quired by readers in the library than was known in any other library of Europe. With respect to the facility of entering the British Museum, as compared with foreign institutions, it should not be forgotten that in the public institutions of the Continent there was a police most vigilant and rigo there should be only one library open to the whole body of the public. In Paris there were five; and other large continental towns, such as Dresden, were also well supplied. If Government would establish libraries in the various districts, Westminster, Marylebone, Pimlico, and others, such a measure would be of great advan-rous, whilst in the British Museum there tage to the public. was none, at least of a secret character. The vote was then agreed to. NAVY ESTIMATES. MR. H. G. WARD said, that as no statement with respect to the Navy Estimates had been made, he trusted to the SIR R. H. INGLIS remarked, that the great evil, according to the hon. Member for Montrose, was the absence of responsibility in regard to the expenditure of the institution. Now it rested with the Government for the time being to consider the Estimates, and to decide upon all re-indulgence of the House whilst he made commendations made by the trustees; in a short explanation of the different votes; every instance the responsibility remained and he must, in justice to the hon. Gentlewith the Treasury. His hon. Friend said, man whom he had succeeded (Mr. Corry), say, the Museum was only open on three days that if it had not been for his kind and liof the week; but he contended, that it was beral assistance, he should not have been open on five days, for his hon. Friend could able to make himself master of the subnot say that the artists, and others who ject. In the first place, he must remind visited the institution for various objects, the House of the precise state of the votes were not a portion of the public. So far already taken; the first vote for the numfrom the regulation with respect to Tues- ber of men had passed, and the number days and Thursdays being objectionable, had been taken at 40,000; for the wages he contended that it was desirable, for the of these men 900,000l. had been voted; interests of the public, that artists should and there had been three separate votes have facilities for attending the Museum on account of other votes; 400,000l. (vote on those days. With respect to the age 3) for victualling, 1,200,0007. (vote 11) of visitors admitted, there must be some for naval stores, and 400,000l. (vote 12) limit. His hon. Friend who spoke last for new works; and on Monday last, the had said there was great difficulty in ob- House had completed the second vote by taining admission to the library; but he voting 394,7207. to furnish the sum nethought it evident, from the list of persons cessary for the charge of seamen, and with whom was deposited the privilege of 705,4481. (vote 15) for the half-pay. The granting recommendations to applicants, whole amount of the votes for the year was that sufficient facilities in this respect ex- 6,667,4147.; and, deducting the reserved isted. He thought he might apply to the credit of 190,4617., the gross sum required British Museum the remarks which Charles would be 7,476,9531. As he had already II. had made upon the climate of England stated, the whole number of men voted was -that there were more days in the year, 40,000; of these 27,500 were seamen, for and more hours in the day, during which a the fleet, surveying vessels, troop-ships, man could be in the open air than in any and yachts, 2,000 boys, 5,500 marines other country. So the British Museum afloat, and 5,000 marines ashore. The was open for more days in the year, and total wages required were 1,328,0531.; but more hours in the day, he believed, than after deducting the estimated credit of any similar institution of equal magnitude 33,3331., the total sum required for the in a foreign country. Could his hon. credit of the year would be 1,294,7201. Friend find that any such number as There was on this vote an apparent increase 64,000 persons in one year had been ad- of 5,1771.; but in fact the gross vote was mitted into any of the foreign libraries to the same as last year; but the reserved which he alluded? He believed, that no credit being less, the total sum required man in Paris ever knew a fourth of the was larger by the difference. On the senumber. The visitors to the Museum had cond vote, for the victuals of seamen and increased thirty to one since 1820; there marines, there was an increase of 34,5031. were now three times as many as six or caused almost entirely by the rise in the eight years ago. A shorter interval elapsed, price of provisions, which accounted for he believed, in the production of books re- 33,8431. out of the 34,000l. In the 3rd -t SE i vote, for the Admiralty-office, the vote was merchant service had passed through the yards was upwards of 28,000l. Vote 9 was for Freight on account of the Army was for wages paid in establishments and Ordnance Departments, on which there abroad, and this showed an increase of was an increase of 35,2211.; this was a 1,7251. Vote 10 was for naval stores, charge which came under the Admiralty, and for the building, repairing, and outfit but the Board had no control over it; it of the fleet; it exhibited an increase of comprised the passages of troops and the 1,694,152., of which 437,2851. had been freight of stores sent by sea for the service entirely caused by the increased activity of of the country. Vote 18 was a similar the different establishments towards the charge for the Home Department, 92,8591. middle and close of last year. The items for the transport of convicts, showing an were--for the additional purchase of tim- increase of 1,1867. on the previous year; ber, 199,8991.; coals, 19,974l.; steam 5,065 convicts had been sent to Hobart machinery, 170,000l.; and for steam Town and Norfolk Island, and 400 to Berguard-ships, 18,000l. It could not be muda. The increase on the vote would said that this increase had been made be- have been greater but for a reduction in fore it was called for, or without a fair ne- the freight of from 41. 13s. 8d. to 31. 17s. cessity which could not in prudence be dis- 1d., on which the present Estimate was regarded. Vote 11 was for new works, based. There had been in the present improvements, and repairs; there was a year an extraordinary increase in the numnet increase on this vote of 40,4647. The ber of convicts, to the number of 10,183, principal works were the substitution of caused by an alteration in the dockyard iron roofs over the building slips in the system, from those establishments. There dockyards for those of wood and tarred only remained the vote for the Packet Depaper, which he thought were kind of pre-partment, 544,5877. This included all miums on fire in their great naval estab- the contracts for steam mails to every part lishments; the improvement was going of the Empire, extending to the East and on, wherever repairs were required iron West Indies, the Pacific, the Mediterraroofs were substituted; nothing could be nean, Ceylon and Hong Kong; it was a more dangerous than the old and stupid charge thrown on the Admiralty, but they system of covering these buildings with tar had but little control over it; there was a and paper, a single spark falling on which net decrease on it of 1877. He had now might have cost the country 1,000,0001. gone shortly, but as clearly as he could, for the sake of a miserable economy of over the chief items of the Naval Estimates 10,000l. 156,500l. was for building steam of the year; he felt they were very large; basins at Devonport and Portsmouth. he knew that an expenditure of 7,500,000l. They had been built on a very large was one over which the House of Commons scale; but considering the preparations had a right to exercise a strict scrutiny as going on elsewhere, and the formidable or- to details. He would only remind the ganization of steamers and steam machi- House that for what was of the past, the nery on the French coast, it was im- present Board of Admiralty was not repossible for England, with any regard sponsible; he saw no fault to find with the to its own credit and safety, to remain Estimates, but they had been handed over behindhand. These works were being car- to them by their predecessors, and they ried on with all economy, but also with the had taken them as they were left. And utmost activity; a similar work was in for the future he was bound to say he' course of construction at Malta, where it should not feel justified in holding out any was much wanted; the docks there had false hopes; he did not believe that any been enlarged, and would now hold great reduction in these Estimates was steamers of 72 feet beam. Vote 12 was probable or possible, so long as the naval for medicines and medical stores, on which establishments of other countries continued there was an increase of 1,515. Vote 13 on the footing on which they were at prewas for pilotage, distressed seamen, tem-sent placed. He thought it both unfit and porary clerks, and the purchase of land, being one of the votes on which there was a decrease; that decrease was 47,3821. Vote 14 was for half-pay to officers of the Navy and Marines; 15 and 16 for pensions for good service, Greenwich Hospital, civil pensions, superannuations, &c.; on these votes also there was a decrease. Vote 17 unsafe, he believed it would be dishonourable, for England again to run the risks she had twice done during the last five years, from an unwillingness to increase their naval establishment. He believed it would be in the recollection of every man who had held such a post as the gallant Admiral (Sir C. Napier), that there were periods when any sudden rupture, either here or on the other side of the Atlantic, would have found them unprepared. He believed the maritime superiority of England was as great and decided as everthat the heart, and spirit, and means of the country were as good as ever they were; but they had distinct evidence that, from a natural unwillingness to create alarm, these means had not been concentrated; they were not available on the instant in the event of sudden attack, and the country had been left vulnerable on some important points. Up to the present moment Woolwich was the only steam factory they possessed of any size. The basins at Portsmouth and Plymouth were not yet finished; and, if finished, they were not in a proper state of defence. The advanced ships presented a formidable list; but the arrangement of manning them were inadequate and unsatisfactory. In case of a sudden emergency, he confessed he should be unwilling to trust to the exercise of the power of impressment alone. It was a resource not to be trusted to to man such a navy; and to oppose untrained men, totally unacquainted with gunnery, to trained and practised crews, at the first outbreak of any maritime contest, would be imprudent and unsafe. He would rather seek to recall and collect together, by proper regulations, those elements of strength now scattered over the globe. By their own fault they were so scattered; and it was in their power to recall them, by devising a better mode of treatment for the gallant men upon whom the country must rely for its safety. His own opinion was worth nothing; but in the opinion of many experienced officers a great deal might be done by kind treatment of the seamen, proper training of boys in the service, and altering the foolish practice of discharging a whole ship's company the moment she was paid off. Why should a practice which would be utterly destructive of the discipline of a regiment be applied to a ship? Why not endeavour to make the men anxious to remain in the service, and give them the means of remaining in it, instead of turning them adrift to be plundered of their honest earnings, and compelled to transfer their services to other Powers? He should wish to see the men with a permanent interest in the service of the Crown. He looked forward to its being the task of the present Board of Admiralty, profiting by the experience of its predecessor, to organize, complete, and systematise the great defensive arrangements now in existence. Without entertaining any hostile or ag gressive views, being as anxious as any man that the peace of the world should be preserved, he would still express his firm belief that the greatest security for peace was the conviction on the part of other nations that, as far as England was concerned, that peace could not be broken by them with impunity. That conviction would depend on the proper organization of those resources, in ships and men, which existed in every direction around them; and which, properly applied, would always make England the first maritime power in the world. The hon. Gentleman concluded by moving that 245,1487. be granted for wages and victuals of seamen. SIR C. NAPIER admitted that he had listened with great pleasure to the speech of the hon. Gentleman the Secretary of the Admiralty, who had shown a degree of information which was exceedingly creditable to him, and which it was indeed not a little surprising to find in one who had been for so short a time in the department with which he was at present connected. He was really at a loss to think how the hon. Gentleman managed to have concentrated such a mass of information within so brief a period. He had arranged it, too, in a systematic and perspicuous manner; and he (Sir C. Napier) could with truth affirm that a clearer elucidation of the whole system of the navy he had ever heard. He concurred unreservedly in almost every proposition that had fallen from the hon. Gentleman, and particularly approved of what he had said respecting the mode of manning the navy. He was also completely of the same opinion with the hon. Member as to its being exceedingly improper, and, indeed, exceedingly dishonourable to this country, that the naval establishment should ever be in such a condition that in the event of a sudden emergency we should be taken at a disadvantage. Every thing ought certainly to be ready at a moment's warning, so that we might never be taken by surprise. He trusted that the new Board of Admiralty would look vigilantly to the discharge of their duties, and display more zeal and ability than their predecessors in office, of whom, by the way, he was surprised to find that only one had thought it worth his while to be present in his place on the present occasion. The mode of manning the navy was unquestionably a matter of the most serious importance. In the year 1841 it was the opinion of him (Sir C. Na- | was one vote he could not forbear alluding pier), and of several other naval officers, to. It was that which was designed to whose opinions might be supposed to be of cover the expenses of the dockyards and some value, that the navy was very im- naval stores. The money here voted apperfectly manned. The right hon. Baronet, peared to him to be quite too profuse. If who then came into power, admitted that anything like order or economy had prevailhe was of the same opinion, and accord- ed, he certainly did think that they might ingly introduced a scale on which the ser- have diminished a million and a half of vice was for the future to be supplied; but money in the expenses of the dockyards he did not follow up his own system; and and stores. He had here again to comthe consequence was, that there was still plain, as he had complained a thousand great cause of complaint in this depart-times before, of the gross defects of our ment. No ships, it had been said, were present system of naval architecture. The for the future to be sent out to sea which ships which were constructed under that were not manned in admirable style. There system-he would not say of them that were, however, seven or eight sail of the they were absolute failures; but he cerline which were now afloat. Would it be tainly thought, and every naval officer must contended that the sail of the line now say the same, that they were bad men-ofafloat were manned in admirable style? war. They looked very charmingly in harQuite the contrary. He had no hesitation bour; but to judge of them properly you in saying they were improperly manned. should see them in a gale of wind, when it If they were inspected, it would be found would be found that they would roll fortythat they were manned not with a first-rate five degrees leeward, and forty-three decrew, but with a crew two rates below that, grees windward. He trusted that the new and that the ships were filled up with ma- Board of Admiralty would perceive the evils rines. He asked any naval officer in com- of the present system, and acknowledge the mand of a man-of-war whether he would necessity of adopting a new plan. There prefer having the number of marines on was another point he was anxious to allude board doubled, rather than to have her to. He meant the enormous expense which properly manned with competent seamen? had been incurred since 1800 in cutting The system was a most improper one; and down ships of war. They had recently he protested against it accordingly. The taken four 72-gun ships and four frigates gallant officer opposite (Captain Berkeley),-good men-of-war, or at least fair menwhom he was delighted to find again a Lord of the Admiralty, had left that department some years ago under circumstances as honourable as those under which any public man ever resigned office. He went out because he could not see the navy manned as he wished it to be. It was to be hoped that his opinion on this important subject had undergone no change, but that now that he was in office he would abide manfully by the views which he had promulgated so emphatically when out of power, and take care that no ships should go to sea that were not manned in the first style, and in all respects properly equipped. He trusted that if the gallant officer and the other new authorities at the Admiralty manifested a desire to effect these desirable changes, the House of Commons would back them zealously, and supply them in a generous spirit with the funds requisite for carrying these projects into execution. He would not, on the present occasion, trespass on the attention of the House by discussing the votes one by one, having on Tuesday evening addressed them on the subject at considerable length; but there of-war-and these they had cut down to make block ships of. The practice was an inexcusable one. Why should men-of-war be thus sacrificed? If block ships were required, what was easier than to take old hulks, mount guns on them, and to tow them by steam boats to the positions it was desirable they should occupy? The cost of repairing these block ships had been set down at 18,000l.; but he would take upon him to say that the cost of these ships would not be less than 20,000l. a piece. Independent of that, there were engines put into them at an enormous expense; and he would answer for this, that those four sail of the line and four frigates when transmogrified into block ships would cost no less than half a million of money. Let them but wait until they had obtained a bill of expenses, and they would find that they would cost little less than the sum he had mentioned. And what was the use of them? Why, they would be absolutely useless. They would be put in dock with the machinery on board, and they would be totally useless altogether. Perhaps he would be told, "Oh, no! those vessels are |