TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE NAVAL REVIEW.
IT is natural to feel pride in the display of maritime strength at Portsmouth on Wednesday ; not unnatural to ask what good end it served—to what use that great engine can be applied? The review answered at least three practical purposes : it was a parade before the British Sovereign and public of the forces pos- sessed i by us ; it was a display of the power of the country which
be could n great part understood by those abroad whom it was to
impress ; and it was a real muster for the information and guidance of those who have a practical knowledge of such matters. As a parade it gave full satisfaction. In massed weight of accumulated destructive...power it was as impressive as any exhibitima could be. No other state has yet put upon the waters ships of such magni- tude, or so easily handled. Modern warfare had called for gun-boats of a new construction, and there were three squadrons of them. The whole fleet was capable of exporting from this country an amount of destruction which no other state would care to import. If the Emperor of Russia had no direct representa- tive there, he will be able to learn from many witnesses who can bear the report to him, the nature of the force which would have made a tour in ihe Baltic this season; and even there the fleet has not been without its use, since the con- struction of it was no secret to Russia, and she has yielded us the victory which we might have taken, but which we must have won with a large bloodshed now spared. If there are any other foreign states, with marine interests at stake, who are at all dis- posed to part company with us as friends, the exhibition of Wed- nesday last will have a moral for them. By far the most inter- esting use of the review, however, consisted in the practical ex- hibition, for our own information, of our nautical ways and means. The country has asked itself what its sailors, its marine architects, its engineers could do for it in the construction of a powerful fleet, vast, easily handled, equipped with the most de- structive engines of war, managed with the greatest skill in navi- gation and artillery, and manned with such sailors as Great Bri- tain has always been capable of producing ? And here was the answer bodily, in the affirmative, to every part of that great question. Asked what she could do in all these matters, England answers, " That is what I can do!" And if our enemies know our resounaa, our sailors know the materials that they can em- ploy. We ascertained practically, that we have the officers, the ships and weapons, the mechanical skill, and the men.
There were other impOrtant questions which had no answer that day ; they related to that which was not reviewed. Nothing was done or could be done on Wednesday to bring out the re- sources of the country in great Admirals ; and that was the co- gent question forced upon us by the untoward events of the Bal- tic. Twice we have sent out a great fleet ; not equal to the fleet reviewed on Wednesday, but far More than equal to anything that was achieved. We had first one Admiral, who entered the Paltie telling his men " to sharpen their cutlasses," and who came out of that sea excusing his inaction by the " difficulties" that he had been unable to surmount. He was removed ; and he gave place to another gentleman, who did not launch forth into eccen- tric signals, but who maintained a very striking reserve both in word and act—who is conjectured to possess all the qualities of a
brave and capable sailor, but abstained from in the qua- lities of a dashing admiral eager for the objects of the war. We know well from the handling of the vessels, in the Baltic and at the review on Wednesday, that we have officers—regimental offi- cers as it were—capable of taking any post in a single ship : we have not yet ascertained that we have an admiral equal to such an exigency as that which we have just gone through. Is Eng- land, in her present condition, capable of producing a Drake, a Nelson, or even a Collingwood? And, if we have the fleet with all its equipments and admiral complete, to what use can we put it ? Even the Conservative Morning Post regrets that we should possess such an engine fruitlessly—" Having a fleet so unparalleled in strength and splendour, we are to settle how we may best keep it up ; how we may turn it to useful but not to aggressive account." And we are led to infer by the sequel, that the Conservative journal can think of nothing but the self-defence of the nation—against fleets that exist not. This would serve as an excellent pretext for keeping up the fleet with all its commissions and the attendant civil places or contracts ; but that is a " use" that the public would hardly sanction. If we are to maintain a fleet, it must be because we have a statesmanship in power which designs to use the instrument ; and if so, what are the principles and projects of that statesmanship ? If we are not to maintain the fleet, where was the statesmanship which had it ready the day after it was wanted ? But the maritime statesmanship of the country was one of the important things not under review on Wednesday.
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