On this page
-
Text (2)
-
is the eat used lanters t ' &*£ ¦ ¦ THE ...
-
Parliament, and winnings in the press, b...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Middle Class Members. A Good Platform Gr...
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 are managed . Mi " . Williams' remarks were 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 purse ; Presently came a vote of 3 , O 0 O « . for more clerks of the Navy Departments ; Nearly 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 . Bentincfe ' s opinion , —" the number of clerks . -was enormous and absurd , but he did not wish to effect this reductfon now . "
When the vote for 100 , 000 ? . for volunteer seamen was brought forward jit was agreed to in the same way by persons who * thought it a mistake , and the usual diyness 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 to the serious locality of a Committee of Supply . The gallant admiral is not like the old woman in the nursery rhyme , " vrho lived upon nothing but victuals and drink "—he is never happy unless he is intoxicating the country and hunself with flowing jorums of war's alarms : In this instance he assailed Admiral
" Walcot with a vigour that would lave done wonders in the Russian war . " Did the gallant admiral mean to tell him that in case of war he could lay Ms hand upon the 180 , 000 seamen scattered all over the worid ? " The gallant admiral " would lay his life on it . " Then came aiiother attack , — " Would the gallant admiral tell him that the pensioners could fight ? " " Yes , I will , " was the rejoinder ; to which " Rubbish , " uttered among roars of laughter , was the unparliamentary repl y * In a discussion about " extra hands , " Mr . Corry informed the House that there Tvas 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 , with vexatious curiosity , wanted to know why the Admiralty payed 70 Z . a ton for anchors that other folks bought at 30 Z . 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 cpals r Mr . Bruce declared that the Government purchased the worst articles at the dearest rate . Throtighout those animadversions the voting process went on most' jauntily , the money being given as freely as if every speaker had brought liia tribute of praise .
Now it strikes an outsider that this sort of thing can only be described by the British worn ?' humbug . " If the various speakers believe what they say , is it not a gross breach of trust for thorn to consent that nearly thirteen millions of money shall be handed over to an administration , which 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 observations , made once a
year at the moment of consenting to the votes demanded , ore practically worthless , and it is remarJsable that the Manchester school , who are the groat 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 nuddlo-closs will do no better than this , why should the aristocracy surrender more power into their hands P
Is The Eat Used Lanters T ' &*£ ¦ ¦ The ...
' &* £ ¦ ¦ THE LEADEK [ Ko . 486 . July 16 / 18 5 &
Parliament, And Winnings In The Press, B...
Parliament , and winnings in the press , because the navy cannot get seamen . Fine uniforms , - numerous badges of good conduct , crosses ' of honour , improvements in wages and food , the creation of many petty dignities , very respectable pensions , berths in the coast-guard , and now a large bounty , have all failed to tempt seamen to enter her Majesty ' s service . They won't go . Xow , as when Smollett wrote "Roderick Kandom ; " now , as when the seamen took away the merchant ships and fled to Holland ; now , as when there were prowling manstealers in every part , called press-gangs , there is a want of seamen for the navy ; there is , at the
same time , amongst many leading persons , a 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-continued 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 rnan-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 of ten maimed , to sing through the streets their piteous songs , "Oh , protect the hardy tar ! " & c . Fiom 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 criniinals to send them into the navy . That noble service was degraded to a gaol , and made the bugaboo of every child 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 disreputeas far as it was possible to bring such a necessary and cheerful occupation into disrepute—by the acts of men in power . The mercantile marine , in consequence , never got an abundance of the best men ; and service in the Royal ! N " for at least a centuryv till the close of . the . war in 181 & was intensely hated by the seafaring population .
Flogging is the great cruelty used by planters to make slaves work . "I have seen , " says Mr . Engledue , speaking of seamen in the -Royal Navy , " a ° man called down froin the yard and flogged , because he did not run up quick enough . ' ' Flogging then was used , and probably still is , intermediately , to make seamen work quickly , liie negroes ^ It was the accompaniment and necessary consequence of impressment . The stubborn or sulky spirit was to be flogged out of impressed men . lias the Admiralty put an end to flogging ? No . Mr . Williams stated in the llotise of Commons , oil Monday , from an official report , the
fact that , in 1854 , 35 , 479 lashes were inflicted on the backs of the honourable men in her Majesty ' s service , and that in one ship alone , the Princess Hoyal , 2 , 141 lashes were applied to the backs of fifty-three of the gallant . defenders of the country in 1857 . Far from banishing this old barbarity from the navy , every Admiralty has 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 suitsome smart martinet , if they stand not in terror of the lash ; and so the Admiralty , to this day , preserves the scourge on board her Majesty ' s ships — fit emblem of the slavery that exists there , and fit instrument for subduing the spirits of independent men . The fine discipline so much boasted of , and from which so much is expected , can be of no tise 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 be flogged because they do not move quick enough ? The expectation is ill-founded ; and as long as flogging , the companion of impressment , be honoured in the navy , volunteers worth having will never , enter . We may cast to the wind all the excuses made for it , such as that respectable sailors require it to keep the vagrants in order , because its effects on the inJuds of those who have , never served on board a man-of-war is the matter for consideration , not its effects on the minds of these 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 . 3 . his 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 officers 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 since the peace the red-coated sentinels , which
designate them to be prisons ? Quite the contrary , Qvcvy Admiralty , thoroughly ignorant of what it ought to know , and besotted }/ attached to old customs , has kept up the marines , andhas increased their numbers from 9 , 000 to 15 , 000 . Wanting seamen the state hires and pays soldiers , and employs them to perpetuate the odious characteristic or gaols , which they ' give to . men-of-war . Till the state takes a djfl ' erent course , and hires only seamen to serve on board ship , it will never get an abundarice of volunteers .
Impressed men could never hope to be officers . The officers who impressed them nncl kept thorn in obedience were a different class . All tho places of honour in the navy have long boon reserved ibi gentry , who did not object to be the tyrants of tho seamen . Has tho 'Admiralty since 1 H 15 altered this Bjstein P Quite tho contrary It has limited more than ever the superior situations to tho aristocracy , and by specifying certain remarkable merits , which may enable a foremast man to become nn officer , has made tho distinction more
broad and emphatic than before between the classes . It has relieved the young gentlemen , too , from corporal punishment , while it porsists in subjecting the common seamen to the lash . It has also increased this favoured class as it has increased the marines ; and now there are only 14 per * cent , of the many admirals , 27 per cont . of the captains , 34 percent , of the commanders , and 07 per cent , of tho lieutenants on the active list of officers ( which excludes nil retired officers ) actually employed , All the others , or 80 , 73 , w ,
All these facts 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 oxir frigates by American ships chiefly manned by British-born seamen . Even this striking illustration failed to . awaken the Government to the consequences of its own crime ; and it not only never explicitl y renounced impressment , as it was advised ,- it clung to it , and clings to it to this day , and has only lately embodied it into Acts of Parliament ( 5 & 6 Will . IV ., cap . 25 , and 16 & 17 Viet . cap . 60 ) as one of the best prerogatives of the Crown .
Dependent now on the middle classes , if not composed of them , the Government , which puts a stop to other persons carrying on tho slave trade , still formally claims the power , like the Plantagenets , of stealing the seamen and forcing them to serve it . Relying on this old barbarity , as it always has relied , it has not taken since 1815 any adequate measures to restpre the navy to tho good opinion of the seafaring population and provide it with seamen . Though the Grovernmeht may have stqod still or gone backward , society has not ; and from its progress impressment and every other species of coercion to secure the services of men has become impracticable .
AU parties agree in this , " Impressment , " Mr . Englcduo , an old Salt , told the Commissioners for Inquiring into Manning tho Navy , " would now be resisted to the back-bone . The mon would < Jie rather than submit to it . You would have a revolution in every sea-port town . " Even the men whoso brains , like those of Mr . Gardwell , the prim epitome of well-dressed , respectable , official formalism , seem composed of convolutions of red tape , admit that the old " system of impressment is
a broken reed winch will pierce the hand that leans on it . " NeverthelesS j oven the Commissioners , of which ho was one , still cherish it ; and every successive Ad m iralty since 1815 , still believing it to be an available resource , has grossly and scandalously neglected tho means of making the naval service acceptable to tho people . Every First Lord has done something in his own fiddle-faddle way to improve the naval service , but every one has stedfnstly held fast to the old wrong , and has strictly maintained some of its most noxious consequences .
WjVNTOP SEAMEN " . Tkh old evil has again surged to tho surface . There are warms atftho Admiralty , piteous declamations in
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), July 16, 1859, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16071859/page/14/
-