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

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY '24, 1859.

at the age of 50, of £l5 at from 52 to 53, and of
£lB at 55. We therefore propose that £5 be paid,
either quarterly or at other short periods, to the
seamen in person, so as to secure their appearance
at short intervals. We propose also that the State
shall contribute to the pension fund £1 per annum
for every man in the force. But during the time
any one of the boys shall be under articles in the
merchant service the shipowner shall contribute
the £1 annually to the pension fund for him, in
consideration of the education which the boy has
received on board the school ship.
70. Assuming that these inducements are suffi-
cient to obtain recruits in time of peace, the vital
question still remains, whether the men will come
forward to discharge their obligations with fidelity
on the outbreak of war ? We have examined this
question with the anxious care which it demands. In
the material inducements, especially in those which,
like the pension, are prospective, in the penalties
against desertion to which those who did not come
forward would be liable, and in the moral influence
which due selection and regular training will sup-
ply, we believe that sufficient security will have
been taken. That security must mainly depend on
the personal knowledge of the men on the part of
officers of the coastguard, by whom they are to be
brought forward whenever the emergency arrives.
We believe that by local information in respect to
the men employed in the coasting trade, and
through the shipping masters in respect to those
employed in foreign voyages, those officers can
obtain such a knowledge as will enable them to
select the right men ; and by their communications
with them, whilst under training, or when coming
forward to receive their periodical certificates, will
be able to maintain that knowledge. The experi-
ence of the late war showed that in almost every
instance the pensioners readily came forward to dis-
charge their duty, and that the militia volunteered
for service abroad, incurring thereby a greater sac-
rifice than any seaman would make by serving in
your Majesty's fleet. We have examined on this
most important point the witnesses best qualified
to give us their opinion. Their evidence is strongly
confirmatory of the view which we have expressed.

the additions which we have recommends d are also
carried into effect.

Men.
Reliefs in the home ports .. 4,0 00
Coastguard .. • . 12,000
Marines, embodied .. . .. 6,0 90
Ditto, short-service pensioners .. 5,0 30
Seamen, short-service pensioners, say .. 3,01)0
30,000
Royal Naval Volunteers .. .. 20,000
Naval Coast Volunteers .. .. 10,000

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 ESTABLISHME*T.
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 1.5,918
5. Petty officers' badges 6,833
6. Pay and pensions for gunnery 6,239
TT 104,671

71. Much also will depend on cordial co-opera-
tion between the Admiralty and the Marine De-
partment of the Board of Trade. As we have
already observed, that Board is now in the posses-
sion of powers which did not exist in former wars
—powers conferred for the benefit of the merchant
service, which could never be more justly exerted
than when employed in conjunction with your
Majesty's naval officers to insure the safety of the
commercial flag.

COST OF THE PROPOSED PLAN.

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

72. It only remains to estimate the cost of this
scheme. It appears from the evidence of the
Registrar-General of Seamen, and of the Account.
ant of the Board of Trade, after an examination of
the cost of the Marine Society's ship in the Thames,
and of the Ackbar at Liverpool, that the expenses
of the schoolships, including the establishment of
masters and officers, will average from £24 to £25
for each boy, or for the whole 1,200 boys £30,000
per annum, say, however, that the charge will be
£40,000.

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 for a further period of six
months, or until such emergency 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 a
period as one commission, or three years ; and, if
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 for
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 efficaoy of impress-
ment to furnish the means by which danger could
be confronted and overcome. Changes in public
sentiment and in the circumstances of the case 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 whom
your Majesty will rely. We therefore humbly and
confidently submit to your Majesty the adoption of
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 firm
bonds of reciprocal good feeling and of common
interest,

73. Assuming then that the number of school-
ships would be 12 ; the number of boarders main-
tained and educated at the expense of the State
1,200 ; the number of volunteers in the short voyages
20,000, and on the long voyages with leave 5,000 ;
assuming, moreover, that about one-third of the
whole force would on an average be trained for one
month in each year at a cost of £5 per man ; the
annual cost of the scheme will be as follows, viz. :

1. School ships
2. Annual'payment, £5 to 20,000 men lOO,OOO
3. Contributions to the pension fund for
25,000 men
4. Training in gunnery about

Total .. £200,000
74. This is the computed annual charge when the
system has been fully established, but in the first
one or two years the expense for training the men
will probably be greater than that at which we have
placed it, from the necessity of rendering the force
as soon as possible efficient. While the force is
recruited from adults instead of from boys, the
same annual contribution will not secure the same
amount of pension. What the difference will be
must depend on the ages of the recruits. It will be
necessary, therefore, either to diminish the pension
in the case of the adult, or to contribute a larger
amount than £1 annually for him to the pension
fund. The Accountant of the Board_ of Trade has
shown us that, in regard to the question of enter-
ing boys at 14, or taking adults at 30, the addi-
' tional contribution to the pension fund in the latter
case would equal the whole cost of the schoolships
in the former case.
75. The foregoing estimates are founded on the
assumption that the volunteer force is to be limited
to 25,000 men, of whom 5,000 are to be absent with
leave on the long voyages. The plan, however, is
not limited to these numbers, but can be extended
as occasion requires; and in this case there will be
an additional expenditure per annum for every ad-
ditional 10,000 men on the home station of from
X 75,000 to £BO,OOO ; and for every additional
10.000 men on the distant voyages of £lO,OOO only.
76. It is most important that those upon we are
to rely should be thorough seamen, trained in gun-
nery, and qualified for immediate service on board
a ship of war. At the same time it is desirable
that all classes of the maritime population should,
as far as possible, be made available for the defence
of the country. It will, therefore, be worthy of
consideration, whether the force might not be
formed in two divisions, with open promotion from
the one to the other. The first division would be
recruited from seafaring men in the merchant ser-
vice already trained, or prepared at once to undergo
training in gunnery, and ultimately from boys
trained in the schoolships, and men trained in the
second division. The second division would be
recruited from the resident seafaring population,
and would receive a smaller rate of pay. This
would supply to us a large additional force at a
comparatively small expense. We contemplate
that the second division would rapidly absorb and
extinguish the present force of naval coast volun-
teers, by giving to the regular reserve the same
men on terms more acceptable to themselves, and
rendering them much more available for the Crown
in case of an emergency.
ADMISSION TO GREENWICH HOSPITAL.

77. Two questions still remain to be considered
with reference to • the volunteer force—viz., the
admission of its members to Greenwich Hospital
and their promotion to the coastguard. We think
that the privilege of admission to Greenwich Hos-
pital would be a strong inducement to the merchant
seamen:to join the volunteer force, and that such
an application of the funds of that institution
would be strictly in accordance with the intentions
of its royal founders. We have examined into the
working of the hospital
.only so far as was neces-
sary for the objects comprised within the terms of
-our commission ; but we have satisfied ourselves
that the advantages of the hospital may be far
more generally distributed. The funds amount
to about £140,000 per annum; to this we propose
to add the• freight-money received by officers in
your Majesty's service, the present application
of which is open to objection ; so that there
would be an income of about £150,000 available for
the purposes required. We are of opinion that with
this addition and under judicious arrangement the
hospital would be found capable of receiving all such
worn-out and disabled seamen as would be fit
inmates of an hospital, whether they belonged to
the Royal Nayy or to the volunteer force. Men
who have adequate pensions for their support, and
who have families or friends to take care of them,
are better in their own homes than in any esta-
blishment of this description.

PROMOTION TO THE COASTGUARD,

78.- It is through the coastguard that we propose
to connect the volunteers with your Majesty's naval
forces. From the coastguard the petty officers of
the volunteer force will be principally selected
when the two bodies are called out for active ser-
vice. We,-therefore, recommend that during peace
intimate relations should be cultivated between the
two forces. With this view we think that men
who have served for a certain period in the volun-
teer force should be eligible for promotion to the
coastguard. Any objection which might be enter-
tained in respect to the safety of the revenue would
be sufficiently guarded against by the selection of
the best men, and their employment as coastguards
men in a different part of the coast from that in
Which they had previously lived. It would be an
inducement of the strongest character to the mer•
chant seamen to join the volunteer force.
79. We do not intend that volunteers should be
promoted to the coastguard in preference to seamen
in the Royal Navy, but we think that the casualties
in and the retirements from so large a body as
12,000 men, if they are to be kept always in a full
state of efficiency, would be generally greater than
could be conveniently supplied from the navy. We
think that arrangements of this kind, judiciously
carried into effect by the naval officers in command,
will 'tend to create a unity of action in the two
forces, and to establish a good understanding be.
tween the Queen's and the merchant services, and
thus to rivet together the joints of a system, on
whose good practical working in the time of need
the safety of the country will so materially depend.

• RECAPITULATION.
80. The following statement will exhibit to your
Majesty the whole amount of reserve which will be
at your Majesty's disposal, assuming that the coast-
guard and naval coast volunteers are raised to the
full amount contemplated for those forces respec-
t:l/rely before 911 r ConingWWl Witf4issued, and thfit

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

HARDWICKE.
,S.)
L.S.
)
CHANDOS.
. EDWARD CARD WELL. L.S.
W. FANSHAWE MARTIN. L.S.
J. D. H. ELPHINSTONE. L.S.
JOHN SHEPHERD. (L. S.
RICHARD GREEN. (L.S.
1. C. Rothery, Secretary.

BIRTHS.

DALRYMPLE.—On the 22d inst., at Piercy's Hotel, 31,
Dover-street, the Viscountess Dalrymple, of a daughter.
FRANCIS.—On the 22d inst., at 38, Upper Bedford-place,
the wife of Horace Francis, Esq., of a son.
HADDEY.—On the 22d inst., at 24, Blandford• square, the
wife of H. G. Hadley, Esq., of a daughter.
HARDING.—On the 22d inst., at Sandford House, High-
bury, New-park, the wife of John Fosse Hardingf Esq.,
of a son.