The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 16, 1868.

SIR JOHN HAY ON TEE NAVY.

Sir John Hay, one of the Lords of the Admiralty, I
who is a candidate for re-election at Stamford, ad-
dressed a large meeting at the George Hotel on Friday
evening. The hon. baronet first referred to the salient
points of our foreign policy when the Conservatives took
office in the spring of 1866, and these he thus summarised.
Denmark betrayed and bleeding ; Prussia arrogant
and victorious ; Austria humbled and distrustful ; the
United States irritated and threatening; an envoy in
chains in Abyssinia; Spain insolent and revengeful;
Brazil justly aggrieved. He contrasted this description
with the manner in which Lord Stanley had conducted
our foreign affairs, and said that two years of Conservative
administration had helped to restore credit and the
public revenue, which had been deprived of its elasticity
by Mr. Gladstone's finance and Lord Westbury's legisla-
tion. After glancing at the Irish Church question, Sir John
made a statement relating to the extra expenditure for the
navy. On this point he said : We found, on coming into
office, that our great ally, France, had six ironclads
more than we had. We decided at once to redress the
balance, and commenced forthwith to complete our navy.
But ironclads are not the sole necessity for a navy, and
especially for us. They are costly, draw much water.
and require numerous crews. We require, for the protec-
tion of our commerce, small gun-vessels, which, with light
draught and few men, shall maintain inexpensively a
police in all those seas in which our interest OT our tre,aty
engagements oblige us to do so. We decided to build
eighteen. These duties are performed by a small class of
gunboat, and gunboat's had been stationed by or prede-
cessors to perform those duties. In China and Japan
there are twenity-three treaty ports. Our predecessors
determined to place there thirty-eight vessels. Of &le,
when we came into office, many were rotten, and there
was not one at home to relieve them. On the West Coast
of Africa a squadron is maintained for the suppression of
the slave trade, hut it is a deadly service. It has been
shewn that for one or two years a European constitution
suffers little permanently by being in that clihate.
We found ships and men who had been there for four
years, and not a ship to relieve them. All over the world
we found rotten ships, and in the home ports no
reliefs. Since that we have reduced the squadrons
considerably, and on the West Coast have arranged that
no English seaman shall be exposed to that pestilential
climate for more than eighteen months. We also
found that the United States were building very
fast unarmourd frigates of a class of which we had
not one. We determined to build one, the Volage, as
an experiment and a type for our frigate navy. In these
items you have the whole of the so-called extravagant
expenditure :—Hulls of armour-plated ships, contract :
1867-68, £269,380 ;1866-7, £60,000. For engines : 1867-68,
£62,400 ; 1866-67, £34,000. Engines of dockyard-built
armour-plated ships : 1867-68, £109,125 ; 1866-67, £60,000.
Volage : 1867-68, £45,000. Eight composite gunboats :
1867-68, £120,800. Ten ditto building in dockyards :
1867-68, £150,000. Total : 1867-68, £756,705 ; 1866-67,
£154,00.0 ; difference, £602,705. Here you have, gentlemen,
the half-million of extravagance with which we are charged,
and I venture to say we should have deserved impeach.
ment if we had not incurred it. Now you see that the whole
of this expenditure, to which no considerable section of
Parliament attempted to object, was rendered absolutely
necessary by the culpable neglect of our predecessors.
Much has been said about the extravagance of selling
a ship for a small sum and buying back the copper.
But you must remember that in this there is no loss.
If your ddckyards have space and hands to spare,
by all means break them up in the dockyals.
But we were obliged to get rid of these encumbrances.
The ships were not seaworthy, many of them. Thy
were sold to ship-breakers, who obtained the old timber
for themselves and some of the useless stores, but resold
the old copper to the country at the price of old copper,
sthich, being rolled in the metal mills at Chatham, wal
scld for £172,144 for the benefit of the country. 01
old ships our predecessors sold in 1865-66, £13,254,
In 1866-67, we sold £61,380 ; and in 1867-68. L 72,830.
Instead, therefore, of devoting the labour of our
dockyards to the useless repair of wooden vessels of au old
type, it was devoted to completing such wooden ships as
were necessary in time of peace, whilst at the same time
continuing with increased activity the completion of
our ironclad fleet in onr dockyards, building, fitting,
and repairing, for no greater expense, in our dockyard'
than had been incurred by our predecessors'. And
now, gentlemen, our hostile critics, who have had the
audacity to charge us with extravagance, must surely
blush when they know that not only is the navy
more efficient than it has ever been, but that in
every other particular but the building of necessary iron
ships, now nearly completed, have we paved the way for
great economy. Deptford Dockyard is about to be
closed. We have reduced the marines ; we hake reduced
the entry of officers into the navy. In one class alone
—the paymasters, which is confided to my care—l found
my predecessors entering 64 a year. I have only entered
16 a year, and find it enough for the requirements of the
service. Nor have we, at the same tinie, with a due
regard to economy, neglected the claims of old officersi,
though I, for my part, would gladly have wished that
the finances of the country would have enabled us to be
even more liberal. But we must remember the taxpayer,
and be just before we are generous. One class alone—
whose claim I have frequently advocated—the reserved
captains—had their case scrutinised with the most
careful eye. We found that one-half of them—nearly
forty—had been unjustly kept from their proper rank and
pay. We at once restored them to their proper position ;
and though I much regret that a few of my old friends
have failed to establish a like claim, yet everything in our
power is done to ameliorate their position. And now as
regards our fleet abroad. When we came into office the
flag of Spain had passed round the world in an ironclad,
the Numancia ; on none of our distant stations had
one of ours been seen. Now, the Zealous in the Pacific,
the Royal Alfred in North America, the Ocean in
China, attest the might and majesty of England.
In the- Mediterranean the wooden three-decker has
been recalled which was there as a flagship, and the flag
of the admiral flies on an ironclad, whilst the heavy ships
of his squadron are all of that type. At home an ironclad
fleet guards your shores, and will do more to defend them
than all the boasted fortifications of Mr. Gladstone. And
now, having obtained what you wish—efficiency in men
and guns and ships—you may look forward to no further
increase, but rather to a gradual reduction. Indeed, were
it not for the dockyard extension, for which our predecessors
are liable, we might at least save £1,000,000 a year, and
you may be sure that the reductions we have so carefully
commenced will lead to permanent saving.

UTILITARIANISM IN CIIINA.—The Chinese aro
utilitarians to the utmost degree. Before the death of
patients their friends dress them ready for burial, cover
their faces with white paper—often an excuse for starving
them—remonstrate with them for being so long a time in
dying, and impress upon the seriously ill the fact that
a hired cart is at the door awaiting their speedy dis-
solution. Practices so revolting must sooner or later
give way before the good work of the mission.—The
Lancet.

THE NEW COURTS POR THE TRIAL OF ELECTION
PETITIONS.--It was announced in the Court of Common
Pleas, on Saturday, by Mr. Justice Keating, that in con•
sequence orMr. Justice WilYes being now occupied in the
important duty of drawing up and framing rules for the
guidance of the courts before which the trials of election
petitions is to take place, in accordance with the terms of
the Act of Parliament passed during the last session on the
subject, that learned judge would not resume his duties in
that (the Common Pleas) court during the present term,
nor, indeed, was he likely to do so during the ensuing term.

The Bishop elect of Peterborough, in his reply to
the farewell address presented to him in Cork, said that the
time of his parting from his brethren was a grave and criti-
cal ono in the history of the Church. "It was a time to test
the love and the courage of all her children—a time when
Rich one of her sons was bound to devote to her service a
lefenco whatever of wisdom and of power he possessed,"
Should the hour of trial and peril for his "spiritual mother,
the Church in Ireland," grow darker, ho would rejoice to re-
member that "she had in her ministers a band of faithful
soldiers and servants whom danger and trial were daily
drawing into closer brotherhood."

THE LATE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS.—The Sport-
ing Gazette states that the Marquis of Hastings's illneso
culminated in " Bright's disease," which accelerated the
death of his father and his aunt, and from which he himself
had been a sufferer more or less since he was 14 years of
age. The Prince of Wales personally called to inquire
after the marquis, who had previously received a parti-
cularly kind note from his Royal Highness, containing a
letter of introduction to the Viceroy of Egypt on visiting
his dominions. Without wishing to intrude upon the sacred
privacy of the chamber of death (observes the journal
already quoted) we may state that never was woman's
attention more zealous and devotional than that of
the Marchioness of Hastings to her husband throughout
his illness, during which she scarcely left him for a moment
day or night, except to snatch occasional rest and food;
and it is a remarkable fact that long after he ceased to
take notice of other members of his family and old friends.
the stricken invalid did not fail to recognise his wife under
most gratifying and touching circumstances. The same
Affectionate hands placed a bouquet of scarlet and white
camellias in his coffin. Bell's Life understands that the
marquis has left a will by which he has bequeathed the
whole of his remaining property to his wife, to which
Instrument Admiral Yelverton and Mr. raclwick are
pppoillted executor's.

FOREIGN NOTES.

LORD STANLEY'S RIJ3IOCRED PROJECT.

The Spectator thinks Mr. Disraeli's vague hint at the
Lord Mayor's dinner, that Lord Stanley might success
fully act as mediator between France and Prussia,
had , really something in it. The announcement
has been received with great satisfaction both
at Berlin and Paris. If the attempt has
really been made, it is certainly most creditable to Lord
Stanley's moral courage. The misery produced by the
protracted suspense of Europe is incalculable. "We do
not exaggerate when we say that the direct loss definable
in cash would be scarcely covered by a sixpenny income
tax—no slight additional burden to men already taxed ad
misericordiam." But the difficulties are all but insuper•
able. Besides the fact that a nation of drilled soldiers
like Prussia cannot disarm, and that the project is in the
nature of things all but an impossibility, there are many
other considerations. King William cannot bind himself
to reject the adhesion of the Southern States. Napoleon
cannot consent to allow these annexations without destroy-
ing the last remnant of his popularity. The only means
of reconciling these radical differences would be by a grant
of neutral territory to France such as Lord Stanley
would hardly venture to propose or the Prussian Govern-
ment to sanction. The Spectator cannot believe in the
possibility of any arrangement, but if Lord Stanley, who
receives direct information from so many Courts, can, by
all means let him try.
LORD STANLEY ON FOREIGN MATTERS.

Lord Stanley's speech at King's Lynn leaves us in some
doubt as to the object of Mr. Reverdy Johnson in publish-
ing a revised edition of his speech, unless it were to modify
its tone for American readers. Our Foreign Minister is ex-
plicit enough. " Now that the American difficulties are dis-
posed of—as they will be, provided only (which I don't the
least doubt) the United States Government and Senate
ratify the act of their Minister—we have not a single con-
troversy or serious dispute with any nation or Government
in the world." This puts the nature of the Alabama set-
tlement beyond dispute, and it appears therefore certain
that Mr. Johnson's repentance was suggested chiefly by his
confident observations respecting the future impossibility
of war between the two countries.

Lord Stanley said very little of importance respecting
the disarmament question, and that little can hardly be
considered encouraging. He had no doubt that the storm
which has been hovering over Europe would blow over,
that weariness and exhaustion would of themselves bring
about disarmament. " We, of course, shall do what we
can to bring about that result ; but we shall only do it—
we ought only to do it—within certain well-defined limits.
The affair of Luxembourg was an exceptional case. We
had then an opportunity of gaining a great advantage
and of avoiding a great evil to the world with little or no
risk to ourselves. But intervention of that kind is cer-
tainly not a policy which I at least should like habitually
to practise." As the intervention which could bring
about a disarmament must be far more extensive and
difficult than the intervention which settled the
Luxembourg affair, this declaration leaves Mr. Disraeli's
speech more enigmatical than ever.

Lord Stanley's remarks on the state of affairs in the
East leave room for no other conclusion than that a
catastrophe there is imminent, and may occur any day.

SPAIN.

Another candidate has at length made his appearance
in print. This is Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, a rela-
tive of the King•of Prussia, and the son-in-law of Dom
Ferdinand of Portugal. The Daats says Prim is opposed
to this selection, but Serrano is in favour of it. It adds that
the candidature is making more progress than has been
hitherto supposed. The gracious words spoken by King
William at the opening of the Prussian Parliament must
be attributed to his desire to strengthen Prussia in that
quarter of Europe. It would certainly be a grand coup to
seat a Prussian prince on the throne of Spain, if it could
be done without a war with France. Prince Leopold is
33 years of age.
The Liberte says that Protestant churches and Jewish
synagogues are being constructed in all parts of the king-
dom. At Amposta two of these edifices are nearly
finished.

Lord Mayor was happy in his allusion to the
Atlantic Cable, hoping that " the vibrations of the
needle at either end of that cable would prove a
faithful index of the beating in unison of American
and English hearts on all questions where liberty
and the rights of conscience were concerned." Then
his lordship continued :—" Desiring to cultivate the
most intimate and cordial relations with America,
they were glad to welcome among them on the pre-
sent occasion the representative of the United
States. He trusted that the union between the
two countries would be firm and lasting, and
that this would be regarded not as a menace to other
Powers, but as an example of the relations
which ought to subsist in the family of nations."
In response, Mr. Johnson spoke with his usual
boldness, and with that disregard to the strength
of the position he assumed which gentlemen often
take who occupy a platform where they cannot be
answered. He stated, with great truth and force,
that when the two nations became separated, it was
because the men of America believed, as the mea
of England at the present day acknowledge, that
the principles of English freedom not only justified
but demanded the separation. But is it true " that
so far from injuring, the separation has served only
to increase the power and prosperity of England?"
That thirty millions of a very energetic people,
favourably situated on the globe, and with the
wealth accumulated during centuries, should have
advanced, notwithstanding the separation, cannot
surprise ; but we very much doubt whether the sepa-
ration can be said to have increased the prosperity.
Certainly not in the first instance, for the tendency of
the greater country is to absorb the lesser, but the
seat of Anglo-Saxon Government would eventually
have been placed had the countries remained com-
bined in America. Yet up to that time England
would have gained materially at the expense of her
colony, for we know that the drain of the wealth
acquired in the province is towards the mother
country—the most successful colonists returning
to England, while their places are supplied by the
broken down and used up of the fatherland. No
laws could do this so effectually as the customs of so-
ciety, although as America grew in wealth and popu-
lation, those born on the soil being attached to their
own place of nativity, the eventual result must have
been to turn England into the colony, and Amerida
i ento,th seat of Empire ; yet, during the many
generations before this could be effected, England
would have vastly benefited at the expense of Ame-.
rica. People assert that because a great tide of
prosperity set in for the Anglo-Saxon family not
many years after the separation therefore the sepa-
ration must be the cause, and as ruin had been
predicted to the empire Englishmen were agree-
ablfastonished at such a result, while the material
prosperity of both branches was simply owing to
their own industry, and the great breadth of the
earth's:surface open to their enterprise. The sepa-
ration,
.instead of increasing, has in a measure
neutralised the strength of each, for they have never
been allies, while in great wars they have been
enemies. Mr. Johnson said without hesitation that
not only was England one with the United States,
but that the North and South having settled their
differences were one with each other ! We are
very happy to receive such an assurance from so
high an authority, and we hopo that General Grant
will be able to repeat it with sincerity ere his first
Presidential term expiies. But the boldest of Mr.
Johnson's assertions, and that we most wish was
really true, is contained in the following remarks :
" And if, in the future, diplomatic negotiations
should be conducted in the same spirit with which
the noble lord and myself have carried on our nego-
tiations, I say, in presence of you all, and in pre-
sence Of the world, that in the future, wars will be
impossible. And what we have done will demon-
strate this. From 1846 to the present time, from
one cause or another, there were in all that inter-
mediate time clouds which alarmed the people of
both countries.` We have managed, as you will
soon discover, to remove those clouds and to leave
nothing upon either nation but the undimmed sun-
shine of peace. And Without meaning to disparage
the achievements of armies or of navies—achieve-
ments which we, in common with yourselves, have
honoured, whether they be those in which your own
arms or ours were concerned—l make bold to say
that if diplomacy in the future be so conducted that
war cannot occur, the rank of diplomacy will be as
high, perhaps higher, than it has ever been. And,
what is still more important, that which we, my
brothers and colleagues, may achieve will be un-
dimmed by the horrors of the battle-field, and will
receive the grateful thanks of our compeers, of all
the human race who are alive to the duty which men
and nations owe to each other."* What Mr. John-
son has overlooked is, that diplomacy has got little
or nothing to do in general with the cause of wars.
It is easy now to negotiate on the subjects left in
dispute by the war, but had Mr. Johnson tried it
at the time of the war, or immediately on its close,
he would have found but little of the honey he
can now extract from a Lord Mayor's Banquet or
a Cutlers' Feast. Take a great Constitutional lai-
yer like Reverdy Johnson, long trained to the
discusSion of politics in Congress, and States-
man bred like Lord Stanley, equally trained
to political discussion, place both wholly be-
yond outside influence, and they will soon
arrive at a fair adjustment, and this is what his
Excellency means. But are these gentlemen or
other diplomatists often likely to be so placed ?
There are such things as national prejudice, na-
tional irritation, folly, and injustice, when a John-
son or a Stanley might as well talk to the winds as
to their people, when sober and wise counsels are
trodden under the feet of an excited multitude.
This makes war ; and the easier the longer the
peace; when the people remember less of its war's
horrors, which otherwise act as a strov sedative.
When England last year was beginning tb feel bit-
' terly the support given in the United States to Fe-
nianism, after the civilized world had been horrified
by the outrage at ClerkenWell and the attempt to
invade a friendly colony during a time of peace,
Mr. Johnson himself in the Senate, on a petition
being presented by Senator Sherman from the City
Council of Cincinnati asking for protection for
American citizens abroad, said, that war could only
be avoided by negotiation, when the demand of the
Fenian prisoners to be tried by a mixed jury had been
denied. It was then that Mr. Seward undertook
to lecture England on her mode of treating these
" patriots ;" and we have little doubt that at that
moment the nations were on a volcano which an
article in the London Times only was required
to explode. The humour since then, however,
has changed, and no opportunity could be bet-
ter for the settlement of the irritating questions
in dispute. To this Mr. Adams paved the way,
and Mr. Reverdy Johnson has taken the position
by storm. He is singularly well qualified for the
mission on which he is sent, with his bold, outspoken
declarations, though they will not stand a close in-
vestigation. Mr. Disraeli was, as usual, happy in
his remarks. He has always managed to discuss
American questions with judgment and discretion,
and presents in this a favourable contrast to his
great rival, Mr. Gladstone. He spoke of the rela-
tions last year as being supposed to be full not only
of anxiety, but even of peril ; but still he was able to
reassure them, grounding his confidence in the good
sense and good humourof the citizens of the United
States, who were, in truth, then for the first time
examining the questions. In remarking on their
" good humour," he really selected the distin-
guishing trait of the American character, yet sin-
gularly enough that least understood in Eng-
land. However tall an American may talk when
he gets into his high faluten strain, he is in re-
ality the best tempered and most easily mollified
of men ; and it is this fact which is little taken
into account in diplomacy, though it will make the
United States an easy country to deal with when its
power, as is anticipated, overshadows the world.
Even the Red Indians, who lately perpetrated so
many atrocities, have a strong party to protect their
interests, and to guard them from retaliation in the
Northern .States. Mr. Disraeli, with his usual
penetration, seized on the right point, and, that
Americans really have no sympathy with Fenianism,
is best shown in the late elections, where they
dropped into an insignificance, which has naturally
excited the wrath of George Francis Train, who in

* Since the above was written another version of this
f3pcocli has Don Given.