The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-16 00:00:00

c S r
askance all this while to the possibility of taking AL T
•
possession some fine day, by a hop, skip, and a
jump, of the Neapolitan throne. All the Pre-
tenders we may be certain are, at this
transition period, on the alert, even MURAT, even
FRANCIS 11., even the Duke of MODENA, and the
younger Grand-Duke of TUSCANY. And much
likelihood they have, to be sure, of realising their
wishes ! Not the least significant token of the
feebleness of their cause being, that they look, all of
them, less than ever to the Italian People and more
than ever to the French EMPEROR.

If the Italian People—it is remembered by one
and all—have pronounced their opinion in favour of
any one solution of the Italian problem they have
done so in favour of its solution by Unification.
If the French Emperor, on his part, has favoured
any scheme, directed to the same end. more particu-
larly than another, it has certainly not been the
scheme of an Italian kingdom one and indivisible.
It has rather been the exactly opposite scheme of
a nicely balanced Confederation of Italian King-
doms and Principalities. It is the remembrance of
this that enhances the wonder caused throughout
the population of Italy and Sicily by the enigmati-
cal rupture between the Turin Government and
GARIBALDI. It is the recollection of it that turns
every Italian Pretender's eye—not to Italy but—
to the Tuileries. And meanwhile NAPOLEON re-
mains inscrutable and taciturn !

Mr. SCOTT RUSSELL has followed up his pam-
phlet—" Our Fleet of the Future"—by a vigorous
correspondence in a morning contemporary. Mr.
E. J. REID, on the part of the Admiralty and the
Duke of SOMERSET, has volunteered a defence of
the Duke's administration, under which he is carry-
ing oat his own theory of iron shipbuilding. The
main charge against the Duke is that, since he has
been in office, he has spent twelve millions of money
and not given us a navy. That we have only two
vessels of high seagoing qualities—and two tubs.
The Warrior and the Black Prince fast and good
ships—the Defence and Resistance bad and slow.
The result is that the twelve millions are spent and
we have no fleet: The result might have been that
for the money spent we could have had a fleet of
twenty Warriors. This seems a melancholy fact
for us poor taxpayers, if fact it be. •

How does Mr. REID meet it ? First, he says
we are about to have a fleet of six Warriors—fast
and good ships. Secondly, we are about to have a
fleet of nine vessels—smaller and slow. The fast
and good cannot be completed before 1864 ; the in-
ferior and slow we know not when, possibly by the
same date. As therefore at least two years more
will be required to complete these ships, the Duke
will, then, have spent eight millions more.

Mr. RUSSELL therefore returns to the charge,
and proves that, according to Mr. REID'S state-
ments, the result will be a yet heavier loss than
was at first asserted. The value of the fast and
powerful fleet of six, and of the slow and inferior
fleet of nine, is at the outside three millions each.
The account will therefore stand thus. The duke's
expenditure in the five years to 1864 will be twenty
millions. The two fleets will be worth six millions.
The Income-tax payers (for on them it is that all
superfluous charges fall) will therefore have paid
his Grac, FOURTEEN MILLIONS, for which they
will have received nothing at all in the shape of a
more effective fleet.

Such does, after all Mr. REID has said, appear

to be the state of the case, substantially, as left by
Mr. REID'S letter to-day. Such loose statements,
as that the enormity of the charge carries its own
refutation, will not do. It will leave us with only
the six good and nine inferior vessels—it as cer-
tainly might have left us with a fleet of FORTY
WARRIORS. The difference between these two fleets
is the measure of the Admiralty's inefficiency. We
do not mean to attack the duke personally. He and
his board are much like those who have gone be-
fore them. That however is their real delinquency.
They ar©, thus, at this time, when we are paying
SEVENTY MILLIONS sterling, including an enormous
income tax, solely that we may have the de-
fences Lord PALMERSTON demands when we
ask for bread giving us a stone. They are worthy
successors of the Admiralty Boards, which went on
building sailing vessels when the French built
steamers ; paddle box vessels when the French built
screws ; wooden slaughter-houses when the French
were building shot proof iron-sides. It is wonder-
ful we have not become disgusted with defence al-
together, and given up in despair. Happily the
naval instincts of the country are very strong, or
our naval lords before this time, would have sick-
ened us of shipbuilding. We hope Mr. SCOTT
RUSSELL will continue to do the duty of honorary
surveyor or controller of the navy.

At the Gloucester assizes, on Thursday, a man
named John Still, was sentenced to penal servitude for life
for stabbing a policeman in the execution of his duty.
HODGES' FIRE OBSERVATORY AT THE DISTIL-
LERY, LAMBETH.—A short time since the inhabitants of
Lambeth and the surrounding districts presented Mr.
Frederick Hodges, of the distillery, Lambeth, with a very
useful and handsome fire-engine, designed by Signor Cas-
sentini, and built by Merryweather and Sons, of Long-acre,
and which is now an object of great attraction at the Inter-
national Exhibition. Mr. Hodges, in return for this testi-
monial, determined upon presenting something useful in
return. Consequently, he conferred with Mr. C. B. King,
engineer of the distillery, and it was finally agreed to have
erected at Mr. Hodges' expense a fire observatory, frcm
the top of which the locality of a fire could be at once seen,
and thus enable the engines to reach the scene of conflag-
ration much sooner than before. Mr. C. B. King, having
drawn out the design of the observatory, it was entrusted
to Messrs. Lewis and Stockwell, of the Barking-read, to
make. It is constructed in lengths of 48ft. each to a height
of 130 ft., and at the top is a balcony, which is capable of
holding six persons, from which observations of fires in any
part of London, or even miles distant, can be made. It
will no doubt be of the greatest utility, and avoid much
needless loss of time in ascertaining the locality of a dis-
tant fire.
DEEP SEA FISHING.—Mr. Dempster, who, as
the Editor of the Northern _Ensign says, " continues
affected by the deep-sea fishing-phobia," has just written
to us a long letter on that subject, in which he says :
" The way the fisheries are conducted and carried on in
this country by small open boats is discreditable to our
fame as a great maritime nation. Two-thirds of the whole
of the fishermen belonging to Great Britain are supplied
with nothing else but open yawls and cobles to pursue
their calling. The results of such fisheries are, most of the
fish caught inshore by these insecure and unseaworthy bad
weather boats, are fish either full of spawn, fish that have I
just spawned, or young fish fry that are immature, green,
and tasteless." Mr. Dempster continues to urge that all
fishermen ought to be supplied with strong built decked
welled vessels for deep-sea fishing, and capture fish during
their filling time, as it is only then when fish are in their
prime state and firm condition. Mr. Dempster argues as
the cause for the backward state of our fisheries " the
absence of a wholesale fish market everywhere else but
at London, coupled with the fishermen's females acting as
retail dealers; duties there is no necessity for them to per-
form, and which lesens the ambition of their men to rise
in the scale of society." Mr. Dempster says :—" To urge
fisheries and fish-market reform from Whitby, in York-
shire, to John o'Groats, in the north of Scotland, where
there are no other description of fishing vessels but open
boats and cobles, is about as patriotic a work as any man can
be employed on," and, taking the worst case he has found
along the coast, for example, lie says :—" So fallen and de-
generate has many fishermen in the North become, parti-
cularly at Aberdeen, they have seldom as much money as
purchase a new boat." To reform the fisheries, Mr.Demp-
ster urges " A
general; wholesale; fish-marketing sys-
tem throughout the country by licensed salesmen,"
and the
formation of companies n, supply the fishermen with decked
welled vessels instead of open boats.
AN ODD COINCIDENCE.—At the Sheriff's dinner
at Carlisle, the other day, Mr. Hassell gave " The Mem •
berg for West Cumberland," concluding his eulogistic
re-
marks by stating the singular coincidence that the ladies of
both had, on the same day, brought them an increase to
their families. (Laughter.) Captain Lowther returned
thanks. As to the family increase alluded to, it had come
to Mr. Wyndham and himself not oP-13"
on the 8010 day/
but he believed iu the same hew, (Laughter.)

NEWS.

CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

NEW YORK, AUG. 7 (Evening).
(Per Asia, by telegraph to Cape Race anti from

Queenstown.)

A reconnaissance in force has been made from
General M'Clellan's army to Malvern Hill, White
Oak, Swamp Bridge, and Newmarket, within ten
miles of Richmond.

At Malvern Hill two Confederate regiments and
a battery were encountered, but they fled after a
slight engagement, leaving 100 prisoners.
At Newmarket two Confederate brigades were
met, and the Federals retired.

The Federals are camped at Malvern Hill ; but
it is reported that a large force of Confederates is
now moving to retake the position.