The Sun.
London, England, 1834-10-04 00:00:00

l'erted the general attention from that which, after all,
'‘.t tar best defence. Brave as our soldiers have shown
themselves,r,, and talented as have been their leaders, we
never can hope, from our numerical inferiority, to be a
gresi t military nation. We may again successfully con-
tend, Provided our means be properly cultivated, with
never
combined fleets of Europe, but we cannot, and we
nitri could, meet any first-rate European people of
ern times on land without the assistance of one or
mou
gre allies. We say not this in depreciation of our
ifteano'dr'agniotariroz exploits,orwitli ;an imperfect estimate of its great
but we do say, and with little
4 of contradiction from any rational and unprejudiced
d that our proper arm of war is the navy ;it is not
'lsnY the best bulwark of defence to an island, but it is
a °that secies of armament for which our insular si-
tels p
Qati°ll supplies the best and readiest materials.
ll • 1,
a( 3r, therefore, do we hail this attempt to recall the
Public
attention to our maritime affairs, and to those
Provements most calculated to meet the advance of
the rival nations. The time was when a set of brave
t 'gnorant men laughed at the idea of naval tactics
dbe'e necessary to victory. According to them a stout
4411 and a sound ship were- the only requisites in the
°I. battle ; but after the experience of the last
Atne •
'eau war, when English stubborness was so often
defeatedoust he 1)V superior strategy, we presume, this error
ti:st he pretty well exploded. Above all, our atten-
-14:1 ought to be turned to the application of steam to
Itit'Pa of war. If ever any other nation should get the
tiott of us in this respect, and can bring its tremen-
t•us energies to bear upon the present system, a few
hours might wrest from our hands the sceptre of the
of first-rate
and blot out Great Britain from the list of
fa,, powers. The present system of naval war-
fare' dependent as it is for results on the winds and
tides,
would be all too. unequal in the 'strife against an
There
that can set both one and the other at defiance.
are, of course, difficulties in the way of apply-
° steam to such a purpose ; but who will venture to
affirm that such difficulties are insuperable ? That this
tremendous
No agent can be more widely and usefully em-
• Yed than it has been, is evident from the " Voyage
• Steam from Bombay to Suez." In this document,
er
having given a rapid sketch of the scheme to
"Fact so desirable an object, the various difficulties it
met With in its progress, and an outline of the voyage
of
the
Hugh Lindsay, the writer concludes by saying—
ueE that a steamer can .ply between Bomhayla 10th
Jungroughout the year—the months of May from the ‘ll
end July, and part of August, excepted ; and these only
e'Oerlse of the difficulty of carrying an adequate supply of
al• t.°, gain Socotra, 1,150 miles; as the wind in these
br t". 131. IS also strong, a steamer's rate would be reduced the.rle-s
a•clay.,a,n average of 24 miles per hour, or sixty-five miles
tie The 'Leaves from my Log Book" offer nothing par-
IllttrlY worthy of notice. They are not bad certainly,
but neither are they goo 4, or not so good as to induce
to make any extracts. We must needs say of them,
the sagacious Bishop said ol Gulliver, there are
tornc_
.q things in the book that we cannot quite believe.
`` The Devil's Rock," if it be a fiction, is marvel-
hh,
J like truth ; .and, if it be truth, is marvelously
fiction. The description of the tempest and the
danger
of the vessel is exceedingly powerful, and
hr ii)ga the whole scene before the mind's eve with un-
ent: MI on vividness :
kid was, I think, the third or fourth day of a new moon,
tin g be°°,gh, consequently, her beams were weak and her set-
marly, yet she lengthened the twilight an hour or two,
ade the actual darkness of the night much shorter. I
iiis`ivre there is not a man upon earth, who at some period of
the rne' has not felt the strongest admiration at the beauty of
her a een, or been warmed into some glow of thankfulness for
aettsse but even they who have experienced her greatest tie
icyland. have little idea of the service she does the
assn er °f the deep. As her pale rays dance over the waves,
I,lle ternrne less terrific appearance—and amid the roar of
tight. P,piti, there is something inexpressibly cheering in her
i" the e lonely mariner looks up to her as a friend—and
Wit a dangers and distress, she seems to gaze on him
tafet . and sympathizing look, as though she promised
3 and consolation.
of Ought to apologize for this digression, but recollection
ele.'e danger from which we were that night rescued is suffi-
at excuse for this tribute of acknowledgment.
of 0 We had supped, taken our nightly glass of grog, and some
teti," society had already turned in. The captaiin had a seot
kira' to his state room, having left orders to the
.ca 1 d
• and I went upon deck to take merely a slight peep
at
th. weather before going. to bed ; but, struck with
i,t` grandeur of the scene, I whiled away more time than I had
ended. It was ten o'clock, and the gale refreshing fast,
nd
,t.now and then the top of a wave rushing over the main-
the-L as the ship yawed a little on either side, gave warning
at the sea was getting heavier. The top-gallant sail was
Laken .
ees in, and the mate observed. that it would be soon ne-
:i3elsharoyritzoone,lose-reef the topsails. The moon, by this time
tiPt astern in the Western quarter, and about six degrees above
was begit:ning to be obscured at intervals by dark
lir:flan masses of cloud, which, thus exhibited in strong re-
itati assumed a singularly sublime, though awful appearance ;
40 at times, a was e rearing itself higher than its fellows,
Arwed like a huge wall overhanging the stern, and seemed to
otaten instant destruction to the vessel ; but as it came closer
Nvl.?se majestically upon its huge top, and was- borne along
tirn irresistible velocity. I had walked the deck for some
Isate;,..Watching the deceptive and varying appearance of the
at,ad`s, now relieved by the moonlight, now darkened by the
eak:ws of the passing clouds—and my thoughts, though
ter2Y intent on the scene, occasionally turned towards the
, "nation of our voyage, whither we were now so rapidly
Zrio4ressing, and to the anticipation of the joys and comfort
lati,„l4 England, and the delights of meeting friends and re-
ta:" unseen for many a year. Whilst thus engaged, once or
I thou "lit I saw an unusually white wave far a-head ; but as
stet°,,ulcl not fix
ertn-ti•joota.ke:'wo or
in my gaze, it did not particularly excite my
tnund to walk forwi:_
'hrce minutes more elapsed, when onturn-t
vd, the form of a wave, which could no
, met our gliince. In a moment the cry
the
elilthee and peace which had reignet: board for some
dhours,
aol-ged to the cry of terror and distracts.,_ Everybody wasd
trs,4B,,.tr—none knew what to do,—so sudden, unexpecthe
Parajr. danger, that before our minds could recove7 fromwteree
ih'esing effect of the first shock produced by terror, we
Our ihrPldst of destruction. Hope of safety there was none.
than TIP was flying through the water,—the breakers not more
poi„, Iwo cables' length from us, not only a-head, but several
on each bow.
,ne captain had rushed upon deck at the first alarm, and
Wlzew`ready standing on the bowsprit, looking round with the
tore ebf. one who sees instant and unavoidable destruction be-
N.st,-Irn- Too surely did he recognise in that view the
-ea of one of those mysterious reefs which had been the
pies of our scepticism and ridicule a few hours before. His
t‘''ea of mind, however, did not forsake him : with out
1‘) th4e his eye from the spot, he ordered the startled sailors
braces.tbi The idea of evading the danger by hauling the
late, °l' a wind, for an instant presented itself, but it was too
w Already were we in the midst of the dashing and foai.-n-
-airsaVers, with eyes whose owers were sharpened by despair
they Y could we observe the black tops of a reef of rocks, as
were occasionally bared by the reflux of the boiling surf;
deck eddy bad one or two mighty surges rushed over the
Prog.„ Sweeping away everything loose, and giving awful
lib ah°stic of the fate awaiting us,—whilst the vessel was lifted
Of Wile brow of the tremendous billows,—at the subsidence
Tile :4 we expected to feel her grind on the subjacent crags.
thiszp-etnams of the passengers, now fully awakened to their
the—,ra-the silent horror imprinted on the countenances of
aletels-ren,—the roaring of the mighty element rendering
tapt3 .naudible the orders shouted out by our still energetic
Awe -nr-the mysterious uncertainty'of the danger,--even the
4a0,,-Y Which we believed it to be designated, and which
the,: 4to throw a superstitious horror over the scene, altoge-
ley ni'.l3er°4l:..toureel an impression which can never be erased from
4.ftp, y. .
"aving been wrought up to the highest pitch by
his
taPPallitay description, we are almost inclined to
quar r,
re vvith the waiter for escaping with life, and thus
tig Ohs that all our' anxiety has been thrown away,
much
we had 5.13
—.
as if be one
of
11 Alr. Rad lirghosts, end in
terrifying ourselves with
that uniformly
°thin ei s drowned
L• g. Could he not mainaninz,ouslY
ition
story
self h • ,lolphin to
tell h• having first deputed some friendly' , d
have.
is
very obli • ?—they are gentlemen of taste .°4
Arlo ging withal, as is proved by their civility to
the
natal and military editor to wage war as he does,
in another
place, with their cousins German, the por-
Poises
and,
8, of these he proposes to harpoon entire shoals,
reach
Should they prove too wary to come within the
01 his
P01%01,. trident, he then suggests the propriety of
an,
*devils
thba.tJe sea with lime, and catching the poor
t way. This is doing things on a grand
and d
reminds us of an incident in Schiller 's
Ghost Seer,
by the ,where the Armenian quiets a raging sea
p 1 e expedient of throwing overboard a few

barrels of whale oil. The project, however,—that is
of killing the porpoises, not of stilling the waves,—is
by no means to visionary as at first sight it may appear
to be. These fish supply a moderate quantity of oil;
and arc abundant in the Atlantic.
The other matters of this number, though all inte-
resting in their way, are not sufficiently prominent to
farther notice.

[uire any

THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE.
We have had occasion to notice more than once,
and it may be naso adunco, the furious Toryism of
the " Dublin Magazine," even while we have been
giving due praise to its many merits. To our infinite
surprise, this at length has roused the ire of our con-
temporary, and in his present number he favours us
with a flat denial of the premises, which denial he re-
quests us to make public in our columns. There are
some signs of grace in this, however ; few are the
Tories, who would not consider that we had done
them the greatest possible honour by the accusation.
We haste, then, to record his plea of " not guilty,"
and put him on his defence before his country :
" We commence our extracts from our tablets of this month,
by a reference to a subject to which nothing but a sense of
duty could induce us to allude ; we mean some comments upon
the last number of this periodical, which appeared in The Sun,
London newspaper. It is always painful to be obliged to
speak of ourselves, and to fair criticism we cannot, almost
under any circumstances, conceive a writer called on to reply.
When, however, a charge is brought against a political writer,
of entertaining political opinions and feelings which he can
utterly, and indignantly, disclaim, there is no rule, either of
courtesy or etiquette, that requires him to submit to the im-
putation. This is, precisely, the position in which we are
placed : a most respectable and justly influential journal has
attempted to fasten on us sentiments which we hold in the most
unmitigated abhorrence, and has taken two separate opportu-
nities of repeating the charge. In their review of our number
for August, they'distinctly charged us with advocating the ex-
termination of the Roman Catholics !! and now they appear
to have no way altered their opinion of our sentiments. From
The Sun of September the second, we take the following
" THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITy MAGAZINE.—The Toryism
of I'tlaga and Regina is rank radicalism compared with the
blood-red orange conservatism of this official bulletin' from
the head-quarters of the Irish Church militant. From the
style of some of these articles before us, we should not be at
all surprised at shortly hearing of a proposal for erecting a
Roden rostrum in Dublin, something after the style of that
from which the Pater Patrice of Rome harangued the people,
with the trifling difference of substituting Papists' heads for the
beaks of ships in its erection. This antichristian bigotry is the
more to be regretted, as this periodical may boast of an abun-
dance of literary talent of a very high order.'
" And so our contemporary continues in a strain very compli-
mentary to our merits, and, we confess, very gratifying to our
feelings ; but it is not with his opinion as to our literary pre-
tensions, that we have to do ; it is with his, either wilful mis-
representation, or gross misapprehension of our policy, that
we are now concerned. We put the case in its double point
of view, although we feel quite satisfied that the latter branch
of the alternative is the true one.
" Grievous as is the imputation which is contained in the
paragraph we have quoted, and calculated as it is to lower the
character, and injure the circulation of our periodical, with all
who value the principles of religious charity, we would pass it
by unnoticed, or leave its refutation to the spirit of the articles
which we publish, were it not that it appears part and parcel
of a systematic effort which is now making, to neutralise the
effect which the exertions of the Irish Protestant party are un-
questionably producing with the people of Britain, by repre-
senting them in a character of all others the most odious to a
Christian people, that of religious persecutors and religious ex-
terminators. The truth is, that the case is precisely the re-
verse ; we are the objects, not the agents of a bitter and
relentless persecution, and, so far from ever thinking of op-
, pressing others, we feel our own lives and liberties insecure.
We are not vain enough to believe that our individual opinions
are of importance enough to deserve the misrepresentation of
,17,-.7 Sun? the very language of the paragraph proves that he
oiler game, and assails, through us, the great and
iliniflesueanttiliaipaf:'y with which we are connected, and whose con-
fidence, we are pr(;:',(1 to say, we possess. It is then, in jus-
tice to that party, that 17' reply to the observations of The
Sun, and, in the name of tha:,.` party do we solemnly deny
that, as far as our knowledge of ihed extends, they entertain
any other feeling towards their Roman Ca:./'.olic brethren than
that of a deep concern for their welfare, and an 1171xious desire
to ameliorate their condition. One thing we can pOgYIYPIY
state, that the unchristian bigotry' with which our contempo-
rary charges us, is as much opposed to the obligations of an
Orangeman, as it is to the spirit of Protestantism and the

geniu-s of Christianity.
" And having thus given to the charge a denial as strong
and as positive as the courtesies of language will permit,
may we venture to put two questions to the conductors of
The Sun. Will they insert this, our strong, but, we trust,
temperate, denial in the columns of their paper, and thus
afford to our defence a circulation co-extensive with that which
they have already given to the accusation ?—and may we also
presume to inquire upon what passages in our pages they have
grounded their charge? That we are Tory, we confess; not
that we are pledged to uphold the opinions or defend the con-
duct of any particular set of men; but we arc Tory, in as far
as Tory ism consists in maintaining the principles of the Bri-
tish constitution, the sanctions of religion, and the authority
of the word of God. That we have not scrupled to express
our honest opinions against Popery, as essentially an ungodly
and an•unscriptural system—as a system false in a religious,
and dangerous in a political view—we are ready to admit; but
that ever an expression has escaped from our pen that justifies,
in ever so remote a degree, the imputation that we passed the
line that separates religious principle from religious animosity,
and distinguishes zeal from sectarianism—that we ever trans-
ferred our hatred of a system to individuals, or our detestation
of falsehood to its dupes, we utterly and totally deny.
" We are aware that it may not be usual for the conductors
of a periodical such as ours at all to enter into controversy
with the daily press :in many ways it is inconvenient—as a
habit it would be impracticable. We have deviated from our
own usage, because we conceive the matter to which we have
alluded of importance. We are very sure that these upon
whose conduct we have commented, will receive our remarks
as they are intended ; we are under many obligations to them
for the good opinion they have been more than once pleased
to express for our literary labours ; perhaps we could not give
a more substantial proof of the value we set upon that good
opinion, than by the pains we have taken to refute the ac-
cusation."

Such is the whole of the defence set up by our con-
temporary, without the omission of a single syllable,
and we hope it may prove as conclusive with the pub-
lic as it certainly is able. On our side we shall offer
nothing to weaken its effect ; let his own words con-

demn or acquit him.
'We regret that the space thus occupied should have
left us no opportunity for extracts from the many amus-
ing papers of this number. There is one article which
we would willingly have given entire, had that been
coninatible with the other mare important claims upon
our columns.