The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-15 00:00:00

Our Commercial Interests.

We desire to call the special attention of President Lin-
coln, the next Congress, and the American public to the
correspondence between several leading merchants of this
city and the Secretary of the Navy. The subject of this
correspondence has for a long time engaged the attention
and wounded the pride of every patriotic citizen of this re-
public, and since Secretary Welles promises no redress and
proposes no remedy for the evils of which our merchants
complain, we wish to appeal from him to higher and more
efficient authorities. It is indeed most galling to national
pride that four or five fleet Anglo-rebel cruisers should be
allowed to drive our commerce from the seas, and defy our
navy of five hundred or six hundred vessels of war.
Practically we have now no American commerce
Neutral Alps do all our carrying trade, and the
majority of these neutral ships are owned by Englishmen,
who thus reap the only profits of the Anglo-rebel depreda-
tions upon our merchants. Trading vessels are advertised
in our columns to sail on such and such days "under neutral
flags," as if the flag of the Union, whose shelter commerce
once eagerly sought, were now to be avoided like a pesti-
lence. Three years ago twice as many American than
European vessels cleared from New York. Now the pro-
portion is reversed. The number of foreign vessels clearing
from this seaport is double the number of American ves-
sels, and of course the number of arrivals is divided in the
same ratio. No American can coasider these facts with
complacency or indifference. The sentiments which
they arouse are of a decidedly different sort. We
have been grumbling about them quite long enough.
The time has now arrived for prompt and deci-
sive action. If we were at war with some great naval
Power;we might look upon this destruction of our commerce
as one of the necessary evils of war, and might console our-
selves with the reflection that we had at least the chance of
retaliation. But the rebel Confederacy is not a naval Power.
The four or five ships with which England has supplied
Jeff. Davis cannot be said to compose a navy, The rebels
owe their success upon the seas not to their own efforts, but
to the assistance of England and the supineness and
imbecility of the Navy Department. Secretary Welles
has obliged his friends with percentages and contracts,
and has thus largely increased the number of our ships of
war; but chat part of his duty which ought to be esteemed
the most important he has utterly failed to perform. He is
a secretary of a land navy, not of an ocean navy. He or
his agents can purchase ships, or charter ships, or have ships
built ; but when the ships are once upon the blue water he
appears to lose all further interest in and control of them.
Six hundred vessels against five—that is the relative
strength of the Union and the rebel navies. But if any
one were to base an estimate of their comparative strength
upon the records of the work which each has done at sea, he
would be compelled to state that the rebels have 600 men-of-
war and we five slow and leaky tubs, This disgraceful dis-
crepancy must be laid to the account of Secretary Welles.
The war in 1812 conclusively demonstrated that we had then
the fastest vessels in the world. How have ships built at
private yards in England been permitted to surpass us ? We
have now the best sailors in the world, and our ironclads
are indubitably superior to any others afloat. There remain,
therefore, only two points of naval excellence in which we
could be surpassed, and those are range of guns and speed.
Our heavy guns are unequalled, as all the recent experi-
ments have abundantly proven. We lack only speed. Sin-
gularly enough, we, the fastest people on the face of the
earth, do not possess a navy of the fastest ships. We have
a few swift war vessels, like the Vanderbilt and Iroquois ;
but the great majority of our men-of-war are so slow
that Noah's Ark would have the advantage of them in
a stern chase, or could choose her own position in a
fight. Some persons say that this is the fault of the
model, and other that it is the fault of the engines. We
assert that it is the fault of Secretary Welles. It is his
business to select the proper models, and to order the pro-
per engines, and he does not do it. Why he does not is
known only to the initiated. There are whispers of fine
contract pickings, and rumours that certain parties lead the
venerable Welles by the nose, and throw sawdust in his
eyes whenever they like; but whether these whispers and
rumours be true or not we decline to decide. We do know,
however, that although the present style of vessels is en-
tirely inefficient, Secretary Welles goes on building hun-
dreds more like them, and that this is a most promising
subject for Congressional investigation.—New York. Times.

MARKETS---This Day.

HAY MARKZTS.

SMITHFIELD.-11eadow hay, £3 Os to £4 lOs Od ; clover,
£4 Os to £5 lOs Od ; and straw, £1 Ss to £1 lOs per load.
Trade slow.

CUMBERLAND.--Meadow hay, £3 Os to £4 10s; clove,,
£4 Os to £5 lOs Gd ; and straw, £1 53 to £1 lOs per load.
A slow demand.
WHITECHAPEL.—Meadow hay, £3 Os to £4lOB Od ; clover,
£4 Os to £5 10s Od ; and straw, £1 58 to £1 lOs per load.
Trade inactive.