101

CHAP. V.

VIEW OF THE MARITIME RESOURCES OF ENGLAND COMPARED

66

WITH THOSE OF FRANCE. COMPARISON OF THE MATERIEL OF THE TWO NAVIES.

LET any person stand on London bridge and look upon that dense mass of shipping, which, far as the eye can reach, and in number that defies any attempt at counting or even at guessing, covers the water. Let him then embark and thread his way through the narrow passage that intersects this floating forest, and trace it through its miles of length; let him cast his eye beyond it on the right bank, and on the left, and trace, by the masts showing above the houses, those vast artificial basins and canals, covering hundreds of acres, which receive the surplus shipping of the over-crowded river. Let him look at the building-yards, public and private, on either side, in which are at this moment building, besides innumerable traders, ships of war, for our own government, for the East India Company, for Spain, Portugal, and other powers. Let him examine (for the dusky unpretending buildings do not strike the eye)

those factories, where scores, nay hundreds, of marine steam-engines are being constructed for Great Britain and the whole world. Let him look at the steamers, varying in size from the frigate to the river-boat, whose paddles, as they pass to and fro, keep the river in endless commotion. Let him then be told that what he sees before him is repeated, though on rather a smaller scale, in the Mersey and the Clyde. Let, we say, any person gaze at this scene, and he will see before him the rough materials, the unorganised resources in personnel and matériel, of such a navy as the world has not yet seen: and resources, let it be remembered, which are only the natural emanations and exponents of our manufacturing wealth, which wealth is again the natural and almost spontaneous growth of our mineral riches in coals and iron and the native industry of the people. Will not the person gazing on this scene, whatever be his nation, say of England, "Here is a country destined to be the first maritime power of the globe ?"

Let the same person, again following the course of the crowded river, which bears on its surface the wealth of every climate, pass through the scarcely less crowded Downs, and steer a south-westerly course until the ever-moving scene, studded with endless sails, grows less and

less animated as he draws near the coast of France. His approach to that shore will be indicated by the gradual decrease in the number of sails visible. Steamers, with their long trains of smoke, will no longer obscure the atmosphere. The small coasters and fishing boats will be not only less numerous but less "shipshape" in the cut and setting of the sails. Yachts will disappear; smart-looking galleys will be replaced by clumsy boats with primitive oars. In short, he will observe, although a landsman, an unmistakeable difference, a perfect contrast between the two shores.

Perhaps, indeed, he will enter a tolerably well filled harbour; but of the shipping present, a large part will be under the British or other foreign flags, and of that which is national no small part will be found to trade, not in the usual way of commerce, but upon the bounty or special immunities granted by government. Building-yards there will be too, but on a far different scale from those on the Thames. No ships of a thousand tons and upwards, such as those built at Blackwall and elsewhere, will excite his admiration by their noble proportions and the beauty of their lines. A few merchant steamers with, perhaps, English engines. One or two small factories, for machines of trifling

power, will make up the display of commercial activity and power, on the other side of the Channel; and even of this, let us repeat, much is forced and artificial.

Such, then, is we believe a rapid sketch of what would present itself to the eye of the spectator, as a comparison between the maritime resources of the two countries. If we have exaggerated our own, it has been unintentionally, for it is not our wish to strengthen that dangerous overconfidence, which naturally, and almost necessarily, arises out of our past history. We have only dwelt on the fact of such superiority, to place in the strongest light the apparently unaccountable confidence expressed by French professional writers, and generally entertained in France, of the possibility of contending with us successfully, on what we are accustomed to consider as our own element.

But before adducing authority for the singular fact, that it is to her navy, rather than her army, France looks for future success, we must say something of the organised naval resources, on the national fleets of the two countries.

Looking first at the matériel of the two navies, though we shall not find the same overwhelming superiority which has been observed in our commercial resources, yet it may be asserted

that our own force in ships about doubles that of France*: and when we consider that over and above our royal arsenals, we have in private building-yards alone, the power of building a very large fleet in a few months, this preponderance in matériel will be thought fully sufficient. If we look at the quality as well as the number of our ships, it will not be disputed, that there never was a time when England possessed such fine ones as at this moment. The wretched classes of nineties, ninety-eights, and of fifty and sixty-four gun ships on two decks-line-of-battle ships in name, without the power of a frigate — have disappeared from the list. The twentyeight gun, or "donkey-frigate," so called because they bore the same affinity to a real frigate as a donkey does to a horse, have also been swept away. The dangerous small craft known as "floating coffins," vessels that could neither fight nor run away, have given place to corvettes and brigs, which even the adversaries of the present surveyor of the navy admit to be ex

* To the non-professional reader it is very necessary to remark that the force here spoken of, as double that of France, is the whole number of ships built or building. The force of the two countries "in commission, or armed, and manned, is about equal, while France by her more perfect organisation keeps a larger fleet available for any emergency than England.