The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-23 00:00:00

AV-21131 111 -k.t.-111111;

LONDON, TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 23. Iti4s.

We are so far from thinking lightly of what the Admiralty
have done within the last twelve months to repair the de-
fective condition of her MAJESTY'S navy, and to introduce
sound improvements into some of the most important
details of the service, that our desire is rather to ex-
press our gratitude for the zeal and earnestness with
which they have applied themselves to a vigilant and
assiduous administration of all duties of their depart-
ment. This gratitude, however, is not •nnmixed with a
confident hope that the scope of the Board's exertions
will be yet very considerably enlarged ; and allowing, as all
of us must do, for the consumption of time inseparable from
the necessity of replacing the whole, or parts only, of the
extensive action of an inefficient but complicated system, by
new machinery and a more intelligent direction of it; we still
hope to see such further demands on the attention and
labours of the Board, as are connected with objects
of primary, of vital consequence, attended to—with a
promptitude unrelaxed by the extent and duration
of former exertions. But vast as is the responsibility
attaching to the manifold duties of the service they preside over,
the praise and respect of their fellow-countrymen may well
suffice as adequate inducement to any amount of increased
efforts on their part to consolidate the strength, uphold the
efficiency, and renew and concentrate the vital energies of our
maritime power. We concur, therefore, with our correspon-
dent " JUSTITIA," in appealing to the Admiralty " to go on
with the good work which they have so boldly begun."
To this end no influence can be so advantageously
brought to act upon them, or upon any branch of the Execu-
tive, as that of public opinion. In our own columns that
opinion is to be collected from no inconsiderable variety of
correspondent., on whose communications, from time to time,
we crave leave to offer such comments as they suggest to us.
Among these, we know of none more opportune, just now,
than the letter of " Jusrma," on the " Naval Retirement."
It relates to a topic the importance and bearings of which on
the highest interests of the empire it is impossible to ex-
aggerates—difficult sufficiently to appreciate. The moral
feeling of the body of officers in one of the two great
branches of the public service it is always of the most
weobsei fi
Now, the h e
indispensable consequence to prt-serve in a healthful
and vita
served
wh conditionent was first promulgated
retirement
of
I
tiihatit which
t,beneficial, exc ud es, it appear).'
" commanders and lieutenants;" ants ; and our correspondent re-
marks that, in many
cases,
the claims of officers of these
classes are pre-eminently
in rank. This we can wellPnor to those of their superiors
aggravation of the hardship Ttlas e ; and it is, indeed, an
word has been said of individualsuofellthexclusi", that not a
the way of promise that their case7sehcala4ses," either in
with due consideration new,
or
at
somlel
flikevrise meet
or even a word of consolation to the effect tor
aro not wholly forgotten." The silence complained
st
of
.
minute ci ft:moat is neither slight its dtvretitf in
tkir