The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-16 00:00:00

The competition between the 12-pounder field-
guns of these ril-val artillerists is fast approaching a
conclusion. Thus greater part of the programme has
been gone thro'agh, and the Special Committee feel
their labours sufficiently advanced to commence
practice with the 70-pounders. It would have
saved much time and trouble if these latter had
been taken first, for, as we have often stated, the
principle of rifling and manufacture which suffices
for a large gun will, as a matter of certainty, be
enough for a small one; but what insures accu-
racy and endurance in a 12 pounder may by no
means answer in a 70 or even a 40 pounder. Thus,
then, now that the trials of the field guns are draw-
ing to a close, and some result may be expected
from the competition—though not a very marked
or decided result in guns which have kept so close
throughout—the dictum of the committee, what-
ever it may be on the light guns, will still want
the final confirmation which only the trials of the
heavy guns can dive. Neither Sir William or Mr,
Whitworth would derive the slightest benefit from
being declared the undisputed victor in this field-
gun contest, if they failed to maintain the same
supremacy when their principles were developed
by application to large ordnance: It is a large
shell-carrying, armour-plate piercing, rifled gun
which is now wanted, and the competitor who best
supplies this deficiency will win the honours of the
contest, though, commercially speaking, the de-
feated competitor will carry off the point. Both Sir
William and Mr. Whitworth have received over-
tures from almost every important Government to
be supplied with their ordnance. Not a single
Armstrong gun has gone abroad, though the Whit-
worths have been freely supplied to various coun-
tries, who are certain now eagerly to compete for the
possession of whichever of the two is second best in
this trial, for, of course our own Government will
keep the best for themselves. Though, as we have
said, the result either way is not likely to give any
very marked superiority to any gun, yet it will be
sufficient to show the public which is the best, and
enough is known of the artillery of other countries
to make the Government feel certain that the best
gun of these three is sure to be better than any we
yet know of.
Upwards of 2,500 rounds of shot and shell have
now been fired from each of these ordnance, or rather
more than three times the number of rounds which
woald be sufficient to destroy the old brass smooth-
bore field piece. Each of the guns, of course, shows
signs of wear—in fact, the wear commences with
the first shot fired, and with accurate measurement
may be regularly traced after every 100 rounds. The
breech-loader, perhaps, shows as little signs as any.
Its powder chamber at the base of the shot is en-
larged, and that part of the programme which in-
volved the bursting of a certain number of ehells in
the gun as it was fired has in one or two
placed serrated the edges of the rifling ; but this
is all, and Sir William expresses himself confi-
dent that in endarance it will be equal to any.
This gun, it will be recollected, shot comparatively
ill at the commencement of the trials; and cer-
tainly so much worse than any other common
breech-loader of the same pattern in the service as
to make its performances quite unaccountable to
the officers at Shoebury. The lead coating of the
projectile was always stripped backwards, so as to
form a concavity almost the size of a teacup at the
base of the shot or shell; and this, of c nurse,
was most detrimental to its accuracy, and was
what had never been observed to take place in any
other guns of almost the same kind. During the
last two or three weeks, however, this peculiarity
has entirely disappeared; the shooting has steadily
continued to improve till the accuracy of the piece
is now equal to any of the three. These strange
changes, which were unaccountable at first, have
lately received a very simple solution. All the
service breech-loaders are made of welded wrought-
iron coils, and the severe proof to which they are
subjected before passing Woolwich used to enlarge
the powder chamber about the 500th of an inch.
This competition gun, however, has been made with
an inner tube of steel, which did not enlarge at
once on firing; hence the nip the lead-coated pro-
jectile received on starting, which stripped the
softer metal back like a cup, and affceted its accu-
racy of flight most seriously. But during the long
course of rounds to which it has been subjected the
steel tube has yielded gradually, us the wrought
iron one would have done at once. The powder-
chamber is now enlarged to what may be called its
proper diameter, there is no stripping back of the
lead, and the accuracy of the piece, especially with
shell,is as perfect as could be wished. The condition
of the grooves of the shunt gun is as perfect as the
day it was first fired. There are, however, traces of
considerable corrosion or guttering in the powder-
chamber at the base of the shot, Which has roughed
the interior surface of the gun at this particular
part. The metal, instead of being clean and smooth,
resembles morocco leather in the labyrinth of minute
channels into which it is worn. This wear appeared
early in the gun from the want of a wad at the base
of the shot to prevent the gases passing it on the
ignition of the powder. Since the use of an oakum
wad the progress of this "guttering" has been re-
daced to a minimum, and there are no other marks
appearing. Mr. Whitworth's gun has been several
times revented—thatt is, the screw which contains
the platinum touch-hole has been taken out and re-
placed by a fresh one—an advantageous operation,
which was always easily and quickly done. The
crack in the metal, which early appeared near the
vent, has extended in length, and slightly deepened.
Beyond this the gun shows no signs of use. Thus,
then, all three pieces have marks of wear and tear—
the two Armstrongs giving tokens of the beginning
of a gradual decay, which, as in the course of time,
it slowly but surely progresses, must affect their
accuracy, the Whitworth having a flaw the depth
of which may be immaterial, or, on the other hand,
if serious, may at once affect the existence of the
gun.

The competition has now gained that stage that
the shooting for range and accuracy is entirely over,
and only the extra and somewhat fanciful experi-
ments of turning into ditches, to be gone
through. Some important experiments aro being,
and will continue to be, made as to the destructive
effects of shell, Brc., to which, as they progress,ee,
shall in a few days have to refer at length. When
these tests are got over both Sir William and Mr
Whitworth will bo permitted to show the value of
their pieces in any special or extraordinary manner
they may think proper, after which they will b fired
with gradually increasing charges till they burst.
The tests for range and accuracy which have been
completed with the field-guns have been made with
gradually increasing elevations, from point-blank
range, at about 300 yards, up to 10 deg. of eleva-
tion, or 4,000 yards. At 4,000 yards the diminished
resistance of the smaller and longer shot of Mr
-Whitworth enabled it to beat the Armstrong in
length of range by nearly 400 yards, but as regards
accuracy, the trial has been wonderfully close, ii
one may judge by the complete series of perallelo•
grams which have been made oat by the ccmcnittee.
'These parallelograms, when seen on the tracings,
show in inches the precise amount of superiority of
every gun at every range, so that the most superfi-
cial glares is enough to show any one who can un-
derstand figures what the gain or loss of each
piece has been at each stage of the competition. But
though this is vary cagy to see on a tracing, it is by
no means so easy to convey to the general reader a
similarly clear impression in these columns, We
shall, however, endeavcur to do so, as the subject
is one which ought to interest all, tor every farthing
of the expense of this most costly competition is
defrayed by the puhdc, who will be the ultimate
gainers or losers, according as the best gun is
chosen or not. All the guns, when competing for
range and accuracy, were carefully laid by spirit
level at precisely the same elevations, and fired
along a range which was marked with stakes at
every ten yards. Thus the spot in which every shot
fell was measured to a foot, and its hileral deviation
right and left recorded with (vial tercel-au. If
every gun had been an absolutely perfect andin-
fallible weapon, and bad been fired in a vacuum,
each would have thrown all its shot in precisely
the same spot ; but as none, of course, are e.bsce
lately perfect. and as the flight of the projectiles
ffscted by the Wind) it followed that the same

gun fired at the same elevation, and with the same
charge, threw its shot to the right or the left,
longer or shorter, in a slight but still easily recog-
nisable degree. The difference between the shots
which fell shortest and those which went furthest
forms the length of the parallelogram, and the
extreme difference between those which made the
widest deviation from the true line of fire deter-
mines its breadth. All these parallelograms have
been carefully reduced and drawn to scale side by
side, so that the merits of each performance can be
seen and ascertained by measurement. There
have been 34 stages of the competition in all=
namely, 12 with solid shot, 11 with segment
shell, and 11 with common shell, and out of
these trials, judging by the tracings, Sir William
has won 14 times, has been second 11 times, and
been third nine times. Mr. Whitworth's gun has
won 13 times, has been second 10 times, and has
been third 11 times. The breech-loader has been
first seven times, has been second 13 times, and has
been third 14 times. So far we have used the terms
"first, second, and third," as being the most conve•
nient, but they really convey no proper idea of the
relative sizes of the competing parallelograms, and
we expect that the hardest task the committee has
got will be to determine the figure of merit which
shall properly assign the degrees in which each
gun has been beaten at the different ranges. Thus
in firing solid shot, which is its proper missile, Mr.
Whitworth has sometimes won by making a paral-
lelogram only about one-tenth the size of either of
Sir Wliam's; and, therefore, to call Mr. Whit-
worth's first, and Sir William's second and third in
such a case, would not be at all fairly to represent
the amount by which Mr. Whitworth had been vic-
torious. On the other hand, in firing shell, which is
the only missile now used in field service, and the
only one which Sir William's guns were made to
fire, both his weapons have won by making paralle-
lograms almost 50 times less than Mr. Whitworth's;
and here, therefore, to call the Armstrongs first and
second, and the Whitworth third, would be most
unfair, looking to the manner in which in these
competitions Sir William's has beaten Mr. Whit-
worth's gun. Again, if by another method we add
up the areas made by the parallelograms of each
gun, the result is almost equally unsatisfactory. In
this case the areas of the parallelograms of each
gun with solid shot and segment and common shell
would stand as follows :

BREECH-LOADER ARMSTRONG,

Solid shot

Sq. yds,
.. 2,770
• . 2,001
.. 2,099.

Segment shell
Common shell

•• •• •• ••
MUZZLE-LOADING ARMSTRONG.

6,870

Solid shot .. ..
Segment shell ..
Common shell ..

Sq. yds.
.. 3,02
.. 4.306
.. 1,770

Total

••
•• •• •• 9,128
`YHITWOI:TII•

Solid shot ..
Segment shell
Common shell

Sq., yds,

17900
3,910
7,683

Total .. .. 13,623
It is not too much to say that this multiplication of
areas gives the most illusory result of all, for accord-
ing to these figures the breechloader shoots the
best of any, and twice as well as the Whitworth.
which is exactly the reverse of the fact. The truth
is that the breech-loader shoots very steadily, never
making a very large area of the space in which it
drops its shots, and, except in the case of shell, never
a very small one. The shunt gun is a far more
accurate gun than the breechloader, and nearly all
its areas are verysmall, but it has made one or two
very wild shots with common shot, which bring up
the area of its parallelograms, or, what volunteers
will better understand, the area of its group, to a
larger space than an inferior gun, the breechloader.
The Whitworth has made beautiful practice with
common shot, with which, as will be seen, it has
made the smallest area of all; but, on the other
hand, its range with common shed has been
monstrously wild, making a greater area with them
(7,663 yards) than all the areas of the breechloader
put together. How the committee will determine
what the figure of merit is it is impossible to say,
but in fairness it ought to be by some method which
will show the number of degrees by which Sir Wil-
liam has won 14 times, Mr. Whitworth 13 times,
and the breechloader seven times. Without some
such guide the amount of difbrence between the
performances of each pike would be inappreciable,
and the real lenon to be derived from these costly
experiments rendered almost worthless.
Naval and Military Intelligence,

A War-office circular, embodying a royal war-
rant, laying down an important code of regulations
relative to the pay and other advantages to the ten
years' soldiers and others who may re-enlist on the
completion of their period of limited service, has
been promulgated at Chatham garrison for general
information. The royal warrant cancels that dated
Oct. 30, 1861, which provided that a soldier taking
his discharge and re-enlisting after the expiration
of 12 months should only count half his former ser-
vice, and that soldiers purchasing their discharge
and re-enlisting should, in like manner, count only
half their former sere iee ; and that men who so re-
enlisted should be required to wait 12 months before
being allowed any good-conduct pay of which they
were in receipt before being discharged. The new
royal warrant prescribes that all soldiers who may
re-engage themselves on the completion of the first
term of their limited engagement may be allowed
to receive the value of a new kit, a bounty of £2,
together with re-engagement money £l, and £1
gratuity, receiving at the same time a furlough for
two months. Men who take their discharge and
re-engage within 12 months will be allowed to count
all their former service, instead of only one-half
their service as heretofore. They will at the same
time at once be allowed the good conduct pay of
wnich they were in receipt at the time of their
discharge. The same regulations are, at the same
time, to apply to men who purchase their discharge
and re-enlist. The troops serving in India, China,
and New Zealand are to be allowed the sum of £5,
in lieu of their two months' furlough, on re-enlist-
ing on the expiration of their period of limited ser-
vice. Soldiers serving in the Mediterranean are to
be allowed £3 gratuity, and, if they wish for a
furlough, their passage to and from England will
be defrayed by the Government, and two clear
months allowed them in this country.
general parade of the whole of the officers and
men of the
Royal Engineers was held at Chatham
yesterday for the purpose of hearing read a compli-
mentary order which had been forwarded to Colonel
w. j), Harness, C. 13.,
by General Sir J. Burgoyne,
' C•B.'
satisfactory
Inspector• General of Royal Engineers, on
manner in which the officers
and
men of the Royal
the highly
Engineers had acquitted
lionthemselves
aotndame
0004810 U of the late siege opera-
Therisntd of the reinforcements proceeding this
of cavalry, artillery, and
infantry, season first
t
embarked consisting
at Gravesend
yesterday on
ae
board the chartered troopship Alumb _
h for Madras.
The embarkation was effected under the superin-
tendence of the officers of Major-General Eyre's
staff, from Chatham, and the Alumbagh will take
her departure from the Thames tomciay.

A War Department orler was yesterd3y received
in the Royal Carriage Department at Woolwich, to
commence the manufacture of an experimental
wrought-iron gun carriage, for working the heavy
broadside guns on board ship. Tho designs have
been"supplied by the Board of Admiralty, and were
furnished by Commander Scott, attached to the
flagship Fisgard at Woolwich.
Toe sailing transport Transit, laden with 35,800
shot and shell, guns, carriages, platforms, &a., from
Corfu, has arrived at 'Woolwich, and yesterdaj
commenced discharging her cargo at the Royal
Arsenal pier.

The frieghtelip Arabella has taken in 2,800 boxes
of shot and other war stores at Woolwich, and
sailed yesterday for Malta.
The screw steam frigate Aurora, 35, Captain Sir
F. Leopold Nl'
Clintock, from Ireland, arrived in
Plymouth Sound yesterday morning.
The iron-cased corvette Wolverine and the Re-
sistance and Enterprise rams left Yarmouth Roads
on Tuesday for the north. It was understood that
they were going northwards as far as Leith.
The Louisa gunboat, in the first division of the

Sheerness Steam Reserve, has been appointed tender
to the Trafalgar, 72, screw steamship, 2,700 tons,
500 horse power. Captain Charles F. Schoenberg,
coastguard ship at Queen's Ferry, in the Firth of
Forth, in the place of the Mistletoe, now at Sheer-
ness, which requires extensive repairs.
The half-yearly examination of engineers and
assistant engineer students belonging to the factory,
was held in the dockyard on Monday, Tuesday, and
yesterday, under the superintendence of the Rev,
Roland Wilson, dockyard chaplain, Mr W. Rumble,
inspector of machinery afloat, and Mr R. S. Crock-
ford, instructor of engineers and engineer students
at Sheerness. Fortyafive engineer officers and 36
engineer students were present at the examination.
Papers of questions prepared by the Rev. J. 'Wool-
ley, LL.D., one of her Majesty's inspectors of
schools, were given in geography, English grammar
and composition, French, arithmetic, algebra, geo-
metry, trigonometry, statics, dynamics, hydrosta-
tics, chemistry, and on the steam engine.
The Lords of the Admiralty have ordered the
Caledonia, 35, iron-cased UMW steamship, 4,126
tons, 1,000 horse power, Mr Henry S. Loy, master
in charge, now at Sheerness, to be taken to Ply-
mouth to be docked and brought forward for com-
mission in consequence of there not being a dock
large enough to take the vessel at Sheerness. The
Caledonia will leave Sheerness about the Ist of July.

DEN MARX,

A letter from Copenhagen, dated June 11, says:
—Those fidgetty English tourists, who do not know
what to do with themselves at this season, can
do no better than come and spend their summer
months on the Oresund. There can hardly be a
greater pleasure in these bright days, which begin
to be deliciously warm even in Denmark, than to
steam up and down the Sound by the Horatio,
Ophelia, or Hamlet. Those three little steamers
ply between the two coasts from Malmo to Copen-
hagen, and. hence to Elsinore and Helsingford, morn-
ing and evening. The shores on either side are
somewhat tame and lowly, and will not bear com-
parison with the rugged sublimity of some of the
great Mediterranean straits. But the scenery has
a charming homeliness of its own, nevertheless. The
two countries, politically sundered for so many
centuries, woo each other most tenderly, and as you
approach Elsinore the Danish and Swedish head-
lands overlap each other as if in loving embrace,
end the beholder is at a loss to tell where his eye
rests on a Scanian and where on a Zealandian land-
scape. The vegetation on either side is luxuriant
beyond belief, and the magnificent timber spreads
its drooping branches down to the very surface of
the tideless waves. The Lake of Geneva, where
it contracts itself into the narrow channel of the
Rhone, has not purer waters than are to be
seen in these ever-flowing currents; and nowhere
is the sight of white, glittering sails more animated
and enlivening than in this silent highway of
the Baltic. The steamers that waft you along
are clean and comfortable, the traffic is carried
on with all speed and in the best order, and the
company getting in and out at every station is
the best looking, most interesting, and sociable
you may wish to travel with. lam sure only
to see the rosy cheeks and golden hair of the
hundreds of well-dressed Danish girls on their
way to and from the different watering-places on the
Sound is a treat well repaying any trouble it may
cost a Londoner to come all the way from his dingy
Thames and from the coal begrimed wharfs of
Gravesend-reach.
Whatever cloud may rise on the political horizon
of Denmark, the sky on the Oresund is, and
has been for weeks, as bright as the brightest
in the south. These Danes are a buoyant and
sanguine race; in the worst plight they hope for the
best, and while the London Conference is disposing,
of them with prolonged armistice, schemes of parti-
tion or personal union, they seem only to think that
summer and sea-bathing wait for no man. They live
by the day, the twenty-hour solsticial day, and put cff
the cares of the future for that gloomy winter
season which may be better fitted for sackcloth and
ashes. This shirt spell of genial, warm weather
is the Danish carnival. It is the season in which
they indulge in those quiet, rational amusements
which best become their sedate nature and the
thorough civilisation peculiar to them. Sea-bathing
is with them the greatest luxury. The streets of
Copenhagen are empty. The whole population,
from the King to the humblest trader, are out for
a dip.
Such watering-places as the Sound everywhere
affords are not to be sought in Great Britain either
on the German ocean or on the Atlantic coast. The
influence of the Gulf Stream is not felt within this
inland channel, and the water is as deliciously ice-
cold as the stoutest nerves can desire, the sands
under feet as soft as velvet, free from all gravel and
shingle, and the diver can be seen fathoms deep in
the transparent element as distinct as if he were
floating in air. Bathing-houses or machines are
hardly needed. Yet just look out for the loneliest
nook anywhere along shore; you step from the green
sward into the rippling waves ; you flounder in the
water or bask in the sun on the grass with alter-
nate enjoyment. Your whole being becomes as am-
phibious as the country itself, a country truly
tneer-unisehlunyen, where laud and water clasp each
other in the closest embrace.
Who shall number the multitude, men, women.
and children, who are sure, this blessed Sunday, to
plunge from the margin of the Klamsenborg strand
on the skirts of the gorgeously verdant Deerpark P
From which of the hundreds of tidy villas along the
Sound shall not the fair inmates issue forth in their
long-flowing gowns, metamorphosing for a few
minutes a nymph into a byren? From Copenhagen
to Elsinore every village on the coast is a watering-
place; every country house is a bathing-house.
Yet, if the whole sound is a bathing establishment,
no doubt Elsinore is its capital. There is hardly
anything in the world, I believe, that will bear
comparison as a Bade-Anstalt with the Marien-
lyst, a short half-mils beyond the Queen of the
Sound, just beyond the glacis of the Kronborg.
From the glacis of old Hamlat's castle there
stretches along shore a wide, long meadow, smooth
and green as a billiard table, so wonderfully level
with the sea that you wonder by what invisible
law it is held in obedience to the fiat that parted
land from water at the beginning of the world. On
your left, as you look up to the Cattegat, you have
fine, swelling knolls, with such masses of green
foliage as all the parks of old England can eearcely
match—masses of foliage so rife with blossoms at
this period of the year that green can scarcely be
described as the prevalent hue. In the midst of
that foliage is a maze of winding walks, where, it
you can get an Eve to wander with you, you may
fancy yourself a very Adam in Eden; and here and
there in the thickest bowers you come upon snug
country seats, the flowery gardens of which seem to
be cultivated no less for your especial enjoyment
than for that of their fortunate owners. Every gate
is invitingly open : every labourer at work has a smile
and a greeting God-day for you. The Daces are a
people who know but little about fencing and paling,
nothing about locked doors or barred windows. Their
privacy needs no other protection than the discretion
of the passer-by. How they manage it I know not
but they seem to have no fear of tramps or pick-
pockets, and the noxious vermin somehow cannot
flourish in the land. Ido not remember whether 1
ever mentioned it before ; but it is a fact that years
a'i.;o some gentlemen from Scotland-yard were in-
vited to this country to organise a kind of metro-
Politan police at Copenhagen, and creditably did they
acquit themselves of their task; but the men who
were enlisted in that service are daily sending in
their resignation, as they
with, an are ashamed of and dis-
gustedemployment which in this wonder-
fully inoffensive community has turned out a weari-
eerne sinecure. Thieves, it would seem, cannot thrive
in the land, and thief-takers cannot prosper with-
out them. I have been assured that some of the
gentlemen of the London and Paris swell-mob, al-
lured by this Arcadian security, have been tempted
to try their luck in the virgin soil of Denmark;
but, somehow, the air does not agree with them,
and they had to slink away, awed, iss it were, by
ithat guileless confidence that seemed to blunt even
while it defied their cunning. Somehow, it was like
trying the sharp edge of a sword on a feather bed.
Knavery could make no breach cn this apparently

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—Do me the favour to publish in the Times
the enclosed communication, which I design as a
reply to numerous assaults upon me by the English
Press—not excepting an occasional " rumble" from
yourselves—on the subject of my destroying prizes
at sea without adjudication by a Prize Court. The
London Evening Star and kindred negrophilist
associates have been particularly virulent and abu-
sive. The term "pirate" is a favourite epithet with
them; but as abuse is always evidence of the weak-
ness of the cause in which it is employed, and as
this little failing may be a sort of vocabulistic neces
sity with them to enable them to pursue their polite
calling, perhaps I ought not to quarrel with it.
If in the course of my remarks I have found it
necessary to review some of the acts of your Govern-
vernment, I trust you will give me credit for doing
this in a spirit ofjustiee and fair play, and not with
a disposition to be querulous or censorious. I have
alleged no fact that will not be conceded, and if my
reasoning upon the premises be sound, no harm can
have been done to any one, since truth is never un.
just. If, on the contrary, the reasoning be unsound,
you have the probe and scapel at hand.
I am respectfully, &c.,
R. SEMMES) Capt. Confederate States' Navy.
Confederate States' Steamer Alabama, on the
High Seas, April, 1864.
TIIE REASONS WHY CONFEDERATE cßuisEns BURN
THEIR PRIZES, AND THE REMEDY.
I had the honour to command the first vessel of war (the
steamer Sumter) commissioned by the Confederate States
in the present war, and, having successfully run the
blockade of New Orleans and got to sea, it early became
necessary for me to adopt some mode of disposing of ray
prizes. A blockade of the entire coast of the Confederate
States had already been declared, and the enemy was busy
in collecting and arming ships to enforce it ; and I presumed
that in the course of a few months the blockade would be at
least sufficient to keep out sail vessels, and of this class,
with rare exceptions, it was probable my prizes would be.
It was clear, therefore, that I should be effectually prevented
from sending my prizes into the Confederate ports. Up to
the time of my running the blockade (Tune 30, 1861) I had
not seen her Britannic Majesty's Orders in Council pro-
hibiting the belligerents from bringing their prizes into
British ports; and looking to the unequal oteration of
such orders, I had strong hopes that none such would be
issued. I made my first prizes on the coast of Cuba, and
with a view to test the disposition of Spain in this matter I
sent them—seven in number—into the port of Cienfuegos.
Their arrival was telegraphed to the Captain-General at
Havannah. The Captain-General was without instructions,
the orders of neutrality of the Queen of Spain not yet
having been rec.eived. The prizes were permitted to remain
until these orders should arrive. The orders came, and the
prizes were afterwards illegally handed over to the enemy,
instead of bring warned to depart. Spain, as well as
France, had followed the lead of Great Britain, and in due
time all the smaller commercial nations did the same. To
show the objects I had in view in sending in these prizes, I
quote below an extract from my letter to the Governor of
Cienfuegos :
"The cargoes of several of these vessels are claimed, as
appears by certificates found among the papers, as Spanish
property. This fact cannot, of course, be verified, except
by a judicial proceeding in the Prize Courts of the Confede-
rate States. But while this fact is being determined, what
is to be done with the property ? I have the right to destroy
the vessels, but not the cargoes, in case the latter should
prove to be, as claimed, Spanish property; but how can I
destroy the former and not the latter ? I cannot before sen-
tence unlade the cargoes and deliver them to the claimants,
for I do not know that the claims will be sustained; and I
cannot destroy the cargoes, for I do not know that the claims
will not be sustained. Indeed, one of the motives which
influenced me in seeking a Spanish port was the fact that
these cargoes were claimed by Spanish subjects, whom I
am desirous of putting to as little inconvenience as possible
in the unlading and reception of their property after sen-
tence, in case it should be restored to them,"
It will thus be seen that I was not only anxious to condemn
my prizes, but to put neutrals to as little inconvenience as
possible. II any prizes had been received into neutral ports,
and permitted to remain there until they could bo adjudi-
cated by our Prize Courts, sitting in our own territory, no
possible inconvenience that I can perceive could have re-
sulted to neutral nations, and the rights of every one would
have been secured—the right of the captor to the full benefit
of his prize, and the right of the neutral claimant to adjudi-
cation. What inconvenience to Great Britain, for example,
could pdssibly have grown out of the fact of a captured
vessel lying quietly at her dock in the port of Liverpool in
charge of a ship-keeper and prize agent until she could be
adjudicated ; and if he should be condemned, why could she
not have been sold as quietly at public auction as if she had
been seized and sold under an execution for debt ? It was
my intention to follow the precedent set in the Cienfuegos
case—of sending all my prizes into the most convenient ports
for the parties concerned ; as, Where there were English
claimants, into English ports; French claimants, into French
ports, &c. ; but this intention was frustrated, as has been
seen, by the orders of the Queen's Government—l say the
Queen's Government, because that Government gave the
cue which was followed by the other nations. By these
orders I was deprived at the same time the right of
asylum and sale of my prizes and of the power of adjudica-
tion. What course was expected of me under these circum-
stances ? Was it expected that I would abandon the right
of capture altogether, or that I would be guilty of the
child's play of capturing the enemy's ships with one hand
and releasing them with the other ? that, in short, I would
retire from tho high seas, and leave the enemy to pursue his
commerce, his " innocott and peaceable commerce," as Mr
Adams plaintively and naively calls it, without molestation ?
If you did not suppose this --and I will not impute such
folly to a people who not only know the value of commerce
to a belligerent, but who have always annihilated the com •
merce of their enemies in their orn wars—you must have
know that I would destroy the enemy's ships in every case
where it was possible. Why then do you complain of the
course I pursued ? Was it just to force that course upon me,
and then exclaim aganst it in pious horror P Is this the
kind of fair play upon which Englishmen pride tnernselves ?
But your neutrality, you say, compelled you to this course.
Let us see how that is. What is neutrality ? Impartiality.
Impartiality in form or appearance merely, or impartiality
in substance ? When a nation is called upon in good faith
to perform that most solemn act of declaring her impartiality
between two belligerents is a mere jugglery of words all that
is necessary, or must she look at the practical consequences
of the rule she adopts. To this query there would seem to
be but one answer. The rule must not only speak in the
language of justice, but it must work out the ends of justice.
Otherwise it is a sham and a deceit. Let us test the orders
of British neutrality by this canon. On their face nothing
could be more fair. Whatever is ordained as to the one
belligerent is ordained as to the other. The prizes of both
belligerents are prohibited from entering British waters.
But when these orders were penned what facts and what
consequences were in the mind of the Minister ? Did he or
did he not know that he was dealing a staggering blow at
the Confederate States at the same time that he was playing
directly into the hands of the Federal States ? Let us see.
It will be admitted that the two belligerents had the right
to use against each other all the modes of warfare recog-
nised by the international code, and that no nation had the
right to prohibit to either of them the use of any of those
modes. Privateering was one of those modes, and the cir-
cumstances of the two parties to the war were such that this
mode of offence was peculiarly valuable to the Confederate
States. The Federal States had a large commerce and a
very respectable navy, they having retained possession of
all the ships of war of the old service, while the Confederate
States had little or no commerce, and were just beginning to
improvise a navy. (And here it may not be out of place to
mention a fact highly creditable to the parties concerned
—every ship of war in the command of a Southern naval
officer at the date of the secession of his State was duly
handed over to the Federal Government before the officer
resigned his commission and returned to his State). A
large proportion of the wealth of the Federal States con-
sisted in their commerce, and if this could be destroyed an
important blow would be struck in
the war. The Volun-
teer Corps of the sea—as legitimate as the Volunteer
Corps of the land—was the most effective weapon with
which to strike this blow, and accordingly in the first days
of the war several privateers were commissioned, and others
were being rapidly fitted out, when the Queen's orders
appeared and knocked the whole scheme on the head. As
if by magic, the privateers which had already been com-
missioned disappeared from the seas, and all work was sus-
pended on those in course of preparation, and the little
Sumter, afterwards assisted by two or three other small
vessels, was obliged to undertake the task of destroying a
commerce second only to that of Great Britain, and which
covered every sea. The reason of the disappearance of these
private armed ships is obvious. They are prepared at the
cost of individuals, and depend upon their captures for
success. If these cannot be made available the enterprise
becomes abortive, and the capital invested in it is sunk;
and they could not be made available by reason of the
Queen's orders referred to denying them the right of asylum
in British ports, the British Foreign Secretary well know-
ing that they could not be made available in the Confederate
ports because of the blockade, the blockade having been
proclaimed on the 16th April, 1861, and the orders in Coun-
cil not having been issued until the Ist of the following June.
So far as results wore concerned the British Government

gation.

There was no occasion for Mr Seward to endeavour to
sneak into this declaration after the war, in the hope that
by becoming a party to it Great Britain would illogically
hold that the Confederate States, now acknowledged as bel-
ligerents, would be bound by the act of their enemy. The
British Foreign Secretary knew his business better than
this. With the most commendable sagacity he took care of
his logic and his friend Mr Seward at the same time, and
accomplished the object of the Federal Government by his
orders in Council, without permitting its Minister to humi-
liate himself.
This was one result of the declaration of neutrality—An-
glive partiality—put forth by Great Britain. But the mis-
chief did not end here. The Confederate States being com-
pelled to restrict their operations upon the high seas to their
ships of war, those ships were also seriously embarrassed by
this declaration. Their inability to adjudicate their prizes
has already been referred to. As a consequence of this ina-
bility they could make no beneficial use of them. Not only
so, they were compelled in many instances to release them on
ransom bond for the benefit of neutrals—that is to say, to
give neutral claimants of cargoes an opportunity after the
war, when the bonds should be sued upon, to vindicate their
claims in a court of justice, which opportunity their own
Governments had denied to them during the war byrendering
it impossible for them to go before a Confederate price court.
The release of these vessels operated strongly, too, in favour
of the enemy. For it amounted to a loan to him of so
much property, of which he had been rightfully deprived.
with which to carry on the war—his bonds in the meantime
being of no use to the captors, as it was impossible to col-
lect them until after the war. This double mischief, there-
fore, ensued in these bond cases—the enemy continued to
carry on his commerce, and commerce to a belligerent is
strength; while the captor's means, quoad the war, were
not increased by his captures. The reader will now see why
as few of these ships as possible were released on bond, the
release being confined to those cases in which an apparent
bona file natural claim was presented on the face of pro-
perly prepared papers. Nevertheless, to show the good
faith with which the captor must have acted towards neu-
trals in this matter, every ship destroyed by him was so
much property destroyed against his own interest—for the
ship being destroyed, no prize money could be realised,
whereas the bond would be valuable to him at the end of
war. And although it was to,be presumed that every officer
would, from a sense of duty, destroy as many of his prizes
as possible, yet we see that at least he had no private inte-
rest to urge him to destroy them when there was a question
of neutral rights, his leaning being, in fact, the other way.
This, then, is the working of those Made orders in
Council which, on the face of them, appear to be entirely
unexceptionable. Stripping off the diplomatic disguise of
language, which is so thin and transparent that the wonder
is that it should have been resorted to at all with the hope
of concealment—more unjust, oppressive, and unneutral
orders could not have been devised. If the practical effect
of these orders is such as I have stated, what excuse can be
offered for adopting them ? Can it be said that no other
course was open to the British Government under the laws
of nations ? It so, that would be a sufficient excuse—for
where a Government has no alternative it would certainly be
unjust to hold it responsible for all the consequential damages
of its acts. It might be said with truth, in reply to our com-
plaints, " We were obliged, under the laws of nations, re-
gulating and controlling our neutrality, to exclude your
prizes from our ports ; and, if by reason of your inferior
naval force, and the consequent blockade of your ports, the
rule operates more harshly upon you than upon the enemy,
that is your misfortune, not our fault." But the fact is,
there is no such excuse to offer. It was, at least, equally as
open to Great Britain to admit as to exclude our prizes, as
I will now proceed to show. The practice of nations has been
various on this point, and it rests in the discretion of each
nation to admit prizes into its ports or to exclude them, as
it may think fit. This seems to be the general understanding
of the law on this question, although there is very respectable
authority for the opinion that a nation cannot lawfully
exclude the prizes of a belligerent without previous treaty
stipulations to that effect.—" Loccenius de Jure Maritime,"
L2,c4, s 7. As a general rule, belligerent nations have
not favoured the carrying of their prizes into neutral ports,
and the reasons are obvious. It is much more convenient
for the prize courts that they should have the actual custody
of the prize to be a ljudicated. And the bringing in of prizes
to the home ports gives the subjects of the captor an oppor-
tunity of dealing in prize property, an object of no small
importance in a maritime war where many valuable captures
are made. It gives the Government, too, the advantage of
buying in such ships as it may wish to equip for the
purposes of war, an advantage of which the Federal States
have frequently availed theauelves during the present war.
Hence, belligerent nations have generally required their
cruisers to bring their prizes into the home ports. Still, in
cases where the contrary practice was convenient, nations
have freely availed themselves of it, without lot or hindrance
from neutrals, unless there was a treaty in the way. . In
former wars in which Groat Britain has been concerned,
Leghorn and Lisbon were frequontlyiniade use of for this
purpose; the prizes being condemned and sold without
ever reaching the home ports at all. But taking the modern
Practice to be for the neutral to admit or exclude prizes at
pleasure, the presumption always is, previous to the issue
by the neutral of any order oa the subject, in favour of
the admission—this having been the more common
practice. On this point see " Wheaton's Elements (Law-
rence, p. 428 ; see also 3, " Phillinuore's International
Law," p. 498, sec. 363. Tho treaties between nations on
this subject have been as various as the practice. In 1778
a treaty was entered into between France and the United
States, whereby no ship of the enemy of either party was
allowed to sell her prize, or discharge her cargo, or buy
more provisions than immediately indispensable, in the ports
of the other.
In 1800 a similar treaty was entered into by the same
parties.
In 1791 a treaty of exclusion was made between England
and the United States.
Ia 1806 a treaty was made between the same parties, con-
taining similar provisions.
In 1782 a treaty was entered into between the United
States and Holland, then one of the principal maritime
Powers, whereby the sale of prizes brought by either party
into the ports of the other was legalized.
In 1742 a treaty was made between Spain and Denmark
authorizing the reception and sale of prizes reciprocally
and so late as 1829 a treaty was ratified between Holland
and the Republic of Colombia authorizing the reception of
prizes into each other's ports.
Now, if the treaties between Great Britain and the United
States were still in existence, there is no doubt that Great
Britain would be obliged under those treaties to apply the
rule of exclusion to the Confederate States; but it will be
remembered that a war occurred between the two contract-
ing parties in 1812, subsequently to the formaVon of those
treaties, which abrogated them ; and the subject has not
since been renewed either in the Treaty of Ghent, which
put an end to that war, or in any subsequent treaty. The,
ignoring of such a question, after it had once been made
the subject of a treaty, places in a very strong light the in-
tention of the parties to remain perfectly free to exercise
their discretion for the future. Great Britain, then, has no
excuse for the unjust and unneutral course she has pursued,
She can neither affirm that she had no alternative under the
laws of nations, nor that she was bound by any treaty obli-

One more question, which has already been incidentally
noticed, remains to be disposed of. If Great Britain had
permitted the entry of prizes into her ports, would this
have enabled the captors to condemn them so as to give an
indefeasible title to the purchaser ? Without doubt. Not-
withstanding Lord Stowell, in the case of the " Fled Oyen"
(1 Rob., pp. 139-142), declared the practice (he was cart-
rnenting on the practice of the French courts, in the heat
of a French war, and every lawyer knows the rim with
which his lordship assailed everything French) to be "in-
frequent and irregular," it is now well settled that a belli-
gerent Prize Court, sitting in its country, may adjudicate a
prize lying in neutral waters, provided the possession of the
captor remains. And this position seems to be as unanwer-
able in principle as it is well settled in practice. The pro-
ceeding in a prize case is in rem, and to give the court
jurisdiction it is only necessary that it should have possession
of the prize. But this need not be actual possession by the
officers of the court, as by the marshal and his bailiffs. It
is sufficient if the captor, or his duly appointed agent, has
possession, because his possession is that of the Government
under whose authority the court sits, as effectually as would
be that of the marshal; and no principle is better settled
than that a neutral Government has no right to interfere
with the captor's possession of his prize—the case only
excepted of the capture having been made within the waters
of the neutral territory. So that if the prize be admitted
into the neutral port at all—and the argument proceeds
upon that hypothesis—the captor's possession remains as
firmly established as if he and his prize were in his own
country. In support of this jurisdiction of the Prize Court
I quote the following authorities : —ln 111, Phillimore's
International Law, p. 482, it is said ;—" An attentive
review of all the cases decided in the Courts of England
and the North American United States during the last war
(1812) leads to the conclusion that the coademnation of a
capture by a regular Prize Court, sitting in the country of
the belligerent, of a prize lying at the time of the sentence
in a neutral port ie irregular, but clearly valid. It appears
to be the inclination of the English Prize Court during
the present war (Russian) to limit to cases of necessity
the condemnation vessels lying in a neutral port.
It is scarcely necessary to add, after what has been said as
to the former French law on condemnations by judges of
the belligerent in neutral ports (that is, the judge, and the
prize both being in the neutral port), that such condemna-
tions of vessels lying in neutral ports are holden valid by
the French Prize Courts." Again, in the volume already
quoted, p. 426, it is said, " The courts of the North Ameri(i
can United States allow that property may be condemned
in the courts of the captor while lying in a neutral couutry,
but still they hold that it can only be so adjudicated
upon
while pon
while the possession of the captor remains ; for if it be
divested, either in fact or by operation of law, that posses-
sion is gone which can alone sustain the jurisdiction. And
it is to be observed that, a fortiori, where the property is
already in the custody of a neutral tribunal, and the title is

There would seem, then, to be no difficulty in the way of
Great Britain's revoking her unjust and unneutral orders
in Council and returning to a sense of justice. If indivi-
duals are bound in conscience to retract their errors when
once discovered, how much more are nations bound to do so,
the consequences of whose errors are so much more wide-
spread By doing justice to the Confederate States Great
Britain will not be doing injustice to the Federal States. If
she gives an asylum in her ports to the former, she will
equally give it to the latter; and if she should work an in-
cidental advantage to the Confederate states, why should
this he objected to more than the opposite rule, which has
worked them so many disadvantages? And will it be less
graceful in Great Britain to perform this act of justice
because one of the parties in the for unt is struggling against
odds, while the other has become overbearing—nay, trucu-
lent and defiant. from a fancied excess of brute strength?
It is never safe for a nation, any more than an individual,
to temporise, especially with a bully, and at the cost of in-
justice to a weaker party. Great Britain innocently fancies
that she is "laying up against a rainy day"—that is to say,
that she is concil ating the "universal Yankee nation" by
her present one-sided course, and establishing wise and safe
precedents to be followed by that people hereafter when she
shall herself become a belligerent. But I warn that it is all
fancy, and that she will reap the reward of her timidity in
the usual way—timidity on the part of nations always in-
viting further insult and outrage. A people who have be-
come so lunatic as to destroy a constitutional Government
and voluntarily submit their necks to the yoke of coarse and
illiterate tyrant for the sake of butchering, in gratification of
their revenge, eight millions of their former fellow-citizens,
will hardly permit themselves to be ruled by English prece-
dents, to be calmly quoted to them by some future peace-
loving Earl Russell from ponderous blue-books.

spriuT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—We find ourselves at the present moment
engaged in a discussion which once more repro-
duces the arguments and suggestions of a contro-
versy long gone by. The problem of Manning the
Navy was accomplished some years ago; but the
topic, it seems, has only been dropped to make room
for the question of Manning the Army. Those
who remember the former discussion will recognise
in the correspondence which we have recently pub-
lished all the old familiar statements and opinions,
We are now told, precisely as we were told ten
years since, that the Queen's pay is good pay, if it
were but properly applied ; that what the public
provides for the maintenance of the service consti-
tutes a liberal provision, if the soldier did but know
it; that he actually receives, in one way or another,
far more than could be earned by an agricultural
labourer, but that his receipts are so confused be-
tween " pay" and " allowances," and so curtailed
by stoppages and deductions, that the liberalhy of
the nation eludes his perception. A soldier, we are
assured, actually costs the country between 14s. and
15s. a week, whereas he obtains in the shape of
money only 2d. a day. This is one of the old
arguments, revived and repeated word for word ;
the moral, of course, being that we should reform
this part of the system, and pay the soldier in a coin
which he understands. He knows the difference
between ls. and ls. 6d. a day, but he takes little
account of cheap supplies and contingent privileges.
Give him his dues in ready money instead of dis-
guised advantages, and he will be able to compare
his earnings with those of a ploughboy or an
apprentice. A second argument is this—that a
distinction should be established between ordinary
and able-bodied soldiers, We borrow the terms
from the Navy for application to the Army ; but the
meaning is, that in the profession of arms, as well as
all other professions, a trained and experienced
man is worth more than a young beginner. That
this is actually the case no one can deny, and yet
we act as if no such difference of values existed. A
soldier who has screed for ten years, who is well
disciplined, thoroughly acquainted with his busi-
ness, and inured to all the trials of a military life,
is held to be worth no more than a raw recruit.
We have repeatedly explained that the bargain
offered by the State to the recruit is in reality a
good one. It must be remembered that ho is an
unskilled labourer, taken to learn his trade at the
public expense, and charged nothing for the in-
struction ; indeed, we can hardly put this plainer
than by an appeal to the very examples anticipated
at this minute. We are told, and with apparent
reason, that we cannot expect, many of our soldiers
to be content with their position at the expiration
of their first term of enlistment. The ten years'
man is a very different being from the raw lad
picked up by the sergeant. Besides his mastery
over his immediate profession, ho has been educated
in mind and body. He has been to school, and has
been well taught. His ideas have been enlarged,
and be has acquired habits of discipline, obedience,
and fidelity. Such a man is of value anywhere,
and may look for more than his 131. a day from an
appreciative master. Granted ; but then let us
inquire who made this man what he is. At whose
expense and by what agency was the village scamp
or the loutish farm servant turned into the trained,
intelligent, and trustworthy. man. All this increase
of personal value was given by the State, and the
difference between what the man was and what he
is is simply the measure of his actual gain over and
above his daily pay. We are convinced, however,
that it is worth our while to buy this man at his
proper value. We must buy the recruit first and
the soldier afterwards—first got the men, and then
keep them. If necessary, we meet offer better
terms, but though there is no doubt about the
increased demand ,:for labour, and the improved
remuneration which it commands, we are assured,
nevertheless, that the amount actually provided for
the soldier under various forms of pay and allow-
ances is sufficient for the purposes of first recruiting,
if judiciously applied. The trained soldier mey
fairly look at the expiration of a given period of
service for better terms than he got at first. That
is so plain that it needs na argument. No doubt
the improvement has been accomplished in the ser-
vice itself, but that does not affect the fact. A com-
plete soldier is worth more to us in common market
value than a rectuit. He can get more—at least, so
it is thought—in other callings, and it is reasonable,
therefore, that he should look for more if he con-
tinues in his own. At all events, here are two
plain principles inviting notice and trial. Give the
young recruit in a tangible shape what you intend
to give him; and when he has acquired skill in his
calling give him something more. We think these
suggestions are very likely to assist us materially
in manning the army.
POST.—The Conference is again adjourned till
Saturday, and it is felt that the motive of these re-
peated delays is the understanding that nothing can
yet be accomplished to reconcile these two opponents.
A few days will bring a resumption of hostilities,
which will oblige this country to determine once
for all how we are to act at this crisis. We must
either abandon Denmark or stand by her. In the
meantime, as we feel ourselves drifting, we may pees
our time in hoping against hope and arguing against
our knowledge, and in looking out for some Heaven-
sent solution to arrive. But the inevitable hour must
come when dreams give way to realities—when, if
we are to hold our place among nations our iron-
clads must resolve other questions than those of
steering and rolling—when our soldiers must occupy
other camps than Aldershot, and our engineers again
play out in earnest on a European stage the tragedy
rehearsed the other day at Chatham. We are quite
aware that these words of ours will be received with ,
mockery by the German Press: They will be com-
mented on as more bombast of the Morning Post,
and we shall be reminded of similar expressions
often used during the last few months. It is very
deplorable that, in consequence of the anxiety dis-
played by our diplomatists to avoid war, or even the
semblance of it, the voice of the Press is thought to
be sham thunder. Foreigners think that this great
country is really the slave of the Peace party. The
delusions which preceded the Crimean war are again
articles of belief in foreign capitals, and,
alas 1 have
again to be dispelled. rance leaves to us, in this F
instance, the initiative and the responsibility. As
she acted in Italy alone, so now, in turn, we are ex-
pected to take our own line of action in a matter

concern ourselves. The
Pruesians, as, if we are not misinformed,
which is supposed chiefly to
Count B;s-
-march has recently informed the Prussian Minister
at Vienna, count on the abstention of France, at the
of accepting price
some suggestions as to the appli-
cation
of universal suffrage, and he has warned the
Austrian Government that Prussia will insist on a
radical solution, and will, if neeessary, act alone, sup-
ported, as she expects to be, by the general public
opinion rmany. As to Russia, Count Bismarck
considers of Ge
himself perfectly secure as to her viewe,
and has assured the Austrian Government that in
no eventuality will she be found contrary to Prussian
policy. The meeting of monarchs which is about to
take place at Kissengen will probably ratify these
conclusions, and the alliance which the Morning
Post pointed out as already existing months ago
will probably be solemnly renewed. Prussia helped
Russia to crush Poland. Austria has recently also
put her hand to that work. The Germans have
fought side by side in Denmark, the conditions being
Austrian concurrence in the North in return for
prospective Prussian support in the South. Both
have aided Russia in expectation of her connivance
in their schemes and her aid in their difficulties.
The allies presume that England and Francs are
estranged, that France will not act alone, and that _