The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-09-24 00:00:00

Kept. 24, 1814.

of strength to an arm of the service on which may devolve
the duty of supporting the honour of the English Marine
in any future war. And although we are far from desi-
ring that any opportunity for such a display should soon
occur, yet when we look to the present aspect of the poll'
tical horizon, and read the deliberate opinions and pre-
vailing sentiments of those by whose opinions and senti'
ments the probabilities of a continental war may be en'
hanced, and its terrors multiplied—when we see tbem
coolly calculating on the possibility of subverting our
power by the multiplied resources of steam navigation,
ous stroke of piratical tactics,—it certainly
and determining the issue of a campaign by some dexter-
us to find that the present government has not bees
wholly indifferent to the efficiency of that peculiar force
• ders
to which the avowed policy of our prospective invaders
has already attributed the faculty of deciding international
controversies in the shortest and most summary way'
We trust, indeed, that their warnings may prove aged;
necessary as their predictions false ; and that the P'
of Europe is in no danger of being violated by the blot' of wrongheaded subordinates, by the zeal of hot'
headed propagandists, or by the truculent ambition of a
reckless faction. But we know that there is no met":
at once so effective and pacific of demonstrating the fat'.
lity of their predictions, and the emptiness of their gas*,
conades, as the possession of such an armament as they
themselves affirm is adequate to cope with all the neces:
sities and fulfil all the functions of a great and povverfel
does gratify

navy.
While, however, we cannot help applauding this in-
crease in the numbers and efficiency of its war steamer!'
we would at the same time once more impress upon the
country and the minis ry the conviction that no tiro;
should be lost in placing the other departments of our
marine establishment on a footing of corresponding Eel;
nitude. We may rest assured, that shot*" it be our 1
fate—and we may say the ill fate of Europe—to be in-
volved in a continental war, the great conflict which Eng-
land will have to wage must be determined on the sea;
and that the question of maritime predominance or mari-
time subjection—the question which England would 00
be forced to decide—in a word, the question whether she
should abdicate her dominion of the seas or not—call
under no circumstances be decided by any number 0,,
steamers, however skilfully constructed, however lightly
built, however cleverly managed, or completely manned.
No ; the masterdom of the ocean must depend—as it
hitherto has depended—upon the bulk and body of her
sailing ships—their breadth of beam, their solidity of con-
struction—and, more than all, on the native caurage of
those who man them. As heretofore, the fate of a great
naval battle will depend on the combined science, gal-
lantry, and coolness of the officers and men—upon
the
tact with which the line is broken, or the dash with which
the enemy is boarded. No new invented mode of inva-
sion will prove a successful substitute for these old and
approved resources.