The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-01 00:00:00

on building what could no longer be of use for its
defence, nor so permanent as the new iron ships.
It will be seen what splendid specimens of iron
shipbuilding as the Warrior and the Black Prince
are—for Mr. LINDSAY had been on board both
the Warrior and La Gloire, and said that speaking
with a sailor's eye, he should not be afraid on board
the Warrior to fight two La Gloires—yet, iron ships
will be still susceptible of considerable improve-
ment. Another 1,000 tons would have enabled
the Warrior to have borne the weight of iron
plates covering her completely from stem to stern,
But the greatest improvement of all will be that
of building the ships of iron entirely. Now,
they have a wooden casing inside, of
twenty-two inches of teak ; but, kwith-
drawing this, and making suitable arrange-
ments to enable the iron to bear the concussion,
and consequent vibration, and starting of rivets,
caused by the impact of shot, the iron plates might
be another inch thicker, in which case they would
be: perfectly invulnerable. One thing perhaps,
the most important of all, is the illustration
afforded by the launch of the Black Prince
from a private yard of our real sources of
strength. Happily on the prospect of any emergency
we have something better than Government Dock-
yards to rely on, in which the mechanics and their
masters can only work in wood. The Messrs.
NAPIER have launched this splendid vessel in only
one year and two days, since the first plates of
her keel were laid. And this same yard could
complete three such vessels, if necessary, now, in
one year ! ! All the shipbuilding yards in the
hands of private firms in France altogether could
not, probably, complete one in a year. We ques-
tion whether the Government yards could do as
much. While, therefore, we must not go to
sleep, we certainly have no reason to fear the
Imperial shipbuilder,

ADMIRAL FITZROY'S P.ROGNOSTI

CATIONS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—In the Times of this day it is stated :

" Her Majesty's troopship Dee was yesterday
hauled out of basin at Woolwich, laden with a cargo
of steam gear for Plymouth and Glasgow, the heavy
portion of her freight being necessarily on deck.
Before the Dee left the basin information was re-
ceived.from Lloyd's of Admiral Fitzroy's prognos-
tications (hitherto found to be exceedingly truth-
ful), indicating an approaching gale, and a caution
to that effect was transmitted round the coast. The
Dee, however, is a good sea vessel, and is commanded
by a cautions and most experienced body of officers,
well accustomed to the dangers of the voyage, who
expressed no disinclination to proceed. She con-
sequently sailed from Woolwich at 4 p.m."
I feel it a duty to lose no time in saying, that no
such " prognostications" were made by me—that
" Lloyd's" did not send any such to Woolwich or
elsewhere—and that officers in her Majesty's ser-
vice do not hesitate to obey lawful orders, rather
than their own inclinations.

Here I might stop—but the opportunity of offer•
ing a caution may excuse another sentence.

Persons who profess to know, intuitively, more
than real philosophers, and the most experienced
men have learned—have "prognosticated," or, as
some say, " prophesied" changes, or storms, at
definite times, upon some vague ideas of " lunar"
influence, or (so-called) " Astro-meteorology."
Perhaps the Alchemists and Astrologers of old
were wiser in their generation than these
prophets.

ROBT. FITZROY.