The Sun. — London, England, 1866-05-11 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence. _----.0.- --- The 7th company of Royal Engineers, which was placed under orders some few days since to proceed from head -quarters, Chatham, to occupy the case mated batteries just erected within the fortifications on the Isle of Grain, at the confluence of the Thames and Medway, for the better defence of Chatham Dockyard and the naval and military arsenals, will not leave Brompton barracks until the end of the present month, a subsequent order having been re ceived at the garrison stating that the new barrack buildings are hardly ready for their reception. The new fortifications, which have been some years in construction, are nearly completed. The defences on the opposite or eastern shore of the Medway, at Gar rison Point, which occupy the site of the old Half moon Battery, are also far advanced, and in con junction with the batteries erected higher up the Medway, at Folly-point and Darnet -ness, Bishop's marsh, will effectually protect the channel of the Medway to Chatham harbour against the passage of any hostile vessels. The new.quarters erected within the fortifications at the Isle of Grain will accommo date between 400 and 500 troops. Lieut. C. R. Hammond, Ist battalion 4th (King's O wn ) Regiment, has been ordered to join the de pot companies of his regiment at Chatham garrison, and Lieut. C. R. Durrant, of the same battalion, to embark to join the service companies of the re giment at Bombay. An order has also been re ceived at Chatham garrison directing Lieut. M. Tucker, 2d battalion 19th Regiment, to join the depot of that corps. Major-Gen. A. B. Stransham, Inspector-General of Royal Marines, Light Infantry, commenced his spring inspection of the Woolwich division on Wed nesday. The whole available strength of the division, includivg servants and the undisciplined men, were formed on the common at 3 p.m. in three battalions, in line of contiguous companies, in chief command of Col.-Commandant W. R. Maxwell, assisted by Capt. Julius Bunce as Brigade-Major. The Ist battalion was commanded by Col. Lambrick, A.D. C. to the Queen, assisted by Lieut.-Col. Menzies and Lieut. and Adjt. Straghan. The 2d battalion was commanded by Lieut.-Col. Louis, assisted by Lieut.- Col. Stewart and Acting-Adjt. Alston. The 3d battalion was in command of Col. Suther, C.B. , re cently arrived from Japa n , w h o was assisted by Lieut. and Adjt. Fonblanque. The General arrived ,on the ground punctually at 3 o'clock, and was re ceived with the usual salute, after which he inspected the whole of the battalions front and rear, and then commenced a series of most intricate brigade manoeuvres, which were performed with remarkable steadiness and readiness of action. From the fact that one-fourth of the men have but recently re turned from foreign service, and on account of the small number of officers now with the division, many of the companies being commanded by subal tern officers who have but recently joined the ser vice, the movements of the brigade were more fully watched and appreciated. On the termination of the first day's inspection, the Inspector-General addressed the Brigade-Major and the mounted officers as a body, and informed them that the general movements were exceedingly satisfactory. General Stransham resumed his inspection yesterday at 10.45 a.m., when a battalion consisting of eight com panies, of 24 files each, paraded on the Common, and was put through the various movements of bat talion light infantry drill by Lieut.-Col. Louis and Lieut.-Col. Menzies. The manoeuvres were per formed with a celerity, precision, and intelligence that called forth marked expressions of approval from the Inspector-General and several officers of both services who were present to watch the pro ceedings. The General afterwards called to the front Capts. IVebbs and Connolly and Lieuts. Beadon, Drury, and Gore, who severally put the battalion, or parts of it, through battalion and com pany manoeuvres, and manual, platoon, and bayonet exercises, which were pronounced creditable and satisfactory. The inspection was brought to a con clusion in the afternoon, when the detachment at ship's-gun drill, the schools, offices, &e., were visited. After this examination the General stated that he felt satisfied with everything he had seen. A de tachment of expert shots from the division was after wards ordered to be selected, by request of the Ord nance Select Committee of the Royal Arsenal and the War Department, to attend at the practice range daily, to test the new breech-loading carbines now under the consideration of Government. The E and G batteries of Field Artillery of the 9th Brigade, stationed at Hilsea, in the island of Portsea, were officially inspected yesterday morn ing on Soutbsea-common, Portsmouth, by Lieut.- Gen. Sir George Buller, K.C.8., Lieut.-Governor of Portsmouth, and general officer in command of the South-West military district. Sir George Bul ler's staff was composed of Colonel Elliot, R.A., ix command of the Royal Artillery stationed in the South-West district ; Lieut.-Col. Allison, assist.- adjt.-gen. ; Major John Breton, town major ; Major Mackenzie, A.D.C. ; and Capt. Glyn, R. 8., A.D.C. The batteries were under the command of Lieut. Col. Vesey, and were composed of 12 rifled breech-loading Armstrong 12-pounder guns, each gun drawn by six horses, and - accompanied by its full field equipment, and complement of non-commissioned officers and gunners. The ma noeuvres appeared to be carried out with great pre cision and quickness, but the guns were too light. The E and G batteries of the 9th Brigade should be at once armed with the best shell gun known suit able for field batteries—the 40-pounder breech loading Armstrong—as has already been done with field batteries at Aldershot. The hired sailing transports Windsor Castle, Dilbhur, and Agincourt arrived at Spithead yester day morning from India and China with military and naval invalids and time-expired men on board. The Windsor Castle, Capt. Pryce, R.N.R., one of Messrs. Green's Blackwall fleet, sailed from Kurra chee on Feb. 5, and arrived at St. Helenaon March 30, sailing then ce aga i n on 4 t h e f o ll ow i ng d ay. H er passenger and troop list comprisees--Major Boileau, 20th Hussars, in military command of the troops on board, Mr. Boileau, and three children ; Capt. Cro ker, 27th Re g i ment ; Ca pt. lo9 K h natchbull, 95th Regi ment ; Capt. B ow k er, Hillyard, Rifle Brigad e ;Dr Regiment ; Li eu t . Dr. Mikes, ship's surgeon, i.:Praeiai et tes,BornbayArmy; medical charge of the troops ; Mrs. Dalzel and five children time-expired and invalids ; 16 women, and men, children. Three invalids died during tv and y - g 29 The Dilbhur, Capt. J. Purday, sailed fromlco chee on Jan. 27, and called in at St. Helenaur r o a n - March 29. She has brought to En gland Maj or A . Cooper, 33d Foot, commanding troops on board; Major A. Armstrong, 36th Regiment ; Capt. G. A. Furse, 42d Highlanders ; Capt. A. Phillips, Bengal Army ; Lieut. W. Campbell, 79th Highlanders ; Ensign Luck, 95th Foot ; Assist.-Surg. Mansell, R.A.,in medical charge of the troops on board; 79 invalids, 259 men time expired, 20 wome n, and 29 children, belonging to the Royal Artillery, 19th, a I : en tb L 42 d, 51st, 79 t h, 82d, 90th, and 93d Regi ments, and the 3d battalion Rifle Brigade. Oneman and one child died Agincourt, ing the passage home. The naval agent, Capt.sailed d dur Harvey, Lieut. Dunlop, R.N., Hongkong Jan 24, arrived at Singapore on the 24th of the same month, sailed thence again on the . Cape of Good Rope, 11 26 th, arrived in Simon's Bay, 16th, calling in at s t. arcil 9, and sailed again on the shHelenaexc On the 31st of March. On the 13th April She has S u nderland barque Ada Mary, f rom s a _ n g ed signals with the for Simon's Bay, 38 days out. brought home a num ber of naval and military expired men from Hong Kong, who with a few time by Assist.-Surgeon Betts, R.N., in lu re a doomkpanied Lieut. Hind, 9th Regiment, and Lieut. charge, 11th (2d battalion) Regiment. The v3ineoebinson, embarked her troops, by the aid of steamers n Agincourtrom dis- Portsmouth dockyard, yesterday at Spithead, and afterwards sailed for London, the invalids being sent to the Military and Naval Hospitals at Netley and Haslar, and the time-expired men to the depots of their regiments, and to her Majesty's ship vic tory in Portsmouth harbour. The Agincourt after wards sailed for London. The Windsor Castle and the Dilbhur were both towed into Portsmouth har bour yesterday afternoon from Spithead. They will discharge their troops at the dockyard this morning, and afterwards sail for London. The screw corvette Reindeer, 7, 250-horse power (unarmoured), is alongside the dockyard at Chat ham, where she has commenced shipping her boilers and the heavy portions of her machin rv, her en gines being now fitting on board by the mechanics employed by the contractors. She has received her lower masts, and to-morrow will be floated in one of the vacant docks for the purpose of having her launching cleats and fitments removed, and being taken in hand to be brought forward for commis sion. According to existing orders she will go into the dock now occupied by the ironclad frigate Re search, on the latter being undocked. Her Majesty's double-screw iron and wood gun boat Vixen, recently built by Mr. Chas. Lungley and fitted at Woolwich, yesterday made the two mile run at the Lower Hope. The trial at full speed with the tide realised a greater success than was anticipated, and the run having been completed in five minutes and 19 seconds. The return, the same distance, occupied against the tide 10 minutes 19 seconds. The vessel was in charge of Comman der Dillon, of the Steam Reserve at Woolwich, and the engines, by Messrs. Maudslay, were superin tended on the part of the Admiralty by Mr. Part ridge, of the steam factory. The Vixen is ordered to be completed by the 19th inst. Steam was got up yesterday on board the armour plated ship Lord Clyde, 24, in the basin of Keyham steam-yard, to try her engines and machinery. The following appointments have been made at the Admiralty :---Lieut. Thomas M. Campbell to the St. George, for service in the Coastguard ; Lieut. Gerard H. N. Noel, to the Princess Royal ; and R. W. S. Rogers, naval cadet, to the Duncan. Ships Guns and Armour. There is no subj ec t w hi ch, from a nat i ona l po i n t o f v i ew , offers so large a field for observation and discussion as the armour and armament of the broadside-gun ships of our ironclad fleet, from the day on which the Warrior was launched to the present, with our latest addition, the Belle rophon, just anchored at Spithead. The Warrior and others designed aboutthe same time were built to carry the then most powerful gun—the 95cwt. 68-pounder, and were clothed with proportionately defensive armour of 41 inches in thickness. But they were simply " box" armoured ships, carrying their guns behind their armour only amidships, and leaving their ends, with the water-line before and abaft the central box, unprotected by armour. With the Hector and Valiant class this defect was in a manner reme died, the former carrying a band of plating entirely round the main or gun deck, and the lattergiving more protection to the water-line. Then came the wholly armoured ships, of iron and wooden construction respectively, the former represented grandly by the Achilles, Minotaur, &c., and the latter by the "make-shift" squadron of the Caledonian and Royal Oak class. With the iron ships was introduced an increase in the armour-plating to 5 and 51 inches, and the Achilles was given as her armament the new wrought iron 9-inch smoothbore or " Somerset" gun in the place of the cast-iron 68-pounder and the 110-pounder breech-load ing. Armstrong, the latter never having been, at close guar-. ters, with rapid firing, considered a match for the old cast iron smoothbore 8-inch. The trials of the Royal Sovereign and the feats of the American Monitors naturally gave birth to enlarged ideas-on the arming and clothing of iron clads. The turrets of the Royal Sovereign carried 12-ton guns, but it was also evident that they could carry and work ordnance of double the weight, while the tremendous shot-resisting power which they must possess with their 10 inches of iron round the face of the turret round the gunports was very materially increased by the shot-deflective power given by their cir cular form. In the discussion that ensued on the turret versus broadside question it was felt from the first onset by the advocates of the latter principle, as indeed by every one, that 51- inches of armour on 10 inches of teak backing on the sides of even such noble and swift ships as the Achilles and Minotaur would be wholly incapable of resist ing projectiles from the 12-ton smoothbore gun, and must be still further defenceless against the same weapon when completed in its promised form as a 9-inch rifle. The present Chief Constructor of the Navy, on his ac cession to office, accepted at the same time the acknow ledged soundness of the principle that in designing the broadside-gun ships for the future they must be made to approximate as nearly as possible to turret vessels in strength of sides and power of gun. In the endeavour to carry this principle into effect we have abandoned the wholly armoured system of the Achilles and Minotaur class, and gone back to our first principle—the box ar rangement of the Warrior ; but now a box with a water line belt, increasing at the same time the thickness of the box and belt armour. With the Bellerophon this central armour has reached 6 inches on a side of greater strength than the Minotaur's, and with a supporting inner skin of ll inches. But it is in the designs of the Hercules, now being laid down at Chatham dockyard, that we have reached our maximum thickness of armour at present, the central armour of this ship being no less than 9 inches in thickness. - It is an undoubted truth that the armour of our ships should rightly, to make their defensive equal to their offensive powers, always be equal in thickness to the diameter of the bore of their rifled guns. Thus, the Her cules, with 9-inch armour plating, may be considered as invulnerable, in all parts where she is coated with ar mour, to shot or shell from rifled guns whcso bore's di ameter does not exceed that thickness, and as the Hercules will carry that description of gun the toughness of her skin and the sharpness of her teeth may be considered to be in just proportion to each other. Not so, however, with the Bellerophon or the Minotaur, the one a partially and the other a wholly armairel ship. Both ships will carry a maximum weight of 12i tons, having a diameter of rifled bore of 9in., and a minimum sized gun of 6 tons with a iin. diameter of rifled bore. Now, the strength of these vessels' sides is not in proportion to the power of the guns they carry, and the cuirass of the ship is therefore deficient in thickness of metal, by the rule that, whatever gun we may mount on the broadsides of our ships, an enemy can certainly do the same. The Hercules is, as already ob served, invulnerable to all projectiles from guns that can at present be carried on the broadside, but she is vulner able to almost any description of gun, from an ordinary boat's gun upwards, in all the unarmoured portions of her hull, as also is necessarily the Bellerophon and all other ships not wholly armoured. The argument is used, with almost irresistible force, that it would be impossible to build a ship to carry 9in. armour all round, and that the only course remaining is to concentrate the armour the ship can carry round her gun battery and her water-line, leav ing the forward and after parts of the ship to be riddled through and through by the enemy's shot at their pleasure, the officers and crew being in safety in the armour-enclosed central battery, and the safe flotation of the ship secured by the water-line belt of armour. So far as shot alone is concerned, this argument is reasonable enough, but it cannot be entertained fora moment by any one who has witnessed the havoc caused by a shell filled with a large bursting charge exploding by a percussion fuse in the side or on the deck Of a wooden ship, as such missiles would explode in the un armoured sides or on the 'tween decks of a partially armoured ship. In illustration of this it is only necessary to suppose the Bellerophon engaged with an enemy of equal tonnage but of rather superior speed, and with guns that would not penetrate the Bellerophon's central armour. The enemy in this case would have nearly 160 ft. in length by about 9ft. in breadth on each side of the Bellerophon unarmoured and open for his " shell practice." Having the superiority in speed, he would take the choice of posi tion on the bow or quarter, where he would be perfectly safe from the 9-inch rifles in the Bellerophon's central battery, and ply the unfortunate ship with shell with 151 b., 201 b., or ev 301 b. bursting charges, which must destroy the ship by obtaining entry through this unprotected por tion of her skin, while the ordnance amidships would be useless to defend her, owing to the ship's inferiority in speed to that of the enemy. As the armour of ships of war can never be again thrown off for fear of the shells, although it may fall in repelling toughnessobueetnfr oshotg-resistingf qEunalglitiyshofmathneuafraomtouurrersturbnaevde all desc r ipti ons of shot, it is satisfactory to know that the mth a e nd ro steadily and continuously increasing since the day when " rolled" superseded "hammered" armo u until now they have r eac h e d a degree of rf oct l r .o plates, pe dreamt of wh en the famous Warrior target maao? little t b s first appearance at Sh oe b uryness. It is not, howeve r, results of the firing at Sho e b uryness that a corre ct e t y the imate may be formed of the qu a lit y o f the armour on t he sides .4 y the ironclads of England. S uc h estimate can only be tr uly formed from the results o f th e testing of armour plates at Portsmouth. At Shoeburyness their plates specially made for them, no cost is spared in their composition and manufacture, and they neces sarily possess an exceptional character, but they are far from representing in their strength the strength of the armour of her Majesty's ships. On the contrary, the plan pursued in the supply of the plates for trial at Portsmouth is of so unexceptionable a character that they and quality of the plat es do re p r esent the streng th Supposing a maker of armouron our ironclads' sides. plates—say John Brown and C o ., C. Caramel and Co., or others--to have entered into a contract with the Admiralty to supply a certain quantity of armour plates of not less, say, inspectory, than A 3 q u a lity on trial at Portsmouth. An is sent d own t o t h e wor k s b y th e Admiralty, who watches the whole process of manufacture, of the plates, and com municates with the Admiralty. One day, unannounced, thesuperintendingLake, the inspector of such matters to . "'"raltY, walks into the works, and selecting one or two plates from amour" a batch of some perhaps 20 or 30 made, order s the t trial under fire. If these selected to be sent to Portsmouth for mouth with a these plates pass their trial at Ports batch they characterrepree abova "A 3," they pass, and the is accepted by the A at the works in Sheffield or elsewhere the batch can either be raltY, but if the plate does not pass another trial by the seletee4 rejected by the Admiralty or given suppose that a plate his of a sound plate. We will It is drilled first in the dockyardved at Portsmouth for trial. bee of bolt holes, and then forwardedwith the requisite num on be ard the testing ship, the Thunderer, where it is bolted on to a timber bulkhead, and fired at from 68-pounder solid shot guns, with 131 b. of powder and a 68-pound east-iron shot, at only 30 feet distance. Five shots are fired at the plate under trial, and these are so planted on the plate that all five strike in a space 18 inches square. When armour plates were first tested at Portsmouth the best plate would have been split up in all directions and utterly destroyed under such a test. Now a plate gaining an A 1 character exhibits no opening of its metal outside the indentations of the shot, nor does the greatest depth of indent exceed 21 inches. These trials have, however, become invested with increased interest since the maximum thickness of our ships' armour has been increased from 51 to 9 inches. Some time since, when the maximum thickness of a ship's armour was sin., the Admiralty gave an order for several hundred tons of 41in. plates to Messrs. Petin, Gaudet, and Co., of France. The majority of these plates proved to be of unusual excellence in quality of metal, although somewhat rough in manufacture. In what may be termed the competitive trials which followed upon the receipt of the plates at Portsmouth the plates supplied by John Brown and Co., of Sheffield, barely succeeded in beat ing the French plates and securing the severely contested honours. There can be no doubt now that this purchase of plates from a French manufacturer by the Admiralty gave a wholesome stimulus to English makers, and has re sulted in the present acknowledged superiority of English plates over all others manufactured in Europe or America. Our own proof-test has reached what may be considered the maximum of possible strength, and as the severity of the test has been thus increased, so also it may be justly said has the quality of the plates sent in for trial also in creased in quite a proportionate ratio. Of this some trials on board the Thunderer lately furnished examples suffi ciently conclusive to convince the most sceptical. The day was fixed for the trial of two rolled plates sent in by the Mersey Steel and Iron Company. Captain Key and his staff arrived on board the Thunderer at 11 amt., and the firing immediately commenced at the plates from Bin. 95cwt. smooth-bore guns, with spherical shot of cast iron, with 131 b. powder charges, the distance between the guns' muzzles and the plates being 30 feet. Each plate received five shots, each of the five shots overlapping, the five blows being thus delivered on one part of the plate about 18 inches square. It will be sufficient to my with reference to these plates that although, perhaps, not quite equal to some of the same thickness that have been tested lately, they were nevertheless of very excellent quality. The damage caused by the five shots in each instance was confined, or very nearly so, within the circumference of the shot indents, and they received an A 2 classification in Captain Kay's official report of the trials to the Admiralty. The important incident of the day, to which reference has been made, followed immediately upon the trial of the Mersey Company's 6-inch plates in the" firing of a steel elongated shot weighing 1521 b., with 301 b. of powder, from an Armstrong shunt _ rifled-gun. of 8 inches diameter, against a 9-inch plate, manufactured by John Brown and Co., of Sheffield, for the Hercules frigate, at the test dis- tance, on board the Thunderei, only 30 feet. The plate had been tested on board on the 17th inst., when 12 shots from the 93 cwt. 8-inch smooth-bore gun, each shot fired with 131 b. of powder, were planted on the face of the plate in a space, measuring from extreme angles of indents, of 31 inches by 19 inches. The first five shots, all planted in a cluster, only produced an indentation in the deepest part of 2?-. inches, and the seven shots that subsequently fol lowed failed in producing any greater depth, or even in raising the slightest sign of a crack, surface, or other wise in the metal, the iron merely spreading under tho successive blows from off one indent to the other, accord ing as the shots fell. It was this extraordinary tenacity and shot-resisting power exhibited by the plate that in duced the Controller of the Navy to order it to be tried with the 8-inch Armstrong shunt rifled gun, its enormous powder charge and steel bolt, and with the plate bolted on its timber backing at, as may be truly consi dered, the gun's muzzle. Notwithstanding the wonderful success of the plate when tested with the 68-pounder gun, it was the opinion of all present on board the Thunderer that the minimum amount of mischief that would be done by the steel bolt from the 8-inch rifled gun would be its thorough penetration and burying itself in the timber backing behind the plate. The latter still remained bolted on its backing in the same position as when previously fired at, the spot selected;for trial on that occasion being the right centre of the plate. Ott the present occasion the shunt gun was laid for the left centre, and, when all was proclaimed ready, fired. A heavy fall and rumble upon the deck of the proof-room overhead followed the report of the gun's discharge, and upon Captain Key and his officers entering the room (the guns on board the Thunderer being fired from the deck below), the steel bolt was found upon the iron deck within about six feet of the plate, and " set up," or compressed, 21 inches short of its original length ith a deep cross crack across its base. It was made from the best "Firth" steel, and had done all that a steel shot could do even from the 8-inch shunt rifled gun with its 301 b. powder charge, but it had evidently not penetrated far into the plate. An inspection of the latter showed that the ,hot had struck 22 inches from the plate's upper edge, 24 inches from its lower edge, and 39 iuches from the left end edge. The greatest depth reached by the steel bolt was 3 2-10 inches, but the mean depth might be taken at one-tenth less. The appearance of the metal within the indentation, and of the edge round it on the plate's surface, exhibited its excellent quality. Within the indentation it was all bright and smooth as polished steel, from its com pression by the terrible blow of the steel bolt, and without any crack or flaw of any kind on the surface, except a coppery tinge round the outer circumference of the inden tation, where the copper studs on the steel shot hadcotue in ' contact with the iron of the plate. All round this indenta tion the iron was squeezed out iu a kind of lip to the cir cular indent to about three-quarters of au inch above the plane of the surface of the plate. This was all the damage done, and the plate still hangs in its old position, as im pervious to the 8-inch rifled gun with steel bolts, as ships' armour, as it had formerly proved to be to iron shot from the 8-inch smooth-bore gun. It was the severest test to which a plate had ever been subjected at Portsmouth, and the plate itself has undeniably proved superior to any other that has yet been placed under fire at that port, from the first plate tried for the warrior down to the present to state here that under the t n i e m w e. reg l u t l m at a io y u b s e in in tr te o r d e u s c t e ing d with the Thunderer the classi fication of all plates sent by manufacturers for trial on board the Thunderer is in a great measure regulated by the " standards," which have been fixed up in the proof room of the Thunderer for that purpose. These "stan dards" consist of the best known specimens of plates of their respective thicknesses that have been sent for trial at any time to Portsmouth. As standards they are removed and superseded by others of greater excellence as they are met with in the course of time, the, present standards on board the Thunderer being—for 4i inch plates, a part of a plate supplied by John Brown and Company, of Sheffield, for the Lord Warden; for 6-inch plates, a part of a plate supplied by Charles Cammel and Co., of Sheffield, for the Hercules; and for the standard for plates of a greater thickness than 6 inches will now be added the 9-inch plate of John Brown and Co., which underwent such an excep tionally severe test on its trial. THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 11, 1866. of railway continued, it was, of course, impossible that any improvement could be looked for in the Nulhatee traffic. The points in connection with it which Mr. Wilson was to bring prominently to the notice of the Government of India were—the for mation of a bridge of boats across the river Bhagi ruttee, with proper approaches to it, and the pro vision by the East Indian Railway of a certain number of waggons daily for the accommodation of the goods traffic ; and should effect be given to these arrangements it might then be hoped that the traffic on the line would be found to steadily in crease. The Secretary of State had consented to allow the Lucknow and Cawnpore line a trial for two years from the dateof opening for traffic(about the close of the year) before requiring the com pany to execute a contract for the construction of their whole system of railways, provided the direc tors would engage that at the end of that time, or at the end of four years from the 25th day of March last, whichever may be the shorter period of the two, if not prepared to execute the contract on terms to be approved by the Government of India, in full property, the Lucknow and Cawnpore line, on being reimbursed the amount expended by them upon it, less any debt which might be due from them to the Secretary of State or to the Government of India. On this understanding the Secretary of State had also been pleased to grant a loan of £60,000 to the company to bear interest at 5 per cent. per annum for three years, on the security of the company's debentures for a similar amount. The report of the acting chief engineer stated with regard to Lucknow and Cawnpore line that the em bankments, cuttings, bridges, and culverts were finished. The line was ballasted throughout and waiting for the permanent way. The ditch and mound fencing was finished. The level crossings were nearly finished, and there was no doubt that the stations and all would be ready by the time the permanent way was laid. The capital account showed that £322,839 had been expended to Dec. 31 last, leaving a balance in hand of £B,OlO. The revenue account of the Nulhatee line, 27 miles in length, amounted for the half-year to £2,771 and the ex penditure to £2,169, or 78 . 26 per cent., leaving a balance of £602. Working Men's Club and Institute Union, A public dinner in aid of the funds of this society was held last evening at the Freemasons' Tavern-- Duke of Argyll in the chair. Amongst the company were Earl Grosvenor, Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Layard, ALP., Sir J. Pakington, M.P., Earl of Lichfield, Dr. W. Fairbairn, Lord Paulet, Mr. J. Heywood, and the Hon. D. Fortescue. The formal toasts were given from the chair. The CHAIRMAN, in giving " The Army, Navy, and Volunteers," said he feared those engaged in military operations would soon have a large field for their practical energies. Ilis right hon. friend the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs smiled at that remark, but it was probably with no very cam fortable mind. While we all earnestly hoped peace might be preserved in Europe, he certainly should be deceiving the company if he said he expected peace. Nevertheless he hoped we should keep out of the great contest which was likely to take place, and that if it occurred it would terminate in an improve ment in the condition of Europe. When he said he hoped we should keep out of war, he did not do so on the erroneous principle they were sometimes charged with holding, that we ought not to take part in any contest except where our interests were concerned. He did not hold with that principle at all. Every war ought to be defensive, but he did not hold the doctrine that self was the only thing to de fend. (Cheers.) Still we ought to keep out of every war except where the honour and interest of the country were concerned, and he did not see that that was likely to be the case in the war which was now imminent. The circumstances of the present time bore a remarkable resemblance to 1858 before the last great war. At that time the Conserva tive party were in office, and he was bound to say he believed there never was any Government in this country that strove more earnestly and sincerely to keep the peace of E•irope than did that Government of Lord Derby. (Cheers.) Addle nations wore now willing to say they did not want war, but all the while they were aiming at and desiring the attain ment of objects which could only be secured through war. (Cheers.) Major-General Lord F..Paulet, Colonel Stephen son, and Earl Grosvenor replied to the toast. The CHAIRMAN gave " The clergy and ministers of all denominations." After expressing his satis faction at the catholic character of the toast, he said lie was afraid that the great masses of the working people of our towns stood aloof from any branch of the Christian Church. Whatever the cause of this might be, it was not satisfactory. His own strong suspicion was that the fault was not so much with the working classes as with the clergy of the Chris tian churches. This could not be a right state of thingsthey concernedf mattersrT e afraid h i d e ut i gh n oh common e e f sitfnioe slight havehse Christian u e c i o a e m p bd t p l b le ocl l eu e agr i t a n i nocr importance etme hs i -o to l eo f t vat o eth o st l e i na e g m dbr w u ee a c ia a i h stt s' t (Cheers.) The Rev. 11. 11. Boyd tru T th h s e o ß f e C v. hr l i v st . ia i n v i a t lyi:ond( mhtgbe w aaedg h etahl o hbab m iednlemelfus i t to. themselves was said re sponded. The CHAIRMAN gave the toast of the evening, " Prosperity to the Working Men's Club and Insti tute Union." He said he was very glad to preside over the meeting for several reasons. We had heard a good deal, perhaps too much, in recent political discussions, both for and against the working man. In the heat of political discussion it was, perhaps, impossible that there should not be exaggerations on both sides. He was glad to find that there were present representatives of all classes of politics. There were, he hoped, good sound Radicals in the room ; there certainly were some staunch Conser vatives ; and there were also represented the inhabi tants of the Cave. (Laughter.) It was fair for him, on the part of the Liberal party, to say that those who were politically Conservatives, and opposed to political change, had very often been the most energetic supporters of all social reform. (Cheers.) His grace concluded by making an elo quent appeal on behalf of the Working Men's Club, incidentally remarking that he could not doubt, after all, that the principle of the trades' unions was a sound one, and recommending the council to secure for London a central hall and model club. " The health of Lord Brougham, the President, and the Vice-Presidents" was proposed by the Chairman and enthusiastically drunk. The Earl of LICHFIELD, one of the vice-presidents, responded. He said he felt some little disappoint ment at the want of success which had attended the attempts to establish working men's clubs in different parts of the country. The fault was apathy on the part of the working men, and the attempt on the part of the promoters to make the clubs too educational. For himself he would not exclude beer from the clubs, because by so doing the very class would be kept away who ought to be attracted there. (Hear.) He strongly urged, as a means of improving the con dition of the wor ki ng classes, some alterat i on i n t h e system of granting licences to beer-houses. The Rev. H. SOLLY, the organising director, read letters of apology, intimating that many distin guished o the amount was Ascension D ay. He also announced subscrip tions oetrintunoale to be present because it of £220. Sir J. PAKINGTON, M.P., in giving the health of the chairman, said it was not one party or another in this country who were anxious to promote the welfare of our humbler fellow-subjects. It had been said that the political party with which it was his ill fortune to be connected never opened their lips on the subject of the working classes except to impute to them ignorance and vice. (Hear, hear.) This was not the occasion when it would be becoming or pro per to enter into the question which was now agi tating Parliament and society, as to whether we ought to admit a larger or smaller proportion of the working classes to a part in our representative sys tem, but he could not forbear saying that he knew of no party or men who wished to exclude the work ing classes frem our representative system. (Hear.) Other toasts followed, including " The Health of the Rev. H. Solly," given by Lord Lyttelton, and " The social elevation of the working classes," and RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE. LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN. A Wharncliffe meeting of this company was held yesterday, at Euston Station ; Mr. R. R. Dean in the chair. On the motion of the CHAIRMAN two bills pro moted by other companies were approved—viz., a bill to enable the Anglesea Central Railway Com pany to transfer their undertaking, and for other purposes ; and a bill for authorising the London and South. Western Railway Company to make the Brentford curve and the Kew-bridge curve, and other works, and for authorising arrangements between the London and South-Western Railway Company and other railway companies, and for authorising a lease or transfer to the company of the Okehampton Railway, and for other purposes. The meeting was then adjourned to Tuesday, the 15th inst, for the consideration of other bills on the list. NORTII STAFFORDSHIRE. A Wharncliffe meeting of this company was held yesterday at the London Tavern ; Col. Pearson in the chair. _ _ _ The CHAIRMAN stated that he had only one bill ready to submit for their approval ; it was a bill for making a railway from Macclesfield to Knutsford and Warrington, and for other purposes. It did not involve any outlay on their part, and gave them running powers over the proposed line from a junc tion at Macclesfield to Knutsford and the London and North-Western Railway at Warrington, and which might be of advantage to the company. The bill was promoted by an independent company, and would give them another outlet for traffic. Mr. Burchell, -the solicitor, having read the clauses affecting the interests of the North Stafford shire Company, a formal resolution approving the bill was unanimously adopted. The meeting was then adjourned to the 31st inst. for the consideration of three bills promoted by other companies. INDIAN BR..kNOH (LIMITED.) The report of the directors states that Mr. Wilson, the engineer, who had returned to India, wrote, on the 17th of March last, after inspecting the Nulha tee line, that an increase of local traffic would seem to be promising. lie alluded to traffic going to and coming from short distances on the East Indian Railway, and to the helpless state of block-up in which the East Indian line was at present placed. As long as this state of block-up on the 'trunk line 4 , Harmonious co-operation between tall classes of society," proposed by the chairman. Some excellent singing was given between the toasts by Mr. Moutem Smith, Mr. Lawler, and Mr. Dawson. General Prim and Marshal O'Donnell. Under date " Florence, May 3," General Prim, the chief of the late Spanish insurrection, has ad dressed a characteristic letter to Marshal O'Donnell, his former comrade in the field, the present Prime Minister of Spain. It appears that on the 13th of April, in the Senate at Madrid, O'Donnell declared that " General Prim had not had the courage to show a front ; all he achieved was a cowardly flight ;" and added that " when a man engages in such enter prises he ought to know how to die, which Prim did not do, since he fled like a coward." These abusive expressions, unworthy of one holding O'Dcinnell's high position, could not be more unjustly applied. Prim's cool and daring courage is proverbial in the Spanish army, and among all who ever saw him in action. He is not only a good general, but a bril liant man-at-arms, ever seeking opportunities of personal distinction. ,‘ Quien es el gran Paladin ?" sang the soldiers in Morocco, one of a series of doggerels which some military poet had made upon the generals of the army; and the answer was "Prim." More than once has O'Donnell himself been saved from disaster by Prim's personal valour and self-devotion, and by his remarkable qualities as a leader. This was especially the case on the Ist of January, 1860, in the fight near Ceuta, from which Prim takes his title of Marquis of Castillejos. On that day, as all who were present know, he did all the fighting, led his repulsed soldiers again and again to the charge, and saved O'Donnell from defeat. In short, to accuse Prim of want of courage, whether moral or physical courage be meant, is simply to attack him on his strongest point. As an elite, however, and perhaps, in consideration of the proverb that les - absens ont toujours to? t, Prim has thought it worth while to repel the charge brought against him by O'Donnell, inconsiderately and in a moment of passionate excitement, amid the indignant murmurs of the Senators, and his letter includes a curious account of his proceedings from the time he rose in insurrection, at the head of 684 dragoons and a group of officers, down to the date of his entering Portugal at Barrancos on the 20th of January. He shows that his march of 17 days' duration, far from being a cowardly flight, was a de liberate and well-executed operation ; that for the greater part of thatperiod he was marching and coun termarching in order to give time for the insurrection to spread and for others to join him who had pledged themselves to do so, but who failed when the decisive hour struck. A week after the commencement of the movement he was at Urda, only one day's march from his point of departure. On the tenth day he was only two days' march from Madrid. He was pursued by three columns, those of Zabala, Echague, and Serrano, to which was soon afterwards added a fourth, that of General Arizcum. He repeatedly halted and passed the night within 10 cr 12 miles of his pursuers, especially at Zabala, well known for his unreadiness in the Morocco campaign, and who followed him with three battalions of infantry, six squadrons, and eight guns, but seems to have taken particulai care never to overtake him. On the 6th January, at daybreak, the little group of insurgent cavalry passed within half musket shot of Daimiel, where one of the pursuing columns had passed the night. Within sight of the town a baggage cart was overturned. They halted and formed up while it was set right again. The Government troops either did not see them or preferred not risking an encounter. Finding the insurrection hopeless, owing to the defection of the greater part of those who should have joined it, Prim made for Portugal. Many horses had broken down, and 60 dismounted men accompanied him on foot. Six, who lingered at Logrosan to get their horses shod, were cut off. Those six were all he lost. The day after he entered Portugal he sent back horses, equipments, and arms to Spain. The following extract from the letter to O'Donnell is curious, as a summary of the expedi tion, written by its leader The column under my command, which set out from Villarejo on 4th of January, reached Portugal on the 20th, and reached it entire, after going over a distance of 742 kilometres, without ever running—always at a walk. It camped out only two nights, and slept qdietly in 16 villages belonging t•o the provinces of Madrid, Cuidad Real, Toledo, Caceres, and Badajoz, pursued the while by four columns, each ono of them stronger than ours—the four being all composed of both cavalryand infantry, and commandedby a Minister of the Crown, by the General of Engineers, by the Captain-General of Estremadura, and by a Major-Ge neral. In their favour were the military forces of Estre madura, which were in my front, and consequently saw me coming; against me they also had the powerful auxi liaries of railways, telegraphs and great rivers,—the Tagus, which we twice crossed, and the Guadiana, which we had to ford, to say nothing of the infinity of rivers, ravines, and rugged defiles we had to get over when crossing the moun tains of Toledo and Guadaloupe. More than once we were fain to make great circuits in order to reach villages in which we could put up to get rations, and especially tofind or forge horseshoes. And nevertheless everything was done as if we had been marching under ordinary circum stancesovithout an instance of misbehaviour in the hundred towns and villages we passed through, the men observing the strictest discipline and subordination. In spite of the fatigues consequent on so long a march, pursued on all sides, and well convinced of the fate that awaited us if we fell into your (O'Donnell's) hands, there was not a moment of discouragement; not a man abandoned his General and his comrades; there was not a single desertion. In presence of the facts I have just narrated, and with which you are well acquainted, how could you beso trivial and discour teous as to style my retreat a cowardly flight, regardless of my absence, of my rank in my army, and of the sen tence that impends over me ? In conclusion, I will tell you what a cowardlyflight is, since you evidently do not know." Prim then briefly relates the well known incidents of the Leon and O'Donnell insurrection of 1841, when the last-named General played anything but an heroic part. O'Donnell " pronounced," or rose in insurrection, in Pampeluna, against the Liberal and Constitutional Government of Espartero, and although he had at his disposal a stronger force than the Captain-General of the province, he dared not meet him, but shut himself up in the citadel, and bombarded the town, finally retreating to France. The comparison between the conduct of the present Duke of Tetuan on that occasion, and that of Don Juan Prim in the insurrection of 1866, is certainly not favourable to the man who has shown himself so unworthily ready to calumniate an old friend and comrade to whom he is under great obligations. OUTWARD CAPE MAIL—The Union Company's Cape Royal mail steam ship Norseman, Capt. Ladds, left Plymouth yesterday morning with the outward mails for Madeira, Ascension, St. Helena, and the Cape of Good Hops. She takes out also 73 passengers and a full general cargo. Among her passengers are Commodore Caldwell, C. 8., the newly-appointed Commodore at the Cape station, and family. Her mails consist of 19 sacks letters, 90 sacks papers, and 18 sacks books. VOICE OF FISHES.-1n a paper on this subject, addressed to the Academy of Sciences, M. Dufoss6 lays down the following propositions :—" The muscles of certain fishes have the power of producing a vibratory motion by contraction. The motion is the cause of the sounds which these fishes emit. The noises which lyre©, umbrina3, and hippocampi make are voluntary. The muscular vibrations which are manifested in the two latter when young and in a perfectly normal state, abundantly prove that the vibrations observed on these species when subjected to vivisection, are moral and physiological, and not owing to a secondary nervous action. The variations of the muscles are strengthened by being transmitted to a pneumatic bladder, which increases their inten sity. Nevertheless some of the acoustic phenomena emitted by hippocanipi are the result of vibrations not intensified by the bladder; so that here there is an instance of mus cular motion producing sounds in a vertebrated animal without the aid of any organic auxiliary. In the above species both males and females have the faculty of emitting sound, and this faculty is most highly developed in the spawning season." By establishing the fact that the umbrina3 consort in shoals and are possessed of voice, our author claims to have com pleted the evidence which envier had collected to prove that the species umbrina cyrrhosa is the same as that called by Aristotle Chromis. He also claims being the first to have discovered the third vesical membrane in the pneumatic bladder of the umbrina, which membrane he has also dis covered in three different species of Solenoids. Of this genus, the umbra marina is the only one deserving of the name of living organ, owing to the form and size of its vocal apparatus, and the intensity of the noise it produces when a large number .of• that. species are assembled together at spawning-time. SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. shock which agitated the city of London yesterday afternoon will, before this even ing closes, be felt in the remotest corners of the king dom. The suspension of payments by such a firm as Overend, Gurney, and Co. (Limited) is a national calamity. The reputation of the establishment has not been so great since its transformation from a private business into a limited liability company as it was formerly, yet the estimation with which it was reegarded may be measured by the fact that £500,000 was given in August last for the goodwill of the business, and that six months ago the shares in the company were at nearly 10 premium, or, in other words, purchasers then believed the proper value of the goodwill to be a million more than was given for it. The names of Overend and Gurney were a house hold word. The "corner house" was one of the land marks of the City. Private bankers resorted to the firm with their spare capital, and either left it with them at the current rate of interest, or rediscounted the bills which it was the direct business of the part nership to discount for commercial men. Possessed in this way of unlimited credit, the fortunes made by successive partners were colossal, and as one after another of them died er withdrew in the course of years, the shares and capital of the dead or outgoing partners were valued at fabulous sums. This was in the last generation, when Overend, Gurney, and Co. could rightly claim to be the greatest instrument of credit in the kingdom. Younger men succeeded to the places, not, as it would seem, to the prudence, of their ancestors; but even now, in spite of diminished reputation and that loss of credit which almost al ways accompanies a conversion into a limited liabi lity company, it appears that the public has trusted Overend, Gurney, and Co. (Limited) to the extent of ten millions. The liability to depositors who hold bills as security is six millions, and three millions and a half are due to uncovered depositors. The paid-up capital of the company is £1,500,000, but £500,000 of this represents the purchase-money of the goodwill, and the rest was all that was employed in the busi ness. It follows that the balance-sheet will show eleven millions to be accounted for, and creditors will naturally be anxious to know what will appear on the other side. The price of shares last night indicated a belief in the City of a probable surplus, but it need scarcely be said that at such a crisis the wildest guesses are always put in circulation, and prices oscillate with a rapidity and to an extent which will not allow us to put any confidence in the accuracy of the opinion they may indicate at any particular moment. It would be idle to deny that the stoppage of such a firm as that of Overend, Gurney, and Co. will produce general and wide spread inconvenience. The Company was prac tically the banker of the merchants who discounted their bills at its establishment, and the annoyance caused by the sudden interruption of a great busi ness—to put it no higher—must be extreme. There is no reason, however, why the panic which has be set the Stock Market during the present week should be intensified by this event, still less would it justify a general want of confidence in all depart ments of commerce. We know that it is useless to remonstrate with persons possessed of an unreason ing panic, since, as Sir Isaac Newton said of the South Sea Bubble, it is impossible to measure the limits of the madness of a people. And the passion of fear is even more powerful than that of hope. There are men who can resist the seductions of promised profits and high premiums, but when depositors think that a stoppage is imminent, each rushes to secure his deposit in time, caring little for the consequences. It is through such a fear as this that Overend, Gur ney, and Co., have fallen ; the losses of the com pany through the frauds of Pinto, Perez, and Co., and the lowering prospects of the Continent, de pressed the value of their shares, and when the shares fell the depositors became alarmed and with drew their deposits. If a panic were absolutely mea sureless, no business whatever could withstand the strain upon it. A simultaneous satisfaction of all demands is even theoretically impossible. There is, however, practically a point at which fear itself be comes exhausted, and prudent bankers and discount agents know by long experience the limits within Which they may safely reinvest the moneys intrusted to them, and are, therefore, always prepared for an emergency. There is reason to believe that these sound principles are now as ever generally acted upon, and that the suspension of 0 verend, Gurney, and Co. is caused by an exceptional departure from them. Overend, Gurney, and Co. (Limited) repre sented something more than the transformation of a private firm into a public company ; it was the transformation also of a purely discount business into a " finance" business. The money of depositors was no longer employed in discounting commercial paper, and commercial paper only ; it was locked up in investments which might possibly prove re munerative after a due interval, but which did not possess the convertibility essential in the securities of a borrower and lender of money. No margin was left for losses or for a withdrawal of confidence on the part of creditors, and the first severe run on the resources of the company has caused it to suspend payment. If we are right in believing that the sus pension of Overend, Gurney, and Co. is due to faults from which all but the most speculative of financial companies are free, the present state of panic may be left to subside as it must do naturally. At the same time there is a danger that the excitement of the money market yesterday afternoon may be in creased to-day. Not long ago men trusted everybody —it would almost seem that now they will trust nobody. An extraordinary crisis requires an extra ordinary remedy, though we hesitate to believe that a run on finance companies is of itself sufficient to justify any interference with the ordinary course of trade. The depositors in them may be alarmed, and those who are ordinarily accommodated by such companies may be embarrassed by a curtailment of credit; but this is the inevitable and proper conse quence of an unsound course of business and of the abuse of credit. Whether the sudden stoppage of such a discount business as that of Overend, Gur ney, and Co. would not justify and even require some vigorous measure towards supplying its place, admits, however, of question. A great machinery is suddenly thrown out of gear, and merchants and traders find their business impeded by an occurrence for which they are in no respect responsible. Other companies and partnerships now in existence will no doubt do their best to supply the needs of coin -merce, and new firms may be expected to start up competing for the business thus suspended. But existing companies already find room for the em ployment of all their capital, and new companies require time for their development. It may, there fore, be plausibly urged that the discount business of the Bank of England should be enlarged so as to satisfy the pressing wants of the hour, and that the capital necessary for such enlargement should be raised, under the sanction of the Executive Govern ment, by such means as may appear best fitted for a purpose purely temporary. Such a proposal can only be supported on the supposition that acceptances of persons of unquestionable responsibility cannot be discounted solely in consequence of the pressure upon the market occasioned by the stop page of the greatest of the discount houses. Whether this is the case now can only be deter mined by men who possess such informa tion and experience as the Governors of the Bank of England. Application was made to the Bank of England to assist Overend, Gurney, and Co., but the Govern ors , it i s said, felt that they could not help one " financing " business without being prepared to help all. Perhaps they also felt that they ought not to interfere to bolster up an unsound business. If that is still their opinion, we may be confident that things should be left to work their own cure ' • but if the Governor and Deputy- Governor were to represent to the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the ordinary course of trade was en dangered by a stoppage the ill effects of which they could remove if their powers were temporarily ex tended, there can be as little doubt that their request would be immediately and properly granted. POST.—The Chancellor of the Exchequer, with his usual financial ingenuity, has devised a bill for the Abolition of Compulsory Church Rates, and the Rouse of Commons has giden it as cordial a welcome as it was possible to show towards. a bill whose terms were not yet before it. Few persons will be sorry if it should turn out that this bill really meets the case, and puts an end to a most unpleasant topic of annual discussion. But we are not sanguine. As far as we can understand the bill it seems to be beset with difficulties of a practical nature, while by many it will be considered incor rigibly wrong in principle. Of course it is founded on a spirit of compromise —that is to say, it pro ceeds upon the spirit of twenty years ago. There was a time when Dissenters were ready for a com promise, but Churchmen would not hear of it. Then Dissenters went farther, and insisted on total and unconditional abolition. At this point Church men offered a compromise which Dissenters in their turn refused. Then the war became internecine, each party raised the banner of no surrender, and it is only fair to add that for the last three years victory has inclined to the Church side. In the new Parliament the contest is renewed, but the no surrender banner is no longer seen. If it be not dropped, it is at least kept out of sight pending the present armistice and negotiations with a view to peace. There can be no doubt that if a practical compromise can be come to it ought to be accepted on both sides. The extreme men on both sides will naturally go in for no surrender, but that is a course which will not have many admirers. Regarded et priori, nothing could be fairer than the Churchman's case.. Church rates are a charge upon property for the maintenance of an institution in which every parishioner has a common law rig • ht _ It cannot be unfair that all should to wards what exists for the good of all. This e l : tion we hold to be absolutely impreg,nable. justly or unjustly, there is a violent antipathy. this charge, and Dissenters say that it is a hoer!. on their consciences. Morally, Dissenters have h a " case. They hold or occupy their houses subjec.t,tot. this rate, and conscience has nothing to do pay their qttota The rate, as is well known, does not go to suPPe b ii a religion as such, but to sustain the machin e / 3 ' o s which all parishioners, without distinction, may the means of baptism, marriage ceremony, burial, and other occasional religious offices, besides the:T. portunity of public worship if they choos e to 11 2„ a In all this there can be clearly no case of conseleucl; whatever. No theology is involved. The char . tr o rate is only a common impost levied to sostal the common advantage. But, groundless as „ l i e grievance of the Dissenter is, it is still worth . 7 1 for the supporters of the Church to see if to cannot make some sacrifice to take away, evell e se. semblance of it. This, we think, there s tio n iO, ral disposition to do, and the only que s n e's whether it can be accomplished by Mr. was how bill. We will admit the principle, and examin e uits it will work. The first clause takes church rates ..1. Co lll r. , out of all the law courts, i.e., it aboliche% a ltoge u r e '? sion. What does Mr. Gladstone give us This is equivalent to abolition He tells us that the vestry may make a ra t :' w ho that nobody is to be obliged to pay it. rasa dog object to pay it are simply disqualified from h ae oug h as churchwardens for ecclesiastical purpos es, t they may discharge other parochial duties 121 ! devolving upon those officers. This is the 0 7 0 11 0 , counterpoise or set-off against the abolition of woe pulsion. It creates a disability. What is that i t is of thatxreation ? We hesitate not to say tua we re absolutely nil. If the office of churchwardeewiti one of honour and emolument so as to he a ' t he mate object of ambition amongst parishioneNie, as a substit but disability might be serious. It is an office of tre u ivel i worry, loss, and no thanks. So unwilling e ' re ,, e bag in some parishes to be churchwardens, that a T ote d, been instituted against those who, being e ;- refuse to act. We know a parish where ever/ .0 son refusing is expected to pay a fine of 1 2° , 180 00 serves to show how little anxiety any sen s ', 6 ,oThae has to be a churchwarde n . Should this bill: co pe law, nothing can be simpler than the way Z. to from this troublesome offi ce . A man .1 100. ; ) 1 bs ati refuse to pay the voluntary rate, and he,„WlThisd once freed from all liability to serve. -alr'utirch stone must have thought that the office of Cl' Fo. warden was like that of the Chancellor of ° e n d chequer—an object of life-long ambiti° ll ,,,L:fsets thing to make sacrifices for. But, reallY% the are all the other way, and the penall t pa' shape of disability which the recalcitran 1 , no rishioners would have to pay would be airaPei 41)0 penalty whatever to any one who did not e i e: being honour of being parish churchwarden. ;Iv this certain, then, that great numbers would referode voluntary rate, how would the deficieneY ba of up ? It is simpler to take a case. In the Ir te yisy A the actual expenses for which a church m ou ld h e now be levied amount to £lOO a year, and 1 - 0 0 th e covered by a rate of threepe n ce in the pent t it ja whole rateable prope r ty o f the parish. Th e known beforehand that some will not Pal h 'i g hert rate must therefore be laid proportionate l y ip Ole say fourpence. Now, the fi rs t thing aid ellY 4 ., bea r supposition is that the willing horses hav e Lea to all the burden, and the Church, which ja every man, and is for the good of all, i s to whole tamed by only a portion, instead of by the cone the community. But there is a further in 1,100, nience in the working. What is to be der not of the rate being levied, and only a fractional, r t ., cer; it having been responded to, there is—as t' e c ocit,' tainly would be in many cases—a great to eat " Clearly the only fair way would be to return, iio ro person the amount paid by him, and start a d e ore to raise the required sum by some other af t , woul d popular process. Thus this voluntary ra: o ld "" soon die a natural death, and the Church " 1 , - s re l oll , e d left for all practical purposes precisely w -- 0 would be left by the unconditional abolitie of Mr. Hardcastle or Sir John TrelawaPractiee Gladstone's bill looks fairer in theory. i ti l l3 t IV i e it would bring about exactly the same res a .l; fear that this would be fatal to the success of i to pra" For many who are not unwilling to join in Cl;oitge mise, if a good one could be devised, Wi ll before they support one which promises t o aree` $o oo lf indifferently as the well-intended Ine as before the house. COUNTRY MARKETS• Our market lr th A is N m Cli orn E it T g E w ß a; f T ai ll rl u y ns a D tt A end ol * „ s lSr p il e e r 4tr both English and foreign, must be quoted is to ' id for ° I higher, and in moderate demand. Flour was i le ' t advance of fully is per sack, but the d e mand Nva sll % c i t Oats and oatmeal were the turn hi g h er . Beans %c° p . were extremely scarce, and brought a further 01 10 of is per qr. Indian corn was likewise 6d per q r , BIRMINGHAM—TnunsDAY. . r . el!s_ i l l At this day's market there was a l a i r - su pply of : 3 ,:ce °' wheat, which was taken off by speculators at an O r- o ttibil 2s to 3s per qr. Barley fully as dear. Oats not clu higher. Beans and peas held for a rise of is per qr. BURY ST. EDMUND'S—WEDNESDO to-d¢9' There was a - good show of wheat at this tuar l ‘ et v oce ( 2 4 which was freely taken off by millers at e n s , le re 1 : fully is to 2s on late r a t es , I n gr i n ding barl e y "- Os' a fair inquiry, prices remainin without alteration' , real beans, and peas at late rates. g White wheat, 56s to 58s • old d 49s net r• 42s to 478 , grinding barley, 7 85s to . page ' s D r,- 0 , . ley 1 3 '; ley, 39s to 40s per qr. S s 'tO OS ; n - ri o o bs Averages :—Wheat, 9581 qrs, at 43s 7d ; b r " "' qrs., at 35s 4d ; oats, qrs, at -- S 01 BarleyßW s eat 000nnn the thet he tt t E oo o p p p p I N 2 l l ss s ß o 6 6 U I d d d _ u du. G p a.p. . W . E average,pawn vNEesaverage, Os 1 75 ( 1 o l 1/ 1:413: Oats on the top, is Od up - rae 15 Od 1 1 1 3 * average, . Total supply and sales. 11 8 Wheat 75" cirs ....... so 0 Barley ..... sol 75 291 . qrs ............ , d 10 Oats Beans Wheat, .......495 . ss Od o tio Barley, ......38s 5d Bean ' s . . ....... 4 A od; Town-made flour sells as follows :—White, 44. superfine, 38s Od; superfine, 36s 6d; fine, 355 " Av Average 8 prices. a cicl t r s rss: :▪ 9• :50s0019da I°l GLASGOW—WEDNESDAY. A good attendance to-day with . a f a ir Wi ne " oa 15 Wheat firm, and fine qualities realised ad" l3ce lei /1 st 6d per Flour 6d per sack over recent rates. 73'Ifiriy, per qr higher. Beans, peas, and oats were unaltered in price. - • ADVERTISEMENT.} -Avoid medicines: they 1i a~ t ea vate chronic complaints, but Du Barry's De ll° ", --s e ti g ; t Restoring llevalenta Arabica Food, which - e llte l t° ,lo s the nourishment of the bat meat, saves fifty TA---clisee-r:: in t other remedies, and invariably restores Perlecaplood.-ost nerves, sound lungs, healthy liver, the,',4oo tre r s o a h n in g g sleep, functional regularity , and elle r ° 4 -- Of re b u :ll l, d rdered or enfeebled. We extr act f eVi °ll ,la. Cures—Cure No. 58,z16, 01 the Marchioness del w- e o tl. of seven years' liver complaint, was Lin-; °tal l% d nervousness, with a nervous palpit a tion all o ve, on,constant sleeplessness, and the most into lersl t ti ,. ) agitation.—Cure No. 1,771. Lora Stuart de Dee;sta.o, Lieutenant of Waterford. of many ye 's' dYS,,,PejI 49,832. "Fifty years' indescribable agony f 1.12— nervousness, asthma, cough, constipatioo, spasms, sickness, and vomiting.—Maria JollY*; o 1 46,270. Mr. James Roberts, of Frimley, 61111'1 liv,: de r ° t 1) years' diseased lungs, spitting of blood , ,610 1- 10 14 ment, and partial deafness.—Cure No. 47,121. A u L r ogs , i s ol Jacobs, Of extreme nervousness , indigestion, /0 1 ,,, 1 " ) ; oef• v i spirits, and nervous fancies. - ure No. 54, 816. d gi p ; ' T. Campbell, Fakenham, Norfolk, "of indlge eti°ll dity of the liver , which had resis te all medical tre 2ol A 2 ,41 l o n a.— tin ß s a , rry llb p , u 2s ßa 9 r d ry ; a 2 n l d b, e 4 a s , N 6c1 0 ,.• 7 5 7 1 , b, 113 ; 121. " 4 2 1 ,013 ` . 11 ; a a l t so Phillips, tea dealers, 8, King William -seeet-nol:08111?1; 61, Gracechurch-street ; 4, Ch - eapside ; 49 ' Di rio °- 0 4 % 6-- street Within ; 63, 150, and 298, Oxford-street ; 54, Upper Baker-st ree t ; 103 , T o ttenham -0) 1;w; nt , Upper-street, Islington, N.; Harvey Notting . . er rst. 3 a ,e. Brothers, 65, High-street ; and Stubbs ' , Que en'e" d nn e 1113 John's-wood. London; and all respectable gr""-r mists.—Beware of snurious imitations. BEAUCLERK—On the Bth Birtha _ t 1 313r1"‘ loy-s ulr inst ., 8, .., 7 _ q.- e, Mrs. De Vera Beauclerk, of a son. .... I,o o ' j'auRRAY—OD the 10th • 16 Chester-04443'1 .7, H. Murra f . inst.' at '.l",' y, o a daughter. Id& PECK On the Bth instat 16, Woburn -Square' ..i, ~ Peck, of a son. B;Charlen-stree 1 C' DrOwsi WELLSMAN—On the 9th inst., at Rich-terrace, '-'' ton, Mrs. Welleman, of a son. „11. Marriages. cbu i f ARMITSTEAD—H altsn , 0 o oßmry—On the 9th inst., wa d, viV ff. Nantwich h ,Cheshire, the Rev. J. R. Arra_ of 1 . Sandba ,to Frances Mary, eldest claughti 6 Hornb c Y , Esq. M.P.for Blackburn,'Lancanha_e: 400 NALTY—TH ' . ~ c 3.10.7 . ., 1 4 Parish omPsoN—On the 10th inst., at '-' i fiar",.`" o Ny. . villa I Church, Thomas E. Natty, Esq., ter of Tho R, Tornsey, to Marianne, eldest &ugh mpson, Esq., Richmond-road, Barnsbury• Deaths. t. G r°s' E BLAC r ICPA-L-0n the 11th inst., at 30, l'ark-s!..rlprne• _ venor-square, in her 96th year, lalm Anna I 3 . 1 .1 7 ( " 01 voa d i Dopn—On the Bth inst., Nice,' the Rev. " . at d. 1 4 M.A., - vicar of Chillingham, Northumberlan . vo bo lore , '' DAVY-0n the Bth inst., at Ringwood, SainP s J _ , Davy, Esq., aged 64. _ r oa , C' .I)Avls—On the Bth inst., 77, M at orn ingtoil 13a/ rl' Davis, formerly Bof Jamaica, aged 44. oac i i LEICESTER—On the 10th inst., a t 5, ishop'S4 water, G. O. Leicester, Esq. aged_t_______----- - ' ~,,iftt -- A N ALP I , London : Printed and Published by WIL bi1" .111 ., 4 4- , 9 1 40 ' 1 -2 0 f of No. 112, Strand, Ranter, at 'reu Sart LP,"):9000t7 Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy in the Middlen24—Friday, May 11,1866.