Our Ships-of-war And Their Speed

It is a curious fact that our most se rious manUime misiortunes in the present war ahould be directly tracoable to our infariority in one particular ot naval architecture, upon which in the piping times of peace we had been accustomod to plume ourselves aa espöcially mul illustrioiiHly ourown If ahy man bad . vontured three years ago to prophecy that the dockyarda of Mersey and Clyde would turn out upon the aoa a fieefc of war ateamera so swift that they would weep tho ocean oí our merehanlmen, ultnost ïrom under the very #una of our fineat "flying squadron," he would have " recoivod a prophet's roward" and been sent to Bloomingdale. But it ia uaelesd to deny n iuct because it is inortifying to admit it. Our war vesselx are no match in point of speed for thu cruisera whieh the Confedérate are equipping beyond the Atlantic. The Alabum.'i or tho Florida burus a Bos ton ehip at sea to-dny, and when at the end of twenty-four hours some Federal ganboat or screw cornea heavily lurohing and rolling up like a bolated pojioeman to the scooa of ac'.ion the culprit tteamer is threa hundred miles away reptating her exploit. The European mail of yenterday infarm uá thiittwo more vessöls of this kind have just boen launohed iu Groat Britain lor the Cüufedurate, and it i to be nup jouod that within five or eir weilks i these, v.'ith tLe refitted itennier i ter, will be afloat uoder the stars and bura. Mr. Adamg will no doubt address oarnest remonntranoes on thenub ject to Earl RuMttll. Karl RdsbüII will no doubt gravely regret the .ïnadequucy of tho luws to rest rain tho nefanous onterprise of Rordid hip buildern. - Then we nhall have a millioQS more of uroperty destroyod at ea under our flag and probably another meeting of the Chamber of Coinmerce, and otlier artiülea iu the radicul journals dom m!ing " reprisals upon Briti.sh oomÉoeroe." All tliia is likoly to ocour. Meanwhils, who are really the guilty parties ; in the matter ? We may woll ruservu our breath from angry upbraiding of liritain and the British to bestow theui where, if anywhere good can be done by words, they can do good. The Naval Departmout must be made to understand that this hame must be lifted from the nation. It must be made to understaud tbat there are pooplo in Americi competent to peroeive the extreme unwiadora of fitting thouauod ton ships with engines ñttod íor shipg of half the sizo. Tbey must be made to understand that the positively ludiaroua attampt3 of our average meii of war to overtake these Brit ish built rovera are making us a laughingstock all the world over. It is not on the Atluntio only that the shortcomings of our navy in tbis poiat are avenging thoinselves. The :fiaet of Admiral I''arraut ought uevcr to have boen dotained long enough under the batterïes of Port Hudson to sufl'er whut really befell it, and had the Vessels been adequately equipped it oever could have boen go detuined. The proverb which tella us that " fools make nioney for wise mea to spend ie " will certainly need revisión if the lavisk liberality of the American pooplo is to resmlt iu robbing us of the laurels we have been most proud to wear.