The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-07 00:00:00

THE SITIS, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 7, 1862.

THE NAVY.

Yesterday Vice-Admiral W. J. Rope Johnstone,
Commander-in-Chief at the Nore., accompanied by
his Flag-Lieut. T. K. Mackenzie. :arrived at Chat-
ham in his steam yacht Wildfire,Manter Commander
G. Brockman, for the purpose og inspecting the
Wellesley, 72, which has lately been fitted as a
training ship for boys and lao's at the port
of Chatham. The Admiral, who vas received on
board by Capt. Fanshawe, superit itendent of the
dockyard, and Commander Studdar t, of the '►Welles-
ley, made a minute inspection of the ship, which
has undergone the most extensive • alterations in
order to adapt her for the service f.O Jr which she is
intended. The number of lads ncw on board is
only about 50, but accommodation has been pro-
vided for 250 second class boys, a. od the whole of
the alterations being now complete, the lads will be
sent to the Wellesley from the various ports during
the next few days. The Admiral expressed himself
much pleased with the fittings of the ship, and espe-
cially the large bath room. Before leaving the boys
were mustered, and went through the gun drill.
Admiral Johustone afterwards t ransacted business
at the Dockyard, and late in the afternoon returned
to the Nore in the Wildfire.
The Duncan, 101, screw, crossed topsail and
lower yards at Portsmouth yesterday in progress of
outfit. - _ _ _

The Swinger and Savage screw gunboats, of 60-
horse ppwer gach,,itt the steam basin at Portsmouth.,
are ordered to be complete in every respect for sea
by Thursday evening, and t) join the other ad-
vanced gunboats at the port, in readiness for any
sudden order or emergency. Their armament will
be the same as others of their class recently fitted
—one 100-pounder, and one 40 pounder Armstrong,
The Racoon, 22, screw, Capt. Chamberlain, the
arrival of which at Spithead from the Mediterra-
nean was reported in Me Sun of yesterday, re-
mained there up to sunset yesterday awaiting
orders. The Vigilant, 5, screw, Commander Pike,
also remains at Spithead.
The Chanticleer, 17, screw, Commander Stirling,
was swung yesterday at Portsmouth for the ad-
justment of her compasses, and remains in the har-
bour for orders. The Geyser, 6, paddle, Comman-
der Jackson, remains in harbour, completing coal,
&c., for foreign service in the Pacific.
Her Majesty's 11-gun screw steam sloop Rapid,
under fitment at Woolwich for commission, will be
ready in a few days for the pennant. Her destina-
tion is expected to be the Atlantic.
The small paddle steamer Investigator, Coin.
Macleod, R.N., fitted out at Woolwich for Dr.
Livingstone's expedition on the Zambesi, yester-
day received one corporal and a c-,,suple of privates,
Royal Marine Light Infantry, and is expected to go

to sea during the week.
The Rifleman, Master-Commander I. W. Reed,
commissioned at Woolwich in November last for
survey in the China seas, yesterday received her
crew from the receiving hulk Salsette, in the river,
and bent sails.

The steam transport St. Andrew, at Woolwich
pier, has been detained beyond the time intended
for her departure, with a heavy cargo of war stores
for America, in consequence of the tramways

throughout the arsenal now undergoing a thorough
renovation. She is not now expected to be ready
for sea before Thursday or Friday next.
The several boats supplied for the Defence are as
large as those furnished to line-of-battle ships, the
two launches being each upwards of 40ft. in length,
while the pinnace, cutters, and jolly-boats are all
of a correspondingly large size. According to
present arrangements the Defence will be re-
moved, in the course of a few days, from her pre-
sent moorings off the dockyard to Folly-point,
where she will complete fitting. She is at pre-
sent lashed alongside the floating sheer-hulk, and
the depth of water at that spot being inade-
quate for a ship of her great draught, she settles
down and takes the ground at every low tide. Her
immense weight while thus aground has done seri-
ous mischief to the sheer-hulk, by tearing out her
bits, opening her decks, and otherwise straining her.
It is not considered that any injury has been done to
the hull of the Defence by thus grounding, although
there can be little doubt that a vessel of her im-
mense size and tonnage must be subjected to a very
unequal strain when aground, and so much anxiety
is experienced on this account that Capt. Powell is
sparing no exertions to have her completed in readi-
ness to take her departure from Chatham.
According to garrison orders issued yesterday at
Woolwich, three brigades of Horse Artillery, a
squadron of the sth Lancers, and a battalion of Royal
Marine Light Infantry will assemble this morning
on Woolwich-common at 10 am. Headed by Sir
Richard Dacres and staff, Col. Campbell, commandant
R.1‘1., and the officers commanding divisions, &c.,
and attended by the regimental bands, they will
march through Welling and the high roads, making
a circuit of 12 or 14 miles, in lieu of field drills, and
return to Woolwich about 2 o'clock.

Commodore Sir F. Nicholson, Superintendent of
Woolwich Dockyard, yesterday received instructions
from the Board of Admiralty to hasten the termi-
nation of the screw steamship Caledonia, 91, about
to be ironclad, For that purpose a spacious open
shed is to be erected adjacent to the building
berth of the Caledonia, to contain the smitheries and
all the appliances requisite for grooving and bend-
ing the plates to the contour of the ship's sides after
their reception from the Lancefield factory in Scot-
land. The shed, which is intended for permanent
use, will be roofed with glass, and will be open at
the sides, so as to afford the greatest possible
amount of light and ventilation.
Capt. W. K. Hall, C. 8., recently appointed to
Her Majesty's ship Russell, 60, Coastguard ship at
Falmouth, took the command on Saturday, vice
Capt. G. Wodehouse, whose period of service ha
expired.

—Capt. and Brevet Lieut.-Col. Mitchell to the Royal Horse
Artillery, vice Smith, who resigns the appointment therein,
and is posted to the 2d Brigade ; Lieut. H. L. Mitchell. to
the Royal Horse Artillery, vice Elton, promoted; Lieu%
W. M. F. Hutchinson to be aide-de-camp to Major-Gen.
Hutchinson, commanding the troops in the Western Dis-
trict; Lieut. E. H. Cameron, to be aide-de-camp to the
Governor of the Windward and Leeward Islands. The fol-
lowing officers are raised to increased pay, viz—Lieut. P. D.
Barclay, let Brigade, N ice Handecck, deceased ; Lieut. H.
Graves, 11th Brigade, vice Elton, promoted ; Lieut. T. J.
Jones, 2d Brigade, vice Franklin, promoted; Lieut. R. F.
Millett, 15th Brigade, vice R. B. Stoney, deceased ; Lieut.
J. L. Bell, Ist Brigade, vice Collingwood, promoted ; Lieut.
E. 11,ines, loih Brigade, vice Anley, promoted. The
following transfers have been ordered :—Lieut. T. C. Price,
from No. 2 battery, 15th Brigade, to No. 3 battery, 7th
Brigade ; Lieut. C. M. Long, fr,;na the Depot Brigade to
No. 4 battery, Bth Brigade; Lisut. C. E. H. Symons, from
No. 3 battery, 7th Brigade, to the Depot Brigade ; Lieut.
G. A.. Crawford, from No. 4 battery, 7th Brigade, to the
Depot Brigade; Lieut. H. G. Palmer, from No. 5 battery,
7th Brigade, to No. 7 battery of the same ; Lieut. C. Bent,
from No. 7 to No. 5 battery, 7th Brigade; Lieut. H. F. A.
Boodle, from No. 1 battery, 2d Brigade, to B battery, 9th
Brigade; Lieut. E. H. Cameron, from No. 3 battery, 3d
Brigade, to No. 7 battery, 7th Brigade.
" The following batteries have been placed under orders
to embark for foreign service, viz. :—E F G and H bat-
teries, 4th Brigade, and A battery, Bth Brigade, for British
North America ; Nos. 1,2, 3,4, 5, and 7 batteries, 10th
Brigade, and the head-quarters, for Halifax; No. 6 bat-
tery, 10th Brigade, fur Now Brunswick, under Col. P. H.
Mundy; Nos. 2 and 3 batteries, 16th Brigade, for Bermuda,
under Col. G. Gradon. The undermentioned officers a: o
posted as follows :—Veterinary-Surg. Oliphant to the Horse
Brigade, to do duty at Shoeni&liffe7 Veterinary-Stag. Paley
to the 4th Brigade; Veterinary-Surg. Clarke to the 4th
Brigade, to do duty at Hilsea. The following officers have
been placed under orders to proceed to British North
America on particular service : Lieut:-Cols. G. B. Shake-
spear and R. F. Mountain. The undermentioned officers
have been ordered to British North America :—Lieut.-Cols.
H. L. Gardiner, J. Turner, C. 8., Lieuts. T. C. Price, C.
W. Long, G. C. Davie, and C. Bent; Assist.-Surgeons
Harrison, Jones, Hogg, and Woodfal ; Veterinary-Surga.
Paley, Lang, Stockley, end Meyrick. Second Capt. Naugle
has been posted to the Depot Brigade, and Second Capt.
Franklen to the 7th Brigade.

" The officers commanding Royal Artillery at stations
concerned will obtain tbe sanction of the general officers
commanding the troops to the following removals : Lieut.-
Col. Mitchell, from Dover to Woolwich ; Second Capt.
Franklen, from India to England ; Second Capt. Coiling-
wood, from Plymouth to Woolwich; Second Capt. Anley,
from India to Halifax. Captain and Adjutant Eden and
Quartermaster Pitt are to do duly with the depot brigade
at Sheerness.

In future authorities for the sale of cast horses of the
Royal Artillery will be sent direct from the .War-office to
the officer in command of the corps at the stations concerfled,
instead of through the medium of this department, as
heretofore ; and commanding officers are requested to make
application to the War office for supplies of a new form of
sale account, which will shortly be ready for issue. A copy
of the account of each sale is to be furnished to this office as
soon as possible after the horses are disposed of. In future,
when men of the Royal Artillery stationed in Ireland are
sent to Dublin, for discharge, they aro to be trans-
ferred by the ordinary No. 1 report into the payment of the
district paymaster there, who will make all the necessary
railway and other arrangements in such cases. There will
shortly be a vacancy for the appointment of instructor in
surveying and sketching at the Royal Military Academy at
'Woolwich, and any second captain or subaltern near pro-
motion,who may be desirous of the appointment is requested
to make application to the Inspector of Studies at that in-
stitution. Specimens of Pettruan's percussion fuzes for land
service common round shells have been sealed as patterns
to govern supplies. The Secretary of State for War has de-
cided that men who apply for their discharges before com-
pleting six months' service, but who cannot be discharged
till after that period has expired, aro not to be permitted to
have the same for less than £3O in consequence thereof.
"The Secretai y of State for War having approved the
formation of two field batteries in the 4th Brigade, the fol-
lowing arrangements have been made, viz.:-1 he batteries
to be formed at Hilsea under Lieut.-Col. Anderson, C. 8.,
No 9. battery, 4th Brigade, to become I battery ; No. 10
battery, 4th Brigade, to become K battery. A battery, 4th
Brigade, to move from Christchurch, and B battery from
Ililsea, to Aldershot. 200 horses of E, F, and G batteries to
be sent from Aldershot to lilacs, for I and K batteries.
The following removals of field officers have been ordered :
Col. W. J. Smythe, to Pembroke Dock, to command the
Royal Artillery in the south-western district; Col. A,
Irving, C. 8., to Guernsey ; Lieut.• Col. O'Connell, to Col-
chester; Lieut.-Col. Gibbon, C. 8., from Colchester to
Woolwich ; Lieut.-Col. Dixon, from Guernsey to 'Wool-
wich. The head quarters and all the batteries of the 15th
Brigade have been ordered to Woolwich."
The remaining division of the 96th, under the
command of Lieut.-Col. the Hon. A. M. Cathcart,

left the Curragh at 5 a.m. yesterday for Cork, to em-
bark for North America.

THE NAVAL REINFORCEMENTS FOR
NORM AMERICA.

If praise is duo to the War Departm.ent for their
rapid and energetic action in sending out military
stores and reinforcements for Canada, the same
tribute can unquestionably be claimed by the Ad-

miralty for the rapidity which they have shown in
preparing for the impending struggle, strengthen-
ing our fleet on the North American station, and
bringing forward the vessels that will be fit for ser-
vice on the Lakes of Canada. It isjust five weeks
since we laid before our readers a list of the naval
force under the command of Admiral Milne on the
North American and West India stations. That
list comprised five line• of-battle ships, 10 first-class
frigates, and 17 powerfully armed corvettes and
sloops—all steamers, and mounting in all 850 guns.
This fleet is, in fact, equal to the whole Federal
navy,"whether steam or sailing. As we have said,
only five weeks have elapsed since that list was
given, and already the preparations are far ad-
vanced towards reinforcing this fleet with 2 line-of-
battle ships, 23 of the largest, fastest, and heaviest
armed screw frigates, and 8 powerful corvettes,
mounting among them 1,000 guns. Some of these
vessels have sailed and are already on the station,
others are on their way out, others only wait

their sailing orders to start at a moment's notice,
some are in commission and will be ready and off
in a very short time, and only one or two, such as
the Black Prince, though rapidly fitting, are not
sufficiently forward to be commissioned yet. Of the
squadron of frigates, each vessel has been carefully
chosen for its great sailing speed, high steam power,
and heavy armament, and never yet has such a
fleet of picked cruisers been sent out against any
enemy. Among them are the Shannon, 51 guns ;
Leander, 51; Euryalus, 51; Sutlej, 51; Orlando,
51; Severn, 51; Phoebe, 51; Warrior, 40; Black
Prince, 40; Galatea, 26 (sister to the formidable
Ariadne) ; Defiance, 22 ; Defence (iron), 22; Re-
sistance (iron), 22 ; Satellite, 21 ; Orpheus, 21 ;
Barossa, 21; Pylades, 21; Rattlesnake, 21;
Chanticleer, 17 ; Greyhound, 17 ; Zebra, 17 ; and
Magicienne, 16. The two line-of-battle ships are
the Hero, 91, and Mecanne, 81, The sloops, very
heavily armed, are the Styx, 7 ; Stromboli, 7 ; De-
vastation, 7 ; Petrel, 11; Rapid, 11 ; Rosario, 11;
Pandora, 5 ; and Vigilant, 4. All these ships, like
those already on the station, are screws or paddles,
so that by the beginning of February Admiral
, Milne will have at his disposal 65 sail—namely,

seven line-of-battle ships, 33 frigates, and 25 cor.

vettes and sloops. Of the seven line-of-battle ships,
four—the St. George, Conqueror, Donegal, and Hero
—both steam and sail as fast as the best frigates in
the service. With such a force a total and most
effective blockade of all the Federal ports could be
established in a single week ; for, unlike the coast
lino of the Conferate States, which is protected by
myriads of little islands and countless inlets and
channels leading to the great rivers beyond, all the
great Federal harbours have such narrow entrances
that a single vessel would be sufficient to stop all
passage in or out. With the Warrior at Sandy
Hook, what could enter New York, or rather what
effectual resistance could Fort Hamilton and the
batteries on Staten Island offer to a combined at-
tack of the four iron frigates, in ease the Govern-
ment wished to force the passage, and dictate their
own terms of peace by laying the fleet broadside on
to the streets of New York and Hoboken ? That
the Warrior and Black Prince, Resistance and De-
fence, could engage and destroy these batteries
without the smallest risk to themselves, the experi-
milts against the Warrior target have proved con-

elusively. A single vessel at each port closes Bos-
ton and Portland, and two off Cape May would be
ample for the Delaware River and the trade of
Philadelphia. Admiral Milne, we believe, has al-

ready made very complete arrangements as to the
Disposition of his squadron, so that in the event of
war the Federal cruisers off the Southern Coast may
be promptly and satisfactorily accounted for.
The worst part of the struggle, however, will not
be on the North Atlantic seaboard, but on the great

Lakes of Upper Canada and North America. It was
said truly in the last war that whoever was master

of these Lakes would be master of all. The know-

,edge of this may have led to the clause in the
reaty of 1815 by which both Powers agreed to

build no war vessels on the Lakes in time of peace,

and this clause again accounts for the fact that the
New Orleans, 84 guns, commenced in 1814 in
Sackett's harbour, on Lake Ontario, has remained

unfinished to this day. Of course, from this vessel,
left unfinished nearly 50 years ago (though it is to
this hour reckoned is the Federal Nary List as an

effective line-of-battle ship), we have nothing to
fear. It is, however, most important to remember
that the Federals have a navy-yard on Lake Ontario

and that, to avert the ravages of war from Upper

- -
Canada, we must be careful to maintain as absolute

a supremacy on Lakes Erie and Ontario as we shall
do on the American coast from the Bay of Fundy
to the Chesapeake. This, as concerns our success in
the struggle, is a point of vital interest, and we are

glad, therefore, to be able to tell our readers that

this danger bas been foreseen and amply provided
against, and that within a week after the breaking
_ _

up of the ice in the rivers and canals a whole fleet of
gunboats, with the most powerful of the screw cor-
vettes sent out to Admiral Milne, will carry the pro-
tection of the English flag from Montreal to Detroit.
Between Lake Ontario and Montreal the naviga-
.

tion of the St. Lawrence is rendered difficult and
somewhat dangerous to vessels coming down the
stream by the rapids of Long Sault, the Cedars,
Cascades, and Lachine, places where there are sud-
den rapids formed by a series of declivities in the
bed of the river, and where the waters rush down,
sometimes for a distance of one or two miles, with a
velocity of from 20 to nearly 25 miles an hour.
Until within the last few years these rapids were
considered too dangerous for any vessel to attempt
to descend them, and, of course, getting up them
again is impossible. To overcome the obstacles

which these currents offered to water communi-

cation by the great highway of the St. Lawrence
to the Lakes above, the Canadian Government,

with British assistance, have formed a series of

canals with innumerable lock-gates above Montreal,
by which the rapids are avoided, and easy commu •

&cation obtained with Lakes Ontario, Erie, and

Michigan. The first canal is about two miles long,
through the southern extremity of the island of
Montreal, and this avoids the rapids of Lachine.

The next, in order to avoid the Cascades and Cedar
Rapids, is much longer, and unfortunately it is made
on the right or American bank of the river, and
only some 12 or 15 miles distance from the frontier
itself. This extends from Beauharnais to Hungry
Bay, and is called the Beauharnais Canal. The
next, the Cornwall Canal, extends from Cornwall to
Thekenson's Landing, to avoid the Long Sault.
Beyond this are short detached canals at Ferrand's
Pair t, the Platte, Iroquois, and Galops Rapids.
After these the navigation is clear through the
Thousand Islands into Lake Ontario. The tall, wide,
three storied river steamers which ply between On-
tario and Montreal go up these canals every day,
and up these canals, too, the gunboats, sleeps, and
corvettes must pass to protect the shores and trade
of Western Canada. They may do so with ease,
since all the locks in these canals are built to pass
vessels 186 feet long, 441 feet beam, and 9 feet
draught. On this important point we can speak
with certainty, as we have an official engineer's plan
with the dimensions of the locks and canals, before
us. All oar smaller 21-gun frigates, such as the
Pylades, Rattlesnake, Barossa, Satellite, &c., could,
we think, with perfect ease pass up these locks if
lightened of their heavy stores and armaments,

which could, of course, be taken up with them on
timber rafts or flat-bottomed country boats. Once
on the waters of Lake Ontario all our difficulties
would be at an end, for at the western extremity of

Lake Ontario is the Welland Canal, connecting
Port Dalhousie, on Lake Ontario, with Port
Colborne, on Lake Erie. The length of this canal
is about 35 miles, and it passes entirely through
British territory. The lock gates on this are cap-
able of passing vessels of 142 feet long, 26 feet
bßam, and 10 feet draught—an ample accommo-
dation for the heavy armed six-gun screw
despatch gunboat vessels like the Flying Fish,

or even for the heavy armed 11• gun sloops of the
class to which the Rapid, Petrel, and Rosario be-
long. From Lake Erie the River St. Clair leads

direct, between Detroit, on the American side, and
Chatham, on the Canadian side, into Lake Michi-
gan. Across Lake St. Clair and down the St. Clair
River two-thirds of the corn and provision traffic
between the States of the Far West and the Atlan-
tic seaboard is carried on, and one or two corvettes
on Lake St. Clair would be sufficient to stop it all.
The Grand Trunk Railway has a line to the settle-
ment of Sarnia, on Lake Huron, around the shores
of which grows any quantity of the finest timber.
If shipwrights were employed to build a few gun-
boats at this place (their machinery and armaments
could be forwarded by rail), they could steam at
once, by a passage as wide as the Straits of Dover,
into Lake Michigan, and find not only the enor-
mous traffic of this great lake, but even such towns
as Chicago and Milwaukie, entirely at their mercy.
It may be said, perhaps, that in case of war it is
equally open to the Federalists to do all this as to
ourselves, but this is not so. Undoubtedly if we
built gunboats on Lake Huron, the Federals could
build others to check them on Lakes Michigan and

Superior quite as fast. But it is equally certain
that they cannot possibly build steam frigates and ,
corvettes on Lakes Erie and Ontario as we can send
them up through the canals we have mentioned
ready built, manned, and equipped. There is, more-
over, only one practicable means of communication
between Ontario and Erie, which is through the
Welland Canal we have spoken of, held by the
British. As soon as the ice breaks, therefore, if the
war goes on, we may expect to find these lakes
covered with cruisers, and each Federal port on them
as closely blockaded as Boston and New York.
It must not be supposed, however, that the
Federals will quietly acquiesce in our supremacy.
In the time that would intervene between a declara-
tion of war and the thawing of the canals on the St.
Lawrence, the Federals would be masters of the
situation, and would be certain to fit out something
like the mosquito fleet that swarmed over the West
India station when the' sensation" as to the slaver
right of search ran high. Such vessels, however
ridiculous when opposed to steam frigates, would
be very formidable when there was nothing to re-
sist them, and we cannot meet them in the Lakes
before next April. Kingston, with its Fort Henry
and some still more formidable batteries, a /leur
d'eau, can take care of itself, and a couple of guns
on the long spit of land which shuts in the splendid
harbour of Hamilton would well shield that fine
town. But Whitby, Cobourg, Belville, even Toronto
itself, might be laid in ashes by a couple of ferry
boats carrying long range guns, if immediate steps
are not taken to defend them with earthworks when
it is first seen that war is inevitable. However, as
the Canadian Government have direct telegraphic
communication with Lord Lyons at Washington,
we may trust they are not likely to be taken by
surprise on this point. But there are other means
of carrying the war into the enemy's territory be-
sides by the Welland and St. Lawrence Canals.
Lake Ontario can be reached from Montreal by the
Ottawa and Rideau Canal. This is the longest in
Canada or America, about 120 miles in length, nu-
ning from Ottawa to Kingston. The locks on this