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

PERSIA.

We have already received by telegraph intel-
ligence of the arrival at Tresibond of Ferruck
Khan, the Persian Envoy. A letter from that city
now furnishes us with some further details :

" The Trebizonda, Austrian steamer, arrived
here on the Ist, after having experienced very
boisterous weather in the Black Sea. On the fol-
lowing morning Ferruck Khan was visited by the
Turkish authorities and by the European consuls,
and on the 3d left for Erzeroum, accompanied by
M. de Vernouillet, one of the attaches of the French
embassy at Constantinople, who is to remain with
him until he reaches the Persian frontier. The
Envoy, both on his arrival and departure, was sa-
luted with a discharge of 21 guns from the citadel.
The governor of Trebisond, knowing that the roads
are invested by brigands, sent a strong escort with
the Envoy, and on the previous evening despatched
a body of cavalry to clear the road. Ferruck
Khan will only remain three days at Erzeroum,
and will then start for Van, and make a longer
halt at Tauris, where he is to receive despatches
from his Government. The city of Tauris pro-
poses, it is said, to give a grand reception to the
Envoy, as a mark of its gratitude for the advan-
tages it will derive from the different commercial
treaties which Ferruck Khan has concluded in
Europe. The Shah has given orders for the con-
struction of a line of electric telegraph between
Tauris and Teheran, and the Persian Government
is about to adopt several other useful reforms sug-
gested by European civilisation."

A letter from Copenhagen, of the 20th, states
that the King returned to the capital on the
previous evening from the Palace of Glucksburg.
On the following day he was to hold a secret
council and afterwards proceed to the Palace of
Frederiksborger.

DEATH OF SIR JOHN POTTER, M.P.—MANCHES-
TER, Monday afternoon.—We regret to announce the
death, this morning, at Beech-house, Pendleton, of Sir J.
Potter, M.P. for Manchester. For several days Sir John
had been gradually sinking, and his friends had, since the
end of last week, little hope of his recovery. Sir John was
in his 44th year. His illness lasted exactly a fortnight.
DEATH OF DR. H. M. HUGHES.—We regret to
have to record the death of Henry Marshall Hughes, M.D. ,
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and physician
to Guy's Hospital, which mournful event occurred at 12,
Marine-parade, Brighton, on Thursday last, in the 53d
year of his age.
ILLNESS OF MR. SPITRGEON.—The Rev. C. H.
Spurgeon's admirers will be sorry to learn that the rev.
gentleman has been attacked with a very painful disease—
inflammation of the kidneys—and that a few days ago his
life was all but despaired of. His medical advisers have
given it as their opinion that no danger now exists, but he
is prohibited from preaching just yet. The money for the site
of his new chapel—Ls,4oo—was paid down the day before
he was attacked.—Bury Times.

ADMISSION OF ATTORNEYS.--AS many as one
hundred and thirty-four articled clerks have given notice
of their intention to be admitted attorneys next term, in
addition to a number from Easter and Trinity terms.

THE END OF THE LONG VACATION.—The long
vacation terminated on Saturday, and yesterday the several
law offices of the common-law courts were opened at the
usual hours, as also the Judges' Chambers, in anticipation
of the forth coming Michaelmas Term, commencing on
Tuesday week, when the new Chancery orders are expected
to be issued, and when the new Chancery Amendment Act
will come into force, under which the novel appearance of a
" jury" will be seen in the Court of Chancery assigning
damages for wrongful acts on injunctions, and under
breaches of agreements, &c.
THE WESTERN BANK.—We understand that an
action of reduction, repetition, and damages has been raised
and executed by one of the shareholders, a lady, resident in
the east country, against the directors of the Western Bank,-
so as to test the question of their ultimate liability. We
believe that the shares held by this lady were purchased
shortly before the closing of the bank, and it is anticipated
that this will form a strong ground of action. We cannot
at present enter into the particulars, but hope to be able to
do so in the course of a few days. Mr. J. Montgomery
Stacey, S.S.C., Edinburgh, is the agent.—North British
Daily Mail.
A Paris correspondent of the Nord states that
numerous French missionaries, men and women, have
.left
during the last few months. Ten members of the Society
'
of Mary have left for New Caledonia • a bishop and ten
members of the same society, for the Oceanic missions
thirty-one members of the society of Pie_PP for n Tahiti,
Sandwich Islands, Valparaiso, Santiago, Lima, , two
monks and two nuns for North America ; and twenty-one
priests of the Society of Foreign Missions, for China.
A testimonial has just been presented to the Rev.
Jos. Ditcher, MA., vicar of South Brent, " in recognition
of his firm and consistent maintenance of the cause of truth
in the face of much opposition and reproach, in the case of
'Ditcher v. Denison.' The testimonial
a fine consists of a large
sized polyglot Bible, a pocket Bible and
th B rad° copy
of the Book of Common Prayer an of
e oo of Homi-
lies, all being
richly bound, and bearing appropriate inscrip-
tions.
We (Aberdeen Herald) understand that George
Keith, Esq. , the present able secretary and general mana-
ger at Aberdeen of the Scottish North-Eastern Railway,
has been appointed to the management of the Grand Trunk
Railway in Canada. We have heard the salary stated at
£2,000.-' " • .. .

MAN.

'AYE

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—Sir Maurice Berkeley addressed a letter to
me on the 10th of October, containing the same
statements which he makes in the communication

you publish this morning. I replied to him at
length ; and I should have thought courtesy would
have prescribed that, in addressing you, he should
have given the whole correspondence instead of
limiting himself to a repetition of his own asser-
tions.

Considering, also, that Rear-Admiral the Earl
of Hardwicke, the Lord Privy Seal and a member
of the Cabinet, publicly declared only last Saturday
that, " during the last war the ships of the Royal
Navy went to sea in such a condition as to inflict
a positive injustice on the brave officers in com-
mand of them, and that if it had not been for the

efficiency of the latter, and the way the crews were
disciplined, they might as well have stopped at
home," I think the late " Senior Naval Lord of the
Admiralty" would have acted more prudently had
he refrained from inviting public attention as to
the management of " the department of naval ad-
ministration peculiarly under his guidance—
namely, the manning her Majesty's ships."
At the commencement of the Crimean war the
Admiralty found that the navy could not be effi-
ciently manned. They appointed a committee of
naval officers to consider the whole subject, and
on their report they issued a circular, dated the
" 14th of June, 1853," and signed "R. Osborne,"
which established the " continuous service" system,
of which Admiral Berkeley says, that " it has
worked admirably"—and which he boasts of having
" adopted and carried out in conjunction with his
colleagues." That this system, however, has un-
fortunately failed as a means of inducing seamen to
enter the navy is sufficiently established by the fact
that one of the first acts of the present Board of
Admiralty was to appoint a mixed commission,
which is now sitting, to consider why British sea-
men will not volunteer for the British ships of war.
Sir Maurice Berkeley's letter is calculated to
mislead as to the operation and effect of the system
he adopted.
1. He tells you that "at the close of the Rus-
sian war not one man was discharged from the naval
service, being of good character and physical abilty,
who desired to remain."

I answer that it is notorious, and that the navy
estimates show, that " at the close of the Russian
war some thousands of men were discharged from
the naval service ;" and I put the Admiral in this
dilemma—either that the men so discharged were
men of " good character and physical ability," or
that his ships were manned by men of bad charac-
ter, and that he was making the nation pay for
physical incompetency. I say, further, that the
terms on which men were permitted to re-enter
under Sir M. Berkeley's regulations were of such a
nature that few men of " good character and phy-
sical ability" would desire to remain. I might cite
cases in which men who had received wounds in

the service, and whose good character was certified
by their captains, had been discharged ; and I have '
heard of ship's crews refusing bodily to re-enter,
and giving three cheers for their release from the
navy as they left for the shore. On fair terms, no 1
doubt, these " men of good character and physical
ability" would have " desired to remain ; ' but on
the " continuous service terms" Admiral Berkeley
offered, it is not, I think, to be wondered at that
they desired their discharge.
2. The late " Senior Naval Lord" tells you that
" any man who enters for continuous service may
obtain a pension after 10 years."
I shall leave you to judge how far this is a fair
or candid statement.
On consulting the tables relating to continuous
service, you will find that men may absolutely serve
20 years in the Royal Navy without either obtain-
ing increase of pay or pension ; for Admiral Berke-
ley's regulations prescribe that " men who do not
enter for continuous service cannot be granted
either increase of pay or the pension after 20 years'
service."
If a man does enter for " continuous and general
service" (i.e., not for a limited period or particular
ship), he will then only be entitled to pension after
20 years' service ; not before ; being even then
liable to be called upon to serve again in the navy.
The regulations " reserve to my Lords of the
Admiralty a discretionary power of awarding pen-
sions after 10 or 15 years' continuous service ; but
the seamen are in no way entitled to such pensions,
and I believe the Admiralty never have awarded
them, except, it may be, under very special circum-
stances. I have asked Admiral Berkeley to point
out to me any cases in which such pensions have
been granted, and I have asked in vain. In the
-words of the regulation, I believe " their Lordships
have not thought proper to grant pensions after
those terms of service ; ' and lam the more con-
firmed in this opinign from the fact that in his
letter to me Admiral Berkeley declared that " con-
tinuous service for 10 years entitles a man to a
pension," while in writing to you he greatly
qualifies that statement.
3. Admiral Berkeley tells me in his letter that he
was personally responsible for the regulation that, on
entering the navy, £2 should be paid for an outfit-
In his letter to you he attempts to draw a distinc-
tion between " men" and " boys ;" but he should
also have told you that under his regulations
" men" who enter arc styled " boys." No time
counts in the navy until the age of 18. A volunteer
at 18-years of age is therefore classed as a "boy," and
cannot be rated a second-class ordinary man until
after he is 20, for he must be " at least two years
at sea" in order to be so rated. Thus, a young
and active Deal boatman, whose courage and
strength may have been tried a dozen times on the
Goodwin, at the very age when he is best calcu-
lated to go aloft and do the work of a ship, is
treated on entering the navy as a " boy," and sub-
jected to all the Admiralty regulations of that
class.

It is not the fact that this demand of 40s. for
outfit secured a more respeCtable class of volunteers
for the navy, orkept out the inmates of workhouses,
as Admiral Berkeley would lead you to believe.
On the contrary, even at Deal the guardians have
frequently provided the outfit money for paupers
sent from the union workhouse on board her
Majesty's ships ; and this fact refutes Admir
Berkeley's assertion that he " refused the boys from
union and parish schools." Indeed, only yesterday
a case was heard by
.the magistrate at the Wands-
worth Police-court, in the course of which it was
stated by the master of the Wandsworth Reforma-
tory that from 30 to 40 inmates (i.e., convicted
thieves) had been "bound to the navy" from the
asylum; the authorities being acquainted with
their antecedents.
The statements in the Admiral's letter are, in
fact, made to prop up a system which has failed,
and for which the Admiral himself is, to a very
great extent, responsible. Such is the sailors' dis-
gust at the "regulations," that the Lord Privy Seal,
who is at the head of a commission appointed to
inquire into the effect of Admiral Berkeley's sys-
tem, absolutely goes the length of suggesting that
we must establish the pressgang, and that, in the
event of a war, "we must adhere to the principle
of laying an embargo on our ports, and seizing
sailors for the defence of the country."
The single fact in his letter on which the Admi-
ral is right is as-to the proposal of the "Deal boat-
men to man a lip of war" not having been " re-
fused." The men met upon the subject, the project
was proposed, and a number of men agreed to
carry it into effect. But the proposal, as I ascer-
tained at the end of last week, new actually
reached the Admiralty. I was there in error
in saying that their " proposal was not accepted ;"
but it is not less the fact that the men would have
been ready for such work had any inducement,
been offered them, and that many of them sub-
sequently joined vessels going to the Black Sea,
and were discharged at the close of the war under
circumstances for which I observe Admiral Ber-
keley offers no explanation.
The gallant Admiral fears " that the tendency of
my letter may be to prevent entry
aentlearryidnytotohledr Ma-
jesty'shim naval service." I have
that such apprehension is groundless, for his own
" regulations" have produced that effect by antici-
pation. Can Admiral Berkeley explain to you why
the British seaman, who will not enter the British
navy, will enter the navy of the United States P
On reflection he may perhaps find, that the " Re-
gulations for the Entry of Men and Boys into the
-Navy" may not be without their influence in pro-
ducing what we must all deplore as so great a
national reflection.
In appealing to your sympathies on behalf of the
Deal boatmen, I did so in the cause of philan-
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deserving. I was informed as to the reasons why
they could not, at present, enter the merchant ser-
vice, and why they would not enter our navy.
Although forced to touch upon it incidentally, I
had
no desire or intention to open up that grave
national subject of " manning the navy,' into
which Sir Maurice Berkeley has, I think, so un-
wisely forced me. But, being forced into the dis-
cussion, I do not shrink from it ; and nothing
would give me more sincere satisfaction than to
find that this correspondence led the British public
to reflect and to consider whether the difficulty
which presents itself to the manning of our ships
of war is best to be encountered, as the Lord Privy
Seal proposes' by return to the system of impress-
ment, as Sir Maurice Berkeley proposes, by " per-
severance in the system of continuous service, or,
as I would humbly suggest, by doing ample justice
to those gallant seamen on our coasts, on whose
strength and valour we rely in our tour of peril

but who are treated with far too little consider&
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 are 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 confesses " 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
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-
tello 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 mall
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. Such defences, in my opinion,
should be made according to the admirable nevi'
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 contractoro'
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) a
51 miles. We here see that if an enemy was 031
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 meta
destructive fire upon a disembarking army than
10,000 infantry; but thinking that Lord Hai+
wicke's speech may produce an erroneous and ur
favourable impression, I now only show how 01., e
army as a profession might be useful when the
foe approached our coasts. From a knowledge
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 50,0 t"
sporting licenses granted, we can always depend on
having 25,000 of the best shots in the world real
to be employed after the manner above professed
in the defence of their country.—l am, Bzc J.
London, Oct. 19. CHARLES SHAW.

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