The Press.
London, England, 1853-09-03 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Coombe, President of the Academy, and M. Rivat,
Professor of thetnistr) it the EVOIP des Mines. The
tiovernment also sent as stweeittl commission to I lam,
of naval officers MI engineer". to malts a report on
the subject. These reports are not yet published.
but the result is known as having been must favour-
able, in spite of the imperfect condition of the ma.
chine sent to France. The principles of Eriesson's
invention are somewhat similar to those of Davy'm
lamp, namely, that gas at a high temperature passing
through a ntetallic tissue loses the greater plat of its
calorie. But what was not het. diseovereil, and what
Ericsson tanned, was, that this metal''c cloth retains
its heat, and communicates it to a new cuffent of
gas arriving front tut opposite direction. This has
been fally deemed iii flit affirmative by the ex_
!torments made in presence of the commissioners_
The second point to ascertain was the intensity of
the resistance which the air meets with in traversing
the metallic cloth. The great mathematical eaten's-
_

.•
tion is not yet published, but it is known t)u this
resistanee will not be more than one fortieth of an at
mosphere. The quantity of coal burned is about
alb. ism steam horso-power per hour.
A 'Atm": looktnii-ot.Ass 111As1•racTony

tntGablished in Denmark tat Ilailerslev. One of the
proprietors, Herr Weber, has construeted an linty
'titans and eomplicated machine which polishes the
plates with wonderful rapidity. The plates cam be
products" up to about twel‘o feet in lougth, and
brelititil in proportion.
THE Cot• Nett. of the ITitiversity of Cracow has pro
posed that the lectures shall heneeforth be delivered
in the (tone m, instead of in the Polish. language.
This proposal has been accepted by the Schools of
Law and Philosophy, whilo the School of Medicine
declared itself incompetent tAb 411‘eillt. the 41110.4i0n.
TIIE Iito%EItNIIENT hats joined Lieutenant
Mattry's movement. and will assist, all moreltant
captains who enll4S the Atha die in drawing up the
meteorological jonrnals he requirs. After being
examintsl by tho Academy of Seit'itct6s, the results
will be forwarded to I Aeut onant Mallory.
THE AUSTRIAN GENERAL OF ORDNANcI:, Chevalier
de Sehtinahls, has just itublimittsl a work entitled
6' Biography of Baron Julius volt !triplet', lay one of
his companions in arms."

)bituar!.

DEATH OF SIR CHARLES N /WIER.

Tea " Item of Seinde" died on Monday last, at his
seat near Ports. 1111 l tt bowed seventy one. Frew .'dicers
have pissed throng). a career of service so prolonged,
so various, and so glorious es that of the de.pasetl
general. Entering the army at nn early age, he may
be said to have passed nearly time whole of a hew
life in incessant activity—tighting, while war lasted,
sometimes as a commissioned .'hirer, sometimes as
a volunteer, serving by sea and land, and exchanging.
when called upon, the ditties of a warrior f..r Ih./se
of the negotiator, the diplomatist, and the adminis.
tmtor; and, when nothing out of deem seemed to
demand the exercise of his indomitable energies,
devoting himself, with chametATistic impetuosity., ti
the task of remodelling the wither', and reforming
the morale, of the British army.
From the copious biographies given by our daily
contemporaries (of which the um-naive. written
by his brother, Sir William Napier, is the principal
source) we extract the most interesting details.
Charles James Napier, the son of Col. Napier, was
born at whitebait, Loudon, on the Both of Ang.e.t,
114.2, but was removed very early to Ireland-4e
Caatletown, in the county of Kildare. Bere he re li
relived his eilneatien, at the hands of his father, until,
before he attained his twelfth year, he received, on
the :{lst of January, 11704, an ensign's commission in
the 22iel Regiment of Foot ; and on the Mth of May
tollowing he was gazettol a lieutenant. Four years
after, young Napier saw his first serviee as aide de
camp to Sir UM's during the Irish rebellion
of VS. llis regiment still keeping in Ireland, where
it Wall recruited, he was called out On the neellKinn
of the Emmett plot and insurreetion, and the paling
soldier had a seelnid time the oppertimity of seeing
the horrors of civil war. Towards the end of 1M0:I he
..btaitusl his company, and exelianged into the 50111.
Baying been appointed to at majority .a. the 211th of
May, I.4at, he commented this regiment during the
terrible retreat on Conuma under Sir John Moore,
mid during the fatal battle in which that gifted
leader fell. Nlaji.r Napier was himself wounded in
five plates in that battle, and mole prisoner. The
42nd an.l 50th hail attacked and driven the French
out of a village called Flvina, and Sir John Moon'
had scut a battalion of linarols to reinforce the regi.
ments in :continuing the a 41% met.. The 4.2n01, how
ever, taking the Gremuliers for a relief, partially fell
back, leasing the 50th fighting in some disorder
arnong4t mined houses and garden walls. At this
moment the French, having been powerfnlly rein
forced, athenceil in an overwhelming charge, driving
back the !nth into the village. In the retreat
Maica Starhope, a nephew of Mr. Pitt, was killed,

and Major Napier desperately wounded and made
pntioner. lie is described am advancing over 'woken
ground. armed with a musket, and calling on him
men to follow him. Three of the four who obeyed
him fell in the attempt, the fourth wits wounded. and
the rest hung back. Napier was in the act of help-
ing the wounded man when he wax struck by a
musket 11311, which 'nuke one of this shank bones.
Throwing down his musket, he ale. hobbling along,
leaning on his saitol, alien a Enbuchniiiii ran his
bayonet into his hack. The hurt, however, nut
being serious, Alajsir Napier turned round and slis
sullied his assailauit, now supported by several of his
comrades, about the major galhusUv Need until ho
c
was knoked downby tbe butt•enil of a
musket, and was *heat to be despatched outright,
when a Fnineli drummer interims' and dragged him
out sit the issi be. Soult received his priestlier with
kindness, proonreil for him the iiiiissisary medical
olsonstnall'e,. his reeovery iliamissed hint,
with perimatosin to go to Englimil on issersolis. This
itel a generosity was iiroliably noised by the close
of the campaign, which was terminated by the battle
of Corim& The belief in the meinitime was pn.v
lent in England that llajor Napier hail been killed,
I and he cme' his friends in mourning, and his
proia‘rty being udnninixlenul tn.
In Isll Major Napier wax again in the Peninsula,
Its a volunteer, and present at the battle of the Cott,
where he hail two horses shot under him ; but
elusive(' unhurt. At 1111$1100, 11110 of this
fought bade. of ow war, he was not P.S. 1.111141111te,
Teeing shot. in the Puce, having his jaw briskets and
his eye ilkjltrett. lusisl tuodirul itos:snattlice not ap
'tearing to he at hand, Sir Chiules actually role to
bishisii, a ilistinlee 111111'1. 1111111 a illttliblool
and hail the ball ibvtnieteil from whew it hall worked
itself to, behind his ear. Ile rissovereil woo enough
to take It share tit tile light of Fuentes sit niore, and
et the second siege of Ilaslajisz. during this time, in
hate, 11.411, he was proattitett to the rank of Houle-
mutt colonel. Itssintining in England for a brief
int ervsl, I !olonel Napier returned to utilise service on
a new element. In ISM he elllhatat‘ol on a fighting
cruise off the Chesapeake, capturing Anielicius
vessels 111111 111111i111g 1.11.1111011 t 1101414.11L4 1111011 them
CORMS. Onee again returning to England) in 11415,
Colonel Napier missed Waterloo, but au-rived as a
volunteer thins' slays after the battle. bask lout in
the storming of the t.:ambray, and
accompanied the army to Paris. After the pores,
t!olonl.1 Napier enjoyed an ititzbrval of retirement and
repose. In 1el:1, however, he served en the foreign
staff, and in the following yisu• wets 11111110 liovensor
Cephalonia. Tsai saw him major general, maul
the ne'\t year he was appointed tll Cllllllll9llll the
111111tIlt) 11141'11% of the noirili lot England.
In ISII, however, a wider field opened Ixefnrs+ him,
upon his being appointed to esaiinianol the army in
Here he mein attraeted attention by time
essinmenetiment of that. career of military reform for
which he has heroine so celebrated. At the mug-
gievtiun of the Earl 'if Ellssibs sr' nigh, Sir 4 !harlot drew
up the plan of Mt Atightinistan eampaign. It was on
too extensive t-eale to Is. nolsortell ; neeonn•
plioslotool monnio practical reforms in break hug flown the
pit jttiliees of the seissys in favour of the matchlock
lover the timmket,m4l tirraigettul the tilisiird custom of
lorrn Wing every English soldier upon the march with
a chest, four of which formed the loud of a camel.
Departing fer Seinsle, Sir Charles went Ise Neu to the
month of the Indus, Had arrived at Kiimichee,
where he suffered si severe injoiry from the exploision
of a 'Whet. Selfish, wa.,, sit that time, in a very slits-
ordered 14 01011 is in, awl I trit kit influents, miteli
weakesied by the slisse•ters el Calm' and linzfiee, by
the tittachm of the hill Itel,,sselice, the defeat a col
England, and the isoshilesl pesition of I itineral Nutt,
besieged in t'atishillar. 'tut Sir Charles write, " Dan-
ger from their warfare, I ran see none. 1 can heat
all tit:. prieces in Seinile." Ilia first step, however.
wits slitilsamitie one of waiting upon the Ames re
:st I I Alter this he proceeded to Sukkitr,
sued hums. csinimenceil Isis operations. lie Said be
wlonld I'l'lllllP the Ameere to all his quest policy or a
tenible war, and lie kept his word.
arranging his plans for the campaign—
settling Isis points of defuses and selecting hie
points of attack, but still negotiating with the
Anieers--Sir Charles at len; th lassught midterm to a
head. lie was overmatched. At 31eassee
there were st lit is mei' in entrenched i focal i. 41s
V.,01M1 111141, While Sir Charles load but ..:,sl,ll trusts
in all, supoys awl English. Leaving, however, let
the present, the Antes troops uurulJe stets, he
pushed through a wild country to a furtilleatten
railed Emaimi fibur, no European had ever
seen, anal which he ultimately remised with Jiffy
cavalry, two howitzers, and :1641 Irish infantry. A
hostile army—teu times the number of the lltitish—
hung 11111111 his flank, but dill not venture to attack
him. The fortification was reached—a place with
walls anti towers yerfeetly Impregnable, but deserted;
Mahoinmed Khan, one of the Atneers who had iv.
treated tiers, having tled from it with his army and
treasury, heating all his sts 'p.m and gunpowder behind