The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-27 00:00:00

NEVER VENTURE, NEVER WIN.

(From the Daily News.)

Was it personal spite against Admiral Napier, or
merely stupidity, or something worse, that led Admiral
Berkeley to read in the House of Commons, on Tuesday.
extracts from private letters of the Baltic admirals !
When the public want to be reassured as to the prospects
of the war, they are merely made acquainted with letters
which it was a breach of official confidence to make pub-
lic. What good can it do to us to know that the admi-
rals have declared the forts to be impregnable ? But if
it does no good to us to be told such news, there is one
person to whom such news is invaluable, and that person
is the only one who will be benefited Ly the disclosures
of Admiral Berkeley. The Czar, when he receives the
intelligence that the commanders of the most powerful
fleet ever fitted out have declared the position they were
sent to attack to be impregnable, will be furnished with
btlsaohoii :
us
pf from
ni
the the
h i
the precise information which he wanted. He will look
upon the northern portion of his empire to be safe, oven
according to the decision of the most competent of his
enemies, and he will be enabled to pay undivided atten-
tion to that. other portion of his frontier which is
more endangered. The extracts from the letters of Sir
Charles Napier and Admiral Chads will doubtless be
printed in large letters and distributed throughout the
empire, for the consolation of the Czar's despairing sub-
jects. Caricatures will not be wanting. Napier may be
represented as the chafed lion gnawing his tail in dis-
gust, and the scientific Chads may be shown in the garb
of the desolate Sister Anne in " Blue Beard," peering
Chads,it
,e,ulxtieitny aalatritnhetobwoatrtodms
,Cmroanysfeaadlti,
owuht,ile,,Bsiristtaernnia,
Sister Chads, do von see anything to be frightened at r'
They, and the nation at large, will have to thank a Lord
of the Admiralty for this.
The speech of Admiral Berkeley is a 6 ucoessful re-
newal of the attempt made by the Russian organ some
time ago to excite despair as to the aspect of affairs in
the Baltic, and thus, by diminishing the energy of our
na,oianepbyueliralfairrtteeyisop.hnlsamoHteehere, to cause a diversion in favour of the
Autocrat. We do not want to hear that our Admirals
woDaaurstkee
eaer
idtsoohocifnennirtVo,
thatoeael impregnable.
taken
impregnablekWene ts so a
destroynft
otr
to re
sknowstehse
idmidp whetherrtebge.
Iniwour ngspnthPedousareni evoargftueoatrkh
aee
c?r
i.
m Didnatione . ? Nlrenol sro
Admiral
neitherev ever r
ct
as Berkeleyr
case
wis hcolde a
gphrivatelettere of the Admirals
fiwt t per.
aboutbr eosuetn tt
Before war was declared there was a great deal said
station which he holds at
*he change which steam navigation would intro-
duce in naval tactics, and of the vast advantages
ships propelled independently of wind or current would
i
possess in attacking fortified places, as well as in fighting
with the enemy at sea. We have now been at open war fottr
months, and have sent to the Baltic and to the Black Seas
powerful fleets, amply provided with the means of inde-
pendent locomotion, yet scarcely anything has been done
that might not have been accomplished without the aid
of steam power. And now we are told nothing can be
done. Is it that the vaunted advantages of steam fall
far short of expectation, or is it that our naval comman-
ders do not know how to apply the new power placed at
their disposal ? They have certainly as yet shown no
capacity for contriving new modes of operation. All the
use they have made of steam has been to do that which
must necessarily have suggested itself. Thus at the bom-
bardment of Odessa the continued movement of the ships
as they successively fired their broadsides at the forts to
prevent the enemy from taking a steady aim, was a ma-
noeuvre that wculd have been practised by sailing vessels
with a favourable wind. The daring but useless entry of
a river in the Baltic by two small steamers was another
feat which the means at command suggested. But there
is in these achievements nothing beyond what any com-
mon sailor in the fleet must have known to be possible.
There is no doubt that the facility of taking any required
station, without regard to the wind, has been found a
great convenience in the movements of the combined
fleets, but something far more important was promised
and expected as the result of modern improvements in
warfare.

One of the most obvious uses to which steam power
might be applied is that of placing our ships just be-
yond the range of the enemy's guns, whilst they batter
the forts with heavy ordnance of longer range ; but it
seems that the attacking ships are not sufficiently pro-
vided with large guns to do effectual execution at a die-
lance, and that they cannot, therefore, expect to destroy
the batteries by their fire without themselves suffering
considerable damage. Wooden ships, it is now said by
those who would palliate delay, have little chance
against granite walls, the previously prognosticated de-
structive effects of a concentrated broadside from a first-
rate man-of-war being conveniently forgotten ; but it the
batteries of Cronstadt and Sebastopol are really so very
formidable that even with the advantage of independent
movement and concentration of fire it would not be pru-
dent to expose our ships within their range, there may
be other and less hazardous means of destroying the
Russian forts, which an ingenious and skilful applica-
tion of the resources of science might effect, in combina-
tion with steam navigation, if our naval officers would
shake off the shackles of routine. The influence of rou-
tine is indeed so strong that it generally clogs the pro-
gress of every new invention, and prevents its capabili-
ties from being fully developed. Even in the transmis-
sion of messages by electric telegraph, a plan so entirely
different from anything previously known, the spirit of
routine was for a long while pndoruinant, and strenuous
attempts were made, and have not yet been altogether
abandoned, to tie up the lightning power with red
tape ; we can scarcely expect, therefore, that in our
naval service, men disciplined in routine should
adapt themselves at once to new circumstances,
and be able to avail themselves of the numerous
appliances which may be brought to bear as conse-
quences of steam navigation: It is highly probable,
however, that ero long their eyes will be opened to some
of the peculiar opportunities which they now possess of
destroying the enemy's works. 31. Jacobi is teaching a
lesson which ought not to he thrown away. The in-
genious inventor of the electrotype has been connecting
his insulated wires with " infernal machines" in the nar-
row channels round Cronstadt ; and wo may conceive
him to be watching, like a spider in the recesses of its
web, till our ships approach within the striking distance
to make contact with the voltaic battery that is to ignite
the gunpowder and destroy them. He probably irn•
agines that the proverb, " those who live in glass houses
should not throw stones," is not applicable to his posi-
tion behind the granite walls of Cronstadt ; but it would
not be difficult by improving on his exampe to convince
him that he is most exposed to be injured by such an ap-
plication of electric science. Though the massive walls
of Cronstadt are infinitely more substantial than the
aerial structure of the Crystal Palace, there are explosive
agents that would rend the granite blocks asunder as
readily its an explosion of gunpowder would shiver the
fragile material at Sydenham. Among those sub-
stances, gun-cotton, though most recently invented,
is best known. The rapidity of its actioa is so
intense that in comparison with it the inflammation
of gunpowder seems slow burning. The sudden
action of its explosive force prevents gun-cotton from
being safely substituted for gunpowder in fire-arms,
but for merely explosive purposes, as " infernal ma-
chines," it might he available with terrificaPy de-
structive effect. We can scarcely suppose that the
attention of our naval commanders has not been
f
directed to this peculiar property and apepltihaenicresnot
gun-cotton, and we roust therefore attrfibut
routine. M.
using it to the cramping influence o
may be applied, and if the means
fortifications
cations would
Jacobi, however, has shown the
effectually followed, the strongest
Many
viand of the sea and the use of steam power.hich
lwayl sinadwophtiecdh be
surely present themselves
be placed at the mercy of those who have
ways de-
structiveththee"m-formidable casemated batteries would
agents, which ought
to destruction by such explosieeag
agent may be effectually brobuybgehwtntioorbeeaerx.poTshede
way from steam-boats
The " infernal ma:
tranquilly under the
sso long as our ships keep away,
etwhh water,
tnt e
ers: assuredly
, mightnwdt to
remain eeahclli
harmless
iyn
beyondel e
M.
d J i
Jacobi,
asoonbeelr
i.
e
explosive agents might be di-
eagfoar,tnsstofwhCireohnssetetdhtand Sebastopol present fixed
were sufficient to lay both places in ruins. It
rected ; and the destructive powers might be increased
may be replied that it is not for landsmen at home to
direct the operations of naval warfare, and it is probable
that many practical difficulties would arise in carrying
into execution any such plans as we have suggested ; but
much greater difficulties may be overcome by knowledge
and energy if sufficient stimulus be given, and the determi-
nation
:hi itnhleratflehevdeereei tapepowers
criticism
Noivas
mmer
reie
ss entirelyaaoelnrvidvide modern
esnut to the
evidence
nation existto shake off the trammels of routine in dealing
withA
iittiNne, a
They
uannl
aptel
anrwgadeecepvstroiestewnhaoteel events,
tieghts
science.
ciaooi
greattrenan suggestions
chtoe
e.
f.
ourploeoftsc :
invitese. lilt
possess
commanders
the public at large by their present inaction, and when a
Lord of the Admiralty reads such passages as those
made public on Tuesday in the House of Commons.
Whilst the Admirals and the officials do nothing at all,
they cannot complain of those who remind them of the
duty they had in hand, or who point to novel and scien-
tific modes of doing it when the old-fashioned ones a tee
Nelson are neglected.

LLOYD'S.—Yesterday an election of additional mem-
bers to the committee of this institution took ?blot
when three gentlemen were added to the nine preroo
constituting that body. The ballot closed at tourm
fol-
o'clock, when the scrutineers reported the vySe,ichof
lows :—Mr. Michael Wills, 211 ; Mr. D. -'''
e Pearce,
161 ; Mr. William Pitman, 1"
; Mr. (l'efiergthree fint
129 ; Mr. John Henry Steimnitz, 117.
gentlemen were declared elected.
e estimates for the
CIVIL SERVICE ESTIMATES.—
fyreaayr
tlhBese4l-15a5rgoefe theter sums
issued. This class comprises
f the Duchy of Cornwall
Secretary of State for War, 2 ense of the office ief
office, of the Registration of Joint
11::i
Companies,etob :dud
seerwvhicei :bah e
exp
The amount required for the
is not reprin
sfmourenittehr
fee:ll. the Universal
effie
office
xehflb_isSeic; tatoefrdyFi
naarti
ts
hiWine alrpBashaving
ue
t):::eihno.
already issued,
5 889/ for
17,3001. The
is 1 , . the purchase of
the site in
• Pimlico, and the cost of buildings, including
1 000/. for incidental expenses in removing
fittings, and ,
this
istdh feo r Board
de defraying
i nc;gf
the office to building—total,... 16,8891. For the
isrtant, 3671. 10s.;
Duchy
rCeodrni sw.la7l 1'
assistantTtJointhree de
salariese Stock
inetsum of
of
ueCtfbhol2emi
,n2rpe:ago3ntois.elts.rla3;
registrar,
fesolgondi
()sr. Registration
irtelearogkanussi,
5801. 10s. id.,
&c. The expenses of this office have hitherto been de-
frayed by the fees, which, however, will now be paid
into the Exchequer. 50,0001. is the sum required for
the expense likely to be incurred for the management of
the
Paris,Bßritish department
ailBos..The totalof tahmeounlTtnietverts4aool Exhibition at
zit.
es,tt. .