The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-13 00:00:00

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has to be taken. Certainly neithetr Ur. GLAD-
STONE nor Lord GRANVILLE, the two chid
members of the Ministry, have been idle. They have
taken no holiday. Z hey have not been dancing
hile Paris is in agony. They have spent
their vacation in London or at Walmer, close to the
port at which all their foreign advices are landed,
and they have been in constant and close communi-
cation with each other. Moreover, remembering how
energetically they worked two months ago
to prevent war, remembering the admi-
rable dispatches which were penned by
Lord GRANVILLE, and which called forth the warm
admiration of Conservative no less than of Liberal
statesmen and journalists, it required no very great
stretch of faith to believe that our chief Ministers
were fully alive to the present crisis and its needs.
If there seemed to be any delay we might feel cer-
tain that it was apparent only, or if in
any degree real, that it was due to no fault
of theirs, but to the unfortunate removal of
the sovereign 600 miles away from the seat
of Government. After all, the best answer to
the complaints whereof we have spoken is given in
to-day's telegram. England has demanded an armis-
tice in the name of the Neutral Powers. That
demand, it is to be hoped, will be granted. Should it
be so Lord GRANVILLE will only have begun
his arduous work. The next step, an indis-
pensable step, will be to convince the Pro-
visional Government of the impossibility of making
peace on any such terms as M. JULES FAVRE laid
down in his circular. To insist upon the non-
surrender of an inch of French territory, the non-
removal of a single stone of French fortresses, is utterly
absurd, and it may well be that Lord GRANVILLE
would not interpose so long as the demand was made
a sine quci non by France. The fact that he has inter-
posed is an indication that the French Government
has come to a more reasonable state of mind.

IT is greatly to be regretted that polemics should
be allowed to intrude into such a matter as shipbuilding.
The controversy respecting the rival broadside and
turret systems has at times assumed the bitterness of
a theological dispute. It has been aggravated by the
fact that both sides have the aid of ready writers.
Mr. REED adds to his other qualities that
of skilful penmanship. On the other side is
Captain SHERARD OSBORN who is allowed free play
in a very influential paper, and would seem to have
used it already to the purpose of pointing out that
the loss of the Captain is due to an accident, and in
no way to her peculiarity of construction. It would
be lamentable, indeed, if mere cleverness of writing
were allowed to override sound practical judgment.
The facts are plain and clear enough to
lead to a sound conclusion. It is a fact that the
Captain was unusually low in the water, two feet
lower than her ill-fated designer intended, though
he had proposed a dangerously narrow limit. It is
a fact that the vessel was cumbered enormously on
her upper deck, and that consequently if she did
heel over it would be exceedingly difficult for her to
right herself. It is a fact that two vessels built on
the turret system—the American Monitor and the
Italian Affondatore—went down as the Captain
seems to have done, like a shot. It is a fact that at
least some of the officers of the ten other vessels in
the oombined Channel and Mediterranean Squadrons
watched with =oh anxiety the conduct of the
Captain at the commencement of the fatal gale, so
greatly did that vessel heel over, It is a fact,
though one of those "not generally known," that
the Admiralty have in their possession at the pre-
sent moment reports respecting the Scorpion turret
ship (one of the two which Messrs. LAIRD built for the
American' Confederates, and which our Government
bought in order to settle an awkward dispute) so
unfavourable that they would not venture to send
that vessel to sea. It is a fact that the seamen on
board one of these same turrets refused to sail
in her, and ran the risk of being hanged for
mutiny, rather than incur what they considered to
be the certainty of drowning. It is a fact that all
the most experienced men at the Admiralty, those
most practically acquainted with naval construction,
always had the greatest apprehension for the
Captain. They did not, indeed, expect her to founder
in an ordinary gale ; but, in spite of the
favourable reports of the not wholly unprejudiced
Admiral SYMONDS, as to the buoyancy of the ship,
they doubted her sailing qualties, and they doubted
still more her fighting qualities. Indeed, terrible as
this calamity has been it is conceivable that one
even more terrible might have happened. The part
of the Captain between the turrets was so weak
that a heavy shot would have, in all probability, pene-
trated her side, and if so there would have been
no possibility of plugging the hole, and the vessel
must have gone down in action as the Affondatore
did. Such an event might gave utterly demoralised
our fleet in the midst of an engagement, and have
involved this country in a great national disaster.
Therefore, if the Captain was to go down at
all, we must rejoice rather that she has
gone down thus soon rather - than later,
when her loss would have been a calamity affecting
not only some hundred families, but the whole king-
dom. As it is, the disaster is a terrible warning, and
one, which in spite of able leaders in the Times, it is
to be hoped that we shall take to heart. To Mr.
CHILDERS the blow is peculiarly severe. He hoped
to have inaugurated a new naval epoch by the
adoption of the turret system. He has not only lost
his favourite ship, but his eldest son. He will need
all the condolence which the QUEEN, with her usual
thoughtfulness, has sent to him.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

IHE SKIN, LONDON, TUESDAY; SEPTEMBER 13, 1870

He also took part in the Russian. war, and assisted in
the dangerous service of firing seventy-three Russian
vessels at Genitchi. In several other arduous and
perilous undertakings of the kind, Lieut. Burgoyne
played a prominent part and was rewarded
by promotion to the rank of commander.
He was afterwards made post captain, and in July
1805 he was appointed commander of the Wivern,
one of the rams about which there was so much com-
motion, and subsequently, of the screw frigate Con-
stance. When that vessel was paid off he was ap-
pointed to one of the harbour vessels for the Cap-
tain. Captain Burgoyne wore. the Victoria Cross, the
Baltic and Crimean medals, and the Azoff clasp; he
was also a Knight of the Legion of Honour, and
received the order of Medjidie of the sth class.