The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-13 00:00:00

ME SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 13, 1864.

Government of the day, of which Earl RUSSELL
was head and Lord PALMERSTON a prominent
member, distinctly promised that the required im-
provements should be carried out in Cork Harbour.
The ardent partisans of this extension ought, ;ere
haps, to feel grateful if they succeed in inducing
the fulfilment of an offical promise within twenty
years of its being made, but the veteran Premier
readily acknowledged the claims of the deputation
upon him. He said that he had himself been so
strongly impressed with the advantages of the har-
bour that he had intended, when Sir CHARLES
WOOD was at the Admiralty, to have taken steps in
the matter. Fur some unexplained reason the
execution of this laudable intention was postponed,
and year after year has gone by, with all these
advantages which Nature has dealt out with so
liberal a hand to Cork thrown to the winds, while
we are lavishing hundreds of thousands is vain
attempts to rival them in places which can scarcely
be put in comparison. We are in great want,
Lord PALMERSTON admits, of dock accom-
modation, and where on the western coast can we
find a better or more advantageous spot than a
harbour whose depth of water is so great
that a vessel of any size, armament, or
tonnage, may enter it at any moment,
and may quit it at any tide to find herself safely
launched on the broad boson of the Atlantic P It
is no wonder that the sister kingdom should feel
some irritation at seeing the capacities of so noble
a port completely undeveloped; but the feelings of
jealousy and mistrust which once prevailed between
the two nations are not now sufficiently forcible to
serve as a valid excuse for inaction. For purposes
of military defence it is well adapted, while the
railway and the telegraph answer every objection
founded on the assumption of foreign war. The
Commissioners
on Fortifications who reported
declared that Cork Harbour was
possessed of great capabilities as a naval port, and
three years
would occupy ago,
;
an important naval strategical posi-
tion for the defence of our western coast in time of
war. They further say, " Cork harbour offers
strong natural features for defence against an
attack by sea, and the naval establishments at
Haulbowline, which, though limited, afford ample
means of refitting, coaling, and provisioning the
ships of the fleet, are so situated as to be secure from
bombardment by sea until the enemy has actual pos-
session of the anchorage. A nation that deale so largely
in irouclads, and is so anxious to watch the rival
merits of its field-pieces, should not forget this re-
commendation. Altogether the case does not admit
of an answer or an evasion, and Lord PALMERSTON,
with his usual happy tack, readily promised to du
alt that was necessary at some future period, and
meanwhile he advised those well informed on the
matter to present themselves before the Parliamen-
tary committee now sitting on dockyards. We
trust the matter will not be again allowed to drop
out of sight, since the establishment of a regular
naval station and dockyard between Milford Haven
and Plymouth would be of immense advantage to
the shipping on our western coast, and surely no
better or more appropriate spot could be found than
that which nature has herself specially fitted for the
purpose.