“We have great reason to be afraid of France, because she possesses a large disposable army, and our arsenals are comparatively undefended--London entirely so--and we have no sufficient naval force at home. Of ships (with the exception of steamers) we have enough; but what is the use of them without men? They are only barracks, and are of no more use for defence than if we were to build batteries all over the country, without soldiers to put into them. * * * * * “Such were our inadequate resources for defence, had the Russians been able to get out of the Baltic, and make an attempt on our unprotected shores. * * * * * “The great difficulty consisted in the manning of such a fleet. Impressment was no longer to be thought of; but, strange to say, the Bill which had passed through Parliament, empowering, in case of war, the grant of an ample bounty to seamen, was not acted upon, and consequently most of the ships were very inefficiently manned--some of them chiefly with the landsmen of the lowest class. Nothing had been done towards the training of the men, and no provision was even made to clothe them in a manner required by the climate to which they were about to be sent.... “Our Ambassador likewise warned the British Government that the Navy of Russia could not with safety be under-estimated, and, moreover, the Russian gunners were all well trained, while those of the British Squadron were _most deficient in this respect_. The object of the Russians, in wishing to get their best ships to Sveaborg, was the impression that Cronstadt would be first attacked; in which case, calculating on the strength of the forts to repel an assault, _they would have fresh ships wherewith to assail our disabled and weakened fleet, should they be obliged to retreat_.[87] Sir Hamilton Seymour warned our Government of the great number of gunboats the Russians could bring out, eighty of which were to be manned by Finns, fifty men to each boat.... * * * * *