The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-19 00:00:00

Commence at 7 o'clock:

CANTERBURY HALL CONCERTS.-
EVERY EVENING.—The Music of Verdi's Opera of
MACBETH (now first made public in England at these Con-
certs).
fin a few days will be produced a Selection from Meyer-
beer's new opera of DINORATI.
Comic Vocalists -Messrs. George Hodson (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Critchtield, and E. W. Mackney.
Several interesting Pictures arc added to the Fine Arts
Gallery. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated and
beautified, and constitute one of the most unique and brilliant
sights of' the metropolis.

TUB WEATHER.—SVN OFFICE, OCTOBER 19.
THERMOMETER, IN THE NUDE.
58—highest since noon yesterday.
53—lowest this morning and during the night.
50—this day at noon.

BARomETEu-29.93.
WncD, Southerly; light, with dull weather.

lIIGII WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 6h. 21m.—Afternoon, Gh. 55m,
To-Monnow-Morning, 7h. 35m.—Afternoon, Bh. 22m,

.%,
3";
p.5.4.Le:011
•
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THE SUN .
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1859

Additional light is fast falling upon the
hitherto somewhat obscured problem of the National
Defences. Already, thanks to the energetic awaken-
ing of the public attention to the extreme urgency
of the necessity long suspected, but now quite
visible—the imminent and paramount necessity of
reorganising those National Defences speedily and
permanently—already we have (what we had not
two years ago) a Channel Fleet ! We have a fleet
in the Mediterranean ! We have the wooden walls
of Old England more carefully looked to, with a
view to their strengthening and general reparation !
Our dockyards, our arsenals, our seaports, ships,
guns and ammunition, seamen and marines, coast-
guards and coast volunteers—men and materials—
the whole naval system, in fact, from the Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty down to the
poor maimed and weather-beaten Fensioners at
Greenwich Hospital we are now subjecting to a
careful scrutiny, to an anxious and conscientious
investigation. Happily by this time we are all of
us pretty well agreed as to the advisability of this
thorough revision of our maritime defences with an
eye to their more perfect reorganisation. Every-
one is ready to put his shoulder to the wheel—we are
all so painfully conscious that it has fallen so deep
into the rut of routine as to require a more than
ordinarily energetic effort to secure its complete
and rapid extrication.
Yesterday we had the satisfaction of giving the
latest and not by any means the least important or
least valuable evidence of the profound interest
this agitation has kindled in favour of the
better securing of the National Defences by
means of the comprehensive improvement of
the Royal Navy, as bearing at once the
Sword and the Shield of England. Allusion
is made, of course, to the many admirable sugges-
tions contained in the communication addressed to
tho. Duke of SOMERSET, as First Lord of the Ad-
miralty, by one of our most gallant old tars, Admi-
ral Sir CHARLES NAPIER, M.P. for Southwark.
Sir CHARLES has often blundered before now, both
ashore and afloat, and while we have never once
failed to do honour to his many brilliant qualities
and splendid services, we have at the same time
never once hesitated to reprehend his con-
duct, whether as a politician or as a naval comman-
der, whenever, in either capacity, he has appeared
by errors of judgment or want of discretion to
demand reprehension. Sir CHARLES blundered, for
example, and blundered egregiously, in his mis-
taken estimate of the screw propeller as applied
to the man-of-war in lieu of the old-fashioned, cum-
brous, and exposed paddlewheel. lie blundered. again
to our thinking, and blundered there most deplor-
ably, upon the occasion of his last great command
First of all, by consenting to take that magnificent
fleet of his into the Baltic without insisting upon
carrying out with him an adequate supply of gun-

boats or light draught suited to the shallow

waters of the Neva, and of the Baffle itself
around Cronstadt and }lclsingfors! and Secondly,
in opening the campaign in those waters
with a fire-and-fury signal that had the
sorry anti-climax of not even ending in smoke—in
the smoke of a daring attempt at The bombardment

of the maritime capital of the foe ! Whatever may

have been our gallant old tar's sins of omission or of
commission previously—he is certainly, however, n.t
blundering now as a zweval reformer ! As a reformer
of that glorious service of which, in spite of all his
faults, he is recognised far and wile as one of the
most distinguished among its livin g ornaments. In
this his last argument in favour of a better system
of manning the royal navy, Sir CHARLES
lilts the right nail upon the . head at
once, "41 does so, moreover, with a telling