The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 5, 1861.

teristic of the Age, of the Nation, of the Old King
(GEORGE III,), and of the bluff old salt who is the
other interlocuter in the brief but suggestive dia-
logue therein recorded, that we transfer the little
incident precisely as it is related in Mr. THACKE-
RAY'S magazine to our own columns. It runs, then,
simply as follows :—" During the great war with
France, in which our most brilliant naval victories
were won, his Majesty GEORGE the THIRD visited
Portsmouth dockyard, and was surprised to find
the master-builder of that establishment enlarging
one of the docks on his own responsibility ? ' And
why,' asked the King, have you presumed to do
this without authority ?' 'Please your Majesty,'
he replied, I learnt that the French were building
a ship too large to come into the dock as it was :'
and the King was thoroughly satisfied with the
explanation. It is a mere matter of fact to add,
that the French ship was captured very soon after-
wards, and brought into the dock so thoughtfully
provided for her." And the writer adds immedi-
ately :—" It is impossible to recal this incident
without contrasting the state of things in GEORGE
the THIRD'S day with that which now exists, and
has existed for several years past." In testimony
of which startling contrast, it is thereupon ob-
served, alas! with only too much reason :—" That
consciousness of superiority on the sea which then
kept us tranquil in the midst of war, has, of late
years, given place to apprehensions which have kept
us agitated in the midst of peace. During'the last
session of Parliament, for example, the representa-
tive of our Admiralty in the House of Commons
was continually reminding us of the great naval
power of Franco ; our Prime Minister pleaded more
than once for defensive works ; and the close of the
session was signalised by an acclamatory vote de-
signed to secure further protection for us. We
need hardly add, that this decline of confidence in
ourselves has caused the confidence of others in us
to decline, until our prestige on the Continent has
sunk very low. When naval matters are now
talked of there, it is no longer of England, but of
' the EMPEROR' that men think first ; and the great
name of PALMERSTON, once so profoundly respected
throughout Europe, is now more prominently asso-
ciated with mid-water forts at Spithead than with
mighty fleets floating there." The reason for all
which we hardly think, however, that the writer
in the Cornhill has quite explicitly enough stated,
when he maintains that "The sole cause of these
humiliating changes is our culpable delay, twice
repeated, in adopting great mechanical improve-
ments." Meaning, of course, by this—the delay
which took place at first in regard to the applica-
tion of steam power to the propulsion of our men-
of-war—and the delay, in the next place, in regard
to the steel-plating of our line-of-battle ships. The
cause, however, of this double declension in what
may be called our maritime preparedness—the de-
clension, that is, in our own confidence to begin
with, and by necessity afterwards in the awe in-
spired by us hitherto among the rest of the great
Powers of Christendom—is, we cannot but think,
only half put when it is thus stated. For, as it
appears to us, the cause of the " humiliating
changes," but just now referred to, is, like the result
of those changes themselves, of a duplex character.
The fault, in other words, is ours, of course—but it
is also, of our imperial neighbours. True, we have
been shamefully lax in our negligence—delaying thus
until our delay has become matter of serious, almost
vital consideration, now to apply steam propulsion
to our war vessels, now to incase those war vessels
with plates of iron. But, while the guilt so far is
ours indubitably, while we ourselves must bear the
full brunt of the blame provoked by the fact of this
neglected responsibility—there is the no less cer-
tain truth that an enormous amount of blame
attaches to the Frenth Government for the unfair
advantage taken by it in availing itself of the op-
portunity (certainly tempting) presented to view
by the incomprehensible Ar athy of England. We
htive been in th• wrong, not a doubt of it. Let that
be granted. But our Imperial neighbour has been
far more flagrantly in the wrong—in the eyes of
France herself—in the eyes of England, her faith-
ful ally—in the eyes of all Europe. For, without
provocation of any kind, without remote and scat-
tered colonies to care for, without plea or pretext
of the flimsiest description, France has been exert-
ing herself, with the utmost possible stretch of her
undoubtedly:large energies, to vie with Great Bri-
tain in the magnitude and majesty of her maritime

armaments.
England, on the contrary, having vast and
widely-distributed provinces in all quarters of the
globe, in every sea, in both hemispheres.—stretch-
ing northwards far into the Arctic, south-
wards far into the Antartic regions. The
European territories of England, for example,
lying far to the east and far to the west from our
own wonderful little archipelago—past the rocky
fortress of Gibraltar, past the insular " keep" of
Malta, away to the lonian islands with its restive
Geeek population ! And, extending far and wide
to 'ithe uttermost limits of the habitable globe, the
domain of England lying scattered throughout
Asia, Africa, North and South America, Australia
and the rest of Polynesia. Yet, with scarcely a
colony herself to care for, France all this while,
like the Frog in the presence of the Ox, in the old
lEsopian apologue—little JOHNNY CRAPAUD! in the
presence of lusty JOHN BULL ! !—must needs be
enlarging her naval force to the most extravagantly
disproportionate dimensions. Until—quite in keep-
ing with the sequel of the fable—the ambitious rival
suddenly bursts in the very effort of emulation.
The Financial Break-up that has so very recently
led to the return of M. ACHILLE FOULD to the
Ministry, marking the term, let us hope, of this
unnatural attempt on the part of France to out-
strip upon the ocean the energies and the enterprises
of the greatest maritime power the world has ever
seen. F.:ance compelled at length to moderate her
efforts in this unwonted direction—England
awakened at last fully and completely to a recogni-
tion of her own culpable apathy and negligence—
Britannia, we may now rest confident, is in a fair
way to resume her old supremacy over the deep.

A Cabinet Council was hell yesterday at the
official residence of the first Lord of the Treasury in Down-
ing-street. The Ministers present were Viscount Palmer-
ston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, Sir G. Grey,
Earl Russell, the Duke of Newcastle, Sir G. Cornewall
Lewis, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Duke of
Somerset, the Right Hon. Thomas Milner Gibson, the
Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, Lord Stanley of Alderley,
and the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers.
We understand that the 100-pounder Armstrong
guns, the issue of which had been temporarily suspended
during some experiments, will now be again delivered for
service.

WARLIKE MOVEMENTS.—The Freeman states
that in all probability a division of sailors from the Ajax,
which has been prepared for sea in case of necessity, will
leave Kingstown to join the Black Prince.
AMERICAN CORN.—Thirty years ago breadstuffs
were sent from Buffalo w, st ward to sup ,ly settlers in the
wilderness. That wilderness has flaw become the granary
of the world. The first shipment of wheat at Chicago for
the eastward was made in 1838, and consisted of only 2,000
bushels during the year. In 1855 upwards of 20,000,600
bushels were shipped. During the month of October last
12,483,797 bushels of grain and flour were received at Buf-
falo; and during the 13 months ending the 31st of October
last the receipts at Buffalo were 51,939,142 bushels of grain
and flour.
Her Majesty's ship Donegal (line.of-battle) passed
Madeira on the 25th ult., and her nijesty's gunboat Dot-
terel passed on the 27th ult., both on their way to the Gulf
of Mexico.

Commanders P. G. Nettleton and H. B. Burnaby,
R.N., have been appointed Admiralty agents on the India
and China stations,