The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-06-15
"Tne Battle OF Dorking."

zine for May 1.-THE Battle OF Derking-
"reminiscences of q Volunteer'-has beer
read by tens of thousands on both sides o
the Atlantic. In. this country all have
admired the finely painted picsure-pre
Raphaelite, almost to painfulness. Thu
Epglishman, however, has read it with fal
deeper interest. To him it is the sound 0
the d%eath-knell OF Albion. The writer o
his magazine article Colonel Hamley, it if
believed uses this method to arraign the
present British Government for their dilatory
policy last summer; for their pusAlanimous
conduct, now meddling and now proclaiming
rigid non-interferehce; and for their fancied
notion OF security, when the very air lbristlsf
with presages of coming danger. Article
after article having been published in the
quarterlies, in the magazines, and in the
heavy weeklies on the situstions and on the
unpreparea condition OF England to repei a
formidable foreign invasion, and all apparent,
ly unheeded-this writer has resarted to q
most ingenious method OF compelling atten'
ton. He has adopted the plan 80 successfully
practiced a century since by Swift, De Foe
and Goldsmith, in %chronicling imaginary
scenes and occurrences, with a minuteness
of detail and a realistic accuracy, that be-
guiled aver the most wary into unwilling
belief. This old 'Volautesr" purports to
narrate to bis grandchildren, in the year
1925, the conquest Of England by the Ger
mans in 1875. After q brief and disastrous
struggle, in which be, the narrator, was one
of the actors, humbly trying to do his duty
to his country, our volunteer, who is withal
a grim humorist, tells his long story with
the most painfully minute detail, never once
smiles, nor betrays his hoax by any blum
derlng auachronism.
With. the garrulity OF age he bewails the
good old times OF prosperity; he pictures, in
powerful words, the growing strength and
unparalleled success Of the Prussians, and
the imbecility and nefaciency Of the party
then'in power in England, that neglected
warning after warning, until the disaster
CAME and found them all 'unproYided. The
crash began, he says, with a rising in
India, that drew away q part OF the army;
then came the difficulty with America,
which had been threatening for years, and
ten thousand men were sent of to Canada,
while o still larger force was in Ireland, to
check the rumored Fenian invasion from the
West. The feet, too, was scattered abroad
oil over the world, and at that very time the
Secret Treaty was published, and Holland
and Denmark were annexed. at this, the
government, egged on by the press and
urged by public opinion, declared war.
"It was on q Monday that the declaration
'sof war was announced" says this historian
of the future, sand in a few hours we got
s'our first inkling OF the SOFT OF preparation
s'the enemy had made for the event which
'lhey had really brought about, although
'sthe actual declaration was made by us. A
''pious appeal to the God of battles, whom
cit was said We had aroused, wa tele-
'tgraphed back, and from that moment oil
communication with the. North OF Europe
s'was cut off," The usual imhecility of the
British Government in urgent times is then
exempli6ed; for the golden opportunities OF
the first few days are lost, and it is not until
the Tuesday fortnight following the declara-
ton of war that the fleet, the main depend
ence OF the nation, sets out for the North
Sea. 1t was the 10th Of August, 1875, that
the feet left the Downs, the admiral paying
out a submarine cable as it advanced, 80 that
communications might be kept up. On
Thursday morning the widest excitement
was created by the announcement, through
the cable, that the enemy's feet were in
sight. Shortly after that the action had
begun; then came the first token OF
calamity-the news that an iron-clad had
been blown np; then that the euemy's torpe-
does were doing great damage; that the
flagship had been blow up; and then
terrible silence for two days, when q solitary
iron clad, that had escaped the disaster,
steamed into Portsmouth, and gave the de-
tails of the destruction OF al the vessels Of
the feet saye one. From her commander
and crew it was learned that the English
had attempted to close with the enemy, who
| cheered of, and left behind them the terrible
engines that had sent their ships, one after
another, to the bottom. The government,
it was afterwards found out, had received
warnings Of this invention, bnt had treated
them with Indifference. The blow fell upon
the nation utterly unawares. The panic
was terrible; the funds went down to IS;
the Bank of England stopped; half the firms
in the city fell. The people focked to arms,
but the Stock of rifles was deficient. A lot OF
smoolh-bore muskets were distributed from
the Tower, but there was no smoeth-oore
ammunition in the country.
There is a close parody, all through this
article, Of the history Of the late war be-
tween France and Germany. England is
supposed to have been surprised into a big
war with Germany, confident, as France
was, Of sure and speedy victory, but in
reality not a whit better prepared for such a
struggle, neither as 10 her army or her navy.
He describes the tnmult and confnsion. the