The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-30 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 30, 1863.

For France, the situation at this moment is cer-
tainly momentous. At one and the same time,
there is an imminent possibility of the Empire being
engaged in a war with Russia and a war with
America. The juncture looks ominously in this
way both at St. Petersburg and at Washington.
Angry feelings, in regard to the course pursued by
the EMPEROR'S Government, appear to have sprung
up almost simultaneously, far to the east in the
great Autocracy, far to the West in the
great Democracy. So far as these ill feelings
have arisen within the Imperial Councils
of the CZAR, they have been there engendered by
the irritating influence of a long and rather sharp
diplomatic correspondence. In its origin, the ill-
will now, every successive mail, more and more
angrily manifested towards the Emperor NAPO-
LEON by the Federal authorities at Wash-
ington, is traceable to a very different source
indeed not so much to words written or
spoken,
to acts visible or inferred. The
occupation of Mexico by French troops ; the
proclivity of the EMPEROR'S policy, by preference,
towards the South ; the building up of an empire,
at his MAJESTI,
s instance, cheek by jowl
with the disrupted republic of North America ;
tho favourable reception granted in Paris
to the representative of the Confederate
rower, the rebel power as it is considered to be at
Washington ; even the rumoured, we must add the
absurdly rumoured complicity (or whatever else it
may be called), of the Government
of
NAPOLEON
111. in the ordering of those two nominally
Egyptian steam rams from the English shipbuilder's
yard at Liverpool—each and all of these things
have had a share, more or less direct, in provoking
ill-blood towards France, or at any rate tovards the
ruler of France, among the angry population of the
North, as well as among the Federal Administators at
Washington. All this while, however, it is certainly
dug to the Government of his Majesty the French
EMPEROR, to assert that, so far as acts go in regard
to America, thet is to sax-, in regard to the Federal
power in America, that so far as words go, the
"itteu v'otds of diplomacy, in regard to Russia
neither the Fcderals on the one hand,
nor the Russian Autocrat upon the other,
have any grounds whatever for complaint
against the Government of NAPOLEON 111. In
respect to "..1-.e affair of the two steamers at
Liverpool there is no case at all that can in any
way be made out against the EMPEROR'S Govern-
ment. With that transaction he has nothing what-
ever to do. It is a matter resting entirely hitherto
between a private mercantile firm in France, the
PASHA'S Government in Egypt, and the ship-
builders in England. Our Foreign Secretary seems
bent, however, upon assuming to himself, in the
transaction, the full weight of whatever responsi-
bility may be iavolved in the settlement of it.
Whether he will be backed, in so doing, by Puha-

and Commons shall have assembled, once more in
ment remains to be seen, of course, whir, the Lords

February.

But, in any case, it is just the) idlest phantasy
to tax the Emperor NAPOLEON'SGovernment with
this affair of the steam ram's, so far as can be
reasonably judged from any facts that have been
yet brought to light. It s'ac,uld no less distinctly
be borne in mind by every dispassionate ob-
server, whether here in Europe, or yonder in
America, that so far as the French EMPEROR
has corresponded diplomatically, through his Minis-
ter that is, with the Goverment of the CZAR at St.
Petersburg in regard to the affairs of Poland, he has
done so conjointly with the other great Powers of
Christendom, harmoniously that is with the Austrian
Government and with the English Government.
While so far as his policy in respect to the disrupted
Republic of North America can yet be judged by
his written words, or his overt acts, he has up to this
moment acted and spoken quite frankly and freely
from first to last. Twice he has striven to inter-
pose as a Pacificator between the infuriated Belli-
gerents. It is no fault of his that he could not
contrive to succeed in either of these magnanimous
endeavours. Circumstances, events, the flying
moments, were not propitious. And, as England,
knowing all the while that such efforts, however
generous, must perforce be wholly futile and
I 7
ineffectual, held aloof from the first, so also the
French EMPEROR. was constrained to hold
aloof at last, when reluctantly convinced 'of what
his Allies had instinctively recognised throughout,
namely, that endeavours of that kind were altogether
premature and precipitate. The anger of the Rus-
sians and of the Federals towards the EMPERUR
arises more from a doubt, there at St. Petersburg,
there at 'Washington, as to what that inscrutable
Ruler proposes to do in the future, as to what he
is understood or surmised to be preparing to do in
the future, than as to what he is doing in the pre-
sent, or has been doing in the past. So far as
his policy, both in respect to Russia and in
respect to America, can be estimated from
a scrutiny of that past and of this present, and not
from any vague anticipation of that dim and doubt-
ful future, it can surely not be pronounced in any
way reprehensible. The cloven hoof of evil intent
towards either the CZAR or the Federal PRESIDENT
has yet to peep out from under the imperial purple
of France. It were as outrageous to charge the
French EMPEROR with anything like unfairness or

insincerity is his policy towards Russia in respect
to Poland, or towards Federalism, in this san-
guinary crisis of the American Civil War, as it has
ever been to charge him, here in England, with any-
thing like unfairness or insincerity in the matter of
the Anglo-French Alliance.

We last week announced the startling fact that
the Lords of the Admiralty intended to discharge
a large number of hands from Chatham Dockyard,
amounting to upwards of one thousand from all
departments, and these at a time when all the avail-
able mechanics were employed in bringing forward
the iron-cased frigate Achilles, causing considerable
delay in the commencement of the Bellerophon and
Lord Warden. We rejoice, however, to be able to
state that the Lords of the Admiralty have in this
instance seen the error of their ways in time, and
have rescinded their extraordinary order. A tele-
gram was received at the dockyard on Saturday
directing the officials and heads of departments to
report if it were advisable to make any reduction in
the present strength of the establishment, and if so,
to state the lowest passible warnoer of workmen in
each branch that should be discharged, the proposed
reduction being confined to the hired mechanics,
artisans, boys, and labourers. As might have been
expected the officials of the dockyard made ready
answer that it was most undesirable to reduce the
number of mechanics at present engaged ; that
those employed on the Achilles bad been for some
time working over hours ; and that notwithstand-
ing this, several months must elapse before she will
be ready to go to sea, and they therefore recom-
mended that " no considerable number of the dock-
yard hands should be discharged until the Achilles
is completed, and at all events floated out of dock,
by which time the Lords of the Admiralty wil
have made up their minds as to the commencement
of the other iron vessels proposed to be laid down
at Chatham.'' We hope that, for the present at
least, the penny wise and pound foolish policy of
certain heads of the Admiralty may be checked. A
new era has commenced in the construction of ships
of war. All the maritime nations of Christendom
are emulating each other in the construction of iron-
plated ships and armour-piercing guns. Our pri-
vate yards are busy in constructing vessels for
foreign Powers, and our iron foundries in casting
cannon for the same destination. There is the
possibility of hostilities in Europe at no
distant period, and a great probabilty of col-
lision with America at any moment. France,
Russia, and the United States are hard at work,
constructing formidable ships of war, while Eng-
land, whose prosperity, and greatness depends on
her maritime superiority, instead of calling into
action the vast resources of her private yards to aid
the Royal dockyards to the utmost, suffers certain
gentlemen at 'Whitehall to sit in cool debate, con-
sidering the advisability of discharging 800, 900,
or 1,000 artisans from one of her principal build-
ing yards. 'We do hot wish to be too severe in a
case like the present when the mandate of suspena
sion and delay has been rescinded, but rather to
draw attention to the injury that the service and
the country may at any time sustain from the ca-
price or ignorance of men in the wrong place. When
iron ship building became general in the Govern-
ment dockyards, and the construction of wooden
vessels proportionately reduced, there was not em-
ployment enough to be found to occupy the ship-
wrights of the old school ; but on the principle that
when one trade fails a man must turn his hand to
another, a large pnmber of the shipwrights threw
aside the saw and adze, and took up the blacksmith's
hammer, and to such good account did they turn
their abilities that we learn that the " whole of the
dockyard mechanics engaged on the Achilles were
formerly shipwrights employed on the wooden ships,
and since trained at the cost of considerable time
and labour to become workers in iron. In addition
to the ordinary established dockyard hands, hired
workmen have also been taken on from time to
time, and these have attained considerable profi-
ciency in iron work." But this is no solitary case; the
lii
plating
of the Caledonian (85) which has just been
completed, at Woolwich, was accomplished by ship-
wrights only, and the excellence of the work was
acknowledged, and similar results may be expected
from the employment of these men in other dock-
yards. Here then are men, doubly valuable to
men wit') tan turn their hands to either
England,
branch of shipbuilding, men
whose
services
would
be eagerly received by the Americans and Russians
—nations, too, which pay far more generously
for skilled labour than
does our own
country. There exist a few deluded indi-
viduals who may think that patriotism
would prevent them from lending their aid to the
enemies of England, but England is not at present
at war; and although iu time of peril Englishmen
would stand by their country if at home, the case
would be very different when, to a certain extent,
naturalised to a foreign nationality. In the old j