The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-29 00:00:00

OUR IRON-CLAD FRIGATES.

When the Emperor of the French first began
building his iron fleet it was thought by many
shrewd observers in this country that he made
rather a false step in the attempt to secure prepon-
derance for his navy by the use of the new mate-
rial, for that, from the immense resources of
our great private yards, and our unquestioned
superiority in all relating to ironwork, it would
be seen that England could turn out six such
ships quicker, better, and cheaper than three
could be built in France. Not more than three
years have elapsed since that time, and already
the prediction is fulfilled. It reflects no ordinary
credit on the skill of our manufacturers and
naval architects that they have even now over-
taken the long start France had of us in this re-
spect ; that while the French dockyards are still
feeling their way, experimenting on kinds of
plates and forms of ships, and turning out a succes-
sion of almost failures at prodigious cost, we have
already sent afloat two of the finest, fastest, and
most invulnerable ships in the world. It is a very
general but a very great error, however, to suppose
that all our iron frigates are Warriors and Black
Princes. We did not jump at once to perfection, and
all our ironsides, except the two we have named,
represent more or less strongly the successive stages
of failure through which we have passed to success.
The Resistance and Defence are neither steam rams
nor iron frigates. Unwieldy in form and slow in
speed, they can never be safely used for more than
floating batteries. Fortunately, however, they are
built entirely of iron, instead of, like the first float-
ing batteries, iron over oak, and the Defence and
Resistance, therefore, are likely to be as strong a
century hence as they are now, while the batteries
built in 1855 are some of them already broken up,
and the rest rotten. The Hector and Valiant, now
building at Westwood and Bailie's and Napier's, are
as great improvements on the Defence and Resis-
tance as the Warrior and Bidck Prince have been
improvements upon them all. To take a single in-
stance of the rapidity with which science and en-
gineering skill are developing to the utmost the
powers of these tremendous ships, look at the War-
rior and Black Prince. These are sister ships, alike
to a rivet, and on the trial cruise of the first named
she attained, and with wind and steam maintained,
a speed of 17-1 knots an hour, or 20 statute miles—
vary nearly the speed of a Parliamentary train.
Yet, from the experience of the Warrior, it is said
that Mr. Penn already sees where he may introduce
such modifications into the engines of the Black
Prince as will give her nearly half a knot an hour
more speed than her great sister. But even with
these results, which surpass the most sanguine ex-
pectation, we are not content to stand still. The four
improved Warriors ordered and now building—the
Achilles, at Chatham, the Minatour, at the Thames
Ironworks, the Captain, at Mr. Laird's, and the
Northumberland, at Mr. Mare's—are each and all
of them to be larger, longer, stronger, and, swifter
than any that have gone before. In fact, when w•
look back on our brief but vigorous com-
petition with the French, we find that
our first attempts at iron ships were in
many important particulars below the standard
from which the French started with La Gloire.
But the difference is that the French have adhered
to their standard, while we have constantly striven
for improvements and more improvements; and the
result is that, :so far as our present knowledge
goes, we have:attained perfection, while our neigh-
bours are comparatively still drudging at the bot-
tom of the form. That this statement of the merits
of the two countries in iron ships is perfectly well
founded we think we can show. Only a few weeks
since one or two of our most eminent shipbuilders,
thoroughly conversant with ironsides, visited some
of the French dockyards to see what was doing
there. They were allowed to inspect some of the
iron-clad frigates building, all the works connected
with which were advancing much more slowly
than they had been led to expect. Those which
they inspected were merely wooden ships plated,
or to be plated, with apparently little, if at all,
more than three-inch iron. They were mostly ves-
sels of from 3,000 to 3,500 tons ; in fact, frigates
and two-deckers cut down and much strengthened
in their scantling, to enable them to carry armour
from end to end. From the want of great tonnage,
a flat floor, and large displacement, it was evident
that they would be so immersed by the weight of
their armour as to bring their portsills dangerously
near the water, and render their guns all but use-
less in a seaway. Nor is this their only fault, for
their wooden frames not having the strength of our
iron vessels, which are as rigid as bolts, work so
much when steaming in a seaway as almost to
work them to pieces, and make docking, and
fresh caulking necessary after every gale. But
the worst of all their defects is that the iron and the
oak do not go well together, and we may infer,
from the causes being alike in both cases, that the
framework of the French ships will rot as quickly
as our own floating batteries did—that is to say,
within some eight or ten years. These defects are
very well known to the Admiralties of other Govern-
ments besides our own, and the result is that the
continental powers.are coming here to have their
iron frigates built, instead of going to France, and
thus, through tho medium of our private firms,
encouraging still further the monopoly we have
almost gained in the manufacture of these great
ships of war. Iron war vessels, of various sizes and
thickness of armour, are now building on the Thames
for the Russian,Danish, and Peruvian Governments,
and it is said that in a short time Spain intends to
order two frigates of the same class. If anything
were needed to show that the French are still at
a loss to make really good armour plates, it would
be found in the recent offer of the authorities at
Toulon to the Thames Ironworks. When the
great experiments at Shoeburyness against the
Warrior target, and to which we shall refer pre)

sently, had proved th, aide of
Ihe ship generally were pra, iallailnvlaterable to
the fire of artillery, no matter how concentrated,
the Thames Company were offered their own terms
to manufacture 1,000 tons of similar plates for the
dockyard at Toulon. This proposition the Thames
Company declined, alleging, truly, that they had
already as many orders of the kind in hand for our
Government as they could compass. Had only one
or two plates been ordered, it would have meant
nothing more than that the French were about to
experiment on them as we had done ourselves. Bat
with the Protectionist leanings of French dock-
yard officials, it is not too much to presume that
after the trial at Shoeburyness they must have
known that their own armour plates were vastly
inferior to the Warrior's when they went the ex-
treme length of trying to get for themselves no less
than a thousand tons of such plates from an English
firm. The experiments upon tl.e target, the success
of which was so unequivocally endorsed by our
neighbours, took place at Shoeburyness, in the pre-
sence of the Lords of the Admiralty and a large
number of naval and military officers, scientific gen-
tlemen, and others. The target was a perfect section
of the Warrior's broadside, 20 feet long and 10 high,
made by the Thames Iron Company, of exactly the
same materials as the Warrior itself. This was
erected at 200 yards distance from a battery of six
guns—two solid 68 pounders, three of Armstrong's
100-pounders, and one 120-pounder shunt gun.
Every one knew before the experiments commenced
that such a target would stand an immense amount
of pounding, and the chief curiosity was evinced to
see how the teak hacking would support the plates,
and, above all, how the rivets in the ribs would re-
sist the tremendous concussion. No one, however,
was prepared for the astounding success of the re-
sult that did ensue, and which showed itself at the
close of the experiments, during.which the target
wassubjected to every conceivable ordeal of artillery
practice, yet survived comparatively uninjured, and
practically as invulnerable as-ever. The guns were
fired in volleys of threes, and fours, and sixes simul-
taneously. Their shot were concentrated upon white
spots painted on what were supposed to be the parts
most likely to yield. On these the fire of the most
tremendous missiles-100-pounders, 120-pounders,
and even 200-pounder bolts—were directed, with a
force and weight that seemed irresistible ; but in
vain. The shot flew off in ragged splinters, hissing
through the air, the iron plates became almost red
hot under the tremendous strokes, and the whole
target rang like a huge gong, but nothing more.
As a rule, the 68-pounders left their mark in mas-
sive dents more deeply than the 100-pounder Arm-
strongs, but the live percussion shell of either did
little more than discolour the plates with the smoke
of their impotent explosions. Two discharges, each
of three 2001 b. cast-iron bolts, were fired in succes-
sion at two different spots, but though of course
the plates had been often struck before in the same
places, the additional injury was comparatively
trifling. A grand final salvo was given with all the
six guns, trained three on each of the already bat-
tered spots. As the guns were loaded each with
161 b. of powder, this volley, in fact, was equal to a
600 lb. shot fired at the target with 100 lb. of powder.
The effect of this tremendous trial was to make 'a
gap on one side of the target 15 inches long and five
deep, driving the iron, in fact, almost into the teak.
Some bolts of the plates were also loosened, and the
plates themselves began to crack under their long
ordeal. Yet, strange to say, even under this the
strong teak backing was still undisturbed, and
not even the paint on the rivets had started. In
fact, as representing the side of a ship, she would
still have been perfectly water-tight and uninjured.
The tonguing and grooving by which the edges of
the plates are dovetailed into each other had given
way, as we always maintained it would, and some
of the plates themselves had started outwards as
much as an inch and a half. But the target, as a
target, was as good as ever. There is only one
possible condition in which the Warrior could be
placed to be exposed to a concentrated fire as severe
as that to which her section was subjected at Shoe-
buryness, and that would be if she stranded within
200 yards of the guns of a powerful fortress. Even
then, in such a last extremity, we are very much
inclined to believe the Warrior would be quite as
formidable to the fort as the fort to her.

The practical retzult ov this gland experiment has
been to show that nothing is gained by backing up
the armour plates with such-a tremendous thick-
ness of teak as 20 inches. It is found that prac-
tically 10 inches will do as well as 20, and that the
saving thus effected in the reduction of weight will
allow another inch thickness of iron to be used
in the plates themselves. Thus the " improved
Warriors," now building, instead of 41 inches of
armour and 20 inches of teak, are to have 10 inches
of teak and 51 of iron—an addition to the metal
covering which is really unnecessary, as they are
already invulnerable, in the most perfect and literal
sense of the term, to all the efforts of artillery. Be-
fore speaking of the intended Warriors, however,
we must refer for a moment to those we have got.
In their construction, the Admiralty very wisely
abandoned mere routine, except on two points,
where it was rigidly adhered to—in the rig and the
number of the crew ; and it is exactly in these two
points that the Warrior is deficient. Routine per-
sists in considering this tremendous vessel—larger
than three line of-battle ships, and a match for
half a dozen—as an ordinary frigate, and so she has
only an ordinary frigate's crew of 600 men. Had
she been a vessel of the Hero class—that is to say,
nearly two-thirds smaller—she would have been
manned with 850 or 900 men ; but being more than
double the size of the largest three-decker in the
navy, she gets 600. Every one knows how this
grievous disparity tells on the crew ; how, no
matter what the weather or the hour, all hands
must be on deck to perform manoeuvres which the
watch of a line-of-battle ship can do with ease. In
fact, the Warrior has more than a line-of-battle
ship's sails and spars, with less than half the num-
ber of men to handle them that are considered
absolutely necessary in a ship 3,000 tons instead of
7,000. All hands would be a whole day holy-
stoning the Warrior's deck, and it will not keep
clean an hour longer than a smaller vessel's. In
short, unless the Admiralty want to make these
ships unpopular with the sailors, by exacting from
their crews an amount of work out of all proper.
tion to their number, they will allow them the crew
which their size and importance require. With
regard to the rig, all practical ship-builders were
most strongly of opinion that she ought to have
had a fourth mast, and the late experimental
cruises of the Warrior have proved the correctness
of their judgment. Her mainmast is so far aft that
the power exerted by her sails is most disadvan-
tageously placed, and the result, it is said, is
that the Warrior is rather unmanageable under
canvas alone. We believe that these facts are so
well known to the Admiralty that a special rig,
giving them four masts and more fore and aft sails,
will be adopted for the ships now building.

T sHE _GETIIERN ARmy. According to accounts
from Washington the Southern army is composed of 460,000
men, This calculation is based on tho annual
report othe
Comptroller-General of Georgia, just puplished
.That Statp
has
now in the service of the Confederacy 40 reolment.,4
which, assuming each regiment to be full and containing
1,01,000 men, would be one out of every 15 of the free popula-
tion, The other Confederate States have apparently fur •
nished the following numbers :—Eastern Virginia, 54,000;
North Carolina, 45,300 ; Georgia, 40,000 ; Alabama, 31,000;
Texas, 27,000; Mississippi, 27,100; Tennessee, 57,303;
Louisiana, 23,600 ; Arkansas, 22,030 ; South Carolina,
20,800; Florida, 5,400; total, 337,000, which does not in-
clude the troops furnished by Missouri, Kentucky, and
Maryland, amounting to about 100,000 men. By the (*urns
of 1860 the fighting population, or males between a
mil 18 and
45, in the Confederate States are upwards of lion, so
that it is reasonably supposed that half the number are
eutu
tdhe
er alri nnies:
frigates,
Tli e S
eulteheeprsn
war, of g regular
barrtigns):,fiitnsetl uu
ud idn ge e
csebti, s.
class steam sloops, &c., amounts to 107 vcsvls, wilew with
purchased and chartered ones the grand tc,tal 1,
Liva pool Mercury.
[ADVERTISEMEN•
`T•1—Holloway's Ointment and Pills,—
The scrofulous and consumptive will find in these noble
remedies the meaas of casting out the bad hurt-fouls
which originate and prolong their sufferings. The Oint-
should be well rubbed twice a day upon the skin as near as
possible Ito the part affected. It will penetrate and act
most wholesomely and energetically on the diseased struc-
ture. It manifests a wonderful power in removing all
taintsmul-
titude of chronic u
front theblojultets which seemedconsequently,d,eaund, to b
in
ccuringalmost s
at
irre-
mediable. In all constitutional complaints Holloway's
purifying Pills should be taken while his Ointment is
being used; both remedies will readily bring about
cure
of of scrofula, scorbutic eruptions, and ulcerations,

THE SUN.
LONDON, FRIDAY, NOV. 29, 1861.

We shall be, es the phrase is, agreeably disap-
pointed, if Messrs. LINCOLN and SEWARD are will-
ing and able to accede to the demand which must
now be made by the British Government. Willing,
we fear they will not be, because few persons, and,
least of all United States officials, are willing to own
themselves wrong if they be so. It is a pitch of
breeding far above them frankly to confess an error.
A British gentleman, if he has been betrayed by his
temper or by ill-advice into a wrong against an-
other, could not rest till he had adequately apolo-
gised. Ho feels his honour involved in making the
best reparation in his power. But the low class
of men with whom it has been the misfortune
of America to fill her highest places
mistake vulgar pertinacity for honour and dignity.
"Not to yield an inch"—and that not in a matter
of courage, but for the impartial judgment of unpre-
judiced persons—is the notion of honour held by
POLK and PIERCE, BUCHANAN AND LINCOLN,
and by the speech-making bullies whom they have
used as secretaries. We suppose there can be little
doubt that the American Commander acted under
direct orders from Washington, and if so, for the
reason above mentioned, it is hardly to be hoped
that the American PRESIDENT and his Seeretary
will voluntarily undergo the penance of acting like
gentlemen.

But suppose them willing, will they be able ?
What would the fire-eating press of America say to
them ? What would the sovereign mob say ?
What would become o Mr. LINCOLN'S majorities
in Congress ? It is, perhaps, more than
any mediocre man elected by the vast mediocrity of
the United States dares do, to disown the act of any
man who had in conformity with orders from
Washington flouted the British flag. But one
argument would enable a President to yield, and
that is an overwhelming British superiority in
guns. It was this which brought Mr. BUCHANAN
to acknowledge the demands of our Government in
the case of San Juan. his envoy found there that
lipritish men-of-war were masters of the situation.
ossibly when Mr. LINCOLN is aware that we have,
or soon shall have, nearly a thousand guns afloat
within easy reach of the Potomac, he may feel the
weight et armaments if he feels little the weight of
arguments; and it
may be the most peaceful
course for the Axaetie
anls not only to
know, but to see, that if we
few broadsides annihilate
their pleased we could by a
blockade, or send
all their ships crouching beneath their forts
to feel very ill at ease there also. We are not
counselling war, or even direct threats, but
when
we, has%) to do with bullies, it is not amiss quietly
to let them be aware that we have a life-preserver

or a revolver in our pockets.
The terms of the oi)inion furnished by the Law
Officers of the Crown have not yet been made
public, but their purport has not been concealed.
If we are rightly informed, the seizure of peaceful
passengers is held to be illegal ; and further, the
law of nations requires that the vessel should hare
been taken before a prize court and regularly dealt
with, that all persons might have an opportunity
of proving their position and rights. The last is,
we presume, unquestioned law. It has never been
heard of yet out of the range of piracy, that a
commander of an armed vessel could do more than
seize an unarmed ship of a neutral, acting on his
owilresponsibility for proving before an Admiralty
Courttillus that_ttr pwas violating international
emlised nation has ever authorised its A

commanders to act the part of lawyers, and to decide
en the application of the law of nations to indi-
vidual eases. We do not see, even if this legal and
technical ground be adhered to, what reply the Go-
vernment at Washington can make. They may
plead the notoriety of the errand of the Commis-
sioners, they may even plead that though their
orders were carried out with every adjunct of rude-
ness that could well be invented, they yet intended
to save the Trent inconvenience, by not delaying the
mails on board, but they must know that this could
not avail legally, and that as the Commissioners
were illegally taken from under the protection of
our flag, we can claim for them that they should
be replaced in the position in which they were
found.

The other point may admit of more to be said on
both sides. Messrs. SLIDELL and MASON were two
unarmed pissengers, proceeding from one neutral
port to another neutral port, and they were per-
sons belonging to the States with which we ac-
knowledge the North to be engaged in lawful war.
But the North will not, probably, contend that
they have a right to seize such persons as pri-
soners of war. Unless, indeed, found assisting the
army, they could not, according to civilised usage,
have been seized as prisoners, even if
found in Charleston or Richmond. But it
will be contended that they bore an
official character, and one in which they might
greatly aid the enemy of the captors. It is not
pretended that they had military or naval skill,
which it is acknowledged, if they were proceeding
to the enemy's country, might be invaluable in war;
it is at most alleged that they were commissioned to
neutral Powers, and to Powers both of whom were
in amity with the Washington Government. Mr.
LINCOLN'S claim must therefore go as far as this—
that he has a right to prevent the Power which we
have acknowledged as a belligerent from appealing
to our Government for any purpose whatever. Can
such a claim be ever acknowledged? We should
think, if not a new case, that international law
must be against it. We are sure public
policy is against it. Public policy re-
quires that all facilities should be afforded
to belligerents of seeking the mediation of neutrals.
Mediation is only possible through hearing bath
sides. The Northern representative is here to
state his side. Now, it is quite possible that the
commissioners to two such perfectly impartial
Powers as France and England might be charged
with a mission of the kind suggested ; they might
be authorised to express the willingness so far
as the South is concerned, to accept the joint media-
tion of England and France. We are not even
intimating that such was the fact—but it is so
possible, nay, in the course of time, so likely, to be
the object of a diplomatic mission to England from
the South, that we should contend, in the face of
any authority to the contrary, that such persons
ought to be as safe in a neutral ship as they would
be on British soil. The common interests of

humanity require it.
Probably there will be few now who will rei-
terate their outcries against Lord PALMERSTON
for taking moderate military and naval precau-
tions against any abusive use the Federals might
make of their armaments. If Mr. SEWARD would
talk, and American naval officers act as they have
done, in the face of strength in Canada, and in
the American waters, what would they not have
dared and done had we not shown that we were
not quite asleep. We repeat our confidence,
however, in our Government. Lord PALMERSTON
cannot dishonour his country ; unless prompt
reparation be made he will, we are assured, insist
upon it in a way in which it cannot be refused.
Better give up our American commerce, and
close our ports to every American ship, than
submit to such outrages as those. _National
honour is worth something to every Englishman,
unless he be the editor of some " Peace at any price"
penny paper. We may endure 'much from a bully,
but if we think it beneath us to fight him, we can
at least cut him; and, unless the Federal States
make reparation, it is the least we can do. Firm-
ness now is, in truth, the most peaceful course. So
ashamed are the North of being held in check so long
by the South, so nettled is their temper, that unless
we show that we do not choose to catch their
side blows we shall have plenty of them. If we
allow them to console themselves for Bull's Run
and half a dozen defeats by taking passengers out of
our steamers, we shall next hear of Mr. YANCEY
being seized in the streets of London, hurried into
an American vessel, and shipped off to the North.
Better stop such outrages by merited chastisement
at the first.

The American know now that they have caught
their Tartar. The despatches brought by the City
of New York mention that the San Jacinto has
arrived at Fort Monroe with Messrs. SLIDELL and
MASON on board. Doubtless "sensation" headings
and paragraphs have by this time flown all over
the Northern States, though it would be injustice
to suppose that there are not thousands of highly
intelligent and respectable persons who, in secret,
shake their heads at such news, and wish Mr.
SEIVARD anywhere, so that he were incapable of
such useless and dangerous doings. His welds
have disgusted, no doubt, the better portion of his
countrymen ; his deeds will alarm them. This
portion of the inhabitants does not, however,
govern in America; it must, therefore, put up
with national conduct which it despises as much
as we do. There is a report that a large British ,
steamer, laden with arms, has been captured. Of
this 'no one will complain. We are all agreed
that those who supply arms to either North or
South must do it at the risk of capture.
There is some doubt whether the Federals
took possession of the town of Beaufort. They
appear to have encamped on the adjacent sea
island of Hilton—so at least accounts from South
Carolina state. The same accounts represent the
Confederates as having sent reinforcements to the
town and intending to keep it, while the Federal
Government, we are told on the other hand, is
discussing whether or not it shall be made a port
of entry. It would seem that there must be a
considerable quantity of cotton at Beaufort, and
that not less than 10,000 bales (4001bs. each) are
already at the disposal of the Federal Go-
vernment. One account mentions that 2,000,000
dollars' worth had been seized. At Charles-
ton the spirit of resistance is very deter-
mined ; the black flag has been hoisted both
there and at Savannah, "as an indication that
quarter would be neither asked nor given."
If the South hoists the black flag, however, the
North seems likely at last to call out the Black men,
and perhaps there maybe some connection between
the two. A colonel addressing his regiment at
Washington urges the arming of the Southern
islaves against their masters. The Secretary of the
War, who is present, endorses the recommendation
of the military man ! This account, if true, and if
it means as much as it would seem to mean, is by
far important news yet received from the
North.
most important
own to a little incredulity. Either
the os
the language may be overstated, or the Secretary of
War may have little influencteirnortenhe,—Ctaabliknbeng
Cabinet or
he may be prompted to talk in er
so important an instrument in the North.
notrth. eciAullalthine
Northern victories put together virul

mportance this victory over negro-hatred in the
North. It may, however, be all true, though
we had thought it would. take several more
defeats to whip the North vp to the only mea-
sure which can secure thei n complete victory.
If done, however, it must no t be done by halves.
The decree of the North must run through all
the Southern States, that e very negro and his
family who offers himself for Federal military
service are from that day free men, and that, so
far as the Northern army can penetrate, the
South will become free won. There will
be no lack of commissioners, net easy to capture,
to carry the desire to every plantation; and this
once effected the cause of the South will be despe-
rate. The North will, indeed, have one difficulty.
It has lost it character with the negro. The planters
can make their slaves believe almost anything of
the North. It will not, however, be difficult, in a
short time, to furnish visible evidence of the free-
dom of all who join the North; and then rapidly,
indeed, would the chattels avail themselves of
nature's emancipators, and run off to the Federals.

Lord STANLEY'S interpretation of what is called
the Conservative Reaction, already referred to by
us in our impression of Saturday, is entitled to a
more than merely passing consideration. That
there is, in fact,—(remember this way of putting
it in the words we here repeat for the simple pur-
pose of italicising them)—that there is, in truth,
what is called A Conservative Reaction no ono will
seriously be disposed to dispute. But what is
actually meant by the movement thus designated,
is a very different matter indeed. Of the actual
nature of the change in " the spirit of the dream"
of England, there may be,:doubtless there must be,
a great variety of opinions. But among these
opinions we question very much whether there can
be found any one more closely approximating to
the truth than the one which has been so very hap-
pily expressed by the son of the late Tory Premier,
himself one of the leading members of the last Con-
servative Administration. While we say this, how-
ever, and while we speak thus of Lord STANLEY,
we remember perfectly well, of course, what few
will be likely to forget, that the noble lord, the
member for the borough of King's Lynn, though
he occupied a seat at the Cabinet Council Table of
the Tories in his Ministerial capacity as one of her
MAJESTY'S Secretaries of State, first of all for the
Colonies and afterwards for India, was, and
is, and we have very little doubt always will
be, one of the most advanced and enlightened
among the chiefs of the Conservative party.
His sympathies, in fact, are, in all essential
particulars so manifestly upon the popular
side, that he partakes as a politician more
of the character of a Liberal than of a Conservative.
Remembering all which of Lord STANLEY it be-
comes peculiarly interesting to listen for a moment
to his interpretation of what is called, for want of
some more definite phrase, the Conservative Re-
action.

The noble member for King's Lynn, while ad-
dressing his constituency last week upon the actual
position of things at home and abroad, in the speech
already analysed in these columns, gave precedence
to the questions involved in our foreign relations, and
after having expressed his opinion very lucidly upon
those important topics, undertook frankly enough
to glance for a moment into the somewhat hazy
future of our domestic legislation. Here it war—
having reached this point—that Lord STANLEY at
once " tackled" the little problematic difficulty we
have but just now alluded to ! The definition, that
is, according to the best of his ability, of the
popular phrase now so often repeated. "We have
all of us," he said, "heard a great deal in the last
few months of what is called a Conservative reac-
tion," adding, " Now, the thing in rt3sl enough, but
the phrase is not strictly accurate. _Reaction in
this country there is not, and I believe there never
will be. It is our nature to make changes slowly,
but when we have made them all parties agree to
abide by them. There is no measure which has
passed in the last 30 years which, so far as I know
and believe, any considerable party in this country
would now propose to repeal ; therefore, I say, in
the strict sense of the word, reaction there is none."
Plain speaking, that—not a doubt of it. And
rather satisfactory plain speaking too. Particu-
larly as it is the deliberate and volunteered expres-
sion of the conscientious convictions—of whom ?
—of the son and heir, and the Ministerial colleague
of the Tory ex-Premier, one of the principal Secre-
taries of State in the last Conservative Adminis-
tration. Reaction, then, there is none. Lord
STANLEY has said it. The fact is now admitted
by the Conservatives themselves—as it is de-
monstrable, in truth, by everybody else.
" BUT"— it is again Lord STANLEY, the advanced
and liberal-minded Conservative member for
King's Lynn, who is speaking—" But of Con-
servative feeling and contentment as to that which
we have, and of objection to any changes that may
be proposed, there is undoubtedly more than at any
time within my reco:leetion." Lord STANLEY adds
at once, " I do not believe that this has anything
to do with the accidents of political combinations
or the working of Parliamentary parties. Indeed,"
his lordship goes on so far as to say, " I believe it
would be precisely the same if every politician
and Minister now living were swept off from the
face of the earth, and if a House of Commons were
returned composed entirely of new men." " But,"
continues the noble lord, in explanation of his
meaning, while addressing himself thus to his con-
stituents down at Lynn, " I think the causes of
this state 'of feeling are not difficult to find. We
have only to look around us. The establishment
of the French empire following on the popular re-
volution of 1848—the spectacle of France enjoying,
indeed, much glory and much prosperity, but de-
prived of freedom—the not altogether satisfactory
working of what I may call ultra popular institu-
tions in some of our colonies [and in America ?]—
the fact that we are at this moment the only
first-rate Puwer in Europe, and, indeed, in the
world, which is not going through a :crisis, added
to the unfortunate disunion, especially in the great
manufacturing towns, between the middle and
working classes, consequent on movements of
trades unions—the fact that there is with both par-
ties a disinclination on the part of employers to
an extended suffrage—these cit cumstances, taken
together, are quite sufficient to explain why there
should be at the present time a preponderance of
moderate opinions." Yes—moderate opinions, if
you will, but not Reaction. Granting this—the
.Emly conclusion drawn by Lord STANLEY from any
such rational and temperate view of the situation
of things generally, is " that, organic changes being
out of season, the very fact that they are out of
season proves that the present time—as times of
quiet generally are—is especially favourable fir the
carrying out of administrative reforms." There
spoke, in truth, one of the foremost men among
our Liberal Conservatives or Conservative-Liberals
—not the Reactionist, but the Reformer ! ,

His Excellency the Austrian Ambassador and
the Countess Apponyi come to town to-day from visiting
the Marquis and Marchioness of Salisbury at Hatfield
House.

The Duke and Duchess of Montrose are at Com-
piegne, on a visit to the Emperor and Empress of the
French,