven into a policy of aggression to-
wards other States. It was cradled and nurtured
in war, and by war it must live and flourish.
When in November, 1799, the illustrious Gorres,
then a young man, had, with others, been deputed
by his Rhenish countrymen to lay a complaint
before the First Consul, Bonaparte, he wrote to a
friend, after an interview, that Bonaparte's staring
eye and restless gait made him augur ill for the
future peace of Europe. And though I must say
that in 1850 I was one of those who put faith in
the promises of Napoleon 111., yet when he declared
after his election to the Imperial throne, that he
had prayed by his uncle's tomb, and there sought
inspiration for his futury policy, I began to have
serious misgivings for the happiness of France and
the peace of Europe. Napoleon I. was a sort of
saint in whose patronage, I must confess, I had
little trust. The first war into which the Emperor
of the French dragged Europe, was one provoked
by the imprudence of the Russian Government—
I mean the Crimean war. Its object was specious,
and deceived many well-thinking men. It was
desigiied, as was alleged, to check the ambitious
aims of Russia in the East, to protect the com-
merce of the other nations in the Mediterranean,
and to rescue from destruction the Catholic mis-
sions in the Levant. These objects were laud-
able ; and the victory of the Allies in the,Crimea
insured a temporary success to their policy. But
the same results, as I shall show, could have been
obtained by other means. Instead of a wise and
definitive settlement of the Eastern question, to
be brought about by a happy concert among the
Christian Powers of Europe, what were the imme-
diate results of the Crimean war? The decrepit
empire of Turkey, destined (as Napoleon 111. well
foresaw) to be the source of fresh contests and
fresh complications, was artificially upheld in Eu-
rope ;—Greece, with an unnatural distribution
of territory, was left in a false, embarrassed posi-
tion ;—Austria and Russia were henceforth bit-
terly divided ;—Prussia was enabled to pursue
more easily her cherished scheme of ascendancy in
.aprmany ; the revolutionary Government of
Piedmont was introduced to the flattering notice
of Europe; England, partly by her fatal patron-
age of revolutionary principles, partly by the loss
of the Austrian alliance, was more and more
shunned, more and more isolated from the coun-
cils of the Continent ; and lastly, France was
rendered for a time the arbitress of Europe. The
French Emperor had succeeded in his object. The
European alliance, weakened by the disastrous
events of 1830, was now utterly destroyed: That
alliance, if it had committed some faults, had, on
the whole, preserved the independence of States,
and crushedout the embers of the anti-Christian
and anti-social revolution. Its destruction left the
revolutionary field open to the game of politics,
and to schemes of aggressive ambition. Viewed
now by the light of subsequent events, the Cri-
mean war appears an immense mistake. The happy
solution of the Eastern question would have
been, I think, first, the expulsion from Europe of
those Tartars, " encamped, as M. de Bonald once
happily said, on the soil of Greece," and which
after four centuries they have not settled, nor
even tilled ; next, a redistribution of the territory
of the kingdom of Greece, including those portions
of Europe still under Turkish dominion ; again,
an open trade to all the Western States. After the
termination of the war in the Crimea there was a
temporary lull in Europe. The French Emperor
cast about his falcon eyes to see what kingdom would
next be his prey. The fears of innocent people were
quieted by the famous declaration at Bordeaux,
" L'Empire c'est la paix." But, as the same
authority has more than once, like the ancient ora-
cles, indulged in dark, enigmatic sayings, are not
these words susceptible of two interpretations ?
They may mean, as is commonly supposed, that
the Second Empire, different from the First,
shall be pacific. But may they not also signify
that Peace is the Empire, or is Imperial—that
is to say, that peace can be secured only by
a compact or well-extended empire that shall
have swallowed up neighbouring States, or
at least reduced them to extreme weakness? The
like ambiguities are certainly found in the sibilline
oracles, and later events would seem to authorise
the second interpretation of the famous words I
have cited. Certainly, the Pax Imperil of the
Romans was the result of universal conquest.
There were some hints in theyrench press to show
that the idea of an invasion of England was not
quite foreign to the French Emperor's mind. A
vague suspicion of such a scheme certainly flashed
across the popular mind of England. But the
noble rising of her people—the prompt arming of
the different corps of Volunteers—one of the most

honourable as well as memorable events of our
recent history—checked, .doubtless, the first bud-
dings of Imperial ambition. ;But to render herself
perfectly secure against all similar attempts, Eng-
land must give completeness to this military organ-
isation, and, moreover, furnish her army and navy
with all the appliances of modern science. Far
more must she do ; she must satisfy the just de-
mands of the generous, warm-hearted, long-suffer-
ing people of the sister isle, and give them security
for their homesteads and freedom for every grade
of education—a freedom -without which that of
the altar is illusive. She has still more to do ; she
i must firmly discountenance revolutionary doctrines
and revolutionary projects at home and abroad.

COUNTRY MARKETS•

GAINSBOROUGII-TUESDAY.

Wheat came moderately to hand, and prices were fully
as high as last week. Sales ready. Littlo demand fur
barley, which sold at last week's prices. Other kinds of
grain were a moderate show, at late rates.