The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-27 00:00:00

so vague and cautious is the statement—that
another portion of them may have been recaptured
by the Confederates. Both armies have suffered
such enormous losses that the world may believe
that a couple of days' rest will be absolutely neces-
sary to each commander. A heavy storm of wind
and rain, which commenced on Thursday, has con-
verted the never very hard roads of Virginia into
mud and slush, and as Lee passed first along them
to his new position, the tramp of his men and horses
and the ploughing wheels of his cannon must have
left them in a state of morass, through which rapid
progress, especially with artillery will be impossible.
It is likely, therefore, that there will be a lull in
the storm of battle in the immediate front, and that
both armies will be reorganised and reinforced to
the fullest extent in the power of the Confe-
derate and the Federal Governments. The next
shock promises to be more desperate than ever, if
the immediate interest of the struggle be not trans-
ferred from the north to the south of Richmond by
an attempt of General Beauregard to crush Generals
Baldy Smith and Butler before uniting his forces
with those, of General Lee. The excitement in this
city is intense, and hourly increases ; and were it
not for the judicious publication by Secretary
Stanton of the official details as soon as they reach
him from the army, it would be still wilder than it
is. People wait for his confirmation of events be-
fore attaching credence to the reports from Phila-
delphia, Baltimore, and Washington, which pour
down upon the bewildered heads of the public like
hailstones in a storm, and only retain their form
and substance for about as 108'4 In this respect
the Government has rendered good service. It
does not appear to have withheld
any painful
truths, or in any degree to have exaggei-5,
ted the
successes that have been obtained, and has thus st;,
an example which was very much needed.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMER.—A return just obtained from the Ad-
mirahy will inform naval men, shipbuilders, and
the public in general of some facts which it much
concerns them all to know, It is an account in a
concise and intelligible form of all the " Iron plated
Ships and Batteries built or building" up to this
time for the Royal Navy, and it specifies not only
their tonnage, armaments, and design, but also their
cost and the history of their construction. By the
aid of this table cupolas and turrets may be com-
pared with broadsides, wholly plated with partially
plated ships, first-rates with third-rates, and private
establishments with the Royal dockyards. Another
brief return completes the information thus com-
municated by a very significant and impressive sup-
plement. It tells us of ail the vessels not armour-
plated which are in course of construction for the
Navy at this moment , so that we may measure the
preponderance of the new system not only by its
own progress, but by the decay of its ancient rival.
Chia part of the story can be told so shortly that we
may as well dismiss it at once. There is next to
nothing in hand of this kind. The Endymion, a
22 gun ship, and four smaller vessels, representing,
we presume, as many swift cruisers with light arma-
ments, constitute all the work of this sort now
going on. Tne energies of the Admiralty and the
resources of the State are concentrated on iron-
plated vessels, almost to the extinction of wooden
shipbuilding. What, then, is the actual condition,
end what the. prospects of the Fleet which now ab-
sorbs our attention and our expenditure P The first
thing that strikes us is the variety of' specimens
comprised, showing more clearly than anything else
could show the state of transition in which we still
remain. We have not yet accepted as perfect oe satis-
factory any pattern, model, or design of hull, dimen-
sions, or armament. This gives a kind of composite
appearance to our Fleet, but it has saved us, at any
rate, from the mistake committed by the Americans
in building a whole squadron of Monitors on the
impulse of the moment. At the present time we
have, exclusive of " floating batteries," sixteen
iron-plated men-of- war actually afloat. This at least
is the statement of the return, but we can add one
to the number, for on the 23d instant, the very day
fixed for the event, the Prince Albert was launched,
so that our ironsides are already not 16 but 17. To
these will be added before the close, and indeed be-
fore the middle, of next year, 10 more, making an
aggregate of 27. If we choose to include the float-
ing batteries constructed or designed during the
Crimean war, we shall raise the entire strength of
our ironclad fleet to 34 vessels of all rates. It will
soon be desirable to devise same new system of
rating in the place of that which the new system of
naval architootnie and armament has rendered in-
applicable. We can no longer measure the offensive
powers of a ship by the nuenber of her guns. A
" first- reto" of tile old rehool, wit!' her triple bat-
teries and her 130 guns, might be blown out of the
, ideas,
ie
water in 10 minutes, according to our press'nt
by such a vessel, for instance, as the Prince bert,
of four gains, just launched, or the Pallas, of si:c
guns, to be launched at Christmas. These half-dozen
guns, in fact, might throw a heavier mass of metal
than the broadside of the largest three-decker, so
that the principle will not apply, and the standard
is unavailable. Practically, however, we may con-
sider that the 'Warrior, though denominated a fri-
gate, end cerrying only 40 guns, represents the
first-rate under the new system, and of those vessels
we may say that 10 are now afloat. They differ from
each other in a variety of respects, but they are all
more or less completely cased in iron, and all carry
35 to 41 guns, except where the armament is con-
centrated under shields or in turrets. We have, then,
two ships, the Hector and the Valiant, which we
may describe as second-rites, and three more which
can be classed as third-rates. This makes 15, and
the full tale of 17 afloat is completed by Mr. Reed's
small ironclads, the Research and the Enterprise.
Of the 10 to be shortly added to teis list, es many es
six are first-rates, two are powerful vessels, and two of
small dimensions. As to the controversy between wood
and iron, we may briefly observe, until Mr. Reed's
designs were introduced into the Navy we always
built of iron where we could, and where we started
irom the beginning, but adopted wood in certain
instances for the sake of expedition as well as of
economy. Thus, for our sixteen first-rates built or
building, eight are of iron throughout, and six re-
present timber frames pleted with iron, The other
two, the Lord Clyde and the Lord Warden, upon
Mr. Reed's designs, have wooden hulls ; but our
Chief Constructor ass not confined his experiments
to either material eseclueively, for his Bellerophon
is of iron, and while one of his small specimens is
of iron the other is of woos and iron combined. Cap-
tain Coles, too, as far as m terial gnas, has the ad-
, ~ntagc of both chances, for one of his vessels is
built of iron and the other of wood. Upon the
whole, we may say that iron was recognised as de-
cidedly best wherever a free choice lay before us
until Mr, Reed came in, and that he seems to be of
opinion that more may be made of wood than Wa3
previously imagined. The interesting question of
relative cost is not quite so easily answered. What
with the completeness of work and the imperfection
of accounte; we cannot always get at good materials
for comparison; for it must be understood that,
though we have described certain vessels as actually
"afloat," that by no ocaza implies that they are
fully completed for sea, or that the expenditure upon
them i 3 at an end. However, h.' we take the Warrior,
which was built in a private yard, and compare her
with the Achilles of the same rate constructed at
Chatham, but unfortunately "not cosnplete," we
shall find that the former cost £300,995, and he
latter £321,875. so that in the endi perhaps, there
will be little difference between them. If, again,
we take one of the ships converted into ironclads
by the addition t,i rumour plates to wu0,... Lames
already standing, such as the Royal Oak, we find
its actual cost to be £259,658, and therefore, if the
Royal Oak is really as effective a man-of-war as the
Warrior, we have saved a good £lOO,OOO b our
bargain. Mr. Reed's designs, too, ehow a clear
economy of cost. His Bellerophon, expected to he
one of the most powerful vessels in the Navy, is
estimated to cost only £281,820, but this, it must
be remembered, is estimate only. Still, though we
confess that no decisive evidence is obtainable from
the paper before us, we are disposed to infer that
the work of the Royal dockyards will not be found
more expensive than that of private establishments.
A few nays ago we explained that the American
Government, though not possessed of any establish-
ments like ours for maintaining its Navy, was by no
means content with its position in this respect, even
as regarded economy, while it expressed great
anxiety for the efficiency of the Feet, if the con-
structiois of vessels should be left to private hands.
Since that time Mr. Secretary 'Welles has been
asked why he allowed the Confederates to acquire
the Naval power in the Sounds of North Carolina
which at this crisis of their fortunes has cost the
Federals so dear. His reply was that it was the
inevitable consequence of the system in use, and
that. such failures and reverses were to naturally
be
anticipated so long as the Government was left un-
provided with yards and establishments of its own.
rla said that the Admiralty and the Government
were wholly dependent on contractors, who were
either unwilling or unable to perform the work re-
quired, and added that, in the event of a foreign
war, the condition of America, owing to this want
of establishments, would be, " most unfortunat,2,"
This opinion, it is true, is the opinion—perhaps the
natural one—of an official, but, delivered as it is in
the hour of actual trial, it deserves our attention.
PosT.—To-morrow the members of the Conference
will again assemble, and officially renew labours

which have, in truth, never been suspended. The
time which has elapsed since the last adjournment
has been occupied in constant negotiation, with the
view of arriving at some arrangement to which thee
several Plenipotentiaries would subsequently give
their formal assent. It must be apparent to all thet
the negotiations by which it is hoped that a fins.'
settlement of the Schleswig-Holstein question may
be effected, and peace re-established between Ger-
many and Denmark, could not be condensed within
the limits of the brief official interviews which take
place between the members of the Conference in
Downing-street. The proceedings of assemblies at
this kind are at all times tedious and protracted.,
but the circumstances under which the presenf
Conference has met tend especially to the creation or
postpsnement and delays. The Plenipotentiaries
met armed with the fullest powers, but with in-
structions of a very limited nature. The Danish
Government were absolutely ignorant of the nature
of the demands which would be made by the
German Powers, and were therefore precluded from
instructing their envoys in what manner those de-
mands should be met. Even in the matter of the
armistice, although it wes notorious that the neutral
Powers would propose a suspension of hostilities,
the Austrian and Prussian representatives declared
themselves to be without authority to assent to that
proposal when first made, and nearly a fortnight was
exhausted in what may be termed unofficial negotia-
tions before the basis on which it was finally agreed
to, had been sanctioned by the belligerent States.
The past ten days have in like manaer been occupied
in endeavouring to obtain from Denmark and from
the German Powers a joint assent to a scheme for the
determination of the political relations which shall
henceforth subsist bet weep Denmark and the Duchies.
When the Plenipotentiaries meet to-morrow they will
not simply resume the thread of argument where.
it was left off on Tuesday week ; they will be called
on to sanction or disapprove of those suggestions
for a settlement which emanated from the neutral
Powers, and which during the interval have been
sedulously canvassed by the Cabinets of the in-
, :erested States. To-morrow the representatives of
the o,:siligerent Powers will announce officially in
Conference the opinions entertained by their re-
spective Governs7ents on the proposed arrange-
to the tenor of those opinions
will be accepted, rejected,
ments, and according
origin. tors, to be modified
the scheme of settlement
or referred back to its
before being again canvassed, at:d probably again
condemned. However the neutral et: d the German
Powers may have in the first instance affected to
considered that the Treaty of 1852 furl; fished
quasi bssis for the deliberations of the Conferenter
no actual doubt existed that the Conference, it it
effected anything, would modify the relations b,?
tween Denmark and the Duchies to such an extent
as virtually to repeal that convention. It needed,
not the formal repudiation of the London Treaty by'
Count Bismarck, to which we directed attention a
few days since, to assure us that Prussia would
never assent to the re-establishment of the pre-
viously existing connection between the Danish
monarchy and the Duchies of Schleswig and Hole,
stein. For this event the neutral Powers were'
prepared, nor could Denmark have anticipated any
other result than the formal and final abandonment
by the German Powers of a treaty wnich they have
now for s,-me time ostentatiously trampled under
toot. To the substitution of combinations different
from those which wer assented to twelve years-
ago the several Powers were consequently obliged
to address themselves, and it is on the merits of a
scheme which has chiefly emanated from the British
Government that the members of the Conference
will now be called upon to express an opinion. It
Is no secret that Lard Palmerston, m, ny years since,
proposed that the Duchy of Schleswig should be.
divided, and the southern, or German portion,
attached to Holstein, and thas brought within the
jurisdiction of the Germanic Confederation. The
plan was feasible, and, had it been carried into
effect, might possibly have prevented the present
war. Denmark, however, resting on her territorial.
rights, and wishing to perpetuate as the natural
boundary of Germany the River Eider, refused to
assent to this proposal. The suggestion has nov,
been renewed, and the contending Powers will be
asked to assent to a subdivision of the debateable
Duchy of Schleswig, the northern portion being'
amalgamated with the Danish monarchy and the
southern being united with the Duchy of Holstein.
This constitutes the basis of a proposal which is still
dependent upon a variety of conditions. The sub-
division of Schleswig leaves the question of the
union between the newly-formed Duchies and
Denmark still open, and the solution of this pro*
problem it is proposed to leave to the inhabitants,
themselves. France, as is well known, is a warty
supporter of universal suffrage, and chiefly in con.
•
formic y with her wishes, it is suggested that the
population of the new Duchy of Schleswig-Hol.
stein shall determine for themselves the person
whom they will have for their Sovereign. Inasmuch,
however, as by these arrangements, if assented to,
Germany would derive great maritime advantages
which might be employed to the prejudice of other
State?, several important stipulations are made, of
which one is the neutralisation of the harbour Of
Kiel.