THE PRINCE DEJOINVILLE ON THE NAVIES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

Southland Times, Issue 642, 11 March 1867, Page 3

THE PRINCE DEJOINVILLE ON THE NAVIES OF ENGL AN D AND FRANCE.

The Prince de Joinville is understood to be author of a paper iv the new number of tlie " Eeue des Deux Mondes " respecting naval tactics as exemplified at the battle of Lissa. The writer begins by pointing out that the newly created kiDgdoin of Itally was able to provide a respectable naval force without much difficulty ; that, looking at the ships alone, the result of au encounter between the Austrian and Italian fleets could not be for a moment doubtful, and it was ships alone that superficial observers looked to. The general lesson to be deduced from the battle of Lissa is that the best ships and the most destructive engines are useless when entrusted to the command of men who are too inexperienced or to much afraid of responsibility to use them. The writer glances at what England and Prance may be doing. He cays : — " England, forced in spite of herself into a path which she has not discovered, and which she dislikes, as it threatens to annihilate the colossal wooden navy of which she was so proud, as yet is content to follow in the wake of our inventions ; the genius of naval shipbuilding for war purposes, and also of artillery, she seems deficient in. She squanders millions by the hundred, and yet produces nothing that is peculiarly j her own, or that she is fully satisfied with. She hesitates between the Monitor and the iron-clad frigate, and seems ever afraid to settle definitively the plan of her naval forces. Will she allow herself to be surprised by a sudden blow, as Austria at Sadowa ? AYe have some difficulty in thinking that, under a Tory Ministry, our national animosity will be gratified by such a sight. JS T aval supremacy is so much a vital necessity for England, strong in the accumulation of such vast wealth, that, whatever the cost, she shall soon be able to provide with the means of self-defence and victory her "vigorous seafaring population, which it is impossible to behold on her coasts and in her harbors without being struck with admiration. Even at present dare we flatter ourselves that we are superior to her in ships or guns? Have America and France anything stronges than the Achilles Or the Monitor, iron-clad frigates imitated from the French ? Even already she boasts through the Press of having discovered at last agun audshot (Paiiisers chilled shot) tliat pierce and destroy irun plates as our shell used to pierce and destroy the wooden walls of old. And France, who has given to the navies of the whole world the impulse they are now following, who has invented the ironclad and the rifled gun, we would fain hope th it as regards her naval materiel she is inferior to no other natiou ; but public discussion supplies us with too few particulars to enable us to fix with any degree of precision the point Bhe may bave attained. Unfortunately, France baa not, like Englaud and the United

States* treasures and men to lavish recklessly on her naval establishments. Ari muse supply our deficiencies ; and we cannot blunder with impunity. Any mistake that* might invalidate the resources of our naval population, so scanty as it is already, or impair the efficiency of our naval staff' of officers, would, perchance, on an inauspicious day, as in Italy at present, rouse the indignation of the country against an Administration whose blindnesss or carelessness had blundered . Let it be borne in miud that the sea has a genius and requirements of her own — you cannot improvise sailors, soldiers, or sea captains as regimental colonels."