The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-03-09 00:00:00

I#°4C

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER_

Government business, espeeially Supply, continned to make
fair progress would give either tke 25th or 28th for the
next stage of Bill. . . _

Mr. Bourke, answering questions from Mr. 0. Lewis and
Sir E. Perkins in reference to current reports as to the con-
duct of the Russians in Turkey, said that certain expres-
sions were recently used by General Ignatieff to the Drago-
man of the British Embassy, but there was no reason to
suppose that his life had been in danger. Although rumours
have reached the Government of the hanging of Poles by
the order of General Gourko, it had no official information
which would justify him in making a statement.
Mr. Rodwell asked the Secretary of StAte for the Horne
Department whether, owing to the abolition of prisons in
certain places, any change would be made in the holding of
Assizes and Quarter Sessions.

Mr. Cross said it was not intended to make any change.
The Government, 4under the Prisons Act, were bound to
convey the prisoners for trial backwards and forwards.

Mr. Beresford-Hope called attention to the present ac-
commodation of the National Portrait Gallery, the insecurity
and insufficiency of which be described in forcible language,
complaining particularly that the present cheap, nasty, and
combustible Gallery had been mixed up with a cookery
school, and that gas-pipes had been laid down all about it.
He gave an interestng sketch of the foundation and
progress of the Gallery, mentioning among other facts that
it now contained 488 portraits, besides 60 busts and bronzes,
and was visited by about 80,000 persons annually, and moved
a resolution calling on the Treasury to fulfil a promise made
in March. 1876, to give up a portion of the central block of
the 1862 Exhibition building in addition to the apartments
already occupied by the Gallery.

After a discussion, in course of which the conditions under
which the collection referred to is being exhibited were
generally condemned, Colonel Stanley promised that further
space in rooms in connection with the present building
should be set apart for the purposes of the gallery. Mr.
Beresford-Hope thereupon withdrew the motion. .
Mr. Bright then rove to move that an humble address be
presented to Her Majesty 'praying her to refuse her assent
to the scheme of the Enoowed Schools Commissioners for
the management of the Free Grammar School of King
Edward the Sixth in Birmingham, and for the management
of the foundations of John Milward and Joanna Lench, in
the county of Warwick. One of the main objections of the
people of Birmingham to the scheme was that, whereas the
school had been free for 300 years, it was now proposed tc
establish a system of fees. Under the scheme submitted to
and rejected by the House of Lords in 1873, certain of the
governors were to be elected by the Town Council, the
School Board, and one lyy the teachers; but in this scheme,
and that was what the people of Birmingham objected to,
the majority which in the previous scheme had been given
to the Town Council and the School Board, was now
reduced to a minority, the representation of the School
Board being got rid of; and three governors
were to be appointed by the Universities of Oxford, Cam-
bridge, and London respectively. The people of Birmingham,
who had to manage local affairs of such importance, thought
they had a right to appoint a majority of the governors, and,
he believed, the question might be settled it the scheme
were withdrawn and simply amended by allowing the corpo-
ration to appoint the members at present allotted to the
three Universities.
Mr. Chamberlain seconded the motion.
Mr S. Lloyd submitted that it was not a question whether
the Corporation of Birmingham were or were not fit to
manage their own affairs, but whether that body was the
best to manage a large middle-class school.
Mr. W. E. Forster supported the motion, and asked if it
were desirable to run counter to the feelings of the town of
Birmingham, as evinced by the unanimity of its representa-
tives and the local bodies.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in opposing the motion,
said the principle of allowing schools to be entirely governed
by local representatives, if once admitted, could not be con-
fined to Birmingham, and other places where the priuciple
of representation of the universities or schools by governors
was in force would have an equal right to call for an altera-
tion in the system.
After some further discussion the motion of Mr. Bright
was negatived by 129 to 70 votes.
Mr. Norwood rose to move the second reading of the
County Courts Jurisdiction Bill, when it was ascertained
that forty members were not present, and the House ad-
journed at a quarter past eight o'clock.

In the HOUSE OF COMMONS, March 6, Major O'Gorman
moved the second reading of the Municipal Franchise
(Ireland) Bill. The Bill was opposed by Mr. Kavanagh, who
moved its rejection, and a discussion ensued, in which Mr.
Meldon, Mr. Pliniket, Mr. Macartney, Mr. Sullivan, Mr.
Lowther, and other hon. members took part. The House
eventually divided upon the motion, when the numbers
were :—For the second reading, 10; against, 165; ma-
jority against, 5.
Mr. Munclella formally mlved the second reading of the
Town Councils, Local Boards, and other Local Governing
Bodies Bill.

Mr. Lewis, who had given notice that he would propose
the rejection of the Bill, moved the adjournment of the
debate on the ground that there was not sufficient time at
twenty minutes past five o'clock to discuss the measure,
when the House immediately divided—For the adjourn-
ment of the debate, 151; against, 169; majority, 9.
Mr. Pell opposed the measure, and moved the adjourn-
ment of the House, which again divided :—For adjourn-
ment, 94; against, 170; majority, 76; and as it was now a
quarter to six o'clock, the debate, by the rules of the House,
stood adjourned.

Mr. Rowley Hill brought in a Bill to Amend the Juris-
diction and Procedure of the County Courts and for the
discouragement of frivolous defences therein which was read
a first time, and the House then adjourned.

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT AT
PORTSMOUTH.

Last Saturday morning the Speaker of the House of Com-
mons (the Right Hon. H. B. Brand) and about a hundred of
the members, belonsing indiscriminately to all sections of
the House, paid a visit to Portsmouth Dockyard. The visit,
originated in a private invitation from Captain Wilson, Com-
mander Lord Charles Beresford, and the officers of her
Majesty's ship Thunderer to a few personal friends in the
House of Commons to come to Portsmouth and see through
the famous turret-ship. But as so many members well
anxious to avail themselves of the opportunity of beholding
the latest additions to our armour-clad fleet, it became neces-
sary to engage a special train to transport the numerous
guests to Portsmouth.—We take the following account of
the visit from 2'he 7irnes :
The special train left London at half-past nine o'clock
and drew up at thu trooping jetty inside the dockyard
' at half-past eleven, having only stopped once daring
the run down. On leaving the train the Speaker was
received by Admiral Fansbawe, Rear-Admiral Foley,
General Sir John Garvoch, Captain Wilson, Lord
Charles Beresford, and the principal officers of the
yard, and having taken their places on an express
train improvised out of dockyard waggons, the party
was driven to the extreme end of the Extension Works,
where the Inflexible is being completed in N 0.13 Dock.
Here, near the starboard side of the ship, one of the
sheds had been converted into a temporary lecture-
room, and provided with numerous diagrams, a model of
the ship, and a full-sized skeleton model of the 80-ton
gun, 26ft. long, 6ft, broad at the breach, andhaving a
calibre of 16in., with four of which it is intended to arm
the turrets of the Inflexible. The diagrams were drawn
on a scale of one-fourth of an inch, half an inch, and six
inches (half-size) to the foot, and were designed with
the object of enabling the visitors to draw a com-
parison between the structures of the Dreadnought
and the Inflexible, and the respective thicknesses and
disposition of their armour. The first was a profile
of the two turret ships showing the extent of the
armour, the arrangements of the hold, the system of
drainage, and the position of the magazines and
boilers. Another, a plan of the armour-deck of
the Inflexible, exhibited the fittings on the deck,
the position of the cork chambers for securing
additional buoyancy, and of the coffer dams which,
being packed with canvas and oakum, are expected
to close up the shot-holes and keep out the water;
the stowage of coals, the chain lockers and cables,
rind the structure of the ram. There were also two
section drawings exhibited. The first displayed
sections through the armoured part of the citade'a of
the Dreadnoueht and the Inflexible, and showed the
different thicknesses of the armour and backing, and
the arrangement of the frames behind the armour-
while the second, which was a section through the
much-debated unarmoured structures at the foreside
of the citadel of the Infiexihle, represented more in
detail the position of the cork spaces and coffer dams,
and also the connexion between the armoured deck
and the side of the ship. As soon as the party had
assembled around the drawings, Mr. W. B. Robinson,
the Chief Instructar of the yard, stepped forward
and delivered a brief illustrative lecture on the main
points and differences of the two ships, which he
thought would enable the visitors to understand
snore fully what they would see when they
went on board. He pointed out that while the
length of the Inflexible-3201t.—was exactly the
same as the Dreadnought, its beam-751t.—was lift.
2in. broader; that its volume of displacement was
greater, its armour heavier, its turrets thicker, and its
armament more formidable. While, however, the
Dreadnought was armoured along the water line, the
citadel of the other ship, which was placed upon an
armoured deck below, was the only protected portion
of the Inflexible above the water. The arrangements
of the turrets was also different; for whereas those
of the smaller ship were placed along the middle line,
the turrets of the larger were echeloned to star-
board and port in order that all the four guns
might be trained upon an enemy either direct ahead
or direct astern. The weather deck between the
turrets had also been raised so that the guns could be
loaded from below without the necessity of de-
pressing their muzzles. She was supplied with steam
and baud pumps, and with Friedland's injectors, which
would enable her to discharge 5,300 tons of water in
hour. She had 133 water-tight compartments, and
water would be admitted into the double bottom to
reduce the rolling of the ship. Her torpedoes would
be discharged from submerged ports in the bows in-
stead of from above the water in the side as in the
Thunderer. The ventilating arrangements will be of
the most perfect kind; for, as Mr. Robinson re-
marked, while in other ships the fresh air is pumped
into all parts, no means are adopted for assisting the
vitiated atmosphere out of the ship. In the In-
flexible, however, the ventilation compaises both
supply and exhaust arrangements. The air is
brought down into an air chamber, or cave of
" ' Bolus in the central part of the citadel, and is
driven thence by steam fans through large pipes, which
pass under the armour deck and up into the structures
above, and by means of branch pipes fitted with cocks
every compartment in the ship can receive an abundant
supply. By these cocks an officer can regulate his air
supply in much the same way that a householder on
shore can regulate his water supply. The vitiated air
is sucked up through pipes with perforated ends into '
the funnels and thence through the citadel into the
open air. The Inflexible will be brig rigged, but her
masts will be unshipped before going into action. Her
engines are of 8,000-horse power, and she is expec-
ted to attain a speed of 14 knots.
The visitors passed from the lecture room into the
Inflexible, through every part of which they were cou-
ducted by Mr. Robinson and Mr. J. C. Froyne, the
Chief Constructor and Constructor. On leaving they
walked alongside the repairing basin, a mageificent
sheet of water 1,369 ft. long by 7001 t. broad, passing
the Dreadnought, of which the majority contented
thernselveg with an outside view, and the Marl-
borough, the new training ship for engineer students,
and did not pause until they arrived opposite the
Thunderer, which was moored in the great tidal
basin. This ship is a perfect model of what a man-of-
war should be; and as she has just been prepared for
service in any part of the world at an hour's notice, she
looked gay and sprightly in her coat of fresh yellow
paint picked out with crimson filleting, and with the
heads of her masts and flag staves ornamented with
silvered glass globes. The bandand crew were drawn
up on deck to receive the Speaker and his friends;
but before they were allowed to inspect the turret-ship
or partake of the lunch which Captain Wilson and the
officers had generously provided, there were further
sights for them to see. A double rtav of lads from the
St. Vincent training ship, with their band and colours,
and numbering about 600, had been drawn up for
inspection; and the young sailors were well worth
looking at as they stepped past in fours in quick time.
Then the Glatton, which was shored up in an adjoining
dock, claimed a moment's attention. This ship is
neither a Thunderer nor an Inflexible, but a single-
turret ship of very low freeboard, and has been painted
all over French gray under the impression that this
colour will enable her to be less distinctly seen at a dis-
tance. The Glatton, however, is formidable as a torpedo
ship, having been provided with submerged ports and
tubes forward; and as she is being fitted with a
pneumatic apparatus for running out and in the
telescopic shields which are intended to prevent the
Whitehead being deflected from its course, she was an
object of considerable interest. From the Glatton the
visitors next proceeded to the steel despatch vessel, the
Iris, a box of machinery in fact, whose power lies in
her heels. While the Speaker was being shown the
various " points " of the ship by Lieutenant Wonham,
some GOO seamen gunners, laden with waterproofs and
I haversacks, were observed to be leaving the side of the
Excellent, gunnery ship, in steam launches and other
small craft, andas these landed and formed in line the
band of the St. Vincent struck up a lively air, and
they defiled past in excellent time and line.
This completed the first part of the programme. It
was now half-past one, and it was not without a sense
of relief that the jaded legislators received the welcome
summons to luncheon. As, however, it was utterly
impossible that the party, swelled as it was by the
officials of the yard, could all be accommodated within
the somewhat confined spaces on board the Thunderer,
notwithstanding that the Captain's cabin, the ward
room, and the after steerage had been utilized for the
occasion, the Speaker Lord Henry Lennox, and a
few others accepted the hospitality of Rear-Admiral
Foley. After luncheon the party were transferred
from the jurisdiction of the Admiral Superintendent
to that of the Port-Admiral; and whereas they had
been previously shown how ships were designed
and constructed, they were now to be informed
how they could be most readily sunk and de-
stroyed. Having taken up positions along the
superstructure and hurricane decks the visitors wit
3:tossed two runs with the 16-inch Whitehead torpedo.
The one was fired from a steam pinnace as in actual
warfare, its course, which mins ill a straight line for
about 200 3 ai di, being distinctly traceable by the ex-
haust air-bubbles which is threw up. The other was
discharged from the surface of the water for the pur-
pose id showing how readily it sunk automatically
to the required depth. The next novelty submitted
was the steam pinnace, which, without having a
single man on board, can do everything but stoke and
keep its own fires alight. Its engines are worked and
its movements are controlled wholly by electricity,
the cable which supplies it with its mysterious power
being unwound from winches as the pinnace sails On
its mission. "And drags at each remove a lengthen-
ing chain." Its principal use is to drop and explode
countermines in the neighbourhood of an enemy's
mines, and by destroying them clear a harbour for
the approach of the fleet. It performed its work
te the amazement of the beholders on Saturday.
The countermines were represented by a couple of
barrels containing small charges of gun-cotton, and with
these slung over the sides it took its departure from
the boat containing the battery and dropped the casks
at a distance of about 200 yards, igniting at the same
time the fuses which blew the barrels into matchwood,
and returned obediently, like a "thing of life," to the
controlling hand after having accomplished its duty.
Near at hand in the basin the torpedo 'settings for
protecting ships against the locomotive torpedo were
t exhibited on the sides of the Actearm, while the prow
of the Bloodhound, gunboat, was armed with the
trawl with which it is proposed to pick up sunken
mines. But now the notes of the bugle are heard as a
summons to quarters and for the Thunderer to be
cleared for action, the legislators being at the same
time asked to clear themselves away from the tops of
the turrets. Moreover, as the magazines of the ship
were now supposed to be open, and as the regulations
must be carried out even in sport, it was indispensable
that all cigars should be extinguished. Lia an in-
credibly short space of time the stanchions
and guard-rails were flung down, the water-
tight doors closed, and the couple of • Gatling guns
dismounted from their carriages on the superstructure
deck and hoisted up to the crow's-nest, whence they
could each discharge 200 shots per minute upon hostile
boats. Presently the process of loading the guns was
gone through, in the fore turret by hydraulic power
and in the after turret by hand gear, the turrets were
rotated and the guns run out, and the snapping of
tube fuses told the spectators that a furious action had
commenced. Time now began to pass. Only one
hour intervened between the time fixed for the return
to London, and hence a precipitate rush was made to
the landing stage, where a number of steam pinnaces
and launches were awaiting with steam up to convey
the party to the Vernon, torpedo school, where
Caatain Arthur and Commander Wilson had still more
surprising wonders in the art of warfare for them to
witness, First of all Commander Wilson delivered a
hurried lecture on the mysteries of torpedo science, ex-
' vlaining tht3thfferen ceß between offeubiril and ctefensive

torpedo warfare, the nature of the several explosive
substances used, and the method of firing torpedoes—
mechanically, LT means of glass tubes of sulphuric
acid which explode on coming into contact with
chloride of potash, or glass tubes filled with potassium,
which causes explosion on mixing with the water, or,
electrically, by means of detonation produced by
fulminate of mercury. Commander Wilson also showed
by means of a model in a tank the method of ascer-
taining when a ship is over a sunken torpedo by
means of cross-bearings, and how the mine is
fired as soon as the telescope which is following
the movements of the ship completes the electrical
circuit. As the model, however, did not sink
with great alacrity in its mimic ocean, Com-
mander Wilson explained that the torpedo did not
profess to destroy a ship instantly, but only to knock
a hole in the bottom about the size of a barn door.
At the conclusion of the lecture the company again
went on deck, and saw discs of dry and damp gun-cotton
harmlessly consumed, and how a solid block of wood
could be shivered by the same material when exploded
with a detonator. Next, on looking over the bul-
warks, they beheld a practical illustration of the
boat's crew "creeping " for an enemy's torpedo, the
process consisting in dragging for the mooring chains,
and, when found, destroying them by a discharge of
gun-cotton. They were also showed the manner of
attack with spar torpedoes, firing lines of counter-
mines by "bumping the circuit closer, and, lastly, how
attacking boats can be destroyed by grenades fired by
fuses held in the hand. These beautiful experiments
closed the day's programme, and the whole party beat
a hasty retreat to the trooping jetty, where the special
train awaited them to convey them to London. They
left Portsmouth at half-past four, arriving at the
Victoria Station at 6.38.