FRENCH NAVAL DEPARTMENT. [From the Hampshire Telegraph.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 220, 8 September 1847, Page 4

FRENCH NAVAL DEPARTMENT. [From the Hampshire Telegraph.]

The following RepQrt of the state of the French Naval department, taken from the Constitutionnel, is deserving the anxious attention of the. British Government. ".Commencing with the north, we have less information than we could wish about Dunkirk. If, as the Constitutionnel asserts, the basin for steamers there has not yet been furnished with the means of repairing such vessels, we undertake to say that the deficiency will not long exist. "At Calais the basin has gates 60 feet wide, the depth of water is 13 to 15 feet at neap tides, and at spring tides 18 to 20 feet. There i 3 a noble breakwater, and if fitted with gates instead of sluices, there would be shelter for 200 sail. "At Havre, 22,000,000f. have been appropriated fof fortifications, and a large basin for steamers has been begun. "At Cherbourg, 44,000,000f. have been appropriated, 18,000,000 of which are for a breakwater, and 26,000,000 for a dockyard. The dockyard contains 231 acres. There are three basins, one of 950 feet by 771, another of 984 feet by 682, and a third of 1,312 feet by 656. The first two will hold from 25 to 30 sail of the line. There are 16 slips, and

6,000 workmen are employed. The breakwater is in length 4,111 yards. The fortifications are of immense strength : one fort alone mounts 1 04 heavy guns. Everything else is on the same scale. The principal storehouse is 853 feet long. The steam factory (not yet complete) is 590 feet by 65 ; and the smithery contains 80 fires." And here let us copy in contrast the jeremiad of the Courrier Francois, to which that journal meant, no doubt, to give increased effect, when it supposed it to come from the lips of a British officer :—": — " Captain Washington/ says the Courrier, " could have stated to the Lords of the Admiralty that he had not seen at Cherbourg a single ship of the line ; that only two frigates, the Reine Blanche and the Forte, were in the deserted basins ; and that in the dockyards where vessels were lying which had been commenced ten years ago, he had not heard the sound of a single blow of a hammer, or seen a nail struck." Strange infatuation of the French minister, who keeps up and enlarges so vast a naval apparatus, apparently to make no use of it. " At St. Malo, the inlet has been converted into a basin. This work was commenced in 1836. It will hold 20 ships of the line, or from 50 to 60 frigates and steamers. A rendezvous is secured midway between Cherbourg and Brest. "At Brest, the dockyard has 16 slips, and six dry docks. The steam establishment is very large, the factory fitted with tools and machinery of English make, valued at 3,000,000f. The smithery contains 127 fires ; there are 5,000 workmen. Seamen in barracks, 2,000; forcats, 2,900. The brass foundries, boiler factories, &c, are superb — they surpass anj public or private establishment in England. The fortifications are impregnable. The garrison consists of 10,000 infantry of the line, and 3,000 marines and artillery. "At L'Orient there are slips. The smithery is 600 feet by 100. There are 1 00 fires. The enginewright's shop is fitted with English tools, Sec, worth £50,000. The iron and brass foundries and boiler factories are larger than at Woolwich ! " At Indret, there is a steam establishment of the first class 5 1,500 workmen. The smithery is 656 feet by 190. There are 45 fires. The enginewright's shop, or adjusting house, is the largest in the world — 419 feet by 135. The tools, &c, are English, valued at £120,000. — There are 6 slips. . "At Rochfort there are 13 slips. The shops for boring and fitting steam machinery, 300 feet by 75. The smithery, fitted up with tilthammers and fanblowers, contains 60 fires. There is a coppery 1,700 feet long. 2,000 workmen ; 900 convicts ; 800 seamen in barracks. This is the principal station of the Artillerie de la Marine — all picked men, and selected from the most respectable families in France. The sea defences are very strong. The batteries are armed with Paixhan guns, (180 pounders), and brass mortars of 10 and 13 inches in diameter. The Fort Napoleon alone, when completed, will mount 100 guns. "At Toulon there are 15 slips and two dry docks. A steam factory is in course of construction at Mourillon. " The above is a brief abstract of the information which has been furnished to us. We leave it to those who have official knowledge of the condition of the English dockyards, and who are officially responsible for them, to contrast them, in extent and efficiency, with the immense resources of eveiy description placed at the disposal of the French Marine."