The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-17 00:00:00

! MANNING THE NAVY,

(From the Daily .21reics.)

The first fortnight of the New Year has been
filled by.a rapid succession of events, all of which
painfully teach us how little security we have
against the outbreak of an European war. From
day to day the probabilities of actual bloodshed
fluctuate, or seem to do so, as news of this resolution
or that tendency of some autocrat is transmitted by
the telegraph. Thus the reported determintion of
the Sultan to confirm the choice of the Servian
people removes for the moment complications which
threatened to bring the antagenism of some of the
Great Powcrs of Europe to a crisis. But substan-
tially the gravity of the situation remains. The
ominous meaning- of the celebrated New-year's
Speech has not been explained away ; and the
words of King Victor Emmanuel are fermenting
in Italian minds. When, besides this, we hear of
actual movements and counter-movements of colPs
d'arinee, of fortresses provisioned, and arsenals re-
plenished, and we know that the commencement of
hostilities may be precipitated by the merest
accident, is it strange that Englishmen are asking
questions concerning the state of our own belli-
gerent establishments ?
Maintaining strenuously, in common with the
whole press, the duty of our Government to observe
a strict neutrality, we believe there is the soundest
reason in the universally expressed desire of our
countrymen that the naval force of Great Britain
should be upheld at a strength adequate to any
emergency that may arise. There is no doubt much
activity at this moment displayed at our principal
dockyards and arsenals. The authorities, giving a
tardy heed to the reiterated admonitions of the
press, are at last bestirring themselves in earnest;
we are promised a Channel Fleet which shall be
something more than a name, and we may reason-
ably expect, should ample time be allowed, that a
magnificent array of ships will be ready to take
the sea, if crews only can be provided for them.
England, with her vast resources, can always com-
mand at a few months' notice vessels to any requi.
site extent, but the rub will be how to man them.
A commission appointed last session to investigate
this matter, has just concluded its inquiries, and we
hope before long to be in a position to lay before
our readers the results of its deliberations.

The great bane has hitherto been that insane prac-
tice of paying off a ship's company as soon as, by
practice and discipline, they have been brought to
the highest possible efficiency. A vessel is commis-
sioned, by dint of great exertion, but frequently
not without a delay of many weeks, a raw crew is
obtained. She sails for the Mediterranean, the
Pacific, or the East India stations. After an absence
of three years, during which that rough and un-
trained company have been rendered proficient in
all the duties that can be required of men-of-war's
men, have above all learnt to know and confide in.
each other—the ship is ordered home, and is paid
off—her gallant crew are dispersed, never to meet
again, many of them possibly never to serve more
on board a British vessel, and the labour of years
is thus utterly thrown away.
How so senseless a custom ever came to be tole-
rated it is difficult to conceive ; still more unac-
countable is the fact that this is the routine which
has been in vogue almost from time. immemorial.
What would be thought of an individual who
should devote himself exclusively fora long period
to the production of a chronometer, in regulating
which whole months should be anxiously passed,
but who, when his task was accomplished, and after
absolute accuracy had been attained, should set to
work deliberately to demolish the object of all his
toil and solicitude, and to consign its materials to
the melting pot P Yet this has been precisely the
irrational course we have been pursuing, with this
additional variation, that the costly materials we
have so sedulously collected and then dispersed
have been in too many instances eagerly obtained
by the agents of foreign Powers, and drafted, at
higher wages than we thought proper to pay, into
their ships, possibly some day or other to serve
against us; for it is an incontrovertible fact that on
board many American men-of-war there are Eng-
lish sailors, now naturalised subjects of their
adopted country, and consequently lost for ever to
the land which gave them birth.
Let us turn for a moment to the other side of the
Channel, and see how these matters are managed
there. The vulgar notion, too prevalent in England,
is, that a Frenchman can never by any process be
made into a sailor, and that nothing need ever on
that account be apprehended from France in the
event of a future war. Had she suffered matters to
have remained in the state they were from 1815 to
1820 that might be so ; but let any one with a com-
petent knowledge of nautical matters make a tour
of inspection through the French dockyards, visit-
ing in succession Cherbourg' Brest, L'Orient,
Rochefort, and Toulon, and if he can a man of a
thoughtful turn he will find ample matter for re-
flection, possibly for astonishment.
In England at the present moment there are not
probably a dozen people who possess any reliable
information as to the real state and connition of the
French Navy and Arsenals. Many of the statements
which have lately appeared, more especially those
extracted from a Leipsic periodical, are in many
particulars ludicrously incorrect; nor are the public
generally likely to be much better informed, so long
as the French Government continues to prevent by
every means in its power, the publication, not only of
any Navy List, but of every document calculated
to throw any light upon matters connected with its
marine.

As one instance among many of the inaccuracies
which may be disseminated by those who, without
authentic statistical information, venture to write
authoritatively upon this subject, we may cite the
statement put, forth in the columns of a distin-
guished contemporary on Wednesday last, to the
effect that " in 1856 seven additional line-of-battle
ships were floated : of these the Imperial and the
Alexandre were new, and of 900 and 800-horse
power respectively ; while the Louis Quatorze, the
Tage, the Duguay Trouin, the Donawerth were
converted, and fitted with engines, varying in
horse power from 600 to 450."
Now, the Imperial was in a very incomplete state
in 1858, and the Alexandre is, we believe, still on
the stocks at Rochefort, her state as regards com-
pletion being officially indicated last 'January in
24ths by the numbers 22.60. The Louis Quatorze
is a•vessel whose keel was laid down in 1811, she
having been launched in 1840; the Tage, com-
menced in 1834, was launched in 1847 ; the
Duguay Trouin and the Donawerth in 1854; and
the Duguesclin, begun in 1823, was launched in
1848.
Again, we are informed that the Ville de Paris,
of 600-horse power, and the St. Louis, of 450, were
launched in 1857, the fact being that the first was
launched on the sth Oct., 1850, and the other on
the 25th April, 1854.
It is not, however, so much the number of the
ships composing the navy of France that is so im-
portant, as the admirable system she has of late
years adopted for manning them.
It would occupy a greater space than we have at
present at our disposal to describe fully the details ;
suffice it therefore to say, that the whole maritime
population of the country is registered upon what is
termed the " Inscription ;" that every man, so long
as his name remains thereon, is liable to be called
upon under particular emergencies to serve on board
the fleet. Annual levies arc drafted from these in
proportion to the shins at the time in commission.
The total numbers on the inscriptiou at the present
time may be assumed at 170,000, while that of the
sailors afloat on board ships actually commissioned
is about 60,000. Thus the country has always a
vast disposable reserve independently of the Equi-
pages de Ligne, which now nearly equals the whole
of the crews on service in the navy. Other corps
might be enumerated, showing an aggregate of
about 100,000 men, available at a few days', if not
a few hours', notice.
The contrast arising from a comparison of our
own reserves with those of our present allies is
neither gratifying nor satisfactory. It is surely
incumbent on our " authorities" to take warning
while there is yet time, and, not neglecting the
construction of an adequate fleet, to bestow the
most anxious care and thought upon the fittest
means of manning it before the hour of need arrives.
No country in the world can boast of such materials
as we have at our command. It will surely, then,
be matter of ineffable disgrace if we continue to
neglect
thet day of
he means
Eantgnd,s greatestolaurdisi)osalf iorieepd.roviding
against

Government are now in possession of the report
of Lord High Commissioner Gladstone on the state of the
lonian Islands and the British Protectorate. The despatch
arrived a few days back, and formed a very material item
of the disbussion at the Cabinet Council on 'Wednesday.
Nothing has transpired to indicate definitely the conclusions
AND
r n
to which Mr. Gladstone has arrived, but there is animpres-
sion that they have rather disappointed several members of
the
BS CASE.--A dreadful
affair, which is at present shrouded in mystery, connected
i.
with the death of a woman at Radford (a village adjoining
HORRlBLEGovGovernment.—Court
e n
t D. Cu
mr t Tso/Eaiti
Nottingham), is being investigated before Mr. Coroner
Swann. From the particulars which have already trans-
pired it appears that on Wednesday night last a man and
his wife named Welch (both Irish), were hectic' by the
neighbours to quarrel, the woman shrieking out "Murder."
Shortly after this the husband left the house and did not
return home till about four o'clock on the following morn-
ing, when he states that he found the door fastened. II
then asked a policeman to assist him in effecting an entrance
The door was forced open and a horrible spectacle presented
itself. His wife lay upon the hearth quite dead, her clothes
having been consumed by fire, and she having been to all
appearance burnt to death. The body was immediately
removed, and an inquisition held the same evening, but
adjourned in order to allow time for a post mortem exami-
nation, and there being a doubt on the minds of the jury as
to how the deceased met her death, whether by violence or
otherwise. The adjourned inquest will be held on Tuesday.