The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-19 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, LIANUAIOr 19, 1855.

NAVAL AND MILITARY IIVTELITO:ENCE:

The St. George, 120, screw, Captain Codrington, is
in Sheerness basin. Her poop has now entirely disap-
peared.
.She,will-now mount two Lancaster guns, one
aft and one forward, in lieu of the small- guns she formerly mounted.

The Majestic, 80, screw, Captain Hope, C. 8., is in
No. 3 dry dock at Sheerness. Her crew are still on
leave, but what are not are hulked on board the Mino-
taur. Her mainmast is under repair at Wool wich. The
engineering-department will be the means of detaining
her in port some time.
The Cressy, 80, screw steam -line-of-battle ship, was
ordered to be put out of dry dock "at Sheernets yester-
day, which could not be effected in consequence of the
low state of the flood tide. If possible she will, go out
to-day, and immediately after the blocks have been ar-
ranged fiir her the new screw steam-corvette the Pylades
will be taken into the same dry dock (No. 1), for cop-
Tiering, &c. This corvette is progressing in her fitment
by the late crew olthe Desperate, most of whom are at
present on leave of. absence.
The Russell, 60, now in No. 2 dry dock at Sheerness,
will be ready to leave in two or three days. She is
ordered to be stted with all possible despatch.
. _

The Arrogant, 47; screw, Captain Yelverton, is taking
out a portion of her machinery. It will be at least a
month before she will be ready for sea.
The klelami3us, 42, is nearly ready for leaving the
basin at Sheerness. •She has entered some very flue
fellows, and she is destined for Constantinople, there to
remain as a depot for provisions, stores, &c., for the use
of the DNA Sea fleet. -

The Amphion, 34, screw steam-frigate, has bad her
old boilers taken. out, and active preparations are going
on for prepafing to put new boilers into her, and get
her ready for sea with all possible-despatch.
Pylade's, 20, screw, Captain D'Eyncourt, is in Sheer-
ness basin. Her lower masts are stepped, and the tops
and rigging over the masthead ; her boilers are nearly
bedded, and to-day (Friday), when the Cressy hauls out
of No. 1, this vessel will haul in, to finish the pro-
peller, &c.
Desperate, 8, screw, is still moored over on the west
shore at Sheerness ; she flies the pennant again ; her
machinery is most defective, and she will require to be
docked.

Oberon, '3, iron paddle, has now altered her rig to a
schooner, which becomes her much. A month since
she was rigged as a brig, with masts and spars heavy
enough for the Penelope, and very nearly turned turtle
in the steam basin. She will now be safe, and a fast and
efficient vessel.

Ye sterday the screw-steamer Pioneer completed load-
ing at the IrQngate Wharf, TOwer ; she has on board.a
miscellaneous cargo of " comforts and necessaries, the
voluntary contributions of the-public for the army in the
Crimea, altogetherAbout.7oo tons. The vessel is to sail,
to-morrow for 13alaklava.

Feliza, of Bristol, Captain Teare, sailed front Sb eer.
ness on Wednesday in ballast for Cardiff, where sho will
load coals for Malta for the British Government. She
is a smart vessel, and well adapted for the purpose, and
will bring home a cargo of Italian oak for some of our
yards.
Selma, of Dantzic, Captain Rash, has discharged her
deck-load of timber and part of her masts ih the river.
She is going into Sheerness basin, where she will dis-
charge the remainder.

tions to which the Government intend . :to send militia
to take the place of the regiments of the line. A
considerable number at onceintimated tlie.ir readiness to
do so.

constituents when he told them that the war was begun
. o a behalf of " oppressed nationalities." They steadily
answered " No," and his appeal to the opinion of Lerd
Dudley Stuart could extract from them no other an-
serer ; but when he said the war was for the sake of
resisting Russian encroachreents on Turkey he was met
with cries of " That is it !" Here, then,-he was fixed with
the true question. But how did he deal,with it ! Austria
aril Prussia did not go to war, he Said ; had you waited
' fdr them to resist the Czar you would have gained ail
yell wanted without expenditure of. blood and trea-
sure. Hei:e is the true support on which the EmPeror
of Russia leant. Prussia, doubtless,. he said to himself,
will not move without Austria, Austria without France,
France without England, and'England. without this
sup-
pert of all united. Each country can give excellent
reasons why the others should take the dangers and the
mkt upon themselves. The rats all feir the cat, but-
who will put the bell round her neck The Czar
doubtless, expected that Eurdpe would act as Mr. Cob-
den thinks she ought to have acted—that each State
would have made her neighbour's valour the measureof
her own, or rather sheltered her own cowardice behind
their hackwardnese. Here, again, is an appeal to' the
meanest feelings of the mind:--selfishness and indolence
—the desire to put off till to-morrow what should be done
to-day, and to shift upon ourneighboues those dales which
devolve upoe ourselves ean appeal applicable to every war
waged in defence_ of public principles from the beginning of
the world to the present day. Nextcomeethe proposition
that a majority of the subjects of the Sultan is favour-
able to the Czar, proved by the assertion; that the Greeks
have everywhere evinced Russian tendencies—ae if the
Christians inhabiting Turkey were GeeekS, or as if the
danger from the ,encroachments of Russia would be less,
and the necessity of interference to stop it less urgent,
because the Emperor of. Russia, with sinister objects in
view, as Mr. Cobden himself says—with objects in view
inoompatible with the independence of. Europe, as we
say—has enlisted the supporteef eight millions of the
snbjecte of the Sultan. Another irrelevant topic is the
question of what we are to do when the war is over,
and how we are to regulate the affairs of Turkey.
We shall doubtless so regulate them as to check the
encroachments of Russia, the real 'object of the war ;
as Mr. Cobden himself says, we trust we may
also secure the reorganisation of Turkey ; but even
if this were impossible, it, would afford no good
reason against a war not undertaken principally for this
purpose. We need not dwell on Mr. Cobden's remarks
on the expedition to the Crimea, because they also are
irrelevant to the question of peace or war. Whatever
be the hardships suffered by our array, the strength of
the nation is not broken, nor her spirit subdued. We
have in our bands the means of success, and nothing has
occurred, or is likely to occur, which should induce us to
abate one jot of the requirements on compliance,
.with
which we are ready to negotiate for peace. Mr. Cobden
says thatan honourable peace is possibly, or even probably,
within our reach. We desire no more ; but, if this is all
that he asks, why does he appeal to our avarice, our sel-
fishness, our cowardice,—to every mean and ignoble
pasCion of the human mind, when he has nothing to
do but to point out to us the way to so desirable an
object I If Mr. Cobden is really counselling us to base
retractations and dishonourable compliances, to the be-
trayal of the alliances we have made, and the abandon.
ment of the noble position we have taken up, we can
quite understand the employment of such topics ; but if
the course he recommends be honourable as well as safe,
we confess their employrieent is to u utterly incompre-
hensible. The termination of Mr. Cobden's speech is
as irrelevant as the commencement. He denies our
right to resist Russian aggression, because in the che-
quered history of 800 years we have been guilty of ag-
gression ourselves—an argument which, if good for any-
thing, would preclude us not only from offensive but
from defensive war.

We have dwelt upon the irrelevancy of the topics
of this speech at such length that we have left our-
selves little room to expatiate upon their inconsis-
tency. We are recommended to seek peace by agree-
ing to a resolution which would state in effect that we
are weary of war, and thus encourage our enemy to
raise his demands. We are told that two-thirds of the
subjects of the Sultan are in favour of the Czar, and
yet that the Czar is unequal to any offensive move-
ment. And) what is worse,thaniirrelevancy or consist-
ency, this great and courageous nation, which never
quailed before a foe nor shrank from the side of a
friend, is actually advised to quit her present position
and policy, and take for her model the shallow and
temporising expedients which are fast degrading Prussia
from the rank of a great Power, and excluding her from
the position she has hitherto held in the councils of con-
federate Europe.