The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-24 00:00:00

7. The committee of 1852, in their report, ob-
served that it was chiefly to the boys that they
must look for the gradual organisation of a perma-
nent navy. They stated that by official returns it
appeared that, 'during the preceding 12 years, up •
wards of 2,000 boys had upon an average been
annually entered, " a number which would go far,
on the usual peace establishment of the navy for
that period, to replace the vacancies caused by
deaths, invalidings, pensions, casual dischargeS,
&c." And they add, that experience had taught
them, that "men, who have been received into the
navy as boys, become, from early habits and asso-
ciations, more attached and adhere more closely to
the service, than those entered at a more advanced
age, and that they eventually constitute, from their
superior education and training, the most valuable
part of the crews of her Majesty's ships." In this
opinion we concur.
8. At the present time, however, only about 500
of those who annually enter the navy have the ad-
vantage of passing through the training vessels, and
so sensible are we of the advantages of early train-
ing that we recommend that a large ship, similar
to the Britannia, at Portsmouth, and capable of
affording accommodation to 500 boys, should be
placed at Plymouth ; and that four additional
training vessels should be provided, which would
enable the whole of the boys required for the navy
to receive the same instruction. This would entail
an expense of about £15,918 per annum.
RESERVE IN THE HOME PORTS.
9. Another recommendation of the committee of
1852, which has not been hitherto carried into effect
is the maintaining an adequate reserve of seamen
in the home ports. They observed that from the
information and evidence that had been laid before
them " during the progress of the inquiry, they
had been led to the conclusion that it was desirable
to keep a larger force at home than had been cus-
tomary of late years," and they recommended,
" that your Majesty's navy should be maintained
at such a numerical force in commission as, inde-
pendently of the Channel squadron, will admit of
10,000 seamen and boys (exclusive of officers) being
retained in England for the protection of the ports
and the coasts of the United Kingdom."
10. The evidence before us shows that, when a
ship of war is commissioned, the most costly part
of
her complement, namely, the officers and perhaps
r
the greater part of her crew, , immediately become a
charge upon the State,an
continuesofor several
weeks, and even menths, during which she is unable
the
to put to sea for want of smaller part of her
crew; while the -whole expense of the ship which
she was intended to relieve is going on.
11. We are, therefore, of opinion that a reserve
of seamen should always be maintained in the home
ports, ready to complete the crews of ships put in
commission, for the relief of foreign stations, and as
the best and most prompt of all reserves in the event
of a sudden armament. The rto be thus re-
tained in the home ports should bear a relation to
the number in commission ; and, with our present
peace establishments, we think that it should not be
less than 4,000, besides those retained in the harbour
guard ships. Such an arrangement also would
afford a ready means of giving a systematic train-
ing in gunnery to all men in your Majesty's naval
service. We estimate the additional expense of this
reserve, after allowing for r the economy consequent
on the rapidity of the reliefs, at the sum of L 132,000.
SEAMEN-GUNNERS.
12. And here we beg to call your Majesty's at-
tention to the extreme importance of encouraging

seamen to qualify themselves as seamen gunners.
The committee of 1852 recommended that the num-
ber under training in the Excellent and her tenders
should be increased ; they stated that they could not
overrate the " advantages which the naval service
had derived from the systematic" instruction and
training, both of officers and men, in gunnery and
the use of arms, as established on board that ship."
13. In this opinion we concur ; we believe that
seamen, well-trained in gunnery, are becoming daily
more and more essential, and in order to induce

seamen more readily to enter the gunnery ships Ex-
cellent and Cambridge, and to qualify themselves
for the highly important situations of seamen gun-
ners, we recommend that the pay of each class of
seamen gunners be increased to the extent of ld. a
day. With a view also of retaining them when once
qualified, we recommend that a period of five years'
service as seamen-gunners should count as six
years towards a long service pension, and that the
pension should he payable to them only in the
United Kingdom and the Channel Islands. These
measures appear to be rendered necessary by a re-
view of the relative position of this class as com-
pared with the Coastguard and other branches of
the service. We think, also, that of the 4,000 men
retained in the home ports 1,000 should always be
seamen-gunners. The extra charge on this head
would be about £6,239 per annum..

14. These measures ire, in our opinion, all that
are needed under the foregoing heads to place the
pace otabliohment of the nairy on a full And