28 SEPTEMBER 1861, Page 15

THE WARRIOR, AND ITS LESSON.

IT is most important that the public should arrive at an accurate judgment on the merits and defects of the British Admiralty. Mere censure, however acute, never yet reorganized a department, and indiscriminate attack only enables the accused Board to carry off all deficiencies under cover of a triumphant answer on a single point. Three years ago, the Admirals with grievances, who lead the assault, were never tired of talking about the blunders in the construction of the fleet. The money, they said, was thrown away. This ship was a tub, and that would not sail ; these engines were old-fashioned, and those might as well have been sold for their value as iron. A. commission of inquiry demonstrated that this charge was unfounded, that the ships of the State were the best built in the world—a great deal too good, in- deed, for the progress of invention—and John Bull, convinced that the tale of bad ships was unfounded, cottoned his ears against the charge of profusion and want of foresight proved by the same report. It will be just the same with the iron shi p. The success of the Warrior is a triumph for the Ad- miralty. They have been accused of all kinds of contra- dictory misdemeanours, excessive delay and reckless haste, pitiful economy and useless extravagance, of ignorant em- piricism and a reluctance to try experiments. The lines of the trial ship were incorrect, she would not sail, she could not steam, she would choke the gunners with smoke she was to be, in short, the costliest of mistakes. The Admiralty reply by producing a ship, very slow in building and very costly, but incomparably the most formidable fighting ship existing in the world. The superiority of La Gloire to an old seventy-four is not so marked as the superiority of the Warrior to La Gloire. The former is a floating castle, with sides as thick as those of a martello tower, lines as fine as those of a yacht, and a speed approaching that of a despatch-boat. Not a defect has been discovered in her, and had we but six similar vessels the problem would have been solved, and France hopelessly distanced in a single twelvemonth. We fear the public, justifiably contented with the Warrior, will condone all other offences, and if the progress of the• sister ships is reported by skilful penmen, will in their enthusiasm bring in a verdict of acquittal on the untried counts of the indictment.

The true charge against the Admiralty is not one of in- efficiency. It turns out ships in reasonable numbers, with sufficient speed, and in admirable order. Even in this matter of armoured ships it is only partially bebindhand. Ships quite equal to those of the French are ready to be turned out at a very short notice, and fail only in unquestionable and recognized superiority to their rivals. A really able man, of a character which enables him to say with perfect truth that he "is not much impeded by discussions," is driving straight to the single end of placing England in a position of thorough security in her own seas. He will ac- complish it, but even the Duke of Somerset cannot do more than one thing at a time, and the organization of the Admi- ralty will remain, after the new fleet has been admired, just as imperfect as it was before. It ia a steam-engine which does drive the ship, but which requires twice as much coal as it ought to consume, and wastes half its steam in leakage. It is waste, not green wood, delay, not bad lines, want of system, not want of energy, of which the public have to complain. We have got the Warrior, which costs 350,00001., but we have also got a useless outlay of 5,000,0001. a year, which the success of the Warrior does not in the least affect. We shall get a fleet, we doubt not, if a vote on a parish question does not turn out the First Lord just as he knows his work, but we shall get it through an outlay and after an effort which, properly conducted, might have built three fleets. There is nothing to alarm in the price of the Warrior. If she cost 850,0001., she is worth the money, and the Admi- ralty will not spend a second price in cutting down, length- ening, and repairing a ship watched by all England. It is the scrub-brushes not the rent which ruin the housekeeper, and it is the demand for copper nails which cripples the Ad- miralty, the endless waste and confusion in keeping the menage up to its level, in doing ordinary work, and com- pleting ordinary repairs. It is this which demands reform, and the perfection of the Warrior's lines has nothing to do with the matter. They only prove, what needed no proof, that the State, when its servants choose, can surpass any builder in the World. What is now required is that it should not spend above fifty per cent. more than a decently liberal private builder would ; but that reform is unattain- able if the Warrior's speed is to be an apology for the want of accounts, her engines for the absence of responsibility, and her lines for inefficient but voting foremen.

huge Blue-book has just been published, filled with evidence about the Admiralty, and the result of it is just this : The Duke of Somerset, if invested with power to defy the clamour of dismissed incompetents, and to alter the patent under which the Board is framed, could reform the department. Parliament neither can nor will.