The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 25, 1859.

CONTRACT FOR PITCH PINE TIMBER.
Department of the Storekeeper-General of the Navy,
Somerset-place, 22d November, 1859.
'THE COMMISSIONERS for EXECUTING
-I- THE OFFICE of LORD HIGH ADMIRAL of the
UNITED KINGDOM of GREAT BRITAIN and IRE-
LAND, DO HEREBY GIVE NOTICE, That on TUES-
DAY, the 13th December next, at Two o'Clock, they will
be ready to treat with such Persons as may be willing to
Contract for supplying her Majesty's Dockyards with 8,100
Loads of PITCH PINE TIMBER, to be delivered in the
years 1800 and 1801, according to a distribution which with a
form of the tender, and the conditions of the contract, may
be seen at the said Office. No tender will be received after
Two o'Clock on the day of treaty, nor will any be noticed
unless the party attends, or an agent for him duly authorised
in writing.
Every tender must ba addressed to, the Secretary of the
Admiralty, and bear in the left-hand corner the words " Ten-
der for Pitch Pine Timber," and must be delivered at
Somerset-place, accompanied, by a letter signed by two re-
sponsible persons, engaging to become bound with the person
tendering in the sum of £5,000 for the due performance of
the contract.

METROPOLITAN, COUNTIES, AND
GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY,
21, Regent-street, Waterloo-place, London, S.W.
Life Assurance, Annuities, and Endowments.
Loans on real and personal security.
F. FERGUSON CAMROUX, Manager.

CHEERFUL FIRES ANI) CHEAP COALS.
:Best house Coals 2ls. 6d. per ton.
Duchess Coals
For Cash on delivery to any part of London.
Orders addressed to THE ATHERTON COLLIERY
COMPANY, 31, Threadneedle-street, E.C., will meet .with
immediate attention.

the direction of the Major-General, the whole of
which were gone through in an exceedingly effec-
tive,manner, the numerous brigade fold days .held
during the last summer having proved of the utmost
advantage to the troops, in enabling them to ac-
quire a knowledge of military. movements.
Col. Commandant I'. P. Dwyer, ofthe Plymouth
Division of Royal Marines, has been placed'on the
retired . list, under the provisions of the Order in
Council.of the 13th of Nov., 1859. On resigning
command of the division the gallant colonel notified
in public orders, " that in
,thus sc•'ering the tie
which from early youth has bound him to the gal-
lant corps in which it has been his study to perform
his duty as he conceived best for the interests of
the service, he cannot repress the pang that every
heart must feel at parting from the comrades of a
long life—the officers, non-commissioned officers,
'-and privates of the Royal Marines. He wishes
them a kind good-bye, health, prosperity, and hap-
piness." Col. Second,Commandant T.'Lemon, C. 8.,
has assumed command of the division.

bear strongly on this subject, and I am sure
they will deserve your attention. It is often said
by people in this country that we need not be
afraid of the French, for we have a great mercantile
navy of 220,000 sailors, who at any time can be
added to our regular navy, and therefore we are
perfectly secure. In the present state of matters I
pray you to observe this—the great mercantile navy
of England, so far from being a refuge or support,
is—people say that it can be made otherwise—but
as matters stand it is the most serious weakness
that we hare, The wages of the seamen in the
mercantile navy are 50s. a month, while the wages
of seamen in the Royal navy are only 31s. a month.
(Hear.) It has been often said, how does it happen
that there are so many English sailors in the
American navy ? And. in the late strife with that
country we were really often fighting our own
navy. The answer to that question simply is, that
there is wonderful strength in half a dollar a-day.
(Hear, hear.) That is the way that matter stands
as regards our mercantile navy. How can we ex-
pect that men, many of them having families, are to
join the Royal navy at so great a loss ? Do not,
therefore, let us lay our heads on our pillows
and say we are perfectly safe because we have
a great mercantile navy. Our mercantile navy is
just a huge competitor which drains men from
the royal navy. Then, again, consider the state
of the army. When the militia, were called out in
January last there were 100,000 men less in the
militia and regular army than had been .voted by
the Parliament of last year. Now, how was that ?
I will tell you how it was. It was just an affair of
money, like the other. The pay of the soldier is

ls. hi.a-day, and the same class of men are earn-
in at their respective employments 25., 2s. 6d.,
35., Its.; or :ss. a-day. Can you wonder that there
is a difficulty in raising men for the royal army
when you see that there is such a difference in the

reward ? Now, there is our great weakness and
our danger—so that when men point to our navy
and our army we see that they are a great weak-
ness, instead of being the greatest possib!e source
of strength to us. There is another consideration

of the hist importance, and it is this,—unlike any
other country in Europe, we are eompelled to main-

thin an immense standing army in India and in the
colonies. At this moment there are 90,000 men in
India, and 30,000 or 40,000 in the colonies,
making a total of 130,000 veterans.who are out of
the country. The only other State which has to
maintain an army abroad is France, which has a
certain number of soldiers in Algeria. They, how-
ever, can be brought over in. a few days to be of
service in Europe.. But there is another most im-
portant consideration in addition to these—viz.,
that we have for the last 15 years been subject to
so serious a drain in the. way of emigration. You
may not all be aware, but recent Parliamentary
returns prove, that during that time about
3,000,000 persons have emigrated, averaging about
2j0,000 a•yeor ; and you will be able to form some
idea of the drain that has been made on the mill-

tary service, when I say that annual drain by emi-
gration has been double the loss sustained by the

empire of France from the retreat from Moscow.
Now, I never bring forward evils unless I can point
out a remedy. I think I will be able to point out
how it is that these evils may be icinedied, and
how it is that we will be able to make our strength

of what at present is the source of our weakness.
(Hear., The first step I would take in this matter

vould. be at ore blow, and without the least

delay, to raise the pay of the soldiers and
sailors and the militia from is. ld. to is. Bd. or 2s.

a day. (Applause.) If you do this for the military,
and do the same for the royal navy, nil will find
that the ships of the line will be filled igth sailors,
and you will find the ranks of the regular army
will be filled with able and valiant men, and you
will have no difficulty whatever in raising such a

force as is requisite to defend the country. The
next measure that I would propose is this :—We
are told that it would be very expensive to do that;

,hat the country cannot afford it i that it is •abso-

lutely necessary to attend only to a volunteer force,
and not do anything with regard to the regular
army. I will say here that I am as great a friend of
the volunteer force as any man alive, but we are told
that the country cannot affird to pay their troops and
their sailors in such a way as to gain an efficient body

of men, I may state that I have gathered from a
Parliamentary return issued the other day that,
since the year 1814, we have repealed taxes to the

amount Of 131,500,000, £10,600,000 being the

double ineonie-tax. That we all knoW. There re-
mains, therefore, £21,500,000 that has been given up
since 1844. Now, one-fourth of that sum would
raise the pay of our soldiers and sailors to an ade-
quate amount, and would put us in a state of com-
parative security. What in comparison with the
restoring of those indirect taxes in a question of
pounds, shillings, and pence, is the danger of being
conquered by te French? I will just give you
one or two facts to let you know what you may ex-
pect if the French ever conquered this country—(a
laugh)—in addition to the horrors of war and the
massacre of men. In the matter of pounds, shil-
lings, and penco, it will affect the pockets of every
human being in the country. In 1808, Napoleon
went to Portugal, and he said he came as a libera-
tor, to free the Portuguese from their yoke. The
first thing he did when he got into Lisbon was to
by a contribution of £4,000,000 sterling of Poitu-
geese money, equal to at least £10,000,000 in Scot-
land. Napoleon went in 1796 to Milan as a libe-
rator, and the first thing he did was to impose
£BOO,OOO upon the liberated city. He then went
to Venice, and he imposed there £2,500,000. In 1806
he went to Prussia, and levied upon Prussia—con-
taining only about 4,000,000 or 5,000,000 of inhabi-
tants—a contribution to the amount of £24,000,000
sterling, and he actually squeezed the money out of
the country in the five years by military occupa-
tion. In 1812, he said, in a letter to Davoust, when
that General was in Hamburg, " If you4iad shot
six of the principal merchants of Hamburg, on the
day you entered, it would have been well ; but as
you have not done that, you must just make them
pay for it, and, therefore, I require you to lay hold
of 200 of the principal merchants. and keep them
as hostages for the payment of 50,000,000 fr.," and
he actually levied that sum, equal to about
£2,000,000 sterling, upon Hamburg, which at that
time only contained about 80,000 inhabitants, and
the in position would be equal to £10,000,000 in
this city. You see at what price the peace-at-any-
price gentlemen would purchase their salvation.
(A laugh.) I would say that although we may
by increasing the pay increase our regular forces,
and of course our militia, yet it is indispensable
that we should, in addition, have the support
of a great body of volunteers. I hope that the time
is coming when we shall see 30 sail of the line in
the Channel, when we shall see 15 sail of the line
in the Mediterranean, 100,000 regular troops in
Great Britain, and 80,000 militia. tam sure the
object could be gained if the Government would
adopt the plan which I propose, and I am sure no
one would feel it a burden. That done, all that we
require is the assistance of a great volunteer force.
A force that would bring 100,000 men together in-
stead of 20,000, which could be done now in front of
London, would not be sufficient, unless it were sup-
ported by a great force in the rear, for the French,
if they once got the command of the Channel, could
throw as many men over in a week as they brought
to fight at Solferino. But if there is a sufficient
and adequate volunteer force in the country, then
I say we may be altogether invincible. I do not
pretend to say that volunteers, however brave and
skilful they may be, can at once be brought to
equal efficiency with regular soldiers, but I say
that volunteers may be the greatest of supports to
a nation engaged in a struggle for independence,
when I find that in Portugal the Duke of Welling-
ton, with 30,000 regular troops and 30,000 Portu-
guese—a brave volunteer force—resisted the efforts
of 300,000 Frenchmen, whereas in Spain, with a
similar force, the attenipt ended in nothing but de-
feat. In conclusion, I would say that what I think
should be done in order to render the country com-
paratively safe is to bring all its best resources to
bear at once upon its necessities. I look around me,
and see an excellent body of 2,000 volunteers, that,
lam sure, will be second to none in the world in
bravery, skill, and military discipline. (Cheers.)
What I think should be done is that there should
be a thorough organisation. Now, where would be
the point of danger? The point of danger would
be l.ondon or. 'Woolwich. Woolwich, being our
only arsenal, would probably be one of the first
places attacked. We must not only have great re-
sources in Scotland and England, and other parts,
but we must have the means to bring these resources
at onco to bear on the point ofdanger. Now,if France
landed on the coast of Sussex, in five days they
would be in London if they were not resisted. Now,
consider this ; we have a railway system throughout
the whole country, and by its means the volunteers
might be sent up to the support of the regulars
from Plymouth and other places. They could sup-
port them as light troops in every possible way, and
in that way they could more than double the
strength of the whole army. (Cheers.) With these
volunteers in the various parts of the country Great
Britain would be altogether invincible. I will con-
clude with one observation, with a most memorable
instance, which will show you what is the wonder-

PRICE 4D. SXAM?ED, SD.

ful effect of organisation, as compared with the effect
of having isolated bodies of men not trained to act
together. It is not long since a terrific tempest
passed ever Great Britain. It was a tempest so
violent that it strewed with wrecks the shore of
the country. It tried to the utmost the beams of
the Great Eastern, the greatest vessel that ever
breasted the waves; it broke into a thousand pieces
the Royal Charter, which had sailed safely through
the Southern Ocean. But, gentlemen, in that ter-
rific storm, when the storm was scattering every
navy in Europe, the Channel Fleet nobly breasted
the gale, the Admiral hung out the signal," Put in
order of battle," they went directly in the teeth
of the wind, and, in the eloquent words of the per-
son who described it in the inws, they sped like
dolphins beside the Eddyston e Lighthouse, the most
dangeroas position of the channel, and they rode
triumphantly through the most terrible gale that
modern times has seen. You see hem the difference
between organised efforts -of brave men, and iso-
lated efforts of men equally brave, it may be equally
skilful, but not trained by organisation and
pline. When I look around me at this Ytiommt,
when I contemplate similar meetings in every part
of the country, I see the nation, which has been.
weakened for a long time, consolidating its
strength, and supporting bodies which have the
might of armed .men. And I trust that the omen
of the Channel Fleet surmounting all the dangers.
of that terrible tempest is an omen of the correspond-
ing victory that will accrue to the British empire if
the same spirit which I see around me, and which
animated those brave men on that occasion, is

shared by the people in other parts of the country,
and that, in the words of Homer, It is an omen in
the cause of Ood." (Enthusiastic applause.)
The resolution was carried amid great accla-
malion.
Sheriff BELL moved the second resolution :

"That the organisation, on a wide and extensive scale,
of volunteer corps in aid of her Majesty's regular forces,
ought to be promoted among all classes, the defence of the
country being thereby largely intrusted to the loyalty and
patriotisth of its people."
We all remember that not many months have
passed since one of our Government Ministers pub-
licly declared that the question of peace or war with
France eras only a question of a few hours. That
crisis we have most fortunately passed over; but
it will not do for this country to lie on its oars, and
pooh pooh the danger, saying we will .be ready to
meet it when the time conies. (Loud cheers.)
This is the first time in the history of the world
that our steam navy has been so low as to be on an
equality with France. Now, it is not an old

woman's tale that in this state of matters it is pos-

sible, were any question of war to spring' up—it is
not an old woman's story that it is perfectly pos-
sible that 100,000 French troops could be landed

in one day on the shores of Great Britain. Cer-
tainly no old woman, but the greatest man that
ever set foot on British soil, the late Duke of Wel7

liiigton, who, in April, 1846, in a celebrated letter,
addressed Sir John Burgoyne, in which he admitted

as an imperative necessity the existence of a force
in this country of 150,000 men. lie says :

" As we stand now, our fleet is not enough to provide for
our defence. We are not safe for a week. I am an old
soldier of 77 years of age—years which I have passed in
honour; and I pray that the Almighty will not permit me
now to see what I cannot prey 'ail upon my contemporaries
to take means to prevent."
General Shaw Kentiedy, who has consulted with
many of our best admirals, says :
" An important view has been taken by Admiral Sarto-
rius, in a letter to the Times, of the possibility of a landing
being effected in this country by a hostile force, in which-
is pointed out the means now given to France, by the power
of steam, to direct upon any named point of the coast of
Britain or of Ireland steam vessels from any number what-
ever .of the ports of France, so as tc arrive at the named
point at almost the same hour."

If we are to suppose the possibility of this invasion,
the possibility of this landing, it is impossible we
can have imaginations to conceive the result to this
country. (Loud applause.)
Principal BARCLAY, in seconding the resolution,
said—Our duty is to be prepared in the most effec-
tual and economical manner that can be conceived.

(Hear, hear.)
The Rev. Dr. NORMAN M'LEOD, of the Barony,

moved the third resolution. It was as follows :
" That Glasgow, from her population and public spirit,
and from the vast interests she has at stake in the preser-

Totion of peace, is paled upon to place herself in the very

. .
front rank of such a movement ;- and this meeting views
with the highest satisfaction the enthusiasm which has
already led to the formation of so large and efficient a body
of volUnteeri, and which iSW7-e-eldy aadifig fo their iiitilftitr."-
Mr. LAURENCE 01,1 PITAN T, who seconded the
motion, said—More than two years have elapsed
since I left England to proceed to China, and at the
time of my departure not a word was heard of this
great volunteer movement ; but when I now come
back I find the volunteer spirit animating my coun-
trymen from one end of the kingdom to the other.
And why ? When I look across the Channel and
see the great and growing navy, and the mighty
armaments in France and along the French coast,
I do not wonder any longer at the enthusiasm
which I see prevailing all around me. But having
been part of those two years on board a man-of-war,
at times in conjunction with French war-ships, and
having actually seen them going through their
naval operations, if it is any satisfaction,l may state
—and in this every British officer who was present
will bear me out—that we had ample proof of the
inferiority of the French war-ships to our own in
seamanship and skill. (Hear, and applause.) As au
illustration, I may state that going up the Peiho
little more than a year ago I was accommodated
in an English gunboat, and in going round one of
the narrow sharp corners of that river we saw a
French gunboat on a sandbank—as French gun-
boats often were—and our Lieutenant, who was
a good fellow, determined to go and help her
off. The French officer, who spoke English
pretty well, came on board to explain his difficul-
ties; and at this moment the British Admiral came
by. " What are you doing there, sir ?" he ex-
claimed. To which my friend, the lieutenant, re-
plied in his kindly, rough, bold voice—" I am-tak-
ing care of this Frenchman, sir." (Laughter and
applause.) And when I look across the Channel to
France and see the man who fills the throne of that
empire, I say, though in a very different sense,
-" Take care of the Frenchman." I say it is impos-
sible to regard the attitude which this country
holds on the continent of Europe, and without re-
flecting on the policy of our Government—and
without saying that this attitude can be avoided, I
think it must be plain to all of us that our position
in reference to the kingdoms of Europe is a dan-
gerous and an anomalous one. We are the cham-
pions of liberty—we are wedded to that sacred
principle, and yet we arc allied with ',a man who
is kept on his throne by hundreds of thousands of
bayonets. This is an inconsistency, and, like all
other inconsistencies, it will in the course of time
work out evil consequences. In the meantime we
are doing our best to keep on friendly relations with
France, and we are right in so doing; but every-
body knows that it would be better lc carry on the
war in China by ourselves. But. in order to please
our ally, we are obliged to join our forces to those
of the Emperor, or at least we are obliged to wait
for them. At the same time we may not say what
we think, or do what is right in reference to .the
Spanish affair, because the Emperor supports the
policy of Spain as regards Morocco. A Congress,
we are told, is to assemble, and we are to be invited
to join it ; but it is easy to see what will 'be the
consequences—it is easy to see that we will be in
a minority amid these despotic nations, •and
that their .counsels will be predominant. And
under these circumstances it is not difficult
to note that the position of things is preg-
nant with consequences serious to this country.
It is said that the Emperor knows what are the
feelings of this country as to an invasion; but I
will say it is impossible for any one but a freeman
to feel what the consequences of an invasion really
are. No one but a freeman can experience that
feeling which thrills the heart and tingles to
the finger ends at the prospect of the invasion of
his country. I thank God it is so. It is that feel-
ing which makes us well know that it is not until
the head is in the lion's mouth that one feels the
strength of his jaws. (Hear, hear.) Let us all be
impressed with the truth of the fact that if is ne-
cessary to have a regular army to meet a regular

army.
Sir JAMES CAMPBELL moved the fourth resolu-
tion to the following effect :
" That a subscription-list he immediately opened to pro-
vide funds in furtherance of this movement, and in supple-
ment of the Government supply ; that a general appeal be
made to the citizens to aid it to the utmost by contributions
or personal service; and 'that a committee be appointed to
superintend the management and distribution of the fund."
Captain W. S. DIXON seconded the resolution,
which was carried.
Captain W. J. MACQUOIIN lIANuiNE proposed
the fifth and last resolution as follows :
" That as a volunteer organisation, to be thoroughly
effective, must be general over the country, the resolutions
of this meeting be published, in order to incite other locali-
ties to a similar course of action."
The resolution was agreed to amid cheering.
On the motion of Bailie CO'urEß, the thanks of
the meeting were voted by acclamation to Bailie
Clouston for presiding. The immense assemblage
then dispersed.