The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-27 00:00:00

at any time, might have been applied to the esti-
mates for the navy, if only to the extent of a few
thousands of pounds by way of a beginning and an
example of a peace establishment to the rest of the
world. The British navy is, however, still kept up
to the war footing. We are quite willing, for our
own part, to admit the principle that even in time
of peace it is desirable, as a measure of security, to
maintain the supremacy of this country at sea by
keeping up a larger naval force than that of anY,
other naval power, or even any two other naval
powers combined. In these days of armour ships a
Minister who should willingly lag behind any other
country in promoting the construction of the only
effective engines of maritime warfare would be guilty
of a serious dereliction of duty. But why talk to
us of economy, when the necessity for such an arma-
ment is not only admitted, but acted upon ? Why
promise us a reduction of the public burdens, when
schemes for the enlargement of our dockyards and
the fortification of our arsenals are presented to us
side by side with a proposal for a paltry reduction
of some 500 men in the personnel of the navy ? The
friends of the Government have promised for them
what they are unable to perform, and preferred a
claim to applause on false and dishonest pretences.
The naval estimates for the year amount to a
sum of £10,388,153. Those for 1865-66 were,
£10,392,224, showing a petty saving e".
about £4,000. The real saving last year,
as compared with the year before, was £35,00''
but the estimates for 1864-65 were increased by &
supplementary vote of £61,000 for increased retir-
ing allowances and £220,000 for the purchase of
Mr. Laird's rams. In the year to come it is esti-
mated that there will be a saving in the ordinary
expenditure of some £360,000, owing to the ,
dimi-
nished number of ships building, or to be built, and
to the reduction of the force of seamen by 550)
marines by 400 men. This reduction, however, is
counterbalanced by an excess of £356,000 in tale
vote for dockyards, basinS, and works. In the
course of three years these will involve a further
outlay of more than one million sterling. Such
rigid economists as Mr. White might think the
apology offered by Lord C. Paget for the mainte-
nance of this enormous naval force very lame and
unsatisfactory. It does certainly seem rather lib'
surd that the chief arguments brought forward for
an annual expenditure of ten or eleven millions 01
money should be the fact that British merchants in
China complain of being harassed by pirates, and it
is considered advisable to proceed with the
open-
ing up" of Japan by mhintaining- a large naval
force in the Inland Sea. If Chinese pirates and
Japabese Daimios are the only enemies that the,
British Government has to contend with, it might
be imagined that a small fleet of gunboats would b 3
sufficient for both, and might be commissioned at a
cost of a million a year or thereabouts. On sueh
low grounds as this the maintenance of an immense
force cannot be defended for a moment. It is be-
cause we wish to keep up our moral position by our
positive strength, to show to all comers that we ar°
ready for them, and more than a match for them,
at any time, that we keep afloat the largest navy ill,
the world. The activity displayed during the lai:u
few years in the construction of ironclad ships 18
made to excuse a diminution in the estimates for
that branch of shipbuilding during the coming year.
In this department, however, it is very
be regretted that so small an advance hasch beet
made since last year. Our 55 wooden ships '9,1
the line, our 37 frigates, our 26 corvettes, and
sloops, which figured so bravely on old naval re-
turns, are now unhappily regarded as so many tar"
gets to be demolished in time of war by ironclads,
which would riddle them through and throuh cable
themselves invulnerable. The ironclads area he fleet
of the future. What progress has our Admiralty.
made in the construction of the only vessels on wbieL:
we are now able to rely in time of war? At the end
mu to
of 1865 there was a fleet of 29 armour clad ships
completed. We shall have now 30 of that Cl
afloat, an increase of one, and that only promisol
us by the Ist of April. One more is to be expecte
soon after that time. Then what have the Admi-
ralty been doing in turret ships? To what purpose
have they turned that invention of Captain Cowper
Coles, which is acknowledged on all hands to be the
most perfect adaptation of the principle of armour,
clad shipbuilding, the most formidable method 01
warfare ever proposed ? We have three turret shil3B,l,
-the Royal Sovereign, and Mr. Laird's two rams, all
three pronounced to be only fit for coasting serlielet;
While the Americans have been building a whop
fleet of seagoing turret ships, affirmed by Mr. Donald
Mackay to be more than a match for all the navies
of the world, we have positively not one. The Ad.
~
miralty, we are informed for our comfort, are about
to commence the construction of a seagoing turret
vessel, to be called the Monarch. Lord C. Paget
gives us a description of this vessel, which is still is
nubibus, or hidden somewhere in the brain of the
Chief Constructor of the Navy. She is to be of a
burden of 5,099 tons, to carry two turrets, in each
two guns of 22 tons weight each, and also two 100:
pounders, one fore and one aft. She is to be plated
with 81in. of iron, and to be worked by engines of
1,400-horse power, at the speed of 14 knots as
hour. No man can say how this ship will turn
out when completed. Perhaps, like the royal
i
Sovereign, she will be ignominiously condemne,u.
to " coast service." We can have no corm,
dente whatever in the construction of a turret
ship under the auspices of a board which has un-
gratefully dismissed from its service the only lu,ar,
who thoroughly understands the matter, for the
offence of having criticised its proceedings in tus
columns of this newspaper. Capt. Cowper Coles
.1
assisting in the construction of turret ships
for al-
most every countryin the civilised world but his 0;111;
The British Government has determined to use t
invention, and cast adrift the inventor. We truss
that it may not fare so badly as the son of Dxcit
who was shipwrecked in making trial of a mach'"
nery which he had not learned to use rightly. ' t
do not wonder that the statement of Lord C. rage
and his admission that we have not yet one sea-
going turret ship, was commented upon severely by
j
Sir John Pakington and the speakers who followed
him in last night's debate. One and all condeon't.
the treatment of Capt. Coles by the Government.
Mr. Samuda tells us, for our consolation, that ,0
have only ten ships fit for the first line of battle la
among all our armour-clads. If any war should
come upon us inopportunely, and our fleet be over
powered
wept
powered or sent to the bottom by an enemy w
t,s
,a
prepared with turret ships, the Government that 'le
taken ten millions a year out of our pockets for
maintenance of the navy, and expended it s° n
wisely as to leave us practically defenceless,
seem deserving of something worse than mere ve'
reproof.