The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-10 00:00:00

her want of masts and the lowness of her decks
disqualify her for a seagoing ship, and to try her
with the ships of the Channel, would be of no
practical use. She was sent to Portland, we are
told to try her turrets and guns; and that since an
accident necessitated her going into a dockyard,
Captain OSBORNE sent up a list of alterations that
were requisite, when it was thought no advantage
would be gained by keeping the ship in commission
daring the winter, so in one of our 'Admiralty's
periodical fits of economy officers and men were for
the most part paid off, and the grand new experi-
ment, the Royal Sovereign, transformed into a
tender to the Excellent. There are several points
in this explanation which require explanation them-
selves, The Royal Sovereign, we are told, was
never in her new form intended for a sea-going
ship. But ,she certainly was intended for a
sea - going ship when first built at an
outlay of a hundred thousand pounds, and if
Captain COLES was to do no more than build a
floating battery he might, one would think, have
been allowed to construct it for himself without
spoiling a ship of the calibre of the Royal Sovereign.
But it was generally understood that the Royal
Sovereign was to be a seagoing ship, and unless
Captain COLES has been very much misrepresented
that is certainly the impression he intended to con-
vey. There is no great miracle in constructing an
effective floating battery " capable of being sent to
any port in the Channel, but not adapted
to cruise with a squadron." A good many
professional men could, no doubt, design such
a one without devoting ten years to perfecting
and publishing it. The very merit of Captain
COLES'S scheme is its professed superiority to the
American method, which makes the ships unsea-
worthy; and if his real endeavour is to be no more
than a floating battery, it is decidedly inferior to
monitors, which have contrived to go to sea. As
for the assertion that the absence of masts and the
low decks of the Royal Sovereign disqualify her
for sea-going purposes, that is virtually deciding
against all turret ships, for the low decks are one of
their distinctive features. To say that it would be
useless to grant the ship a trial is to prejudge the
case. It would have been fairer to the inventor
and to the public to say it was useless to make the
experiment at all. When the affair first begun,
it was certainly given out that the Royal Sovereign
was to be a fair test of Captain COLES'S method,
and as such the public accepted it. The "floating
battery" is only, we believe, a convenient excuse,
for nobody doubted that Captain COLES could con-
struct a Ousting battery. We should like to hear
what he has to say on the subject ? We should
imagine he feels considerable indignation as well as
disappointment at the issue of this much talked-of
trial, which has really been no trial at all. There
is one thing certain. When Parliament meets we
shall hear something more about this " floating
battery," and we shall hope that one practical result
of the affair will be the application of the Admi.
ralty's favourite principle of conversion and al-
teration to their own Board, which needs a
thorough remodelling before it fulfils the requires
meats of the public service.

News received from New York up to the let of
O ttober, still leaves the actual condition of affairs
uncertain. Bat all that we gather from the vague
and hesitating details of the grand encounter
between SHERIDAN and EARLY, seems to confirm
our original impression that the Federal success
had been greatly exaggerated in the first instance.
The Americans claim to make war on a new scale,
and certainly not only in the gigantic extent of
their undertakings, but in the eccentricity of their
results they have reversed the whole system of old
world military tactics. We, of the old school,
should not thick very much of a triumph where
the victor cannot keep his communications
with his own Government open and from
which the vanquished retreats in safety with the
whole of his trains and stores. Yet such appears to
have been the case at "Winchester, and it is very
certain that the discrepancy between the losses on
the two sides cannot have been fairly stated, since
SHERIDAN has not thought fit to push on his ad-
vantage. When the Confederates state their losses
at 2,500 killed, wounded, and missing, and the
North will not calculate theirs, the case looks bad
for the Federals, and the capture of SHERIDAN'S
couriers by Confederate cavalry in his rear makes
the matter worse. It is true that the Federal
Government may find it just now very convenient
to receive no despatches direct from the seat of war,
but the people cannot be deceived for long. Mean-
while in Missouri and Alabama the Confederate star
is again the ascendant. General PRICE has entered
Missouri with his whole army; he is within 60 miles
of the capital of St, Louis, where business is sus-
pended, and the citizens are arming themselves,
in answer to an appeal from the Federal corn.
mender, General ROSENCRANS, The real sympa-
thies of the West are mainly with the South, and
if the Confederates hold, St. Louis it will be an
important step gained. In Alabama, again, General
FORREST has advanced successfully ; and it was
anticipated he would cut off SHERMAN'S communi-
cations with Nashville. These two simultaneous
movements in the 'West are full of importance, but
the PRESIDENT and his associates will take care
that as little as possible is known until the great
political contest is concluded. It is a stormy pic-
ture, at best, and the real lovers of their country,
whether North or South, may well look with a
heavy heart on the widespread and continuous
devastation.

It is always to be regretted when those who at-
tempt to administer justice fail in some of its chief
requisites, for the harm that such mistakes occasions
is always incalculable. One of the most glaring
cases of undue severity that has been made public
for some time is recorded as taking place in Kent.
A poor boy of fourteen years of age was brought be-
fore General. HIICIIENS, charged with the trifling
offence of having knocked down six walnuts from a
tree in a field. Surely, it was hardly worth while
to have brought up the youth on such a charge at
all, but the most that was awarded to him should
have been a reprimand or a fine. We are not told
that the boy had been seen before to commit such
an offence, and his own version of the affair might
well have condoned his error in the sight of any one
less austere than his judge. He said that he had
been disappointed at his ill success when out nutting,
and that he was tempted by the appearance of these
walnuts in question. He therefore threw a stone
and took up six that fell. It seems almost it lredible
th it, upon hearing such an account, General
IlliciieNs should have 'oilseed such a sentence as
that which followed. The poor boy was condemned
to Maidstone prison, with hard labour, for six
months, The option of a fine was not allowed. Can
anything be more monstrous than such a sentence.?
It is virtually ruining the boy for life, and taking
away his chance of earning an honest livelihood,
because he has done as hundreds do every day, and
helped himself to a trifle. It is not as if he
had entered a house and taken a small portion of
property ; that would have been a very different
affair, and ought to have been deft with rigorously
by way of prevention. The punisbroent of six
months' imprisonment with hard labour is dealt out
to many who have committed assaults on others, 1