The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-07 00:00:00

ABLES.

A WORD FOR "THE TIMES."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE.
Sir,—The Times yesterday morning made the
novel and interesting discovery that " Britannia
rules the waves." A little doubtful, perhaps, that
its claims for the honour of first discovery would
be generally admitted, it announced another
marvel, the originality of which stands on a less
indisputable basis—that if Britannia did rule the
waves, that is a thing of the past, and the sceptre
is about to fall from her enfeebled grasp. After
giving birth to many safe, platitudes on our
former Naval supremacy, your contemporary,
yesterday morning, disturbed the eigestion of
many elderly ladies (of both sexes) by asking,
" How, then, it may be asked, have we lived thus
long in security while the reality of dominion is
slipping from our hands ?" I was certainly not
myself aware that the "slipping" had commenced.
I suspect, however, that even the Times dates our
decadence simply from the day of Bernal Osborne's
dismissal from Dover, the whole of which national
calamity has been laid at the Admiralty's door.
Let us examine a little more closely into the origin
of the cry of the downfall of England, her approach-
ing fall, and the causes that are to make her the
" Niobc of nations."
To such of your readers who " skip" one column of
the journals, headed " The Money Market and City
News," I may mention that there is an ingenious
but indefensible operation in the Stock Exchange
called " Bearing the market." All speculators who
" operate for a fall" are "Bears," those who try for
a rise are " Bulls." To " Bear " the market is to
set some false report afloat, to give impetus to a
vague rumour, and a vigorous push to any lie that
may serve the desired end. Favourite Bear dodges
are—assassination of the French Emperor, an
insurrection at Paris or Vienna, or any other false
report that may shake the confidence of the holders
of stock, or damp the ardour of intending inves-
tors. Now, it seems to me that there is a possi-
bility of " Bearing" the nation, as well as the Stock
Exchange ; and by exactly the same dishonest
course—by giving currency to idle fears, cowardly
misgivings, sprei7ding abroad alarms that have no
existence, and making misrepresentations of things
that really do exist.
I do not quarrel with the Times for favouring
the present rulers of the Government with disparag-
ing comments on their motives and actions ; but I
do quarrel with the 7 Imes for its un-English spirit.
The limes is just doing whatthe very worst haters
of England and her hereditary foes have been doing
for the last sixty years. It has always been a
trump card among French writers, " whose wish
is father to their thought," that England is
going downhill as fast as she can gallop. It
was the pet prophecy of ill-omened birds in
the days of Mirabeau, who replied to their
croakings in this strain : " England lost !
In what latitude, I pray you, has she been ship-
wrecked ? I see her, on the contrary, active, power-
ful, coming forth strong out of a periodical agitation,
and about to fill up a gap in her constitution with
the energy of a great people." Seventy years have
passed since Mirabeau uttered these words, which
seem to me wonderfully applicable to the present
moment. It would be easy to show how constantly
this cuckoo note has been taken up since, but I
may refer to Ledru-Rollin and his celebrated "De
la Decadence de l'Angleterre," and the more mode•
rate•minded Montalembert, in his equally celebrated
" De I'Avenir Politique de l'Angleterre."
According to each of these prophets, England
ought to be by this time a 'French dependency, or
at least a fourth-rate Power. The Times' vatici-
nations are in exactly the same spirit. With its
prophetic eye it sees " the tall and smokeless chim-
neys of Lancashire" falling to pieces. There is to
be no more smoke for dear Old England, except
that which is generously supplied by the limes in
its leading articles.
The sad fate that is awaiting " the tall and
smokeless chimneys," and the consequent decay of
English commerce and English credit, is entirely,
to be attributed to our growing inability to main-
tain our power of holding the seas. Only admit
the premises, and what may you not prove trium-
phantly ? I dispute the premises, and repeat with
Mirabeau—England was never more " active or
powerful" than at this moment. Terrific as the
drain has been upon her resources by the Crimean
war and the Indian revolt, since which an Empire
has been reconquered, she comes out of the strife
lusty as a young eagle ! And " she is now about to
fill a gap in her constitution with the energy of a
great people."
The patriotism of thatpaper does not stand in the
way of prophesying our " decline and fall," as long
as it gives it a chance of a fling at the Ministry.
All its wrath is concentrated on the devoted head
of Sir John Pakington, and those under him at the
Admiralty. The charge is made something in the
same spirit as a dexterous advocate's address to
the jury, who makes out a strong case, but omits
to call any witnesses. What proof have we that
the Admiralty patronage has been made subservient
to political purposes during the present Adminis-
tration ? Why, then, if it has not been, what right
have we to assume that it will be ? But the Times
does bring forward
_an instance in support of its
position : "The fact remains, that during the two
recent campaigns in the Baltic and Black Sea the
British Navy was not what it had been in former
days." It is possible to call a witness who may
swear you out of court.

Fortunately for my political creed it is not
necessary to support it by blackening the repu-
tation of these who differ from me; ba even ad-
mitting the Times' insinuation, that Sir Charles
Napier and Lord Lyons were not of the same
"school as the old Mediterranean Fleet of Jervis,
Nelson, Collingwood, and Exmouth," who was it
that appointed those degenerated Admirals ? The
organ of Lord Palmerston's party, for fixing the
date (as it would seem) of the decline of England's
maritime superiority, instead of dating it from the
accession of the Conservative party to power, ought,
by its own showing, to go a little further back.
It may suit the Times' " book" to speak of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer's most admirable
and reassuring address as an electioneering speech
to those whom our contemporary calls " the squires
and tenant-farmers of Buckinghamshire," and
" their bucolic minds ;" but Mr. Disraeli, when
in that small county-hall at Aylesbury, spoke not to
his constituents alone, but to universal England—
nay, to the world itself. By this time that speech
has struck terror into the souls of many a despot—
has dashed to the earth the project of Absolutists
—has reassured the desponding, and fortified
the weak-hearted. And this has been accomplished,
not by the rhetorician's art, by the pomp of words,
or vivid imagery, or swelling sentences—and no one
has those auxiliaries more completely at his com-
mand than the right honourable gentleman—but
by the simple magic of facts. He invoked not the
names of Cressy and Poictiers, nor of Trafalgar
—" Nelson and the Line"—but aroused the enthu-
siasm of his audience by the announcement of one
fact—" You will have, before six weeks have
passed, not only a powerful fleet in the Channel,
but a powerful fleet in the Mediterranean also."

- .
(Cheers.) Does this look as if the honour and glory
of England were about to be jeopardised by the
supineness of the Admiralty Board ? The inic can
be scarcely dry that announced in your columns a
Royal Proclamation, giving to every able seaman a
bounty of £lO on enlistment ; and it will be remem-
bered that a high proof of our Sovereign's apprecia-
tion of a recent invention or improvement in gunnery
has been shown to a man of science, in the person
of Sir William Armstrong. And what is the
object of these costly preparations—these great
forEn attack,
n N van
armamentsdefece. ?All Not
tt
is ptolyhofoldr
her own ;" she has territory enough, and to
utst
spare. She will, however, maintain her national
honour; all the despotsin the world may league
against her, but she will
and her children's absolute vi nd
interests.ca her o w
el
I honourdid,
Mr. Disraeli say : "It will not be England that
will suffer; it is Europe that will be injured; and
those Potentates whose pride ambition, and lust of
conquest bring about this dangerous state of affairs
will find themselves in the end in an inferior posi-
tion to that which they now occupy."
While there is no ground for despondency, I
must admit that the position of England is not
without its perils at the present moment. We see
her standing amongst the nations—almost alone;
and yet serene, undaunted, conscious in her
strength, but in no hurry to display it. She is
hated on the Continent alike by Absolutists, Inqui-
sit ionists, and Revolutionists; even those who love
her free institutions hate her for having what they
are deprived of themselves. " The grapes are
always " sour" to those who cannot reach them.
But the Times must have a sneer at the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer's allusion to Australia and
America, as no longer confining the balance of
power to the barriers of Europe. To whom, I would
ask, has England a better right to look for assist-
ance, should she ever require it, than to her own
children, the colonies she has planted, the peoples
she has raised? Did she not make them one of the
great Towers of the world nog
The freedom of the
great Republic was not the fruit of her own revo-
lution, but it sprang from the free institutions
under which England had nurtured her colonies.
Let us, then, smile at such old-womanish fears,
and not suppose that the destinies of this
it b
ismige Sirhty
empire depend upon the sort of man we have as
First Lord of the Admiralty. Whether
James Graham or Sir John Pakington who fills
that responsible office, we can have no fear that the
interests of the nation will be betrayed in either
case. If Ministers had the inclination (which I
am Englishman enough to doubt)
ruin their
country, I do not believe they have the power.