THE SPEECH OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XI, Issue 723, 2 June 1854, Page 4

THE SPEECH OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.

(From BelFs Messenger, March 4 .) On Thursday the Emperor in person opened, in the Hall of the Marshals, the Legislative Seseion of 1854, by the following speech : — " Messieurs les Senateurs, Messieurs les Deputes, — Since your last session two questions, as you are aware, have engaged the principal attention of the country — the insufficiency of the last harvest and difficulties abroad. These questions, however, I hasten to say, already inspire less alarm, because, notwithstanding their gravity, the extent of them may be calculated. " The insufficiency of the harvest, was estimated at about 10,000,000 of hectolitres of wheat, representing a value of nearly 300,000,000f., and the cargoes of 4000 vessels. Could the government have undertaken the purchase of these 10,000,000 of hectolitres on all points of the globe, to afterwards sell them in all the markets of France ? Experience and wisdom loudly declared that such a measure would have been surrounded with almost insurmountable embarrassments, and innumerable inconveniences and dangers. Private enterprise alone possessed the financial means for so grand an operation. The government has, therefore, done the only thing practicable j it encouraged liberty of commerce by removing from the corn trade every impediment. The high price of a commodity so necessary for general consumption is doubtless a calamity, but it was neither possible nor even desirable to avoid it, so long as the deficiency was not filled up. For if the price of wheat was lower in France than ;in neighbouring countries, foreign markets would hive been supplied at the expense of ours. " This state of things must nevertheless produce difficulties which could only be met by activity in labour, or by public charity. The government therefore opened at the commencement of the year credits which, exceeding by only some millions the resources of the Budget, will, with the co-operation of the communes aud companies, lead to a mass of works estimated at nearly 400 millions, without reckoning two millions devoted by the Minister of the Interior to charitable establishments. At the same time the general and municipal councils and private charity made the most praiseworthy sacrifices to alleviate the sufferings of the poorer classes. " I particularly recommend to your attention the system adopted by the city of Paris ; for if it extends, as I hope it may, throughout all France, it will henceforth prevent those extreme fluctuations in the price of corn, which in years of abundance make agriculture languish from the low price of wheat, and in times of scarcity cause sufferings to the poorer classes by its excessive doarncss. " This system consists in creating, in all the ' great centres of population, a credit institution, called Caisse de Boulangerie, which may give during the .months of a bad year bread at a price much below the official price, on the condition of paying a little dearer in years of fertility. These being, in general, the most numerous, it may be conceived that the compensation may be readily effected. There will also be obtained this immense advantage of founding Societes de Credit, which instead of gaining so much the more when bread is dearer are interested, like every one, that it should become cheap, for, -contrary to what exists at this moment, it makes profit in days of plenty, and loses in those of scarcity. " I am happy to announce to you now, that seven millions of hectolitres of foreign wheat are already delivered for consumption, independently of the quantities now in store and on the road ; bo that the most difficult time of the crisis has passed. " There is one remarkable fact wnich has deeply affected mo. During this rigorous winter not a single accusation has been made against the government, and the people have submitted with resignation to sufferings which it was just enough to impute to circumstances alone ; a new proof of its confidence in me, and of its conviction that their welfare is before everything the object of my constant pre-occupations. Scarcely, however, has scarcity finished than war commences. "Last year, in my opening discourse, I promised ■;to use every effort in my power to maintain peace and to reassure '"Europe. I have kept my word. In order to avoid -a -struggle, I haye deferred it as long as was permitted by honour. will know now, beyond doubt, that if France has drawn the sword, it is only because- she has been to do so. She will know that France has no idea of aggrandisement. She wishes only to resist dangerous pretensions. Thus I love to proclaim aloud that the time for conquests is passed, never to return, for it is not by reducing boundaries that a nation can henceforth be honoured and powerful : it is by placing herself at the head of generous ideas, in causing the empire of law and justice to prevail. In this you will perceive the result of a policy without egotism and without arriere pensee. It is thus that England, our ancient rival, forms with us an alliance from day to day more strict and more intimate, because the ideas which we defend are the same as those of the English people. Germany, which the remembrance of former wars still renders suspicious, and which for that reason perhaps has given for the last 40 years too many proofs of deference to the policy of the Cabinet of St Petersburg, has already recovered her independence from its allurements, and freely considers in what quarter her interests are to be found. Austria, aoove all, which cannot see with indifference the events which are preparing, enters into our alliance, and thus will confirm the character of morality and justice which marks the war which we undertake This is, indeed, the reason why she engages in it. " Europe, engaged in intestine struggles for forty years, reassured, also, by the moderation of the Emperor Alexander, in 1815, as by that of his successor until this day, seemed not to dread the danger which might menace her from the colossal power which, by her successive encroachments, embraces the north and the soutfc. — which possesses almost exclusively the two interior seas from which she can dart forth upon our civilisation. It sufficed, by the advance of an ill-founded pretension at Constantinople, to awaken sleeping Europe. " We have seen, in effect, in the East, amidst profound peace, a Sovereign exact from his most feeble neighbour new advantages, and because they were not obtained, invading two of her provinces. "This fact ought to make those who revolt against iniquity take up arms ; but we have other reasons for supporting Turkey. France has as much and perhaps more interest than England, that the influence of Russia should not extend indefinitely in Constantinople, for to reign over Constantinople is to reign over the Mediterranean; and not one of you, gentlemen, I think, will say that England alone has great interests in that sea which washes 300 leagues of our coast. Besides this, that policy does not date from yesterday. For ages every national government in France supported it, and I will not desert it. Let

it no longer be said that we have leagued together to go to Constantinople with England only to defend the cause of the Sultan, and with it the ■rights of the Christains. We go there to defend the liberty of the seas and our just influence in the Mediterranean j we go witfh Germany to aid her to preserve the rank from wh eh it seemed to i be desired to make her descend, to guard her frontiers against the preponderance of too powerful a neighbour : we go, in fine, with all those who desire the triumph of good, of law, of justice, and of civilisation. " In these solemn circumstances, gentlemen, as in all those in which I shall be obliged to appeal to the country, I am sure of your support; for I have always found in you the generous sentiments which animate the nation. Thus strong in this support, in the nobleness of the cause, and in the sincerity of our alliances, and confiding, above all, -in the protection of God, I hope soon to obtain a peace which it-will not be in the power of any one to disturb with impunity."

Ocean Steamers. — At «the meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers on Tuesday, Mr. J. W. Rendel, president, in the chair, tlie discussion on ocean steamers, reported in the^'Daily Nows' of Thursday last, was resumed. With respecter) the proportions of 6 to 1, which had! been derived from as ancient a type as Noah'sArk, it was remarked that as that construction' had not been designed either for sailing, or steaming, but only to float with a very large cargo, it afforded no analogy, for vessels built for speed, however propelled. As steam propulsion was employed, the analogy became still less apparent ; and as an instance of the advantange of lengthening ships, the case of the -vessels belonging to the North Europe Steam-Navigation Company was mentioned. The City of Norwich, 183 feet long, 26 feet beam, 471 tons burden, and 200 horse- power, could carry, as cargo, 220 head of cattle, at a speed of 10 knots per hour ; but she rolled considerably with a beam sea ; whilst the Tonning, 222 feet long, 27 feet beam,, 734 tons bui-then, and 200 horse power, carried' 300 head of cattle, -at a speed of 12 knots per hour ; she was a remarkably easy vessel, and had proved her sea worth qualities by coming safely round the coast of Scotland, during the' late gale in September. Thus, with the same engine power, by merely altering the proportions from 7 to 1 to 8 to 1, nearly €0 per cent, more cargo space was obtained, and 2 knots per hour were gained in speed, with improved sea-going qualities. It must be remarked, also, that the relative proportions of the 'Tonning' were almost identical with tliose of the proposed iron vessel for the Eastern Steam Navigation Company. Taking the Wave Queen as an extreme case — her length being 213 feet, with 15 feet bo&m, and proportions of 13 to 1, with a draught of water of only 5 feet, and comparing her performances with those of the Christiana, a good vessel, about 170 feet long, and with about the proportion of 6 to I—it1 — it was found, that whilst the latter in a moderate head-sea, continually shipped the waves, the former, in a similar sea, was pefectly dry. The advantages of employing a smaller number of large ships, rather than a greater number of small ships, for a given trade, especially for Jong voyages, was beginning to be generally admitted by •shipowners. From a table recently published, it appeared that in almost every instance the average was in favour of the largest ships, the 900-ton ships having an advantage of 24 days on the voyage to Australia over the 200 ton ships, and the 1, 200-ton ships having an advantage of 22 days over the •600 ton ships. Bat with this evidence it would not be wise to rush to the conclusion that vessels of enormous si\ze would be applicable in all circumstances; in fact, that which determined the expediency of using a large ship was the coincidence of agreat amount of traffic and great length of voyage. For example, it might be questioned, except for some special branches of commerce, which appeared now about to be greatly developed, whether a very large ship would be likely to be commercially beneficial between any two ports of Great Britain. On the other hand, with respecttothe trade between England aud America, the " Great Western," as first designed, although much the largest ship of her day was of the smallest she, by which such a trade could be conducted; and her length was actually increased, during her construction, to a point then generally considered dangerous. Since that period, all vessels on that station had been successively augmented in dimensions, as the trale increased; but even those vessels were too small for the Australian voyage of 25,000 miles, and the necessity of increasing the length was shown, by calculating how much coal would require to be carried, beyond that needed for an American voyage in order to do the Australian or the Indian voyage equally well. Such calculation demonstrated that a vessel similar to the Great Western would require to be lengthened to 520 feet to accomplish that voyage. This argument showed that the conditions of the case compelled the adoption of vessels of extraordinary length, for steam voyages of extraordinary distance. As to the mechanical strength of such vessels there was no difference of opinion on that point among engineers, the structure was of iron. Further as to the resistance of large vessels to waves; it was evident that the waves of the Atlantic, being of the same size whether the vesssel was small or large, their proportional magnitude would be decreased, as the size of the vessel was increased, so that the large ship, in a gale, would merely encounter waves of the same proportional size as a ship ef half the dimensions in half a gale: and it should be remarked, that the largest ships which had been proposed, were only double the lineal dimensions of existing vessels. It was stated, that a vessel, which from any fault of construction, or from imperfect steering power was liable to fall off into the trough of the sea, would in that position be liable to fearful accidents; and instances were cited of two vessels, of 800 tons and 1 .200 tons respec- ' tively, being struck by waves which had carried away all the upper works and swept the decks j clear. In a storm there were generally two sets of waves, the long low oscillating wave, and the the smaller waves, which were much shorter, rising under the action of the wind. It was these short waves which struck the smaller i vessels with so much force, when they got on the crest of a large one, but the deck of a very large ship would be too high for such wind waves to break upon it, except as spray. Returns were presented of the performances of paddle-wheel ocean steamers, for a period of twenty-two years, tending to prove how greatly the velocity had been increased. This was shown to have arisen from the augmented size and better build of the vessels, and tho greater power of engines and other engineering improvements. These tables, showed the necessity of a careful selection of the period from which a mean average of velocity was deduced; for example, the Hugh Lindsay, H.E.I. Co s steamer, gave in 1830 a mean average of 5i knots per hour: whereas the best of

the Cunard and of tho Collins lines of steamers gave a mean average of 12i knots per hour, for the last three years. In binding up tho discussion the dimensions were given of a great raft ship, called the Baron of Renfrew, which was built at Quebec in the year 1825, by the late Mr. Charles Wood, of Port Glasgow. Her extreme length was 304 feet; extreme breadth, 61 feet; clear depth, 34 feet; registered toneage, 5,294* tons; and cargo of timber 8,500 tons. The draft of water at the end of tho voyage, when waterlogged, was 31 feet. She had four masts, and the sails of a 3G gun frigate. Her greatest inclination under press of sail was about 20 degrees. Her greatest speed before she became waterlogged, but with 19 feet of wa, ter in the hold, was 8£ knots, which was reduced to 6 knots when she was quite full of water. She made the passage from Quebec to the Isle of Wight in 48 days. It was duo to Mr. Charles Wood to mention this daring innovation at so early a period. It appeared, that if the dimensions of vessels bad been increased, it was cvi- j dent that there had not been any increase of danger, nor was any to be anticipated. It appeared j evident, that in future, engineers must look even j further forward than they had done, und in their maritime construction, must adopt dimensions for their docks and harbours to accommodate the'increased svzes of r the vessels they were destined to-Teceive, but which some years since would have been deemed visionary.

"Wellington's Mode of Dealing with the Russians in Turkey.— To show how the Duke of Wellington acted in 1828, we offer the following extract from a communication from a friend of the late Sir Pulteney Malcolm :—"I: — "I wish you would demand the production of the orders sent by the Duke of Wellington'(when he was Premier and Lord Aberdeen Foreign Secretary, in the year 1828 or 3829) to Sir Pulteney Malcolm, then in command of the Mediterranean fleet, after the news arrived of the Russians having passed the Balkan and marched on Adrianople. I remember Sir Pulteney telling me he received a short dispatch from the Diike himself, desiring Sir P. to inform Admiral Heyden his orders were not to part company -with the Russian fleet, and to notify to him that if 'the Russians advanced, he was to capture the Hussion fleet, and take it into Malta. These positive instructions were forwarded to the Russian Government, and the Russians not only halted in their advance, but promptly retreated from the Turkish territory." The Karl of Aberdeen holds office by a kind of inheritance from the Duke of Wellington, and has proved himself but too faithful to the worse part of the illustrious Duke's home policy. Is he equally faithful to the foreign policy of his illustrious patron 1 A very short time will tell. — Standard.