The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-31 00:00:00

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THE SUN.

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1862.

Captain COLES may reasonably ask a reconsidera
Con of his plan for the defence of our arsenals.
Our readers may remember that we expressed our
opinion when the subject was under discussion
before, that the Captain and those who proposed
their defence by iron - plated batteries, had the
advantage in argument over Lord PALMERSTON
and those who advocated building forts at an en-
ormous cost. Several general reasons, not necessary
to he dwelt upon now, were strongly in the Cap.
hin's favour; but the most prejudiced on the side
of forts must acknowledge that the naval battle
in America has furnished an argument in the
Captain's favour which cannot be overlooked. It
is an argument, too, so specially in his favour ; for
while much is proved by the deeds of the Mer-
rimac, yet more is proved by the performance of
the Monitor, which was constructed substantially
on Captain COLES' own plan, and, it seems, re-
ceived its name because it was to be a " Monitor"
not to American builders only, but, as ERICSSON
himself says, to our Lords of the Admiralty and
to Downing-street.
The feats of the Merrimac made it unanswerably
clear that the forts now building to protect Ports-
mouth harbour will be perfectly useless against
even such vessels as she is, hastily plated, and with
but the very limited means of the Confederates to
equip her. Our forts on the shoal banks would be,
indeed, worse than useless, since they would be
excellent buoys and lighthouses to a foreign ves-
sel, showing her how to keep in deep water,
while she would play about past them, or among
them, as little affected by their heaviest guns as
by a shower of hailstones. A vessel built at
leisure, and with adequate manufacturing means,
would be perfectly safe under all the artillery of
either Portsmouth or Cherbourg. She would
Place herself where she pleased, and let them fire
", or, more probably, would select some spot
where few or none of their shot could tell, and
'Would send her shells at leisure into the dockyards
and
arsenals, just as she kept on pitching a shell or ,
two
offhand style, and as the Merrimac kind of
bye-play, into the Federal camp at Newport News.
We do not bee how it can be now believed that
either England or France have a single port or
arsenal which is safe against a well-built Merrimac.
Nor is it easy to Bee how they can be safe, except
by the construction of
Monitors. Our stone forts
are, we are told, to be
plated withtoiron ; that is, an
additional million or t 0
go after other
wasted millions. Surely it is tune to ask those who
spend the national taxis to pause.
Of what use
Can it be, at fin enormous cost, to Make these forts
invulnerable by bodies of stone and coats of iron,
when. the Metrimacs and ..icaiitors will coolly
steam past them, not exposing a man to their fire,
and ter ring nothieg for their rhinoceros hides from
the heaviest shot of their stationary assailants.
one-sixth of the
But Monitor, though only

ome, proved a too powerful competitor
for her. So ter as we can yet learn, it seems a little
doubt-lel whether the shot of the Monitor did make
a hole in her side, or whether the Merrimac did not
injure herself by attempting to run down the
14 enitor. A person on hoard writes that when the
Merrimac attempted to run down tie Monitor, she
gave the latter a tremendous thump, but her bow
passed over the deck cf the Monitor, and the as-
sailant herself received an injury which went

Men imaA

through her light -lion shoe to the oak itself. We
think there can be little doubt, however,
that the very heavy shot of the Monitor
did tell on her opponent; and if it be
admitted that the Merrimac was equipped under
the greatest manufacturing disadvantages, it must
be also allowed, on the other side, that Captain
COLES' principle is the one which allows the
heaviest guns possible to be worked on board
ship. COLES' cupolas would always have the ad-
vantage, so far as it is one of concentrating the
same weight of broadside into a few shots.
What then is the practical result of the late
battle on the subject before us ? We answer un-
hesitatingly, to pause in carrying on our Ports-
mouth fortifications. We do not ask for inconsi-
derate abandonment ; but they are works which
will take no harm from suspension, and the suspen-
sion of them may not only save millions, but leave
those millions for a really useful purpose. We would
not pronounce dogmatically, or at once convert a
number of our ships for the cupola plan. Indeed,
that plan will be sure to receive early, and perhaps
great improvements, from the ingenuity of both
American and English mechanicians. But it is
right to stay and re-examine. We have fresh light,
let us use it. No more wooden ships will now be
sent against any country which can maintain a
single iron one, for it is evident that the whole of
Admiral MILNE'S fleet in American waters could
save themselves from destruction only by getting
out of the way of a single well-built Merrimac.
But, if we see that henceforth wooden
ships will be useless, except against bar-
barian nations, it appears almost as clear
that arsenals can be defended against these new
assailants only by ships equipped in like manner.
Tho inhabitants of New York showed that they
considered their batteries at the entrance of their
harbour as useless; and the New York Chamber of
Commerce itself, in face of the obvious danger, has
resolved that it is the duty of the great Northern
ports—New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Balti-
more—to create iron-clad batteries of sufficient
strength to resist the Merrimac or similar batteries
should they make their appearance at their ports.
The Massachusetts Legislature has in fact resolved
to construct iron clad ships at once to protect its har-
bours. We apprehend the resolutions of the Liver-
pool, Southampton, and London commercial men will
soon be similar. They will ask of the Government,
or, more nobly, like the Americans, resolve to create
for themselves, iron-floating batteries which shall
protect their shipping, in place of the now useless
fortifications. We see no alternative. With all
the forts we could pl ace along the Thames, a
French Merrimac er two could fire the entire ship-
ping in its docks and waters.

In anticipating the Quarterly Tables of the
Revenue, which will duly make their appearance
to-morrow morning, we are enabled already to take
a bird's eye view of 1861-2 as compared with 1860-1
—in financial retrospect. And accordingly as we
scan the contrast—thereby presented to us—with the
binocular powers of vision appertaining no less to
the balanced judgment than to the human sensorium
as influenced by the twin retinte : scanning this
contrast of the two last financial years, that is to
say, first from the one point of view and then from
the other, gazing at it, first from the right and then
from the left, looking now at the pro and now at
the con: accordingly as we look at the Revenue
returns thus, we behold the results alternately with
feelings of Hope or of profound Solicitude. It is
only by blending the two points of view into one
by means of what we have thus called the binocular
powers of vision appertaining to every truly ba-
lanced judgment, that we can contrive in any way
accurately to estimate the contrast presented to us
in its entirety. Here again, in regard to this
question of finance, as in regard to all other questions
ever submitted to discussion, there are " two sides" to
be taken honestly into account. The shield about the
colour of which the two warriors in the desert were
going to fight so implacably to the death, accord-
ing to the old mediaeval apologue—one contending
that it was black and the other that it was golden—
might almost always be accepted at once as an apt
and fitting type of the last tabular record of our Re-
venue Returns, whether annual or quarterly. It is
peculiarly a symbol of that about to be published
to-morrow morning—certainly so far as this forth-
coming tabular report of the Imperial Revenue can
be beheld now ; that is to say, without any very
minute attention to details, but broadly and com-
prehensively. There is the dark side of the finan-
cial shield, for example, the very black side of it,
that any one can recognise upon the instant and
at a glance. Then, again, there is also as unques-
tionably the golden side of it, the one that looks to us
all as a matter of course a trifle more cheerfully. Both
sides must be taken equally into consideration
if we would understand the Financial shield as a
whole.

Before examining either side—the "black" or
the " golden"—in its several compartments, it is
but right to bear in mind for a moment, however,
the bearing of two or three very important parti-
culars eminently well-deserving of being recalled
to recollection. Added to the depressing influence
exercised over this last year's revenue by the fratri-
cidal conflict between the Northern and Southern
States of America—there were those two very
considerable concessions boldly adventured upon by
Mr. GLADSTONE in his Budget for 1861, the re-
mission of a Penny under the Income-Tax and of
the whole of the Paper Duty ! The Income-Tax
penny representing—£l,l3o,o6o. The remission
of the Paper Duty lopping off at a single stroke of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer's prunning hook,
an impost that would otherwise have brought in a
round sum of £1,330,000. So that our Minister of
Finance—in presence of the American Difficulty—
had the courage to forego an aggregate amount
under those two heads very - nearly approxi-
mating to two millions and a half ster-
ling, in effect, and to be precise, to just
£2,460,000 ! These are the " particulars" which
we referred to above as eminently well deserving
our consideration before taking into account either

the good or the bad side of the Revenue Tables, the
black or the golden side of the Financial shield now
about to be displayed for the minute examination
of any one and everyone to-morrow : the appointed
day of publication arriving most oppor-
tunely this year just two days prior to the
Financial Statement to be delivered to the
House of Commons on Thursday by the Chancellor
of the Exchequer. There is the blockade of the
Confederate Ports—causing to us a diminished im-
port, among otter commodities, of corn, and rum,
and tobacco. And—requiring to be borne in re-
membrance quite es vividly : there is the oblitera-
tion from the Excise Returns of the customary in-
comingsa tinder the head of the old and now obsolete
the
.abandont d Paper Duty, and the mulcting from
eincome•tax of a penny in the Fund !
. Notwithstanding ail which, however—and look-
ing boldly at the d side of
with—v; find a ark,r slue of the returns to begin
falling off in the Customs for the
last Quarter, merely
e ofof somewhere. about £lOO,OOO
tobacthol diminished imports of
corn, of rum, and of
Under the Income Tax
again for the year we Rnod'a
totaln loss consequent
upon the reduction of the pen
about £550,000
--not, observe ! of nearly a million of
___
.nus more than that,
or at iesol; of a total " • amounting to