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The state will of and ¦ ' ' ¦ , _ ¦ . '....
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the expenditure will be useless. It is t...
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RUSSIAN TRADE—STRUGGLES, AND BUBBLES. It...
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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.
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Manning Tub Navy. It Is Quite Possible, ...
ever other men may believe , ares no more exempt from the general infirmity thanthe most oversick maiden ; they are for eyer hui ? iymg into actiony and for ever learning ; after , a short time , though , tliey never ; repent , that they have done -wrong . If they do not interfere with private pursuits , and the instincts or impiilses of individuals , little Jhanilets , crowded cities , and great nations are sure , some how or other ^ to be , on the whole—if not at all times abundantly ^—reasonably well . supplied with subsistence and all the comforts and necesr saries of life . They have no confidence , however ,
in the natural instincts or impulses of individuals ; ¦ th ey cherish a disgusting ' mistrust of human nature , and an over-weening confidence in themselves and their regulations ; and they have limited the number of tradesmen hi towns , forbade the exports of native productions , to secure the supply fo r the home market , or prohibited the imports of foreign produce , to encourage home growths , bnly tP learn that they have , by their interference , lessened ; the quantity of food and starved some of the people . " What is . true of the common markets is equally true of the services of men .
Nothing is now riiore certain than that the amount of population everywhere will always be folly equal to the amount of subsistence . This great general truth is applicable to every particular employment . Every remunerating Work finds hands to do it . Whoever can pay for labour is sure to have labourers . The railway contractor , the mine or colliery undertaker , never has a doubt of finding Hands , if lie can only find funds to pay them . Human life , like every other species of life , is sure to bo fouiid wherever it -can subsist . Ouf : legislators have been ignorant of this great fact , and have endeavoured to provide men for the
public service as they endeavoured to secure a supply of corn , and the nation is now suffering from a want of seamen , and - has been suffering for many years , because the Legislature would no more trust the supply to the impulse of individuals than for a long period it would trust the supply of corn . The derangement of the markets for food , before -we had free -. trade , and . for seamen , ; during many years , are due to the same cause—the ignorant impatience and interference of theLegislature with the instincts and impulses of individuals . Under the influence of such paltry motives , our rulers would never trust the seamen to serve the
-country for adequate pay . When they required them- —though no employment than the sea is niore attractive to youth—they impressed them , they stole them , they flogged them , and treated them as Spaniards now treat the Africans . The plain and necessary conseqiience was , that men , when they <; ould obtain subsistence elsewhere , or by any other means , seldom voluntarily entered the navy . Officers can be obtained to any number , but not men . The whole secret lies in . the fact that the seamen "have always been treated by the State like slaves ; and such not being the condition of the rest of the people , they had too much good sense to degrade
themselves . With an . inexcusable negligence , or with a most contemptible conceit that the State - cannot possibly be in error , her Majesty ' s Commissioners for inquiring into the' best means of manning the navy—the Earl of Hardwicke , the Marquis of Chandos , JSdward Cardwell , W . Fanshawe Martu , J . D . IL Elphinstone , John Shepherd , and Riohard Green , with 11 . G . Rothery as . Seeretary--have taken no other nptico of this enoimous error and wrong ; and .. all its consequences , in the report they have just issued , than this : — 41 32 . The evidence of the witnesses , with scarcely an exception , shows that the system of naval
impressment , as practised in former wars > could not now be successfully enforced . We speak not of any objections to that system which may exist in our minds on the score of humanity or . justice , nor of the political excitement to which , in the opinion of some witnesses , the reyival of that system would give rise , nor of the strong and determined opposition with which , according to others , it would be met i we speak rather of difficulties arising from the altered circumstances pf the times . The sailor who wished tQ avoid impressment would have much greater facilities than formerly for desertion In foreign ports , and for escape after his arrival at homo . "
hallowed and great in the fefelings of its \ predecessors . What distinguishes the ; naval service from civil services is the comparatively small wages- ' - ' -the constraint of a master > vhp is all powerful and therefor ^ , never just—the iiisonleness of naval discipline , and the total deprivation of liberty . All these are not more necessary on board ships to secure efficient service than in the Queen ' s dockyards or id the Government offices ; .. they are relics of old wrong . Officers cannot get over the notion inherited from it , that only by coercion can they command services , and coercion they still employ . We want men for our fleet . Why should men enter the navy to be flogged like hounds ? The - _ . . . .. . . _„ . , . „ .. _! ' . Jk . ¦ ¦
day before the report of the Commissioners was published , a return appeared of the men flogged in the navy . 1 , 087 seamen , marines , and boys , were flogged in her Majesty ' s ships in 1857 , and on these 3 o ; 847 lashes were inflicted . In the five years 1853 ^ 57 * 5 , 823 persons were flogged , and no less than 182 , 779 lashes inflicted . The bulk of these punishments ^ or more than 90-100 ths , were inflicted quite contrary to the practices of civil life—^ w ithout any trial—r-without even the investigation of a court martial—and at the discretion or madness of the commanding officer . A great number of these punishments was inflicted for mere disobedience—as if a housewife were to slap
The state will get plenty of seamen , and from all parts of the world , _ when it pays them well and treats them well .. Till it does this , it does not deserve to have them ; and we may be assured it will not get them . Without touching the existing wrongs , the Commissioners recommend a considerable increase of expense : — . 598 , 821 /; a year—calculated on the number of seamen now required . Admitting that the recommendations of these further allowances , and the plans for a reserve of seamen , to be in themselves usefiil , unless the character of the navy be cleared from tlie foul stigma which it now bears , ^*^ ¥ ¦ ¦ i : * 11 ' -A . > il : _ j ¦ ¦ 4 * _¦ . ' ' ^ ''**¦ - .
her cook ' s face every time she neglected to put the kettle on at the -proper , time ; or a farmer were to cudgel his ploughman for letting the plough stand still far half an hour : or they are inflicted for insubordination—as if a master' builder yvere to knock down the journeyman who ventured to dispute his orders . And being so inflicted at . the mere discretion of inferiors , they constitute an irreconcilable difference between the navy and all civil employments . They are quite sufficient to account for the otherwise strange fact , that the Royal Navy , of all human employments , never can get men to consume the subsistence there provided . .. ~ .
Of the leading cause of the navy wanting menthe remnant of old wrong , and . itself a barbarous cruelty-: —tlie Commissioners take no notice , and do not , therefore , recommend it to be removed , as the only certain method of at all times procuring men for the fleet . They content themselves with recommending an increase in the quantity of provisions allowed to each seaman ; a free supply of beddmg and mess utensils ; a facility of alloting wages ; niore equable payments for good conduct ; more free promotion for petty and warrant officers who are to receive , when promoted , a sum of money for an outfit . All these and similar rcepmmendations are very good in their way , but they are all matters of very trivial importance compared to the means pf removing the repugnance which men now justly feel to enter the navy . Without volunteers , and as many as the State requires , such regulations are empty forms . , They are vain and -wortluess—inere skeletons without life . Of the real impediment to getting men , the Commissioners- —whose minds are imbued with the old fogyism of the last century—take no notice ; and they content themselves with almost deploring the necessary cessation of the barbarity ' which has long deprived , and tlie consequences of which still justly deprive , the state of tlie services of its best and ablest defenders . No one can deny the necessity pf training , and organising seamen for warfare , but tlieV must , first be had . At the same tinie it is plain that England cannot find her safety in organisation alone , as is how . recommended . Other nations can organise as well as England , and it is because one great nation is , supposed to have organised niore successfully than she has * that we ai'e now called on to make additional exertions . To rely on organisation
is tp dp as Jnfatico does , and , lamentable tp say ^ is to borrow ideas from her , and admit that pur navy ia inferior to hers , Supposing it true , that we must depend on organisation , pn reserves , on marines , ana npt pn the free services of eur skilful maritime population , we must admit that our naval supremacy has qomo to an end . The seurce pf our superiprity , wjiich never was organisation , is dried up . The sinews of pur strength are cut— -we ore inferior tp oiw aeighbour , ana shall have tp ccntond against a more numerous popple with re-Bourcqs more at the command of a resolute chief . It will bo a fatal errov if wo rely , as . reopmmonded by the Times and the commission , on organisatipn , instead pf pn the vpluntary and zealous services pf the skilled maritime pppulatipn of the empire .
They see with , reluctance , apparently , that the old orime committed l > y the State cannot xnow do renewed- —impresanaenii can np longer bo employed 5 but they aispard all consideration pf its consequences , as if the " heart novor treasured up a wrpng , " and every . cenwatipn . forgot all that was
The State Will Of And ¦ ' ' ¦ , _ ¦ . '....
¦ ' ' ¦ , _ ¦ . ' . ¦¦¦ ¦ " . ¦ ' ¦ .. . .. ¦ . ¦ 274 , T HE I / E ADEB . [ j ^ Oo 466 , Februar y 26 , 1859 , ¦ - ¦ • . ¦ ¦ ¦ . . . . ¦ ¦¦ ¦ -. ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ . ' ¦ . - ¦ .. ¦ ¦ ¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ . ' ¦ ' ¦ ' ' ' " ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ¦ ¦
The Expenditure Will Be Useless. It Is T...
the expenditure will be useless . It is the duty , therefore , of every patriotic and every philanthropic member of the House of Commons to refuse Ins consent to this increase of expense , or even to withhold his consent from the naval estimates , ' without . first obtaining a pledge that flagging in the navy , at the discretion of commanding officers , ' shall be abolished . Many minor reforms would naturally flow from this , which would in a short time make the Royal Navy more attractive than any common employment , and . secure it plenty of men , as long as men . were to be found in the country .
Russian Trade—Struggles, And Bubbles. It...
RUSSIAN TRADE—STRUGGLES , AND BUBBLES . It has been the misfortune of Russia to have been thrust prematurely into the conflicts and .- ' struggles of European civilisation ; and . after having beheld ¦ the . spectacle , pf a people ^ -who , on the whole , were little more advanced than Zulu Caflres— -forced'to become a powerful . military empire , we now witness an equally artificial effort to make them ,- by a quick process ; into a great industrial race . We trust that this last attempt may meet with all practicable success , but we cannot shut oiu ' eyes to the probability that financial difficulty and disappointment will be the lot of a host of premature schemes . It is the man who shows the value of the education of tlie child ^ and in like manner the . ' existing condition and capacities of Russia must prove the real : worth of the system of government administered by Nicholas and his predecessors . Tlie accession of the present Emperor gave tlie signal for . a great outcrop of industrial , speculation . The partisans of military ponip and aggression went out of favour , and power through the ill fortune of tlie Crimean war , and an exhausted country was prepared to applaud and support the peaceful projects of the new Sovereign , New projects and new companies gprung up by the score- —some for railways , some for navigation , some for commerce , some for
manufactures ,. some for the educational object of printing cheap books in the Russian tongue . The first difficulty arose from the want of a middle class , and the second from the awful state of degradation in which the licentious , superficially polished nobles had kept their wretched serfs . Adventurers from all countries were ready to offer their services and their schemes , but as the condition of Russia had offered small inducement for the better class of industrial emigrants , most of the foreign candidates for employment were of a light-fingered sort , and in most cases , the best thing to be done was to accep t the aid of sons of ministers , relatives of officials , ana officers of the army , . man y , of whom , up to the rank of generalswere no longer wanted by the State ,
, and . found themselves thrown upon the world to starve or live as the fates might decree . These gentlemen had received more or ltosa instruction in tlie official arts pf peculation , but of business , as a broad honest , fket , they wore for the most . part entirely ignorant . Even good schemes under such management must be in a perilous condition , and bad ones bo likely tp moke a rapid journey on the road tp ruin . The condition of the peasants aggravates those difficulties , for when works have to bo carried on away from a few pf the larger towns , skilled labour can only bo obtained by transporting it from enormous distances . The Russian iieaaants have
considerable powers of imitation , but millions thorn havo never seen the elementary conveniences of life , while the structure of their hovels and methods pf agriculture are sp rude ns to indicate tho appalling gulf pf ignorance that separates them from tho country people of any civilised Janu . Thoao circumstances shew that serious dangers beset tho various industrial projoots now struggling into being , but tho financial question ia oven more important . Companies' have been started without reference to tho amount of oap'tai likely to bo obtained , and numbers of Blinroliokjoi s still " labour under tho agreeable delusion that tuoy
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 26, 1859, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26021859/page/18/
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