The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-06 00:00:00

volui

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.

(From the Times.)
proTmh
ies
eE
imnptehreo r
310
nt hi.
tee
uFi. r ebnyc.
all the
haethsastefouldloinwgedtouprehasis_
sure his neighbours. The disarmament of
dsniffipesreonft Noveaerananilerdts,oranind ctolulersediostaairlmdiinngg atf the
of
sailors who have served for five years,
which we accept with satisfaction. relieveTheayre
us of all disquietude of an immediate character,
the
and give us assurance that the peace o
It
would be scarcely gracious to inquire why _ a
world is not at present to be disturbed.
this
great armament was ever placed in such
• St what
state of forward preparation, or again
shores those fleets and transports were once
n.
ter,
in-
tended to operate. It may have been but anu
necessary menace, intended as a warning to certaines
maritime Powers not to 'interfere between France
and the prosecution of her Italian policy. It nry,
have been but a costly precaution to protect what
the world is rather inclined to consider an inade-
quate result ; or it may have been but a demonstra-
tion intended to make manifest the power and ex-
tend the influence of France, and to show Europe
what great forces she can concentrate at short
notice. Whatever may have been the reason for
,
building and arming all these ships and calling out
all these trained sailors, we are content to accept,
the lesson, and to con it over for present and
the
future instruction, glad to be relieved from
necessity of emulating a continual wastefulness,
and from the apprehensions which overgrown inac-
tive fleets or armies always must inspire. We are
ready, without too rigorously criticising the past,
to give our Ally full credit for the wise and prudent
act which relieves his own finances from a burden
wholly unnecessary, and which prevents his
arma-
ments from being a standing menace to his neigh-
bours. We believe the assurance which is put
ifnorfethrmin Fatiarnaneceen,fiarnd m, wthhiach tianll
pouutrtizoiNgvneffsohuriace of
s war
harness the Emperor Napoleon acts from no sensa-
tion of faintness. He disarms only as a strong man
may disarm who would enjoy a season of repose,
and, being secure that none will attack him,
can afford to allow himself the luxury of unen-
cumbered rest. At short warning he could recall
the sailors who are now sent hack to their shore-
going industry, or to the fisheries and coasting
trade, whence they were drawAi ; and the ships,
whose last trip previous to being put out of com-
mission is to test their boilers, will require no long
delay to prepare them again for sea. It is a cour-
teous expression of an intention to be at peace with
the world. He does not beat his sword into a
reaping-hook, but he burnishes' it carefully, re-
moves every speck of rust, and puts it away ready
to hand in a convenient armoury.
The opportunity invites us to imitate the exam'
ple of our powerful neighbour. Now that all,
ground for apprehension is removed, we may well
consider whether we cannot in our turn invent
• , some system which may give us the same power
of easy transition from a peace to a war establish-
ment which he possesses. When we return front
. war to peace we are accustomed to break up our
forces, turn loose all our soldiers and sailors, and
act generally as though there was no possibility
that we should ever again be at odds with any
notion under the sun. At the next threat of dis-
turbance we have to create everything, to re-
manufacture all the stores we have wasted, to
entice, painfully and by dilatory allurements, by
ones and by twos, a great army and a great
navy. When we have done for the moment
with our instruments of war, we toss them all
away ; when the French return to their inter-
vals of peace they lay their instruments of war
carefully by. Now is the opportunity for consi-
dering whether we cannot amend this inconside-
rate and most costly habit. Surely we shall now
devise some system of manning our navy so that
the process of manning a ship of war may have
rather more the air of a piece of naval discipline,
and rather less the appearance of a contested
election. It cannot be necessary that our :ports
should present the discreditable spectacle, se .
common at all times, of ships waiting six Or
more months for a crew, while according to •
the French system, as described so admirably by
our Marseilles correspondent the other day, a
whole fleet could be armed and the crews marched
on board in less time than it would take us to get
a single ship to sea. It is true that we have not
all the facilities which a French Emperor has. Ne
aspiration for military or even naval glory would
ever persuade Englishmen to consent to a conscrip-
tion. We cannot impress seamen or shipwrights
to build or to man a fleet, any more than we could
impress those five thousand builders who met In
Hyde-park and distribute them in gangs over our
public works. It could not be done under any pres-
sure of necessity. A great danger would produce
half-a-milion volunteers, but no apprehension would
induce our countrymen to trust any Government
with the power of impressing a single •sailor.
But it is this admitted and inevitable necessity
which should impel our Admiralty, and all the
keen wits which so large a service comprehends, to
invent some substitute for this great reliance of
the foreigner. If the authorities would seriously
bend their minds to it, it is not a very difficult
problem. Men are only to be influenced by force
or persuasion, and when it is made apparent that
force will never again be tolerated, we must aceept
the conditions of the other method, and resolve to
use money, or money's worth, to accomplish our
purpose.
The evil of the present system lies upon the stir'
face. We do not keep the men when we have got
them. At immense expense and with enormous
difficulty we man a fleet. We give extravagant
bounties, we get a great mass of untaught in"
manity, we despatch it as quickly as possible into
blue water to be fashioned into a irespectable
sea force, and at the end of three years the crews
are come to work well together, and are fit to be
trusted in any enterprise. Just at this period the
ships return to harbour and are paid off. lir three
months this disciplined and effective body of man-
of-war's men is scattered all over the globe. -They -
are to be found in every man-of-war which flies a
pendant. The force perfected at such pains and ex-
pense, and so powerful in its unity, has been wan'
tonly and wastefully shattered; and while these men
are seeking employment in Amienrjincarinogr
hlswieudnegnsr
Captain Stentor of the Boreas, is
and playing the stump orator in some northern
seacoast town, vainly endeavouring to indithe the
vagabonds of that neigbourhood to go to sea with
him. Now, a man may find a reason good or bad,
for any nonsense; but there can be no valid rea-
son for so pernicious an absurdity as this.. To
keep the trained crews of a fleet is an object cheaply
attained by any necessary expenditure. If you
want a thing, and want it suddenly, the cheapest
plan is to go into the market when it is ;to be
sold and buy it ; but if only inferior and Make-
shift articles are to be obtained suddenly in market
overt, you must buy it ,leisurely, and keep it by
you for use. You don't sell your horse every tiros
you dismount from him, nor your gun directly the
shooting season is over, nor your grates when you
put your fires out; yet it is easier to find a horse
or a gun, or to fix new grates, than it is to put
your hand upon a disciplined crew of seamen.
As a matter of economy it would, we believe,
be cheaper to pay in time of peace for a larger
force of seamen than the country at the moment
may require, than to have to give bounties and
fall back on the crimps every two or three
years. It is not the wages of the seamen that
consume the money, it is the waste. Wages con-
stitute only a comparatively small part of the Nall
Estimates. It does not seem to be beyond the
power of the human intellect to devise some scheme
by which any surplus of trained man-of-war's men
might be retained for the service of the navy
Suppose we were to pay them only a portion of
their ordinary wages, and allow them to enter
on board coasters, on condition of being forth-
coming at short notice ? What say you, ye
groaning British shipowners ? Hera is a bounty ea
British bottoms in the coasting trade—is not this a
notion worth your adoption ? But, however the
object is to be attained, and whatever may be its
cost, attained it must be. We cannot afford to be
three months behind in any future war. Our neigh"
borers have a standing force of sailors which they
can at a few days' notice call together by a tele-
gram and march on board an empty fleet. We
shall be inexcusable if we do not during this time
of tranquillity arrange a similar easy system of
rising withont effort from a stat 3 of peace to a state
of war.

THE WRECK OF THE PARAMATTA,---Latest counts from this noble steamship, lately stranded on the
Anegada reef, brought to Southampton by the mail steamer'
Teviot, state that the Paramatta had worked herself nr
riglat by grinding away the rock on which she is lying'
Her paddle-floats were taken of, and the ship lightened 41
other ways, and very little doubt was entertained that, 11'
the weather continued fine, she would be got off. A large
quantity of apparatus, consisting of Stainshaw clay, cask*
warps, and other appliances, was sent out from Southaroll
ton on Tuesday last by the Atrato, to assist in the work °
floating thel Paramatta, also seven divers and two steam'
pumps, and an engineer to drive them.
THE MALTA AND CAGLIARI ELECTRIC TEL
GRAPIL—Soine anxiety has lately been felt as to the safety
of the steamer Lady Sale, which left Malta some weeks ac
to repair the cable between that place and Cagliari, %dile ;
since the 6th of March, has been disabled, no later tidings
having been received of that steamer since the 3d of Jull'
when she telegraphed he,e progress as far as Marittina°l
and the buoying of the cable off that island. A sailing
vessel which arrived at Malta from Marsala reports that
the steamer had been in there with damage, and had I,
la;
(01 Thursday, the 21st of July, to resume operations, 13°
to splice on to the two ends the stouter cable which she ~,,,,
fro
brought out from England over the spot where a rol,"11.,
has twice occurred, and where coral reefs and volcanic action
are known to exist.