Untitled

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 718, 2 March 1853, Page 3

Danger of Invasion. —lt is not only useless, but it;has at last become unfashionable, to overlook the fact that the coasts of England are undefended, before a neighbour in whom the spirit of hostility is known to exist, in whom the desire to pull down the pride of England is almost a superstition, in whose dockyards are preparing vessels described by the licensed press of the capital as the means of invading England, and who may be said only to have left undone that declaration of war which is not so likely to precede as to follow the first blow. The actual launch of vessels in Cherbourg and L’Orient, of immense size, speed, and fighting power, with the description of those vessels in the Times , almost place the public on an equality of knowledge with the official people who have so long protested against the totally inadequate progress of this country in arranging defences, as compared with the progress of our neighbour in constructing the apparatus of aggression. The Austerlitz, which was launched the other day, can carry a hundred and ten guns. The correspondent of the Times justly asks, what chance a ponderous and unmanageable sailing vessel could have against a floating battery of such power and under such command! It would not be a question of bravery, but altogether a question of instruments. The bravest man in the world, practically fixed almost to one position, could not coerce his equal in strength to ran round him. If Nelson himself were set with the Victory to encounter the Napoleon, the story of Trafalgar would have to be inverted and Nelson would have been buried, not in St. Paul’s, but at the bottom of the sea —not a martyr to triumph but a sacrifice for upholding the indomitable English reputation of the past. It has been said, as an apology for the undefended state of our coast in regard to fortifications, and for the undefended state of the island generally in regard to an armed force, that the country might rely upon its Channel fleet; but there is a centre bit (the Isle of Wight), to pierce the wooden wallsof old England. It is a question whether the men who have been engaged fourteen hours a day throughout the summer in cutting the unfinished Windsor Castle in half, to lengthen the vessel, to fit it with an auxiliary screw, and to make it into an effective screw fighting ship, will turn out an instrument equal to coping with vessels like the Napoleon. It would he re-assuvring to learn, therefore, on sufficient authority, that the coast and inland defences of the country had been put into a satisfactory state. Until that be done, it is more agreeable to know that Queen Victoria, is residing in the fastness of the Scottish Highland than on the outer edge of the southern coast. It is true that the abduction of royal host-ages has gone out of fashion—since Napoleon the First abducted Pius the Seventh ; but, undoubtedly, Napoleon, “ the Third” is not the man to ho bound by any shackles of usage or routine. It would ho very scandalous to seize the first of English ladies and carry her off in duresse; but is there any reason to suppose that the midnight invaderof “ the 2nd December” would stick at a scandal if it offered him. an advantage? mi unscrupulous man himself, he has taken for his model the great modern type of unscrupnlousncss, and the manner of Napoleon has become the mannerism of Louis Napoleon. Like his prototype, ho could work a question of the sort on the slate, setting the cost against the gain. It might cost him so many men and so much loss of character ; but the gaoler of Victoria, Queen of England, who had snatched her from her island home, would have gained so much success and so much power. The sum thus worked would show a profit; and for what else has Louis Napoleon traded ? It is a question of grave and pratical importance, which the responsible ministers of the country will do well to consider, whether Queen Victoria can reside at Osborne safely.— Spectator. A New Foreign Difficulty. —Lord Malmesbury has fallen upon evil times. He has scarcely escaped from the awkward imbroglio of the Maher affair, tluuy another Englishman appeals for redress against a personal outrage and indignity inflicted upon him through the influence of Austria. The scene of the insult on this occasion is Saxony, the person insulted is Dr. Pa get, and the secret cause of the violence to which he has been subjected is the authorship of certain hooks upon Hungary, in which that gentleman was not very complimentary to the despotism o-f the House of Hapsburg. Dr. Paget, it appeal’s, was living very quietly in Saxony, when his residence was invaded by the police, and liis manuscripts seized, no reason whatever being assigned for this invasion of his liberty. Dr. Paget is a man of ability, and Austria has committed a mistake in selecting him as a mark for its experiments on English forbearance. Tho case of Mr, Maher has supplied a precedent which will not be forgotten in the conduct of future negotiations with Lord Malmesbury cn subjects of this nature; and no little curiosity is awakened as to the course the Foreign Secretary will take in dealing with a premeditated outnge, committed by the established authorities under the sanction of a friendly Government. —Nome News,