"Voluntary enlistment may be considered entirely inapplicable to cases of emergency. There are no means of calculating how long ships would be manning, if, as would necessarily happen in cases of emergency, their crews were not increased by men recently paid off from other ships. In peace, there are usually _as many ships_ paid off as commissioned in a year; and thus the men who leave one ship join another. But, even with this aid, the average time occupied by general line-of-battle ships in completing their crews, we find to have been above five months. In 1835-6, when we commissioned several ships of line at once, they were _six months waiting for seamen, and were then very ill manned_. We may safely suppose that, were ten sail of the line commissioned at this moment, and did circumstances not admit of paying others off, we should not see them manned in less than _eight_ months. We may therefore say that, for any case of emergency, simple volunteering will fail, _as it always has failed_. We may expedite the material fitting of a fleet; we may move ships about our harbours, put their masts in, and call them 'demonstration' or 'advance ships!' we may even fit them for sea--for the dockyard men can do all that--but, when fitted, _there they must remain_ for months waiting for seamen. Foreign powers are quite aware of this, for it is the duty of their consuls at our ports to inform their governments, and they must laugh at the demonstration by which John Bull plays a trick upon--HIMSELF! "It is a matter of official avowal, and, we may add, of personal and painful recollection, that, in 1840, we were unable to collect a few hundred seamen to make a show of preparation.... When England was vainly trying to scrape together a few hundred seamen, France had (in _compagnies permanentes_) upwards of 3000 ready in the Atlantic ports, and probably not less at Toulon. "It is a fact as surprising as it is discreditable to England, that _Russia could send thirty sail of the line to sea before England could send three_. "It is scarcely an exaggeration to say, we might _build_ a ship in the time required to _man_ one." We add not a word of comment on these admirable passages. Further illustration were worse than useless, after such words coming from such quarters. It is often said that all fears of invasion are ridiculous, after the failure of Napoleon, who had 130,000 of the finest troops in the world to effect it. The _Times_, with its usual ability, makes the most of this argument. We accept the challenge: and, if we are not much mistaken, that able journal will have no reason to congratulate itself on having referred to that period for support of its argument:--