The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-25 00:00:00

pacem pars Whim—being simply to the effect
"that this meeting, while earnestly trusting that
friendly relations will continue to be maintained
with foreign States, is at the same time impressed
with the conviction that the surest means of avert-
ing the danger of war, and continuing to our beloved
land the blessings of peace and commercial prospe-
rity, is a thorough and complete system of national
defence." So fully is Sir ARCHIBALD *impressed
with the imminence of this great necessity, that we
find him in the midst of his harangue boldly pro-
pounding, among other similar suggestions, one to
this striking effect, that the pay of our tars and our
soldiers should, by a single stroke of the pen, as it
were, be very nearly doubled. , Economists though
we be, we must nevertheless confess that a propo-
sition thus hearty and resolute comes to us quite
refreshingly after all the niggardly cheeseparing
proposals dinned into our ears from session to session
for a long while past, by the peace-at-any-
price advocates of retrenchment. There is
no mere insinuation of his crotchet by Sir
ARCHIBALD ALISON, but he has it fairly out in
a few plain words, and easily comprehensible
figures. " The first step," he says, " I would take
in this matter would be at one blow, and without
the least delay, to raise the pay of the soldiers and
sailors and the militia from ls. id. to is. Bd. or 2s.
a day. If you do this," he adds,'" for the military,
and dp the same for the royal navy, you will find
that the ships of the line will be filled with sailors,
and you will find that the ranks of the regular
army will be filled with able and valiant men, and
you will have no difficulty whatever in raising such
a force as is requisite to defend the country." Nor
does he content himself with this plain speaking,
or with this one daring proposition. He imme-
diately goes on to add, " The next measure
that I would propose is this :—We are told
that it would be very expensive to do that; that
the country cannot afford it ; that it is abso-
lutely necessary to attend only to a volunteer force,
and not do anything with regard to the regular
army. I will say here that lam as great a friend of
the volunteer force as any man alive, but we are told
that the country cannot afford to pay their troops
and their sailors in such a way as to gain an effi-
cient body of men. I may state that I have gathered
from a Parliamentary return issued the other day
that, since the year 1814, we have repealed taxes
to the amount of £31,500,000, £10,000,000 being
the double income-tax. That we all know. There
remains, therefore, £21,800,000 that has been given
up since 1814. Now, one-fourth of that sum
would raise the pay of our soldiers and sailors to an
adequate amount, and would put us in a state of
comparative security." Conscious, in the very act
of breathing these words, that the suggestion they
convey may sound somewhat exorbitant in these
days of political economy, Sir ARCHIBALD simplifies
the matter into a mere question as to a very obvi-
ous and instantly appreciable alternative. "What,"
he asks, " in comparison with the restoring of those
indirect taxes in a question of pounds, shillings,
and pence, is the danger of being conquered by the
French?" And as if those words were not suffi-
ciently —in fact, only too frightfully sug-
gestive, the Historian of Europe dips for a
few moments into his own abundant store of infor-
mation by way of bringing the probabilities
home at once more poignantly to general apprecia-
tion. " I will just give you," he says, "one or two
facts to let you know what you may expect if the
French ever conquered this country, in addition to
the horrors of war and the massacre of men."
Thereupon we listen, with what complacency we
may as a people having money in our pocket, to
such astounding details as to the Napoleonian
wars, as that Lisbon was, muletpli in. 1808 to the
tune of £4,ooo,ooo—Milan, in 1796, to the tune
of £Boo,ooo—Venice, shortly afterwards, to the
extent of £2,soo,ooo—and Prussia, in 1806, to the
enormous amount of £24,000,000! But at last, by way
of crowning illustration, Sir ARCHIBALD mentioned,
pertinently and very much to the purpose, indeed,
on Wednesday, when addressing himself to the good
citizens of Glasgow, How, in 1812, NAPOLEON
wrote, in a letter to DavousT (that Marshal then
being in Hamburg), "If you had shot six of the
principal merchants of Hamburg, on the day you
entered, it would have been well ; but as you have
not done that, you must just make them pay
for it, and, therefore, I require you to lay hold of
200 of the principal merchants, and keep them as
hostiges for the payment of 50,000,000 francs,"
equal to £2,000,000 sterling. A sum, Sir
ARCHIBALD reminds his Glasgow audience, which
was actually in 1806 levied forthwith upon Ham-
burgh, a city then containing within it no more
than 80,000 inhabitants. By consequence, the
historian intimated to his hearers that the imposi-
tion was equivalent, to all intents and purposes,
to the mulcting the city of Glasgow at this
moment of £10,000,000! "You see," he says,
"at what price the peace at any price gentle-
men would purchase their salvation." Therefore,
it is that Sir 'ARCHIBALD ALISON expresses his
earnest hope; as an economist, that we may foster
the Royal Army and the Royal Navy at the very
time that we are forwarding with all the patriotic
ardour in our power the old militia movement and
the new Rifle Corps movement.
What he aspires to see realised in this way, he
tells us very plainly. He hopes that the period
is fast approaching when we shall have thirty
sail of the line in the Channel as our regular
Channel' Fleet—fifteen -sail-of-the-line in the Medi-
terannean-100,000 regular troops in Great Britain
and 80,000 militiamen ! Let us add to this list a
naval reserve of 50,000 men, an 3 scattered all over
the country, in efficient corps, an aggregate of from
200,000 to 300,000 rifle volunteers. When all this
shall have been realised, then, but not till then, we
may cry—" Hold, enough !" Then, but not till
then, we may regard the national defences as hav-
ing been duly cared for and properly organised.
One formidable truth is admirably put by Sir
ARCHIBALD when he says, " A force that would
bring 100,000 men together instead of 20,000,
which could be done now in front of London,
would not be sufficient, unless it were supported
by a great force in the rear, for the French, if
they once got the command of the Channel, could
throw as many men over in a week as they
brought to fight at Solferino. But," he adds imme-
diately afterwards, " if there is a sufficient and
adequate volunteer force in the country, then I
say we may be altogether invincible.P This should,
in truth, be the one ambition of all our fast multi-
plying rifle corps—to come in aid, if need be, of tl e
regular troops. And it should be the one thought
held at this moment by the nation at large in
patriotic remembrance !

The Earl and Countess of Hardwicke and the
Ladies Yorke and Lord Royston have arrived at Hattle:d
House, on a visit to the Marquis and Marchioness of
Salisbury, from Wimpolc Hall, Cambridgeshire.
Their Royal Ilighueises the Duke and Duch: ss
d'Aumale have left Orleans House, Twickenham, on a visit
to the Marquis and Marchioness of Salisbury at Hatfield
Ho use, Herts.

His Excellency the Austrian Minister and the
Coin itess d'Apponyi left Chandos House, on Wednesday,
to join the cirlcle staying with the Marquis and Marchioness
of Salfibury at Hatfield.
Tb e Birmingham Cattle and Poultry Show, the
first of the principal annual exhibitions of fat stock, &c.,
opens or. Monday next, and that of the Smithfield Club on
tl4 o Tuesday in the week following.