The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-09-29 00:00:00

have no choice but to adapt our arrangements
to the times we live in. We may feel
exceedingly reluctant to sink million after
million of our hard-won wealth in so unproductive
an investment as that of fortifications, guns,
rifles, war-ships, and standing and floating
armies. But we have wealth, and wealth-pro-
ducing resources, liberty and free institutions,
a constitutional monarchy and national indepen-
dence, all of which we are manfully determined to
protect and maintain intact. We value them at the
sum total of the worth of all that we are, or ever
can be as an intelligent and happy people ; and
accordingly we are, and must be, ready and willing
to spend not only means to any extent, but even
life itself, to resist every aggressor. To this end
we must be prepared. We dare not wait until
the burglar mounts the wall, ere we strengthen
ourselves to repel the onset. It were then too
late. We must lock our doors in anticipation of
the thief. Locking the door after the steed is
stolen, is but a poor game. To trust to moral
suasion alone, when a robber is continually at
large, were to live in a fool's paradise. En-
lightened, intellectual, and commercial as we are,
we must lay up stores of pikes and guns, and
other equally forcible apparatus, not in mere
sham, as they set up scare-crows to frighten
feathered marauders, but in downright earnest,
to meet and dispose of any foes that might attack
us. The only measure or limit of our defensive
preparations is that of our possible adversary's.
This is likely to prove, especially in naval
warfare, pre-eminently the Iron Age. Powerful
iron-plated frigates are to rule the waves. La
Gloire, it seems, belongs to France ! Has, then,
La Glare departed from England ? Perish the
thought. But at present, mark; the odds are ten
to four against us. La Gloire is covered by
Pallas; but the palladium of English glory shall not
be found wanting. For our four, France contem-
plates ten, iron-bound vessels of war. Thus, for
the moment, we are behind our neighbours. This,
however, is but for a day. A brief space of time
will suffice to put us at least on a par in this
respect ; and, if need be, we can speedily surpass
any nation in the world in the number, size, and
quality of an armour-bound fleet. The French
loudly boast of the success of their experiments
in iron-cased ressels ; for the trial cruise of
La Oloire is believed to have been a complete
triumph. Masonry and wood-built batteries may
be.cfnmbled or shivered to pieces by modern ord-
nance. La C Loire might safely anchor alongside
our best fortifications, or in the very teeth of our
assembled fleets, and leisurely demolish stone
walls nine feet thick, and disable, burn, or sink

every "heart of oak" within range. As a first
line of defence, therefore, wooden vessels are for
ever doomed. Iron is alone invulnerable.

No time is to be lost. Without scientifically
constructed iron-cased frigates, our fleet and for-
tifications are worthless. By means of these
invulnerable vessels we can literally surround our

island home with an angulated wall of iron

against which none can advance without meeting
certain destruction. Although we desire no such
armaments for aggressive purposes, yet as they

are equally available for offensive and defen-

sive -measures, and might be turned against

us, we are bou.ad to prepare for their

Worthy reception by the construction of

equally powerful vessels. Our land batteries, and

fortifications—if not also our field batteries, must

now be protected by similar armour-shields.

Thew are the only reliable defence against rifled

ordnance. Already this all-important subject has

been seriously under the consideration of the pro-
per authorities, and further experiments are in con

templation with the view of perfecting this method
of defence ; and we are sure that the people of
Englanl, with one voice, will applaud the adop-
tion of the most prompt and energetic steps
for effectually carrying out these measures so
as to secure to England without a moment's
unnecessary delay this new requisite for the

maintenance of her paramount dominion on
the ocean---that element of strength which is so

vitally essential to,the preservation of her inde-

Pendence, to the protection of her wide-spread

commercial relations, and to the continued augmen-

Cation and development of her marvellous wealth

and resources.

ILLNESS OF THE EARL OF DERBY 7

We are happy to state that Lord Derby is recovering
front his recent indisposition. Reports of an alarming
nature were current in town yesterday respecting the
state of his Lordship's health ; but we have the
greatest pleasure in stating that we hare received the
following communication, in reply to an inquiry, on the
subject;

T,O THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY TIMES.
Knowsley-hall, Sept. 28, 1860.
SlR,—Lord Derby has a severe attack of gout, bat is
a little better to-day.