The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-11 00:00:00

POnT SQUADRON.

Terrible, paddle frigate, look-out ship, 1, Victoria,
screw three-decker (flagship of Admiral Sir Thomas
S. Pasley, Commander-in-Chief) ; 2, Irresistible,
screw two-decker ; 3, Donegal, screw two-decker ;
4, Revenge, screw two-decker ; 5, St. George,
screw two-decker ; 6, Royal George, screw two-
decker; 7, Duncan, screw two-decker (broad pen-
dant of Commodore J. Tarleton, C. 8.) ; 8, Lion,
screw two-decker ; 9, Mersey, screw frigate ; 10,
Liffey, screw frigate ; 11, Sutlej, screw frigate ; 12,
Dauntless, screw frigate. Nymph, screw sloop, re-
peating ship.
STARBOARD SQUADRON (IRONCLADS).

Gladiator, paddle, look-out ship. 1, Minotaur,
screw frigate (flagship of Rear-Admiral Warden,
C. 8., second in command) ; 2, Achilles, screw
frigate; 3, Warrior, screw frigate; 4, Black Prince,
screw frigate ; 5, Bellerophon, screw frigate ; 6,
Lord Clyde, screw frigate ; 7, Valiant, screw frigate ;
8, Pallas, screw frigate ; 9, Royal Sovereign, screw
turret-ship ; 10, Prince Albert, screw turret-ship ;
11, Wivern, screw turret-ship ; 12, Research, screw
corvette ; 13, Viper, twin-screw gunvessel ; 14,
\'ixen, twin-screw gunvessel ; 15, Waterwitch,
hydraulic
gunvessel. Daphne, screw sloop, repeat-
ing ship.

The Vivid, paddle yacht, steamed out with the
fleet at the head of the columns and between the
two flagships, with the First Lord of the Admiralty
on board, the Right Hon. Mr. Corry, M.P., ac-
companied by Vice-Admirals Sir Alex. Milne and
Sir Sydney C. Dacres, and Captain Brandreth,
It N., private secretary.
At noon the pivot position was reached ; the royal
yacht Elfin, Lieut. (navigating) Balliston, with his
Serene Highness the Prince and Princess Leiningen
on board, representing her Majesty's yacht the Vic-
toria and Albert in position on the day of the re-
view, was met by the two flag-ships as she lay hove
to as the pivot ship for the fleet off the Bullock Patch
buoy, Dunnose Head being well open on the star-
board hand, and the lofty spire of Chichester Cathe-
dral gleaming brightly above the low-lying land at
the base of the Sussex Downs on the port hand.
This being the turning point of the fleet's prome-
nade so far, the Victoria, as the leader of the port
lire, wheeled to port and inverted the course of her
steaming, and was followed in the manoeuvre by
each vessel in her line as she reached the pivot point.
The Minotaur wheeled to starboard at the same mo-
ment as the Victeria wheeled to port, and was fol-
lowed in a similar manner by each ship in her line
or division, as she reached the pivot. The last of the
two lines had no sooner wheeled into the inverted
course than signal was made to repeat the evolution.
and again therefore the huge flagships wheeled to
port and starboard, followed by their respective
squadrons in Indian file at a cable's length distance.
The effect produced was indescribably grand. Four
lines of ships were rushing at full speed over a small
area of water, the two inner lines steaming in one
direction, and the two outer ones in the opposite.
The very bias of the waters as the monsters clove
their path through them was almost as startling as
the all"raaQQ of fleet itself, eDgaged, as it ap-

peared to be, in making interminable circles. On the
second inversion of the course being completed sig-
nal was made to steer out in two Him; at cable's

length distance, S. by E. compass course. At 1.50
p.m. the two flagships had Selsea under their port
quarters, with Bognor terraces and esplanade broad
open, and showing out strongly under the glare of
the sun, and the stone tower of St. Catherine's
Light on the southernmost point of the Isle of
Wight as broadly open on their starboard quar-
ters. Signal to invert course and steer N.W. by
N. on the return back to Spithead was then

made. Again the lines of ships, glittering and
writhing throughout their length as they wheeled at
the pivot, turned to port and to starboard, and went
through the fourfold column figure again before
they could lay straight for the land. The majority
of the fleet steamed in with half speed at half-boiler

power, but some of the Coastguard ships proved
laggards, and the two Georges were passed for %
time by the Duncan. In the subsequent evolution,
however, in making sail on the ships the speed of
the leading ships was slackened and the " slow" ones
again recovered their former position. About this
time the Mersey was observed to be blo wing off steam

and loosing her sails as though something was amiss
in her engine-room, and was passed by the Liffey.
The noble frigate, however, was soon to rights again,

and steamed up to her old berth in the line. At
about 2.30 p.m. signal was made from the Victoria
to make all plain sail, and every mast was soon co-
vered with canvass from courses to royals, the Vic-
toria carrying away the palm for smartness. Wind
light, from southward and eastward. Course kept
for Spithead under steam and canvass, the speed of
the slowest necessarily being the gauge of the fleet.

At 3 p.m. the Bullock Patch buoy was passed by
the central ships of the lines, the wind continuing
light, and hauling in more to the southward, the
Achilles having fore and main topmast and top-
gallant studding sails set. At 3 p.m. the two fl ig-
ships led the way slowly in past the Nab-light vessel,
and immediately afterwards signal was made from
the flagship of Sir Thomas Pasley for Admiral War-

den and his squadron of ironclads to part company
and proceed up Channel to the Dover Straits to
escort his Imperial Majesty the Sultan across the
Channel from France on his visit to England. The
Minotaur, with Admiral Warden's flag, the Achilles,
the Bellerophon, the Lord Clyde, and the Pallas im-
mediately steered out of the ironclad line in obe-
dience to the signal, and, furling sails, stood out to
sea under steam, and laid their course up Channel
for the narrow strait which, between Dover and

Calais, divides England and France.
The famous Warrior now became the leading
vessel of the ironclad line, with her sister the Black
Prince second, and the smart looking Valiant third.
At about 3.45 p.m. the ships took in sail to their
three topsails.l, and foretopmast staysails, and in grand
processional order re-entered the southern channel,
leading into Spithead through the narrow gutway
between the Warrior light-vessel and the elbow of the
Horse Shoal. The sun shone full on the hulls and
sails of the ships, and the numerous yachts, steamers,
and other craft surrounding the fleet on its return,
and this re-entry of the fleet, notwithstanding that
it had suffered in numbers by the severance of Ad-
miral Warden's squadron, was evidently a more
striking spectacle to all onlookers in its combination
of steam and sail power than was the departure of
the fleet under sail alone. So soon as the leading
vessels had passed the light ship all sail was furled
and the fleet steamed leisurely into Spithead, each
ship dropping anchor in her old berth. The fleet,
therefore, lies in the two lines at about N.\V. by
W., the Victoria holding the S.E. position of the
port line, and the same position in the starboard
line being reserved for the Minotaur, with Nos. 2,
5,6, and 8 berths for the Achilles, Bellerophon,
Lord Clyde, and Pallas, from Dover. Both lines
are anchored in the order of yesterday's sailing, and
the Terrible, Gladiator, Nymphe, Daphne, Lee,
and the gunboat flotilla are all anchored inside the
two main lines of the fleet and on the edge of the
shoals between the fleet and Portsmouth.
All the evolutions were exceedingly well performed,
and no noticeable hitch of any kind occurred to mar
in any way the efficiency of the day's exercises. The
hydraulic Waterwitch naturally attracted consider-
able notice, and in a certain degree much astonished
many by the manner in which she bundled along,
and the creditable manner, for such a queer-looking
pump, in which she held her berth at the end of the
ironclad line. The distances at which the two lines
of ships are ancl,or•ed are one and a half cables be-
tween each vessel, and three cables' length between
the two lines.
It cannot be admitted that the ironclad squadron
of itself gives a very imposing measure of the
fighting strength of England upon the waters of
the Channel, and especially must this conclusion
be apparent if we eliminate from the squadron
the smaller vessels, the double-screw gunboats
Viper and Vixen, the hydraulic gunboat Water-
witch, and the sloop Research, all of which are un-
able, from their low rate of speed, to keep their
place in any operations under steam, or to maintain
their place creditably in action. If, however, .we
accept the view adopted by the First Lord of the
Admiralty, and look upon the entire fleet, armoured
and unarmoured alike, as a grand exposition of the
progress of war-shipbuilding in England from the
time of the first application of the screw propeller
to the line-of-battle ship, the review of the 17th
inst. will be a display of the greatest possible
interest, even although we only repeat a part of the
story told by the last great naval review, and bring
it down to the present day, when we appear to be
just settling down in our opinion of what form an
ironclad should really be.
The forms of the ironclads are pretty well
known. Twelve of them, including the three
small vessels, are vessels carrying guns on the
broadside, although one, the Waterwitch, professes
to fire her guns over her bows. The Royal Sove-
reign, Prince Albert, and Wivern are turret-ships,
and very formidable ships for Channel fighting.
In the armament of all these vessels at the present
moment there is as great a dissimilarity as in their
forms. The Minotaur, Warrior, Bellerophon, and
Pallas carry the new armament of rifled guns, but
the remainder of the squadron carry a mixed
armament cf smooth-bores and breech-loading
Armstrongs, the Valiant, for instance, having
smooth-bore 68-pounders in her main deck
battery, with a few 110 and 40-pounder Arm-
strongs. The four small vessels certainly carry
6f-ton rifled guns, but the size of the vessels and
their rate of speed put them altogether out of court
in any serious consideration of the strength of the
The three turret-ships are
squadron as a whole.
as yet only partially armed with the 12-ton
rifle. This delay in the armament of our ironclads
a not owing so much to the want of guns to put on
board as the want of proper carriages on which to
mount them when they are on board. The manu-
facture of the carriages, however, is now in so for-
ward a state that it may reasonably be expected
that all the ships may be properly armed during the
present year.
In the unarmoured squadron the Victoria, in her
magnificent beauty and in her speed, has always
maintained her reputation as the handsomest and
swiftest three-decked steamship ever enrolled on the
list of England's navy, while the Revenge, Dun-
can, and Donegal, present as perfect specimens of
the two-decked steamship. The two Georges, the
Lion, and the Irresistible, give earlier specimens of
ashs c r eN
toAmong
the
fill up
whenrankscoonfveorsurionws to thes v Lad
frigates, what vessels can exhibit
mpor.e points of
beauty than the Liffey, Sutlej, Mersey, Liverpool,
or Phoebe, or as clipper sloops of the newest school'
than the Nymphe and Daphne ? All these vessels,
however, excepting the Nymphe and Daphne,
which
carry 6f-ton rifles, and the Mersey, which carries
10-inch smooth bores, thelnearest approach we have
to the American system, carry artillery that is
harmless when opposed to the sides of an ironclad,
while their unprotected hulls would tutu them into
volcanoes when practised upon by the latter's mon-
ster shells. Beauty of form, indeed, does not lie
exclusively with the unarmoured ships, for ugly as
many of our ironclads are in outward appearance,
there are several that will vie with the best looking
of the unarmoured squadron, and thus combine the
maximum of usefulness and beauty of form, notwith-
standiDg their sombre dress of pack paint, The

Warrior, Black Prince, Achilles, and Bellerophon
are sufficiently handsome to please the eye of the
most fastidious in such matters. While on the sub-
ject of good looks in a ship of war, we may venture an
opinion on the Achilles and Mersey as being each the
handsomest as well as the noblest specimens of the
armoured and unarmoured of England's war ships.
There is yet one more ship in the fleet which
deserves notice in this place the paddle frigate
Terrible. Built at Deptford in 1847, from Mr.
Laing's designs, she was then, and remains to this
day, with her battery of 95 cwt. 68-pounders, the
most formidable paddle vessel of war afloat. Of
course, the clothing of ships with iron has sadly
shorn her of her glory, but she remains a brave ex-
ample of our skill of 20 years ago.

The assemblage of the screw-liner Coastguard
squadron at Spithead as part of the Review fleet
will rub the rust off both officers and men belong-
ing to them, and drive away the ennui which neces-
sarily clings to them in their humdrum life in the
various out-of-the way-harbours and rivers around
the coasts of the United Kingdom.
The most satisfactory feature of all connected
with the coming Review is the presence in the fleet
of the thousand officers and seamen of the Royal
Naval Reserve. This fact will tend to rivet closer
the connecting link between the Royal and mercan-
tile navies of England; at the same time it is a
graceful acknowledgment on the part of the Admi-
ralty of the value of our Naval Reserves.

711 E AMERICAN CRIMEA.

The New Monthly Magazine for July betrays in
an article on MAXIMILIAN in Mexico the secret
spring which moved the ruling .minority of the
Western Powers of Europe to regard almost with
hostility the Government of Washington while
engaged in the war for the preservation of the Union.
According to that authority, the United States is
the Russia of the West, and Mexico is its " sick
man." The Mexican question is of greater interest
than that of Turkey, and the American Republic
is a greater colossus than the Muscovite empire.
Viewed in this light, the magazine says " it will be
understood how any support given by Europe to
MAXIMILIAN'S Empire would have become the
means of averting a future Crimean war upon a
vast scale, and of postponing that war in the New
World, and that formidable struggle for supremacy
at sea, which must inevitably one day arise between
the New and the Old Worlds, and which at present
the timidity and irresolution of European Govern-
ments rather serve to hurry on than to postpone to
an indefinite period." There were many who held
while the struggle between the North and South
was progressing that it would have been a wise
policy on the part of France and England to inter-
fere, so as to secure, if possible, the severance of
the Republic. They hoped to see America break
up into fragments, having hostile interests to each
other, that might hereafter be used as a balance to
neutralise the growing power of any portion of the
States, and secure in the future their own ascendancy.
They dreaded the inevitable fight between the New
and the Old World, that formidable truggle for the
supremacy at sea. There were many who urged on
both the European Governments the policy of inter-
vention—of doing harm that good might come of it.
It is in vain that history unfolds the chapters of
errors which make up the lives of nearly all states-
men. The very Crimean War, to which the maga-
zine alludes, when it predicts for America another,
was a gross blunder, which at a frightful ex-
penditure attained absolutely no beneficial result.
We believe that the mission of Russia in Northern
Asia is a mission of good ; beneficial alike to the
native tribes and to the world. We believe that
the mission of the United States in North America
is a mission of still greater good ; not only benefi-
cial to that continent, but of unspeakable utility to
mankind. With the example of the jarring na-
tionalities and tongues of Europe before them, the
dream of the American is--the sovereignty of the
continent, under one people. Let any man try to
realise this idea, and he obtains a glimpse of a
truly grand destiny. It may, in truth, never be
realised practically, for the wickedness of mankind
may foil the wis3st schemes of the greatest
statesmen. But few will deny that it is a thing
worth striving for, and that it is no mere hallu-
cination of the brain, but a future in the highest
a3/hrdm /hit? allowco n thateede t
htahtis
tis h
et
rhee
sainh'svision,
degree practicable. Even the writer in the New
Republicwill
is no
in the
and eon t a
np
sr ema dosr
more
fromthanPoannea
hmuan
dt
roe
dt
ne
nation's ambition. But, he •
, will add, when the
most energetic race, its power
willovershadow
iu li
Ipci youlnroseugosilfoyttnhhtsoe
world, and it will use that e,
ns,
poweru
dictate and to domineer. He takes it for granted
that the nation will act the bully's
part, and basing
his policy on this axiom, he contends that it would
have been wise to have aided the South •in the war,
or, failing that, to have transferred the contest to
Mexico, and have upheld the EMPEROR at the
bayonet's point. Most of those stupendous blun-
ders which exercise so pernicious an influence are
worked out from premises altogether false, though
unhesitatingly taken as altogether true. Whether
America, when her power has grown to such
unequalled might, will use it, or rather abuse
it—as her enemies take it for granted she will
do—time only can show. The probabilities
are
against the assertion. Generosity is coupled with
strength. The Republic never bullies the weak.
Where she feels inclined to fight, it is with her
equals. Where she assumes a haughty tone, it is
towards those with whom she stands on a par ; but
in no case with her inferiors. Touchy and scrupu-
lous as America is with Great Britain and France,
there is no Power more generous, forbearing, and
forgiving when brought into disagreeable con-
tact with the weak. When the contem-
plated destiny of tha Republic is fulfilled,
all nations will then be weak to her ; and
we cannot see why she, alone, on a pinnacle,
with none to dispute her place, should descend to
pick a quarrel, to bully those manifestly unable to
defend themselves against her. We believe that the
influence that America will then exercise will be
used impartially in the right, and be productive of
great good on earth. We can understand the at-
tempt of France to establish in Mexico a Latin
balance to the dominant power of the Anglo-Saxon
race. But we cannot see why this object should be
aided by England, the cradle of that race. We
believe the policy of the writer in the New
Monthly, and those that agree with him, to be
founded on a fals3 theory—to be paltry and narrow-
minded, and wholly opposed to sound policy. If we
thought less of this little island of Britain and more
of the great race to which we belong, we would see
the future through a brighter medium ; and while
the contracted ideas of the former tend to vast
evils, by making the two great sections of
our race antagonistic, the those of latter, in
recognising and preserving their unity, conserve
the ends of peace and progress. But the truth is
that the writer and the party to which he belongs
lose sight of these magnificent aims in their paltry
political jealousies. Class interest with them is
paramount. A republic erected on the equal rightsof
all militates against theircherished notions, and every
opportunity lost of strangling the American monster
is a great chance thrown away. We rejoice to
think that America begins clearly to understand
who the people are who hate her, and why—and to
of the claw and the motives,
separate the enmity ss
from the general designs of the c, Enalish people and
country. Nothing could be more grossly absurd,
more suicidal in its folly, than the prediction of that
formidable struggle for the supremacy at sea which
the writer declares to be inevitable. It would, of
course, be inevitable if such notions as his pre-
vailed. But why should the two sections of the
Anglo-Saxon race Bet to work to cut each other's
throats for a mere idea ? the supremacy being
surely awarded to the nation of greatest resources
which uses its resources to the best advantage.
It is industry and commerce, not war, that decide
this question, and if the supremacy did pass into
the hands of our kindred, what injury would
accrue to the English section of the race if
the seas were covered with the American flag.
While the tone of the article is so hostile to the
United States, the writer almost inadvertently fur-
nishes an instance of the enormous benefits that
follow to the region 'incorporated into the Great