The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-25 00:00:00

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THE SUN.

LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 1862.

The boast of JEFFERSON DAVIS that the Confede-
rates were prepared to dispute " the vaunted naval
supremacy of the North" turns out not to have been
a vain one. For some time it has been reported
that the old Merrimac was being iron-plated
and equipped to do battle for the South, but we
hardly expected to hear that she had suddenly come
out from Norfolk Navy Yard, and in fair open fight
had sunk one Federal man-of-war, and, apparently
by the terror created by the act, had caused another
to surrender. Yet such is the fact. It is also the
fact that another iron-clad Federal vessel being
brought into action, the two ironsides fought fiercely
for five hours, the Merrimac being at last obliged
to retire, though not much injured.
With what intense interest will all our naval men
scrutinise, as they arrive, the details of these ac-
tions. They are the first in the history of naval
warfare between both iron and wood, and iron and
iron. In the brief form in which we have the ac-
counts today, they are quite a study. The Merri-
mac herself was protected by all the ingenuity of
American mechanics, perhaps the most inventive
and ingenious in the world. She was covered with
plates, bows and stern alike, down to two feet be-
low the water line. The sloping arrangement,
"like the roof of a house," was adppted ; and it was
so far successful that the broadsides of the Cum-
berland and the Congress, which e expect
to find mounted heavy guns, did her no harm
whatever. By the next day the newly iron-
plated Federal ship, the Monitor, was brought up ;
we are not told in what form she was plated, but
as nothing is said, we expect to find that it was in
the less remarkable and ordinary manner. Yet the
Monitor succeeded at last in forcing a hole through
the port side of the Merrimac. Of course, we are
curious to learn the comparative power of the guns
of each ship, as well as the style of the plating.abn.
The Monitor was uninjured, however, after five
hours' firing, and we expect to find that her oppo-
nent was armed with some of the most formidable
of the numerous guns which were left to the Con-
federatesw awas
combustible
Norfolk
s Navyhtoad ybard urnanaal l thata
don it.

The battle, however, fully illustrated one thing
the absolute helplessness of a wooden sailing ship
against an iron-clad steamer. Not only were the
broadsides of the wooden ships harmless as against
their iron opponent, but their sails did not enable
them to steer out of her way, and their wood
crashed before the iron beaks of the Merrimac.
We have been told, on very high authority too,
that if an iron steam ram charged an enemy, the
sudden shock would tear loose from any fasten-
ings, the engines of the ram herself, and so cripple
her. The Merrimac has settled that question.
She sustained two such shocks, and her engines
did their duty perfectly the next day. With
the exception of the broadside, the encoun-
ter takes us back to the days of
SALAMIS, when banks of oars supplied to the
Greeks and their opponents the place of steam,
rendering the galleys equally independent of wind
and tide. The Merrimac dashes, like an Athe-
nian galley of old, into the side of her enemy,
draws back, fires a broadside into the disabled
vessel, steams at her again with her iron beak,
and leaves her to sink. _ _

" Woe worth, woe worth thee, wicked wood,
Had the wooden vessel, however, been a steamer,
and a faster one, this exploit would have been
impossible. Had she been one only equal in
speed, and more quickly obedient to the helm
than the Merrimac, the latter could not have
easily run into her. The battle might have been
like so many we have read of in antiquity, when
each ship was endeavouring to get the position in
which she could drive her iron beak, with the
most advantage, into the other's side or bows.
The Confederates will, even by the Northerns,
be acknowledged to have earned this naval success
Several of the ablest naval officers belonged to their
party, and the ships are said to have been ably
handled. It is but eleven months since the Gosport
navy yard at Norfolk was burnt ; yet all resource-
less as they were presumed to be, and with Fort
Monroe, on the opposite side of the narrow channel,
which leads to the navy yard, in possession of the
Federals, the Confederates have yet contrived to re
store the workshops, to raise the Merrimac, to plate
her with iron, and to render her a vessel which would
not be despised by the Ironsides of Europe. Under
the circumstances, they must receive the praise of
great naval vigour; and were the war to close to-
morrow none would grudge them the honour of
able administration, and skilful and brave fight-
ing. One Federal ship sunk, another captured,
and a five hours' fight, sustaining only temporary
damage, are the first fruits of Southern naval
rowess. ,

The Lunacy Bill we may now regard as safe
Read a first and second time in the House of Lords
with only a show of obstruction—visible oddly
enough on the Ministerial side of the House as well
as on the side lof the Government—the bill, with
scarcely any modification or abridgment, last night
passed through committee. It is to be read a third
time the day after to-morrow, namely, on Thursday,
the 27th March, and—or the tables will indeed have
been turned in the most unlooked-for manner at the
eleventh hour—there and then passed accordingly.
So that, already, it would hardly be premature to
to say that the WINDHAM case, so truly lamentable
in itself, has not been without its good results. The
young master of Felbrigge Hall, in the county of
Norfolk may, from this point of view, at least, be
said, and said truly, to have not lived in vain !
Out of the very extravagance of a now famous levia-
than inquisition instituted at the instance of certain
loving friends and relatives of—we need not say
whom—with a view to discover (in the most disin-
terested way possible) the question as to the sanity
or the insanity of an eccentric young harum-scarum,
rakish, raffish country gentleman—out of that
mamoth inquiry gocd has come at any rate
for all future Enfans Prodigues ! The repetition
of the scandalous waste of time and money
recently
witnessed with so much indignation by
y thei general public, first of all during several
we
,is i
the Court of her MAJESTY'S bEx-
chequer, and afterwards during several more
weeks in the crowded Session House of