The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-16 00:00:00

down a Faith ? As we said a few days since in The
Sun, while writing on this subject, there is but one
way left to extinguish the agitation for Repeal—
and that is, by doing justice to Ireland, not
in a condescending, but in a conciliatory spirit—
not as a matter of favour, but as a matter of
right. Mr. O'Coronsr.r. is only powerful, be-
cause Ministers are unjust. To uproot his in-
fluence, you must do away with the grievances
in which that influence has originated. But time

presses, and if aught is to be done in the way of con-
ciliation, it must be done quickly. On the very first
day of the ensuing session, Sir ROBERT PEEL should
announce his determination to proceed, without an
instant's delay, to the consideration of the state of
Ireland, with a view to provide adequate measures for
its relief. Abjuring all party feelings, he should at
once boldly tell the House that the temporizing
system had been tried long enough—that expediency
had run to the full length of its tether—that
there was no longer the fain test hope of
maintaining Ireland in a state of tran-

quillity by balancing party against party, now
inclining to the one and now to the other—that, for
years past, this game had been tried with Orangeman
and Catholic, with no other result than to excite the
distrust of both ; and that, under these circumstances,
he felt that the time had arrived when a more
generous and enlarged system of policy should be
resorted to. That, influenced by the stern necessity
of the case, as also by a sense of what was just
and fitting, he was now prepared to make a
material reform in the Irish Church Establish-
ment ; to enter fully and impartially into the
difficult landlord-and-tenant question ; to ex-
tend the means of education, and place it on a
national basis; and, finally, in the distribution of
official patronage, to make no invidious distinction
between Catholic and Protestant, but to give fair play
to both. Could the Premier but muster courage
and decision enough to come forward at an early
period of the session with some such declarations as
these, Repeal would soon cease to be the bug-bear
that it has so long been to the British Cabinet ; and
Ireland, instead of Sir R. PEEL'S " great difficulty,"
would become one of the chief sources of his strength.

The experimental war brigs at Portsmouth are pro-
ceeding rapidly, we are told, with their manning.
The Water Witch has already completed her com-
plement; another is in the same condition ; a third
has entered, in a few hours, half the number of hands
she requires. This looks well ;—nay, it is a very im-
portant, as well as encouraging fact,—so far as it goes.
But it is only a small portion of the vast machine
which it is indispensable to have immediately in com-
plete working order, throughout all its ramifications
—it is but a fraction of the combined powers that
every passing day makes it of more essential conse-
quence to have ready for development at a moment's
notice. A dozen gun-brigs, as a nucleus for such a
renovated force as our scandalously dismantled navy
would want in the event of an European war, are of
little more present efficiency, in relation to the object
to be accomplished, than a dozen buckets of water
would count to as a supply towards the extinction of
a conflagration in Portsmouth Dock-yard. The only
comfort is, that we have the proof, in either case, that
the supply is at hand—available—and readily afforded,
when properly demanded. But why will not the
Admiralty go more boldly and largely to work ?
Instead of these gun-brigs, why did not they
put into commission just so many ships-of-the-
line, of the first, second, and third classes ? Men
will always be disposed, as a nautical cor-
respondent of our's clearly showed the other day,
in a well written, manly letter—to enter more readily
for service in a large man-of-war than in smaller
craft, especially where they have the opportunity of
knowing that they will be under the command of
officers who have acquired a popular reputation in
the profession. The Admiralty, moreover, could not
have imagined that should any disastrous chance re-
kindle the flame of war between France and Great
Britain, we should have an enemy's fleet of cock-
boats, sloops, and brigs to encounter. At any rate
the French Government have made a very different
kind of demonstration in their recently equipped
squadron ; and whatever opinions may be entertained
of the display of French naval tactics in the bombard-
ment of Tangiers and the battering down of the de-
fences of Mogadore ; nobody imagines that these ope-
rations were effected by metal not heavier than that
of 10 or 14-gun brigs.
In a little pamphlet, which has just been published
by RIDGWAY, and is entitled, " Some Observations
on the Present State of the Navy," we find
the same grounds of apprehension and expediency as-
signed to justify the instant adoption of some more
remedial and vigorous proceedings on the part of the
Admiralty in re-establishing and invigorating the
efficient strength of our naval arm, which we have
of late, on so many occasions, ventured to urge
upon the attention of the Government. But
the " Observations" comprise some incidentally
noticed details which we may profitably, per-
:taps, recur to for our present purpose. The course
for such energetic effects, as we advocate, in the re-
suscitation of our naval staff, as we will call it, is the
more strongly put by this writer—inasmuch as he
carefully displays the opportunities we have already
neglected ; and the positive indications and warn-
ings that have been given of the insidious designs
that were afoot against the supremacy of our flag
upon the seas. He argues that the reduction of this
force, coincidently with a state of affairs obviously
demanding increased vigilance and exertion, is quite
unaccountable; but that to have passed through the
crisis which so lately overtook us without being in-
volved in hostilities should not blind us to the fact
" that the solid security for peace no longer exists."
" That in more quarters than one, unfriendly feelings
towards us, and an aggressive spirit are plainly appa-
rent, whilst questions are already pending, and others
but too likely to arise, both with France and America,
of which no one can predict the issue."
Now, it is this consideration—this hypothesis of a
possibly approximating conflict, which appears to us
to warrant our recurrence to this all-important sub-
ject. Let us not be charged with lightly or mis-
chievously discussing inflammatory topics on mere
assumptions and visionary data. There have been
overt acts of offensive petulence, and indiscreet
escapades of latent malevolence, and unpremeditated
expressions of rankling animosity developed
in the proceedings and counsels of some
of our " very good friends," within the
last six months, that do away with all necessity for
any excessive abstinence on our part, in alluding to
the results which they have had a tendency to bring
about. In the face of all these significant intima-
tions, the Government of a Property-tax Premier
(whose first ambition seems to be a party triumph
over his predecessors, by the eduction of a surplus
revenue, out of the additional taxation, he has most
unconstitutionally imposed upon the people—whose
second, or even some lower pitched ambition on his
easy sliding. scale of political principle, is the restora-
tion of the British navy to its former massive strength
and dignity) ; this Government, we say, has been
guilty of the delinquency imputed to it in the fol-
lowing passage of these " Observations." It would
seem that nine is the cabalistic number with a Tory
Cabinet for line-of-battle ships to be kept in com-
mission. For

tionate greetings of their two Sovereigns at the Chateau
d'Eu. Yet even in this season of submission, of con-
fidence, and courtship, it appears from the Navy List of
July, 1843, that we retained no less than fifteen line-of-
battle ships in commission. Towards the close of that
year, however, the formidable progress of French in-
trigue in Spain, calculated, one might have thought, to
alarm the vigilance of our Government, and to call for
the presence of a British squadron on the Spanish coast,
seems to have prompted a further reduction of our fleet,
sufficient to give France the absolute command of the
Mediterranean ; and we accordingly- find, in the Navy
List of January, 1844, only eleven line-of-battle ships in
commission. Then followed the French outrage in Ota-
hette ; the Prince de Joinville's expedition to the coast
of Morocco ; the rapid and menacing equipment of a
large French fleet, and a state of feverish excitement
both in this country and in France, that might at any
moment involve us in war. All this, strangely enough,
seems but to have added to the impatience of the Admi-
ralty for the extinction of our fleet. More ships were
hastened home to be paid off; and we have now left
but five sail of the line available in Europe, against a
French fierce of twelve or fourteen line-of-battle ships
in the Mediterranean."

And now for the explanation how it happens that
our men of war are so thinly manned, when even
the vote of men and marines, for the present year,
is " effectively smaller than that which enabled the
late Government, in 1838 and 1839, to maintain a
force of eighteen or twenty sail of the line." He says—
" It is not of the want of men, but of their misap-
plication, that we have to complain ; and the public
may learn, with some surprise, that, with a vote for
twenty-five thousand men and boys, scarcely more than
five thousand of this number are now employed in line-
of-battle ships. The remainder are either cooped up
in harbour in the ships in ordinary, or are frittered
away in vessels of inferior classes, stuffed most incon-
veniently full of more men than they call properly em-
ploy or accommodate."

Here, for the present, we must pause. But there
is yet " stuff" enough—and of a good wholesome
kind, too—in the " Observations," to induce us to
commend another " taste" of it in the course of a
day or two.

We have received letters from Lisbon to the 10th
instant. The Cortes meet on the 30th inst. The
war of parties seems to be at its height, and the con-
tinuance of SENIOR CABRAL in power to have brought
that country to a state of extreme peril. Some ex-
tracts are given in our correspondent's letter, from a
recent publication, showing the feelings that are en-
tertained towards the highest personage in the stat
respecting the continuance of CABRAL in the ministry
and the sanction given to his illegal measures. A
rumour was in circulation of an application being
made to the Portuguese Government, by the Russian
Minister, on the part of his Sovereign, to permit a
Russian fleet to winter in the Tagus the ensuing
season. The reduction in the department of the Mi-
nister of Marine, in conformity with the promised re-
form in the several ministries, amounts to 40 contos.

Accounts have been received from Madrid of the
7th, Bth, and 9th inst. The Castellano of the 7th
contains the following on the subject of a Ministerial
modification :
" Persons usually well-informed assure us that a Mi-
nisterial reform is contemplated ; that M. Mon will be
removed to the Department of Foreign Affairs, and re-
placed in the direction of Finances by 31. Orlando ; that
M. Burgos will be appointed Minister of the Interior,
in the room of M. Pidal, who is to take the Department
of Public Instruction, about to be created ; that M. Ar-
tiler° will continue at the head of the Marine Adminis-
tration ; and that a new Ministry of Trade and Colonies
is to be formed and confided to M. °liven. We shall
accordingly have eight Ministers instead of five."
Nothing, however, had yet been decided. It ap-
pears that General NARYAEZ was anxious to take the
finances out of the hands of M. Mors, because he in-
sisted on a reduction in the army. This measure was
contrary to the ideas of General NARYAEZ, and it was
said that the best possible understanding on the subject
did not prevail between him and the influential mili-
tary chiefs, such as CONCHA, SERRANO, and PRIM.
The removal of M. MoN from the Finance depart-
ment would not strengthen the Ministry, as it is im-
probable that his successor would enjoy the confidence
of the capitalists to the same extent as M. MoN.
It was expected that the arrival of M. MARTINEZ
DE LA ROSA in Madrid would be the signal for a
further modification of the Ministry. There appears
to be no doubt that M. MARTINEZ DE LA. ROSA will
accept the portfolio of foreign affairs.
The official confirmation of the arrangement of
the quarrel between Spain and Morocco had been
received. Count BRESSON insisted upon, its being
settled.
The following is the latest intelligence from
Madrid.
" MADRID, SEPT. 9.—Mr. Thornton's letter on behalf
of the Spanish bondholders, with Lord Aberdeen's dis-
patch to Mr. Bulwer-in support of it, has been received
at the British Legation. Mr. Bulwer is expected shortly
from Cadiz. The French squadron from Mogador is in
Cadiz Bay. The French line-of:battle ship Inflexible

" ..It no period during the last nearly thirty years of and steamer Montezuma, entered on the 3d, but not
peace, has the aspect of affairs been more menacing, than having a clean bill of health from their last port, Al-
it has been of late, whilst it is equally certain that dur- giers, they were not allowed to communicate, in spite of
ing no portion of that time, even in seasons of the most the insistences of Prince de Joinville, and were obliged to
leave. The Defensor of Pueblo, Cadiz journal, has been
profound security, had the naval defences of this country
been allowed to fall so low, except indeed under the short suppressed, and the editor thrown into prison, for some
Tory interregnum of 1834, when, from a return made to strong expressions against the vessels being allowed
t
Parliament, there appear to have been, as at present, to remain, and the danger of exposing the town to the
only nine line-of-battle ships in commission. But when plague.
I say that we have even nine ships of the line in corn-
" The removal of the body of Montes do Oca to the
mission, it must not be supposed that much more than
cemetery of San Isidro, took place to-day, after a funeral
s
half that number could by any effort be made available service at the church of Jan Jos6, at which the Queen,
for combined operations. Three, the Cornwallis, the Queen Christina, and all the court were present.
Agincourt, and the Illustrious, are the flag-ships on very " "The taxes received by the bank last month amounted
distant stations ; a fourth, the Collingwood, is under or- to 44 millians of reals. Three per Cents., 27 13-16 at
ders to proceed with the flag of Sir George Seymour to 60 days ; Floating DeLt, 62 cash, 63} 60 days ; Passive,
the Pacific. There remain then, the three flag-ships of 6 1-16, 60 days."
our home ports, viz., the St. Vincent, the Caledonia, and The elections were still proceeding favourably for
txe Queen ; in the Mediterranean, the Formidable, the Ministry. A letter from Algesiras of the Ist
a-
ang the flan- of Sir Edward Owen ; and finally, the
Albion ' inst. announces that the Spanish emigrants residing
,recently also attached to Sir Edward Owen's
command.
It will thus be seen that, without resorting to at Gibraltar were all embarked, by an order of the
have available for
the aid of the three
generalguard - ship s of
in ourthe
3,hroemthe.teprorratnse,
awne Governor of the place, in the Lady Mary Wood
elsewhere, but two serviceline-of-battle ships ; and that we steamer,
for London, on the 31st ult. The only re-
orcould not muster a poor squadron of five sailof ' without leaving the shore
VALDEZ and CONTI, who were shortly to leave for
s of England unprotected by a 1
single ship."
It is well to know our own deficiencies.
iencies. The first, France The Barcelona
immeasurably the first maritime Power in the world, the engineers who are to survey
the line of rail-road
has two line-of- battle ships only in the edi M •
terra- to be constructed between that city and MrAtaro,
Dean, and five might be combined into a squadron,by under the • •
direction of Mr. o J SEPH LOCKS were ex-
denuding our great arsenals and ports of their pro- pected towards '
owards the close of the month. The. drawing
tecting gliard-shiPii Now let Us see what i the conscription lof the co • -
. on had been the occasion of oome

preparation, and what is the force of France. "We
find," says the writer, arrayed in the Mediterranean
" A French force of twelve sail of the line, to which a
still further addition of two ships has, we are told,
lately been directed. Is this a position in which it is
safe to leave the country ? We lately heard indeed
from our most passive First Lord of the Admiralty, that
he saw nothing in the equipment of a French squadron
of exercise, which could require the presence of a Bri-
tish fleet in the Mediterranean. A French squadron of
exercise forsooth ! I admit that the name of the thing is
most harmless ; but such misnomers are not new, and
hen I see a formidable armament prepared, I care but
little how it may have been christened. This, so called,
squadron of exercise, has not even made a show of as-
sembling for the practice of evolutions ; it is equipped
and prepared for active service ; a portion of it is ac-
tually employed in active warfare, and is backed by a
powerful reserve, ready to support it, if needful, against
all foreign interference. What, then, is the object of
this great effort of naval preparation on the side of
France ? No such amount of force was required for the
operations in contemplation against Morocco ; and he
must be wilfully blind who does not perceive that it has
been called forth against England alone. Ido not mean
to say, nor do I at all imagine, that this has been done
with any design of coming to an open rupture with us ;
but Ido mean, that the Government of France was de-
termined to take advantage of our weakness, in order to
obtain for itself such superiority at sea, as should ena-
ble it, for the time at least, to bid defiance to British re-
monstrance or intervention,"
The pamphleteer proceeds to show that " every
increase of the fleet of France has been met with a
corresponding reduction of ours." Does France
commission new ships ? We instantly pay off
a corresponding number of ours. That the scale of
our naval establishments is not regulated by financial
considerations alone, he remarks, is shown by the
successive votes on the naval estimates for the last
three years. In 1842-43, with a deficient revenue,
a vote was taken for no less than 32,000 men and
boys, exclusive of marines, for the service of the fleet.
In 1843-44, with an increased revenue (and taxation),
these numbers were reduced to 28,500 ; and for the
present year, with a still increased surplus revenue, a
vote is taken for only 25,500. The writer thus puts
the other alternative :--
" Was the strength of our navy, then to be determined
with any reference to the state of our foreign relations,
or to the amount of force exhibited by other nations ?
This hypothesis, too, must fail us like the last. The
present Government inherited from their predecessors a
fleet of twenty-six ships of the line; an amount of force
leaving ample scope for reduction ; there being no longer
any question pending between this country and France,
since the successful termination of our operations on the
coast of Syria, and the Treaty of 1841 between the Great
Powers and Turkey. In January, 1843, however,
our fleet still numbered eighteen ships of the line; and
even through the autumn of that year, although Lord
Ashburton, :by his treaty of Washington, had relieved
us from all immediate danger on the side of America,
and when, so far from having anything to dread from
the hostile temper of France, we heard of nothing but
the cordial relations of the two countries, and the afl'ec-