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small experience of life we have found , as a general rule that all money that is spent comes out of g fes ^^^ WEa sir-s&rjsrtt ^ - » £ » friend Mr . Brig ht : —Accidents as we aU > ^ Will occur in Sic best regulated families still , after such an accident , in your awn happy family , it mig ht be as well if you were not sovehement about aristocratic corruption . If you don't live in a g lass house yourself , you have got too close an interest in a neighbouring tenement of glass to afford the luxury of stone throwing .
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similar positions , and the utmost personal -vanity cannot force the conclusion on them that they are as much superior to their opponents individually as the nation is in strength superior to other nations . They may even be awe-struck at their own inferiority to a Napoleon or Francis Joseph , who has neither a parliament nor a public to consult , and who wields undivided that national power ¦ which they share with many ; and they may suppose the nation to be correspondingly weak . Public -writers , sensible how little good they really effect , place them even lower by comparison than they place themselves . From a traditionary respect for the nation of last century or of some centuries ago ,
instead of a respect for the living community , our statesmen seldom agree ' with it—they very generally disagree with in—and veiy generally try to thwart , oppose , and curb it . is is supposed to be their duty ; but when they do agree with it , when they can throw themselves unreservedly on the people , and all the resources of the nation are willingly placed at their disposal , then they become sensible that no despot is so strong as they are . In general , however , the nation requires to be much on its guard against being imposed on by a comparison being substituted between our statemen personally and the monarchs of the Continent for the true measure of the national power .
ject ; but whatever species of ships be employed , three-deckers , gun-boats , steam-frigates , or steamrams—men , bold , skilful , ready , undaunted men , must be had to work them , and to this , or the moral means of our defence , we exclusively direct our remarks . If it be true that nations are powerful m proportion to the knowledge and skill of their people , this is equally true of every special portion of every nation . The navy , for example , will be effective and powerful as the individuals composing it are
skilful and intelligent . They must cease to be sots , and they must no longer be treated as overgrown babies . That they may be skilful , tlieymust . be liberated from old and new restrictions . It is natural enough for Lords of the Admiralty , admirals ,. and captains , to think very much of themselves and their principles of discipline and government ; but even they find , when they are sent on a sudden emero-ency to the Baltic , that the materials of which their crews are composed is a matter oi rrreat importance . Clever , cheerful , active men will readily fall into their plaees , but they will demand clever officers . The great national object , then , to which the claims of the aristocracy must now be postponed , is to have a skilful , intrepid , mato theu
ritiine population , willing serve - country . All experience shows that such a population is not to be formed by regulations . 3 STo discipline will ever make slaves and sots into energetic men . At' present the testimony is abundant that the sea-faring population stands imicli lower in the social scale than is . warranted by their stirring avocations , the dangers they have to encounter , and the work they have to perform . This is the consequence of regulations—of civil Lords supposing seagoing to be an unpleasant life , and condemning men to it as a punishment . Regulations , of which admiralties are proud , have made the Roy al ISTavy disgustingtothe seamen , have disparaged seagoing , and both prevent the most active of our people crowding into shipping , and
degrade all the classes connected with it . This must now be altered . The national safety demands it . The time is come when " the laws and customs used at sea , " which under the name of discipline are cherished by martinetism , must be made to conform in principle to the practices of civil life . Flogging , -which has occupied the attention of the House of Commons in the week , must at once be given up— -scouted with disdain as a scandal with which we should "hold no parley . It is such an outrage on decency and feeling that the " Fogies" who defend it should not be listened to . The service should , as much as possible , bo one of perfect freedom , and every man should be at liberty to enter for any time he
pleased , and depart at the end of tus voluntary engagement . In civil life men are only too anxious to remain in an , employment , and they -would be equally anxious to remain in the navy were the service perfectly free . If , in addition , too , by remaining and serving diligently , the path were opened to the superior situations , winch hnve long been exclusively bestowed , -with unbounded profusion , on the scions of the upper classes- —swelling the navy list with an army of useless pensioned officers—the men , instead of deserting in shoals , would remain as long as their services were required . Distrust and dread , the inevitable consequonces of tyranny , arc at the bottom of all the regulations for binding every man who enters the service for half a generation . Lot it fc > o ns free for men to go and stay n ^ any , private « 5 ™ e , and ' then , like every private service , it wokbo jjr . l i ... oX « t : «^ . fv » « ntnr it nnd sticking i duwkihk * *^ - * —¦
over aone uy uuu - « v-.- . - to it as long as they ooulcT live by it . All the x ogulations for the naval service sliotild , < ° V ? founded on the fair contracts , olid jupt 1 ™ " ° ^ ° ?' and humane usages of civil " * ¦ . ""^ W ^ SiS practices , the seafaring , population d » d noUapid y increase , and rapidly Improve , anil the «« T djJ 3 c ° L&r £ s % x £ ^ vv sras te ^^^ * w bo now any pressing danger , and wo canrxot wait for improvement in the character of our seamen , compulsion should be extended to all classes . This is common justice 5 and whenever a law shall be inssod to subject ovory raua to somce iu tua
NATIONAL STRENGTH AND NATIONAL DEFENCE . We want a measure of national strength . It is not to be found in the number of people , or Russia would be twice as powerful as England . It is not to be found in organisation and the concentration of power in one hand , or Spain would be stronger than the United States . Extent of territory does not supply such a measure , or Russia would be stronger than Germany , France , and England combined . Mere wealth does not give it , for it imparts no strength , and only tempts the spoiler . Man is a compound ; and the individual is strong as his body is vigorous and his mind informed . So it is with nations . As a nation has a large number of people , it is strong bodily ; as it is rich in knowledge , it is strong mentally . The measure of-national strength , therefore , is the number of people multiplied by their skill . Thus measured , England appears to be the strongest nation npw on the face of the earth . There is no other which contains so many people possessing so much useful knowledge , and using . so much skilful industry . In the United States the number of people—21 , 767 , 673 in 18 . 50— -is not only some millions , now about three , probably , less than in our own empire , but of that number 3 , 204 , 213 are slaves , who not onry must necessarily be deficient in the useful knowledge which free men acquire , but they make it necessary for those who keep them obedient to employ a power to this end , which impedes their ¦ growth' in useful knowledge , and lessens their adaptability to assist one another . Remembering those facts , the Americans , who are neither slaves nor slave owners , may possibly have more useful knowledge and skill , man for man , than an equal number of our people . In America , every man , as the rule , is perfectly free to cultivate his faculties so as to produce the greatest advantage to himself and consequently ensure the greatest power to the community . As men are perfectly free , they adapt their labour , their skill , and their knowledge to one another , developing in each the greatest amount of ability , . and making the whole community , of which they are parts , powerful in proportion . It is , therefore , because our people are more at liberty to develope their faculties than any other people , excopt tho American , that the labour ^ of one is adapted to that of another ; that the knowledge and , skill of all are increased , and that the community is now , on the whole the > most powerful in existence . Its vast military menus being widely scattered , it could not send an army equal to that of Franco into Italy , but when wo compare the improved cultivation of our soil , and our moans of communication at home , our colonization nnd our acquisitions abroad , our vnst fleets' of merchant ships , greater" than thoso of all the rest of tho world , excluding the Americans ; our largo navy and our immense masses of machinery , giving us many millions of manual , or , as it is called , horse power ; when we multiply our numbers by tho intelligence that inform p tho minds of our people , or is incorporated in their hands , we cannot doubt that on the whole we arc more powerful than our great neighbour , or than any other nation . Why is it , then , that wo are so continually alarmed for the national safety ? Beside tho wide diilusion and misapplication pf tho national means , there is another oause for this , whioh is somewhat metaphysical , but worthy of consideration . Individuals , moulding statesmen , are apt to measure the national strength , not hythe rule now stated , but by themselves . Tho heroes of tho Horeo Guards , of tho Admiralty , and of tho Cabinet , oomparo or contrast themselves with tho horoo » of tho Continent in
Putting them , therefore , and their idle fears , and their party motives , their personal interests , and their peculiar habits aside for one moment , let us consider what the position and the strength of the ¦ country really requires for defence . The public , which believes in them , imagines that the number of bur merchant ships , exposed at the breaking out of war to capture , is an element of weakness ; but wherever there is a merchant ¦ '¦ ¦ ship , there are sailors , and wherever there . are sailors there are means of defence . We have more than once pointed out , in common with others , that the character of our seamen is , unfortunately , much deteriorated ^ and we see our statements echoed by certain shipowners who are almost exclusively to blame for the fact : and the fact , now recognised ,
creates a necessity for the sailors to be improved and ennobled in order that they may , as in the olden times , defend their own ships , and be the means of defending the country . In every sea we have great steam packets , more numerous , better appointed , and in all respects superior to any marauders , short of a great national force , which which could be fitted out to prey on our trade . Far therefore from looking , as our personally feeble rulers are apt to look , on our many merchant ships as an element of weakness , we regard it as the main element of our safety . On the sea exclusively must oxir shores be defended . Britannia needs no bulwark , No tower nlong- the steep . Her march is o ' er the mountain wave , Her home is on the deep . Wo must either consign the poet to oblivion , or we must prove his poetry to be true . To put a wall round our isle is impossible . To defend ovory town or point in its wide circumference by a fort is a thoroughly vain attempt ; but we can obtain , and to this . end our exertions for dofence should bo chiefly if not exclusively directed , a thorough command over the surrqunding ocean . Whatever auxiliary means we may employ for our safety , this is essential . We mu st not imitate the foreigner with a narrow frontier betwixt him and another which ho carefully fortifies . Our frontier is far too large for such a work , nnd wo know that
many millions of money have been wasted on fortifications at Chatham , Portsmouth , Plymouth , Shocrness , Dover , &c , &c , which have never by any chance been of more real service to the country than to fire salutes from . Our navy has , on almost every occasion , kept the enemy at a very respectable distance . The groat problem , then , which wo have to eolvo , in order to secure our own safety , is , how to keep that complete command of tho neighbouring sea , which makes fortifications
generally a more useless imitation of nations uiflbrently placed from oursolvos . ' There arc two branches of tho means for attaining this great end—the mechanical and tho moral , Tho former must vary with moohanical inventions . Tho groat throo-deckor , built twenty yoars ago , as the ark of safoty , is now a more mark to bo knocked to pieces by tho swift-moving small etoamcr . The groat steam rams now preparing may , »» their turn , give way to some still more powerful instrument of destruction . We do not moan , therefore , to say another word on tho mechanical part oi the sub-
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^ , . W «* . 1880 . 1 THE IEAD EB . . .. 691 .
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Leader (1850-1860), July 30, 1859, page 891, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2305/page/15/
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