The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-23 00:00:00

THE ITALIAN NAVY.

A letter from Turin, dated Sept. 15, says : —The labours
of General Menabrea towards the increase and improve-
ment of the Italian navy promise to lead to signal results.
The works at the docks of Genoa, Leghorn, and Castella-
mare are carried on with unwearied energy ; and it seems
now beyond a doubt that, by the end of 1863, Italy will be
able to muster 23 pteam frigates of the highest order, besides
four floating batteries or iron-sheet frigates. These latter
will cause an outlay of 14,000,000 f. The fine frigate Duca
di Geneve whose launch I described as an eyewitness
some months ago, is now ready for service, and some
has been constructed and fitted out in a style worthy
of anything that ever floated either in British or
American waters. The Cavaliers Mattei, a man
earnestly promoted by Count Cavour, fully justified the
confidence placed in him by the deceased statesman, and
the naval constructions under his direction are eminently
successful. Colonel Chiodo is soon expected from Spezia,
prepared to lay before Government the estimate of the ex-
penses necessary to turn that gulf into an Italian Ports-
mouth. You have not forgotten that, at the close of the
last session, Parliament voted the sum of 60,000,000 f. for
the commencement of the works. The francs will, most
undoubtedly, swell up to pounds sterling before so colossal
an enterprise is far advanced. In the meanwhile, you
are aware that a contract has been entered into between
the Government and an English company, allowing
this latter to establish a coal depot and an exten-
sive iron foundry in the gulf. The municipality
of Spezia has voted a sum of £400,000f. for the construction
of ajetty for the landing of merchandise. No doubt Spezia
has a great future before it in a commercial no less than in
a naval point of view, especially if a railway across the
Appennines along the valleys of the Magra an Tara joins it
with Parma, and makes it the emporium of the !Emilia and
Central Lombardy. The works at Spezia are only the
prelude of what the country should undertake with a view
to utilize the harbours of Ancona, Brindisi, ant, parhaps,
Otrantro and Syracuse. Undoubtedly, if Italy is to be
constituted into a nation and a State, it becomes a duty
for her no less than a right to become at least the
third of European naval Powers, and there is no reason
why she should not aspire to the very first rank in her own
Mediterranean waters. Coolheaded persons truly think that
General Bixio spoke very sanguinely when he expressed
an opinion that this country could have a navy worthy of
its position in the short period of only a score of years. I
hear, however, but one opinion that if human genius and
industry can have any power towards pushing on the mari-
time enterprise of the kingdom, those faculties are to be
found combined in the man who received the portfolio of
the Marine from the hands of Count Cavour in his dying
moments, General Menabrea.

Ships and dockyards, however, do not make a navy, and
the question always is by what sailors and officers it. is
to be manned. No one will deny that the seafaring popu-
lation of the Peninsula is by no means commensurate either
in number or efficiency with the extent of its seacoast.
Brave and skilful Italian seamen are only to be found along -
the Genoese shores• A few of the Neapolitan masters and
crews of the Costa (as it is calledpar excellence), the seaboard
from Castellamare and Sorrento to Salerno and Amalfi, were
used to Transatlantic voyages, and were deemed worth their
salt by British and Yankee skippers, who lured them by high
pay. The Adriatic yields next to nothing, or its seamen are en-
listed in the service of Austria, who never knew how to turn
the heritage of Venice to any very good purpose. Yet the
coasts of the Marches, and even those of Puglia and Cala-
bria, and still more those of the islands, could supply excel-
lent elements for naval service. But the Royal Navy
depends for its recruits on the mercantile marine, and,
with the few exceptions above alluded to, Italian commerce
was hitherto limited to a very paltry coasting trade. By a
law on naval conscription voted by Parliament this very year
all the population living on the sea shores have their option
between land and sea service. Every man who has been on
board a vessel for a period of not less than two years may
be exempt from the military levy by having himself in-
scribed in the rolls of the naval service. Two years'
experience, however imperfect and rudimental, are sup-
posed to have fitted a man to be a sailor; but when tho
exigencies of the State require a larger draught of men,
the State's vessels are manned out of the maritime popula-
tion, on the same principle as the cadres of land battalions
are filled—i.c., by compulsory enlistment, and regard •
less of the recruit's fitness or unfitness for a seafar-
ing life. Nor are sailors exclusively looked for among
the people living on the coast, for experience has
shown that landsmen, and especially moutaineers, Savoyard
as well as Piedmontese, can be turned into the very best
sailors and sea officers, Whether this system of impress-
ment, which, like most systems in this country, is copied
from France, will work well in the long run time will show.
What is certain for the present moment is that the Italian
navy, which is only too rich in officers (as the
Neapolitans have been admitted on equal terms with
the Saidinians), is sadly deficient in men, and
must needs continue so until the mercantile shipping of
the country attains all the magnitude to which the wealth,
position, and vast resources of Italy entitle it.
The ex-Bourbon navy officers (different from the land
officers, who for the most part are considered as a great
nuisance in the Italian army) are spoken of with respect,
and some of them have been advanced to very con •
spicuous and responsible positions. The Duke of
Imbert, of Catania, is in command of the Maria Adelaide;
and De Maria, a Neapolitan, has been trusted with the com-
mand of the new steam frigate the Duca di Genova. Of
other ex-Bourbon officers, who distinguished themselves
at the siege of Gaeta, the names are already familiar
to English readers. It is by these means that men here hope
the Italian nation will be thoroughly blended and amalga-
mated. The Italians have only to know each other, to share
the same toils and perils, the same hopes and aspirations, to
become truly brethren, as nature intended, and as aliens
take them to be.