The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JUNE 20, 1863,

MK T. CARRICK begs•
to announce to his
Artist Friends and the Public, that his Photographic
P. stab ishment, 32, Regent-street, Piccadilly-circus, is now
in full operation.
Cartes de Visite, 10 for 10s. 6d ; 21 for £l. Miniatures on
Ivory, Marble, and the Photographic base in his former
styles.

THE FARMER'S BAROMETER, 50q., a
new Instrument, by IN egrettl and Zambra, will cor-
rectly indicate whether the Barometer falls for Rain or for
Wind. Particulars by enclosing stamp.-1, Hatton-garden;
57, Cornhill ; and 122, Regent-street.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—It is not without some reason that our
Admiralty congratulates itself on the success
achieved by a new iron cased frigate. We shall pre-
sently show what still remains to be established be-
fore the critical problem of modern shipbuilding can
be solved, but a great point has certainly been gained
for the present. The Royal Oak, the trial perform-
ances of which we have this week reported, has jus-
tified all the expectations which could be brought to
the test of pacific or domestic experiment, and the
result is all the more important from her being the
first specimen of a class. If she is successful, there
is no reason why four similar ships now coming for-
ward should not give equal satisfaction, and the
whole batch will constitute no less than a quarter
of our entire iron fleet, built or building. More-
over, the model is presumably a cheap one, and at
any rate it admits of rapid despatch, so that no
success could be more convenient or timely than that
just announced. The Lord Mayor took the oppor-
tunity at the late Mansion-house banquet of con-
gratulating the First Lord of the Admiralty on the
intehigence, and the Doke of Somerset acknow-
ledged the value, of the compliment. The Royal
Oak is not an iron sbip, but her name is so far a
misnomer that, as the Duke informed the company,

she has not a plank of British oak about her. She
is, however, a wooden vessel. She was originally
laid down for a 91-gun ship, at the time when that
model was in fashion, and was afterwards taken in
the frame and converted to her present form and

purpose. The Prince Consort, the Caledonia, the
Ocean, and the Royal Alfred are undergoing similar
transformations, and will appear in their new cha-
racter one after another. Instead of being wooden
two-deckers, they will be 32-gun frigates, cased in

iron, and though they are not expected to equal the
regular ironbuilt vessels on the IV arrior pattern they
may prove very serviceable ships indeed. So eligible,
in fact, was the original design considered that a

proposal was made to extend it a little, and it will
be remembered, probably, that if the House of

_
Commons had not objected to the scheme, the
Admiralty would have built some new wooden
frames in addition to those already standing, for
the mere sake of converting them afterwards as
they have converted the Royal Oak and her con-

sorts. So, this success of the Royal Oak is a suc-
cess for the Admiralty in more ways than one, and
will furnish new arguments fur a Government plan,
besides reflecting credit on dockyard workmanship.
The merits of a modern fighting ship are measured
by three qualifications—speed, strength, and
power, it being always presumed that she is fit to
go to sea, and contains wholesome and commo-
dious lodging for her crew. In the first of these
qualities the Royal Oak has actually surpassed ex-
pectations. She was calculated to make 11-1-- knots
an hour, whereas she made upwards of 121 with
ease. She even went faster with all her guns and
stores on board than she did in light draught. We
are told, too, that she answers her helm " as quickly
and as sensitively as a cutter," and that her steer-

ing " capabilities cannot be approached by any
vessel above the size of a gunboat" on the list of the
Royal Navy. Altogether it is thought there is not
a faster man-of-war in the service. So far, there-

fore, her success must be regarded as complete. As
respects her strength or capacity to resist attack,
we can only say that she is protected all over with
41-inch plates, and has no unarmed part exposed to
hostile shot. Her powers of offence are expressed
by a broadside battery of 16 guns, 12 of which are
the old smooth-bore 6S-pounders and four 1101 b.
Armstrongs. In these respects she does not differ
from the other vessels of our iron fleet, which are all
armed alike, with more or fewer of these same guns,

according to their dimensions. If, therefore, we
assume that ordnance of this description is the best
for our purposes, that it is best to carry it in broad-
side ports, and that iron plates upon wooden hulls
give a structure not materially inferior to one of
iron throughout, we shall arrive at the conclusion
that we are making a very good thing out of our
"conversions," and that we have got a capital bar-
gain in the new Royal Oak. But the reader will
have guessed from these reservations how much re-
mains to be proved. It has been admitted without
contradiction that an iron-plated wooden ship is not
so good a vessel as a ship built of iron from first to
last; but still it is a vessel not to be despised even
in the modern estimates of a fighting fleet. The
famous Gloire was built on this plan, and as we had
got the timber ready, and great expedition could
be used, we gained something both in economy and
despatch, if we lost something in strength. As to
power, the capacity of the Royal Oak class is ex-
actly similar to the capacity of the Warrior class.
We can arm either one kind of ship or the other
with exactly such guns as we think fit to select ;
but here an important question arises. It has not
yet been ascertained whether the system of mount -
ing a battery in broadside ports is better or worse
than that of mounting a quarter as many guns of
four times the calibre in revolving shields or turrets.
As this somewhat bitter controversy can never be
terminated except by actual experiment, we should
be very glad to see the Royal Sovereign fairly
tried against the Royal Osk. The former ves-
sel is the only one of six which is to be
converted on the turret principle, and it is ex-
ceedingly desirable that we should know how this
principle works. There is some reason for giving
the broadside principle the preference as things
now stand. We do know that guns can be safely
carried and worked in broadsides, but we have not
the same experience in favour of turrets or shields.
We do know that guns of the calibre above speci-
fied can be conveniently managed, but we cannot
say as much for 300-pounders. It was reasonable
enough, therefore, as wa were already making an
_experiment with armour-plated hulls, to shrink
from a second experiment at the same moment. It
is something to find, as we have found, that we can
affix enormous slabs of iron to a ship's side without
impairing her speed or handiness, and we might
have complicated the trial, and perhaps damaged the
result, if we had also endeavoured to provide an
armament on entirely new principles. We conceive,
too, that the experience of the American war is by
no means conclusive in favour either of turret-ships
or enormous ordnance ; indeed, the Monitors seem
repeatedly to have failed in doing what the Royal
Oak with her 68 pounders ought, if our experiments
are trustworthy, to do without difficulty. Still, it
is impossible to be blind to the powers which this
new artillery may be found to possess. If a large
gun is best for a fort, it must be best for a ship also,
provided only the ship can carry it. Captain Coles
maintains that his Royal Sovereign, with her five
guns worked in revolving shields, will be a better,
cheaper, and more formidable vessel than any ship
of the Royal Oak class. He may be either right or
wrong in this conviction, but it is a pity the ques-
tion should be left doubtful. It is amusing to look
at some of the changes which the new style of ar-
chitecture has produced. The Royal Oak—this
model frigate, is about the ugliest thing afloat. All
the poetry of the matter has vanished. The grace-
ful outline and beautiful features of a ship have
been supplanted by the requisites of strength and
security indispensable to an impregnable battery.
The difference is that between an ancient castle and
a modern redoubt ; and ugly as the Royal Oak is,
the Duke of Somerset tells us that he has some spe-
cimens in hand which will be uglier still. But we
can put up with these drawbacks. " Handsome is
that handsome does," all the world over ; and if our
ships can carry their guns, protect their crews, and
outstrip their rivals, we shall very easily persuade
ourselves t o dispense with the accessories of elegance
and grace.
POST.—The suspension of diplomatic relations
between this country and Brazil has afforded to the
Earl of Malmesbury an opportunity, of which he
has availed himself, of reviewing the circumstances
which led to this unforeseen occurrence. On Thurs•
day we published the official despatch of the Foreign
Secretary recalling our representative at the Bra-
zilian Court. This step followed as a matter of
course on the departure from London of the Brazilian
Legation. The initiative was taken by the G avern-
meat of hia Imperial Majesty, and nothing
was left to the British Government except to
express their regret that such a proceeding
should have been considered indispensable_
oflt siosrecedritsaaipo
nplyinimmepnotssaibtlefintdoingavoida
rela-
tions suspended between ourselves and one of the
best regulated Governments in the South American
continent. Brazil has for manydiplomatic feeling
years honourably
distinguished herself among the republics by which
she is surrounded by her honest endeavours to
secure such a political system as would command
the respect and the confidence of European States.

She has done more. She has to a considerable ex-
tent borrowed the institutions peculiar to this coun-
try, and has accepted as a model the British consti-
tution. Her Emperor, unlike those of the Eastern
world, is a monarch who rules by responsible Minis-
ters, Her Government is based or, and regulated
by, principles not practically dissimilar from those
which in Great Britain have been ratified by the
experience of centuries. Nor have the efforts of
Brazil to inspire the confidence of Europe and of
this country in particular been unavailing. Foreign
capital has found its way into that country, and in
the money markets of the world the credit of its
Government stands high. Between this country
and Brazil commercial relations of no ordinary
magnitude and importance subsist, and in its chief
city the greatest of its mercantile firms are composed
of Englishmen. With a country thus situated as
regards ourselves, it is indeed a matter for regret
that amicable relations should be suspended, and
that at the Court of neither State there should re-
, main any official personage to represent the mani-
fold and important interests of the subjects of the
two Powers. In the despatch communicated to
Earl Russell by the Brazilian Minister at this Court
the grounds assigned for breaking off diplomatic
relations were, not as might have been supposed, the
orders given by her Majesty's Government to the
British admiral on the Brazilian station to make
reprisals in the event of certain demands not being
complied with, but the manner in which those orders
were carried into effect. Now on this point we can-
didly confess that we cannot discover any just cause
for the complaints of the Brazilian Government.
Fair notice was given to the Brazilian authorities
that the reprisals would be made, and when they were
made every care was taken to preveed theArap:ape,
ment of unnecessary violence or the loss of human
life. If it be once conceded that her Majesty's
Government were justified in making reprisals, it
is impossible to understand how any objections could
be raised to the manner in which the British admi-
ral performed the painful duty imposed upon him,
The motives assigned in his despatch by Earl Rus-
sell for having recourse to the proceeding which
has given umbrage to the Brazilian Government
were, "To obtain some security for the lives and
properties of her Majesty's subjects who may have
the misfortune to be wrecked on the coast of Brazil,
and to ensure due respect to the persons of her Ma-
jesty's naval officers on Brazilian territory." If
these motives, however, be acknowledged as suffi-
cient to justify recourse to arbitrary measures, the
only tenable ground for complaint by the Brazilian
Government is at once abandoned. It would scarcely
be elrreet, however, to sag' that this ground was
abandoned because the immediate cause of the with-
drawal of the Brazilian Ambassador was said to be
the mode in which the orders given to the British
admiral were executed. Against the orders for re-
prisals the Brazilian Government always protested,
and over again denied that her Majesty's Govern-
ment had any just claims for redress. In estimating
the causes, therefore, which have led to the present
rupture between the two countries, one must regard
the unlucky shipwreck of the Prince of Wales, the
scrape into which three naval officers unfortunately
got themselves, the investigation and correspon-
dence to which these circumstances gave rise, the
orders for reprisals, and the execution of those
orders, as forming part of one entire transaction
whose relative bearing on each other, and on the
ultimate result, ads impossible to overlook. It was
thus the matter was viewed not only by the Earl of
Malmesbury, but by Earl Russell, in the debate 'est
night. The entire dispute from its origin to its
termination was again reopened, and the thrice-told
stories of the wreck of the Prince of Wales and the
arrest and maltreatment of the officers of the Forte
again repeated. Into the merits of the discussion
it is not our intention again to enter. Our Govern-
ment considered themselves justified in making
certain demands from that of Brazil, and, con-
sidering those demands to be legitimate, found
it necessary to enforce them. The Brazilian autho-
rities had no reason to complain of precipitation
upon our part. if the statements made to us by
our representative at the Court of the Emperor of
Brazil were to be relied upon, no other course was
left open to us than that which we adopted. The
Earl of Malmesbury endeavoured to show that
Mr. Christie was unpopular, not only with the Bra-
zilian authorities, but with the other members of

the diplomatic body at Rio; but these assertions
have already been made and have been denied.
Even the sanity of Mr. Consul Verreker, who visited
the scene of the wreck of the Prince of Wales, has
been questioned; but it has been shown that it was
not until some months after the loss of this vessel
that his health broke down. It no doubt seems an
arbitrary act to enforce reprisals, but such a pro-
ceeding is sanctioned by the law of nations. If a
State is aggrieved, it is by such means alone that
it can enforce redress. But these are not the first
grounds of difference which have arisen between
this country and Brazil. The Brazilian Govern-
ment have failed to carry out their engagements
towards us in respect to the emancipated negroes.
Nor is it alone in this that they have broken their
stipulations. They have also evinced a total disre-
gard for the protests which over and over again we
have found it to be our duty to make. If diplo-
matic relations are now suspended between the
two countries, the blame cannot be laid exclusively
at our door. The Brazilian Government is the best
in South America, but it is not altogether without
blemishes. It has yet to learn that sovereign
States are not free to violate engagements delibe-
rately entered into; and, though independent, may
be called upon to satisfy the claims of other States
as independent as themselves.
HERALD.—It is a wise discretion in the Premier,
in spite of the vilification and abuse out of doors by
certain prejudiced critics, to adhere to the proposed
purchase of the buildings of the Exhibition at South
Kensington, as well as that of the ground on which
they stand. Conceive the dilemma in which the
Government would be placed with the unoccupied
land on its hands, and the appeals, outcries, and
exclamations of the whole coterie which would at
once start up to provide plans, estimates, and
designs for the edifices to be erected thereon by
their favourite architect. All the discussion, pro-
crastination, reversal and mutation of style, and
whilom contusion which we remember in the House
of Commons about the New Foreign Office, would
be nothing to the storm of plot and counterplot
which would arise on the ruins of Captain Fowke's
edifice,'and:tho ample amount of ground it occupies.
In the House of Lords on Thursday evening the
Duke of Rutland proposed that the buildings, which
would please his taste in lieu of those already
erected, should be in harmony with the Gothic me-
morial to the Prince Consort which Mr. Scott is to
construct in Hyde-park ; and doubtless Mr. Beres-
ford Hope, who presided over the small but deter-
mined lot of dissentients to the entire purchase of
land or buildings on the previous evening at St.
James's Hall, would furnish us with a high art pro-
posal to amend or totally transform the " mass of
deformity," as he pleasantly termed the edifice at
South Kensington. But the Goverment, backed
by the Commissioners of 1851, have in this instance
resolved upon laying out the public money honestly
and are ensured more than an adequate value in
return; and having a clear idea of what they in-
tend to do with their purchase when completed, are
not likely to be cajoled or terrified out of any part
of a predetermined measure of great public utility
and general good. The best professional advice has
been obtained on the question of the worth of the
materials of the structure erected by Messrs. Kelk
and Lucas, and the use to which they can be put ;
so the amateur opinions about the precise value of
the bricks, and the timber, and the iron, and the
ruinous expense of altering the domes and the addi-
tional erection of a third dome, the rottenness of
the flooring, the rough beams in the roof, &c., are
all mere idle froth and nonsense, which it would be
waste of time to discuss. We are certainly disposed
to agree with Lord Derby that in the first instance
the House of Commons should have been fully in-
formed on the comparative economy of improving as
compared with building on tho South Kensington
property. The difference would have been startling
and suggestive even to a partisan so hostile as Mr.
Gregory. The permanent portions of the structure,
as the noble lord urged, are allowed to be unexcep-
tionable; "it would be difficult to find any picture
gallery possessing greater advantages." The picture
gallery may be placed alongside that of the Louvre
itself, and will not suffer in comparison either
with respect to suffieie.ntly lighting and accommo-
dating the pictures or the people who come to see
them, and we entirely disagree with the gentlemen
who recommend " small chambers crowded by
screens" as fitting repositories for larger portraits in
vogue with the English school and its admirers, or
the general class of pictures likely to occupy these
galleries. The objections raised by Lord Hardwicke
against buying a building erected for temporary
purposes and applying it to a permanent use, only
hold good to certain portions of the building, which
for the present do not require much change or re-
pair. The whole of the brickwork erected will last
as long as any Government edifice which could be
named, and was avowedly designed from the first
day of its being laid down for perpetuity and a
permanent purpose. The value of the materials,
as mere materials, is to 10 ascertained only from

persons qualified by experience and positive know-
ledge, and we repeat the Government has done all
in its power to arrive at an exact appreciation, The
needs for the public use of the building are instant
and acknowledged, and it is well to provide now
and for ever for those needs, instead of battling and
debating questions of taste and style, interminable
and immortal in this country, which has only of late
years risen from a very chaos of likes and dislikes,
each as belonged toa barbarian order of things. Of
course it would be useless to deny that we should
much prefer the exterior to be faced and decorated
with stone instead of stucco; but this again is a
question of expense, and there are many buildings
in London "not deficient in beauty and faced with
stucco." Lord Granville specially mentioned the
Travellers' Club in Pall-mall—a copy of the
Borghese Palace, and one of the most beautiful and
contributedfinis he
finished edifices enso in
smallthe degreewhole t o
the metropolis,
early
tion of the late Sir Charles Barry. There is quite
temper enough unhappily of a directly personal and
vehement character altogether about this acquire-
ment and possession of the late Exhibition building
for the Government to care to have its tone of pru-
dent economy impeached. And as for the part which
the public is expected to play in this question, we
may be quite sure of this, that when Professor Owen
has occupied his five or six acres with the natural
history specimens, and when the numberless illus-
trations of machinery belonging to the Patent
Museum are duly provided for, whilst the British
division of the picture gallery is being gradually
filled with portraits of English worthies, there will
be as large a crowd of visitors of all classes as there
is on the most crowded da sat the Britisla?luseum,
Noreirvi g jy ofthe edifice to
the Horticultural Garden will be generally dis-
pleasing to the majority of those who come for
instruction or amusement. To the masses of the
metropolitan lieges the squabbles and bickerings,
envy, jealousy, and strife, which have. all along
assailed the encouragement of the higher tastes of
the nation, are but little known. They recognise
mutely, but intimately, the comprehensive thought
that warranted the belief of the Prince Consort and
the Commissioners of 1851, in his own words, "that
in securing space on which, in unison with each
other, and with a systematic interchange of mutual
assistance, separate societies and departments might
attain to a degree of usefulness which their present
confinement and isolation must materially lessen,
the Commissioners had correctly appreciated the
great want of the day and the requirements of the
public, for whose benefit alone they should work,
and by whose assistance alone they can hope to
prosper."

The Distress in the Manufacturing Districts

An adjourned conference of representatives of
boards of guardians relative to the exigencies of the
distress in the cotton manufacturing districts, was
held yesterday afternoon in the Mayor's Parlour, at
the Town-hall, Manchester. There was a very
large attendance, including gentlemen representing
a large majority of all the unions in Lancashire and
Cheshire. Abel Heywood, Esq., Mayor of Man-
chester, presided.
Mr, HOLGATE read a letter from Mr. Cobden,
M.P., to the effect that he should watch the pro-
ceedings of the meeting with much interest, but
could not make it convenient to attend. He hoped
a satisfactory measure would be obtained.
The Rev. Mr, PITCAIRN (Eccles) moved the adop-

tion of the report of the committee, which was
agreed to unanimously.
The Mayor of ROCHDALE (Mr. Ashworth) moved
the adoption of the following resolution :—" That,
inasmuch as Government has introduced a bill to
facilitate the execution of public works in certain
manufacturing districts, &c., this meeting partially
approves of the principle of such bill, but considers
that it will not meet the exigencies of the case.
That the bill, if passed, can only come into opera-

tion where there is a local authority. That where
no local authority exists the meeting is of opinion
that as boards of guardians are responsible for the
maintenance of the poor in the districts where the
act will not take effect, such boards of guardians (in
the absence of municipal corporations, local boards,
or local improvement commissioners) ought in such
places to be the local authority for the purposes of
the act, in order that all portions of unions may be
provided for and similarly dealt with. But such
bill, passed into a law with the alteration now sug-
gested, falls far short of the requirements of the
suffering localities, as any works which can be de-
vised in these localities will only afford partial em-
ployment for the persons thrown out of occupa-
tion, leaving a large portion of such persons still
unemployed; and the position of boards of guar-
dians is one of very great responsibility, and calls
for special aid from government, because boards of
guardians must at all times provide for and relieve
existing distress and destitution."
Mr. ASHWORTH spoke at some length to show
that the distress would be very great in the coming
winter, and that the government were bound to
make adequate provision to meet it. There must
be a continuance of the Rate-in-Aid Bill in some
modified form.
Mr. J. PLATT, of Oldham, seconded the motion,
and said it was necessary that some extra borrow-
ing powers should be given in the bill to boards of
guardians.
Mr. ROBERTS, of Bury, thought that a clause
should be inserted requiring the auditors to pass
accounts when they had been sanctioned by boards
of guardians.
Sir J. KAY-SHUTTLEWORTH reviewed the sub-
ject generally, and remarked in particular on the
erroneous view entertained of the distress in the
cotton trade by persons at a distance. Some por-
tions of the press contended that in a short period
the prosperity of Lancashire would be restored.
It was strange to contrast vaticination of that kind
with the doom predicted by the same authority ;
that the extinction of the cotton trade was of little
importance to the national weal, that England
would hardly afford it a decent funeral, and that its
epitaph would be one of ignominy and forgetfulness.
There was still great misconceptions as to the con-
fidence in the returning trade of the district. The
answer was that the whole history of the cotton
trade was a pertinacious triumph over obstacles and
embarrassments. Each successive crisis of inven-
tion was overcome with the ingenuity and enter-
prise characteristic of the district. He had confi-
dence that even with only the present half supply
of cotton the great capital, genius, and enterprise
of this district would resuscitate the trade either by
finding new fibres, creating new fabrics and com-
binations, or usurping the trade of some neighbour-
ing district. The trade would not lie down in the
ditch simply because it had this obstacle to :over-
come. (Applause.) But they had also confidence
that the trade would be invigorated by supplies of
cotton from new sources, as well as by the resources
of science and art. Hence the wisdom of those who
were embarking their capital with a view to future
returns. Passing on to an anticipation of the future,
Sir James gave his reasons for expecting great dis-
tress during the coming winter. First there was a
limitation of the supply of the raw material; and
second, there was a limitation of price, which was
not taken into account by those who were not con-
versant with the subject. This limitation of price
limited the market, and new fabrics came iu and
helped to destroy the trade. These things tended
greatly to disturb the calculations of the manufac-
turer, and stocke had to be held for months before
the original outlay could be reaped. At present
ad to be
porary increase of demand. Btocks had h
there was a certain limitation of supply, but a tem-
porary
would be ex-
replenished at home and abroad; but they
easily calculate how soon that supp
xecutivi
haunted. From these causes the Central E. could
Committee were assured that the approaching win-
ter would witness as much distress as last winter,
eytotdotabh:e country. This was
manufacturers
while
omfao iter
tewu
rooeu:l:dr
onerous
sevr
bmeceotmwiintgh dmimorienished re.
and a condition of the middle classes and emall
to leave Mr.
perilous
sources among the working classes, lessened charity
the
state of things that had to be met. His impres-
sion
bill to be considered by itself, for it was a
sion was that it would be better
question if the bill provided proper machinery for