The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-10-10 00:00:00

for a series of experiments, which will be carried out in
the presence of the Ordnance Select Committee.
The armour-plated steam-ram vessel Warrior, build-
ing for the Government at the Thames Iron Works, is
now in a forward state for launching. A large portion
of her machinery, &c., has been manufactured by
Messrs. John Penn and Sons, Greenwich; and her con-
struction is of such a nature that she would be perfectly
safe in deep water, even were it possible to perforate
her with shot, When completed, she will be armed
with thirty of the Armstrong 100-pounder guns.
The preparations far the Prince of Wales in New
York and Boston promise a decided success in the way
of popular demonstrations. The New Yorkers are
becoming enthusiastic on the subject of the Prince's
visit to theft city: As high as $lOO have been offered
for a ticket for the "grand ball ;" and as the original
cost was but $25, perhaps sotto of the holders will be
tempted into operations in this ne* description of fancy
stock. They think of getting up a torchlight inlicession
in New York, and having all the houses illtunindted
along the line it shall march; and it is to be hoped the*
will carry out the plan, for it would be a fine sight, and
as original as anything well can be in these latter days.
In Boston it is proposed that all the political clubs, of
all parties, numbering many thousand members, should
unite to form a torchlight procession, but to lay aside
all party badges on the occasion, and appear only as
American citizens assembled to do honour to the heir-
apparent of the Sovereign of England, who is descended
from a monarch who was Sovereign of that country
within the recollection of some persons yet living.
The following bulletin was issued at Coburg the day
after the accident to the Prince Consort :—" The con-
dition of his Itoya highness Prince Albert causes no
anxiety. His royal highness has slept well throughout
the night, is free from fever, and the slight injuries he
has received will, no doubt, be healed in a short time."

SUSPICIOUS FRENCH VISITORS.

Who's afraid? Have not the BONAPAItTES ever
been men of science and patrons of the arts ? Is
not the empire peace ? Has not France finished
its military role What need for alarm, then,
merely because Prince JEROME NAPOLEON has
been engaged inspecting the industrial resources
of this country, visiting our harbours, and taking
soundings of our channels ? No doubt his Royal
Highness has been very eccentric in his move-
/4045, and flitted about from one quarter to
another with very re:zukable precipitancy, and
sheltered his proceedings as mucli. 24 Possible
from public gaze by adopting various stratagemi
and devices ; but is it not perfectly natural that
the :Prince should seek to escape from being
crowded and jostled, as he must have been,
without these skilful arrangements for maintaining
an incognito? True, the Imperial yacht has been
carefully screened from inspection, and has stolen
into and out of this and the other harbour early
of a morning or under shade of night. Her
destination has been invariably concealed, and
when she has again turned up, it has happened
generally to be upon the least likely part of our
coast. False reports have been most industriously
circulated as to the " whereabouts " of the Prince
•
as a blind upon his actual movements. It is even
asserted that the vessel was seen taking, sound-
ings in the Brielol Channel, and stealthily disem-
barking engineers at vatiouo obscure points of
the coast; and that these steps were followed
by a general meeting of the Vitrii)r
officers
with the Prince at a central point, where
notes were compared over a large and out-,
spread chart of the Bristdl Channel:
afraid? Shall we th obstables in the way of
these scientific discoverers ? Whd knows what
useful discoveries they may make for the Lefiefit
of British navigation and commerce ? Dare any-
one suspect our " faithful ally" of the Tuileries
to be meditating a plot against us ? Is it not the
height of folly and the extremity of weakminded-
ness to speculate if secret instructions have been
given to this scientific expedition under the intel-
ligent auspices of a prince, who is remarkable chiefly
for his striking and still-growing resemblance to
his great uncle? We verily believe that some people
have given way to such idle fears. There may
be some men still alive, who once in their younger
days were foolish enough to believe that NAPO-
LEON I. seriously contemplated an invasion of
"perfidious Albion," and who obstinately remain
in that historical belief. Such antiquated folks
may be excused for suspecting the "image of his
uncle", of entertaining a similar "idea," but
surely the English nation generally is above any
such weakness. In some such half earnest, half
jocular style, some of our contemporaries seem
disposed to pass off this species of French impe-
rial pruriency for information as to English
resources.

Now we are desirous of being as charitable as
is consistent with prudence ; and we are willing
to make JEROME NAPOLEON as welcome as we
did his Imperial cousin before he was recalled
from exile. We have no desire to imitate our
continental neighbours by establishing a system
of exclusiveness and espionage, having for its
object the shrouding of our institutions and
defences under impenetrable masks, and the
thwarting of all foreign attempts to inspect
our sea approaches, and even to weigh the proba-
bilities of a successful invasion of our shores. So
long as no overt act of conspiracy or hostile pre-
paration is attempted, we extend to all comers
the same perfect freedom of legitimate action,
which we claim for ourselves. But there are
limits and exceptions to every rule. With all our
liberty and liberality we do not permit profes-
sional burglars, or returned convicts, however
penitent their professions and loud their promises
of amendment, to mount our garden walls,
inspect our locks and keys, and take mea-
surements and notes of our various modes
of ingress and egress. We warn such people
off the premises, and if they persist in hanging
about our outskirts we treat them as suspicious
persons and vagrants, and lock them up or
forward them to their own parish. Now, is
there nothing about Imperial " PLON-PLON" to
raise a suspicion as to the object of his recent
visit to this country—a visit which in all proba-
bility may soon be repeated, if not prevented by
our Government? It may be all very well to
turn such visits into ridicule and to boast that
we have nothing to fear from any power ; but
there is nothing jocular in the fact that we are
about to spend twelve millions sterling in forti-
fications ; it is simply a grim fact that will tell
for years to come upon the hard-won earnings of
the people. There is nothing very amusing in
the cost of our increased naval and military
preparations ; :and the voluntary burden of
arming the whole population, although cheer-
fully submitted to, is no mere holiday pastime
to laugh over. Against whom, then, do these
solemn and momentous facts point ? Where
is the Imperial burglar against whose marauding
and filibustering we have undertaken all these
mighty preparations ? Can he be the cousin
and bosom-friend of the imperial explorer
whom, under the cloak of scignee, we permit
freely to roam about our premises and penetrate
as it were into all our cupboards, closets, and
safes, tinkering with our locks, and estimating
the strength of our bolts and bars P While we
view with uneasy apprehensions the completion
of Cherbourg, the maintenance of an army of
upwards of half a million of men, the unpreee-
dentedly rapid development of an armour-bound
fleet, mounted with rifled ordnance, and of a
flotilla of enormous transports, all kept in perfect
readiness for action, must we look on with in-
difference while the emissaries of so great a
power conduct themselves on our own soil
exactly as we might anticipate of the most evil-
disposed neighbours ? Are we afraid to tell
these plausible enquirers that we don't like
their looks, and don't choose to answer their
questions or permit them the same freedom as we
would to less suspected persons? Do we tremble
and shrink away rather than speak out our
thoughts to the great man or his servants ? Do we
meanly permit him to pat us on the back and
sMooth us down; while he feels our pockets, and