The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-20 00:00:00

THE AMERICAN NA VT.

The American Administration seem determined
to place in commission every available vessel in the
serviet as quickly as possible. Thursday the re-
moval of the housing from over the sailing frigate
Potomac, which has been lying out in the stream
for some time, was commenced. As soon as the
R. R. Cuyler, which is now in the dry dock, is taken
out the Potomac will take her place, and after
undergoing a thorough repair will be rigged, armed,
and fitted for sea. She is the only remaining vessel
of war in the Navy Yard the services of which can
be rendered available.

The Potomac is a 50 gun frigate, of 1,726 tons
burthen; and was built at Washington in the year
1821.

The other vessels of war remain in the yard, and
the work on them is going on as briskly as ever,
with the exception of the Wabash, which is com-
pleted. The two smart little propellers, the Re-
sistance and the Reliance, which had been lying
out in the stream, were placed alongside the wharf
yesterday. Each is to be armed with a six and a
twelve-pounder. It is said that Captain William
Budd, one of the Coast Survey, is to be placed in
command of one.

We append a table of the vessels already in use
and soon to be used for blockading purposes,
together with the armament of each :

Vessels.

SCREW FRIGATES.

Guns.

Time required
Where. to finish.

Niagara . l2 Home squadron
Roanoke
Minnesota ~..
Wabash .. 40 New York .... Ready
Colorado .. 4O Boston ... Near ready

Total 172
SAILING FRIGATES.

Potomac
St. Lawrence
Santee
Sabine 5O Home squadron.

Total
STEAM SLOOPS OF WAR.
_

Brooklyn 25 Home squadron
Mississippi (side wheel) 11' Bostot
Powhattan (side wheel) 11 Home squadron
Pawnee
Pocahontas
Pensacola

Total

STEAM GUNBOATS.

Wyandot
Mohawk .. 8 Home squadron
Crusader lO Home squadron
Water Witch 3 Philadelphia ..
Michigan 1 Erie, Pa —

Total 27
SAILING SLOOPS OF WAR.
Savannah .. 24 New York .. ~ 8 days
Jamestown
Vincennes
Marion l6 Portsmouth .. 6 weeks
Dale
Preble . .
St. Louis 2O Home squadron
Cumberland -1 Home squadron
Macedonian

Total lBO
BRIGS.
Bainbridge 6 Boston
Perry

Total l2
MERCHANT STEAMERS CONVERTED INTO
GUNBOATS.
Monticello
Quaker City 4 Home squadron
Yankee
Huntsville
Dawn
Mount Vernon
R. It. Cuyler .... ..
Keystone State
Montgomery
Daylight .. 2 New York .... To fit
Penguin
Albatross 3 New York .... To fit
Reliance brass 2 New York .... Fitting
Resolute brass 2 New York .... Fitting
South Carolina
R. S. Spalding
Total 5O
RECAPITULATION.
Screw frigates
Sailing frigates 2OO
Steam sloops of war
Steam gunboats
Sailing sloops of war
Brigs
Merchant steamers converted

Grand total

2HE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

Mr. C. M. Clay, United States Minister Pleni-
potentiary, &c., to St. Petersburg, in a letter to a
contemporary says :—" Allow me your journal to
make a few remarks upon the complications of the
United States of America, which I am surprised to
find so little understood this side of the Atlantic.
1. "What are we fighting for? " " We the
peoplo of the 'United States of America," (to use the
language of our Constitation), are fighting to main-
tain our nationality, and the principles of liberty
upon which it was founded,—that nationality
which Great Britain has pledged herself, both by
past comity and the sacred obligations of treaty, to
respect ; those great principles of liberty, that all
power is derived from the consent of the governed ;
trial by jury, freedom of speech and the
press ; that " without law there is no liberty"
—which we inherited from Great Britain herself,
and which having been found to lie at the base of
all progress and civilization, we desire to per-
petuate for ourselves and the future of all the
nations. The so-called " Confederate States of
America" rebel against us—against our nationality,
1 and against all the principes of its structure.
Citizens of the United States—of the one Govern-
ment (not of Confederated States, as they would
have the world believe—but of " us the people"),
they propose, not by common legal consent, but by
arms, to sever our nation into separate indepen-
dencies. Claiming to " be let alone," they con-
spire against us ; seize by force our forts, stores,
and arms ; appropriate to themselves our mints,
moneys, and vessels at sea; capture our armies, and
threaten even the capital at Washington !
The word " secession" is used to cover up treason
and delude the nations. They stand to us in the
relation of one " people," the idea of " State sove-
reignty" is utterly delusive. We gave up the old
~ Confederation" to avoid just such complications
as have now occurred. The States are by our Con-
stitution deprived of all the rights of independent
sovereigns, and the National Government acts not
through State organisations, but directly upon the
citizens of the States themselves—to that highest
of power, the right of life and death. The States
cannot keep an army, or navy, or even repel inva-
sion, except when necessity will not allow time for
national action; can make no treaty, nor coin
money, nor exercise any of the first great essential
powers of "sovereignty." In a word, they can no
more " secede" from the Union than Scotland or
Ireland can secede from England.
The professed friends of the independence of
nations and popular rights, they have not only over-
thrown the Constitution of the United States, but
the Constitutions of the " Confederate States" them-
selves, refusing in every ease to refer their new
usurpations to the votes of the people, thus making
themselves doubly traitors to both the States and
the nation. The despotic rulers over 4,000,000 of
enslaved Africans, they presume to extend over us,
the white races of all nations, the same despotism,
by ignoring the political rights of all but their own
class, by restrictions upon the popular franchise, by
the suppression of the freedom of speech and of the
press, by the terrorism of " Lynch law," or tyranni-
cal enactments, backed by standing armies, to crush
out the independence of thought, the ineradicable
instincts of our world-wide humanity—with the
atrocious dogma that negro slavery is the only
basis of real conservatism and progressive eivilisa•
tion, and that the true solution of the contest of
all time between labour and capital is that capital
should own the labourer, whether white or black.
The 'access of such demands would send the
tide of barbarism not only over the millions of the
New World and the isles of the Western oceans,
but roll it back over England and emancipated
Europe, and blot out from history this, the greatest
glory of our times.
2. "But can you subdue the revolted States?"
Of course we can. The whole seven revolted States
(2,173,000) have not as much white population as
the single State of New York (3,851,563) by
1,500,000 people. If all the Stave States were to
make common cause, they have only 8,997,894
whites, with 4,000,000 slaves, while the Union has
about 20,000,000 of homogeneous people, as power-
fullin peace and war as the world has seen. Intel-
ligent, hardy, and " many sided," their late appa-
rent lethargy and weakness was the self-possession
of conscious strength. When they had made up
their minds that force was necessary, they moved
upon Washington with such speed, numbers, and
steadiness as is not surpassed in history. We have
the money (at a lower rate of interest than ever
before), the men, and the command of the seas, and
the internal waters. We can blockade them by sea,
and invade them by land, and close up the rebel-
lion in a single year, if we are " let alone." For the
population of the Slave States is divided perhaps
equally for and against the Union, the loyal citi-
zens being for the time overawed by the organised
conspiracy of the traitors, while the North is united
to a man, the late allies of the South, the Democra-
tic party, being now more earnest for the su tuga.
tion of the rebels than the Republicans.
3. "But can you govern a , subjugated' people
and reconstruct the Union ?" We do not propose
to “subjugate" the revolted States—we propago I

to put down simply the robel citizens. We go
to the rescue of the loyal Unionists of all the
States. We carry safety, and peace, and liberty
to the Union-loving people of the South, who will
of themselves (the tyranny overthrown) send back
their representatives to Congress, and the Union
will be " reconstructed" without a change of a
letter in the constitution of the United States. Did
England subjugate Ireland and Scotland ? Are the
united kingdoms less homogeneous than of old,
before the wars against rebellion ? So will the
United States rise from the smoke of battle with
renewed stability and power. In turn, now let us
ask the British public some questions.
Z. Where should British honour place her in this
contest ? We overthrow that political element in
America which has all through our history been
the studied denouncer and real hater of the British
nation, while we have been always from the be-
ginning the friends of England. Because, though
under different forms of Government, we had com-
mon sympathies, and a common cause, and therefore
a common interest. England was the conservator of
liberty in Europe—the old world ; we in the new.
If " the confederate States" are right, then is Eng-
land wrong. If slavery must be extended in
America, then must England restore it in the West
Indies, blot out the most glurious page of her his-
tory, and call back her freed men into chains !
Let her say to the martyrs of freedom from all the
nations who have sought refuge and a magnani-
mous defence on her shores :—Return to your
scaffolds and your prison house; England is no
more England! Let the Times cease to appeal
longer to the enlightened opinion of the world;
nay, let the statues of the great dead through which
I passed in reverence yesterday to the Houses of
her political intelligence be thrown from their
pedestals, when England shall forget the utteran-
ces of her Chathams, her Wilberforces, and her
Broughams,—that natural justice is the only safe
diplomacy and lasting foundation of the indepen-
dence of nations.

2. What is the interest of England now ? If we
may descend to such inferior appeals, it is clearly
the interest of England to stand by the Union of the
States. We are her best consumer ; no tariff will
materially affect that fact. We are the best custo-
mer of England, not because we are cotton-growers
or cotton-spinners, agriculturists or manufacturers,
but because we are producers and manufacturers,
and have money to spend. It is not the South, as is
urged, but the North who are the best consumers of
English commerce. The free white labourers and
capitalist does now, and always will, consume more
than the white master and the slave. The Union
and the expansion of the States and Republican
policy make us the best market for England and
Europe. Wbat has the world to gain—England,
France, or any of the Powers to gain by reducing
the United States to a Mexican civilisation?
3. Can England afford to offend the great nation
which will still be "The United States of America"
even should we lose part of the South ? Twenty
millions of people to-day, with or without the slave
States, in 20 years we will be 40,000,000! In an-
ther half century we will be one hundred millions !
We will rest upon the Potomac, and on the west
banks of the Mississippi river, upon the Gulf of
Mexico. Our railroads will run 4,000 miles upon
a single parallel, binding our empire, which must
master the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans ! Is Eng-
land so secure in the future against home revolt or
foreign ambition as to venture, now in our need, to
plant the seeds of revenge in all our future ?
If Ireland, or Scotland, or Wales shall attempt
to secede from that beneficent Government of the
United Kingdom which now lightens their taxation
and gives them security and respect at home and
abroad, shall we enter into a piratical war with our
race and ally, and capture and sell in our ports the
property and endanger the lives of peaceable citizens
of the British Empire all over the world ? I enter
not into the discussion of details. England, then,
our natural ally. Will she ignore our aspirations ?
If she is just, she ought not. If she is honourable
and magnanimous, she cannot. If she is wise, she
will not.

ROYAL MEDICAL BENEVOLENT
COLLEGE.

On Friday the anniversary festival of this insti-
tion, at which Lord Chelmsford presided, was held
at Willis's Rooms. Among the company, about
200 in number, were Lord Dynevor, Admiral Bur-
ney, Archdeacon Robinson, Master of the Temple ;
Mr. W. J. Thompson, Master of the Grocer's Com-
pany ; Sir Charles Locock, Mr. Henry Pownall,
Mr. John Propert, Dr. James Bird, Dr. Babington,
Dr. Sutherland, Dr. Conolly, Dr. Mouat, Mr. Alex-
ander Wood, Mr. Francis Webb, Mr. Chapman, Dr.
Beamall, and the Rev. Dr. Thornton. The College,
of which the Queen is the patron, and Lord Chelms-
ford has been recently elected president, was
founded about nine years ago by members of the
medical profession as an asylum for those of their
brethren who, from ill-health, want of professional
success, or other adverse influences, have sunk into
poverty, and for the widows of medical men in re-
duced circumstances. With it is combined a school,
devoted in part to the gratuitous education of or-
phans of medical men. The purposes are—first, to
maintain an asylum for 100 pensioners, who must
be duly qualified medical men, or their widows,
not under 50 years of age, possessing incomes of
not more than £6O a-year ; second to provide a
school, in which a liberal education will be given
to 200 boys, sons of duly qualified men, 40
of whom (the foundation scholars) will be educated,
boarded, clothed, and maintained entirely at the
expense of the institution, while the remainder
will be charged at the lowest practicable rate ;
and, third, to provide annuities, or occasional
pecuniary assistance, to duly qualified medical
men in distressed circumstances, or to their
families, when they can be granted without detri-
ment to the asylum or school, which are regarded
as the principal objects of the College. The insti-
tution, which is still in its infancy, was projected in
1851, and a suitable site having been obtained for it
near Epsom Downs, it was opened in June, 1855, by
the Prince Consort, accompanied by the Prince of
Wales, and was shortly afterwards occupied by the
pensioners and scholars who had been elected. The
portion of the building destined for the school wns
in May last so far completed as to accommodate 150
boys, but only five pensioners' houses, containing
20 residences, had been then built. There are resi-
dent in the college 20 pensioners, being aged medi-
cal men or their widows, each of whom is provided
with three comfortably-furnished rooms, an allow-
ance of coals, and a pension of £l5 a year; also
150 boys, sons of medical men, 40 of whom, being
the foundation scholars, are educated and main-
tained at the expense of the institution. So far
the boys educated in the school have acquitted
themselves with credit in all the public examinations
and competitions to which they have been sub-
jected. The College is possessed of funded property
to the aggregate amount of about £4,450. A recent
arrangement admitting ladies as life governors on
payment of £5 ss. has resulted in the receipt of
£2,300, her Majesty graciously heading the list
with a donation of I:100. The annual subscriptions
last year amounted to £3,150 odd, the donations
to £1.428; and certain bequests to £540. includ-
ing £2OO on account of one by the late Mrs. Jane
Humberston, and £250, the balance of £l,OOO, by
the late Baroness Sternberg. Of a loan of £7,000
on mortgage, £6,000 has been paid off, leaving a
balance of £l,OOO. The chairman, in the course of
the evening related the history and circumstances
of the institution, and earnestly commended it to
the public support. The subscriptions in aid of its
funds after the dinner amounted to about £l,OOO.
To show the necessity for such an institution it
may be stated that at the last election there were
11 unsuccessful candidates for pensionerships, and
31 unsuccessful competitors for foundation scholar-
ships.

COUNTRY 11fARXETS.