The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-12 00:00:00

After supplying the North with whatever they required
of our produce, and buying of the North, upon their own
terms, whatever we required of their manufacture, there re-
mained annually to the South a quantity of surplus produce
which requires 20,000 ships and more than 200,000 seamen
to carry abroad and distribute among the markets of the
world.

In the handling of this produce Northern factors and
Northern shipping did the principal part. Besides this the
laws of the Union gave the North the preference over all
the world in the markets of the South. These were great
advantages, and the North waxed fat and strong uponthem.
Their correlatives were wanting to the South—for the South
could sell dearer and buy cheaper in other countries
Twelve millions of such customers as inhabit the South
are enough to make any people rich, and they are such as
no nation can afford to lose. But let secession be acknow-

ledged as an accomplished fact and the North will lose this
preference, this trade, and these customers, with all the
benefits derived from their political association with us. It
is therefore not for the negro, but solely on account of pecu-
niary and selfish considerations, that the North is waging
this war. She is vainly seeking to compel us to renew an
association that we abhor.

Hitherto we have acted purely on the defensive. We have
not sought to invade the North, but panoplied in the triple
arm'ur of a just cause we have stood still, and ever since
the battle of Manassas (now a year ago) quietly looked on
while the enemy raised his armies and completed his pre-
parations for the war in his own way. Having destroyed
his " grand army," we shall now carry the war into Africa,
I hope, compelling him to withdraw his forces from our bor-
ders and to sue for peace.

But peace is very difficult at present, I admit ; in the
North reason has lost its sway over the mind of the people.
and the judgment of their rulers has been taken away. In
the South passions run high. Therefore, in the present
temper of the two peoples it would be impossible just now
for them to agree upon the preliminary step to any lasting
peace—viz., the adjustment of boundaries. We are, there-
fore, drifting into a war of exhaustion.

There are rumours of an armed intervention from your
side ; but upon what basis this intervention is to take place
the many-tongued dame has not deigned to enlighten us.
Any such intervention cannot but work mischievously if
it fail to recognise the right of the people in the disputed
states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri
freely and fairly to decide for themselves whether they will
cast their lot with the North or the South. Neither can it
be supposed that intervention would recognise any dismem-
berment of present states.

With us this is not a war of conquest, but a war for a
principle which is dear to every French heart—a principle
by which your Emperor sits upon his great throne—the
right of every people to be governed in their own way.
The strong arm of mighty nations may force a peace upon
some other basis, but any such peace will prove a hollow
truce.

There has, permit me to say, been already at least one
error committed by France and England in this war. When
these difficulties commenced all Europe viewed them
through Northern media. This was natural enough, per-
haps, for all Europe depended upon Northern statements
for information concerning us. These have now beenfonnd
to be erroneous ; but not until France and England had
committed themselves to a blockade that was against all
rule. The effects of that blockade upon our industry is

likely to prove lasting, and certain classes in France and
England may yet find ceuse to rue it, even if ministers do
not.

You can well conceive that the blockade affords most
effective encouragement to home manufactures in the
South. The energies of the people have, by it, been
diverted into new channels of industry, and manufacturing
establishments are tepidly springing up on all hands.
So that, when France and England decided to respect
Lincoln's paper blockade, they unwittingly, perhaps, called
influences into play which are rapidly converting us into
a manufacturing as well as an agricultural people. The
operatives in your workshops may yet have cause to
lament a policy which cannct fail to call into existence
many rival establishments to your own, and which would
not have found existence but for the course which the-two
a..ilizht props t-G- pursue.
As for the preservation, restoration, or reconstruction
of the Union, it is simply an impossibility. Laying aside
all questions of military power and prowess between the
contending parties, the mere hatred of one for the other,
and which is obvious to every intelligent being who has
attentively observed the events of the contest as they have
developed themselves, is enough to destroy all hopes for
any such union.

Harmony between the states, goodwill among the
people are essential to any such reconstruction or preserva-
tion, and you see enough even from your distant stand-point
to satisfy you that we are two people, and that so long as
our favourite doctrine holds good—viz., that every rightful
Government rests on the csnsent of the governed, no power
on earth can unite us again or make us one.
But enough of this.

Let me thank you for remembering me with your wind
charts of the Eastern Coast of South America. I had, as
you know, watched their progress in your hands, with a
lively and active interest, and had waited the publication
with anxious solicitude. Imagine my disappointment at their
loss. Nothing from you save the letter to which this is
an answer has reached me since I left Washington.
I am rather proud of the abusive attacks which you
tell me have teen heaped upon me in the North. You
generously denounce them,
them, for it shows that I am of some importance still
but I draw consolation from
in the eyes of the Yankees. They have offered a reward for
my head, and classed me among the chief rebels in the
cause of civil liberty; and so they have honoured me with
a place among the great rebels of whom our Washington
was first, foremost, the greatest, and the best. What he
fought for, for that I contend.
_ _

Adieu, my friend, and let me thear from you, and believe
me yours, most truly,

M. F. MAURY.
Viscomte de Chabanne, admiral French navy, Paris.

OUR IRON -CASED FLEET.

Mr. E. J. Reed, in a letter to the Times, writes—As it
would be a great pity for the public to suppose that all per-
sous who have watched the progress of iron-cased ships in
this country concur in the opinions expressed by Mr. Scott
Russell, I take the liberty of requesting you to afford me
space for a few considerations of a somewhat contrary ten-
dency. I very much regret the necessity of Opposing my.
self thus publicly to Mr. Scott Russell, whom I have great
cause to esteem ; but the remarks which I have from time
to time published upon the state of our navy have met with
so kindly a reception that I feel myself pledged, in a certain
sense, to contribute such facts as I may have knowledge of
concerning the questions raised in Mr. Scott Russell's letter.
I shall not for a moment think of rebutting these personal
accusations against the Duke of Somerset and his colleagues
which Mr. Scott Russell repeats so confidently, because it
is no business of mine to vindicate the characters of those
noblemen and gentlemen, and also because it is never ne-
cessary, in my opinion, to defend any body of English gen-
tlemen whatever against accusations Which imply that they
are imbeciles, or traitors, or both. I A pass at once therefore
to other matters.

I will first, if yon please, deal with the statement that at
the present moment the Admiralty are building no iron-
cased fleet. It is not always easy to flu precisely the sense
in which this word " fleet" is employed, but the context
shows that Mr. Scott Russell means by it a number of
" similar and equal vessels capable of co-operation," and
these, he says, the Admiralty are not building. In support
of this assertion he cites a recent speech of the Duke of So-
merset, in which his grace said, " ire have at the present
moment building at least 10 or 12 different kinds of iron-
plated ships, different sizes and different forms of vessels, in
order that we may arrive at one which will be a good vessel
without being a very costly one." From this strictly accu-
rate statement Mr. Scott Russell draws the inference that
his grace is building no fleet at all, and
even puts that as-
sertion into the mouth of the First r
....ord himself.
Now, it can be shown t'.., the satisfaction, of any dispas-
sionate person that this inference is quite erroneous. The
very opposcter t'ZI of. it is, in fact, true; for, while varying the
chara -
iot individual vessels in several minor respects,
witl-, the judicious object which his Grace mentioned, the
Admiralty have manifestly kept in view in the most care-
ful manner the very thing which they are here charged with
neglecting, and have, notwithstanding these minor varia-
tions, arranged the sizes and speeds of their large vessel s
ezpressly in order that they may be fit to co-operate advan •
in fleets. I can show this, I believe, to the cora-
tageouslY
plete satisfaction of yourself, sir, and of the public.
six
The first fleet which they are preparing will consist of
in the
of the largest and most powerful iron-cased ships
world, Viz the Warrior, Black Prince,Achilles, Northum-
berland,_es()
'.I
Minotaur, and Agincourt. The whole these
ships of
ships are intended to steam at a speed of 14 knots an hour,
a speed to which, I believe, every one of them will attain,