The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-12 00:00:00

increase extraordinary. So that the exact amount
of the actual decrease upon the current year in our
maritime expenditure will be as nearly as pcssible
£600,000 in all—to put it very accurately, it will
be precisely £598,625. At any rate, more than half
a million sterling !—this decrease in the year's
expenditure being accomplished, moreover, with-
out any perceptible detriment to the efficiency of
the public service ; although, as Lord CLARENCE
acknowledges, it is brought about by means of a
diminution in the expense of the number of men
and their victualling, as well as in the vote for
wages to artificers, simultaneously with a positive
and appreciable increase in the vote to be
asked for in the way of stores for the marine
department. At the same time, however,
that there will be a decrease, upon close in-
vestigation, in the aggregate number of men, the
number proposed by the new estimates will fall
but very little short of a total of 80,000.
Last year certainly the total asked for
and granted in Committee of Supply was—
in anticipation of the Chinese war—as many as
85,000. Whereas this year—including boys, coast-
guard, and marines—there are no more than 78,200
demanded under these new and revised estimates.
Showing a seeming reduction absolutely of 7,300,
when compared with the total required (and
allowed!!) a twelvemonth since. It has to be borne
in mind, however; that 3,900 less than the stipulated
aggregate of 85,000 men were found to be necessary
after last year's estimates had passed through Com-
mittee of Supply—the service of 81,100, out of
the 85,000 originally decided upon as requisite,
having fallen within the scope of our naval re-
quirements. So that here again the actual decrease
is considerably less than the apparent-2,900
instead of 7,300 being the exact amount of the
diminution upon the present year as compared
with the last twelvemonth. A diminution not so
very surprising under the circumstances either,
seeing that the Chinese war, then a thing of the
future, is now a thing of the past—was then to be
looked forward to in a purely monetary point of
view with considc rable anxiety, is now to be looked
back at only with a sense of satisfaction.
Restricting our remarks to• day upon these newly
arranged and carefully revised naval estimates to
their analysis, we may here yet further observe
that while due regard is paid to the national solici-
tude for all reasonable thrift and economy the
interests of the service are not in any way appre-
ciably militated against by any overweening
and irrational eagerness for a diminished expendi-
ture. The Naval Reserve so often talked of
as mustering, so very frequently and so very
reasonably insisted upon as requisite, appears
to be at length so far progressing satis-
factorily that it will be speedily, it is
expected, have numbered up seven thousand
men in all, a reserve for which there will be asked
a vote, which we may rest assured will be grudged
by no rational member present in committee of
supply. Including the Marines and the Naval
Coast Guard Volunteers, who are also increasing,
the total number of the reserve, will be
found to have expanded from the nucleus of
7,000 already particularised as the aggregate of the
Reserve Proper, to a goodly body of 25,000 men
skilled, drilled, and temper paratus. The new
system now enforced in the way of training
boys for the naval service—renders accessible in
this manner germs of good seamen ready
for the grafting to the number of nearly
10,000. There are now in this way in training,
9,639—an aggregate which, it is estimated, will
supply nearly 3,000 (exactly 2,900) to the Royal
Navy annually. In stating that all the nations of
Europe are increasing their navies, Lord
CLARENCE called the especial attention of
the committee to the fact that France has
37 line- of-battle ships, 39 frigates, and, with others
267 vessels afloat and 61 building ; Russia, 9 line-'
of-battle and 17 frigates afloat ; Spain, 2 line-of-
battle and 12 frigates ; Italy, 1 line-of-battle and
18 frigates—all steamers. France having,
besides 2 iron-cased ships, 4 iron-cased fri-
gates, 4 floating batteries, and 5 iron cased
gunboats afloat or building. True it might be
true it is, thank Heaven, as it ought to be, that
according to Mr. LINDSAY'S exultant declaration
last evening, all the navies in the world combined
could not compete with the one isolated navy of old
England in her superiority as the recognisably
and avowedly supreme maritime Power upon
the surface of the globe. But the hon. gentle-
man should have recollected while speaking thus,
that this is our naval superiority simply as things
are—not as they may be—not as they inevitably
will be if we neglect to keep pace with the require-
ments of the age—now that the navies of all
Europe are being so very rapidly and visibly aug-
mented. Not alone, as above intimated,
is France, for example, constructing iron steam
vessels of war, but Spain and Russia and Italy are
acting vigorously in like manner. Happily we
have already afloat, as the nation knows with pro
found satisfaction, the Warrior and the Black
Prince, while another huge iron cased man-of-war
is rapidly advancing towards completion, two
other war vessels of second class being meanwhile
in actual course of construction. Conscious of
which, we are aware, of course, that so far things
are as they should be. We are so vividly impressed,
indeed, with the force of the truth of this great fact,
that we are, above all things, solicitous now in re-
gard to our Navy, that there should be no
pause or hindrance in our advance along
the course upon which we have thus
resolutely adventured. Hence, our instinctive
disinclination to listen to the over anxious cries of
Beware! Pause ! Reflect ! Do nothing more until
you have gained further experience in the relative
advantages of wooden and iron shipbuilding !
addressed to the Committee and through the Com-
mittee to the Country at large by the hon. gentle-
man, the member for the Borough of Sunderland.

The Northern States have been guilty of a
secession quite as foolish as that of the South
indeed so far as it goes justifying the Southerners
in theirs. By the last advices it appears that
the Two Houses had actually passed the MORRILL
Tariff Bill, and that it only awaited the signature
of the President. If Mr. BUCHANAN wishes, with
the least possible amount of blame to punish the
North for thwarting him in so many ways, he has
but to sign this bill. We fear there can be little
doubt he will do so. It must require far more
genuine patriotism than he has ever shown to stop
the North in its foolish secession from commerce
with England—a secession which will hand ever
ultimately all our trade to the New Confederation,
which will assuredly know how to improve the
opportunity. As we have before seen, the
Southern President has already learned from his
position the necessity of Free-trade to the South,
and the mad Tariff of Mr. MORRILL is therefore a
declaration at the same time of commercial war
with the South and with England.
The system of high protective duties, or rather
of prohibitory duties, in America is in other respects
the most foolish conceivable. Compared with the
rest of the population, those engaged in the cotton
manufacture in the new England States, and in the
iron and hardware manufactures in Pennsylvania ,