The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-06 00:00:00

which he concurred with the noble lord opposite (Lord

.._ _
Stratford de Redcliffe) in thinking both patriotic and use-
ful. It offered to the public a calm and temperate state-
ment of the condition in which this country might be

placed under circumstances which we had a right, not,
he trusted, to anticipate as rapidly approaching, but, at
least, to contemplate as possible. There was nothing
improper in a member of their lordships' house calling
the attention of the country to its defensive condition at
a time like the 'present, and the noble and learned lord
had treated the question simply in that light. But the
noble lord opposite, . instead of treating the question
in that patriotic spirit which might have been antici-
pated from him, had narrowed it to a mere party question
as to whether a ship more or'less had been built by this or
that Government. He seemed to think that he himself was
assailed for something which he had never done, whereas
the noble and learned lord had not meant to throw the
slightest reflection on any Government. (Hear, hear.) Ac-
cording to the noble earl, he (Lord Hardwicke) was elle of
those gentlemen who, when the dram chain of office was taken
off, galloped to all sorts of conclusions; but the sooner the
noble earl and his colleagues galloped to the conclusion that
the low water mark of the French shore was the natural
line of defence of this country the better for all parties.
What he meant when he laid that down the other night
was that we ought to be in a position to blockade the French
ports, to shut] up their fleets or else to compel them to
accept battle on their own coast instead of on ours. He had
certainly never been so foolish as to say that the British
Channel was the property of the British people. (Hear.)
If England were to turn an aggresive nation, the mode of
keeping her within bounds the French naval officers would
recommend would be to make the British Channel, so called,
a French channel, and to blockade the English fleets in
their own ports. It was to the importance of putting our
navy in such a position that at the commencement of a war
we might be able to shut up an enemy's fleet that the noble
and learned lord had particularly addressed himself. It
would be too late to begin to build ships and prepare arma-
ments when the war began; if we meant to defetnodle
country we must begin to arm now. (Hear.) As
patilteywqeuhesatloan,it
considerabletpee superiority
vessels over the French, but how was the superiority made
up true,
terit
ythiant
numbers n Sir C A.
ofsteam Wood's
e
(Hea. As regarded line-of-battle-ships, we were weaker
up ? In gunboats of which the French had 28 and we 160.
than France by two or three, and very considerablyweakerin
(Hear.) No doubt, Sir John Pakington
did actually reduce thenaval estimates
didt h e reeffa: 7:
reduce, gat e
or
r.
of his predecessor by a certain amount. Of the official
information. on which he based that reduction he knew
nothing, but as scan ash the attention of Government be-
came directed to the condition of the navy they at once set
to work to improve it. The manner in which the navy had
been managed by the Whig Government was this. A cer-
tain amount of money was taken from Parliament for the
construction of ships ; but were those ships constructed ?
Not at all. Suppose money was taken for three ships—or,
in architectural language, for 24-Bths—only 3-Bths, or 4-
Bths, or 5-Bths would be built, and the rest of the money
was devoted to other purposes in the yard. A high autho-
rity had stated that for many years the programme had
never been followed out ; so that while the public believed
that the navy was going on in the ratio of votes granted,
the money was spent on other purposes, The late Govern-
ment determined to produce the most they could for the
money, and instead of frittering it away on repairing and
altering ships which would never be of any use, they set
themselves to increasing the strength of the steam navy.
This year they came to Parliament for money to strengthen
it still further, so that at the close of this year we should
have 50 line-of-battle ships, and 56 or 58 at the close of 1861.
During the late recess the Government, on their own re-
sponsibility, had offered a bounty to induce seamen to enter
the navy, and altogether they had left the whole of this
naval question on such a footing that, if the noble duke op-
posite, now the head of the Admiralty, followed up the mea-
sures of his predecessors, this country might depend on hal--
ing a powerful navy forthcoming whenever an emergency
arose. We ought to raise our fleet to 100 sail of the line and
not grudge the cost. We might depend uponitthat although
that force would not be needed, yet by doing so we should
be laying out our money in the very best possible manner.
We should thereby strengthen our alliances— (hear)—and
empower our Foreign Secretary to speak in a tone such as he
could not at present use when addressing foreign Powers.
(Hear.) We should thereby render our commerce secure
wherever the British flag floated. He was firmly convinced
that the man who ruled the French nation would rejoice
at a considerable augmentation of our naval strength,
because it would furnish him with a powerful argument
against such of his subjects as desired an invasion of this
country by France. He believed that that ruler would
much rather quiet than stimulate that desire of invasion,
and would be glad to see the maritime power of this coun-
try raised to a considerable pitch, that the question might
not be pressed upon him as to whether he should make war
upon England or not. (Hear, hear.)
The Duke of SOMERSET regretted that a question of
such grave importance as that of the naval defences of this
country had been treated as it had been by the noble and
learned lord. (Hear.) In the observations which he him-
self made the other evening upon this subject he carefully
abstained from saying anything to irritate the feelings of
any other nation. He had nothing to do with that Govern-
ment which had been charged with neglecting the state of
our naval establishment ; but he must say that he was
rather surprised that the Conservative Government, which
took so much credit for having increased our naval force,
should have been so long in office before they undertook to
remedy the defective state of the navy, even after they were
informed, not indeed of the superiority, but of the growing
increase of the French navy. That information reached
them, according to the records of the Admiralty, in July,
1858. Why did they not at once submit to Parliament in-
creased estimates for the navy ? But nothing of that kind
was done. On the contrary, the works in the dockyards
were reduced. But he admitted that at last the late Go-
vernment did come to Parliament and state the growing
increase of the French navy, and that they vigorously set
to work to improve the state of our own navy. He greatly
regretted the, exciting language which their lordships had
just heard. If such language were persevered in it would
be necessary to have not only a peace but a war establish-
ment. (Ministerial cheers.) There was no peace whatever
in the language of the noble and learned lord. All he
said was for war. (Hear, hear.) That language was
calculated to excite the passions of England and France.
The noble and learned lord might have given the
Government very useful information, and shown
them that it was their duty to increase the fortifications of
this country, but instead of doing so he had used exciting
league gewhichwould be spread throughout the country, and
which, as it came from a man of so much eminence, and from
a man who had recently taken so distinguished a part in
foreign policy, would have a very bad effect. He well remem-
bered the strong language which the noble and leained lord
used not long ago when pleading the cause of Italy. His
sympathies were then with Italy, but they, were now utterly
gone, and nothing remained but his anger with France.
During the short time that he (the Duke of Somerset) had
been in office he had done everything in his power to increase;
the power of this country by sea. He had thought it his
duty to continue works in the dockyards which had, indeed,
been begun by the late Government, but which would have
been discontinued had they remained in office, and he had
thereby prevented the dismissal of about 3,000 men in the
dockyards next autumn. He hoped the people of this
country would not be induced by exciting language to de-
mand armaments on a war scale, for the putting of arma -
meats on that scale led to war. He thought it was our duty
to steadily increase out armaments, but he would not adopt
the language of the noble and learned lord, who said that
we must at once prepare for defence in every quarter of the
globe where the English flag floated. (Hear, hear.)
Lord BROUGHAM said they were agreed on all sides of
the house, without any one exception, on the expediency,
' nay, he would say the necessity, of defensive preparations—
(hear, hear)—and that without any invidiousness towards
either foreign nations or their rulers, but simply on account
of the posture of affairs in Europe, which was swarming
with great armies under the control of a veryfew individuals
of absolute and unlimited power. We were bound to prepare
for our own defence, happen what might, without expecting
anything to happen, without dreading that anythingwould
happen. He deeply lamented what had been spoken that night
as to the feelings of the French people with regard to an
invasion of England. He positively denied that that feel-
ing was such as had been represented. (Cheers.) There
was no desire on the part of the French people for a war
with England. There was an almost universal desire on
their part to maintain peace. He would say with respect
to the Russian, the Austrian, and the French rulers, that
it was not safe to allow a man in great power to encroach
ever so little beyond their own territories. There was an
old maxim that if you allowed people to go but a very little
beyond the line that separated right flora wrong they were
verj apt to go a great deal further without your leave. He
f(oHreeierga)rulwerse,ebuugth t weto
relyoughtcertainlyuponourselves
was not bound to express either confidence or distrust in
t°:trus for
rt to
uoru ourselves.
happen what might. There was but one opinion as to the
positive necessity of our being well prepared in the present
state of Europe. We had no distrust of foreign • ,
and they had'no right to complain of our being nations,
and prepared
when they were prepared. (Hear, hear.)
The Earl of E LLENB ORO UG li said—l have only a very
few words to offer, but I cannot leave the house with satis-
faction to myself without taking the opportunity of expres-
sing to my noble and learned friend my most grateful
thanks for the great service which, in my opinion, he has
performed. (Hear, hear.) My noble and learned friend
has put an end to that fatal course of self-deception in
which this country has for so ninny years been indulging.
(Hear, hear.) He has distinctly placed before the house
and the public the picture of what we were and what we
are—of what we are under circumstances the most perilous
which have occurred for the last half century. I feel con-
vinced that upon the most mature after reflection my noble
and learned friend will not find one word in the great speech
which he has delivered to-night which he would desire to
alter. (Cheers.) My lords, the people of this country
have, by almost all who have been in the habit of addres-
sing them at public meetings, been led to think much more
of the past than of the present, and not at all of the future.
They have been resting on the memory of past glories, and
they have been imagining they were only on the morrow of
'Waterloo and Trafalgar. That is not my feeling, and it is
now 12 Years since I took the opportunity of calling atten-
tion to the great changes which had then taken place in the
3 of Euro
circumstance - since the year 1815, and urging
pe
upon the house
the adoption of some other measures than
the embodiment of the militia if that should not give the
requisite security. (Hear, hear.) I have since upon several
occasions pressed the
Of all the nat. same considerations
l's of Europe we are the most vulnerable at
sea, because we have, in addition territory, our
colonies and our great commerce to our own.
less vulnerable at commerce to defend ; and if we were
we are more vulnerable than all other
nations on land, because
frontier. On all sides sweewe have a much lar„ crer exposed
not a naval superiority t have
not exposed to attack if we.
0 protect W have been desired
to-night to change the language us' e
use whoadvocate armaments which those are disposed to
adopt a course of conduct veryandcounsels of prudence, and t o
members of the Legislature. niuconsistent with our duty as
liberty of speech take refuge if it is
part of the world will
refuge in this house ? (Cheerss.i)loto,o be permitted to take
stances of the war, and how has that Vhat are the circum-
both sides of the house, I believe, since we been described on
solution ? I have heard the word iniquitouswlet after the dis-
solution
is certainly a war without justification. (Cheers.)plied to it.
if the object be a good one, it is not justifiable Even
and bad means to accomplish it. (Hear.) But I byd wrong
be-
lieve, nor do I think any one believes, that the do not
objec of the war is the real one. (Cheers.) 'We
eorended
war declared to be for the purpose of changing the existing
distribution distribution of Power in Europe, which has lasted -
un-
touched from the Treaty of Vienna to the present time.
We see it conducted by such an extraordinary force as natu-
rally to produce alarm in the mind of any one in this coun-
try. (Hear, hear.) France in this war appears almost as
a new Power in Europe. If it be true—find I accept the