The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-30 00:00:00

ing our defences and of instituting a thorough investigation
by competent persons into the nature of those defences, be-
fore we embark in a great expenditure upon them, we have
the testimony, concurrent with my own, of the gallant offi-
cer the member for Westminster, and of my right hon.
friend the member for Stroud. I did not, coming in with the
new Government to an office of immense detail, attempt at
once to pass :an opinion upon questions of this description ;
but as soon as my own mind was made up as to the neces-
sity of some immediate action in this respect, I made to
the Government the identical proposal which the hon.
and gallant member for Westminster has made, and in
spirit, though not as to the means of accomplishing
it, the same proposal as my right hon. friend has just
laid before us. (Hear, hear.) lam satisfied of this,
though many persons doubt it, that in a country which
like England never, except after long effort and great
excitement, has had a large army, and which never will

have such an army except after long effort and great ex•
citement, you are bound to take care that every means by
which the services of your force, small as it is, can be made
more efficacious, shall be immediately adopted. (Cheers.)
Your army, if small, ought to be the best equipped, best
armed, and best trained in the world—(renewed cheers)—
and no effort on the part of the authorities ought to be
omitted in order to produce that result. But among those
efforts it appears to me that, having great dockyards and
arsenals in which are concentrated property of immense
value, and, what is far more important, the means of sus-
taining and increasing your maritime strength, there ought
to be provided that apparatus for defence which mere flesh
and blood can not alone supply. It is cheaper to build for-
tifications than to depend on the manceuvering of an army
in the field. Any military officer will at once admit the
truth of this, costly as these works may appear to be; and
certainly my hon. friend has not exaggerated a bit in the
remarks he has made uponthe estimates. Hehas said, indeed,
that we are now proceeding by voting mere ",driblets." But
that is a comparative term. The " driblet," as he calls
it for the present year exceeds the sum of £400,000. But
what is the comparative cost of fortifications against that of
an army ? The mere pay of an army would amount to
£757,000, or from that to £900,000 a-year. But £5,000,000
spent in fortifying our arsenals would, at 6 per cent., be only
a yearly cost of £300,000 ; and there is this also to be said of
an army, the men die, the powder and shells are blown
away, the rifles wear out ; everything has in it the element
of decay ; but if you have secured a well considered system
of defence by fortifications, that remains not only for you,
but for posterity. (Hear.) It must be remembered how
essential is the complete defence of our arsenals to the
existence of our navy ; in war, even a victorious fleet sus-
tains great damage, and requires costly repairs to put it in
an efficient state again ; the arsenals are the reproducing
establishments of our maritime power. Without going into
minute detail, I should like to tell the house what are the
amounts it has voted this year for fortifications. For Ports-
mouth, irrespective of the sums already voted, it is £405,000 ;
but that does not complete the defence of Portsmouth ;
nothing is proposed for fortifying Spithead. Again, for
Plymouth £335,000 have been voted, but that sum will
not put Plymouth into a complete state of defence.
I could go through the whole list of arsenals, Pembroke,
Sheerness, Chatham, Woolwich, they are all in the same
state. I have always endeavoured to speak frankly to the
house on this subject ; and in this spirit I must state that
Woolwich is totally undefended. (Hear, hear.) It is pro-
tected by the long reaches of the Thames; still, it is a great
arsenal, and at present defenceless against attack. It has
been said that Woolwich is incapable of defence, and that
the true policy of England would be to break up the estab-
lishment, create others elsewhere, and not risk so much ma-
terial in one arsenal. That is a'question into which I cannot
enter to-night; it ought to be thoroughly considered. I
have been asked whether the sums voted will be applied,
An hon. gentleman has remarked that we take the votes,
and sometimes do not spend the money. It is true that at
the end of the year, it appears by the accounts we have not
spent the money, and the sums have to be voted over again.
lam asked how this can happen ? There is a difficulty in
public works that does not exist in private undertakings,
such as railways. Their projectors work on, and if they are
delayed by any accident they make up the lost time after-
wards. To show what delays public works are liable to, I
may state I have recently heard that a strike is impending
among the men employed that may impede certain works in
the London district for some time. It is in consequence of
such unforeseen delays that it happens the money for public
works
has to be voted again. It was remarked the other
night that the commission to be appointed to inquire into the
state of the notional defences ought to have a wider field of
investigation. But I want an inquiry into specific objects,
I want advice on those specific objects; if you widen the
field of inquiry, and direct the commisoion to report on
military questions, as to where armies should be posted in
case of invasion, then you will want another class of men
t 9 make the inquiry; you will increase the number of the
commission and delay the report. If I wanted to shelve a
question, a large commission of inquiry would be the best
instrument for the purpose. But I want to act imme-
diatelts, and therefore wish to get the men the best fitted
for the task, and confine them to one particular subject.
(Hear.) It is not that I have neglected the subject. My
predecessor appointed several officers of great eminence to
draw up a detailed report as to the steps necessary to make
available an our disposable force, and the best means of
rapidly increasing- it, in case of a sudden outbreak of war.
(Hear, hear.) We have got that report, and we are at this
moment acting on it as rapidly as it is possible to do.
(Hear, hear.) We will go further than that. We wish to
see young 'officers obtaining a knowledge of the military
features of the country, and surveys are being made with
the view to military purposes; it is not that we expect an
enemy actually to laud, but we ought to take every precau-
tion in our power,. and every Government must wish to see
the army we do raise made effective by practical study of the
profession. It is the basis of a sound peaeo establishment
you want. Looking at the Army Estimates, at the enor-
mous sums voted, and at !the small force maintained in
England, I think nothing car( be more unsatisfactory than
that we should spend so much inoney and have so small an
army. (Hear, hear.) But what is our peculiar case ? We
have had to re-arm the whole force
©;
and we are
doing so at this moment at a great expense. I may allude
in passing to a rumour which has bean mentioned, that in
consequence of a rise of sixpence in the cost of each musket,
asked by a foreign contractor, I have suspended the contract
for a supply. Ido not know in what the report could have
originated ; the only thing on which it can be founded hap-
pens to be a transaction of the exactly opposite kind. The
only case in which:l have meddled with a foreign contract is
by making an arrangement to obtain a superior kind of runs•
ket at a small additional expense—(hear)—and we shall ob-
tain a large supply of a better description. But to revert to
the subject of which I was speaking—the late Government
sent some very distinguished naval oficers to inspect our for-
tresses in the Mediterranean. I think nothing can be worse
than to submit a subject to a commission and then shelve
the report. We are, therefore, acting on that report. It
states that though some of the works in the Mediterranean
have fallen into disrepair, yet no additional force is required
for them, nor any change in their armament; and I believe
that the notion of any tack on Malta or Gibraltar is quite
absurd. It would have been an easy thing, in the opinion of
many, to propose to increase the force of the army, by taking
a vote for, say 10,000 men; but that would have been an army
on paper. Ido not wish to deceive the country, First actu-
ally raise the 10,000 men, and then it will be time enough to
talk of increasing your regiments. I believe this country will
never have a large army; but the army we have got we must
make as perfect as we can. Without a conscription, having
to trust wholly to voluntary enlistment, and obliged to com-
pete with the wages of labour, this country can never have
a large military force. We have now some battalions coming
home from India ; if you create a force in the meantime,
when these Indian troops arrive you will have a larger army
than the country will like to pay for ; there will be an out-
cry for disbanding the additional battalions, and many
discontented and idle men will be thrown on the half-pay
list. I wish the Mouse of Commons would come to some
conclusion on these points, and not be so wild for an increase
of the army at one time and for its reduction at another.
We have got the whole of the ordnance to replace, and very
soon all our ships will be armed with a large proportion of
rifled cannon. This cannot be done without supplying a
new sort of ammunition. These are the things that make
our estimates so large while our army is so small. Improve-
ment and change are constantly at work, and I frankly say
that I do not see the slightest prospect of any very material
reduction in those portionsof the army estimates which are
applied to the production and reproduction of warlike stores.
(Hear.) The right hon. gentleman has truly said, that
without the report of a commission we cannot proceed upon
any plan which may be proposed for our adoption. Unless
you can satisfy the public that you are working upon the
best plans, and that every care is taken to insure efficiency,
you will never get them to go willingly along with you.
Whether the work will be done by large votes, or by other
means, we must first of all know from a commission what
we ought to do, and then we must do it. (Hear.) Recol-
lect, however, that meanwhile we are not losing time. Not
one work is stopped, and every sixpence that has been voted
will be spent. I recently asked a very distinguished Engi-
neer officer if I gave him a Ca) to blanche what could he do
more than he is doing. His reply was that the arrange-
ments necessary for getting large bodies of men together
would take time ; that the building season was nearly gone
by; and that, upon the whole, he did not think he could
proceed much faster in the present year. We shall take
the opinion of the contemplated commission as soon as pos-
sible, and I believe we shall gain time if the country is
satisfied, first, that the works are necessary ; secondly, that
our plans are approved by competent authorities; thirdly,
that is absolutely indispensable to vote money for their exe-
cution. (Hear, hear.) Here I must take exception to
some of the words which I find in the motion of my
right hon. friend. He says that " the expenses of com-
pleting the necessary works of national defence should
be met by a fund specially provided for that pur-
pose, and independent of the annual votes of Par-
liament." lam not sure that the course here recommended
is necessary to any well-considered plan for hastening our
works of national defence. Certain I am, at all events, that
if you expect Parliament to go warmly along with you in
your plans, you must net attempt to cheat it out of the
money requisite for the execution of your works. (Hear,
hear.) You must allow Parliament to exercise its judg-
ment upon each step as it is taken if you wish to obtain its
confidence and co-operation. (Hear.) One or two words
upon another point and I have done. The right hon. gen-
tleman has accused us of not giving duo encouragement to
the volunteer movement because it is plebeian in aracter.
Now, I do not wish to cast any blame upon the late Go-
vernment, with whom the volunteer corps originated, but
I must say that as far as rifles are concerned we have given
much more encouragement to volunteers than our prede-
cessors. (Hear, hear.) I believe that at the present moment
there are forming several very efficient battalions of volun-
teers, and certainly, at all events, it never occurred to me
to look upon the movement as plebeian and to discourage it
upon that ground. On the contrary, as I stated upon a
former occasion, what I want to see is a military spirit per-
vading all classes of the community, but especially the in-
fluential and intelligent middle-class. I believe the volun-
teer corps will effect that object to a large extent, and
therefore I think they ought to be encouraged. (Hear,
hear.) Having thus stated unreservedly the opinion I
hold upon all the various points mentioned by my right
loen. friend, and endeavoured to satisfy the house that we
air
cameho sn !rwi ai
will ;19:r
eotbhaebai only add that the moment I
to office I turned my attention to this very serious
subject. I have been engaged upon it ever since, and the
lad
men nominated on it eiNq'
neYve to boar that the proposed com-
mission issued in a day or two, and that the gentle-
men nominated
of their report they 11 be set to work as soon as possible
will give
Government are put in possession
give their most anxious attention to
its subject-matter, of shelving it, as is too
frequently done, theyand
will
nlala!t the foundation of imme-
diate and energetic action. (Cheers)
Sir F. SMITH said that in reference.
)ce to the question of
fortifications it must be remembered t there were several
different descriptions of fortifications. The first was coast
fortifications, and these, as applicable to
required, and to create them would be money thrown werea not
w na
y.