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

them.

sapient on such rapid transitions—the new condi.

tion must subordinate all surrounding forces to
itself, or it must perish. The triumphs of intel-
ligence over matter have been accompanied by
manifestations of a higher moral sensibility as to
the condition of the masses of our fellow-country-
men, which has tended to inspire a religious ardour
for their elevation. This has been manifest in nuuie-

rous efforts of civilisation. For example—a mitiga
tion of the severity of the penal code, founded on a
recognition of the truth that, however terror may
act as a deterrent, it has little or no reformatory
power. In the improvement of prison discipline and
reformatory training for the young. In the amend-
ment of the laws for the relief of indigence, whereby
the traces of serfdom will ere long be removed from
the most pauperised portions of the indigent classes.
The regenerative power of education has been applied
to the children of paupers, and we are, I trust, on
the eve of providing for impotency, sickness, and
age, with Christian solicitude. In the first steps
towards an obligatory system of national education,
in which we have only very partially recognised
what is needed for the preparation of an intelligent
freeman for the discharge of his duties as a citizen.
In the emancipation of labour from all restraints on
its association, and in the freedom of all trade and
industry. In the extention of the municipal suf-
frage, thus creating in the borough a school for the
training of the people in the discharge of political
duties. In the cheapening of justice in all the smaller
disputes which affect the condition of the labourer,
small householder, and humble tradesman. In the
spread of political education by means of freedom
of meeting for public discussion ; and by a cheap
press, which has, by its general enlightenment and
high morality, become the most truly conservative
of all our institutions. In the universal publicity
of all political discussion, whether in or out of
Parliament, making the press like the market-
place in which Socrates disputed, or the forum in
which Cato, Cicero, or Oezar pleaded. For our own
manual labour class, barely emancipated from the
semi-barbarism of preceding ages, the Reformation
did little by means of schools, yet this was the only
means the original Saxon idea of personal dig-
nity and civil freedom could be attained by the poor.
The Reformation did not extend this form of free-
dom to them. It is not improbable that the " iron-
sides" who fought with Cromwell had received some
training in the grammar schools. They had at least
been trained by the congregation in the dialectics
of the Calvinistic doctrine, and through it in a
stern sense of duty and personal rights. But the
common
people, with this exception, continued to
be immersed in the consequences of serfdom. The
serf
had been
ttthhe chattel of his lord. Ilis descen-
dants had tog to do during the feudal period
with the local° government of the tything, or parish,
or hundred. Probably the villeins did not rise to
any participation in such government until a very
late period of the Tudor —
constituted the folkmot, reigns. Those who had
or Who were sent to the
wittenagemot, were
free.
towns and the electors of the shiThe burgesses of
ares were certainly
The Saxon neither serfs nor villeins.
slavery idea of liberty
ia
was therefore consistent with the f the serf.
Institutions, whose roots -.vere in our ancient Saxon
polity, had a representative constitution in which
the serf played no part, and in which the villein
only gradually rose to participate, and that just in
proportion as he was admitted to the possession of
personal property independently of the lord of the
soil. The gradual transition from the occupation of
land by villeinage to the cultivation of the " lean" or
loan land, and the freedom of the tenant to migrate,
to carry with him his acquisitions, and acquire land
as a personal possession, are chief steps of advance of
the villeins to the class of small tenant-farmers such
as now exist, and to the establishment of the inde-
pendent class of yeomen and statesmen who culti-
vated their own land. We thus recognise some of
the sources of the present condition of half-paupe-
rised agricultural labourers, and unlettered small
tenant-farmers, and the causes of their unfitness by
the want of intelligence and independence, to dis-

charge beneficially to the commonwealth the poli- f
tical duties of freemen. They are still, politically
speaking, the thralls of the possessors of the soil. In
proportion as they are admitted to the possession of
the franchise the landlord augments his personal
power—but no privilege is, for th 3 time being, ex-
tended to the people. The result of the extension
of the franchise to any class thus enfeebled by tra-
ditional dependence, by ignorance, and habits either
sensual or servile, results in its political subser-
viency. In like manner the elite of the manual
labour class have aided in the growth of the public
polity, by their disinterested sympathy with other
1 principles capable of a wide application. The ex-
tension of the franchise to the middle classes by
the Reform Bill, the extinction of the slave (trade,
and the emancipation of the slaves in our colo-
nies, received from them a wise and generous
support. Though they, like other classes, are re-
sponsible, both in times past and at present—for the
most persistent opposition to the adoption of well
ascertained principles in industry and trade, yet they
were led by a true class interest, to appreciate, before
the pure economists, the economic as well as the
social value of a shortening of the hours of labour
in factories ; and though they did not promote, they
assented to the compulsory provisions for the educa-
tion of their children, which were inserted in the
Factories Regulation Acts. In all these measures,
and in many others, they have co-operated with a
portion of the middle classes, led by men capable
of a philosophic or philanthropic view of all the
interests concerned. But the independent and spon-
taneous action of the working classes, though in
many of its earliest and some of its recent manifes-
tations it has been deformed by the errors insepar-
able from such efforts in an unlettered class, has
given proof of a power of organisation and asso-
ciated action, which, whether for good or ill, cannot
but be regarded as important elements in the social
organisation of any nation, and especially of one in
which industry, commerce, and agriculture are
among the main sources of national prosperity and
power. One of the highest qualities of statesman-
ship consists in the power to think calmly in the
midst of popular excitement. This faculty re-
sembles that of great generals, whose genius re-
ceives its highest inspiration from battle, and is to
he contrasted with the impulsiveness of the orator,
whose imagination or passion is fired by popular
excitement and overcomes his reason. A great
statesman knows how majestic and irresi▪
stible is the
operation of the intelligent convictions of a culti-
vated nation—the seed of winch convicti▪
ons he may
have deliberately sown. He calmly watches their
development—he wisely fosters their growth—he
waits Rae the husbandman for the harvest. As no
impatience can hasten the gradual operation of the

natural forces so no insensate outbreak of turbu-
lence can bring about the true development of the
national policy, which is the fruit, not of physical
force, but of the highest intelligence and virtue. A
great statesman will therefore strive to assuage the
sense of political injustice, and to prevent the de-
structive outbreaks of passionate misery, and will
calmly lead the ablest and best among his fellow

countrymen to redress all proven wrong, and peace-
fully to remove every obstacle to the development
of all the institutions of freedom.

Twin Screw Turret-ships.

Messrs. Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead, have just
about ready for launching a vessel which, we be-
lieve, is the largest twin screw ironclad yet built.
Her completion will be looked forward to with some
interest, as illustrating the adiantages to be derived
from the application of twin screws to vessels of war,
among which are supposed to be great additional
power of turning and manoeuvring-, and greater speed
where the draught of water is limited. She is to be
called the Prins Hendrik, and has been built for the
Dutch Government. She has been designed to carry
the same weight of guns as the Scorpion and Wivern
but, being larger in tonnage, has more roomy and
complete accommodation for officers and crew, and
carries her upper deck 3ft. or 4ft. higher out of the
water, in order to make her better suited for cruising,
at sea than those vessels which were originally de-
signed for coast defence, although their performance
when under the command of Capts. Commerill and
Burgoyne on the trials off Portland last autum❑, and
the further trials of the Wivern during the spring
and summer, and now with the Channel Fleet, has
:Toyed them to be well adapted for occasional sea-
There is little doubt that when the altera-

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tions recommended by these officers in the arrange-
ment of hatchways and hurricane deck are carried
out, as we understand they are now being done in
the Scorpion, these vessels will be able to keep their
position with any fleet in cruising. The Prins Hen-
drik is a vessel of 2,100 tons and 400 horse power,
with a speed of more than 12 knots an hour, on a
draught of water of 18ft., throwing a broadside of
1,2001 b. from her two turrets. The dimensions are
about 240 ft. extreme length, 44ft. breadth, 28ft. deep,
and 2,100 tons measurement. The hull is built of
iron, and is divided internally by bulkheads. into
watertight compartments, so as to enclose her tur-
rets, magazines, engines, and boilers in separate
compartments. In addition to this provision for
the ship's security, there is a double bottom under
the engines, boilers, turrets, and magazines extend-
ing up to the lower deck. The armour-plating is
41in. thick, and rests on a teak backing 10in.
thick. It is arranged on the belt system, and for
that portion of the ship within which the turrets
and machinery are placed, which may be called the
fighting part of the ship, it is carried to the upper
deck, which is 9ft. above the load water line, and
at the extreme ends up to the lower deck. By this
arrangement, without sacrificing the proper protec-
tion of the vital part of the ship, it has been pos-
sible to get an upper deck well out of the water,
and superior accommodation for the officers and
crew, ventilated by large side scuttles, fitted in
that part of the side above the armour-plating at
the fore and after ends. There is free communica-
tion from one end of the ship to the other by iron
sliding doors on all the watertight bulkheads, and
the spaces in the storeroom and magazines are ample
for the stowage of six months' provision. The tur-
rets are cylindrical in shape, covered with armour-
' plates siin. thick, and are placed one before and
the other abaft the engineroom, and are fitted with

slides and carriages for two 12f-ton 300-pounder
guns on the system of Capt. Cowper Coles, R.N.
The rig is that of a bark, the fore and main masts
being fitted as tripods on Captain Coles's patent, to
give greater range of training to the guns in the
turrets. There are two separate pairs of engines,
each of 200-horse power nominal, having cylinders
56in. diameter, and 2ft. Sin. stroke, driving two

screw propellers each 15ft. diameter. Thecylinders

have steam jackets and improved expansion
valves, and are fitted with surface conden-
sers and other approved appliances for economis-
ing fuel; and have been designed and con-
structed at Messrs. Laird's establishment. The
Euphrates is one of five ships now being built
by Messrs. Laird and other builders to carry on the
improved India Relief Troop Service, by way of
Alexandria and Suez, which will effect a great sav-
ing of time as compared with the present system of
sending the reliefs by the Cape of Good Hope, and
add very much to the health and comfort of the
troops. It is intended that two of these vessels
shall do the service between England and Alexan-
dria, two between Suez and the Indian ports, and
the fifth shall be held in reserve for any particular
use that may be required. These five ships have

been designed by the Admiralty to carryner the
direction tthee
requirements of the Transport Board, under
direction of Capt. Mends, R.N., and have been
most carefully adapted for the intended service, in
order that they may have the greatest possible space,
and best sanitary arrangements for soldiers and
passengers, together with the highest rate of speed
compatible with the necessary stowage for military
stores and coals on a draught of water not exceed-
ing 21ft.. They are to be exactly alike in all re-
spects, and fitted to carry 1,450 persons, of which
number 1,250 are military, and 200 the ship's offi-
cers and crew. The accommodation is roomy and
well ventilated, and the whole of the arrangements
of the most perfect description. The dimen-
sions are---length, 355 feet; width, 49 feet; ton-
nage, 3,263 tons. The work is in an advanced
state, the decks being laid, and the cabins