The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURZ:

ILLS.

PosT.--It is well that, at the eommencement of a
year of which the political horizon may be generally
characterised as stormy, we should cast a glance at
the means at the disposal of Old England which
are available for the vindication of her time-hon-
oured claims to be "mistress of the seas." At the
present moment we need hardly remind our readers
that we are actually engaged in hostilities in China,
in Japan, and in New Zealand, while the unsettled
state of affairs nearer home renders indispensable
the maintenance of a comparatively large force upon
an active footing, or in an advanced state of prepara-
tion in case of any emergency. Our Admiralty,
whatever may be its shortcomings, cannot at least
be accused of a propensity to undue official reticence.
Punctually on every succeeding New Year's-day
' issues the yearly return of the number, name, ton-
nage, station, horse-power, and armament of every
steam and sailing vessel which we possess, down to
the veriest cockboat stamped with the authority
of the Lords High Commissioners. Our bitterest
enemy has only to cast his eyes over the familiar
document to have at a glance what preparations we
have made to receive him, and to compare the
means which he knows to be at his own disposal
with those which we gratuitously inform him are at
ours. There is no pretence whatsoever either of
mystery or concealment, All the world is wel-
come to know how England stands as regards the
vexata quceetio of naval supremacy, what she has
already done in the way of adapting her armament
to the necessities of modern warfare, and what she
is prepared to accomplish in the same direction.
We think that the first impression of any one who
rises from the perusal of this interesting document
will be a conviction that, in dealing thus fairly with
all corners, Britain exercises a wise audacity. "Si
via pacem para bellum" is a motto which, if inter-
preted aright, has not lost its significance even in
the latter half of the nineteenth century. It will
do neither ourselves nor our neighbours any harm
to know that on the Ist January, 1864, the effective
fleet at our disposal amounted to nine hundred and
seventy-five vessels of all classes, not inclusive of
harbour ships at home and abroad, which would
be available for purely defensive purposes, or of a
large fleet of iron and wooden gun and mortar
boats laid up in ordinary at Chatham. Of
course in the sum total which we have given is
reckoned a large proportion of those comparatively
pigmy craft, which are not, in the opinion of com-
petent judges, likely to be in future the least im-
portant among our naval defences. There are, in
tact, no less than 500 vessels carrying from 4 to 21
guns each, although among these are many iron
ships of a power and tonnage which is altogether
out of proportion to an armament scanty in number,
but formidable in its calibre and in the character of
the guns. Besides these, there is a squadron of
one hundred and eighty-flee screw gun-boats, each
fitted with a couple of Armstrong guns, and pro-
pelled by high-pressure engines of not less than
sixty horse-power. Of the old line-of-battle ships
we have still seventy-two specimens left, mounting
from seventy-four to one hundred and twenty-one
guns a piece. Many of them would have been
regarded but ten years ago as models of naval
architecture, yet they are already well nigh num-
bered among the things of the past. We have 42
vessels classed as second-rates, and carrying from
60 to 74 guns each, and 94 steamers and other ships,
which would have passed in old times for frigates,
but which are both of a size and tonnage more than
equivalent to the line-of battle ships of the com-
mencement of the century. Below this, again, we
have 25 screw corvettes, a comparatively new and
vary available class of vessels, which carry 21 guns
each. The,whole force may be divided, roughly speak-
ing, into three distinct categories. One third, in round
numbers, of it is actually employed on active ser-
vice in every part of the globe. The second division
is attached to the reserve squadrons at the different
dockyards, and ought to be able to proceed to sea
within a few weeks, if necessary. The third, or
reserve, properly so called, is laid up in ordinary,
and would not be available for some months after
the breaking out of hostilities. Strictly speaking,
the ships which are in course of building should
constitute a fourth class, consisting of hulls in every
stage of preparation, from those which are jest
ready to be launched to those of which the keels
are but recently laid, and which, although named
and figuring in the official returns, are as yet only
ships upon paper. Nine such, however, have been
completed and launched within the past year, in-
cluding, as we are happy to observe, no less than
half a dozen iron-clad or armour-plated vessels.
Four iron clads have been commenced within the
same period, and seven more are in various stages
of their existence, or in process of conversion
into experimental shield ships. What the demands
are upon our navy may best be gathered from the
names of the different stations to which they
are attached. For practical purposes these may
be grouped under nine different heads. First,
of course, would come ships employed on home ser-
vice, or attached to the different dockyards, which
are perhaps the most numerous of ell. Then we
have the six vessels composin the eltte of our navy
and constituting our preseng t Channel fiaet. The
East India and China squadron, under the command
of a vice admiral and a commodore, figures for fifty-
one in the list. Twent-nine vessels compose our
strength on the North American and West Indian
station; and as many more under Vice-Admiral
Smart, form our Mediterranean fleet. We have
still a commodore and twenty-two vessels, mainly
of low ratings, employed in the suppresteon of the
slave trade on the West Coast of Africa. The
same number, divided, under the command of
.a
rear-admiral a piece, into the Pacific and the South
Eastern Coast squadrons, are in various parts of
South America. Lastly, we have eight ships
under the order of the admiral at the
Cape of Good Hope, and sever under the command
of a commodore in the Australian waters. We need
hardly say that a mere glance at any map upon
which these names will be found -inscelbed ought
to be sufficient to convince the most rigid economist
of the unprecedented demands made upon its naval
service by "an empire upon which the sun never
sets." It is true that, from henceforth, we shall
have to look rather to quality than to quantity.
But, inasmuch as one new ship costs about as much
as three old vessels, while it has yet to be proved
whether iron will in the end last as long as 46 hearts
of oak," we must not be too hasty in deciding that
the change will operate as a saving of expense.
However this may be, we are at least told fairly
what we have got for our money. There the ships
are at the service of any one who is bold enough to
assail them, whether the attack comes from a foreign
foe, or, upon the score of expense, from a homebred
financial reformer.
TIMES.—Of the yearjust expired the most charit-
able record cannot say that " its end was piece."
It has taken its farewell of a world rife with wao
or rumours of wars, and died in the midst of a tem-
pest, like some historical personages who are said to
have sold themselves to the Powers of Darkness.
But the storm is raised by human passions, and we
fear the conflict will continue though the year has
passed away. We can scarcely congratulate the
nineteenth century, as it glides by us, on a decided
moral superiority to all its predecessors. We admit
all the material improvement it can claim as its own
work, but it has not shaken itself clear of much for
which it accuses former ages of barbarism. A good
deal of the experience of the last ten years is well
calculated to check the pride of philosophy, and it
begins to be doubtful whether the events of the next
decade may not deprive it of all ground of exulta-
tion. All our enlightenment has done little to di-
minish one of the oldest evils that have afflicted
mankind. The world has learned much, but not
enough to enable it to live in peace. From the
East and West, from the most ancient empires and
the newest republics, the reports are of the same war-
like character. They come fast and faster upon us.
From Germany, Poland, and Italy, from Mexico,
from China end Japan, we hear of hostilities, or the
animosities that tend to hasten them ; and from the
great Western continent of America the tale of vio-
lence and battle is the fiercest of all. The Ameri-
can civil war has entered into the fourth year of its
duration. So far the predictions* of European ob-
servers have been verified, and it now seems incom-
prehensible how American authorities could have
taken such an inadequate measure of the calamity.
Which side has suffered most in the conflict, or is at
the present moment most capable of sustaining the
terrible pressure on all the resources of the nation,
is open to dispute; but that a pacific settlement
of the quarrel is less possible now than in the
first year of the war is certain. All the evidence
compels us to assume that the struggle must con-
tinue. By the last intelligence we can at least
form an estimate of how much of its avowed
objects has been attained. The submission of
the Southern Confederacy to the old central power
of the Republic is the great end the war is to secure.
The occupation or conquest of as much Southern
territory as may compel that submission is the means
by which the Federation is to re-establish its autho-
rity. The abolition of slavery was combined with
the war as a " military measure" only, though it is
now made to appear the principal motive of the
hostilities. The war commenced in the summer of
1861. The campaigns and battles of 1862 and 1863
are now matters of history. At the opening of 1864
how much Southern territory has the Northern Fede-
ration gained, what has been the effect of that occu-
pation on the policy of the Southern States, and what