Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-05-05

y y,
on International correspondents who have
grown accustomed to getting their letters
across in week, but upon the thousands
OF passengers who will be flocking to Eli
rope during the summer. Because q set
oI pungnng officials conduct England's
naval affairs, they are obliged to STAY at
sea longer than they should.
don't mean to say that all the "Lords
commissioners" Gas they are called) of
| the Admiralty are civilian land-lubbers.
There are four admirals-two fulls, a
wee, and a rear. One of the " fulls y is
Lord Alcester pronounced Awlster),
who, as Sir Beauchamp Seymour. got a
peerage for battering down the historic
town of Alexandria, and also achieved,
by vlrture OF the same heroic act, the
popular designation of " Bombard,'' as a
sort OF suggestive companion to Bonn
bast,' the title bestowed upon Lord
Wolseley. Lord Alcester has been a
good deal ridiculed upon his elevation to
the House OF Lords for SO comparatively
trivial an achievement, and one which,
placed beside the Nile or Trafalgar, sinks
into pigmy insignificance But the roval
navy is not blessed with the possession of
any Nelson's, on whom to lavish dignity,
rank, and honor, and England has to
make the most of such material as she
has. Out of the seventy fag-officers
-admirals of the fleet, vice-admirals,
and rear-admirals - what man among
them has gained any distinction as "A
commander? Three-Vice-Adm Sir
John Commerell and Sir w. Hewett, and
Rear-Admiral Salmon - have, for in
dlvidual bravery, won the Victoria Cross,
the highest reward for personal valor
England can give, and are known as Y.
C.'s. But man can be personally
courageous to the limit of fool-hardiness
without possessing either talent or ac-
CURED knowledge in the art of manhuvr-
ing a squadron in action at sea.
The fact that the Duke of Edinburgh,
the Prince of Leiningen, Prince Lewis of
Battenberg, and Prince George of Wales,
as well as the Earl of Clanwilliam, are
officers in the navy, doesn't appear to do
it any good in fighting sense The
Duke of Edinburgh is commonly accred-
tied with being good officer Hundreds
and thousands of men, who are not
dukes and sons of the Queen, are that,
and no one thinks anything about it. But
beyond the ordinary ability of the aver
age sailor, | don't suppose he possesses
any merit to place his name higher than
the position of the mere accident of
birth has put to it. One thing is known,
and that is, when the English feet was
sent up the Dardanelles in 1873, as a
quiet menace to Russia, by Lord Bea-
consfeld, the Duke of Edinburgh was not
given any command, some people, in
deed, saying he couldn't be trusted on
account of his Russian sympathies
through his marriage with the Cars
daughter. If he couldn't be trusted then,
surely he cannot now. However, trust
or no trust, there is no more likelihood of
his being employed in any naval post of
importance than that his brother, the
Duke of Connaught, would be given
other than a command of army ere
serves in case of war. How one can't
refrain from comparing the English
Princes with the Crown Prince and
Prince Frederick Charles, of Germany,
in the Franco-German war of 10!
About the only naval officer who has
really gained any sort of distinction is
Lord Charles Beresford His doing so is
a slap at the scientific-plodders who think
that a man must pass all their absurd eX
aminations or else he won't be of any
use. / don't mean to imply that Lord
"Charle" is in the faintest degree an
! ignoramus. But it is safe to say he cares
more Tor practice than theory, and has
given most convincing proof of his ability
to meet with and overcome difficulties
that no forethought of naval examiners
could presuppose the existence of. PEG
pie may say he is lucky. Perhaps he is;
but he is, at any rate, seemingly able to
90 on with his 'luck' without hitch or
! hindrance. As a matter of fact, he
doesn't know what fear is, and that is
where a great deal of his success comes
from As for the common run of English
naval officers, they are dancing, flirting,
loud, boisterous, light-headed fellows,
who think more of the effect of their
brass buttons and epaulets on the minds
of ''the ladies'" than they do of the
scientific study of navigation, steamship,
gunnery, or torpedo practice on their own.