The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC TOURthai

nate& —The victory of the Confederates over
the Federals at. Charleston is something more-than
' the mere triumph of one combatant over anothtr.
P. is a victory of forts over ships, of land batteries
over iron-cased vessels, of the deknce over the at-
tack. It conveys a lesson which we should be un-
wise to neglect. It represents an experiment on a
large scale is a department of science to which we
are now devoting our attention. Roughly speaking,
Charleston harbour is not very unlike Southampton
Water, and now it has been actually attacked,by an
ironclad fleet and defended by heavily-armed, forts.
We need say no more to show how valuable this ex-
perience may be to us, and with what interest we
should regard the history of the battle. Of Charles-
ton harbour in its present state we know only that
it has been carefully fortified by the construction of
strong works on each side, not only of the entrance.
but of every point in the harbour itself. One of the
forts is an old one, being no other than the now
famous Fort Sumter, but it was strengthened as far
as circumstances would permit. The other defences
are mostly of recent erection, and adapted to the
practice of modern warfare by all arts of the Con-
federate engineers. The result, we are told, was,
that no hostile vessel could enter the harbour with-
out passing within 600 yards of a battery. Across
the channel, too, at a point where the obstacle
would serve to bring the assailants to a standstill
within reach of the shore guns, the Southerners had
placed a line of torpedoes, and behind this line they
had ranged their own iron-clad gunboats. For all
these dispositions the Federals had prepared them-
selves. A contrivance had been invented tor raising
the torpedoes ; nine heavy iron-clads were to go in
and silence the forts, and then, the harbour being
opened, it was imagined that the city could be bom-
herded by the squadron from the inner waters. Such
were the plans for the attack and the defence, and
it would be difficult to imagine operations better
calculated to throw light on our inquiries. We
find, then, as the great result of the engagement,
that the attack was decisively repulsed, and,
although we are still without official details of the
battle, we are left in no uncertainty upon any of the
main points of interest. We know that whereas the
file of the iron-clads produced little effect, except
on the old-fashioned masonry of Fort Samter, the
fire of the forts totally destroyed one of the iron-
clads and disabled at least four mope. This remark-
able service, too, was performed by sheer force of
artillery. It was hard shot against heavy armour,
and the armour gave way. We have the names of
seven out of the nine vessels engaged, and these
names show that the best ships of the Federal fleet
were despatched upon this duty. The Passaic was
the model Monitor of the new pattern—an improve-
ment upon the original, designed by the inventor
himself. The Ironsides was the only one of the three
models approved by the Navy Department for ex-
periment which had not been pronounced a failure.
The Keokuk was a specimen from Mr. Whitney's
dockyard, and was regarded as rivalling the fa-
vourite productions of Mr. Ericsson. The Wenawkeu
was a sister ship to the Passaic, and the others, we
believe, were of much the same build. In fact, they
are all called "Monitors".in the report, the name of
Mr. Ericsson's original vessel having been applied
generically to the ships built more or less exactly
on her model. We do not suppose for a moment
that the vessels could be compared to our own iron-
cased frigates. The beat of them were under 1,500
tons' burden, they cost but £BO,OOO a-piece, and
they were built from the keel in a very few months.
Our own experience has taught us that on such
terms a really first-rate production would have been
an impossibility; but, at any rate, the Federals bed
no better vessels in their fleet than those which ad-
vanced to the attack of Charleston Forts on the 7th
of last month. Yet these vessels were completely
worsted in the engagement which followed, and the
power of artillery seems to have been more effectu-
ally demonstrated than in any other battle of the
war. The Keokuk, Mr. Whitney's vessel,was abso-
lutely destroyed and sunk. The Passaic " had her
turret so bent as to deprive her of all offensive
power"—a casualty which had not been reckoned
among the liabilities of these turret ships. The
Wehawken was similarly damaged, insomuch that
her turret worked with difficulty." The Ironsides
refused to obey her rudder and " hecameunmanage-
able." Such, indeed, was the superiority of the shore
batteries, assisted, probably, in some degree by the
Confederate gunboats, that credit is claimed for the
Federal commanders in hating saved the fleet from
complete destruction. The battle went wholly
against the ships, and was very soon decided. Pro-
bably the two accounts which represent the engage-
ment respectively as lasting two hours and half an
hour may be reconciled by supposing that the last
30 minutes proved fatal to the fleet, the ships hav-
ing become exposed by that time to the full force of
the Confederate artillery. When we inquire into the
nature of the ordnance which was employed with
such effect we find it described as of the Whitwort h
pattern, It is said, indeed,that both on the Northern
and Southern sides the guns in use are principally
of English make, but the descriptions are so loosely
given that we can hardly form any definite conclu-
sions on the point. In the present else, however,
Whitworth shot is spoken of as well as Whitworth
cannon, and as we have ourselves ascertained the
power of this species of ordnance, we may perhaps
credit the report that it played a part in this notable ,
engagement. But the moral to be now drawn is,
that forts, or stationary batteries, may be expected
to perform better service against ships, or movable
batteries, than was imagined when a resolution was
token last year to suspend the construction of forts ,
at Spithead, The mobility of ships can be neutra-
lised by any impediments which will delay them for
a short period within reach of the fort guns. As
Chart. ston these impediments were formed by a
chain of torpedoes and a line of gunboats, but any
obstacle in the channel would have had the same
effect. If the iron-clads could have steamed right on
past the forts at ten miles an hour, they might have
escaped perhaps with little damage even at 500 yards
range. But this was put out of their power. They
were brought up by the barrier across the channel,
and then when they engaged the forts on these terms
they were soon knocked to pieces. If it be said

thai this occurred, not because forts are stronger
than ships, but beeaase on this occasion the Confe-
derate guns were stronger than the Federal armour,
we answer that a similar condition might generally
be insured. We have no doubt that in this case the
Southern artillery had really an intrinsic advantage
over the imperfect and hastily built iron. clads of
the Federals. A Whitworth gun, if the Confede-
rates had such weapons, would make very short
work of American Monitors, but it is obvious that,
whatever may have been the particular conditions
in this case, it would be always possible to give a
heavier battery and a thicker coat of armour to a
shore fort than to a floating vessel. There is no
practical limit to weight on one side; there must
necessarily be a limit on the other. In short, it
comes to this—that if we can only compel a ship to
remain stationary for a few minutes within range
of a fort's guns, those guns may be used with fatal
effect against her, while the fort remains invulner-
able under the protection of its armour. Possibly
a ship's armour may be made much thicker and a
ship's guns more powerful than they are at present,
but in both these cases there must be a limit,
whereas there is no such limit as regards either the
armour or the armament of the fort. A tort, then,
may be expected to beat a ship if they can be made
to engage on equal terms, and that these conditions
may be secured by very simple contrivances is what
we learn from the fight at Charleston.
POST.—There is assuredly no topi c which more
imperatively demands the attention of Government
than the condition of the manufacturing classes in
Lancashire. It is, however, but just to the Minis-
try to say that they have not needed to be reminded
of their duties by the voice of Parliament. The de-
bate which supervened last night on Mr. Ferrand's
motion evince but little diversity of opinion is those
who took part in it on the fund,mental pez..
which were at issue. Mr. Ferranti, in
asPeanbmo•
ceeding three hours in duration, _
supportedeiovernment to
tion that it was the duty
consider without delay manufacturing
taken to relieve the distres.stht
truth be said that
from
nfo censuringr t
u u atel
y bt the Gt
uou honeell
districts, but it cannot with
Wireviously known to the
he adduced any facts notthe p
whaot.fenitthheeaesures should be
Administration. Indeed,
public or admitted.by_
, 00 persons ar
auced
which
for the course theyv
went in any respect . u _
he cautiously abst
hitherto adopted.
It
isf
400 0
e, and.
gave for some time been, subsisting on public cha-
rity. The problem how to find thena
known that upwards o
occupation in
that which has hitherto been their sole
employment remains, as formerly, without solution.
means of
It was a distinctive feature of last
that no speaker suggested it to be
debate
Government, at all risks, t o be the duty of the
o s
of Lancashire with cotton. Although close on half
an
a wicked and purposeless
women are deprived, by
ing their daily bread,it war, of the means of eat n-
pride that none is a matter for legitimate
in
such
an have proposed that the Governm Alt
of emergency
should disregard the obliga-
tionsinternational law, and interpose by force in
order to check hostilities which can only bring ruin
and disgraceTh upon those who are engaged in them.
The sole question which should occupy the consi-
deration of those who profess to be the friends of
the Lancashire operatives is how to relieve them
in their present pressing necessities. This question
was differently answered, both by Mr. Ferrand and
by Mr. Potter, who moved an amendment to the
former gentleman's motion ; but neither of their
answers can be regarded as satisfactory. It was pro-
posed that the Government should find occupation
for the 70,000 or 80,000 ablebodied men who are at
this moment subsisting on charity by employing

them on public works ; and it was also suggested
tbat the Government should enable them to emi-
grate to other lands, where they would, with com-
e
parative facility, secure employment. It was fur-
, ther proposed by Mr. Ferrand that an act should be
passed with the view of checking over-trading and
over-production for the future, by restricting the time
000
fff
childrentwh oe rskeing d
v er fotoyfr
aoaufnu thel tst
hours,b ol
oewi
inflicted
fisa
iho .
strikinglyct use
dr bpye rda
the
y A ,am nd
American
illustrativeaan
egweeoatinrtoieom;ta,lan e,shc in defiance
cotton trade of this country, and of the
panic which it hasasnucegregeae of
stetedvt,ehrayt thata well-informed
principle
operativesof b e
onlypolitical
permitted to work at their ordinary trade for a
limited number of hours per day. The amendment
tobifeosnAtlor
I.
way Pthoeotftceroretit
iotenov
itnhge
districts, e
tffh eec t t R
distress,
e sts isencutoretdhet
hceo ndi-
sion should be appointed to inquire that a
Royal
Commis-
o report upon the
ap-
proval of but very few. The report of a Roy a 1 Co
rn
mission, as the President of the Poor-law Boarda
well
observed, could give us no information which we do
not at present possess. We know the cause of the
distress in the manufacturing districts, and we are
equally well acquainted with its extent. On these
points a Royal Commission can tell us nothing. As
to the remedy, we are equally well aware that it can
consist alone in an abundant supply of cotton. From
the appointment of a Royal Commission no good
could be derivable either to the Lancashire cotton-
spinners or to the public generally. It remained,
therefore, for consideration whether the suggestions
in respect to the employment of the distressed ope-
ratives on public works, or the adoption of means
for facilitating their emigration to other countries,
could be adopted. On the head of emigration, the
reply of the Government may be considered as
equally satisfactory and conclusive. Tne distress in
Lancashire may be very great, but we have not yet
come to that pass when we must drive the popula-
tion elsewhere for employment. To encourage the
emigration of the English cotton-spinners would be
in effect to deny that in this country the cotton trade
could ever again be revived. Of what avail will it be
to encourage (as we are doing daily) the growth of
cotton in India and elsewhere for the supply of the
English market, if at the same time we deprived our-
selves of those to whose labours we must be indebted
for the conversion of the raw material into the fabrics
of which, in the course of time, we shall be in such
need. Nor could the Government consent to employ
the Lancashire operatives on public works, where
their wages should be paid out of the national purse.
This would be in fact only another mode of making
a parliamentary grant in their favour. The most
suitable mode of relieving them is that which has
been devised by the Government. In Lancashire
and Cheshire there exist vast districts which need
drainage, and which would thus supply work for
upwards of one hundred thousand men for more
than two years. It is the intention of the Govern-
ment to despatch engineers immediat, ly to those
counties, to select the places in which drainage
works may forthwith be commenced, and in the
course of three weeks the Government anticipate
that labour will be supplied to 70,000 men. These
works will be instituted under the Local Improve-
ment Acts, and the expenses be borne by the districts
in which the improvements are made. This course
will satisfy the requirements of all; it will supply
employment to the distressed manufacturers; it
will check that demoralisation which is apt to arise
from protracted idleness; and it will cast upon those
who will be most benefited by the labours of the
operatives the cost of their support.
HERALD.—" Give your decisions boldly," said an
experienced judge to a newly-appointed brother,
" for they will generally be right; but never give
your reasons, for they will very often be wrong."
We can give our hearty support to the motion
brought forward last night by the member for
Devonport. We think it high time that the Go-
vernment should take into consideration the state
of the manufacturing districts, and determine what
measures, if any, may tend to relieve the operative
population from their present condition of unwilling
idleness. But we certainly think it most unfortu-
nate that Mr. Ferrand should have " given his ream
eons," and prefaced his motion by such a speech as
that which he thought it his duty to make. It is
true enough, no doubt, that delegates from
numerous manufacturing districts have furnished,
Mr. Ferrand with distorted facts and un-
reasonable opinions; but certain we are that
these delegates do not represent the views of the
more intelligent and respectable of the opera-
tives. It is not possible for one who does not
comprehend the economy of factory labour to avoid
such misapprehensions of facts as several times eli-
cited the laughter of the Radical benches during Mr.
Ferrand's speech. He promised, and evidently in-
tended, not to revive the memory of old personal or
political feuds. But that memory mastered him ;
and seeing his old enemies of the Anti-corn-law
League before him he could not refrain from taunt-
ing them with the prophecies in which they for-
m( rly indulged, and the miserable results which
have followed and falsified those prophecies. The
opportunity was tempting indeed. When they ere
fighting for the repeal of the Corn Laws, those
gentlemen were warned that it was not safe to de-
pend for a supply of food upon foreign countries.
And what was their answer? " Look at us; we
depend for cotton, which to us is bread, entirely
upon the slave states of America, and we do not
feel in the least uneasy under that dependence." In
vain were they told that this dependence was a great
and lamentable misfortune—a misfortune which, if
it were the result of choice, would have been a
crime. In vain were they asked what would
become of them if a servile insurrection should
break out—what would become of them if war
should close the ports of the United States. They
did not believe in servile revolt or in war; war
was the last thing they would ever believe in. They
induced us to legislate on the expectation of perpe-
tual peace; to put our army and navy, and our sup-
ply of food, on the same peace footing on which the
cotton manufacture stood. We paid for the first
blunder with the frightful disaster of the Crimea ;
we are paying for the inevitable dependence on
America for cotton, which seemed such a trifle to
the Anti-Corn-law League; the hour may be fast ap-
proaching wherein we shill bitterly regret our de-
pendence on America for so large a part of our food.
But the motion answered its chief purpose ad-
mirably. It compelled the Government to make
up its mind to take some course or other. So long
as no pressure was put upon them, or put upon
them only to be withdrawn, they were content to
bd
eo nothing
oiandrn IpErlenet
stuprmeeedatt,t
intoe threatenedr s drift .
withdrawal,Bbyut a
with
ne
they were
° seri-
oust
compelled to act ; and their action, if it go far
enough, may prove exceedingly fortunate and judi-
cious. Mr. Villiers refused to promote emigration
at Government expense, and declined to accede to
Mr. Potter's request for a Royal commission. He
considered the first unnecessary and the second use.
less. His opinion is, clearly, that the distress is only
temporary, and must be net by temporary expe-
dients. He proposes, accordingly, that inquiry
shall be made as to which of the multitude of
works required for the improvement of the towns
and lands of Lancashire can be begun at once, and
be pledges himself that this inquiry will not oecupiys
much more than three weeks, and that hundred
work enough to be done to occupy a
thousand able-bodied men for two nters. s
and it has the
bt eemnpaomr ae rdy.
It remedy
bae this t
s disiffipecrubiatress tibeLutA best
so
i that.p .
haveco A
uldull
advantage of balm at onoc lone Gently anti 'rah dep.
there
resort
relief
ef
mLiagnreaatsi
ohni Lancashire ;
splirilleinteetsh faonr
sympATHY WITH

to express B
At a public meeting held last night at
Arms, Old Kent•road,
the Poles in their Efforts to
of their country, the following
achieve att
independencehli3y paths, 'with
--) ,
unanimously agreed to : r‘suiutions were
" That the Poles,
after havin
oumstances of the most g long exhibited under cir.•
nified demeanour in the,frtiel provocation a calm end dig-
their rights n, which entitledfirm
thtm to the respect and admi-
ration of all civilized nations, have been forced into their
present insurrection by acts of continued and intolerable
Oppression and insult on the part of Russia, and by the
absolute necessity of taking
in self-defence,, and inorder to preserve their national
" that fur the last century it has been the constant aim
of the Russian Govtrnretnt to denationalize the people of
Poland, and to efface the remembrance of her former great-
ness and freedom ; and this nefarious policy has been
pursued by means of constant confiscations, exiles,
and massacres wholly without a parallel in the history of
any o.her country; and the anarchy which this system has
naturally produced is dangerous as well as disgraceful to
the civilized States of Europe, and an insult to the majest7
of international law on a gross violation of which the domi-
nion of Russia in Poland was founded."
'
"That it is the duty as well as the light of European
powers, by theirunited remonstrances with the Government.
ntton, to put an
Of Russia, or if need be by theirjoint interza
and
end at once to a state of things so
dangerous
that if a firm
disgrace-
ful ; and, although this meeting isconvinced
and England to place
resolve were expressed by France and
the enfeebled Go«
Poland in a position of independence, e
their wishes without a
vernwent of Russia would
yield
that if, contrary to its
struggle, and is still moreco
policy should fail,and hostile
this more peaceful
expectation,Barmy
should become neck f the sacrifices which
measures
would be borne with cheerful-.
measures might entail
such
whole English people,"
ness by the
"That a P Majesty petition be presented to her and both
nous*, of Parliament to use all possible exertions to Beam)
diat„ettlement of an inde
the forme pendent Government QS
Polio,-