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

TIM SON. LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 30, 1863.

American war the Yankee navy was manned by
British seamen ; why may not American and Rus-
sian ships be built by English artisans at the pre-
sent day ? What a certain cavalry officer said to
MURAT in the Russian campaign of 1812, when
censured for the failure of a regiment of dragoons
in a charge—namely, that " the horses had no
patriotism, and would not fight without corn"—
may apply in some respects to mechanics, for, if
Government will not find them employment, they
must not expect to find the men for the country
when wanted, and the day may come when least
expected, and the navy of England be found as un-
prepared for action as it was at the outbreak of the
Russian war. It is curious to remark that, while
the Lords of the Admiralty are so eager to save a
few thousands sterling this month by the discharge
of competent workmen—which must in all probabi-
lity cost the country thrice that amount in the
next by the re-engagement of double the number
discharged, to make up for time lost by their pre-
vious parsimony—they think nothing of squander.
ing millions of public money in very fanciful altera-
tions, and in building up one day and pulling to
pieces the next, as the epirit moves them. Again,
it is by no means uncommon for ships to be docked,
thoroughly overhauled, and fitted for service, and
then condemned as unseaworthy, dismantled, tied
sold out of the service or broken up. We find that
some eight gunboats attached to the steam reserve
at Chatham have been ordered round to Deptford
to be broken up : they would have been sold, but
no purchasers could be found who considered
them worth what the Government required. In
other words, the ships were not worth buying. May
we not ask why the ships were not broken up at
first, rather than expend large sums to fit
them out for the reserve, and then, after
all, to break them up ? The total. failure
of the Recruit the other day, when she
was taken down to the Nore to try her engines
and rate of speed, is a case in point. It may be re-
membered that some years ago the Board of Admi••
ralty then in office exchanged, for reasons best
known to themselves, a fine 38-gun frigate, the
Thetis, for a couple of gunboats belonging to Prus-
sia, which that Government found to be by no
means up to the mark—the Recruit and the Weser.
The latter is at present in the Mediterranean, the
former was to have proceeded to the coast of Africa,
but on trial proved herself to be so unmanageable
and unsafe in a breeze that it was deemed unsafe to
proceed with the trial. Might not the former per-
formance have furnished evidence of what might
be expected from such a coffin, and prevent her
being selected for a station where speed and sea-
going qualities are indispensable. Let us look at
another branch of the dockyard management. The
Caledonian was yesterday floated out of dock
at Woolwich, where she had just received her
armour-plating, but the great accumulation of mud
and refuse in the river, opposite the dockyard, ren-
dered this an operation of great difficulty, for the
sternpost of the frigate took the ground, or rather
mud, just outside the dock, and brought her up, and
it was only by great exertions that she was dragged
through the mud and moored in the river. What is
the meaning of this ? The presence of the accumu-
lation of mud was well known to the authorities
some months ago. It must therefore either have
been left there by gross negligence, or for the pur-
pose of calling into play the ingenuity of dockyard
people, and demonstrating the power of science over
matter, and likewise just to try what stress might
be put on the sternpost of a ship without carrying
it away. Would any of our large private companies
have been guilty of such neglect ? No; the cost of
an accident would have fallen upon the proprietors,
but in a royal dockyard nobody is ever to blame,
and JOHN BULL pays the piper. It is not to be
wondered at that the naval estimates are always so
heavy, and the results for the large sums yearly
voted by Parliament so inadequete. It is for the
public to look to it, and take care that the honour
and interests of the country are not trifled with to
suit the fancy of any visionary statesman and expe-
rimentalist. In the meantime it is to be hoped that
due care will be exercised in reducing the number
of artisans employed in the dockyards while so much
yet remains to be accomplished. It is but lately
that the practice of discharging a ship's company
after a three years' cruising, and after having learned
their business, and engaging new hands for the next
ship in commission, when a great part of the new
hands have to commence their education, has been
discontinued, and the continuous service introduced.
Let this system, at present in force in the navy, be
introduced, as far as practicable, into the dock-
yards.

The opening of the Danish Rigsraad, or Repre-
, sentative Assembly for Denmark and Schleswig, is,
, at the present crisis, no inconsiderable event. For
many years the vexed question of German right
and German interference have troubled the peace
of the little kingdom, and year by year the solu-
tion of the difficulty seemed to be getting farther
off. It was in fact tacitly felt on both sides that
there was small hope of its settlement, since the
real object of Germany, and more especially of
Prussia, was not put openly forward. The wish
to make a military Power a great naval Power also,
to secure by fraud or stratagem those advantages
which the very configuration of their country
denied them, was not exactly a suitable excuse for
Prussian diplomatists to put forward; and it was,
moreover, a plea which would certainly fail to gain
the support of the rest of Europe. It was, there-
fore, better and easier to discover that the Hol-
steinere were an oppressed and ill-used people, the
jurisdiction of whose affairs belonged of right to
Germany, while Schleswig could easily be claimed
as part and parcel of these Federal territories. Ac-
cordingly the strife began, which has been waging
ever since, by speech, by despatch, by proclamation,
by threat, and by counter-threat. It has exercised
a most injurious influence on the affairs of Den-
mark ; arresting its internal progress, unsettling its
people, and introducing all those elements of dis-
tur hence and discontent which hinder the develop-
ment of a nation's fortunes. The various phases
through which the matter has passed within the
last year or two are so familiar to the public that
it is unnecessary to refer to them ; but the address
of the KING to the assembled members of the Rigs-
read is important, as indicating his views
of the recent proceedings of the Diet. The
speech, like all the public words and
acts of the Danish Monarch, is temperate
and moderate in its tone, betraying no ambitious
desire to extend his sway over the provinces not
strictly belonging to him, and manifesting no wil-
lingness to provoke hostilities by arrogance or as-
sumption. At the same time the language of the
KING allows no doubt of his determination to de-
fend his constitutional right. It is firm and reso-
lute, showing that he fully appreciates the difficulties
and dangers of his position, but is not disposed to
shrink from them. The speech refers almost ex-
clusively to the exciting topic of the day, the Ger-
man mischief. makers forbidding the consideration
of domestic improvements for the present. The
summary of the Royal Speech tells us that it opened
with congratulations on the recent elevation of a
Danish Prince to the throne of Greece, an event
which naturally could not be passed over 9n such
occasion. The ZINO nezl proceeds to, inOrga
•