NEWS OF THE WEEK.
INTELLIGENCE was received in London on Friday afternoon of a great disaster to the Navy. The Vic- toria ' ironclad, of 10,400 tons, the flag-ship of the Mediter- ranean Fleet, collided with the Camperdown ' on Friday morning, and sank in eighteen fathoms of water. Of 600 -on board, only 225 have been saved, the Victoria,' before sinking, having turned bottom upward. These steel-boxes of machinery sink when injured with terrible rapidity. Every accident in deep water is fatal, and every fatality involves a loss of half-a-million sterling and hundreds of valuable lives. Every accident, too, increases the nervousness of officers, who already feel that they have to manage machines built for fighting, yet as delicate as fine watches. It is difficult, when one reads such accounts as those of the loss of the ' Captain,' the stranding of the 'Howe,' and the sinking of the Victoria,' not to feel a doubt whether the arguments in favour of smaller ships were not too hastily set aside.
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