In the newspaper Times of London dated 29 November was an article published dealing with the lacking of qualified sailors by the Royal Navy. At that moment were according to the news item four steam frigates and three steam sloops decommissioned but strangely enough four other steam frigates commissioned. The Government requested the Parliament for more money to strengthen the navy considerable. Main problem was not the number of ships, but the number of qualified sailors. The commission which was responsible to solve this problem advised after have listened to experienced officers to increase the number of sailors with 5.000 men and a comparable number of marines. No one objected to the necessity considered what was going on in the world [problems between Russia and Turkey] although the relations with other nations were good. A powerful navy was needed to maintain the peace. In peace time however merchant trade shipping and even foreign navies were rivals for obtaining sailors. The solution was to present the service on board of a British warship as the best job for a sailor and to stop with dismissing well trained sailors when their ship was decommissioned. This all had nothing to do with the restoration of the French empire although no one could deny that despite the decreasing of the French army the French navy was increased on a large scale.
