The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-17 00:00:00

CHINA AND JAPAN.

We take the following summary of news from
the China Overland Mail of 27th August :
" Japan has been the subj. et of some anxiety during the
last fortnight, and theca are not wanting prospects of speedy
hostilities in the Straits of Shimonoseki, which firms the
Gibraltar of the Inland Sea. Matters may thus briefly be
stated. On or about the 25th of July last two Japanese
' ambassadors' reached Yokohama by the mail steamer.
Both were dressed as Europeans,
and had been for three
months in England, vvhitilvr they had been sent, they
affirmed, by their re-Aster, the Prince of Nagato.
Shortly rifler their arrival, two of her Al.jesty's vessels
of war (the Barossa and the Cormorant) got up
steam, .and proceeded to the Straits of Shimonaski
with the two men on board. There were also on
board an engineer officer and some French and Dutch offi
eerie This was the first visit paid to these Straits by any
foreign vessel for about a year, and there was some reason
to suspect that Nagato had in the interval strengthened
his fortifications. There is every reason to suppose that
this suspicion is correct. Whatever errand the two ships of
war went upon—we hear it was to demand the opening of
the Inlar. d Sea—they returned wit bout having
accomplished
it. All their demands met from the Prince of Nagato an
absolute refusal. The
ambassadors' were put on shore at
their master's territory. In consequence of what passed it
was at once arranged that the combined French, Englis'a,
and Dutch fleet should leave Yokohama about the 21th inst.,
to see how far it was posaible to enforce their demands upon
the Prince. The fleet intended for this service consisted of
16 English, two French, and four Dutch vessels of war, a
force somewhat more formidable than that employed at
Kagosima, but of questionable use against the forts and
forces of Negate, should he prove to have increased in mili-
tary strength during the past year, which it is to be feared
he has to a very considerable extent.
" A battalion of Marines will embark with the fleet from
Yokohama, leaving that port defended by the 20th Regi-
ment and detachments of the 67th. There have also been
ordered up from Shanghai 100 men of the 67th and 150 Be-
loachees. As an additional protection to the settlement her
Majesty's ship Conqueror and the United States steamer
Jamestown will remain at Yokohama.

_„----
" The fleet about to sail 12 days after the date of our last
Japan advices (Aug. 1:;) was to rendezvous in the Bang°
Channel, where her Majesty's ships Perseus and Osprey
would join them from Shanghai, with a supply of coal in
sailing vessels which they were ordered to escort. It can-
not bo sooner than the middle of September before hostili-
ties commence, should matters ever come to that pass ;
and, from the extent of the operations, there is some
reason to fear the worst. Largo as these preparations are,
comparatively, they are much too insignificant, in the
opinion of well-informed judges, for the purpose of putting
our relations with Japan on a liberal, permanent, and satis-
factory footing. Fur this purpose a land force of not lea
than 15,000 is said to be needed ; and if we should wait
another year, while the Japanese continue to mature their
own preparations, a force of 20,000 men might be unrciiai
to the task of obtaining what we desire. Meantim-
are all the latest authentic items of new' - these
they are calculated to arouse
rota Japan, and
" From China th-
.nous anxiety.
the state of • ;
cruel political news has reference to
-- `a° country. That China can never be at perfect
....l
~ace is a problem which we need not attempt to solve. Its
Government has been called a despotic government, but
...
there is no country in the world where the peace of the em-
pire depends so much on the goodwill of the people, and ut
this few ere better aware than the reandarina thenuelyee

The Taeping rebellion has been one of the worst sores conse-
quent upon the pride, haughtiness, and self-sufficiency into
which the Chinese rulers had fallen (from Hien Fung down
to the lowest civil officer) that has for a long time punished
the sins of the governing classes. It was in itself a malady
that would never havo resulted in political purgation—an
ulcer which foreigners wished to keep clear of by 30
miles at least, and which they have shown the Chinese
how t 3 cure. The physician has hitherto got but scant
thanks from his querulous patient, and the next matter of
curiosity will be to see whether China's renewed vigour
will be used in our favour or against us. Several questions
have been waiting solution for some time, chiefly with re-
gard to treaty rights ; and those questions have been defer-
red on account of the trouble attending the Taeping re-
bellion.

The Royal Alfred.

In the launch of this frigate, which took place at

Portsmouth on Siturdqy, the Admiralty have sent

aflot another vessel that, when she has been
clothed with her machinery, may be added to the
list of England's ironclad fleet, and become one of
the total number which now comprises some nine
or ten descriptions of vessels varying in all the ex-
tremes of tonnage, speed, and mode of construction
which now form our somewhat heterogenous collec-
tion of irotticlads. The Royal Alfred is one of the
Prince Consort and Royal OA class, their frames
designed and prepared as 92-gun screw line-of-
battle ships, but afterwards cut down to a frigate's
battery, altered in form at the bow and stern,
and etrenthened considerably in every part
to carry the weight of 41in. armour plating.
The Royal Alfred was ordered to be built sea line-
ofebattle ship in October, 1859, of the following
general dimensions :—Length between perpendi-
culars, 252 ft ; length of keel for tonnage, 213 ft 91n ;
breadth extreme, 58ft ; breadth for tonnage, 57ft
2in ; breadth moulded, 56ft 4in ; depth in hold,
19ft 10in ; burden in tons, 3,715 62-94, The ship
was accordingly laid down and nearly completed
in accorance with these orders, when, after the work
had been suspended on her for some time, just at
the period when wooden liners had become univer-
sally acknowledged as useless to compete with iron-
clad frigates, a second order relative to the ship
was issued from the Admiralty in June, 1661,
which on this occasion directed that the ship's
upper deck, so far as it had been constructed,
should be removed, and .the necessary alterations
and strengthening of her frame carried out, to com-
plete her as en ironscased frigate. Under these
new conditions the Royal Alfred ,has been suf-
ficiently completed to be launched from off the ship-
way on which she has been constructed on Satur-
day, her hull shorn externally of all aids to her
beauty, her bo vs without the " figureehead " which
has existed as part of a ship from the time of the
Phoenicians, or the curved lines of head-rail and
cutwater, and her stern without the ornamental
quarter-galleries, and reduced to a bare conical ter-
mination, the apex projecting over and protecting
the fixed screw and rudder; her length is now in.
creased beyond her original dimensions to 2731 t. be-
tween perpendiculars and 233 ft. on her keel, and he:
tonnage increased to 4,045 26 94, while her
breadth remains the same. On Saturday, as,
previous to launching, she lay on her blocks, with
her vast hull painted black, and without other orna-
ment than the gaily-decorated bottle of wine sus-
pended from the stem for the " christening," she
looked like some antediluvian monster. Mr. Cra-
dock, the master shipwright of Portsmouth Dock-
yard, had the direction and care of launching the
ship, Rear-Admiral G. Elliot, Admiral superinten•
dent, superintending the operations. A few minutes
before 10 a.m. Miss Alice Cradock, the daughter of
the master shipwright, was led forward, and with
great grace broke the bottle against the ship's stem
—at the same time uttering the customary wish,
" Success to the Royal Alfred." The ship was
named, but not yet quite freed. Some ten blocks
under her keel remained to be split out, but the
most of these were soon dealt witb, and Miss
Cradock, having a small mallet placed in her
hands, struck a blow on a sharp chisel held
against the card on the ship's stem which kept sus-
pended the iron " dogs," when the latter descended
in their grooved channels and knocked clear the
dogshorcs which alone now held the ship on the
ways. A few moments only of suspenee, accom-
panied by groaning and creaking sounds, and the
ship started and slid with a goatle rush into the
water, amid ringing cheers from thousands of spec.
tatore.

Like others of her class, the Royal Alfred does not
look much handsomer afloat than she did on the
stocks, bat in the absence of beauty there is evident
fitness for fighting purposes as a broadside ship,
looking on her superficially as she lay broadside on
to the building shed, and brought up in that posi-
tion by her anchor immediately after being
launched. If the launching scene be now left
and the reader transported on board the Royal Al.
fred, the ship may be inspected from another point
of view. Upper deck is at present clear fore and aft,
after the fashion of cur best specimens of wooden
screw frigates, with the exception that a forecastle
is being constructed at the fore end of the deck, and
lines are laid out for the erection of a poop at the
after end ; the first being a covered-in space of the
deck, which may be appropriated to the accommo-
dation of the crew; and the second a similar spec)
for the accommodation of an admiral and his
u'te—the Royal Alfred being destined as a fl ig•
ship—thus meeting the difficulty hitherto expe-
rienced in providing such accommodation for the
officer commanding a fighting fleet. The upper
deck of the Royal Alfred is composed of the
ordinary wooden planking; but this is laid upon an
iron deck of half-inch boiler plate, which, strength-
ened and tied by edge and butt straps of iron of
equal thickness, and by fora and aft stringer rows
of plates, rests upon rolled iron beams which span
the ship at short intervals. Descending from this
upper to the main or gun deck below, the ship is
here found to give, from appearances, her greatest
promise of future efficiency as a man of war, and at
the same time, on close examination, she exhibits
her inefficiency as such in common with her sisters
of the same class. The deck, from beam to floor, is of
good height, there is ample room for working the
guns of the battery fore and aft, the means of venti-
lation for carrying off the smoke in rapid firing are
good, and, to crown all, the entire deck, round the
stem and stern, as well as on the broadside, is pro-
tected by 4k-inch rolled armour plates, from the
Atlas Works, Sheffield. So far for efficiency. As
to her inefficiency, all this capital arrangement of
gun battery, roomy quarters, and ventilation, pro-
tected by the best of all armour plating, is sup-
ported only by some 18 inches of timber, without
any inner iron lining, and the consequences in action
would be that steel shot from guns of any power
would go completely through the side of the ship
fired at, and knock off the armour plates from
the opposite side, and if only cast iron shot were
fired from the ordinary 68 pounder smooth bore
gun, although the shot would not penetrate into the
ship, yet the splinters flung off from the unlined
ship's side internally by the impact of the shot upon
the armour plates would be sufficient to disable all
the men at the guns, Descending lower into the
ship, workmen are found busily employed fitting the
mess, berthing, &c., for the crew; and still lower
may be seen the preparations made for the reception
of her machinery. Neither machinery nor armour
plates yet form part of the Royal Alfred, and
both will have now to be fitted in dock or in
the floating basins of Portsmouth yard, as may
be required, according to the progress of
the ship's outfit, The engines will be of the
united power of 800 horses, nominal, from the estab-
lishment of Messrs Maudslay, Field, and Co., the
latter fact being a sufficient guarantee for their ex-
cellence. The lower meets of the ship are splendid
specimens of iron manufacture, from the works of
Messrs of Chepstow.

The Royal Alfred is pierced for 35 guns, but with
the rapid strides now being made in the calibres of
naval ordnance it would be useless to speculate upon
what her armament may eventually be.
Rear-Admiral George Elliot, after the launch had
been accomplished, entertained a large party to
luncheon at his official residence in the dockyard.

A large body of the Metropolitan Police, under
the command of Mr Superintendent Grey, rendered
efficient bervice during the launch of the ahip.