The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-27 00:00:00

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4mt.

LONDON, TUESDAY, FEB. 27, 1866.

respecting
is, perhaps, no part of our administration
which there is a more uncomfortable
feeling of misgiving and dissatisfaction existing in
the public mind than the conduct of our naval af-
fairs. The uneasiness and discontent is possibly
increased by the fact that few civilians know much
about the matter. They
have only a vague idea
that a great deal of
m_n
ey is spent to very little
purpose, that ships are b
pieces, and put together again without
rebuilt, taken to
ithout even seeing
service, that the outlay in our dockyards is like
pouring water through a sieve, that private
talent and enterprise receive a Steady discourage-
ment, and that a system of favouritism pre-
vails which refuses to entertain any new scheme
'or project unless it originates in properly authorised.
quarters. Unfortunately, when professional men
take up the subject all they say tends to confirm
these popular misgivings, and the Secretary for the
Admiralty has no very easy or enviable task in
submitting his yearly budget to the House of Com-
mons. He generally succeeds, indeed, in carrying
his point, for if there is one thing more than another
about which Englishmen are disposed to be liberal,
it is their navy; and rather than appear indifferent
or averse to the maintenance of our naval supre-
macy, they vote large sums of money annually,
notwithstanding the uncomfortable conviction that
the funds might be better spent. Last evening
Lord CLARENCE PAGET bad to submit not only to
some severe criticism, but to the adjournment of
the debate. He was, indeed, spared the comments
of a very formidable critic owing to the absence

of Mr. LAIRD from illness, anabsencee tn o which
to re
several speakers did not scruple public
regret
as well as on personal grounds. Sir JOHN BAKING-
TON, however, subjected the Secretary's statements
to a severe examination, -while Mr. SAMUDA objected
to the favourite designs for ship-building. Mr.
BAILLIE took exception to the enormous expenditure
on ironclads, and Admirals WALCOTT and SEY-
MOUR found respectively something to complain of
in the rate of speed in our ships, and in the treat-
ment of our minor officers. On all these topics
there was certainly room not only for criticism,
but for censure ; but the speech of the right
honourable baronet the member for Droit-
wich was, naturally enough, the speech of the
debate. The most formidable portion of his attack
on the Admiralty was that on which the common
sense•and justice of the country will go with him,
for there is a general impression that with regard to
the turret system the GOvernment has neither
shown regard to the interests of the public
nor to the claims of private enterprise and inven-
tion. We are very glad to find that Sir JOHN
PAKINGTON is resolved to call the Board of Admi-
ralty to account for their treatment of Cap-
tain COLES. It is not very surprising that
Lord CLARENCE PAGET, as their spokesman,
should have shown a desire to postpone
the evil day, and shuffle off the inevitable discussion.
Sir J. PAKINGTON, however, was not disposed to
pass the matter over so easily. He reminded the
house that last year, when addressing it on this
subject, the noble lord said, " The first
proposal we have to make is, that we shall
endeavour, if possible, to construct a ship
on the turret principle which shall be a real
sea-going vessel." " How," asked the right hon.
baronet, " has that promise been fulfilled? The
year has passed, and the same promise has to be
made over again." The proposal for the new turret
ship, such as it is, does not commend itself to the
approval of Sir JOHN PAKINGTON. The new vessel,
the Monarch, is to be more than 5,000 tons ; while
Mr. LAIRD has already shown by the Vesta that a
turret ship of 1,100 tons can possess every quality
of a good sea-going ship. The Vesta has already
been subjected to au ordeal which very few of the
Government vessels care to face too readily : she has
made a long voyage in bad weather.
But the size an i tonnage of the proposed vessel
was not the only point ou which Sir JOHN PAKING-
TON was inclined to regard the proceedings of the
Admiralty with suspicion. "Above all," he said,'
" I want to know, after this long delay who is to
design the s'aip and to be responsible for it ? It is
well-known that Captain COWPER COLES was the
originator of this plan. The Admiralty several
years ago recognised it as an experiment worth try-
ing. No one will deny that if an experiment be
worth trying it ought to be fairly and thoroughly
tried. If it has been tried at all it certainly has
neither been done fairly nor promptly." But,
in fact, as Sir J. PAKINGTON went on to show, Cap-
tain COLES'S plan has never been tried at all. The
Royal Sovereign has been converted into a ship
very useful in its way, no doubt, but by no means
the sort of ship that Captain COLES designed. In
vain has Captain COLES entreated over and over
again that his plan for a turret ship, long ago ap-
proved theoretically by the Admiralty, should be put
to a practical test. The present constructor of the
navy, Mr. REED, favoured a rival system. " I ask,"
indignantly exclaimed Sir JOHN PAKINGTON,
" if the Admiralty has not allowed the invention of
a rival system to have all the advantages of official
support and experiments, while the invention of
Captain COWPER COLES has up to the present hour
never been fairly tried, although it was long ago
accepted by the Board as a system well worthy of a
trial." Certainly public opinion will be inclined to
endorse the verdict of the right hon. member for
Droitwich, that in this the Admiralty is most to blame.
The great question as to the rival merits of the
broadside and turret systems remains to be settled,
and it was clearly the duty of the Admiralty to give
a fair trial to the turret ship. Sir JOHN PAKING-
TON asked ironically under whose guidance and
direction the new ship was to be constructed, that
of Captain COLES or of Mr. REED ; but it is matter
of common notoriety that Captain COLES has
already received his conge on the plea of a breach
of official etiquette. He is, in fact, been got
rid of before this gran3 new turret ship is
constructed, so that he may not carry off
any share of the credit if successful. Sir
JOILN PAKINGTON found another occasion for
disapproving the Government scheme. lie com-
plained that the new vessel was to be " unneces-
sarily- and unwisely large, incurring an enormous
expense, while' it would have been far better to test
the qualities of the system as to its sea-going powers
by means of a much smaller and less expensive
vessel." But, in fact, Mr. LAIRD has already put
the system to the test, and has proved by the Vesta
that a sea-going turret ship is by no means a matter
of impossibility. It is a little too bad that when
there is undoubted talent in the country, ready and
willing to devote itself to the service of the
country, the Executive should refuse to employ it.
Sir JOHN PAKINGTON boldly attributed the recent
failures in the speed of our men-of-war, and
other mishaps, to the fact that 'the Government
have allowed themselves to lose that shipbuilding
talent which they once possessed." Mon of inde-
pendenze and ability are year by year driven
from our public service, disgusted with the treat-
ment which they receive, and the natural conse-
quence is that, while our annual naval expendi-
ture is reckoned by millions, our fleet and our
Administration are in an equally unsatisfactory
state.

Mr. GLADSTONE cannot certainly find his new
position a bed of roses, for he is constantly being
called to account, and far oftener by friends than
by foes. Last night Mr. WHITE took upon himself
the arduous task of revising the national expendi-
ture, and in the course of his long oration drew very
unfavourable conclusions as to the mode in which
the Chancellor of the Exchequer conducted matters
in his department. Mr. WHITE seemed to be very
much afraid lest the right hon. gentleman should
forget his old promises, and yield to the various
temptations that assail him from many quarters.
He took a decided step to remind him of
his responsibilities by quoting a passage
from the speech made to the electors of
South Lancashire last summer, in which Mr. GLAD-
STONE declared that he did not think the expendi-
ture.of the country was yet 'reduced to the lowest
possible point consistent with honour and security.
The appearance of the estimates for the present
year has shaken Mr. \V MITE'S confidence in the
present Government,
which,
thought
an
ivapvrtohoeran
though far
olari thefrom per-
fect, we had thou
last
one. While he had relied on the encouraging idea
held out of old things passinf, away and all things
becoming new, he found that the sum required
for the army, navy, and civil service was simi-
lar to that demanded last year. Certainly
this was a disappointmeht, and Mr. WHITE
as not inclined to mince matters, as
he recalled its bitterness ; for he said very plainly,
that unless these defects were altered the Govern-
ment ought to go out and " allow other men, cap-
able of conducting the Government of the country