The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-09 00:00:00

J 1413411 a capitTof Virginia to its fate, especially
as BANKS seems to be now in a condition to prevent

the Western rebel corps in Virginia from coming up
as they did to turn the scale at Bull's Run.
But suppose the most successful strategy and
fighting on the part of the North. Suppose Rich--
mond gained, Missouri quieted, and Kentucky ob-
liged to follow the lead of its anti-slavery half.
What then ? Would the North have done much
more than retrieved its reputation ? Would it be
able to go on to the conquest and subjugation of the
Southern States ? The armies would be far from
the Free States and on hostile soil. Every step
they took would remove them further from
friendly supplies, and necessitate great care in order
to keep up its communications. The first victories
will be its easiest to win ; but they will be of no
direct avail towards the desired conclusion, that of
the reunion of all the States. The Southerns would
be no less unwilling to submit to the Northern
yoke, but rather the more exasperated against it.
The political difficulty would be increased, and the
hardest part of the military task yet to be achieved.
Would not a demand then arise on both sides for
negotiation ? The South and the North would each
have gained their military honours—Bull's Run,
and the Northern victory yet to come, might cry
quits, and the demand from the North as well as
from the South might be—negotiation, and the
putting an end to the costly strife.

Were the contest one of principle, were it like
the noble struggles in Italy and in Hungary, we
should not say so. Unfortunately, it is the reverse ;
and, as we have pointed out from the beginning, th©

real struggle is not for liberty in any shape, much
less in its noblest shape, that of clearing the union

of the curse and infamy of slavery. The struggle
on the part of the North is for neither more nor less
than to remain so big a Republic that it could go
on bullying England and other European countries
with impunity. It is willing to be a Slave Republic
so that it can have the privilege of being a bully Re-
public. In this Europe can, of course, feel no inte-
rest ; but they will probably find also that they
themselves have not enough interest in it to go on
fighting and paying quadrupled taxation for the
requisite time.
On this side the water an opinion favourable
to negotiation and peace between the two sections
of the country is evidently arising. A man of
the standing and judgment of the right honour-
able JAMES STUART WORTLEY thus expressed
himself at the Cutler's feast at Sheffield :—" They
have now arrived at a point when not England

may interfere, when not England and Franee to-
gether, not all the potentates of Europe may in-
terfere, but the voice of humanity, and the public

opinion of the world must interfere to prevent the
further effusion of blood in so senseless and savage

a war. It has been supposed we are influenced in
this country by some feeling against the North. I
appeal to you whether at the outset, when it was sup-
posed to be a question of slavery against anti-slavery,
our disposition was not to side with the North.
We did not interfere, but our good wishes were
rather with the North. I indulge the hope and
anxious expectation that the able men who conduct
the affairs of the Federalists and of the Confederates
will feel that the time is some when the coercion of
one by the other is improper, and that they are
strong enough to form two great nations, a result
which the people of England would be glad to see.
It is imputed that our desire to side with
the North is overruled by the fear of being
deprived of the cotton of the South. No
such thing. If we look to our own interest we
believe we shall derive great advantage, for our
active and eager search for cotton in other direc-
tions will increase our supply. In the next place,
we believe that if the first NAPOLEON, with his iron
arm, could not exclude our manufactures from the
continent by his carefully devised measures and
his enormous power, neither the slave States
nor the Northern States, nor the American people,
can prevent the cotton from reaching us. For a
time their measures may check and interrupt our
commerce. They may embarrass and distress us ;
but eventually this country will again rise by the
great energies of her trade above the difficulties
created by this senseless hostility."
These sentiments were cheered by a large and
highly respectable and intelligent assembly in
England. If they spreaa, they can but have
their influence. But we certainly believe with
Mr. WORTLEY—indeed, we have expressed the
same opinion ourselves—that the permanent inte-
rest of England and her colonies is in the con-
tinuance of a war which would drive cotton cul-
tivation to the free-labour industry of our own
colonies and dependencies.

Amongst our volunteers for national defence we
must number the British Association. Science—
mechanical sience we mean—is every day increas-
ing its importance in respect to the general science
of attack and defence. When battering-rams
brought besiegers hand to band, if we might so say
with lofty walls, and when ships of war blockaded
mouths of harbours, by joining their broadsides till
they presented an impassable mass, the science of
that day performed feats at such close quarters
which even now surprise us ; ARCHIMEDES at
Syracuse will never be forgotten or his fate cease to be
mourned; and another mechanist actually gained
the surname of the City-besieger through his fertile
devices. But now that attack and defence becomes
a question of miles, and of hurling and resisting
3001bs. shot, we have need of science beyond any-
thing that ARCHEMEDES or DEMETRIUS POLIOR-
CETES could dream of.

Just now the question is one of naval attack and
defence; and iron is the great question. Unlucky
Sir JOHN PAKINGTON, with the best intentions, but
ill-advised by an officer which forgot all that was
demonstrated at Kilburn, let us in for a vast navy
built of wood. The proprietors of the batteries off
which the enemies balls rattled as peas would from
the back of a lobster, were wiser ; they quietly in-
vested for naval defence in iron—and when with all
the deficiencies ascribed to La Gloire, she proved to
be a formidable vessel, then at last our dockyard
authorities began to rib their eyes; an iron casing, it
was found, would certainly resist shot for a
time long enough to prove fatal to the ship of
wood, and above all, as Mr. SCOTT RUSSELL ob-
served, " The whole question was contained in this
expression of a good sailor, whatever you do for
GOD'S sake keep out the shells.' If iron was
not absolutely invulnerable to 300-pounders, it was
at least not combustible ; and it was anyhow no
small gain for ships to be safe against shells fitted
with molten iron or other inextinguishable com-
bustibles. So common sense triumphed even at
the Admiralty, and the country whose iron manu-
facturers stand at the head of those of all the world,
resolved to see what it could do in building ships
which should be invulnerable, or as nearly so as
possible.

But the grand point decided now, the questions
arise to solve which we must call in, not the suc-
cessors of our Nelsons, but of the Grecian Archi-
medes ; and here we have them at the meeting of
the British Association telling us all they know
Shall we have huge ships with many guns, or
smaller ships carrying one or two monster
guns? Shall we have wood backing up iron,