The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-12 00:00:00

Government, and the hon. member for Norfolk has put 1
a question to everybbdy in this house. Now, I stall
just put one question to them, and I should be glad
some evening to receive a distinct answer to it. I want
know the precise expenditure or of i ac-• • . !and or sea !
Iwhich is required in order to say that this country is
completely defended. (Hear.) It appear to me that
gentlemen who, from their profession should be the
last to take alarm are continually driving these
terrors into the ears of peaceable non-military
persons like myself. (A. laugh.) Only a few yearshad
ago a sound of alarm of a French invasion
the
claps raised, and others kept succeeding it like
claps cf a thunderstorm in summer. Does the hon.
member oppo•ite recollect that, not including the ex•
pense of armaments, a much larger sum has been voted
.during the present year for the national defences than,
I believe, ever has been spent in time of peace ? We
spend twice as much now as we did 20 years ago, al-
though, as far as any application of that expenditure
goes, we have net a single foot of territory more to defend
than we had then. I should like to know to what all
this tends, and to what length we are to go ; because, if
ever the unhappy day should arrive in my lifetime, when,
instead of spending 22,000,000/. on defensive armaments,
we shall be spending 44,000,0001., I undertake to prove,
by the same arguments as have been used by the two
gentlemen who have just addressed the house, that this
country is in a state of almost absolute want of defence.
I would undertake, with the map of England in my
hand, to indicate at least 100 points on which an enemy
might land ; I could also show that France was inha-
bited by a large population accustomed to war ; I could
talk about (their avenging Waterloo, and all the other
stock stories which are regularly trotted out on
occasions of this nature, and I could establish then, as
clearly as can be established now, that we were run-
ning the greatest possible risk, and that the nation was
slumbering while it was on the edge of a most fearful
precipice. I know a certain old lady of 80 years of age
(a laugh), whom some people have been trying to frighten
within the last few days. A. most plausible circular,
written by some professor—of what he is a professor I
can't say—was put by some simpleton before the some•
what dimmed eyes of this old lady ; but she says, " I
am not at all alarmed, for I have lived in the world 80
years, and as long a I can recollect there has always
been a story afloat that there was going to be a French
invasion." (Laughter.) I dare 'ay hon. gentlemen
have read Horace Walpole's letters, in one of which—
I forget exactly its date, for my memory does not nerve
me as to dates—an anecdote is told of there having
once been a great alarm about an invasion ; and it is
said there was found to be nothing in it,—that it was
used, as apothecaries say cf something of which they
give very nauseous doses, as a " vehicle," the object of
those who compound it being to make the patient
"swallow the Hessians," (Laughter.) The case isjust
the same now. There is an uneasiness in the country
relative to taxation. I had a letter this morning—which
I am very sorry I did not bring here with me—from
a small master cutler, probably a constituent of the
hoe. and learned member for Sheffield. This man kas a
large number of children, whom he has a bard struggle to
support ; his trade is bad ; and he says, "For Heaven's
sake let us try if possible to have a different foreign
policy, smaller armaments, fewer quarrels, lighter taxer,
and a better chance for an industrious man to maintain
himself and his family. (Hear, hear.) I am asked by
persons in this house, and come people out of doors—
who do not look very deeply into these matters, put the
same question to me—why do you show something like
favour to a Conservative Government, and why were
you accessory to putting the gentlemen now in opposi-
tion on their present benches ? If I wanted an answer
to this it would be found in the speech which the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer has made to us to-night. (Cheers.)
These are not questions of aristocracy and democracy,
they are not questions of Conservatism and Radicalism ;
they are questions of the obvious interests of our coun-
try and of humanity at large. And I say a Government
that would adopt a foreign policy based on moderation
and justice is one that I should be disposed to see on
the Treasury bench, in preference to any other Govern-
ment which pretended to a great exhibition of English
power in all parts of the world. The right hon. gentle.
man has described what has been done with respect to
Naples. All the difficulty with respect to .Naples arose
from the unseemlyconduct pursued towards that country
a year and a-half ngo by the Ei.glish Government. It
is row at an end. The moderate and cone liatory policy
of England has been met by an equal moderation on the
part of the Neapolitan Governn2ent ; aad that squabble
i 3 now buried we hope for ever. We have another thing
at present on hand—this American question, which I
presume is owing to the sending out of gunboats and
Iships to the Cuban or West Indian station during the
het year, and also, I suppose, to the instructions issued
by the late Government, under which our commanders
in those waters, acting with what is called more vigour,
have done that which the United States' nation wculd
not stand any more than I am sure the Ladish would
do under the like circumstances. (Hear.) Then we
have another matter in the China question, to which I
would ask the attention particularly of the hon. member
who introduced this subject. If you are to have 70 or,
as I think the right honourable gentleman said, 60 Ship,
af war in the Eastern seas, carrying on a quarrel
which yon don't understand, and engaged in a com-
plication which yon might have avoided,—if your are to
have all thin great armament stationed at a distance of
10,000 or 15,000 ranee from you,—l ask what amount
of revenue or of taxation which can possibly be raised
will ever give you what you suppose you require—
namely, large fleets to defend your coasts at home?
Now, the course which the Government have taken
in this matter is a truly Conservative course. There
is' no true Conservatism which is not based on a true
morality. And whether at home or abroad, I behave it
is possible for a Government, without bravado and with-
out boasting., to confer solid benefit on the country, and,
whatever may have been its past profession of politics, to
gain a substantial support from the people. I did
not intend to make more than one observation when I
rose ; but I have heard the statement of the right hon.
gentleman with extreme pleasure. I believe it will give
equal sati,faction throughout the country. (Cheers.) I
only hope the house and the nation will sustain the
present Government in every effort they may make to
restore our foreign relations to a state of tracquility and
safety, so that we may be able to turn our attention to
that from which we have been diverted for the last five
years—namely, the process of reduciog our expenditure
in order, if possible, to render England a country which
all Englishmen Arta prefer, rather than one from which
they have incessant inducements to emigrate to every
other part of the globe. (Cheers.)
Sir C. WOOD—I so entirely agree in what has been
said as to the inconvenience of raising general discus-
sions on foreign policy upon the formal motion for
adjournment till Monday, that I shall confine
my attention to the conduct of the late Govern-
ment, especially in the department with which I
was connected, which has been so much impugned
by the hon. members br Norfolk and for Birmingham.
The farmer hon. gentleman said that we left the country
in a most defenceless state, and that it was necessary
for our successors to make strenuous exertions in order
to replace the armaments of the country on *something
like a proper footing. I appeal to the must unexception-
able testimony as to the utter erroneousness of this
representation. The noble earl at the head of the pre-
sent Government himself admitted in another place that
he bad been both surprised and gratified, at the period
of his accession to office, to learn that the impression
which had previously prevailed in regard to the national
defences was entirely unfounded, and that he had found
the country both by land and sea in a complete state of
defence. (Hoar, hear.) Well, what has been the °ln-
duct of the present Government since then ? Tney very
properly took time to consider the estimates which we
had prepared, but which had not been actually voted
when they came into power, and the First Lord of the
Admiralty took votes on account several weeks before
he definitively brought forward the navy estimates,
And did the course which, after due reflection, the
right hon. gentleman pur-ued indicate any belief
on his part that the country was ieefficieetly de-
fended 1 Why, he did not deem it necessary to re-
commend the addition of a single man to the num-
ber proposed by his predecessors—(hear, hear)—and
as to the votes fer the dockyards and the building of
ships, he actually reduced the estimates which we had
prepared. I said at the time that I thought the reduc-
tion injudicious, and I shall retain that opinion. Yet the
hon. member fcr Norfolk talks of the Herculean labour
which we imposed on our successors.
Mr. BENTINCK explained that he had spoken of
the alerts that were necessary to place the defences of
the country in a positign to meet an emergency when
the hats Government left office.
Sir C. WOOD - It is clear that the present Govern-
ment must have believed the national defences to be in
a safe condition, for they thought proper to reduce our
estimates. But I pass on to the assertien of the hon.
member for Birmingham, that whatever complications
might exist in America arose from the instructions sent
out by the late Government to the officers of the West
Indian station. Now, it is perfectly true that I sent
out additional gunboats to be employed in checking the
slave trade, which was raising its bead again in those
waters ; but I can inform the hon. gentleman of what
heevidently cannot know—viz., that no new instructions
whatever have been issued to our commanders in the
West Indies, and that those officers are still actingon
the instructions which were drawn up in the year 1844,
studious desire
h
ged
t o avoidjngiving just cause of
,
I believe, by Sir G.
oaffieth a
once, a
Cockburn. What I have said has been rather in the way
of caution ; but this a ieoint on which some misappre-
hension has prevailed in the minds of hon. members,
and I am glad to have had this opportunity of stating
that nothing whatever was done by the Government with
which I was connected which could lead the officers in
command of vessels engaged in checking the slave trade
to do anything which they would not have done any
time during the last 15 yea's. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. HEADLAM did not rise to answer the very diffi-
cult question proposed by the hon. member for Birming-
ham as to the cost at wisich the expense of the defencesof this country could be def:ayed. [laving regard to
the existing state of Europe and to the demands neces-
serily made upon the forces of this country, ho did not
think that they were at this moment greater than wee
absolutely needed. Having early in the session taken
an active part in calling the attention of her l'ilajeste's
Government to the caste of the British engineers in
Naples,and leaving urged upon them further steps than
they then seemed disposed to adopt, he should not act
rightly towards them if, upon the announcement of the
result, of their negotiations, he did not tender to them his
eJngzatulations upon their success, an 4 Lis great !,atia•
faction at the favourable issue cf their exertions. (Hear,
hear ) With
respect to the question of our defences, he
was not
an alarmist: Ile en ertained no fears of an in-
vasion from France, but at the same time, remembering
how different the
events cf the last 10 years had been
from any which cool;[
have been anticipated, he thought