The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP

TIMES.—In the earlier period of the American
war the Federal land forces received very tff c
support from the gunboats on the rivers. Mon(
rom once the flotilla that accompanied the march
of the troops proved of essential service. The cep-
tare of New Orleans and a full share of the other
successes of the Northern Generals on the Missis-
sippi were due to the co-operation of naval officers.
But of the later incidents of the war the Federal
fleet, though immensely increased in number, has
not borne so prominent a part. The blockade of
the Southern coast has been kept up strictly enough
to cripple the export trade of the Confederacy, if
not to close its harbours totally against contraband
enterprises. Bat of the combined operations of the
siege of Charieeton the navy failed in the part as-
signed to it, and how complete the failure has been
the American public has oniy just discovered. The
truth has long been suspected from the inaction of
the fleet df ironclads throughout the summer and
autumn. It was, of course, fully known to the
heads of the Navy Department, but the Govern-
ment would not avow it, preferring to impute the
defeat of the Monitors by the land batteries against
which they were sent to Admiral Dupont. He was
recalled for not having succeeded, and insinuations
against his professional skill or capacity were re-
peated in the recent Report of the Secretary of the
Navy appended to President Lincoln's Message to
Congress. The admiral and the officers under his
command naturally resent the implied censure, and
appeal to the official returns of the condition of the
whole fleet after the engagement to prove that any
repetition of the attack must have resulted in its
total destruction. We have no interest whatever in
the dispute between Mr. Welles and the Admiral,
but very much in the question it involves as to the
power of land batteries to resist the attack of iron
ships. The first great experiment may not be
decisive, for we know that the American Moni-
tors were not the best possible vessels of the
kind. But it is the decided opinion of the
officers engaged that these irou:cased ships had no
chance against the concentrated fire of rifled arta.
lery. From the first few minutes after the Monitors
came within range of batteries the result was evi-
dent. The ships could neither sustain the fire to
which they were exposed, nor return it with any
effect. The repulie was a severe disappointment,
for the Northern people had been assured, and were
very ready to believe, that the iron fleet was invin-
cible. The attack was made on the 7th April last,
and within a few days afterwards the return of the
damage sustained must have been in the hands of
the Secretary. But the facts were too discouraging
to be published. The truth was suppressed, and
the public assured that, with a few repairs, the fleet
would be in a condition to pass all the batteries and
steam "up to the wharves of Charleston." The
Monitors were not withdrawn, as it would have
been an admission of the defeat. They have re-
mained in Charleston Bey, useless for all the opera-
tions of the siege, which has been carried on ever
since the spring by the military engineers and the
troops. The snore batteries they have constructed
have demolished the external works of Fort Sumter,
bat this has not brought the assailing forces any
nearer the city. The failure of the Monitors was,
in fact, the failure of the siege. Of all the depart-
mente of the Federal Government, the administra-
tion of the navy is at present the most unpopular.
But we do not see why Mr. Welles should be blamed
for the miscarriage of the ironclads. The whole
fleet was only an experiment. The ships were has-
tily constructed, but on the model of a vessel that
had done good service. It was impossible to cal-
culate the power of the guns the Southerners
were placing in the forts. These have proved
heavier and of longer range than the Federal
shipbuilders anticipated. And it appears from the
reports that several ironclads manoeuvring toge-
ther create difficulties not perceived in handling
a single ship. All the defects were discovered in
the two hours of trial. Unfortunately, they were
hours of battle, and what under other circumstances
would have been only the failure of an experiment
turned out a naval disaster. In some of the details
the pal titulars of the damage sustained in the action
are instru,
etive. We discover the weak points of the
invulnerable. They appear to be the "turrets" and
the " port stopil'ers." A single unlucky shot, even
if not heavy enou4'h to crush the iron armour, may
indent the metal on which the turret revolves, and
stop its working. The ship is at once disabled, On
board several of the Mont: ors the turret thus " be-
came jammed" and immovaNe. The " port stop-
pers" were also frequently mmered tight by a
shot, and could not be opened. A ball need not
pierce or smash everything in its waT to inflict what
may be called a mortal wound on an ironclad; a
comparative scratch " will do" if it redinees the re-
volving turret to a fixture, or shuts its got; inside.
O.herwise the Monitors have great powers of endu-
rance. Some of them received 30 and 40 shots in
the hull without material injury, though one blow
on the turret may disable the ship as a combatant.
Another defect discovered was that these monsters
are purblind. The captain of the Patapsco found
" the want of vision one of the most serious defects
of this class, making it impossible to fight them
advantageously, to avoid danger, or to make a satis-
factory reconnaissance. " In different terms, other
officers make the same complaint, A good look-
out is difficult. On board one Monitor the be'l-wires
tbat communicated with the signal in the engine-
room were cut by a shot, and no orders could be sent
below, It does not appear that the heaviest hits do
the most serious damage, for there are portions of the
fittings that cannot be protected, and if these are
touched the ship is practically useless. But in all cases
the safety of the crew is nearly complete. The loss
of life in the engagement was very trifling. Some
of the captains conclude the account of their da-
mages by a few general inferences on the efficiency
of the class of vessel they had fought under such
novel conditions. The commander of the Montauk
says, " After testing the weight of the enemy's fire,
I believe that Charleston cannot be taken by the
navai force now present, and that had the attack
been continued, it must have resulted in disaster."
Another captain thinks that Monitors carrying a
15-inch gun cannot attack batteries mounted with
heavy ordnance. The ships must come within a
range that would be fatal to them, Capt. Fairfax
" is convinced that although this class of vessel can
,stand a very heavy fire, yet the want of more guns
will render them comparatively harmless before
formidabi.? earthworks and forts." He is "
b a
dis-
appointed be.Tond measure" at the remulto its "it was
.s f this
experiment with the Monitors,
a fair trial." It is evident the new fleet of iron cads
will do little more in the siege of Charleston.
POST.—The Chancellor of the Exc;:equer is a
ready, eloquent, and effective speaker on alteost any
subject that comes before him. By none of our
great statesmen, Lord Palmerston excepted, has that
best gilt of oratory which consists in the adaptation
of the speech to the audience been so remarkably
developed as by Mr. Gladstone. in a country
reading-room, as in the Imperial Parliament, be
carries his hearers along with him, fascinated and
spell-bound even when they are not convinced. The
earnestness of the man supplements the skill of the
rhetorician, and in the rush of words that dazzle
the senses there is a deep under current of thought
which penetrates to the understanding and asserts
an irresistible mastery over the mind. Mr. Glad-
stone is one of the greatest orators of the day, and,
happily, he is also one of the truest and most dis•
cerning of philanthropists. There is no clap-trap
in his " extra•parliamentary utterances ;" nor does
he when he speaks to the labouring classes preach
discontent, or propagate agrarian theories, as is
the manner of some. He does not say one thing
is the House of Commons and another thing in
Flintshire, and that which he says every where is
practical and to the point, and it is said heartily,
kindly, and evidently with a desire to do good.
At Buckley, where he inaugurated a working
man's reading-room on Monday last, Mr. Gladstone
delivered an address which can be read with profit
in every similar institution throughout the kingdom,
any by all of the class to whom it was especially
spoken. It was exactly one of those plain, un-
adorned, yet always eloquent speeches which the
Chancellor of the Exchequer has the happy power
of making acceptable and agreeable. There was no
cant in it. It was not the speech of a Pharisee,,but
of a man of the world. Mr. Gladstone did not run
down the publichouses ; but on the contrary, ad-
mitted that they had their uses, and that stimulants
taken in moderation were of the necessaries of life
to those who worked hard as he himself did. Nor
did he recommend reading-rooms as resorts in which
all the leisure hours of the working man were to be
spent; but, in pointing out that they offered faci-
lities for mental instruction which the men of this
class could not be expected to obtain at their own
homes, he took care to have it understood that home
duties were of primary importance. In short, he
took that view of the mission, if we may so call it,
which he was advocating, that if taken more gene-
rally would, we are persuaded, tend to bring work-
ing men to a better appreciation of the benefits of
literary instruction than they appear now to pos-
sess. It is too much the fashion to speak of these
reading-rooms as if they were adult schools or
places of relaxation conducted on the " total absti-
nence principle." There is nothing human in the
manner in which they are commonly supported,
and the chairs and tables and second hand-news-
papers are all redolent of charity and direction.
They are not places in which the working man can
take his ease as he can at a publichouse ; and
though they seldom strive after it in the right way,
there is nothing working men like better than ease
and independence. And it was to this feeling that
Mr. Gladstone principally addressed himself.
raking for his text-word economy, he showed, as
Frouosively as cogently, that the working men had

The weather is now clear and frosty. At to-day's mar-
ket there was a fair show of wheat, with a ready sale, and
the prices of last week advanced is per qr. Malting bar-
ley is higher, and grinding descriptions sold better. Beans
and peas were about supported.
White ..45s to 46s / Barley 36s to 37s
Red .. 4ls to 48s I Grinding ..33s to 34s
Beans .43s to 44s I Oats
New 38s to 40s I Peas ..—s to ~...