The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-06 00:00:00

THE PEACE SOCIETY AT FAULT.

What has become of the Pace Association ? Has it
gone to the seat of war, wherever that may he, or what
is it about when the press is teeming with suggestiOns the
most adverse to the objects of its mission ? .
What would, the men of peace do if they saw's man
pulling off his coat to fight ? And what is the press at this
moment about but helping the soldierto pull off-his coat
to fight ? Surely, then, this is the time for the active inter-
ference of the Peace Association. The British soldier, as
he left our shoree equipped for war, represented. with con-
summate perfection a man bound over to keep the peace.
To the greatest possible degree he was deprived of the use
of his limbs. His stock throttled him ; his jacket was
so tight in the sleeves, especially at the arm-pits,
as to' confine hi's motions under penalty of excori-
ation ; his knapsack was placed on his back with
regard only to uniformity, and without the slightest con-
sideration for the convenience of the bearer. or the ad-
jnstment most suitable to his particular height and figure;
the cruse belts perfected the embarrassment, and thus
altogether the man was reduced to the state proverbially
described as that of the heg in artneur.” Add to this,
if a cavalry soldier, that the weapon of offence is
sheathed in an iron scabbard, which renders .it ak ser-
viceable for cutting as a poker,'-' and• what can the
Peace society want more ? A Quaker ought to dress
himself like a grenadier. guardsman, to personify the
highest degree of inaptitude fur action. A guardsman
attired like a Quaker would be alarmingly free for deeds
of arms. In some parts of the country. they hobble
cattle to prevent their straying, that is, they tie one leg
to another, or attach a log. The British soldier is hob-
bled for active service with equal success by his uniform
and equipments. What is given to show, is so much
taken from the man's efficiency; and surely this ought
to satisfy the Peace Association, and to enlist, it in the
defence of stocks, straps, buckles, belts, and all the rest
binding over the soldier to the utmost contrivable harm-
' lessness. Surely it is something to have the man in such
case that he cannot march to meet the enemy, but drops
down by the road-side. This at least keeps him out t. 4
harin's way. The Chinese women's feet are so bound
and bandaged when young, that ample securities are had
against their gadding, or taking freedoms obnoxious to
the jealousies of their lords and masters ; and the
British soldier comes next to the Chinese lady in
the disabled order. Antiquarians, a thousand
years hence, will account for the peculiar equip-
ment of our troops by the constitutional jealousy
of a standing army, standing /ucus a. non, be-
cause the men fall out in fits of strangulation.
Imagine. what must be the feelings of a soldier in heavy
marching order when he hears the word of command,
" Stand at ease." As Magog the beadle says, when
dead drunk he is told to get up, "It is all very easy to
talk of such a thing, but how do you do it ?" And
how, in the name of all impossibility, is the unhappy
soldier to stand at ease ? It is, perhaps, the only word
of command he would willingly obey, but for his life he
cannot do it.

CoMpare the British soldier with the British sailor ;
the one all for show, the other all fir use. The
exigencies of the ship's duties have not allowed of
any tampering with Jack's freedom of motion. A
man must have the unfettered use of his limbs to

go aloft in a gale, mid reef -topsaila while the ship
is pitching bows under, and the sail. is fighting
with all the fury of the storm against the hands gather-
ing up its heavy folds, and knotting the nettles. And
. .

see a soldier go into action,- trussed— as it were for the
spit, and compare him with the seaman standing to his

gun, stripped to his waist that nothing may interfere
with his freedom and vigour of limb.
We do not mean to imply that it would be fitting to
equip the soldier as looselyas the sailor, but merely that
. . . .

all Cut the Peace Association would desire him to be
emancipated from ligatures. of various kinds, which, if
they do not disable him, yet cruelly tax his powers, and
in the same proportion impair his efficiency. Some

little progress has already been made towards the sol-
dier's emancipation, and all through the labours of the
press, assisted indeed by some military men who look to
uses, not to show and systems which are behind all the
rest of the world.

But for the press, our troops at this moment would
not be armed with the Minie rifle. Brown Bess had
her last advocates in high military authorities ; and
swayed by them so late as the session before last, Mr.
Mousell declared that it was not advisable to arm more
than about 200 of every regiment with the efficient
pieces now in use. The press, too, has taken off the
stock ; as. for the knapsack, the soldier throws it away
when he goes into action, thus shdwing that if it has
not its proper place on his back when work is to be done
it shall have none at all.

Yet we are told that it is an insufferable presumption
for civilians to pretend to opinions on these professional
matters. We are rebuked for not respecting Admiral
Chads' bird's view of Cronstadt, and his awful report
that the walls of that fort are of solid granite ! Now
certainly we were not reverently struck by the stress
on the solidity of the granite, granite not being a ma-
terial of which band-boxes are usually made ; but, as
we st.ited in our last number, the obvious suspicion oc-
curred to us that if the granite seemed of any soli-
dity greater than what usually belongs to granite, the
probability was that it was a sham, as has been proved
to be the case at Bomarsund.

Next we are blamed for haring a notion that gun-
boats can be built on a more perfect plan than that of
the Admiralty, by combining wood with iron, and thus
getting a scantling for a heavy armament, with a very
small draught of water.
We have dose our best, accordingly, to read with all
respect and edification the account of the performances
of the Arrow, which proved so worthy of her name by
throwing her shells anywhere but.to the mark. Her tar-
get was indeed small, the bull's-eye.heing no bigger than

the cliff over the Needles ' • and such the excellence of
the practice, that the lighthouse at the top of the lofty
cliff struck its fi ig after the fourth shot, and the garrir.on

larohed out and —surrendered at discretion, avowing th..t

•
two .hells had all but blown up the building. There was
no such siege practice 'as this at Chatham ; here a
place was actually evacuated, and a pic-nic party
to boot had to fly for their lives. -The gunnery
is of the unexpected sort, and an enemy would
not know where to be safe against it except
well in front. In explanation of these vagaries,
it is said that the Arrow rolled heavily, and well she
might do that if she was in the sea running in or near
the Bridge in anything of a breeze ; but we have a notion
that the Nix or Salamander, with their snugly-stowed ma-'
chi nery and better planed centre of gravity, would have been
somewhat easier in the same surf, and would not have been
qo aspiring in their practice towards the lighthouse. Be'
that as it may, her Majesty mast have been extraordinarily
impressed with the prowess of her gun-boat the Arrow,
and must have interred how formidable she would be to the
enemy when even her Majesty's own lighthouses and
picnic parties were not safe from her at a handsome

distance from the mark. Considering the width of her
practice, this vessel's name merits the addition of the
Broad Arrow peculiar to the Crown. Nearly was itt4
mark clapped on the Light which was not built of glasa
as solid as Me stone of Cronstadt.
Let it not be supposed that we mean to impeach the
gunnery of the officers and crew 'of the Arrow. The
fault in practice was doubtless solely referable to the
build of the vessel, and the Woodside position of her
armament. A correspondent of the Times thus explains
the defect in the plan of the Arrow, and shows the
superiority of the Prussian models, the Nix and Sala-
mender, to which we have so often referred :
"The Prussian vessels are about the same size or tonnage
as the English ; nevertheless, the Prussian vessels are so
formed as to have room and means of working four guns of
such Biz., as those of which the English, only carry two.
This arrangement is peculiar to the Prussian boats, and
cannot be adopted in our own. The next peculiarity is
this—The two long glum carried amidships in the Arrow
cannot be fired in a line _with the keel ; they can only be
fired broadside, and trained forward to an angle not ex-
ceeding 56° on either side of the keel ; so that there are
31° on each side on which there can be no fire. Suppose,
therefore, these gun-boats to be chasing ; the vessels must
deviate 34° from their course in order to fire a gun ; or they
must yaw round 64• to fire alternate guns on either side.
On the other hand, the Prussian boats can lay their course
and fire two guns simultaneously and without.interrup-
tion in a line parallel to their keel, and even convergent on
the ship.chased ; and are equally able, at the same time, to
keep up a fire aft on a vessel in chase. Their full speed
and their full armament can therefore be simultaneously
employed, which in the Arrow is impossible.
"The Arrow has no remedy for this state of things so
long as she keeps her guns amidships. It was with the
guns so placed, firing out of the broadside ports, that the
experiments were made the other day. It would be pos-
sible in the Arrow to remove the guns into the bow, but,
looking at the size and construction of the vessel and of
the guns, I am sure that in a heavy sea that would be an
experiment neither convenient nor devoid of danger."
Further, it is to be remarked that as the rolling of a
vessel from side to side must be greater and quicker than
the pitching from stem to stern, it must be by so much
more difficult to lay a gun correctly in a. broadside posi-
tion, as in the Arrow, than fore and aft, as in the Nix
and Salamander ; and this doubtless explains the very
excursive flight of the shot and shell of her Majesty's
new gun-boat. —Examiner.

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REPRFSENTATION OF WIGAN.—Mr. Acton, the mayor
of this borough, has published his address, announcing
himself a candidate for the honour of representing it in
Parliament, on Liberal principles. Mr. Acton tells his
fellow-townsmen :—" For many years I have had the
privilege and pleasure to be intimately connected with
Mr. Tnioknesse in public and political affairs. In poll..
tics and questions of public policy, I believe we generally
,agreed. Time has served to confirm the principles j
have so long hold, and events to my mind hive proved
their soundness." Mr. Woods, who had been applied to
by a body of electors, iu a letter, dated from Kissengen,
in Germany, declines to divide the Liberal party by be,
comas s oadid4t4 on tii oco!!,gou,