• The blockade of the enemy's two fleets in the
Irish havens is still continued. Though he has made repeated attempts to get out, and though his torpedo-boats have done a certain amount of damage to the blockaders, none of his ships, except the Iris,' have managed to break through the well-kept watch. The most noticeable action of the war up till now has been the encounter between the Rodney' and the blockading squadron off Lough Swilly. The fight must have been very brilliant and exciting, the ` Rodney,' though failing to get nit, engaging at one time the Belleisle,' the Neptune,' the 'Inflexible,' and the Agincourt ' together. All the accounts show that the Rodney,' with her four terrible 67-ton guns, her power of steaming fifteen knots an hour, and her wonderful nicety in answering the helm, is an extremely powerful vessel, and one of which the Admiralty may well feel proud. The newspapers are full of grumbling from both sides that the rules of the game are not being obeyed, and that ships coolly refuse to be sunk when they ought to be, or to give up fighting when they have been clearly put out of action. The resolve not to be beaten exists, we expect, in both officers and men as much as it ever did, and though no doubt it makes sham-fighting rather unmanageable, it cannot, after all, be much regretted. It is often only by disobeying all the known rules of war that battles are won.
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