The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-18 00:00:00

gabal anb• Alilitarg ittelligente.

A GENERAL ORDER from the Horse Guards this
week calls for a return of such officers and men who
may be considered worthy of the war medal granted
by the King of Sardinia.

- -
THE reported loss of the Pylades and Brilliant on
the North American station is this week denied.

A TRIM.. of Mr. Boydell's patent endless railway
traction engine was made this week at Woolwich
marshes in the presence of a number of gentlemen.
Colonel Tulloch, Royal Artillery, directed the ex-
periments on behalf of Government. One of the
heaviest guns, a 68 pounder, weighing 113 cwt. 141 b.,
having been mounted on a waggon to which were
attached eighteen artillery horses, was conveyed to
the Plumstead-marshes. The traction engine having
picked up n gun of equal calibre, which, together
with the engine and carriages, weighed 20tons sewt.,
followed, and proceeded steadily for some distance,
when, from the soft state of the roads and the small
power of the engine, being only of 8 horse power,
the experiment could not ba completed. It was,
however, considered that the object of the experi-
ment had been sufficiently realised.
COLONEL GORDON, R.E., C. 8., A.D.C. to the Queen,
will, it is said, be made Deputy Adjutant-General to
the Corps of Royal Engineers, iu succession to
Colonel Matson, who has retired with the honorary
rank of major general.
ENSIGN COBBE, of the 46th Regiment, was detected
last week serving as a private in the Bth. This
young officer lost his passage from the Crimea, and
enlisted in the Bth on his arrival in England. He is
the son of Major-General Cobbe of the Artillery.
CAPTAIN W. A. WILLIS has been appointed to the
vacant captaincy at Greenwich.
THE UNITED STATES SCREW STEAM FRIGATE Mer-
rimac will, it is expected, take her departure from
Southampton Water in about a week's time.
Amongst the visitors of the frigate during the last
week were several captains and commanders in the
royal navy and military officers. On Saturday the
frigate was visited by Count Puniatine, a vice-admiral
in the Russian service, and aide-de-camp to the
Emperor of Russia. The count commanded the
Russian frigate Diana during the Russia war, when
she Was chased by the English and French fleets
throughout the South and North Pacific oceans,
making her remarkable escape in a dense fog from
the Amoor river. The remarkable shape of some of
the frigate's guns has excited great curiosity, the
pivot guns having the appearance of mammoth black
bottles, from the enormous size of the hinder part
of the guts as compared with the circumference of
the gun towards'the mouth.

A-NEW PISTOL has been inspected by his Royal
Highness the Commander-in• Chief. The pistol is an
American invention, and will receive nine charges at
once, which can be delivered successively in twelve
seconds. Carbines on the same principle will con-
tain twenty-five charges. The pistol consists of two
barrels, one above the other. The lower tube con-
tains the charges, which consist each of a conical
bullet containing its own powder, hermetically in-
closed by a copper capsule, filled with detonating
ingredients. One pull of the trigger lifts a bullet
into the upper tube, or barrel, and instantaneously
discharges it. The piece rarely requires cleaning--
can be discharged many hundreds of times without
detriment—and if the spiral spring, which forces the
bulleit downwards, becomes injured, it can be re-
placed in a minute or two by an armourer.