The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-19 00:00:00

sledge-hammer blow when he maintains that witl
inateriel in abundance, what we have to look to
now, above all things, is the personalel with which
to set the machinery of the former in motion.
Hitherto he reminds us that we have failed to
solve this problem, though, to the very end of its
solution among other things we have an Admiralty
costing us £lOO,OOO a year ! "It is admitted,"
he says, " that when men are voted and en-
tered there is no difficulty in keeping up the num-
ber ; the difficulty is to keepunder the vete, but the
moment an emergency arrives and some thousands,
or indeed hundreds, are wanted, we are all abroad.
This is not surprising, as the sailors are employed
in the different trades, and they will not leave their
employment to enter the navy unless it is made
worth their while ; and experience tells us we have
never yet come up to their mark." Bow judici-
ously and accurately to "come up to their mark,"
Sir CHARLES NAPIER'S letter very lucidly explains.
lie recommends a series of improvements calculated
materially to better the condition of JACK, when
he has once got fairly into the service. Among
these improvements, insisting especially upon the
advisability, if not the absolute and imperative
necessity there is of relaxing somewhat the
confinement to which the men are sub-
jected on board a ship; tie argues forcibly,
to our thinking irresistibly, in favour of doing
away entirely with the discomfort of the hulks—
receiving the men on board the first day the pen-
nant is hoisted. lie recommends weekly payments,
the granting of moderate leave, and the making
officers and men at once "as comfortable as if the
ship had been six months in commission." Above
all things, however, Sir CHARLES NAPIER has his
heart steadily set throughout upon the one great
want in the service—the establishment of a reserve
of disciplined seamen to the number of 30,000 !
Now mark especially what it is Sir CHAS. NAPIER
has to say upon this point, as to the reserve of
thirty thousand. " Parliament," writes the gallant
Admiral to the -Duke of SOMERSET, " Parliament
has voted £lOO,OOO to form this reserve. It
is proposed' to give each man £5. For this
he must be ready at all calls. He must
serve 28 days each year, and must know all his
drills. During this time he will receive the same
pay, provisions, and the same privileges as seamen
serving. Now, my lord, to make this reserve effi-
cient, they must give up all trades except the
coasting trade. Now, a sailor in the prime of life
does not like to be thus restricted. He is fond of
wandering all over the world ; and if he is not in the
prime of life, he is not fit for the reserve. Your
grace will find that £5 is not a sufficient induce-
ment for a good seaman to take up such a line. It
appears to me the formation of the reserve must be
begun with men who have served ten years in
actual service. At present those men are entitled
to a pension; that should be abolished, and they
should only be entitled to enter the reserve.
They should be designated the Queen's Naval
Guards ; and they should be exempt from corpo-
ral punishment when serving; they should be
men of exemplary conduct, and after having been
ten years in the reserve they should receive a
good pension, but subjected to be called upon, if
fit, and wanted, and then designated the OH
Guard, and receive, as they do now, both pay
and pension. They should ba eligible to civil situ-
ations, and care should be taken to employ them
if fit. If artificers, they should be preferred to
others to serve in the dockyards, which is never
thought of; on the contrary, the dockyard officen
are generally sgainst them. This ought not to be.
Now, my lord, comes the question, what pa)
is sufficient to, induce men to join the reserve ?
Five pounds will certainly not do. We must be
careful not to risk a failure, and we ought to
make searching inquiries among the men them-
selves what, in their estimation, would be suffi-
cient encouragement to induce them to adopt the
coasting trade, so as to be at hand at all calls.
Whatever is thought just must be given. There
is no help for it, for neither the sailor nor the
country will now stand compulsion." Than all
this, nothing could well be more reasonable. We
liiten, like CoLtraDGE's wedding guest, to every
syllable of it. And, while we listen, the Ancient
Mariner "hath his will."—We bow to the force
and cogency of Sir CHARLES NAPIER'S arguments.

We feel some hopes that the revelations of the

two Election Commissions, and the honest, well-
timed remarks of Lord BROUGHAM at Bradford,
will not be lost on the GENTLEMEN of the Rouse
of Commons. A considerable number will occupy

seats on both benches whose sense of honour, and

even their conscience, must make them some•

what uneasy►.

Gloucester and Wakefield would

never have been properly known to the
country, nor even to themselves, had not
the Commissioners shrived them publicly. And
lost indeed to all self-respect must the Commons of

England be if the really pure will not vote for com-
pelling all to be so ; and, if those who know, or
have the best of reasons for suspecting, that they
sit in the house through the venality of electors, do
not show themselves in earnest to prevent a repe-

tition of such practices.
It is but too common to talk only of the de•
moralisation of poor electors ; but if we are not mis
taken, a sentiment of commiseration for rich can

didates and respectable electors must have arisen
in many minds, as they have skimmed tedious parts
of the painful evidence, and pondered on others
with reluctant interest ! When we find in the
Gloucester affair even Sir Wm. HAYTER and Mr.

MOFFAT aiding and abetting the secret trausmis

sion of money from London, and candidates;
and professional gentlemen, and citizens

whom we properly deem respectable—handling
money and transacting their business secretly
through other persons, with every precaution
that they shall not, formally and technically, know
that of which they cannot have a shadow of a
doubt—how can we help feeling for the degrada-
tion of these gentlemen. " What you doubt, do
not," is one of the oldest of moral rules, one, too,
which has the express sanction of the Christian
revelation. Yet, all these persons, who would
have cut off their right hands, probably,

rather than be guilty of a doubtful
commercial transaction—all of them conspire

to pay money, or to be agents in its paymen
for a debasing crime—a crime both in law and
morality—a crime, which if imputed to them per-
sonally—they would deem themselves excused in
resenting the accusation with personal violence—
with the old English law of turning the accuser
out of doors, or of kicking him down stairs.
At Wakefield the case was in some respects
worse. The two candidates were, we believe,
for we know neither personally, two as respectable
gentlemen as any who could have contested the
Borough—yet Mr. LEATIIAM, though annoyed,
handed over to his election agent first £l,OOO ; in
a few days £5OO ; in less than a week £l,OOO
more; and after the election £2OO and £soo,—in
all £3,200, and that not all—indeed it did not in-
clude what was paid through the Auditor, besides
outstanding accounts—the whole probable cost
of the election to Mr. LEATII.III amounting to not
loss than £4,200 ! The money was procured secretly
from London; and by avoiding direct knowledge