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

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 12, 1861.

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-menCOf the French themselves, were intended for the de-
fence of their coasts, and he could only hope that such was
indeed the purpose to which they were to bo put. Ho had
reason to believe that the French had, in addition, five
iron -cased gunboats, which, although mounted with only
two guns each, would prove formidable vessels in the event
of war. The facts with regard to men might easily be
stated. According to the best accounts, there were now
about 35,000 men in the French navy. Of that number
10,000 belonged to the conscription, and were able-bodied
men from the maritime provinces; the remaining 25,000
belonged to the inscription, and were drawn from the sea-
faring population of thecoast of France, who were all liable
to serve in the navy. His honest belief was that the French
could add 25,000 additional men to their navy in the course
of a month, or at furthest six weeks. He could not deny
that it would he very much damaging their mercantile ma-
rine, but he believed the French could add another 25,000
men in the course of three or four months. These were the
figures taken from French officers. Ho believed that, sup-
posing a mandenzent were placed on every seafaring man,
France could produce in no very long period a force not far
short of 85,000. (Hear, hear.) Of course, there would
have to be deducted from that a certain number of men
serving abroad in distant colonies, but he believed it repre-
sented something like the actual force of France. (Hear.)
He would now turn to the subject to which the right hon.
baronet the member for Droitwich had alluded—viz., the
disturbances which had occurred on board several of her
Majesty's ships. The right hon. gentleman had expressed
himself in extremely guarded language ; and he was sure
that the object was to call the attention of the Gc4ernment
to the disturbances with a view to correct any errors which
might exist. He very much regretted that those proceed-
ings should be brought before the House of Commons. The
bringing these things continually before thepublic naturally
raised a presumption that the navy was deteriorating—that
the officers were not so zealous as to d iscipline as they used to be
—and that, in fact, the navy was in an unsatisfactory state. He
believed that there was no cause whatever for alarm. What
had they done ? They had succeeded in creating a force which
was always supposed to be impossible. He was sure that his
gallant friend the member for Christchurch would tell
them that for many years it was supposed to be impossible
to keep a fleet on the coast of England—that the men would
all run—that discipline could only be maintained by severe
conduct on the part of the officers as in former years. They
had, however, succeeded in creating such a force. It was
true that there had been disturbances which he greatly re-
gretted, but they were incident to a young fleet—to a great
body of men being hasily thrown together without petty
officers and leading seamen to teach them their duties and
how to behave themselves. (Hear, hear.) It was true
that there had been very lamentable disturbances in the
fleet, but he could assure the house that satisfactory accounts
had been received from the gallant Admiral who commanded
the Mediterranean fleet. With the permission of the house
he would give them an idea of what these disturbances
really were. Every one, le believed, misbehaved himself
more or less on Christmas-day. (Laughter.) Last Christ-
mas-day there arose disturbances on board two of the ships
in the Mediterranean squadron. In ono of them a certain
number of men made a noise on the lower deck. In short,
they behaved extremely ill, and richly deserved punish-
ment. It was on board the Neptune. What happened to
those men? Two of them, the ringleaders, were reported
by the petty officers of the ship. The petty officers requested
the boatswain to express to the captain the horror of the
ship's company at the bad behaviour of some of their com-
rades. Those men received corporal punishment by sentence
of a court-martial, and there were no further disturbances in
the ship. It arose out of the circumstance of the men having
somehow or other smuggled into the ship a quantity of
liquor. The other case was in the Orion. He believed the
right hon. gentleman alluded to that case. It was a much
more serious disturbance. The men behaved extremely ill.
'I hey commenced throwing shot and othe.r things about, and
in former days it would have been a very serious disturbance.
In these days it betokened a want of discipline, but nothing
amounting to disaffection. The petty officers did not
behave as they ought to have done. They did not report
the men. The result was that the Admiral thought it right
to distribute all the men who had been concerned in the
riot among the various ships in the squadron. The ship
herself was sent to sea to cruise. There had been no
complaint since, and the report of the Admiral received
today stated that the whole of the disturbances had
passed away, and nothing could be better than the beha-
viour of the ship's company. One man in the Orion was
the ringleader. Who was he P He was a teetotaller.
(Laughter.) He was a teetotaller who got drunk on
Christmasday. (Laughter.) Vice Admiral Martin on
the 4th of January reported :—" Having made every en-
deavour to elicit the true cause of the disturbance, I may
state my opinion that it was not caused by disaffection or
discontent, but that the men had succeeded in smuggling
on board or otherwise cbtaining more than the ordinary
quantity of spirits, and that the noise and uproar were
after a fashion too frequent on shipboard on the afternoon
of Christmasday."
(Hear, hear.) He thought the House would see that these
disturbances were magnified. Every little occurrence was
noticed in the press, whereas he was old enough to remem-
ber that when these things occurred, as they did occasion.
ally in past times, there was no court-martial. The men
who misbehaved themselves were corporally punished then
and there upon the spot. Nobody heard of it, and there
was an end of it. (Hear, hear.) He did not mean to say
that that was a better plan than the present. He wished
these things to be made public. He desired no mystery
about corporal punishments. But he wished to show
that these occurrences did not deserve the epithets be-
stowed upon them in the House and out of doors. (Hear,
hear.) So far from there being any cause for alarm, he
believed that the fleet was getting into a very good state of
discipline, and that, although there might be some dissatis-
faction, the state of the fleet was extremely satisfactory.
(Cheers )

Sir J. ELPIIINSTONE said that as the discussion had
turned on the relative forces of this country and France,
there was one point to which he wished to direct the
attention of the Committee, and it was the extraordinary
position in which the French had placed themselves all
over the world. There was not a single artery of communica-
tion with our great colonies, or a single Course where our
stream of trade flowed, which the French did not command
by some possession. They had Reunion. They had
islands which commanded the entrance to the Red Sea.
They had failed in establishing themselves at Cochin China
through the bad climate, but they would have an estab-
lishment somewhere in the north of the China Sea.
And they had Otaheite, which commanded Cape
Horn. In the last war a miserable ship, the
Essex—an American frigate, with 32 carronades—stationed
ff Cape Horn, destroyed 50 or 60 South Sea-men and com-
pletely cut up our South Sea trade before she was taken.
That showed what might be done again. The object of
the French in having these positions dotted all round the
world was to draw away our fleet from the Channel. The
whole of mar American, West Indian, East Indian, Chi.
nese, New South -Wales, and West Coast of African trades
must be guarded by separate squadrons, and at every point
we must have a squadron superior to the French. (Hear.)
This vote turned upon the number of men. Between 2,000
and 3,000 seamen, in a high state of efficiency, were com-
ing home from China, and he would suggest that they
should be retained in the place of an equal number of the
worst men in our fleet. (Hear.) He had been accused of
suggesting measures which would cost a great deal of
money; but he wanted to know, if the Government main-
tained a large force of ships and men in India and China,
why they should not call on the Government of India to
pay some portion of the expense of that supplemental squa-
dron. With regard to boys, the Naval Commission cer-
tainly contemplated a much larger number than 2,600.
They did not specify the exact places where school ships
should be placed, but at least 20 were thought desirable,
and vessels might easily have been draughted for the pur-
pose, in which 100 to 500 boys might have been trained.
This would have given 7,500 ; and if boarders had been taken
they would have helped to pay the expense, as well as gone
far to supply good, well brought up handy boys, young men
of good education, fit to take their place as mates in the
merchant service. 'With regard to troopships, he would
suggest that they should be constructed in such a cylindri-
cal manner that when they run on coral reefs they would
not fill so rapidly as they now did. He looked upon the vic-
tualling of seamen as a most important point. The life cf a
seaman was very much shorted by the nature of his food.
The practice of continually filling up salt beef casks and
carrying them from one commission to another as long as
the beef was of a good colour and not corrupted tended to
abstract the gelatinous and nutritious parts of the beef.
Hence scurvy, debility, sore legs, ulcers, and those other
diseases to which seamen were so liable. These were all
the effect of a low state of constitution brought on by the
consumption of deteriorated food. He would advise
his noble friend to take the advice of some eminent chemists
on this subject, for he believed the addition of some saccha-
rine matter to the food of seamen would check the tendency
to scorbutic affections and be the means of prolonging the
lives of sailors. He considered barracks most important,
but they should be built on a comprehensive and systematic
plan. He did not know whether the vote for Devonport was
judicious or not, but he was quite certain that the conversion
of the convict barracks at Portsmouth would neither be
popular nor effectual. It would not do to hang the sailors'
hammocks in corridors; the barracks must be constructed
with every convenience which had been introduced into
military barracks. The great object was to humanise the
men—to place them during some part of their service under
an influence which would make them give up their roving
and uncertain habits, which now made them so difficult to
manage. He protested against any partial manner of in-
troducing barracks. He recommended the Government to
consider the question well—whether it was not absolutely
necessary that barracks should be confined to docks with ex-
ercising:and play grounds, and that money should be takento
purchase land at once. It would not do to build barracks at
Plymouth, and not at Portsmouth, or vice versa. The bar-
rack system would introduce a very great and radical change
in the habits of seamen, and their adoption should not be
piecemeal. That would neither be beneficial to the country
nor eatibf.ctory to fl c seamen. IL h•td intended to touch
on the discipline of the navy in a former debate, but when
he came to look into the accounts he had received he quite
shrunk from it. He agreed with his right hon. friend the
member for Droitwich. He was quite convinced of his own