The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-10 00:00:00

SIB CHARLES NAPIER.

( Prom th,e Times. )
Sir Charles Napier is the fire-eater of- the old
comedy, who, in the utter absence of achievement,
contrives to keep up an immense amount of cha-
racter. Had he only displayed against Russia a
tenth of the fury he has wasted on his own coun-
trymen the Baltic would not be now so inglorious.
Give him the provocation of a random word and
put a pen into his hand and he will scribble till he
goes to the bottom before he will haul his flag
down. In this bloodless and waterless field he has
never shrunk from a battery, and never feared
either wind or current, rock or shoal. When the
exploits of our great admirals come to be written
Sir Charles Napier's career will be a splendid addi-
tion, not to the naval, but to the literary annals
of our country. Unfortunately, he is a piece that
will not go off when it is wanted, but is no sooner
taken up to be examined than it incontinently
bursts, and blows away all the fingers, or the eye,
or the jawbone of whoever is unfortunate enough
to touch it. He has a passage of words with the
Board of Admiralty in general, and Sir James
Graham, Admiral Berkeley, and Sir Robert Peel
in particular ; with nearly all, if not all, the press,
and with more others than we can remember. He
was very anxious to obtain his command, but no
sooner was he afloat than he began to abuse all
his captains and crews, and by the time it was
too late to correct the deficiency he began to abuse
his ships also, declaring that without another de-
scription of armament he could do nothing. Such
a course has not procured him much credit or con-
solation at home, and in despair he has attempted
to re-establish his character by two rather unusual
appeals—the first to that "frank, open-hearted
Bailor," as Sir Charles coaxingly calls him, the
Russian Imperial Admiral ; the second, to one of
his " best friends" our Premier. _Both of these per-
sonages, evidently entertaining a profound horror
of Sir Charles's pen, are i inmensely civil. The G rand
Duke Constantine admits Sir Charles's account of
the conversation between them, anti:adds, that he
did not say a word to Sir R. Peel about Cronstadt.
Lord Palmerston says that, in his opinion, Sir
Charles " acted with sound judgment in refraining
from attacking Cronstadt with the fleet under his
command." The iirst accomplishment learnt by
meti in high power is to express their meaning by
silence ; and what, perhaps, they don't mean, by
words. Accordingly, the Grand Dake does not say
a word on Sir R. Peel's real statement, which
was a general allegation, founded on common

report, that from the lowest midshipman in the
Russian navy to the Grand uke there was only
one opinion of Sir Charles's
want of enterprise.
Sir Robert Peel did not allege that the Grand
Duke had said anything about.. Cronstadt to him,
but only spoke his opinion as a matter of
common report. As to the Grand Duke's 'con.
versation with Sir Charles, of course would
naturally enlarge on the dfficultiesof anl'if attacke
upon Cronstadt, and could do so with
sin-
cerity, for nobody disputes those diffictilltiers': r'
Not-
withstanding the kindness of Lord Palmerst 'cousolatious—supposing Sir Charles to have gi°,71:138
us a fair selection from them—we beg to call the
Admiral's attention to the significant fact that the
Premier does not justify Sir Charles's doing nothing i
at all in the Baltic ; and as little does he account
for •
ham,/ himself
th .consented to supersede him in
e command.
But there
himself has nis another point which Sir Charles
his ever yet explained, necessary as it is
to justification.uommd Why, in the world, did he
take a
result ? why an which must be inevitably void of
was impr;lTlertake to attack Cronstadt if it
hugs fleet if it 1,7, Why scour the Baltic with a
Had Sir Charles s to be an idle demonstration ?
declined the command on these
grounds he would
by
coruhavue rendered a real service to
his country
supply the fatal defects of
11172 the Administration to
our navy. He and a
few of his brother Admirals would haveslone a still
greater service if, years ago, when the Russian
difficulty was only looming in the distance, they
had urged the formationofaflotilla adapted for
shore and creek warfare, wh
at Sir Charles may
is notorious
this subject does
have whispered or hintietd
toar.ious that there
not much signify, for
who was not
never was an admiral or seai,ciag--si.„
always for the building of P
more tonnage always the
bigger the better ; more and
build more,
nips of the
and room above. When we had 50onsc,age below
line rotting the cry was still to
over
allth i
-n the
face of the notorious ancient fact that
see, Sir Charlesare
het
signall
victories had been won by small ships
ones. Indeed, as far as we can
knew all the elements of the question when
knew
the command. He knew, for all the world
what sort of a place Cronstadt was, and the ew,
proaches to it. If there was any error it was that
the Russians had industriously magnified the dan-
gers. The island of Cronstadt, the nature of the
north and south passages, their respective width
and depth of water, the narrow and circuitous
channel that alone admitted ships of the line south
of the island, the fortresses that commanded it at
different points and protected one another, their
triple tiers of guns—in a word, everything as it
stood at the beginning of the war, had been de-
scribed by every traveller, for they could not but
be seen on the way to St. Petersbn/* Everybody
a'
knew that Cronstadt was impregnable in the com-
r_sense of that word, and everybody had the
turreon. to know that the forethought which
made it so would not neglect any other great
Port of the empire. What, then, did Sir Charles
mean by undertaking to do anything at all, and
whatdid he suthe command
of the fleet ? Our own expectations
were by no means
Charles's
friends highly raised ; and when Sir
went into those extravagances at 1
the Reform Club
We ventured on some gentle re-
monstrance against
a too confident tone. Sir
Charles, however, himself did lead the country to
expect that he would do
something—something
more than show ingenious
nothing, after abusing in reasons for doing
turn the officers, fleet,
Admiralty, Government, and everything of his own
country.
Sir Charles may now just as well
every word
so swallow quietly
all that has been said about him,
more that comes from his pen will h fore
sur-
plusage. All the world knows how it much
They
knew well enough that the difficultieswaosi the un-
dertaking were immense, but then they expected a
Napier to find a way to surmount them. But for
this hope Government could easily have
get found
many a pleasanter fellow, who would
smoothly with his officers and men, and on
smgive