The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-13 00:00:00

The Navy of the Confederate States.

The following extracts from the annual report of
the Secretary of the Confederate navy—a document
which has been britfly noticed in our columns—w:ll
be read with interest in this country :

During the months of July and August I sent 27 com-
missioned officers and forty trustworthy petty officers to the
British Provinces, with orders to organise an expedition and
co-operate with army officers in an attempt to release the
Confederate prisoners confined on Johnson's Island, in Lake
Erie. From time to time I learned that the arrangements
made were such as to insure the most complete success. A
large amount of money had been expended, and just as our
gallant naval officers were about to set sail on this expedi-
tion, the English authorities gave information to the enemy
and thus prevented the execution of one of the best planned
enterprises of the present war. In accordance with the order
of the President, early in the present year, I despatched
several agents to England and France, with orders to con-
tract for eight iron-clad vessels, suitable for ocean service,
and calculated to resist the ordinary armament of wooden
vessels of the enemy. These ships were to be provided with
rams, and designed expressly to break the blockade of such
of the ports as were not blockaded by the iron• clad moni-
tors of the enemy. Five of these vessels were contracted for
in England, and three in France. Due precautions were
taken against contravening laws of England in the construc-
tion and equipment of these vessels. Three have been com-
pleted ; but owing to the unfriendly construction of her
neutrality laws, the Government of England stationed seve-
ral war vessels at the mouth of the Mersey, and prevented
their departure from England. Subsequently they were seized
by the British Government. Another and larger vessel
has since been completed ; but it is doubtful if she will be
allowed to leave the shores of England, although it is be-
lieved the precautions taken are sufficient to exempt her
from the fate of her consorts. The vessels being constructed
in France have been subjected to so many official visitations
that I have forwarded instructions to cease operations upon
them, until the result of negotiations now pending shall
permit our agent to resume work upon them. In this con-
nection, it is proper for me to state, that, the great revulsion
in popular sentiment, both in England and France, toward
the Confederate Government, has rendered our efforts to ob-
tain supplies from those countries almost abortive. In view
of all possible contingencies, I have instructed the agents of
this department to wait a more favourable opportunity for
carrying out the instructions previously forwarded. By the
last I sent instructions that will shortly be made apparent
to our enemies nearer home. Ido not deem it advisable to
communicate any portion of these plans to your honourable
body at the present time. Although the operations of our
navy have not been extensive, I cannot overlook the services
of Captain Semmes in the Alabama. Daring the year he
has captured upwards of ninety vessels, seventy of wbich
were destroyed, the others being either bound or released.
On, of the greatest drawbacks this officer reports having
experienced is the difficulty he now has in procuring full
supplies of coals. The provincial English authorities have
hitherto afforded him every faciiity, but recently they have
interpretated their neutrality laws so stringently that our
war-vessels and privateers are much embarrassed in obtain-
ing suitable supplies. I have instructed Captain Semmes
to purchase coal from neutral shipmasters wherever he
found it, and give them every necessary document to pro-
tect them against the effect such sale may have upon their
vessels when they return to their several countries. By this
means I anticipate a sufficient supply of coal will be ob-
tained to enable him to continue his operations during the
coming winter.

The other operations of this department have been chiefly
confined to making such preparations for naval operations
as circumstances might permit. From time to time I have
caused surveys to be made upon steamers running the
blockade, with a view of purchasing such as could be made
available as war vessels. Several have been bought, and
are now being transformed into ships of war. In conclusion,
I would recgmmend the immediate pa=sage of an act autho-
rising the construction of at least six turreted iron-clads for
harbour operations. The experience of the past year has
demonstrated that such vescels are absolutely necessary, if
we expect to break through and destroy the blockade at
present established by the enemy.

MR. TENNIEL'S PORTRAITS are something mar-
vellous, with just that exaggeration which is only
a certain kind of idealism ; and he always gives character
without a spice of offensive personality. Mr. Disraeli, per-
haps, is somewhat lowered, and Lord Russell is almost
always caricatured ; but Lord Palmerston and Mr. Bright,
who is evidently no favourite, are always admirably por-
trayed. Lord John Russell—he was Lord John Russell
then—as a little earnest, scraggy nurse-girl, ineffectually
toiling and pushing a perambulator heavily weighted with
a dull Reform Bill baby up the steps of Parliament, is only
less happy than the famous Page "not st,ong enough for
the place." The exact political status of the noble lord could
not have been hit off in a score of written pages with the vivid
practical recognition of character which this single drawing
embodies. Mr. Bright, as the Quaker Cromwell, ordering
that bauble, the Constitution, off the table of the House, is
equally comprehensive. On the whole, Mr. Punch's—that
is, Mr. Tenniel's patriotism and right feeling may
be safely trusted. Unlike Gilt ay, Punch seldom swaggers
and brags. In the Look out for' Squalls, John Bull, as a
burly foretop man of the Britannia, looks down with good-
humoured contempt on the melodramatic small Yankee
captain, who struts in all the blood-and-thunder savagery
of revolvers and buff-boots ; but John Bull is not an offen-
sive egotist. In this respect an English political h:tist has
the advantage of his Parisian rival. In the CharisW."i
France is always a semi-nude female taken from the
coullsses; it would not be permitted in Paris to draw the
Emperor in a pictorial feuilleton, But in Punch we can
symbolise Government either by the conventional Britannia,
or by the Queen, or by the abstract John Bull, or by the
Premier of the day. This gives great scope to variety.
And what is curious is, that Mr. Tenniel always contrives
to give the air and manners of a gentleman to all his
political characters, in whatever grotesque masque-
rade he may think proper to draw them. If Lord
Palmerston is an ostler, or a cabinet-maker, or a policeman,
he is always a gentleman. Mr. Punch himself, in his,
various disguises, shows good breeding under his hump.
John Bull in the Windsor Uniform, though coarse and
burly in frame, yet shows blood and race, though it is a
mistake in this picture to make him present the Queen with
the Exhibition Building of 1862 after the abortive three.
domed design of Captain Fowke. It would perhaps be im-
possible with truth to give Earl Russell the marks of per •
sonal dignity; but with all his sourness and irritable pert-
ness of character, Mr. Tenniel does just,ce to the Foreign
Secretars honesty and intellectual quickness.—Saturday
Review.
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