The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-04 00:00:00

_

Epirit of the Public J'attnalte,

(From the Timcs of this day.)
Among other compliments and gifts of the sea-
son, the Admiralty has presented the world with a
most seasonable list of the ships and vessels that
have been added to the fleet in the course of the
past year, or are now building. The principt 1
feature in the list, as it appeared in our impression
of yesterday, was a double column of fanciful
names that might have passed for the dramatis
persona' of a pantomime, or, at least, for the com-
petitors in a very numerous regatta, but for cer-
tain figures denoting their unfestive equipment of
guns and horse-power. Headed by seven larger
ships, this procession comprised 128 steam gun-
vessels, besides a score of steam-tugs, smithies,
flour-mills, lighters, tank vessels, store vessels,
surveying vessels, and other miscellaneous hangers-
on of a modern fleet. Wo must say that the aspect
of the two columns, even in the pale and lifeless
reflex of our Own page, without the pomp of salutes
and mimic fight, struck us as far more promising,
if not quite so imposintz, as the Portsmouth naval
review. Terror is often inversely as the size. One
of the very smallest animals of prey that infest the
human species will spread more consternation in
au ordinary household than an over-driven ox in
the street, and the sight of a battering-ram itself
would not produce such an effect in a criminal
court as the unfolding of the little buudle contain-
ing a burglar's tools. The picklock, jemmy, and
circular saw, in the columns before us, are repre-
sented by 128 vessels, " fine by degrees and beau-
tifully less," till we come to a compact little
score that, under such endearing diminutives as
Ant, Daisy, Fidget, Flirt, Gnat, Midge, Pest,
Pet, and Tiny, ought to find a way into the
heart of any foe. These are the right things
in the right place, and, so far, the Admiralty
deserve the public thanks for a degree of common
sense hardly to be expected in a public de-
partment. It would be invidious now to inquire
why this has not been done before, and why
we could not be as quick as the old Romans, who,
having no ships of their own, happened to lay hold
of a good Carthaginian model, ran up a whole fleet
in three or four months, and beat their naval in-
structors. What we have now to hope for is that
this swarm of small fry will be put into proper
hands, and will afford opportunities for that daring
and enterprise which almost every British lad car-
ries with him from school, and even from home—
too often only to lose them in the messromn, on
the quarterdeck, or in the Blab. Could we be sure
that the hearts, heads, and hands to direct this
multitudinous host will be as lightsome, as mis-
chievous, and as fond of fun as this vocabulary
would indicate, then we should confidently expect
corresponding results from the stings of these na-
val mosquitoes.
It is here only that our hearts misgive us. After
all, it is the man that does the work, and the men
to drive terror into the Russian empire, to pene-
trate every creek, to do all that can be done with
every battery and every fort, must be the like of
the Nelsons and Troubridges in the late war ; not
the reproduction of its Keiths and Calders. We did
our part nobly in that war, and from first to last
commanded the respect of enemies and allies, not
so much by our military achievements as by our
unparalleled naval success. Very early in it we
utterly destroyed or blockaded all hostile fleets ;
we made the sea our own, and confined the foe to
an element on which he certainly did prodigies,
but always with the tedium of a prison-house, the
fret of a tether, and the gall of a chain. The Ti-
tan who fought against us was literally a son of
earth, for off it he lost his power. The immense
prestige we thus acquired redeemed all our early
failures on laud, and gave us breath, so to speak, to
recover our credit in that sphere also. Where is
now that prestige? We were expected to do every-
thing, and there is a growing conviction that, in
one sea at least, and with the most formidable
of our fleets, we have done next to nothing. That
fatal word " discretion," so often whispered into
the ears that hardly wanted the warning, has been
to the last the spell of the Baltic fleet. If on our
own element we were the object of attack, if the
work to be done was the preservation of our own
ships awl. the restoration of our own armaments
into store, then the day was won, and the praise of
a thrifty housewife is not to be denied to a Napier
or a Dundas. But that was not the idea of the
British people. They were under the irapresion that
whatever had been done with the army, at least no
economy had starved down the navy. They had
heard for many years of the new monsters of the
deep continually launched on its surface, no longer
dependent on the capricious favour of the winds or
the mercy of the currents, and with armaments such.
as Nelson had never dreamt of. They saw the mil-
lions voted every year for the perpetual renovation
of our navy, and they felt that nothing was want-
ing on their part. They have now, however, seen
two fleets in succession occupy the Baltic aid pro-
claim a blockade of the whole Russian coast. That
blockade has cost this country not one farthing less
than 20,000,000/. for the two years, which is as
much a loss to this country as if it had been pro-
perty seized and burnt by the foe. What damage
have we inflicted on Russia at all in proportion to
the damage we have thus done ourselves ?
The first reply, of course, is that the direct object
of the blockade has been accomplished, and we
have so far obstructed the trade of Russia. On this
point there have been some rather remarkable
revelations from the Prussian frontier, tending to
the belief that the blockade has done no more harm
to Russia than it has to ourselves, and that, in
fact, we are ourselves the chief sufferers. In another
part of our columns, however, will be found some
observations on the effect of land carriage upon
the Russian trade, which remove all doubt on this
subject. They are from a report on the trade of
Hull for the year 1855, published by a committee
of the Hull Chamber of Commerce and Shipping.
As the chief port for the Baltic, Mall has been the
principal sufferer by the interruption of its trade,
yet its business has not been so much limited as
might have been anticipated. Of the chief imports
from Russia, hemp, flax, tallow, and linseed have
been able to bear the large additional charge for
land carriage from Memel to Konigsberg—that
charge, in effect, falling on the British purchaser,
and going into the pockets of Prussian carriers and
Russian land owners. Some exports, indeed, have
been stopped, such as bides, wool, tar, and deals ;
but the war has brought these into great request
in Russia as well as here, and it is no loss to the
Russian Government that they are kept at home.
Our own manufactures find their way back as re-
turn freight, and at very low charges. Thus, while
the blockade is doing no great damage to the Rus-
sians, it is doing most unquestionable damage to
ourselves ; and the blockade, as such, appears to
be of questionable service. What, then, has the
fleet done to justify its enormous expense ? It is a
question which neither Napier nor Dundas has
answered satisfactorily yet ; and we still wait for a
solution by some third commander who shall bet-
ter appreciate the value of the instrument placed
in his hands. Unless something more be attempted
the Czar will not even think it necessary to keep
any considerable number of his forces in the
north, and the fleet will not oven answer its
purpose as a diversion or a feint. A real at-
tempt on Cronstadt, unfashionable and anti-
quated as the idea has become in naval circles,
would at least lock up a quarter of a
lion soldiers at the mouth of the Nova. Had
Russia the warning of one port really destroyed,
she would be compelled to keep them all ready for
attack, and would, to that extent, be disalged fro=
sending reinforcements to the seat of war in the
sbeendonaes ains a
v a l useless
demon-
stration for
south. So far whata hnda
ridiculous England awaits in anxious suspense
tmhileiataprpy p
e; auaranrEe se'
othe Nelson whose mind will rise
to the vastness alike of the work to be done and of
the moans placed in his hands for doing it. Nel-
son had never such an armament ; Nelson never
heard of steam ; yet who doubts that Nelson, with
his lumbering old line-of-battle ships and his rude
flotilla of gun-boats,, would have done more than
we have done ?

RHFORMATORY SCHOOL FOR NORTFIVIMERLAND, DUR-
HAM, NEWCASTLE, AND BERWICK•UPON-TWEED.-011
Wednesday a large and influential meeting was held, at
the Assembly Rooms, Newcastle, under the auspices of
the Newcastle, Northumberland, and Durham Society
for the Repression of Juvenile Crime, for the purpose of
establishing an efficient reformatory school for those
counties and Berwick-upon-Tweed. Earl Grey, pre-
sident of the society was in the chair, and the roost
crowded with the magistrates, gentry, and clergy of the
town and district. Resolutions in support of the objects
of the meeting were heartily adopted, and active steps
will immediately be taken to carry them into execution.
majority, to
MARISCHAL COLLEGE, ABERDEEN', AND UNIVERSITY
but with only single REFORM.—We learn that, on Saturday last, the Senattis
oinftl3,mliatriestchheailr Colleges resolved, eosfolaveud,reobny
aoflatrhgee Universities,
danadndto
with two separate Colleges,
Pro-
fessorships in Divinity, Law, and Medicine, and under
a liberal constitution, such as was indicated last winter
suggest, al the beet
imneaapractical views n
mealetterns of
f arriving from Eat! csbnon
n;
respect-
ing such details as it may be necessary to include in a bill,
the appointment of a small commission to hear opinions
on the spot, and to report their own judgment thereon
to her Majesty's Government. We learn further that a
minority of two members supported a resolution to the
effect that University reform would be best promoted
by a general measure for all the Scottish Universities ;
but that, in case Government should decline to origi-
nate such a measure, the Senatus would give favourable
consideration to any plan of union likely to unite the
suffrages of all the parties interested in settling the
question—recognising the graduates as members, and
providing for the improvement and extension of the 001-
legeß.—Aberdeen Prce Pros.

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