The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-08-02 00:00:00

Tinny anb NOLL

The Devonport fortifications, resumed lately, have
been suddenly abandoned, owing to an order from
head•quartcra.
The French soldiers are to be taught to swim--the
Iliniater of War having taken warning by the peat
mortality caused by drowning on the occasion of the
of the various rivers which had to be forded by
the ranch troops during the war in Italy.
. . . .

7
According to the adviees from Malta, Admiral Fan-
ahawe left on the Nth ult. for Naples with five ships of
the line and one frigate. Vice•Adinital Mundy has left
with one ship and one frigate. The ship Cressy and
two gun-boats have also sailed.
Some very heavy guns, principally GS-pounders, and
j 10-inch shell have ust been lauded at Yarmouth, with
their carriages, Ise., for the north and south batteries.
A detachment of ths Royal Artillery is busily engaged
in placing the guns in position.
Snipe ix ORDINART.—There are now lying in
ordinary in the Royal Navy about WU vessels, exclusive
of mortar-vessels and floats; nineteen of these are to be
converted into sorew.ships, and the conversion of seven
is under consideration. There is also a list of eighty-
seven receiving-ships, coaling-hulks, kc. Four ships
have been broken up or sold since January, Irt.lo, with.
out having been commissioned.
THE DIRTURBANCCH ix KETHAII IHICKTARD.—Mr.
Burney, a leading shipwright, and an apprentice named
' Bewley, were taken into custody by the order of
Captain Muon, of Iler Majesty's ship Ciesar, for
making • disturbance during the flogging of a seiunan on
board that ship in Keybain Dock. The case having
been inquired into by the Admiralty, Mr. Burney has
been ordered to be suspended from his work for a week,
and fkwlay to lose six months of his time, so that be
will have to serve six mouths longer as an apprentice
than the ordinary period.
• -"

Tin: CAMP AT CliALoNs.---The camp this year is
more numerous than last year, comprising an effective
force of 35,000 men, under the orders of General
Schramm. The troops are divided into four divisions—
three of infantry and one of cavalry. There are twelve
rgi ts of infantry, four of caval • and Hine bat-
talions
u
nof rioeinen..here are also in the camp three
batteries of artillery, two companies of engineers, and
some detachmenta of the baggage train and commissariat.
Hitherto the troops have only been exercised by regi-
ment.; next mouth they will be exercised by divisions;
and in October there will be grand IIMACOUVIVII.
• • •

OUR DEFENCES AT GIBR-ALTAR.—The semi-official
Corersensdesacio A etiografit (Spanish journal) has the
following:—" At Gibraltar the English are mounting
batteries, not only, as has been stated, in the forts, but
even in the midst of the streets. The day on which
the zentinal of the Straits shall light his first match
this place will be ttansfornmed into a TOICSTIO of gun-
powder and hell. Our forts of Santa Barham and San
Feline, destroyed by the English in the War of Inde-
pendence, under the pretext that the French tnoops
might take posseasion of them, are now only heaps of
ruins, and the bronze artillery with which they were
armed is still in the hands of the English. The English
will not allow these fortifications to be restored, suit yet
we permit them to encroach every day, by constructing
barracks on neutral ground, and by taking the stone
destined for their walls from the quarries of San
Roque."
ARMSTRONG OVER AND RIFLED CANNON.—"The
most noticeable feature in the Arsenal," writes the
Marseilles correspondent of the Tinier, "is the effort
made to provide rifled ordnance for the Navy. The
system which appears to be definitely adopted consists
of three grooves of about three inches broad and an
eighth of an inch deep, with • twist of one-sixth."
These guns are being supplied rapidly to the French
line-of-battle ships. It would certainly seem but a pru-
dent step to make 11261: of the guns we have as aupple-
mental to the " Annstrongs," which must be compara•
tively few in number for the next two or three years.
There are, we believe, no less than 'l,OOO smooth-bored
guns now lying at Woolwich Arsenal. To rifle a part
of these would be an easy and, comparatively, an inex-
pensive work. If beyond the powers of the Govern-
ment establishments the work ini;;lmt he distributed
Alllollg the various factories in our great towns, by the
end of the year large numbers of rifled guns might be
lit for use.
Mr. W. 11. Ward, of Auburn, United States W
America, on Tuesday, exhibited in Woolwich Dock-
yard, by permission of the Lords of the Admiralty, his
patent invention for transmitting inea.sges and carrying
on correspondence of any length from ship to ship,
becalmed, or sailing within telescopic sight of each
other on the ocean, with equal facility to that of the
electric telegraph on land. The exhibition was wit•
news' by Commodore the Hon. James R. Drummond.
CR.. Aide-de-Canip to the Queen, in his official capacity
as superintendent, attended by the entire body of
officers representing the various departments of the
yard. Shoe of the instruments was erected at either end
of a long enclosed lobby adjoining the dockyard factory,
when a lengthened test of messages and replies WAS
satisfactorily carried out. The experiment was ex-
tremely interesting and conclusive as to the merits of
the apparatus, the result of which was promptly
transmitted to Lord Clarence Paget by special direction
of the Commodore to that effect, the invention having
been pronounced one of the must important of the kind
hitherto produced, and likely to be productive of im-
mense benefit to the entire naval and merchant service
afloat. The weight of the instrument, which is of the
simplest construction, sloes not appear to exceed I Ilb.
It represents the form of a cross, exhibiting five alpha-
betically marked lamps, which are worked by a process
resembling the keys or notes of a piano slowly depressed,
and at the termination of each sentence the lights are
clouded. As regards the working of the instrument,
the principal officers of the Fisgard, who on Tuesday
attended the experiments, affirmed without hesitation
that any boy of Her Majesty's fleet could obtain a per-
fsset mastery of the system by a couple of evenings study.
On Tuesday evening the Fairy, with the Royal
standard at the main said the Admiralty flag at the fore,
with the Elfin paddle yacht in attendance, steamed up
to Spithead from Osborne on a visit to the fleet. ller
Majesty was received with a Royal salute and manned
yards from each ship as the Royal yacht steamed slowly
past, the Russian frigate Polkan joining in the demon.
stration. After steaming from east to west of the outer
line of the fleet. the Fairy passed down the inner line
and round time Polkan. after which Her Majesty re.
turned to Osborne. The fleet is now anchored at Spit
bead in two divisions. The outer line or division COlll-
- from the west part of Spithead, is anchored in
the order named :- The James Watt, the Hero, the
Algiers, the Royal Albert, the Edgar, and the Neptune.
The inner hue is formed with the Emerald end the
Mersey, also commencing fnmin the westward, with the
Flying Fish, 6, and the Pioneer, 6, anchored rather
closer inshore in sboaler water. The Russian sonadnmn,
consisting of the Retvizan, 9s) ; the Gromolmi. ; RIO
the Polkas, 44, are brought up to the eastward of the
squadron. Signal was made on Thursday from the
Royal Albert for sine-fourth of each suit's company to
have 414 hours' leave ashore, which has been accordingly
granted.