Admiral Sir R. H. Yelverton entered Queenstown on the 19th
August, having completed the evolutions of the year off Cape Uehant. He had there under his command 26 vessels, 19 of which are ironclads, including twelve or thirteen vessels each without a rival in power in the world. At Uahant he parted with the Flying Squadron and the Reserve, but he steamed into Queens- town with' the Lord Warden, 4,080 tons ; the Hercules, 5,234 tons ; the 11;4onarch, 5,102 tons ; the Prince Consort, 4,045 tons ; the Northumberland, 6,621 tons ; the Defence, 3,720 tons ; the Caledonia, 4,125 tons ; and the Warrior, 6,109 tons. Each of these ships, and they are not a third of those we could have ready on an alarm, is the equivalent in effective power of a first-class fortress ; all are armed with the bat guns yet made in the world, and all sail about our rough seas as easily as the old wooden three-deckers. It is not too much to say that our fleet " which cannot swim" would have a fair chance of sinking iu honest fight on the open sea every ship that the combined Governments of the world could send against it. Consequently, the publicans of Great Britain are going to dismiss the Government, because it does not properly provide for the defence of the country.
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