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

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The Channel squadron, which arrived at Plymouth from
the Downs on the 13th ult., is under orders to leave the sound
to-day. All the officers and liberty men were to be on board
by 12 last night. The Edgar, Black Prince, Warrior,Prince
Consort, and Defence will probably start at eight o'clock. At
11 p.m. last night at Plymouth the wind was southerly
and very light. The gunboat Trinculo, tender to Admiral
Dacres, will wait until 5 in the afternoon to receive de-
spatches and pick up stragglers. The squadron proceeds
to Spithead, where a steam launch is ready for the
flagship. Many of the seamen have relatives at Portsmouth,
and they have to remain there a short time. They conclude
that if the squadron is not required in the Baltic it will be
sent on a summer cruise through St. George's Channel and
round Scotland, so as to be back to the south of England in
October.

Advices from the West India and Pacific station, received
by the present mail, report the arrival at Port Royal, Ja-
maica, on the 11th May, of her Majesty's ship Duncan,
bearing the flag of Admiral Sir James Hope, and
her departure on the 23d for Havanna, The Royalist also
arrived at Port Royal on the 11th ult. Some cases of small-
pox had occurred on board both vessels, but none in either
instance had proved fatal, and all were reported as improv-
ing. Those on board the Duncan were removed to the
Naval Hospital shortly after their arrival, but no commu-
nication was permitted between the hospital and the
Royalist. On the 14th ult. a naval court martial assembled
or. board the Royalist for the trial on the charge of insubor-
dination of Mr Roberts, Mr Filmer, and Mr Hobson, three
young officers of that vessel. The members of court martial
were Capt. Lambert, President, Capt. Kitson, Com. J.
D'Arcy, Cora. J. Shears. Capt. Pollard prosecuted. The
charge of insubordination having been substantiated, Mr
Roberts and Mr Hobson were sentenced to two years' im-
prisonment each, and 90 days in each year to solitary con-
finement, and Mr Filmer to one year's imprisonment, and
all three to be dismissed the service with disgrace. They
remained in the General Penitentiary at Kingston, awaiting
the sailing of the vessel which is to convey them home,
where they will undergo their respective sentences. The
Cygnet was also at Jamaica. The Pylades and Greyhound
were at Barbadoes on the 21st ult. The Chameleon, Capt.
Jones, left Vancouver's Island in the latter part of April
for the Mexican coast, and was to proceed thEnce to Pa-
nama to relieve the Devastation, Capt. Pike. The Tribune,
Capt. Lord Gifford, which lett Panama on the 25th of
February, and sailed the whole way, arrived at Esquimalt
about the middle of April. The flagship Sutlej, which
sailed from Callao in Jan., was expected there daily, after
a cruise round the Polynesian Islands.

The Edinburgh, 60, 200 horse power, Capt. C.F. Schom-
berg, late Coastguard ship at Queensferry, Leith, has re-
turned her guns, shot, shell, and other War Department
stores into the Ordnance stores at Chatham, and is now
being dismantled preparatory to being placed in the Medway
Steam Reserve. This fine vessel will, it is understood, be
sold out of the navy, as although she is perfectly sound,
she is not altogether adapted for the present requirements
of the service. The Edinburgh is relieved at Leith by the
Trafalgar, 70, 500 horse power.
The following appointments were made on Saturday at
the Admiralty :—Lieut. Wm. H. Heaton to the Implacable
—Lieut. J. M. Morris to the St. George—E. C. St. John,
midshipman, to the Warrior—W. H. Henderson, midship.•
man, to the Prince Consort—R. F. Ward, midshipman, to
the Hector—H. J. J. Phillimore, midshipman, to the Black
Prince—and F. F. Liardot, midshipman, to the Defence.
The following ships are under orders to return to England
with allconvenient despatch—viz., the Immortalite, 35 guns,
Capt. George Hancock, from the West Indies—the Forte,
39 mans, flagship of Rear-Admiral Warren, Captain Arthur
Mellersh, from the south-east coast of America—the Nar-
cissus, 35 guns, flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Bald win W.
Walker, K.C.8,, Captain F. L. Barnard—the Hornet, 17
guns, Captain J. Dayman—and the Ariel, 7 su,s,
Com-
mender IV. C. Chapman, from the East India and Cape of
Good Hope station—the Philomel, 5 guns, Commander L.
Wildman, from the west coast of Africa—the Baccbante,
39 guns, Captain D. WI,. Mackenzie, from the Pacific—
the Tartar, 20 guns, Captain John M. Hayes—the En.
counter, 14 guns, Captain Roderick Dew, C.B.—the
Ringdove, 4 guns, Commander R. A. 0. Brown—and the
Vulcan, 6 guns, Captain A. C. Strode, from the China sta-
tion—and, lastly, the Harrier, of 17 guns, Commander
Edward Hay, from Australia.

Some dismounted men of the 16th Lancers are expected
at Colchester to-morrow, and will take possession of the
new cavalry barracks ; the remainder of the regiment will
arrive on Saturday. The head-quarters of the regiment
will be stationed at Colchester, and detachments of two
troops each will be sent to Ipswich and Norwich until the
completion of the new Colchester barracks. In accordance
with instructions received from the War-offics a board of
officers under the presidency of Col. Farren, C. 8., 4th depot
battalion, has assembled at Colchester camp to select a site
for the erection of quarters for married soldiers. As a large
number of men who enlisted at the commencement of the
Crimean war for 10 years' service have been recently dis-
charged, recruiting has been commenced at the camp at
Colchester as well as at other stations.

Ministerial Shuffling about Denmark,

(From the Saturday Review.)

The English Government has been greatly
weakened by its share in the Danish transactions,
and perhaps the country has, for the time, lost credit
and popularity in Europe. Hereafter, when
the history of the negotiations is dispas.
sionately reviewed, the charges against English
policy will reduce themselves to a certain number
of errors of taste or style in the language of the
Foreign Minister's despatches, and in one or two
of Lord Palmerston's speeches. The Danes would
have refused compliance with the German demands
even if they had received no encouragement from
England; and, on the other hand, the con-
cessions which they are supposed to have
made under English influence were dictated by
the plainest considerations of prudence. As they
would have been wiser if they had evacuated
Schleswig without fighting, it is idle to complain
that they were prevented from defending Holstein.
Although the season which is most favourable for
naval operations may be wasting away during the
suspension of hostilities, the re-establishment of the
blockade of certain ports and the capture of a few
German merchantmen would be expensive advan-
tages. If Austria and Prussia find themselves un-
able to resist the Danes at sea, they will merely
tighten their pressure on the land which they
occupy or overrun. Sooner or later compensation
will be exacted for every maritime capture and for
every commercial loss which may result from the
closing of German ports. The weaker belligerent
derives no real profit from any isolated advantage
which he may obtain, for the war must at some
time be terminated by a pacification in which the
conqueror will dictate the conditions. The first loss
is the lightest, although the adviser who recom-
mends early submission is always exposed to misin-
terpretation and odium. No great sagacity is re-
quired to foresee that, if a three months' war
released Austria and Prussia from their obligatians
under the treaty, the expenditure of a few more
millions of dollars, and of some thousands of lives,
would be urged as a reason for extorting an addi-
tional equivalent in territory. The Danes complain
with justice that the hostile occupation of Schles-
wig enables the enemy to influence the feelings or
the language of the population, but the rupture of
the armistice will have no tendency to expel the
Prussians from the peninsula, and it will enable
them once more to impose contributions on the un-
fortunate inhabitants of Jutland.

If the conference breaks up without accomplish-
ing its purpose, both Germany and Denmark will
perhaps find a certain satisfaction in the formid-
able onslaught to which the English Government
will be exposed. Lord Russell may, in a certain
sense, fairly claim the negative merit which he
once attributed to Lord Palmerston, of not being
the Minister or the favourite of any foreign coun.
try. In the present dispute he has bitterly offended
the whole German nation, and he has disappointed
the sanguine confidence of the Danes. There are,
perhaps, half a dozen members of the House of
Commons, and 4 somewhat larger number of Peers,

who seriously disapprove of the conduct of the Go-
vernment, as well as of the language of the pub-
lished correspondence. Lord Guy would have
declared war against Austria and Prussia as soon
as they crossed the Eider. But Mr. Disraeli,
agreeing in this matter with the great majority in
both Houses of Parliament, would, in substance,
have done what the Government has done; and it
he had been in office he would have become un-
popular when he failed to prevent the occurrence
of vexatious events. The restoration of peace on
tolerable conditions might possibly tend to re-
establish the credit of the present Ministry; but e
fresh outbreak of war would produce animated
debates, and the result would perhaps depend
rather on feeling than on argument. If Mr. Dis-
raeli is forced to construct, for controversial pur-
poses, an alternative policy which'might hypo-
thetically have been adopted, he must go back to
the French Emperor's proposal of a Congress, and
condemn the refusal of the offer. Parliament,
however, views with jealousy any display of
deference to France, and no party seriously believes
that the Congress could have settled the Danish
quarrel. The vindication of the Government
consists in the certainty that friendly counsels
were useless, and in the well-founded opinion
that the country, if it could have beets consulted,
would have summarily rejected any project of active
interference. It is possible, however, that the
House of Commons may vent its displeasure on the
Government, were it only for the same reasons
which induce an uneasy sleeper to turn over on
the other side. As long as the cause of disturbance
remains there is little hope of comfortable repose,
but a change brings a kind of temporary novelty.