13 JANUARY 1872, Page 3

The Times on Tuesday published a highly sensational article about

torpedoes. Mr. Whitehead's Fish Torpedo, which appears to be fired from a gun below the water-line, has been pronounced a success ; the inventor has received a reward of 215,000, and a ship is to be built to test his plan still more completely. The Times declares that if this ship should succeed, the British Navy must be once more reconstructed. The Navy of the future will have to be plated with iron below the water-line, while coal, provisions, and engines will have to be stowed above its level, in the position where the guns are now,—in order, we presume, to make room for the torpedo artillery. That is not a pleasant prospect, but it is, at all events, as good for one nation as for another, and best for the richest.