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

the additions which we have recommended are also
carried into effect.

Men.
4,000
12,000
6,000
5,000
3,000
- 30,000
Royal Naval Volunteers .. 20,000
Naval Coast Volunteers .. .. 10,000

Reliefs in the home ports ..
Coastguard .. .. • • • . . , ..
Marines, embodied ..
Ditto, short-service pensioners ..
Seamen, short-service pensioners, say

30,000

Making in all .. 60,000
This does not include the addition of 5,000 men
which we have said might be made to the marines
without impairing the efficiency of that body as a
naval force, if your Majesty should be advised
either to substitute that number of marines for
troops of the line, or to add that number of men to
the whole military and naval establishments of the
kingdom; nor does it include the 5,000 volunteers
whom we have assumed to be absent on leave in
the long voyages.
81. Of these forces the reliefs in the home ports
and the coastguard may both be speedily raised,
and this should be done at once. The marines em-
bodied are taken at the number usually stationed
in this country. The short-service pensioners, sea-
men as well as marines, will be filled up in about
seven years. The royal naval volunteers may, in
the opinion of the witnesses, be recruited without
any great delay.
82. Comparing the naval estimates of the year
with the amount which will have to be expended
before the Coastguard and the Naval Coast Volun-
teers have been brought up to the state contem-
plated by the statutes which regulate these forces
respectively, a further expenditure will be required
of £64,862.

The whole expenses of the•additions which we
have recommended will be as follows :

IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PEACE ESTABLISHMENT.
1. Increased allowances of provisons £42,331
2. Pensions of warrant officers' widows 19,150
3. Mess utensils, clothes, and bedding 14,200
4. Instruction and training ships 15,918
6. Petty officers' badges 6,833
6. Pay and pensions for gunnery 6,239
TT 104,671

ADDITIONAL RESERVES.
In the Queen's Service.
1. 2,000 additional Coastguardmen £116,525
2. 4,000 reliefs in home ports
3. 5,000 short-service pensioners, Marines 45,625
In the Merchant Service.
4. 20,000 royal naval volunteers in home
and 5,000 in distant voyages (in-
cluding school ships) 200,000

494,150

Making in all £598,821

CONCLUSION.
84. When, however, everything shall have been
done which prudence can suggest to furnish, in
time of peace, reserves available on the outbreak of
war, there will still remain as a last resource your
Majesty's undoubted right to the compulsory ser-
vice of all your Majesty's subjects by sea as well as
by land, in case of actual danger to this country'.
Our earnest desire is to tender to your Majesty'
such advice as may strengthen this necessary
weapon of national defence, and render it more
efficient and more readily available in the moment
of danger.

85. We therefore do not propose to weaken the
force of your Majesty's prerogative at common law,
or of the successive statutes by which it has been
declared and confirmed. But we think that in
requiring compulsory service at sea as close an
analogy as possible with the laws which regulate
the like service on land should be observed. By the
statute 5 and 6 'William IV., chap. 24, it is enacted
that no person shall be liable to be detained against
his consent in the naval service of his Majesty for a
longer period than five years, except in case of spe-
cial emergency, when the commanding officer Is
empowered to detain him fora further period of six
months, or until such emerg'dncy shall have ceased.
The latest enactment on this subject is the statute
16th and 17th of Vic., chap. 69, which empowers
your Majesty to call out seamen either generally
or by classes at discretion- We recommend that
the provisions of that statute should be maintained;
but we think that its force will not be impaired by
the addition of the two following limitations, viz.:
86. First, that it shall only be called into opera-
tion in the case of danger to this country, declared
by your Majesty in Council, after the voluntary re-
serves shall have been first called out for service.
87. And, secondly, pursuing the analogy of the
militia, we have considered whether we could re-
commend a limit of distance from our own shores,
but it appears to us that such a limit might
defeat the usefulness of the force • for it is obvious
that the pursuit of the enemy's fleet might be, as it
has been in former times, the most efficient method
of defence ; and, as we have observed, the limit,
which confines the present Naval Coast Volunteers
to a certain distance from the shore greatly di-
minishes the value of that force. We think, -how-
ever, that no objection can be urged against a
limitation of time. It is in the highest degree im-
probable that such a danger as alone could justify
compulsory service would continue for so long ~s
period as one commission, or three years ; and, 11
it did, there would be no difficulty in providing
such reliefs that no seaman, who declined to volun'
teer for continued service, need be detained beyond
that time. We recommend, therefore, that it,
should be enacted that, if your Majesty should
ever find it necessary to proclaim compulsory ser-
vice, a relief should be provided for every seaman,
within a period of three years from the time of his
entry on board ship ; and that he should not be
liable to be called upon for a second period of ser-
vice until after the expiration of a time to be ex-
pressed in the statute.
88. We believe that these provisions would not
diminish the power of the Executive Government
on the occurrence of an emergency, but, on the
contrary, would increase it, since they would be
regarded as the practical abolition of a system
which has' long indisposed the seaman to your Ma-
jesty's navy, and would thereby conduce in an im-
portant degree to enlist his voluntary service for
the defence of his country.
89. Your Majesty possesses in the merchant ser-
vice elements of naval power such as no other Go'
vernment in the world enjoys. It is true that
hitherto no sufficient organisation has existed fOl
securing to your Majesty the immediate command
of these resources. During a long peace reliance
has been placed either on the improbability that
danger would arise, or on the efficasy of impress'
meat to furnish the means by which danger could
be confronted and overcome. Changes in public
sentiment and in the circumstances of the ease have
shaken that reliance. We rejoice to believe, that
by improvements in the administration of your
Majesty's navy, and in the regulation of the mer-
chant service, other resources have in the mean-
time been placed within the reach of your Majesty's
Government, and that it is now in their power to
substitute for untrained compulsory service a sys-
tem of defence, voluntary, effective, and calculated
to draw closer to your Majesty, at the moment of
danger, the loyal enthusiasm of those on whelp
your Majesty will relY. We therefore humbly and,
confidently submit to your Majesty the adoption 01
measures which, while their primary object is the
protection of this country from the hazards of war,
must at the same time improve the position and
elevate the character of the British seamen in the
two services, and unite them together in the fain
bonds of reciprocal good feeling and of common
interest.

Witness our hands and seals this 19th day of
February, 1859.

HARDWICKE. (LS:
CHANDOS. L.S.:
EDWARD CARDWELL. L.S.
W. FANSHAWE MARTIN, L.S.:
J. D. H. ELPHINSTONE. L.S.
JOHN SHEPHERD. L.S 4
.4
RICHARD GREEN. (L.S.,
H. C. itothery, Secretary.