, 1866-08-24

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dirty yellow which is universally adopt
ed to mark treachery, failure, and crime.
But TO an enormous original expense,
and to further cost in alterations and re-
pairs, is still added the cost necessary TO
retard the sure process Of decay, and 10
save these poor ne'er-do.weIIs from set
Ting down at their moorings or blocking
up the difficult channel. The authorized
List of the steam ships and vessels of the
Royal Navy, and of sailing ships in COM
mission, mounts up to the important f.
guro of 735. What The List includes,
and what it does not include, we
would rather not say hastily, for it is i'm
possible TO approach the Royal harbours
without seeing whole lines of unwieldy
vessels that can hardly be included in any
useful enumeration. But, whatever SEN
timents ofveneration or regretm may be rous-
ed at the sight of an old three-decker
that has merely swung with the tide for
thirty years, it is still sadder to read
through o long list of ships of tonnage
and weight of metal unknown TO our
fathers, with first-rate machinery, many
with accomplished officers and brave
crews, which are all superseded by the
last invention, and can only come under
fire to be either sunk or burnt.
The present is the time for a Naval
Review of a much more modest and use
full character than either of the spectacles
we saw before and after the Russian
War. We have a new Naval Ad-
ministration, and it consists of men who
have expressed their opinions freely on
that side of the House which is most ia
vOurable to criticism. One of them, in
deed, only last week improved the dis
astrOus collision in the Channel with
laudable promptitude, and without spar
ing the feelings of his predecessors.
That Administration may itself handle
the broom that sweeps clean, but there
are those who think no Administration
proper to be intrusted with a work of
inquiry, and who would rather see a
Commission for the purpose. If, as is
alleged, our Government by parties and
frequent change Of Ministers is not ia
vourable to a continuous and consistent
policy, it should at least give US the
compensation of new and unbiased opin-
ions. When a private establishment re-
mains long in the same hands, and
there happens to be no stint of money
accumulation becomes the law of every
department. The place is burdened and
filled with useless servants, useless horses
and carriages, useless furniture, useless
books, and all sorts of persons and things
that it would be a charity to pension. to
sell, or to destroy, as the case may hap
pen to be. OF course the old folks will
never see this, and it is not till a new oc-
cupant has brought the common standard
of the outer world to bear on the place
that any change can be tolerated. Now,
it is quite clear, and cannot be disputed,
that every item in the list before us,
from the Victoria, now in the Mediterran-
can, with her 102 guns, her 4,127 tons,
and 1,000-horse power,-nay, from the
armour-plated Warrior, with 80 bigger
guns. 6,1O9 tonnage, and 1,25O-horse
power, down to the fleet of screw steam
gunboats, has suffered a certain deprecia-
ton by the fact of the M~iantonomoil, and
the forthcoming feet of Monitors of
which she is the precursor. The value of
any weapon and any engine of war de-
ponds upon the existing means at the SER
vice of the foe. Just as The artillery OF
the Normans was rendered Ineffective by