Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-08-10

state OF the BrlJlSn navy, anu 10 Tile NeTy |
small progress made, especially of late
years, in its reconstruction with iron-ciad
vessels, and compared these results with
the great augmentation that has taken
place, and Is still taking place, 10 the armor-
clad navies OF other Statfs, He recon-
mended that twelve new armor-clad ships
should be built with all expedition. be
said: France had no less than forty two
iron cased.vessels built and building, and
the whole of those inc of building
would be completed by the end of next
year. OF these twenty-eight were large
vessels and fourteen small ones. The whole
forty-two would fight no less than no guns
protected with armor Taking the whole
Of the fleet we possessed and were build
ing, he found they represented but thirty
three vessels, and the guns which we could
fight under the protection of armor 522
against the no of the French, or not more
than two thirds in number. And so vigor
Gus had been the action of France to increase
her feet that although her number last year
was only twenty-nlne, it had since been
swelled TO forty-two, and of the thirteen
which had been added, ten were most for
midable vessels; three were vessels fight
ing sixteen guns protected with eight-inch
armor, and having speed Of fourteen
knots, and seven of them were vessels
fighting twelve guns, having six4inch ar
NOR and speed of twelve knots. In Amer
lea they had an example of wat might be
done by maritime country tcheR 10 had re-
allied the necessity of making an effort to
right itself after period of difficulty. He
did not know the details of the American
| fleet, but in an article In one of the morn
ing papers statement appeared to the eff
| feet that already the Americans had eigh-
| teen monitors carrying four guns, and that
when others actually under construction
were completed they-would have seventy
| five of various tonnage; and then it was
added that her iron-clad fleet was now
| larger chan the whole naval force was in
| 1861. This surely was sufficient to prove
| the importance of eXertiOn on our part in
order to keep pace with our foreign neigh
bOrs. Perhaps the House would allow him
| to refer again to the American monitor, the
Miantonomoh, because he felt called on to
say that he did not concur in the correct
ness of the article he,had quoted as to the
extraordinary formidable character of that
vessel. A formidable ship she undoubtedly
was, but her extremely slow speed materi-
ally detracted from her qualities as a fight
ing ship, and the disadvantage of breathing
an artificial atmosphere was very great.
Hear, hear ..... ,..... ..-
Sir j. Pakington said he had listened
with interest to the speech of his honorable
friend, and felt the utmost confidence in
his statement, that he had not been influ-
enced by party motives, and he was glad
that his honorable friend had not been de-
TERED by the change in the Government
from making his important and interesting
statement The House was told that the
French Government had forty-two IRON
clads, but if they took into account the
| ,I,; Nl,or hui typnln nd
the strength of France indrmOT plated vessels
,oas ffty eight, and that IN addition eleUeR svere
btIIding OF smaller class, while we had
not the same class of vessels TO any extent.
His honorable friend seemed to be rather
uncertain with respect to the power of
| Russia in this respect; but he could in
form him that Russia had no less than
thirty armor-cad vessels, q number of
which were turret ships. america had no
less chan seventy-three iron clad ships, and
at this very m0ment the Government of
Washington were sparing no expense or
trouble toincrease their iron-clads, dndhe
had that morning recetUed a letter containing an
account OF ship that tCdS building at Nelb
| York echicA qodS Intended to combine three
modes of attack, aGnleiy:- the Jroddside,
6y the turret and By the ram. OF course it
was yet to be shown how far those attempts
would prove successful, but at all events it
showed how enterprising the American
Government were with respect to strength
ening their national defenses in this Inn
pOrtant particular. The honorable gentle
man gave at the beginning of his speech a
formidable account of the American iron
plated ships, but at the close he treasured
the House by giving an account of the
| American monitors, which did not show
that those vessels would, in his opinion, be
| effective against us. The honorable mem
Der also alluded in terms of great respecttO
the iron-plated fleets of the nations of
Europe, but they knew, and the honorable
member admitted, that a great many of
| those ships were not ot a description which
the Admiralty. of this country would be
justified in building. ...,-., ........ ..,...
Sir s. NJ. Peto rejOiced at the absence Of
party feeling which had characterized the
discussion, and also at the change which
had placed the right, honorable gentleman
| (Sir j. Pakington) at the head of the Board
of Admiralty. On his late visit to Ameri-
ca he had the advantage of inspecting the
whole Of the Government dockyards OF that
country, and nothing could be more humil-
iating than the comparison between the
way in which the works are conducted In
that country and the way which they are
conducted in the dockyards OfOurown coun-
try. We were under a mistake If wesuppos-
ed, as his honorable friend the member for
Tavistock, did, that The american nary todS III q
condition 10 compete ,oith our Otcn. Certuinly
they had something like seventy vesselS, but ths
schOle of those vessels 1ere constructed for coast
defense. Two of those ships had come over
to Europe, and though they were not prop
erly seagoing ships they were very power
| full ships. They all knew that the noble
lord (hord Clarence Paget), the late Secre-
tary of the Admiralty, was at this moment
in large vessel in the Mediterranean, and
1 II war were declared he would have to 90
! to port and disband the whole of his men.
\ + Hear, hear The time had come when this
| question must be met and grappled with.
He did not agree with the honorable menl-
Der for Tavistock that9we should have a
fleet powerful enough to compete with the
fleets of the whole of Europe; but he
thought we, ought to be In position to meet
I the combination Of any two nations of Eu-
rope, and we were not in that position at
/, the present moment but he trusted that the
present Secretary of the Admiralty, when
| the estimates were submitted to them in
the coming session, would show that the
honor of England was safe in his hands.
J. Lord J,l Hay said the honorable, member
! for Briston had spoken Of hiantlidtioh in
| comparing the SAmerScdh nHey tCitk our osen !.
but for his part he SdsS no grOsatd far hInniIid-
tion in the G0n1bdrisoe 1.-The Unitedy States,
he supposedh had about five sea- going irons
| clad vessels. The, Miantonomoh could
hardly be considered q good seaGgoihgiges-
sell Seeing that those who1 knew her best
icould1not trust herutO Rcross the Atlantic
beven in fine weather without, two other
/ vessels to attend her, The greater propbf.
I ton of the other vessels f0f thesf United