The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-12 00:00:00

TEMPERANCE.

Lord BROUGHAM presented a petition from the mem-
bers of the Temperance Societies in the United Kingdom,
praying for an amendment of the law relating to licensing.
The petition was numerously signed, and had been presented
to the other house. The noble and learned lord detailed
name of tho evils of the existing law.
The following bills were read a second time :

SnelPs Estate, Clifton Suspension, Edinburgh and Glas-
gm% Railway, Workington Tidal Basin and Railway,
Galbshiels and Peebles Railway, Enniskillen and Bun-
doran Railway Bills.
The following bills were read a third time and passed :

Elaud Gas; Peitadown. Dungannon, and Omagh Junction
Railway ; Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (New Line) ;
Leeds and Eeland Road ; Wycombe Railway (Extension);
Midland Railway (additional powers) ; Manchester, Shef-
field, and Lincolnshire Railway (additional works).
THE BOROUGH OF DUBLIN BILL.
This bill went through committee.
GREENWICH HOSPITAL BILL.

The Duke of SOMERSET in moving the second reading
of the Greenwich Hospital Bill, said he would very briefly
state its objects. Their lordships would remember that three
years ago an inquiry was ordered into the revenues and
managemenl of the hespital. The report made was of some
length, and, generally, it showed that some amendment in
the system of management of the hospital was desirable. A
comparison had been made of the relative cost of the main-
tenance of pensionero in France and England. It appeared
that the annual cost of the maintenance of a pensioner in
France was £11; in Greenwich Hospital it was £5O. But
the cost of the administration of the system in France was
only £5 per head, while the expense of the administration
of Greenwich Hospital was £2B 18s. per head. This proved
that some better system of administration was required.
The hospital was founded in 1691, under a charter from
William and Mary, for the relief of disabled seamen and
other purposes. The sum of £230,000 was annually voted to
the institution by Parliament, which, therefore, contributed
very liberally to its object. By the present bill it was pro-
posed to place the hospital under a new executive council
and one civil commissioner, to be appointed for five years.
The accounts relating to the hospital and the large estate
belonging to the institution were to be annually passed
through the Audit -office and brought under the direct con-
trol of Parliament. In moving the second reading he wished
to state that there were some amendments whicla he wished
to introduce into the bill, and therefore he should ask the
house to allow it to pass through committee pro forma, in
order that it might be reprinted, and ho hoped that all dis-
cussion would be deferred for the present.
The bill was read a second time without any discussion.
GOVERNMENT OF THE NAVY BILL.

The Duke of SOMERSET moved the third reading of
this bill.
The Earl of CARNARVON wished to say a few worde
upon a subject that was somewhat akin to this measure. A
few days since a right hon. friend of his (Sir J. Pakington)
made a statement in the House of Commons which had
attracted considerable notice. The right hon. gentleman
called attention to the great disproportion that existed be-
tween the English and the French navies in respect of iron-
cased ships, and stated that while we might have by the
close of the year six or seven of those vessels the French
Government would have a number little if anything short of
26. He might have added that within the last two months
the French Government had issued orders for the construc-
tion of a large number of steel or iron boats, which would
be capable of being taken to pieces and put together again
with great rapidity, affording enormous facilities for disem•
barking troops upon an enemy's coast. Now, it was true
that France might be engaged in war with many European
nations, but it was obvious that with other nations these
steel launches would be totally useless. Mostof the warlike
operations of France would be land operations, and as expe-
rience of the Italian war had shown, most likely would be
conducted in a friendly country. That, however, was not
the point to which he wished to call the attention of the
Government. He understood that the French dockyards,
both public and private, were at this moment occupied not
solely in constructing French ships of war. He understood
that both the Italian and Spanish Governments were hav-
ing iron-cased ships built in France, and he was further in-
formed that there were at this moment near Toulon two
sister ships to La Gloire, which had been ordered by the
Italian Government, and which were rapidly approaching
completion. It was stated that two other ships of the same
character had been ordered and the lines laid down. The
Spanish Government was understood to be taking similar
measures, and four ships had been already commenced,while
negotiations were pending for the construction of others. It
had been calculated, as he conceived, upon very reasonable
grounds, that before the close of the year there would be a
great accession cf strength to the naval forces cf Spain and
Italy in the shape of iron-cased vessels. No one could feel
any jealousy at this accession of strength on the part of those
countries regarded by themselves ; but if the supposition of
a combination of those powers with France were admitted,
the question was at once changed, and sucha state of things
must be regarded as pregnant with danger, at least to our
naval position in the Mediterranean. But while foreign
Governments had been proceeding steadily in the course
they had marked out we had been acting precipitately, and
had been constantly changing our policy as to the construc-
tion of ships. He himself recollected that within the last
seven or eight years there had been four distinct changes of
policy on the part of the Admiralty. Before the Crimean
war large ships of war were held up as the great safeguards
of the country. During the Crimean war a cry arose for
gunboats, and they were built in large numbers, only, in
many instances, to rot in the dockyards. The gunboat fever
then died out, and large ships were again resorted to, until
within the last two years, when the system was modified
by incasing the vessels in iron. Ho understood, however,
that within the last few days some invention had been dis-
covered by Sir W. Armstrong by which his guns could be
brought to bear with such force and accuracy that the
strongest iron plate would be pulverized by it. He did not
seek to attribute blame to the Admiralty, because it would
be
unreasouablo to suppose that the system of naval archi-
tecture could always remain the same, unaffected by modern
inventions. But what he did complain of was the wasteful
expenditure which sometimes occurred under the adminis-
tration of the Board of Admiralty. As an instance within
his own knowledge he would mention the circumstances con-
nected with a dock at Malta. About 13 years ago the Ad-
miralty ordered the construction of a dock in that island, at
a coat of about £60,000 or £70,000 ; but it was built on
the
worst possible place, at the extremity of a creek, and ex-
posed to the wash of the sea, caused by the trensendous
storms of the Mediterranean. Then, again,
pirtopwearsty,con-
structed not on Crown land, but upon private
was surrounded by houses, so that in the event of war or
disaffection it would be in the power of an enemy to destroy
it. The work itsc If was bad, the stones after a short time
opened,the whole dock settled, and it became evident that its

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disappearance was onlya question of time. 1 t might naturally
be asked, did not the Admiralty inquire into these facts ?
They did inquire,and were told that the mischief was attribu-
table to an earthquake that had occurred at Malta. It was
true that there had been an earthquake, but the collapse of.

the work took place two or three years before that earth-
quake happened ; so that at this moment the dock was in
such a state of decay that the first heavy gale might bring
down the whole.of the masonry. About two years since the
Admiralty, seeing that this dock had been built for ships of
a smaller size than we now used, wisely determined to con-
struct a second dock. For that purpose £60,000 had been
taken in the Estimates, and another vote was proposed to
be taken this year, which would bring the entire amount to
£83,000 ; but, although they had been warned by the expe •
rience of the past—although they had seen the mistakes into
which they hadtallen in regard to the first dock—incredible
as it might appear, they actually constructed the second
dock precisely; in the same place, and open to precisely the
same objections, as the first. It was not merely surrounded
by private property, but was built through and behind the
dock originally erected. There was consequently no access
to the larger dock, except through the outer and smaller
one, and therefore a large part of the additional space thus
obtained was literally useless. That reminded him of the
story of the man who cut one hole to admit the cat and
another to admit the kitten. No ship could enter the
inner dock if it was too wide for the other; and if in a
severe tempest the work fell in, the whole of these two
docks would be completely closed for five months, and that,
perhaps, at a period of extreme emergency. The steps of
the inner dock had been projected to such a width that when
the work was done no large bottomed vessel could rest there.
Last winter the workmen were engaged in undoing the
work that had been done at a sacrifice of the public money,
It was proposed at first to separete these two docks by a
sliding- caisson, but representations having been made to
them against that plan, the Admiralty gave way, and sub-
stitute d. an order to erect the usual cock gates. Suddenly,
howevt jr, without rhyme or reason, a counter-order was is-
sued ozhe fine morning, and the plan for a sliding caisson
was re stored. In the event of a warxvith France which
God ft n.bid;—and still more if France were supported by
Italy e god Spain, it was morally certain there must be a