degree of assistance we could receive at any time from private ship-builders could only be known by just such an experience. as we are now going through. There is no class of vessels that has been called for during the war, whether of wood or iron, and whether iron-clad or not, that has not been readily undertaken by private contractors. There is no reason to find fault with these contractors. Events have shown that the people and the government may in general confide in their patriotism, ability, promptness, and fair-dealing. The Navy Department could never have held its present attitude in face of the rebellion without the efficient aid of these auxiliaries. But it is evident, from the nature of the case, that it has become indispensable for the government to expand its means of constructing iron-clad vessels, and to keep those means under its own control. This is a point that need not be argued. A simple statement possesses all the merit of evidence. The objects for which private ship-yards are established are entirely different from those of public yards; and, with the exception of some few instances, the appliances of private establishments are insufficient to meet the demands of the Navy proper. The last sailing-vessel built for the Navy was the Constellation, commenced in 1853, and completed in August, 1855. Steamvessels of war have entirely taken the place of sailing-vessels; and even steam-vessels of war must fly (unless protected from the enemy's shot and shell) from an armored cruiser. It has now become a necessity from which there is no escape, to build only armored vessels for aggressive war; and their construction requires buildings and machinery for rolling plates, and for heavy forging, such as are entirely beyond the resources of private proprietors, unless money is furnished them by the government. The new wants of the Navy demand special treatment. A new establishment is required, possessing every means and facility belonging to the present navy-yards, and something more. It must possess a greater water front, a better adaptation to the construction of dry and wet docks, and of heavy works in the shape of rolling-mills and forging-shops, than are to be found in Portsmouth, Boston, New York, or Philadelphia; it must be near to the sources of supply of iron and coal; and, not less important than all these, and more

than these, it must be in the region of fresh water, on account of the corroding effect of salt water upon iron, and the cleansing by fresh water of the bottom of an iron vessel fouled by a sea-voyage. As a last requisite, it is important that this new naval establishment should be near a large manufacturing community, which will supply workmen in abundance. It is only at such a place, and with such facilities, that the gigantic, sea-going, iron, iron-clad ships, like the Bellerophon and Minotaur, can be built in this country. And if they are built by England, they must be built by ourselves; otherwise we must expect to see our commerce driven from the ocean, as it is at present, and we must expect to submit, as we have hitherto been compelled to do, to injustice and rude

ness.

It is agreeable to think that the present changes in naval warfare will produce the effect of equalizing the naval powers of the world, at least in respect to defence. If Denmark possesses but one turreted iron-clad of the first class, with a fifteen- or twenty-inch gun, the bombardment of Copenhagen cannot be repeated. At this very time, when England is trembling for the defence of her shores against her ancient enemy, France, the smaller powers are employed in raising navies which are formidable in themselves, and would be still more so if thrown into either scale of a contest between the two great contending nations. As an indication of the present anxiety of England, it is worth while to notice the tone of a recent lecture and discussion at the Royal United Service Institution. Incredible as it may seem, propositions were made and debated, to build forts upon shoals at the entrance of her channels of commerce, and to throw enormous booms and other floating obstructions across the mouths of their harbors and roadsteads, to prevent the entrance of French ships of war! And, what is still more incredible, although some of the "mariners of England," high in rank, were present at this meeting, yet there was no one of them who rose from his seat to deny with indignation that England had arrived at such a state that she needed towers along the steep to protect her navy from French men-of-war; no one to say that, if the French ships came, they would be met, as hereto

fore, by English ships. When this scene is contrasted with the haughty tone of superiority and dictation which the Minister of Foreign Affairs is in the habit of assuming, it must be admitted that the Earl of Derby did not employ too strong language, when he spoke of England as being humiliated.

But to return for a moment to a consideration of the effect upon nations of humbler pretensions than England and France, of these alterations in the mode of conducting war upon the water, we have been surprised to learn how many of these iron-clad vessels even the new kingdom of Italy could boast of possessing. We are all of us familiar with the two of them recently built in New York, the Re d' Italia and the Re di Portogallo. But there are two others, the Roma and the Venezia, of the same size as the Re d' Italia, which will be launched in Genoa in a few months; their engines will exceed those of the former frigate by 200 horse-power. Besides these, there are four smaller iron-clad frigates, the Regina Pia, Castelfidardo, Ancona, and S. Martino, which will have the same horse-power and the same thickness of plates as the Re d' Ita lia, but carry only 26 guns, while the latter carries 36; the first two of these last-named frigates were built in France, the two latter are now on the stocks in Italy, and will be launched at the end of the present year. To these are to be added the Principe di Carignano and the Messina, which differ very little from the preceding in power and armament, and not at all in the thickness of plates, which in them, as in the first six English iron-clad vessels, covers only the battery. The Terribile and Formidabile are two iron-clad batteries of reduced dimensions in every respect; but they are fitted with rams, have an iron-clad pilot-house, and the thickness of their armor is only a half-inch less than that of the others. Finally, there is the ram Affondatore, carrying only two guns, about which we have no particular information. The Italian iron-clad navy numbers in all thirteen vessels.

We cite this example of Italy with peculiar satisfaction. Those nations which desire the freedom only of the seas, and not its exclusive rule, must be glad to see that any state is increasing its navy, and preparing itself to assist, if necessary, in the defence of that freedom. How soon the necessity may

arise, it is impossible to foresee. England and France are sufficiently occupied at present in constructing rival navies, and in interchanging acts and looks of defiance, thinly concealed under the language of courtesy. And since war has broken out in Europe, in which England, to save her honor, may be obliged to take a laggard part, we are more removed than ever from the immediate apprehension of her aggressive action. Both she and the Emperor of France may expect at present to find employment at home; but in both countries the preparations for war, both naval and military, both regular and volunteer, are made upon an enormous scale, and the preparations for war undoubtedly tend to create war. Besides the exultation, which England has not affected to conceal, in the threatened dismemberment of our empire, and the annihilation (for a time) of our foreign commerce, there is always something to apprehend in the capricious counsels of a monarch who has met his crown by by-paths and indirect, crooked ways. Legitimate sovereigns find employment enough for their time and thoughts in the business of their courts, and the affairs of their people. But one who has snatched his honor with boisterous hand must busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels,

"Lest rest, and lying still, might make them look

Too near unto his state."

Under these circumstances, it is our first duty to be prepared for the worst; and we may congratulate ourselves now upon having attained to a degree of preparation which removes present anxieties. There is so much yet to be done at home to preserve the life of the nation, that we cannot suffer ourselves to add to our burden by foreign quarrels, if they can possibly be avoided; but when that life is rendered secure, and is warmed again with more than the blood, and animated with more than the strength of former years, we shall endeavor, no doubt, to regain what has been lost in the confusion and distress of civil war. Happily, the desire for justice is unmixed with ambitious motives. When we assert our rights, and assume our station as a naval power on the high seas, we shall do so without any spirit of encroachment, or any wish to create a disturbance in the family of nations. But we ought to do so with sufficient force to be able to show, if it should prove expedient, that, in the administration of the

affairs of a great empire, pride and hate have been unsafe counsellors.

In the mean time, we must be careful neither to overrate our own power, nor to underrate the power of a possible enemy.

1863.

ART. VI. 1. The Cotton Trade. By GEORGE MCHENRY. London: Saunders, Otley, & Co. 2. Cotton Cultivation in India and other Countries. GIBBS, C. E. London: E. & T. N. Spon. pp. 248.

8vo.

pp. 292. By JOSEPH 1862. 8vo.

3. The Culture of Cotton. By J. W. MALLET, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Alabama. London: Chapman and Hall. 1862. 8vo.

pp. 183.

New

4. The Cotton-Planter's Manual. By J. A. TURNER. York: C. M. Saxton & Co. 1857. 12mo. pp. 320. 5. Reports and Extracts from Letters published by the New England Educational Commission for Freedmen. Boston: 1863, 1864.

6. Report to the Western Sanitary Commission in regard to leasing Abandoned Plantations. By JAMES E. YEATMAN, President Western Sanitary Commission. St. Louis. 1864. 7. Free Labor in South Carolina. Results of Practical Experiments. Letter from EDWARD S. PHILBRICK. New York Evening Post, March 3, 1864.

LESS than three years ago the Cotton States rebelled against the government which had so long protected them even in that most unlawful of all legal powers, the power to hold human beings in bondage.

They did this in full confidence that England and the other countries of Europe, which had for several years purchased of them from eighty to ninety per cent of their total consumption of cotton, were absolutely dependent upon them for their supply, and would be obliged to support them in their effort to obtain the power to extend human bondage not only over new territories, but over the vast area of the existing Slave States,