The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-04 00:00:00

to make American resistance hopeless. Steam has
Azigc.lllllthe difference between the navies of the
present day and those of the last war, and. in naval
steam power we have an immeasurable superiority.
Steam also has very much lessened the American
advantage in regard to privateering. There is no
denying the cleverness of the Americans in building
fast sailers; but a fast sailing privateer has no chance
with a fast war steamer, and steam privateers could
never venture far from their coal depots, and hence
could be but little employed. The American pri-
vateers would have no depots except on their
own blockaded coasts, and. other Powers could
not furnish them with coal without giv-
ing up their character of neutrals. We,
on the other hand, have depots already all over the
world; coal is, in fact, become one of the most im-
portant munitions of naval warfare. This circum-
stance alone will quite change the American posi-
tion in regard to privateering, and though our
losses would no doubt be serious, they would be as
nothing compared with those of the last war.
Their coasting trade would, on the other Land, be
• at our mercy, and the South would take good care
that they derived no advantage from the Missis-

sippi.
What the spirit of our sailors is, they will see from
the prompt and spontaneous letters of the men
composing our Naval Reserve, These men
know nothing of the niceties of law,
but they quite understand what it is
for a British mail steamer to lie at the mercy of
every bullying commander of an American man-of-
war, and, though not liable by the terms of their
enlistment to serve, except our shores be attacked
or-the emergency extreme, they proffer themselves
at once for Transatlantic service on behalf of their
flag and their QUEEN. This is the more remark-
able since, through some oversight in the arrange-
ments, they would be pecuniary losers if on actual
service. These men are all of them picked men,
such men as are only needed to form part of a ship's
crew, and are all, of course, skilled in
gunnery; and there are already 8,000 of them,
certain to amount in the spring to 12,000
or 13,000, and, if war be threatened, to
very many more. No cases Belli could possibly
have appealed to our sailors like that which the
Americans have now given us. It will be a sailors
war completely ; and assuredly if it should be begun
the naval enthusiasm will be unanimous and irre-
sistible. Every English sailor will expect every
English sailor to do his duty. Ours will also be a
battle for defence, the American, one for the right
of attack.

If the Americans inspect their own naval list,
and compare it with ours, they will find little com-
fort in the prospect of a war. All their large ships
nearly, are old and worthless. They are all wooden
ships also, and it wouid for long be utterly
impossible for them to overtake us in
iron-plated vessels. The Warrior alone would
be more than a match for a little fleet of their
best ships. Invulnerable to their shot and shell she
could smash and burn them with ease and at leisure.
The Americans have, indeed, a long list of large
ships on paper, but they are known to be of a
kind, or in a state little adapted to meet any
of our own well equipped and well found
ships. It seems that they have about half
a dozen very efficient frigates which no sailor could
despise, with a ship of only equal force, their arma-
ment being very powerful—such as the Niagara
and the Wabash ; but their number is small, and
could not be increased as the army can on the banks
of the Potomac. As our readers have already seen,
we could in a few days send to sea a reserve fleet
whose guns would outnumber theirs four to one.
Indeed, the whole American navy is, at the present
time, hardly able to maintain the blockade of the
comparatively few Southern ports. In fact, it does
not maintain it effectively ; it would certainly be
little able to undertake offensive work, and have
more than enough to do to protect its own
shores. If Mr. LINCOLN will take the pains to
understand his own naval position and ours, and
will remember that this time we should not be
fighting all the world, he may find it will answer
better to Keep the Peace with England than to
fight for the custody of the men he has kidnapped
from beneath her flag.

Durham is not ungrateful to the late gallant and
chivalrous Marquess of LONDONDERRY. It has
ample reason to regard his memory with gratitude
—and that gratitude it has now signally attested.

The demonstration made on Monday last in the
old county town, upon the occasion of the uncover-
ing of the memorial statue of Lord LONDONDERRY,
showed in a very notable manner the affection and

admiration with which the noble Marquess's name is
still cherished in that part of the country, among
those who for so many years enjoyed the privilege of
being his neighbours. Nothing in the shape of
posthumous praise, we do honestly believe,

was ever more thoroughly genuine than the

tribute thus offered in Lord LONDONDERRY'S

remembrance. Certainly we cannot readily re-

call to mind any more graceful or, in some re-
spects, more splendid panegyric than the one pro-
nounced by Mr. DISRAELI upon the fair fame of the
deceased Patrician, Soldier, and Diplomatist, tit the
banquet which took place in the Town-hall of Dur-
ham on Monday evening. The right hon. gentle-
man spoke no doubt, as he himself intimated during
the course of his very eloquent remarks, with the
very natural fervour and partiality of one who had
for more than a quarter of a century enjoyed the in-
timate personal friendship of Lord LONDONDERRY;
But, while he spoke thus with a generous bias in
every syllable he uttered, he spoke also in the
vivid recollection, not only of every one
who listened to him on Monday, but of every
one who may read afterwards what is reported
of his speech in the public newspapers. We refer
any one, in fact, who glances at what we are here
writing, to that other portion of our impression of
this evening in which Mr. DISRAELI'S speech is
given as accurately as possibly verbatim. And
having done so, we apps 11 to the honest memory of
each, whether everything that is there said by the
member for Bucks, the Leader of her MAJESTY'S
Opposition, in regard to Lord LONDONDERRY, is
not strictly and absolutely borne out by the records
of European History.
Lord LONDONDERRY'S career was, from first

:o last, familiar to his fellow - countrymen.

In -writing his history, and the history of
his famous brother, the previous marquess, the
Annalist of Europe, indeed, has had to relate very
recently a something more than Twice-Told Tale.
In truth, Sir ARCHIBALD ALISON himself has had
in his time to recount much of that heroic story inci-
dentally in the course of his voluminous masterpiece.
Who among those in any way acquainted with the
narrative of the Great Napoleonian Wars, has not
long since made himself intimately acquainted with
the resplendent feats of arms, and the almost in-
estimable diplomatic achievements for ever asso-
ciated':with the name of the third Marquess of
LONDONDERRY—first of all as Sir CHARLES
ant by those not thus
STEWART, and afterwards as Lord STEWART ? It
may be deemed
to hear Mr. DISRAELI speak-
Wars of the EmP;
ing in .re, ..
.
intimately acquainted with the annals of theyet eat
G
the terms of unsti ed eulogium in which