The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-03 00:00:00

who were condemned to lie for months idle in the

home ports, because they could not get men enough
to venture out to sea and face an enemy. Admiral
. . .

_ -
Napier openly declared in Parliament that he
could not with so weakly manned a fleet have un-
dertaken any hostilities against Russia, and the
admiral had already, in the year 1850, warned th€
Admiralty in a published letter, t,r,t in the event
of a Russian attack by sea the English fleet could
not, for want of men, make any effectual opposition,
and that England would inevitably fall a prize to
either a Russian or French invasion.

In former years recourse was had to pressing—
that is, the seamen were taken from the mercantile
shipping. It may fairly be a question whether
this would he in the first place sanctioned by Par-
liament, as it would give a death-blow to Eng-
land's trade and most important interests ; or
whether it would be practicable in the face of pub-
lic opinion. The Government itself does not
appear to consider pressing as an available mea-
sure. It would appear that recourse would be
had to pressing only in case of utmost need, from
the so-called Coastguard having been established
about four years back, which is modelled after
the Equipages de Ligne ; and it is thought that
pressing, that remnant of medireval:roughness, may
be superseded by the formation of a fixed corps of
seamen. This institution is, however, too young to
afford already the desired results, and it will re-
quire several years before the Coastguard can fulfil
its object, considering the little attraction which
the naval service seems to possess for the English
sailor,

In France impressment has been abolished for
now 200 years, at which time in its stead the far-
seeing Minister of Louis XIV. established the
above-mentioned inscription maritime. This in-
scription combines all the seafaring population of
France like one family, who are put under the
guardianship of the State for their own and the
State necessities. The sea service requires a long
apprenticeship ; and it is impossible to train a re-
cruit into a seaman in the time that will suffice to
make a soldier.- With this experience the " in-
scription maritime" has been founded, the prin-
ciple of which is as follows :
Every man who is migagedin the service ofship-
ping or iii fisheries, on the coast or at the mouths
of rivers which flow into the sea, and who is there-
fore acquainted with the sea, is entered on the
muster roll of the Marine—first provisionally, and
then definitively, when he has declared that he
will remain a seaman. The period of his liability
to service, and the power which the inscription
gives to the State over the seaman, extends from 18
to 50 years of age. In time of peace a seaman can
free himself from the inscription by declaring, one
year beforehand, that he intends to quit the sea
service or fishery. So long, however, as he con-
tinues on the list he must obey the call of the State.
All seamen who are not called upon to serve, can,
under fixed rules, freely dispose of themselves, but
must, wherever they may be, immediately obey any
call for service in the fleet. The levies from the in-
scribed are:made in a regular manner, and in such
way that those seamenwho have served the least on
board ship, and have not passed their 40th year, are
the first taken. The duration oftheir active service is
the same as that of the land service. Besides their
pay, of which they can during their service allot a
portion to their families, they have prize money for
any enemy's ships that they may capture. Their
pay cannot be confiscated, and in consideration of
their arduous services they receive, after a certain
number of years, pensions and support from the
State. Moreover, they cannot be transferred to any
other than the naval service.
As it is not absolutely necessary to man a ship of
war solely with seamen, awl it is sufficient under
all circumstances for the efficient service of the ship
that two-thirds of the complement should be sea-
men, it is, therefore, and in consideration of the re-
quirements of the mercantile marine, provided in
the inscription that only two-thirds should be held
ready.
The levies are calculated according to the actual
amount of the navy in commission. With the in-
crease of the French foreign trade, which at the
time of Napoleon's wars was reduced almost to no-
thing, the number of the inscribed has materially
increased, and especially in the last ten years. In
the year 1825 the list gave 94,611; in 1845,125,272;
and 1855, 162,000 as liable to sea service, at the
same time that the peace establishment of the
French navy called for only 50,000 men. France is
therefore not only in a'position to man her navy
fully with seamen, but also possesses, in the event
of a serious war, where the trade by sea would have
to be discontinued, a reserve of 42,000 men, as much
as in the time of Napoleon I. the whole inscription
maritime at the utmost produced.
However good this institution might appear to
be for manning the navy, it helped but little in the
earlier stages of its organisation; and as in respect
of its inferiorityin ably manning the fleet other na-
tions, and especially England, surpassed it, France
was compelled to introduce here also some modifi-
cations. This consisted, as we have before shown,
in the establishment in the year 1822 of a military
marine force, the Equipages de Ligne. People
were at last convinced that it was not enough to
have ships and to fill them up with men, even if
these men came from the inscription and were sea-
men ; but that the ship's complement, in order
to be worth anything, must be accustomed to the
life of a ship of war, and have confidence in them-
selves.
" When it is the question," says Admiral the
Prince de Joinville in his Essaz sur la Marina
Francaise, " to fit out the ships of a fleet, that is
only a matter of expense. Money, which a State
can always extract, achieves this point and fits out
the ships. But gold provides no sailors, no trained
ships' companies, no experienced officers ; and what
are ships without these living elements of a reliable
crew. To provide these, to educate and raise them
up, is the first care of a naval Power, and the
heaviest part of its task. For everything else there
is the means so long as there is the will." The
abandonment and neglect of this fundamental truth,
which Colbert had in view when he established the
inscription, had cost France dear in the wars of the
Revolution and Napoleon L Then followed the re-
establishment of the Equipages de Ligne from the
inscribed and from volunteers ; and through them
was created a regular stock for the several ships'
complements, since the strongest and most expe-
rienced seamen were sought out, and the greatest
attention paid to their training for man-of-war ser-
vice.

The corps of Equipages de Ligne is divided into
five divisions, one of each belongs to each Of the
five French militaryports—Brest, Toulon, L'Orient,
Cherbourg, and Rochefort. Each division consists
of permanent (provisional) depot and ships' boys
companies, each of which is 103. j strong. Tho
strength of the whole corps was in the year 1845
36,000 men, but is now grown to 60,000. As a sub-
division of the Equipages de Ligne is the corps of
Artillery of Marine, which is charged with the ser-
vice of the ports and arsenals, the manufacture of
the guns, and preparation of the ammunition. In
the year 1845 the Marine Artillery consisted of 30
companies of active service men, and six companies
of artificers, forming a total of 4,529 men, including
222 officers. But this corps also has been mate-
rially increased, and numbers now 6,000 men. The
seamen gunners, who amount to an effective force
of 3,500, are embodied with the five divisions of
Equipages de Ligne.
Independently of the preceding body, France has
also the Infanterie de la Marine, or naval soldiers,
who are not, however, as in England, permanently
on board, but only on extraordinary occasions. The
Marine Infantry forms the garrisons of the war
ports and colonies, the administration of be-
longs to the Department of Marine. Ther effective
strength reaches 20,000 men, and their organisation
is almost the same as that of the infantry of the
army. Besides these there is also a permanent
company at L'Orient, and a Gendarmerie Maritime
for the police of the ports-400 men—who arc re-
cruited from trustworthy non-commissioned officers
of the marine troops, and consist of five ocmpanies.
Further, the convict guards-1,600 men—at the
three harbours of Brest, Rochefort, and Toulon,
where convicts are employed. Then five companies
of seamen artificers, for the preparation of ships'
rigging at the several war ports ; next the fire-
brigade men, also five companies strong. Finally,
there is also the corps of Ingenieurs of the Imperial
navy, which supplies the designers of the fleet, 500
strong, and which is supplied from the Polytechnic
School.
Adding these several corps together, we have a
sum total of 92,000 available combatants with which
France can at any moment man her fleet, besides
the reserve which the Inscription Maritime holds
in readiness.
Taking into account the personnel of the English
navy, we will assume that the peace establishment
which England keeps up without difficulty, and
which would represent the Equipages de Ligne of
France, is tho normal condition. This peace
establishment, from the budget of 1847, which is
the only one we can lay our hands upon, shows
that, exclusive of 12,000 marines (who can be added
or substracted on either side), the number was
34,000 sailors and boys, to which, adding the
Coastguard, who will in five years amount to 6,000
men, we find that under all circumstances the avail-
able force of the fleet amounted to 40,000 men.
Add yet the seamen artificers, police of the ports,
&c., making about 10,000 men, and we have a
total of 50,000 men who can really be relied upon.
England, therefore, stands behind France as
regards the personnel of her navy, as we have
shown by the comparison, and we shall not err
when we state that in this respect the comparison