The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-15 00:00:00

of invasion, which, from its very impregnability,
will afford protection to its weaker rivals, who will
no longer 'oe of so great importance as points of

attack.

We are sorry to see Sir MORTON PETo persist in
his opposition to the Spithead forts. The hon.

baronet moved the omission from the schedule of

the items for the Horse Sand Fort, No Man's Land,
and Sturbridge. His arguments in favour of
such a practical abandonment of the design
of fortifying Portsmouth were very untenable. He
began by asserting that nothing had happened to
change the position of the question since last year,
when it was agreed to delay the building of then
forts until the powers of iron clad vessels had been

more fully tried. Why, everything has happened
that is necessary to guide our judgment. We have
seen the question submitted to a trial of un-
paralbled severity, not a mere experimental test
between theorists and scientific critics, but a
struggle of life and death—an attack made with all
the energy with which England's bitterest foe
could attempt to gain a footing on her invincible
shores, a defence maintained with a desperate
de-
termination which even the garrison of an English
city in danger could scarcely excel. Thebest long
n
day's struggle at Charleston, when the
clads of the North retreated crippled from the
terrific fire that greeted them from guns of English
manufacture has altered the position of the question
very considerably since last year. There are men
against whose cherished notions argument and ex-
perience alike prove useless. If we could
carry the impregnability of their theories into
either forts or iron clads it would certainly settle
the question of competition most effectually. Of this
AO had several specimens on Monday evening—
among them Capt. JERVIS, who declared it was
absurd to waste money on immovable masses of
masonry, when we might have ships that could
follow the enemy. That is one of the very argu-
ments in favour of the forts, since a clever ruse
might mislead the ironclads and carry them off in
pursuit of some decoy, while a reserve force quietly
steamed up the defenceless harbour. He said also
that great stress had been laid on the Armstrong
gun, but since 1859 great improvements had been
made in the construction of iron ships. The gallant
captain seemed to ignore the great improvements
also made in artillery since that time. His asser-
tion that the American war supplies no evidence of

the value of forts, is sufficiently answered by the
mere names of Hudson, Moultrie, and Sumter. An-
other objection brought against the Spithead forts
was that as the Channel was 2,000 yards wide, and
our guns would, it was said, penetrate the Warrior
target only at a distance of 800, ships could easily
pass up the centre of the Channel. This was first
stated by the mover of the amendment, Sir MORTON
PETO, and it was reiterated by the hon. mem-
ber for Liskeard, who proved himself to be
as resolutely prejudiced as the honourable
baronet. Mr. OSBORNE appears to find a
special satisfaction in opposing every really good
measure which the Government brings forward, and

in the present instance he was so extreme in his
opposition that it was comparatively powerless.
He said we had not a gun above a 40-pounder of
which we could say what it was worth. Another
argument was brought against the forts which
should certainly encourage the partridges and
pheasants for the coming autumnal season. The
difficulties of aiming at anything in motion were so
gravely dwelt upon, that we can only conclude last
year's sporting experience to be very unsatisfactory.

Sir DE LACY EYANS, Lord HARTINGTON, and
Lord C. PAGET were all ready to defend the mea-
sure, but the best reply to all frivolous and vexa-
tious opposition came from the lips of the veteran
Premier, whose never-failing s3gaeity and common
sense left him completely master of the field. We
cannot do better than give his reply to the often
raised objections in his own words;—" Your float-
ing force is liable to be called from one place to
another, and therefore you cannot depend on having
that force superior to the force of the enemy on
every possible point. But then it is said You
have not guns of sufficient range to
penetrate vessels at a distance of 1,000
yards' But, in the first place, you are
assuming that the ships passing between the
Horse Sand and No Man's Land would go so ac-
curately in the middle between the two forts that
they would be exposed to only an equal fire from
the two. But that is not an easy thing to do.
It might, perhaps, be done by a few vessels, but not
by a considerable force attempting to go through.
Suppose a large flotilla attempted to get through,
and they tried to place themselves SO as not to be
much exposed to the fire from the forts, and that a
floating force was sent to encounter them, between
the fire from the latter and from the forts they
might get into a very embarrassing position. Well,
it is said, ' You cannot hit a moving body. But
that is not the fact. It is a well-known practice of
gunnery to fire from a moving body to a fixed ob-
ject, which is equivalent to firing at a moving object
from a fixed body. A ship going at the rate of 12
knots an hour would move at the rate of about a
mile in five minutes, and a shot moving with the
velocity of 1,200 ft. in a second would go a mile in
some four seconds. The difference of velocities
being so great, what would happen? At the dis-
tance of 1,000 yards, if you aimed at the bow of a
ship you would hit the body before she had moved
the whole of her own length. There is therefore
no difficulty in the matter." With regard to the
floating defences, the noble lord said it was never
intended to rely upon forts alone, but that it was con-
sidered that forts would be most valuable auxiliaries.
With e
sel the floating i
n
batteries within the ports, any
v
forcing her way up between
three fires, would certainly be a very remarkable
The scheme has been
succeeding
and fortunate
devised in a bold and liberalexcePtin spirit. Lord PALMER-
ETON has taken it up
with an energy and foresight
for which the country will ona day thank him, and
we cordially endorse his homely advice to the
is of considerable
hesi-
tating legislators—" The thing
importance ; do it in time; make
while the sun
shines ; and don't wait till the momenthay while
arrives whenha
the forts will be wanted for use." Forts, like Rome,
are not built in a day, and we are glad to see that a
mbjority of nearly three to one expressed their con-
viction of the value of the old adage—Forewarned,
forearmed—over the dilatory and vacillating
that would leave us to find out our mistake in the
hour of danger and emergency. policy

The Working men', Club and Institute Union
held its meeting on Saturday at Burlington House.
Lord BROUGHAM was in the chair. It was a most
interesting affair altogether. Lord BROUGHAM'S
speech was of course to the point, as all his lord-
ship's addresses are. He observed that some years
ago he had made the remark that the reason tem
perance societies had not succeeded was that they
offered no substitute to the poor man for the ale-
house. It was a fact that the working men fre-
quented the public houses more for company than
for drink, and to obtain the conversation and diver.
sion that they could not find in their own homes.
It was to supply this want that working men's
clubs wore founded. His lordship most truly ex-
plained the importance of these institutions in a
few sentences. More misery, and even mine, is
occasioned by the neglect of providing mean, of