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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

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eight hundred citizens. Of these, there remained on hand at the date of the report twenty-nine thousand two hundred and twenty-nine officers and men, among whom were one major-general and seven brigadiers. There had been one hundred and twenty-one thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven rebels exchanged against one hundred and ten thousand eight hundred and sixtysix Union men returned.

Prussian batteries, and may derive great comfort hundred and fifty-six privates, and five thousand from the severe punishment she has received by guns far inferior to those we hold in readiness. For we also have not been idle, and both afloat and on shore all is prepared to resist attack and to meet the foe on his own terms. Our rivers also will have less to fear, for repeated triumphs and captures have taught us the value of horseartillery and light movable batteries against the best-armed boats. Still, the conflict will be fierce and full of interest, not only to those who are engaged in it, but to all observers. Our fate is at stake; but we may, in all probability, have to perform the rehearsal of a fearful tragedy soon to be enacted on a still vaster stage, amid the crash of ancient empires and the uprising of powerful races in the old world.

River.-THE English schooner Lily was captured by the gunboat Owasco, off Velasco, Texas.

-A RIOT Occurred in Savannah, Georgia, this

April 17.-Fort Gray, near Plymouth, NorthCarolina, garrisoned by National troops under the New-York regiment, was attacked by a force of command of Captain Brown, of the Eighty-fifth rebels belonging to the command of General Pickett, who was repulsed after having made several "The other new feature likely to give a strange unsuccessful attempt to capture the steamer Luattempts to carry the position by assault.-AN coloring to the summer's campaign is the large force of armed blacks which our enemy is prac-five miles below Memphis, on the Mississippi minary was made by the rebels at a point thirtytising to employ. They have apparently reconsidered their first plan of using them mainly for garrison duty, and we see them, in Virginia and other points of attack, place them in the van, or send them, well mounted, on foraging expeditions, day. Women collected in a body, with arms, in order thus to harden them for war. Whilst it cannot be expected that they will ever fight with the bravery or gallantry of our own men, we are disposed to believe that they will be as soldiers but little inferior to the riff-raff of Germany and Ireland, which enters so largely into the composition of the Northern army. The history of war teaches us that the most indifferent material may be made useful by careful association, and it is a maxim of common experience that those who will not fight alone and by themselves, will stand their ground, if properly supported and surrounded by large numbers. It is never wise to despise an enemy, least of all when he is as yet untried."

and marched the streets in a procession, demanding bread or blood. They seized food wherever it could be found. The soldiers were called out, and, after a brief conflict, the most active and prominent leaders were put in jail.

April 18.-This day at noon, three guerrillas were discovered in the town of Hunneville, on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, forty miles west of Hannibal, Mo. A dozen of the citizens, some armed, mustered to capture them. They had been purchasing stores, and were then at the saloon of a Union citizen, Mr. Dieman. On the approach of the squad, the guerrillas drew in defence, closed doors, and fired upon the citizens, wounding a militia captain, but not dangerously. April 16.-The report of the United States They also fired upon Dieman, inflicting a severe Commissary of Prisoners was made public. It wound. The citizens fired, killing two of the showed that the number of rebel officers and men guerrillas, and wounding the third, who succeedcaptured by the National troops since the begin- ed in escaping from the house and the vicinity. ning of the war was one lieutenant-general, five-THE Maryland State Fair, for the benefit of the major-generals, twenty-five brigadier-generals, one Sanitary and Christian Commissions, was opened hundred and eighty-six colonels, one hundred and forty-six lieutenant-colonels, two hundred and forty-four majors, two thousand four hundred and ninety-seven captains, five thousand eight hundred and eleven lieutenants, sixteen thousand five hundred and sixty-three non-commissioned officers, one hundred and twenty-one thousand one

with appropriate ceremonies at Baltimore. A speech was made by President Lincoln, in which he referred to the changes that had taken place in Baltimore during the past three years, and to the Fort Pillow massacre, which he said should be amply retaliated.-THE rebel schooner Good Hope was captured and destroyed at sea, by the

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