tors, if it should be our good fortune to finish and equip our own vessels of that class in time to meet them on equal terms. For since Aboukir and Trafalgar—a longer pause than was ever before known in the history of Europe-there have been no great naval fights, where fleets have met and the empire of the ocean has been at stake. Great wars have been carried on by land, but the sea has not been the scene of like great conflicts. During this long truce, two new clements-steam and improved projectiles-have entirely changed the conditions of such contests. "Vessels have become independent in their movements. Wind or tide may aid or impede, but they are no longer essential, and steam enables them to approach each other at will, untrammelled by external agencies. The power of the engines of war which they carry has steadily increased; and in precise proportion as the projectile gained in weight and distance, the means of defence were improved in the armament of vessels. Thus, we have now guns of a calibre unknown since the first days of artillery, and ships armed like the mailed knights of the middle ages. They promise a truly fearful character for the result of the first hostile meeting on a large scale. on pivots, have ascended our rivers with impunity, frightened the people on shore, and controlled the country for miles around. The pres tige that attended them at first, and cost us so dear, has, however, completely vanished. Like every dreaded danger, they succumbed as they were fairly looked in the face. Now we know fully their vulnerability, and the perils of a water transport for troops, with their helplessness when attacked in boats. "Since the first trials, however, the Yankees have made great efforts to remedy the evils that attended their early iron-clads-their want of buoyancy, their sinking too deep forward to approach well at certain landings, the necessity to tow them out at sea, and their slowness, which would embarrass the fleet to which they may be attached. They claim now to possess vessels as buoyant and free in motion as ordinary steamers, impenetrable to any known projectile, including the new Whitworth arms, and provided with a heavier armament than the last built iron-clads of the English. These they propose to carry into our harbors, and if we there can meet them, a conflict such as the world has not seen' yet will take place. The famous deeds of our noble Merrimac will be repeated, and England especially will watch the result with intense interest, as she well knows that these Yankee iron-clads were, in and British vessels. After Mr. Seward's insolent despatch to Mr. Adams, which Earl Russell so conveniently ignored, they are amply forewarned. "The experiments heretofore made with ironclad vessels have been but very imperfect trials. During the Crimean war certain 'floating bat-reality, not built for us, but for British ports teries' of the French attacked the very strong batteries of Kinsburn, and silenced them with apparent ease. They were, however, mere iron boxes, having neither masts nor yards, and, in fact, in no point like the iron-clads of our day, with their plate armor at the sides and their turrets on deck. A trial on a larger scale was contemplated against the forts of Venice, when peace came and resigned them to the dockyard. "Another fleet of smaller but equally dangerous vessels has been built in the interior of the country, and there is no doubt that the Yankees will again send out the fleet of light gunboats, well armed and iron-clad, to force their way into regions otherwise inaccessible, to carry war to "In our navy, also, the vessels of the enemy waters where they are least expected, and to overhave, with the exception of the fight with the come shore defences by a tempest of converging Merrimac, attempted only the reduction of stone fire. They will again try to illustrate the powerwalls at Charleston. Successful in beating down | ful aid which a land army may receive from the brick and mortar, and reducing granite to atoms, kindred branch afloat, manoeuvring on its flank, their projectiles have been found powerless against and supporting it by bold demonstrations. It is sand-bags and heaps of rubbish. The only seri- fortunate for us that we are both forewarned and ous encounter that can be called a fair trial of forearmed. We have been steadily informed of iron-clads resulted in the destruction of the mon- the powerful engines of war prepared for our deitor Keokuk, by the superiority of our project-struction. We have had our successes on the iles-steel bolts and spherical shot-devised by Lower James and in Charleston harbor. Brooke, the ingenious inventor of the deep-sea sounding-line. The Yankee gunboats occasionally, with their light draughts and powerful guns "We have, just in time, received the instructive account of the first trial of an English-built iron-clad, the Danish monitor Rolf Krake, before |