The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-12 00:00:00

us to believe that they found it easy in war time to
supply the deficiencies of peace, the American
statesmen have not hesitated to proclaim the
difficulties against which they had to contend, and
the official report of the navy especially cautions the
Government against relying on private yards or
other means of increasing the naval force of the
country ander the pressure of immediate require-
ments. The American administration have given
proof that they do not intend to repeat the mistakes
of former times, for they are actively prosecuting
inquiries. The experiments of Fortress Monroe to
which we referred the other day have established
some important principles. They have conclusively
demonstrated the superiority of iron over granite or
stonework of any kind for resisting the destructive
efforts of modern artillery. The experiments of
Shoeburyncss fully confirm these conclusions, and
we are glad to find that our authorities are not
too proud or too prejudiced to profit by them.
The engineers of the War Department have
determined to alter the construction of the Spithead
forts from a combination of granite and iron to
one entirely of iron of a massive character. In this
they are very wise seeing that any additional ex-
pense in the construction will be amply compensated
by the greater durability of the forts. If we are to
have fortifications at all, there can hardly be any
dispute as to whether we should have the best pos-
sible. Like many other things, if worth doing at
all is worth doing well, and any partial
or superficial mode of doing the work
is only an ingenious form of wasting the
public money. There is one point in connection
with these experiments which is well worth atten-
tion—the superior power of resistance of iron,
backed with earth or sand, to the iron immediately
facing the granite. The principle on which this re-
sult is founded is one well known and often applied.
It would be advisable, therefore, to turn it to ac-
count in the erection of our forts. Sir JOIIN PAK-
INGTON and General PEEL are acting wisely by per-
sonally inspecting our dockyards and fortifications.
They have assumed arduous and responsible
duties, and must not attempt to discharge them
upon mere hearsay information, What with pro-
fessional etiquette, individual jealousy, and the in-
tangible influence of prejudice and association, it is
very difficult to arrive at the truth without a close
examination. Facts are stubborn things, and the
logic of the guns will not bear contradiction. The
destructive effect of modern artillery upon all the
forms of defence hitherto employed has been as
clearly demonstrated as the superiority in some ways
of the turret principle. We trust that a new system
will now be inaugurated in these two important
branches of the public service, and that we shall
have the interests of the country consulted to the
exclusion of all less worthy considerations.

Mr. GRANT DUFF has been addressing his con-
stituents at Elgin according to his annual custom.
There is in this retrospective glance which he takes
of past events nothing striking or original in the
way of comment, but a good deal of sense and
some reflections that may profit his friends to
dwell upon. Mingled with these we may notice a
disappointed, if not an irritated, state of feeling.
Mr. DUFF seems to be in not the most agreeable
state of mind respecting the Ministerial or the
Opposition side of the house. Certainly it is
unpleasant to have to make the avowal which
he had at the commencement of his long
and interesting address. " Gentlemen, for
the first time since 1858, your member comes
before you as a member of a discomfited party—
discomfited, I trust, not for long, but nevertheless
discomfited." At any rate the hon. member was
not taken by surprise, for he appears to have had
prescience enough to comprehend the instability of
the late Government at the commencement of the
year. Referring to the state of things when Par-
liament opened, he thus defined the prospects of
the political horizon :—" He must have been indeed
dull who did not perceive that HEn MAJESTY'S
late advisers could not land the Liberal vessel, and
we, the innocent passengers in what the Yankee
mail-driver more expressively than classically de-
scribed as a most unhandsome " nip and frizzle of
a fix." Mr. DUFF did not speak in very flattering
terms of Lord PALMER.SLON, and indeed he seems to
have been among the number of those who thought
that a great start would be made in the cause
of progress when lie was no longer connected with
the Government. Experience must have shown
him his mistake, for nothing could possibly have
been worse than the attempt that has been made ;
and if those who see events seek to arrive at the
real marplot they will find it in Mr. BRIGHT. Mr.
DUFF, in a more advanced part of his speech,
seems to entertain some glimmering notion of this
fact, for he says that Mr. BRIGHT was very mode-
rate in the little he said in the House of Com-
mont ; adding, "it would have been well for the
cause of Reform if he had been equally moderate out
of doors, for he has more than once in the last
few months given a needless advantage to its
numerous and watchful enemies." This is exactly
what we have been sa.yiftg
all along respecting
those speeches of the
honourable member
for Birmingham which have abounded of late.
They are really most injurious to the cause
they profess to serve, and the best excuse that
can be offered for their framer is, that he is too
excited and wound up in his projects to comprehend
the extent of the evil be is doing. Those who .set
out really anxious for a moderate measure of
Reform might well be justified in thinking that it
may be well to pause when they see such extraor-
dinary doctrines broached by one who styles him-
self the great champion of the cause. The more
Reform is identified witb the name of Mr. BRIGHT
the worse will it be for its chance of success, and
the less likely arc we to have it settled in a satis-
factory manner.

The "criticisms of Mr. DUFF upon the late Pre-
mier are very good, and will no doubt meet with
the admiration of many who have had the misfor-
tune to be under such a leader. " Lord RUSSELL
has never, with all his experience, learned that a
party is not a machine, but a body of men. The
lines in which Lord LYTTON described him 20 years
ago are still true." " Mr. GLADSTONE," adds Mr.
DUFF, "is the last man in the world to make up
for any want of communicativeness on the part
of his colleague ; and so a great want of
union and sympathy was the consequence."
The plan which Mr. GRANT DUFF thinks would
have been better seems certainly to present great
advantages, and, indeed, we think that the present
Government might try it with a good effect. Ile
says that they might have presented a measure of
Reform to the House, and have it read a first time
before the close of the Session, and then there
would r
of ascertaininguld have been ample opportunity before the next
respecting it. the sentiments of the country
Such a scheme might have been
opposed, but it would not then have been neces-
sary, said the hon. member, quoting the words of
the late leader of the Opposition for the Govern-
ment to " change its front in the face of the enemy."
We entirely concur with the opinion of Mr.
GRANT DUFF when he says, "I •
verily believe that the
exaggerations and the weary stump-oratory, to ray
nothing of mere rabid non3ense,' like the Mul-
-1 cheater address to;-,4 BRIGUT, v. ith which the