The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-11 00:00:00

complications.

from her ; and it is not impossible that the first
BLAKELY guns used in this country will be cap
tured from the Russians. The noble duke at the
head of our naval affairs declared that the only
object of the authorities was to get the best article
for the service, and that they wished not to over-
look any valuable practical improvement, but they
were overrun with so many new projects, that
endless delay would be occasioned if all were tried.
No one proposes such an outlay of time and money,
but have we no one at the Admiralty capable of
selecting which are worth a trial? How is it, if
the interests of the service are the first considera-
tion, that such an inventor as BLAKELY was Waled
from the country in despair ?

The discussion in the Upper House on Tuesday
night respecting the guns and armour plates em-

We have noticed of late several traits in the present

hagen.

Ministers which distinguish their actions from those
of borne of their predecessors, who have been fore-
most in every achievement whether in war er peace
which could increase the renown or add lustre to
the annals of the country. A very daring instance
of decadence, or want of purpose has recently been
furnished with regard to the want of celerity which
has been displayed in laying the papers which
relate to the Danish question before the House.
Putting aside political discussion as to motives,
real or suppositions, for these documents not being
ready at the opening of the session, and passing by
the non fulfilment of any plan whereby the previous
negligence was rectified up till now, the intelli-
gence conveyed to both Houses regarding the pro •
duction of these papers is really astonishing, when
Lord CARNARYON in a brief, but emphatic speech,
sought to gain the desired information as to when
the members of the Legislature ;would have an
opportunity afforded to them of arriving at a
definite conclusion as to the conduct of the Govern-
ment and the state of affairs generally, and whieh
result could only be attained by a perusal of the
documents in question. Earl RUSSELL'S reply
must have been a source alike of wonder and
dismay. The noble lord said that three weeks
must elapse before they could be furnished, Was
there ever such a preposterous idea and such an
untenable argument. Well might Lord DERBY
exclaim on the instant, " Send them to the Times.'
This is just one of his lordship's happy thoughts
whieh spring spontaneously to the mind, and
often create more impression than elaborate phrases
and studied sentences, which take long to connect,
and longer still to understand sometimes. Cer-
tainly the cynic may exclaim, " Progress to what ?"
when he peruses this statement. In an ago which
is pre-eminently distinguished for speed, and re-
markable for quickness in all things, are the Minis-
ters of the most enterprising nation in the world
to wile away a considerable time, while the work
that some hours should see accomplished takes
weeks for its completion. The sarcasm of the noble
lord, the head of the Opposition, is a very just one,
and the home truths it contains must afford en-

ployed by the Admiralty was not without import

lightenment to the bewildered, and raise doubts in
the minds of the credulous as to the nature of the
objections which occasion this insuperable delay.
No one who takes up a paper within a few hours of
the rising of the House, and surveys the rows of
columns which record the details of the night upon
some great question of more than ordinary
interest, but will comprehend the absurdity of the
excuses put forward by the authorities. When Sir
ROBERT PEEL made his famous speech on the
Catholic Emancipation, which created each a sensa-
tion at the time, a copy of this journal was placed
in his hands twenty minutes after he resumed his
seat, which contained eight columns of the speech
that he had just delivered to the House, and which
had occupied a period of two hours and a half in
its utterance. With the resources of the Times
establishment the whole of the papers which have
been the subject of so much discussion in Parlia-
ment, could be printed in twelve hours. Surely

ante. The Eirl of HARDWICKE asked whether her
MAJESTY'S ships were supplied with any guns or
projectiles that could penetrate the iron plates of a
ship's side four inches and a half thick. The noble
earl, after remarking upon the wonderful changes
introduced by the progress of modern invention,
observed that he had been a member of the Cabi-

LREUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

net to which Sir WILLIAM ARMSTRONG'S guns were
first submitted. It is due to Lord DERBY'S Go-
vernment of 185 S to say that they showed every
willingness to patronise the invention. Since that

time, as we know, other inventors have appeared
upon the field—invention has succeeded invention
—the improvements in guns and armour plates have
kept pace with each other, leaving the final adjudg-
ment of superiority of power yet undetermined.
Lord HARDWICKE said it appeared that Mr. WHIT-
WORTH, ARMSTRONG'S formidable rival, had not
been permitted to carry out his experiments exactly
in the way he wished, and he added that his reason
for putting the question as to the guns now in use
in the Royal Navy was that Mr. WHITWORTH had
never failed to penetrate the iron plating to which
his guns were opposed. Lord HARDWICKE con-
tended that this reduced our expensive armour-
plated vessels to the level of the old wooden
ones, an assertion which the Duke of
SOMERSET subsequently denied. Lord HARDWICKE
also pointed out that the armament of the sea ser-
vice ARMSTRONG gun might not be useful on board
ship, and would not bear the charge required for
heavy artillery. The requisite machinery is so
delicate and complicated as very quickly to get out
of order. The ARMSTRONG guns are excellent for
field service, but a high degree of precision and de-
structive power of projectiles was more aimed at by
the inventor than a length of range. With regard
to heavy guns recent improvements have shown
that they can be constructed on a scale which the
strongest armour plating would be quite unable to
withstand. At the late trial of the Armstrong 600
pounder at Shoeburyness, a shell weighing 6101 b.
passed through and demolished the Warrior target
at a range of 1,000 yards. The Duke of SOMERSET,
in his reply to the Earl of HARDWICKE, said that
the Government had obtained 130 and 150 pounders

then it is as idle as it is unworthy
of Ministers to put forward these shallow
excuses, and to interpose these shuffling delays.
Why is not pressure applied in the right quarters?
Why are not needful exertions made to put an end

to such inconvenient dilatoriness, and to end a state
of things which is creditable to none concerned in it.
In the House of Commons the subject was discussed
at some length, and some rather sharp retorts were
indulged in by the Opposition. Mr. DISRAELI
made a strong point of this suspicious case, and
clearly demonstrated the proper means to rectify
mistakes, and redeem the errors made in the tran-
sactions of these affairs. He asked why they did not
use more despatch, and suggested that the printer
of the Foreign Office had been only "rubbed up for
the first time on that day," and concluded his re-
marks by pressing the inquiry, and taking away
the shadow of an excuse and the semblance of
an apology from the Government. "If you have
all the materials ready, and the credit of the Foreign
Office be at stake, you must endeavour to compen-
sate for former lathes by distributing these docu-
ments into the hands of several printers, and I will
be bound to say, with proper diligence, that you
ought to produce those papers to Parliament in
eight and forty hours." There is a trite saying
which avers that Fas est ab haste doceri, and the
Ministers will do well to take to heart the warnings
conveyed in this address of their opponent. There
is truth in them which, if they are disregarded,
may prove to be only too powerful for them to con-
tend against in a future day. There are many who
cannot, or will not, comprehend the complications
of the Schleswig-Holstein affairs, who will under-
stand only too readily, and with too apt an intelli-
gence, that at a great political crisis despatches
that bore immediate reference to the conduct of the
Government were withheld at a critical juncture,
and that the reasons adduced for their non-appear-
ance were such as no novice could fail to confute.
This is not a time, when the fate of nations depends
on the issue of events that a day may bring forth,
to have the course of a debate arrested by excuses
so lame that they excite instant derision on the
part of their hearers, the reasons for the delay being
such as no man of business would listen to for a
moment, and no Minister of spirit would suffer to
be mentioned in his presence, much less given to
Parliament.

Snow is falling•

The 73otschafter says:—

41 per Cent 5....... 95 20
Do. end month....

3 per Cents
Do. end month 66 35
Credit 111 1012 60
Do. end m0nth...:1015
Bank Shares 3300
Credit F oncier 1230
Roman —

BAIL'

Orleans

that would pierce iron plating, but the difficulty
lay in obtaining an effective broadside gun. It is

true that the constructor of the Navy has asserted
that he can build ships to carry very heavy broad-
side guns. This is no doubt correct, but in so doing.
the speed of the vessel must be proportionately
diminished. A speed of nine or ten knots is quite
inadequate to the requirements of a man-of-war at
the present day, for no matter how powerful her
armament or invulnerable her armour plating, a
vessel that cannot overtake an enemy is practically
useless. These excessively heavy guns of ARM.
STRONG, BLAKELY, or others may be very advan-
tageous in forts where they can be worked by means
of steam machinery, or hydraulic power, but will
never be available for service in ships
unless indeed the suggesti ons of Admiral

SARTORIIJS, of making the ship the gun carriage,
should be put into practice. The gallant admiral
proposed that the gun should be so fitted as to
fire always in a line with the keel ; thus a ves-
sel worked by twin screws might carry a heavy
gun both forward and aft, the gun being pointed
by the turning of the ship. According to the
official explanation, the delay experienced in get-
ting a supply of WHITWORTH'S guns has been
occasioned by the difficulty which that gentleman
experienced in getting the proper material for their
construction. We are inclined to think, with the
Earl of HARDWICKE, that the coldness almost in-
variably the Admiralty to inventors has
hadnaoreshowtodonby
with the matter. The Government
disgusting otonea osfeonuser
succeend3eend, inanedffeweteuraelloyndlyis
have
omf their
ostabiemistake by finding him engaged in the
service of a foreign Government. Too late they
tried to secure his services—their order must wait
until the prior engagement is fulfil,ed. This is
the way in which England's most potent arms Of de-
fence—her men of genius and capacity—are driven

THE MARITIME INSURANCE COMPANY (LIMITED).
—The recent meetings of the newly•formed Marine
Insurance Companies in Liverpool have been in
every respect so satisfactory and encouraging, that
we are not surprised that another should be intro-
duced to the public under the above title. The
Maritime Company, however, is ushered into exist-
ence under extraordinarily favourable auspices. The
Company commence operations at once, on the basis
of the old established business of Messrs. Price and
Co., and which, more recently, under the exclusive
direction of Mr. Henry Case, has been one of the
most prosperous and best managed private under-
writing concerns in Liverpool. The valuable ser-
vices of Mr. Case have been secured as managing
underwriter, his remuneration depending in a great
measure upon the success of the company, and with-
out the payment of any " promotion" money, either
in cash or shares. The profits of Messrs. Price and
Co.'s business, during the last few years, have
averaged about 19,000 per annum, an encouraging
fact, assuring for the new Company a most nume-
rous and influential clientelle, and which, with the
increased advantages of a public tompany, gives
natural promise of a certain and increasing business.
The capital of the new company is fixed at
£1,000,000, in £lO shares, of which only 25,000
will be first issued. The list of directors comprises
some of the most influential and best known mem-
bers of the Liverpool mercantile community, which
is a guarantee that the public will be fairly and
impartially treated in the allotment of the shares.

TIM SUN. LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 11, 1864.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

THE WAR IN SCHLESWIG.
RETURN OF KING CHRISTIAN TO
COPENHAGEN.
COPENHAGEN, FEB. 10, 5,14 p.m.
The King left Sonderburg to-day for Copen-

The enemy continues quiet, and has thrown out
patrols as far as Nybbol.
The spirit animating the Danish army is re-
ported to be excellent.

PROCLAMATION OF MARSHAL
WRANGEL.

FLENSBURG, JAN. 9, Evening.

A proclamation issued by Field Marshal von
Wrangel declares the authority of the King of
Denmark to be superseded in Schleswig.

The public functionaries will be maintained, so
long as they obey the Austrian and Prussian Civil
Commissioners. All political meetings are prohi-
bited, and tranquillity and obedience are recom,
mended to the inhabitants.
The railway between Flensburg and Rendaburg
is restored.

VIENNA, FEB. 10.

ic Denmark, by its anterior conduct, and filially
by its armed resistance, has abolished treaties. The
London treaty no longer exists. The great German
Powers are masters of their policy towards Den-
mark. The ulterior events of the war, the cir-
cumstances under which peace will be concluded,
and the regard the to the condition of Europe,
will aid in determining what use they will make of
this liberty of actbn."

The Calcutta, Bombay, and Mauritius Mails.

SOUTHAMPTON, FEB. 11.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Syria, with the above mails, passed the Needles at
11 40 a.m. to-day.

FRANCE.
PARIS, FEB. 11.
THE " CONSTITIJIONNEL" ON THE
DANISH WAR.

The Constitutionnel of this morning, in an article
by M.Lirnapac,aonsiders that the evacuation of the
Dannewerke will be found to have prolonged the
war. The writer fears that the difficulties now
arising will be of a different kind to those before the
war. The basis of negociation will have been dis-
placed. M. Limlyrac sees with regret that many
complications and difficulties are possible.
BOURSE, Feb. 10.—The market has been agitated,
and the fluctuations have been frequent. Threes,
for the Account, after having been done at 66f. 45e.,
are now at 66f. 30c. Mobilier also advanced at the
opening, but are now rather lower than yesterday.
Railway Shares without any material change up to
the present time. The market closed as follows :

Italian Loan 6B 30
Do. enchnonth —
New ditto ......
Do. end month —
Russian
Austrian .. —
Spanish Threes 5O/1
Home Debt
Deferred
PAYS.
Cash. Account.
996 25 997 50
, 955 .. 953 75

Northern
New ditto
Lyons and Mediterranean 935 .. 935
New ditto
Southern
Western
Eastern
Sardinian 3Bl 25 380
Austrian

Lombard
North of Spain
Saragossa 575 575
Ditto to Barcelona

Atherstone, Taylor, and Browning.

[A portion of the following appeared in a Fourth Ed:
ion of The Sun of last evening.]

The Poetical TVOrks of henry Taylor, D.C.L.

Three Vols. Chapman and Hall.
There are three among the more thoughtful
Poets of the present Age who, although essentially
different in their genius, stand about upon a par in
the exent of their popularity. Two of them are

veterans as illustrators of our national literature.

The youngest of the three has more enthusiastic
admirers than any who have ever clustered about his
two elder contemporaries. These three meditative

poets it was hardly necessary, indeed, to have parti-

cularised by name : their identity must, otherwise, at
once have been conjectured. The youngest of the
three is, it will be understood instantly, quite
as a matter of course, no other than Robert

Browning Author (beyond all his writings
to us) of "Pippa Passes." Edwin Atherstone—

Author of the most Miltonic Poem of his day,

of the stately and resplendent poem, that is, of
_ _

" Nineveh"—is another of this select Triumvirate.
The one last to be here mentioned, because the one
now more immediately coming under our considera-
tion, being Henry Taylor—Author chiefly and dis-
tinctively of " Philip Van Artevelde." Compara-
tively speaking, the popularity enjoyed by each one
of these three gifted writers, is of a peculiarly
restricted character. Even, 5.f it is to be called
popularity at all ! It is among the more highly
educated that they alone find their audience. And
there, even among that class of the more highly
educated, merely a select few have in any one
instance, in regard to Atherstone, in regard to
Taylor, even in regard to Browning, been kindled
into anything like a semblance of fervid admiration.
Apart altogether from the distinguishing pecu-
liarities inherent in the genius of each of these

three poets—peculiarities sufficient of themselves,
perhaps, to account for their readers being the re-
fined and even fastidious few, instead of the varied
many—there has been a recognisable material
reason, if one may so call it, why they have failed
in winning for themselves anytwide-spread popu-
larity. Our meaning, when we have so expressed
ourselves, being simply this, that they, each of them,

members. With regard to the world-famous letters
of Cicero, of which more than eight hundred have
been preserved, it is remarked that they effard us
a glimpse of that inner life, that conflict of passion
and feeling with dignity and duty which the Roman,
whatever his place or power, was usually so careful
to conceal. "We believe we may say, without fear
of contradiction, that of Cicero atone in the whole
compass of classical antiquity has such a picture
survived the ravages of time. Of Cicero alone can
it be affirmed that we are in many and very consi-
derable instances made acquainted not merely with
what he thought it, the proper thing to say in pub-
lic as a vir consularis, or to consign to a set treatise,
bat with what he felt in his heart of hearts, and
confided to his friend of friends." Bearing this in
mind, the reader must not judge harshly of the
foibles and failings which are sometimes exhi•
bited in the letters. The test to which the
Roman philosopher is subjected is a sharp one, and
we should rather rejoice that one of the old cele-
brities shines out so brightly through the dust of
ages. Captain Speke's record of his African travels
is the subject of an interesting article, recounting
the plan of that geographical campaign with which
the public is already familiar. It is remarked, in
conclusion, that whatever may be the discoveries of
future explorers, they cannot deprive Captain
Speke and his companion of the honour of having
been the first Europeans to penetrate those myste-
rious regions, and to force their way through savage
tribes, and kingdoms where the face of a white man
was unknown. An essay on " Guns and Plates" is
well written and interesting, but it shows such
manifest partiality that its arguments cannot be
accepted as in any way conclusive. The naturalist
will find a good deal of information in a paper about
Eels, whose animated style and entertaining matter
will also find favour with the general reader,
although he may not altogether coincide with the
opinion of the enthusiastic Frenchman who declares
"there are few animals whose image one must re-
trace with as much pleasure as the common eel !"
Two papers on " Rome in the Middle Ages," and
those terrible Danish Duchies which have become
such a bugbear to Europe, conclude an interesting
, number.

for tha utterance of their thoughts, have carefully
selected a medium distinctly precluding them, as it
appears to us, from gaining the ear, from extorting
the admiration, from alluring to and concentrating
upon themselves the observation, of the great con-
course of the general public. Atherstone, for ex-
ample—a poet gifted with a most gorgeous and
affluent imagination—has in an. Age of Railways
and Telegrams, when people read not only as the
old prophet Habbakuk has it "running," but lite-
rally flying and whirling over the earth's surface at
the tail of the fiery dragon of the steam engine—
Atherstone has so far (if we may venture to speak
thus with a noble work like Nineveh upon our
bookselves) mistaken his epoch, as to write poems
extending over two huge volumes, and these two
volumes subdivided into a great many highly elabo-
rated cantos. Browning and Taylor, on the other
hand, have still more flagrantly blundered, as it
seems to us, in the selection of the vehicle for the
display, or the putting forth, of their respective
imaginings—their vehicle being one, their 'imagin-
ings how different ! namely, in the deliber-
ate choice by each of them, by Henry Taylor and
by Robert Browning, of not merely the unacting,
but the unactable Drama. Hence it is, mainly at
least, we cannot but think, that popularity, genuine,
unmistakeable popularity, has evaded the grasp of
these three rarely-gifted men—no more than a choice
cluster of readers being enabled, as yet, justly to ap-
preciate, at their real worth, the elevated intellects,
and, here and there, the exquisite performances—(as
in many glorious passages of Nineveh, as in all the
lovely scenes of Pima Passes, as in nearly the whole
of the two lofty historical dramas, together going by

the name of Philip Van Artevelde)—the ambitious
works and the unquestionable genius of Henry
Taylor, of Robert Browning, of Ed win Atherstone.
And what is more—when we have said this—we
doubt very much, indeed, whether it would be prac-
ticable,by any means,for the powers and the writings
of these three remarkable men to be forced into
anything like mere factitious popularity. Even,
though it were by doing, in regard to them all, what
has been recently done in regard to Robert Browning
—namely, by grouping together the pick of his effu-
sions in a single volume of comparatively small
dimensions. It is in the nature of things in respect to
each of them, we believe, that their audience should
be fit and few. That they have this select body of
readers and of earnest admirer's, there oannot be a
doubt. They do indisputably enjoy among
all those who are in any way qualified to appre-
ciate them, a full and a most unaffected fervour
of appreciation. In Browning's instance it is an
appreciation, as we have said, that has even risen
in some quarters to the height of a genuine, and,
eertainly, a most ingenuous, enthusiasm. Among
the writings of the three, there are—whatever may
be the narrowness of the popularity attained
by these writers as poets—works that " the
world will not willing let die." As will have
already been intimated by our foregoing remarks—
indubitable evidence of this may be found, as we
conceive, very readily, indeed, in Atherstone's
Nineveh, in Browning's Pippa Passes, in Taylor's
Philip Van Artevelde. Having said which, we
have now but to add that the comparatively select
few who already enjoy the privilege of knowing
and appreciating, at their true value, that last-men-
tioned poet and that last-mentioned masterpiece,
will rejoice, as we have rejoiced, at the appearance
(in so very charming a form as the present
edition, in three volumes) of the collected and
carefully revised Poetical Works of Henry Taylor—
works including among them not only his opus
magnum of " Philip Van Artevelde," but, together
with that, " A Sicilian Summer." " St. Clement's
Eve," "Edwin the Fair" (in the drift of which we
have, by the way, no sympathy whatever), " Isaac
Commenus" and Minor Poems, leading off with
" The Eve of the Conquest." The edition before
us, in truth, just as it now stands may be pronounced,
as we for one do not hesitate for an instant to pro-
nounce it—an acquisition to any library in the land,
even to those libraries which are the most rigidly
and the most fastiduously selected.

The Quarterly _Review. No. 229. John Murray.
The present number of the Quarterly is fully up
to the standard, both in regard to the variety of the
subjects and the literary merits of the articles. It
opens with a lengthened and interesting paper on the
trade and commerce of China, which we have
already referred to in these columns. Following
this is a review of Nathaniel Hawthorne's spiteful
attack upon our good old mother country. An
attack in which we are almost unable to recognise
the thoughtful and far-sighted truth-seeker who
brought us the " Mosses from an Old Manse."
Emerson's "English Traits" is brought under con-
sideration, and a comparison instituted between the
views and sentiments of the two literary New Eng-
landers. The author of " Representative Men' is
by far the deeper observer, and he perceives and
comprehends many aspects of our national character
which are altogether imperceptible to Mr. Haw-
thorne, Mr. Emerson finds in the mutual sympathy
of the members of the race one great secret of Eng-
lish power. " English believe in English. They
have trust in each other. The very felons have
pride in one another's English stanchness. The
people aro more bound in character than differenced
in ability and rank." Mr. Hawthorne's dislike and
contempt for everything insular extends to inanimate
nature. " For my part," he declares, " I never ate
ate an English fruit, raised in the open air, that could
compare in flavour with a Yankee turnip." After
this, what more can be said ? The " Old Home"
is clearly a very miserable place, and as this is
precisely the opinion which Mr. Hawthorne forms
of our men, our manners, laws, customs, and capa-
cities—our greatest achievements, our heroes, poets,
and statesmen scarcely reaching the standard of
common-place United States citizens—it is scarcely
worth while to expend so much trouble upon us.
Mr, Forsyth's able and interesting life of one of the
great men of antiquity carries us into a world very
far removed from Yankee con ceit and impertinence ;
though the old evils of a Republican form
of government meet us again in the fierce
contentions—the plottings and counter plottings—
, the jealous rivalries and arbitrary measures which
often deprived the State of the services of its ablest