The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-04-19 00:00:00

Court Ncb3s.

HSI MAJISTT'S Ditatviso-Roon.—Her Majesty the
Queen held her first Drawing-room this season on
Thursday afternoon in St. James's Palace. The Queen
and Prince Consort arrived from Buckingham Palace,
attended by the Ladies and Gentlemen in Waiting.
The Queen wore a train of lilac satin, trimmed with
handsome old point, and bouquets of wallflowers an
mignonette. The petticoat of white satin, covered with
white tulle, tri aaaaaa ml to coirespond to the train. Her
Majesty's head-dream was formed of a wreath of wall-
flowers and miviotetk, ornamented with diamond/.
THE PRINCE Or WALEI4.—A letter from Rome of
the led says :—" The Prince of Wales made an excep-
tion this week to his general rule of not going out in
the evening. His royal highness went on Tuesday
evening to visit the Austrian Ambamadrens, Countess
Colloredo, and then proceeded to the French Embassy,
where the Countess de Grammont had a very full
assembly, enlivened by the comic strains of M. (Aven-
ger, of Palais Royal celebrity. In the course of the
evening the Count de (lraiiiitiont presented his most
distinguished visitors to the Prinee of Wales. His
royal highness has during this week descended to the
catacombs of St. Caliatus ander the guidance of Che-
valier 1)e Rossi, and visited the Raspigliosi and Quirinal
Palace*. Yestenlay be made an eacursion into
Albano, with the noinewhat unpleasant accumpaniinent
of a keen trainotauna wind, which is not to be trifled
with on the lofty *unlink of the Alban Mount."
•

liandsiosne

According to present arrangements, and if war does
not break out, the Prince of Wales leaves Rome about
the cud of thi. month, and v.sits several ,laces in the
north of Italy. He makes a abort stay in Florence,
after that the route home to England is not settled on, but
he will not come to Paris.

Her Royal Highness the Princout Alice .111 be con-
firmed during the ensuing Pa.asiota Week. at fit. George's
Chapel, Windsor. The Archbishop of Canterbury will
officiate.

THE NW PEERS AND BARDNETS.—Tbe dignity of
Baron is conferred upon the under mentioned gentle-
men :—Colonel George Wyndham, by the title of Baron
Leconfield, of Leconlield, in the East Biding of the
county of York ;Willisum Tatton Egerton' Esq., by the
title of Baron Egerton. of Tattoo, in the county of
Chester ; Sir Charles Morgan Robineon Morgan, Bart.,
by the title of Baron Tredegar, of Tredegar, in the
county of Monmouth. The new Baronets are :—Mr.
William &Idea, M.P., Mr. John Neeld, M.P., Mr.
Edward Grogan, M.P., Mr. John Henry Groin.
Smyth, Mr. George Stucley, and Mr. Phillip Paunce•
fort Dunooinbe. . . _

THE NEAPOLITAN EXILE.—The Duke and Duchess
of Sutherland received Baron Poerio and a party of the
leading Neapolitan exile.' at Stafford House, St. James's,
on Tuesday afternoon. There were present to meet the
Italian gentlemen at luncheon the Earl and Countess of
Shaftury, the Earl of Carlisle, the Dukeand Duchess
of Argyll, the Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford, the
Duchess (Dowager) of Norfolk, Hon. Charles Howard,
Hon. Arthur Kinnaird, the Dean of Westminster, the
Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, Sir Roderick I. Murchison
the Right Hon. W. F. and Mrs. Cowper, Mr. R. M. and
Mrs. Manes, Mrs. Lacaita, Lord Ronald Leveson Gower,
the Misses Luning, Lc.

army anb Nabu.
The Garrison at Woolwich was on Monday assembled
for general parade and inspection in heavy march-
ing order.
A large number of men were on Thursday taken on
by the Royal Engineer Department in Woolwicll
Arsenal for the purpose of erecting an additional build-
ing required for the manufacture of Sir W. Armstrong's
rifled ordnance. The digging out the foundation was
commenced contiguous to the old Lancaster shell forge,
which within the last fortnight has been thoroughly
organised, and is now in full operation in casting and
forging materials to carry out the speedy manufacture
of this new branch of the service. The new building
commenced on Thursday will be constructed two stories
high, and will be one of the moat piominent features in
the arsenal. The rifled ordnance departuient thus
established, under the superintendenee of Mr. John
Anderson, is being pushed forward with the utmost
vigour, and • large number of smiths and experienced
artificers and others are already on the books of the
establishment.
Captain Norton, the inventor of the liquid fire rifle
shell, and other destructive missiles, completed some
experiments on Tuesday at Brumpton Barracks,
Chatham, in order to demonstrate the destructive
nature of his liquid fire shells, even when enclosed in
anything beside metal shell"; the missile experimented
with being • kind of liquid firebrand, for the purpose of
throwing into buildings and setting them on fire, blow-
ing up powder magazines and ammunition wagons, and
betting fire to the ships of an enemy. This new missile
invented by Captain Norton is composed of a wooden
tube or case, the kind useil in the experiments being
made of pite, its length measuring about six inches, or
three diameters and a half of the bore of the rifle used
for throwing it at the object intended to he set on fire.
Previously to the experiments Captain Norton explained
that this kind of shell possesses a very important advan-
tage over other kinda. inasmuch SA every part of the
case is inflauiniable, which of course is not the case with
iron shells, although charged with the liquid fire. In
order to show how easily the Wilk of a ship might be set
on fire with a missile of this description, Captain Norton
hail a quantity of canvas sticking suspended at the end
of the range, the material being of the same substance as
that from which the sails of vessels are mule. Captain
Norton then took one of the wooden cases, or brands,
which he charged with a very small portion of his lilumd
tire, And then fired it from the rifle he generally use, in
these experiments. At the instant the brand struck
the canvas a smouldering smoke was perceptible, and
directly afterwards the 'wicking burst out into flames,
the shell part, which had imbibed the liquid lire, also
burning, the whole remaining on tire for about 'X
minutes. In ordinary shells the metal takes no part in
the conflagration, but in this new missile the shell as
sell ILA its charge becomes incendiary, and all is fire.
There CAD be no doubt, after the success which attended
the experiments, that rifle shells charged with liquid
fire are far more efficient for blowing up ammunition
wagons in the field than shells charged with the ordi-
nary explosive compounds hitherto used, because the
Ii uid fire-shells never fail to set tire to timber or other
inflammable substances, whereas the other shells are
more uncertain in their effect*. The spherical wooden
brands used hy Captain Norton may be saturated with
the lhmid fire, and then discharged from ordinary smooth
bore cannon.
Preparations are being comuienced at Chatham Dock-
yard for the launch of the line-of-battle screw steamship
Stood, 91 guns, which is ordered to take place on the 4th
of May. The Hood will afterwards be taken to Sheer-
ness to be fitted with engines of 600-horse power. The
next vessel to be launched at Chatham is tlie screw cor-
vette Charybdis, 21 guns, which will take place early in
June.
The important disclosures which have recently been
made public relative to the alleged defects in the Enfield
rifle used by the British troops in India have been
the means of directing the attention of the authorities to
the vast superiority, as a weapon in the hands of troops,
of the Lancaster rifled carbines, with which the corps of
Royal Engineers is now armed. From the reports which
have recently been received by the authorities at the
Horse Guards from the officers now serving with the
Royal Engineers in India, there can be no doubt
that the Lancaster rifle is in every respect superior 1
to any sinall ann in the service, repeatod prooffs
of which were given during the conflicts
with the mutineers in India. Four companies of
the Royal Engineers have been employed in India dur-
ing the rebellion, all armed with the Lancaster carbine,
and the same tests which applied to the Enfield rifle
proved it tube defective have resulted in the Lancaster
rifle maintaining its efficiency. The officers report that
there has not been a single complaint of fouling, diffi-
culty of loading, or want of accuracy and power,
brought against it ; but, on the contrary, it has
proved, in every respect, superior to the Enfield rifle.
During the frequent conflicts with the mutineers in
which the men of the Royal Engineers and the
troops of the line have been engaged together, with
the same amount of ammunition issued to all the troops
engaged, the men of the line reginients have been coin-
pelted to CCAAC firing for the purpose of wiping out
the barrels of their Enfield rifles after firing from 10
to 29 rounds, whereas the Royal Engineers, with the
Lancaster rifle, have continued their fire, loadiNg their
carbines with perfect ease. On the 21st of February,
in last year, the 4th Company of Royal Engineers, con-
sisting of about 100 non-commissioned officers and men,
was stationed at Fort Jellalabad, before Lucknow. The
enemy attacked the fort in great numbers, and wentclOAC
to the walls. They were, however, repulsed by the Royal
' Engineerswithgresitloss,nolesathan9Onieubeingleftdead
on the ground, tLia whole being killed by the Lancaster
rifles. No idea could be formed of the number of killed
and wounded carried off, but no doubt it was consider-
able. The Royal Engineers sustained no loss ; not a
man was even wounded. This fact is most important,
not so much as showing the accuracy of the ami, but
from the circumstance that during the six hours the
Ro7al Engineers were engaged with the rebels until
relieved by Sir J. Outram's force each man fired on an
average at least 60 rounds, and yet not the least diffi-
culty was experienced during the whole of that time in
loading the carbines.