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Leader (1850-1860), 16th July 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 842, Untitled Article

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      day demands , without giving a moment ' s consideration to the important question of -what the country has-got in return" for the outlay sanctioned in the previous year . The process of business on Monday was a good illustration of the comfortable ¦ way in -which these things ai-c managed . Mr . Williams' remarks vreve sufficiently important to form the subject of a leading article in the Times —a journal not particularly favourable to the honourable gentleman ' s views—but they did not provoke any inquiry among his fellow guardians-of

      the public pttrse . Presently came a vote of 3 , 0007 . for more clerks of the Navy Departments . JSTearly every speaker objected to this extra outlay ,, and pictured the Somerset House and Admiralty divisions of the Administration as constituting a " Circumlocution Office , " in which writings were multiplied to the confusion and hindrance of business ; but the honourable House was of Mr . Bentinck's opinion ,- — " the number of clerks was enormous and absurd , but he did not wish to effect this reduction now . "

      When the vote for 100 , 000 Z . for volunteer seamen was brought forward it was agreed to in the same way by persons who thought it a mistake , and the usual dryness of such discussions was relieved by Sir C . Napier , whose style of remark was better adapted to the third bottle and the festive board than tp the serious locality of a . Committee of Supply . The gallant admiral is not like the old woman in the nursery rhyme , " lived upon nothing but victuals and drink "—he is never happy unless he is intoxicating the country and himself with flowing jorums of war's alarms . . In this instance , he assailed Admiral Walcotwitb . il vigour that would have done wonders in the Russian war . ' ^ Did the £ < rallant admiral mean to tell him that in case of war he could

      lay his hand upon the 180 , 000 seamen , scattered all over the world ? " The gallant admiral " would lay his life on it . " Then came , another attack , — " " Would the gallant admiral tell him that the pensioners coidd fight ?¦ "• " Yes , I will , " was the rejoinder ; to which " Rubbish , " uttered among roars of laughter , was the unparliamentary reply . In a discussion about " extra hands , " Mr . Corry * ~ formed the House that there was not timber enough to employ them ; that only 53 , 000 loads could possibly be obtained , while 60 , 000 loads ¦ were wanted . Here is a pretty confession for a great naval power with the uncut forests of the ¦ world at its command , and millions of serviceable trees in its own possessions left to waste their timbers as well as their sweetness on the desert air .

      Then came a talk about anchors . Mr . Lindsay , ¦ wi th vexatious curiosity , " wanted to know why the Admiralty payed 701 . a ton for anchors that other folks bought at 301 . Sir Charles Napier declared the amount of capital laying waste in anchors was " extraordinary , " and that for . years " forests of anchors had been accumulating in our ports . " Sir Charles likewise mentioned , a system at Portsmouth of making boats rotten as quickly as possible , by wetting them one tide and exposing them to . the sun during the next . With reference to coals , Mr . Bruce declared that the Government purchased the worst articles at the dearest rate . Throughout these animadversions the voting process went on most jauntily , the money being given as freely as if every speaker had brought his tribute of praise .

      Now it strikes an outsider that this sort of thing can , only be described by the British word ? ' humbug . " If the various speakers believe what they say , is it not a gross breach of trust for them t'o consent that nearly thirteen millions of money shall bo handed over to an administration , wluch they believe to be so unsound , and that they should do this without a single effort to make it better . They must know perfectly well that a few desultory obsei-vations . made once a

      year at the moment of consenting to the votes demanded , are practically ¦ worthless , and it is ronxarkablo that the Manchester school , who are the great grumblers about army and navy expenditure , never give the slightest assistance to solve the real difficulty of how to maintain the necessary armaments at a diminished cost . If the members belonging to the middle-class will do no better than this , why should the aristocracy surre , nder more p oiwer into their hands P

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      Parliament , and winnings in the press , because the navy cannot get seamen . Fine uniforms ,- mimerous bad" -e j <> f good conduct , crosses of honour , improvements in wages and food , the creation of many petty dignities , rery respectable pensions , berths in the coast-jruard , and riow a large bounty , have all failed to ^ 'tempt seamen to enter her Majesty ' s service . They won't go . Now , as when Smollett wrote "lloderick Random ; " , as when the seamen took away the merchant ships and fled to Holland ; now , as when there were prowling manstealers in every par ! , called press-gangs , there is a , want of seamen for the navy ; there is , at the ,. ' . , •¦ . , „„ iw >«« , ic , « + ii «

      same time , amongst many leading persons , u dread of invasion , and a . fear of defeat and conquest , all for want of seamen . This is only a righteous retribution , It is the natural and necessary consequence of that enormous and long-continuexl statecrime , impressment . Ages ago . Government , ignorant , imbecile , and despotic , from a habit of brutality , or in some paroxysm of terror , seized on the men it wanted , bound them , and carried them away into slavery in a man-of-war , where , like negroes , they were flogged if they did not work quickly . It kept them as long as it required their services , and then discharged them , of ten penniless , and often maimed , to sing through the streets their piteous songs , "Oh , protect the hardy tar ! " &c . From the brutal conduct of the

      Government the whole seafaring population came to look on the navy with terror . Magistrates thought it a sufficient punishment for . criminals to send them into the navy . That noble service was degraded to a g ; aol , and made the bugaboo of every eliild in the sea-ports . Mothers dreaded nothing so much as that their boys should go to sea and be caught by the pressgang . So sea-going was brought into disrepute—^ as far as it was possible to bring such a necessary and cheerful occupation into disrepute—by the acts of men in } oower . The mercantile marine , in consequence , never got an abundance of the best men ; and service in the Koyal Navy for at least a century , till the close of the war in 1815 , was intensely hated by the seafaring population . ¦¦ -,

      All these fact ' s were perfectly well known before that war came to an end ; and , crowned as it was by naval victories , before its close the true character of the system "was illustrated by the capture of three of pur frigates by American ships chiefly manned by British rborn seamen . Even this striking illustration . failed , to awaken the Government to the consequences of its own crime ; and it not only never explicitly renounced impressment , as it was advised ; it . clung to it , and clings to it to this day , and lias only lately embodied it into Acts of Parliament ( 5 & 6 Will . IV ., cap . 2 . 5 , and 1 G & 17 Viet . cap . 60 ) as one of the best preror .

      Flogsiiig is the great cruelty used by planters to make Saves work . " I have seen , " says Mr . Kngleduc , speaking of seamen in the Hoy ill Navy , u ° maii called down from the yard and flogged , because he did not run up quick enough . " ' Flogging then was \ ised , and probably still is , intermediately , to make seamen work quickly , like negroes . It was the accompaniment and . necessary consequence of impressment . The stubborn or sulky spirit was to be flogged out of'impressed men . " Has the Admiralty put an end to flogging ? No . Mr . Williams stated in the House of Commons , on Monday , from an ofiicial report , the Trinnr < nncr is the ffreat cmeltvused hvplanters to

      fiict ' that , in 1854 , 35 , 479 lashes were mlhcted on the backs of the honourable men in her Majesty ' s service , and that in one plup alone , the Princess . Royal , '' 2 , 141 lashes were applied to the backs of fifty-three of the gallant defenders of the country in 1 * 857 . Far from banishing this old barbarity from the navy , every Admiralty lias stoutly resisted all the attempts successively made by the late Mr . Hume and other members of Parliament to get rid of it . The practice , it was said , should not be given up ; subordination and discipline could not be carried on without it . The men will not fly quick enough , perhaps , up the rigging , to suit some smart inartinet , if they stand not in terror of the lash ; a . hd so the Admiralty , to this day , preserves the scourge on fit emblem of the

      board her Majesty ' s ships — slavery that exists there , and" fit instrument for subduing the spirits of independent men . The fine discipline so much boasted of , and fr ' om which so much is expected , can be of no use without men ; and how . can the Admiralty , and how can the nation which permits the Admiralty to perpetrate this atrocity , expect that ¦ skilful' . seamen-will go into the . ' navy to biy flogged because they do not move quick enough ? The expectation . is ill-founded ; and as long : is flogging , the companion of impressment , be honoured in the navy , volunteers' worth Laving will never enter . We may cast to the wind all tho excuses made for it , such as' that respectable sailors require it to keep tlic vagrants in order , becau . se its' eilects on the minds of those who have never served on board

      a man-of-war is the matter for consideration , not its effects on the minds of those who have served To the former it is an object of abhorrence , and it must be abolished before respectable men will freely enter the service of the state . A sentinel on duty—not in the field—is a policeman or a gaoler . This is a characteristic of the marines on board her Majesty ' s ships . They are excellent in battle ; when not in battle they are the gaolers of the seamen . They were employed as auxiliaries to the oflicers to keep the stolen and outraged men obedient . Betwixt them and thorough-bred sailors , except when the battle

      raged , there has always been a death feud . Has any Admiralty removed from her Majesty's ships sinoe the peace the red-coated sentinels , which designate them to be prjsons ? Quito the contrary , eyezy Admiralty , thoroughly ignorant of what it ought to know , and besottccUy , attached to old customs ,, has koptup the marines , and has increased their numbers from 9 , 000 to 1 . 0 , 000 . Wanting seamen the state hires and pays soldiers , ana employs them to perpetuate the odious characteristic of gaols , which they give to men-of-war . Till the state takes a different course , and hires only seamen-to servo ' on board ship , it will never get an abundance of volunteers . Irnpnesaed nien could never hope to bo officers . The officers who impressed thorn nnd kept , then * in obedience ' were a different class . All tlio places of honour in the navy have long been re-servod for gentry , who . did not object to bo tho tyrants of the seamen . 11 ns tho Admiralty sinco 1 H 15 nltered this Hystem ? Quite tho contrary . Itluis limited move than ever the superior " situations to tho aristocracy , and by specifying certain remarkable merits , which may enable a foremast mnn to becomo an officer , has made tho distinction more

      broad and emphatic than before botwoon the classes . It has . relieved tho young genth'mon , too , from corporal " punishment , while it persists in subjecting the common seamen to the lash , jt has also increased this favoured class ns it hag increased the marines ; . nnd now thdre aro only 14 per cent , of the many admirals , % 7 por oont . of the captains , 84 per cent , of the commanders , anjd 67 per cent , of the lieutenants on the active list of officers ( which excludes all retired officers ) actually employed . AH the others , or 86 , 73 , w .

      gatives of the Crown . Dependent now on the middle classes , if not composed of them , the Goverainent , which puts a stop to other persons carrying on the slave trade , still formally claims the power , like the Flantagenets , of stealing the seamen and forcing them to serve it . llelying on this old barbarity , ns it always has relied , it has not taken since 1815 any adequate measures * to restore the navy to the good opinion of the seafaring population nnd provide it with seamen . Though the Government may have stood still or gone backward , society has not : and from its progress impressment and

      WANT OF SEAMEN . Twwoia evil has again surged to tho surface . Thoro we alarms atjtho Admiralty , piteous declamations in

      every other . species of coercion to secure the services , of men lias Ijecomo impracticable . All pnrties-agreo in tins . " Impressment , " Mir . Englecluo , an old Salt , told the Coinnupsioncrs for Inquiring into Manning tho Navy , " would now bo resisted to tho back-bone . The men would die rather thnn' Bulmut to it . You would have a revolution in every" sea-port town . " Even the men whose brains , like those of Mr . Cardwe . ll , tho prim epitome of well-dressed , respectable , oflicial formalism , seem composed of convolutions of rod

      tape , admit that tho old " system of impressment is a broken reed which will pierce tho hand that leans on it . " Nevertheless , even tho Commissioners , of which ho was one , still cherish it ; and cvoiy successive Admiralty since 1815 , still holtcving it to Ibo an available ? resource , has grossly ana scandalously neglected the means of making the naval service acceptable to tho people . Every First Lord has done something in his own fiddle-mddlo way to improve , the naval service , but every one has stedfastly hold fast to the old wrong , and has strictly maintained some of its most noxious consequences .

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      ^ 42 - ^ THE LEADEK . "[^ o . jiS ^ J ^ 16 , 1859 . : ¦ ¦ ———— — " — — ~~ ¦ " i

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 16, 1859, page 842, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2303/page/14/