The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-01-18 00:00:00

OUR NATIONAL DEFENCES

A writer in Fraser's Magazine for the present month
discusses this highly-important subject. In the course of
his remarks he points out the following geographical rela-
tion of France and the British Isles, with a view to the
supposed invasion :

" From the relative geography of Great Britain and
France, which from Margate to the Land's End, and
from Dunkirk to Brest, are parallel to each other, and
at no great distance, it is obvious that the maritime coasts
of Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Hampshire, Sussex,
Kent, and Essex, would be the points of attack. The
three latter, from their propinquity to London, would in
all probability be made the theatre of French operations.
From Dover and Calais the shores of France and England
mutually recede, both to the north and south. From
Cherbourg to the Isle of Wight, the distance is sixty-
three miles; from Boulogne to Rye, forty ; from Calais
to Dover, twenty-five; from Dunkirk to the Nore, forty-
five; and from the same point to the Humber, two hun-
dred and seventy. From Brest to the south coast of Ire-
land, the distance is about three hundred. The maritime
frontier of Kent and Sussex may be divided into three
sections-Ist, from Portsmouth to Dover; 2d, from Dover
to Margate ; and 3d, from the latter point to Sheerness.
The distance from these lines to the metropolis varies
from fifty-six to seventy miles ; and to Chatham, from
thirty to forty. Between Portsmouth and Sheerness
there are five great headlands, and between them nine
hays, exclusive of smaller inlets. One half of this line of
frontier is composed of high cliffs, forming an imposing
barrier; the other is flat, and unprotected by natural ob-
stacles. A few miles in the rear of this shore a chain of
downs extends from Beechey Head to Portsmouth. Be-
hind Pevensey and Romsey the ground rises gradually
until it reaches Hythe, in the rear of which place and
Folkestone the hills form a chain of natural bastions. The
centre of Kent, from Dover to Chatham, is one continued
chain of hills. Dover and Deal are the two keys of our
maritime frontier. Between Deal and Harwich is the sea
base of an equilateral triangle, of about forty miles each
way, of which the Nore forms this acute angle—Kent and
Essex the two land sides. The interval of this great
triangle, and the Straits of Dover, are the two great con-
tiguous channels through which nearly one-half of the
commerce of England circulates, and are in immediate
contact with the centre of government. Deal, by its geo-
graphical position, commands the whole maritime face on
Kent, Essex., the mouth of the Thames, and the Medway.
" From Deal to: Folkstone, there are about eight miles
of bold and insurmountable cliffs ; thence a flat shore of
thirty miles extent, to Winchelsea • and from that point
to Hastings, seven miles of steep rock ; to which succeeds
another limb of about two miles to Eastbourne. From
Beechy Head a line of tremendous cliffs extends to Sea-
ford. Between this town and Newhaven there is a small
bay and flat of five miles, formerly the estuary of the
Ouse; from thence a range of cliffs is prolonged to nine
miles to the west of Brighton, where the shore becomes
flat, and continues so to Portsmouth.
" The south segment of Ireland, Munster and Con-
naught, between Galway and Waterford, abounds with
excellent harbours. Within a sea line of three hundred
miles there are Waterford, Cork, Kinsale, Bantry. Crook-
haven, Kenmore, Shannon, Galway, Sligo, Donegal,
Lough Swilly, and Foyle. But along this extended line
of coast, both in England and Ireland, until very recently,
there were only two fortified posts of any importance—
Plymouth arid Portsmouth. The recent creation of
guard-ships, the defences making along the coast, and the
organisation of the dockyard battalions, indicate but too
clearly that our government is preparing for comirg
events.

" To effectually defend, however, with batteries and
fortifications, our extensive line of coast, would be impos-
sible ; in fact, from the immense dissemination of force it
would require, such a system of defence would present all
the defects inherent to the cordon. The essential would
be to cover the most vulnerable points of the coasts, and
the approaches to our great naval and military establish-
ments, holding our force well in hand on a central posi-
tion, ready to move rapidly on the point of danger."
As to what should be dose to meet the alleged exigen-
cies of the case he says :—" The increase of the army and
the creation of an army of reserve is therefore at once a
great constitutional measure, and the fundamental condi-
tion of a comprehensive system of national defence.
Whether the moment for creating it has arrived, the good
sense of the country and the wisdom of government must
decide; but it must he borne in mind that armies are not
created in a day, as Minerva came, all armed, from the
brain of Jove. To obtain the three essential conditions
of a powerfully constituted army— organisation, discipline.
and tactical instruction —considerable time is required,
but much more to inspire the troops composing it with
that mutual and well-founded confidence throughout every
rank, without which courage is useless and enterprise
hopeless. The mode of executing this measure must, of
course, be left to the government. What we insist on is
its imperative urgency; for if we do not retain all the es-
sentials of a military state, our greatness will vanish like a
dream. Let it also be borne in mind that the object of
France is less to conquer than to ruin England; to leave
her—as the celebrated Massena once observed to a British
diplomatist—in such a condition that no one would covet
her possession. To accomplish this end France will hesi-
tate at no sacrifice, will spare no efforts. The total anni-
hilation of the invading army would be trifling in compa-
rison with the injury it would entail on us. The beauty
and fertility of the country, the wealth and luxury of our
towns and cities, and the matchless loveliness of our wo-
men, presents a splendid aggregate of all that can inflame
the imagination of the soldier, and compensate him for
the dangers of the enterprise : in fact, to troops accus-
tomed to the toils and privations of Africa, a campaign in
this country would be the very poetry of war.
" The development and execution of a well organised
and comprehensive system of national defence is a measure
of imperative necessity. We freely admit that it will not
only entail on the nation sacrifices of a pecuniary nature,
but likewise others of a personal character, which our
money-making habits may be unwilling to submit to.
Should we, however, neglect the only means of placing on
a secure and firm basis the national honour and indepen-
dence ; if, forgetful of the warlike traditions of our ances-
tors, we concentrate all our energies on one object alone—
the accumulation of wealth, and ingloriously sink into a
nation of cotton-spinners and stockjobbers, a gloomy
morning will sooner or later dawn upon our horizon, and
teach us, when too late, the absolute mockery of mere
wealth as an element of national defence."