The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-02 00:00:00

THE SUN.

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 1881.

Immediately before the close of the session the
Officers of Reserve (Royal Navy) Bill has been
read a third time and passed through the House
of Commons. To ourselves this is certainly a
subject for profound satisfaction. If productive of
good in nothing else, the session of 1861 has cer-
tainly been productive of great and lasting good to
the country at large, for inasmuch as it has wit-
nessed the passage of a bill of this kind trium-
phantly, and—unlike some other Government
measures that we all wot of (say, for example, the
Bankruptcy Bill)—unmutilated and unmarred
through both houses of the Imperial Legislature.
Through the medium of this bold' and compre-
hensive arrangement, our maritime defences
have been enhanced, as directly as our land de-
fences have been enhanced, simultaneously, by
the permanent organisation of our self-supporting
National Guard, now from 100,000 to 200,000
strong, yclept the Rifle Volunteers. The en-
hancement of the maritime defences of the nation,
in truth, by means of the establishmeint of the
Naval Reserve at length secured to us, through
the medium of this sagacious enactment, is
in one sense more conspicuous and remarkable
than the enhancement of our military defences
through the enrolment of our already well-
disciplined Rifle Volunteers. For who, in
point of fact, are the men secured as a Re-
serve to the Royal Navy of England? Who
are they but the very pick of the finest body of
seamen in the whole world ? The flower and
glory and pride of the British merchant service—
that, and nothing less than that, may be said to
constitute the Naval Reserve secured to the country
henceforth through the admirable arrangement
recently adventured upon by the Legislature at the
snegestion of her Majesty's Government.
Apropos to the final passing of this measure, in
the House of Commons yesterday Lord PALMER-
STON expressed his opinion very sententiously,
and as we cannot but think also very conclu-
sively, upon a certain specious proposition recently
put forward by one or two persons of the most
opposite character well imaginable among the
ranks of our national representatives. The propo-
sition referred to being no other, in fact, than that,
in -the first instance, extremely alluring one, sug-
gested only a night or two since, by the Right
H on. Gentleman the Leader of the Opposition—a
proposition, in point of fact, that some negotiation
should be set on foot between the Governments of
France and England, with a view to the amicable
termination, as speedily as possible, of the present
gigantic rivalry between the two countries in
th e augmentation of their maritime arma-
me uts. Yesterday the hint which had been
incidentally thrown out a few sittings previously
in a brief and impressive and (in the tone of it)
eminently conciliatory and statesman-like speech
by the right hon. Member for Bucks, had the rather
dubious advantage accorded to it of being reduced
to a definite and explicit query addressed to the
First Minister of the Crown by the Radical Mem-
ber for Brighton. Mr. WHITE observing at the
close of his remarks last evening, that " he would
ask when was the rivalry to cease, and could not
some understanding be come to between the two
countries to put an end to a state of things which
sooner or later must lead to a collision ?" In re•
sponding, upon the moment, to this direct inquiry,
Lord PALMERSTON admitted at once that the ques-
tion put to him by the hon. gentleman was "one
of great importance—namely, whether the British
Cl overunaent could not enter into communication
with any foreign Government—for," said the noble
Viae'nnt, " it must not be confined to France—but
with any
foreign Government, with a view to impose
a limit upon the respective forces of the two coun-
tries." While, however, thus admitting it to be an
important question --a. question, indeed, of the very
first importance—_the ePREMIER added that it was
also one of great difficulty and open to much criti-
Courtesy, we may presume, alone pre-
venting the noble lord from
designating it at the
same time utterly Quixotic, and at any rate at the
present juncture, entirely impracticable. " I think,"
the noble lord certainly did acknowledge, " that
although at the ears to be a I
first blush it app
• think that any British
practicable' tlan.y-1

cism,