The Express.
London, England, 1868-06-25 00:00:00

IMI'ERIAL PARLIAMENT.

The debate which pre!,, sled the withdrawal of Mr.
Bruce's Edueetionel Bill yesterday afternoon was
rendered in ore anim a ted th an usual by the ocearrenee
of a toicrably sharp alte.e...tt On b.Lts..;eu the right
hon. gentleman and Mr. Dixon, the member for
Birmingham, on the one side, and Lord R. Mon-
tagu on the other, as to the vaiwt of: the exer-
tions made, and the authority of the statistics
obtained by the educational aid socialist of
Manchester and Birmingham. Mr. Bruce and
Mr. Dixon charged the Viee-President of the
Committee of Council with having, when he
moved the education graitt, misrepresented the
character anti unjustly attacked the reports of
these societies ; and Lord It. Montagu replied by
fresh charges of inaccuracy against the reports,
and a lively criticism upon the provisions of the
bill. The general discussion, in which a large
number of hon. numbers took part, ranged Over
almost every point of the education controversy -
the failure of voluntaryism, the necessity of com-
pulsion, and the respective merits or advantages
of religious anti secular education; and one hon.
gentleman • Mr. Parker, the member for West
Suffolk- contrived even to introduce an allusion
to the malt-tax. From English education to (Mr.
Blake's) Irish Sea Fisheries was rather a sharp
transition. The disettsmion on the latter subject was
remarkable for the unanimity of opinion exhibited
byithe Irish members, to whom it was principally
confined. aid iu tlu• end the lune number for Water-
ford got his bill read a second time. As by this
time, the time for dosing the discussion upon all
matters of controversy had arrived, most of the
other orders were postponed, and the house
adjourned.

TIIE SIMEBURYNESS EXPERIMENTS.

SUOEBURYNESS, WIMNBSDAY.

Amongst the few spectators who braved the
Beyer sun on the Shoehury marshes to-day Prince
Arthur paid what is officially termed a private
visit. Colonel F. Eardley-Wilmot, the celebrated
artillerist and courteous superintendent of these
experiments, explained to him the shooting, past,
present, and future. after which his royal highness,
with a blue distinguishing ticket in his button-
hole, like the net, roamed lasint at pleasure in
front of the target, asking various questions of
various pers‘ais. and manifested /4 /*We i /jib illtere4
111 till`lml4.l4.ding.. The news of the Prince's visit
was not announced beforehand, but before he had
been on the spot an hour, a clergyman, with It train
of young lath. s under his guidance, and a sprink-
ling of t isit.nx, hitherto unseen, were observeul
Cs:1,111111M: with extreme interest the unromantic
~bj, cis of the practice ground.
The Rodman gun, from which two shots were
fill 11 yeti 'clay evening tut it late 11101IIVItt that llre-
-1.111/h d loone than a mere mention, gave no rea.on
why any 1N•1140.11 win had 1114(41 its previcms pi r-
form:au sit ittlil change his opini, ti. One of the
Lulls, striking on the joint of two plates, mache a
da c.per, and the other a shallower, indentation than
silly pr1.1.141i114.r them. The shots themselves were
MOW la lI'S,. %h; item!, and the friends of the
Anceric an •iitooth-lscre, while admitting that it is
less Ith,etivc• than the terrible riflod shell or shot
front the Woolwich gun, plead the inferiority of
the material of which the shot is made MR a miti-
gation of sentence upon its merits. That, how-
ever. is a matter for teelinical men to deal with;
tax mere recorders of results we can only say that
a fort constructed on the principle either of the
Plymouth Breakwater or the experimental case-
mate would so far have Isar unhanded but for
the att:iebs of our own ordnance.

The stringers, which were on their trial yester-
day, and again to-day, are best known as Ilughes'
patent longitudinal hollow stringers. They were
originally invented, by the gentleman whose name
they bear, for armour-plated ships, and have pro-
mised Kt/ well that the War-office resolved to test
them to ascertain their vulueforcoastdefences. Itis
claimed that as a system of backing it is superior
to the combination of iron and wood once so
popular, and that, by giving a minimum of ma-
terial with a maximum of strength, it is much
cheaper than costlier defences not a whit more
efficient. Another point in its favour is that,
Icing a thinner structure, it takes up but little
room, but that is an advantage that would
probably apply more to ships than forts.
The proveillings this morning commenced un-
usually early with a shell front the 9-inch gun,
at the experimental casemate that received 20
shots yesterday, two only of which effected com-
plete penetration. It was aimed at the 6-inch
plate, and struck between two previous shots,
but without splitting the intermediate substance
of iron. The shell was so far successful that it
penetrated 16.3 inches. The inner coating,ormant-
let, was taken down, to see what the blow had
done in the interior, and it was found that
although the concrete had offered but slight re-
sistance, the stringer had stood firm, and that
the general structure of the casemate had not
been injured to speak of, beyond the two 10-inch
shells that created the clean breaches yester-
day. A couple of shots from the 7-inch gun were
fired next, but they buried themselves harmlessly
in the target, breaking off, as these rifled pro-
jectiles often do, at the groove studs. The plates
fired against were eight and six inches, and the
indentation eight and twelve inches respectively. A
third round from the same gun, striking the four-
inch plate where the rear support is a 7-inch
channel iron, penetrated 11.3 inches. A bolt was
started outwards from a quarter to three-eighths
of an inch. The shot entered very near the bolt,
and between two other shots, but the iron showed
the sante toughness as on each previous trial. The
next was a 9-inch shot at the 8-inch plate.
For the first time the Palliser missile imbedded
itself in the target without breaking up, although
the starred aspect of the end evidenced that
it was held together pretty much by the plate
Two tiny cracks were now visible in connection
with one of the Rodman shots and one of the shells
of yesterday. This was not an unlikely result,
/teeing that within a section of six feet by five feet
(rough measurement), half a dozen full shots had
taken effect. Another 9-inch shot was fired at
the 6-inch plate with pier at the back. It pene-
trated the target 17 inches, leaving, like the pre-
vious shot, the remainder projecting, though in a
more shattered condition. It entered quite close
to a bolt without injuring it, and four or five
inches front a previous shot hole without
cracking the intermediate plating. Another
9-inch shot struck the 6-inch plate and
penetrated 19.2 inches.

A abet from the 10-inch gun, with 60 lbs. charge,
followed. It went through the 8-inch plate and '
the concrete beyond, with a total penetration of
'2 feet 10 inches, starting, but not splitting, a bolt
which it grazed along its course, and distributing
some small fragments of concrete from the top of
the pier. The injury, however, would not ma-
terially weaken the works, nor be fatal to the
gunners within the casement. No so the next
shot of the same calibre. It went through a
6-inch plate clear of the pier, and about
two feet to the left of the porthole.
Crashing through the stringer, it travelled in two
portions far out to sea, sent deadly fragments of
iron plate hither and thither upon the casemate
floor, shivered the wooden screen. and powdered
the concrete and bitumen filling in a manner that
would, by suffocation, have completed the destruc-
tion which the flying debris had not monopolised.
It should in justice, however, be added that there
is every probability that the disposition of the
stringers in the same direction as the plates (the
shot as it was striking near where the joints of
one crossed those of the other) would have ensured
a different issue. A 10-inch shot was next aimed
at the edge of the porthole, which it struck, broke
into fragments, and glancing obliquely in
an easterly direction, toppled over a couple of
huge 6-inch armour plates, temporarily fixed at
the side of the casement, and went away into the
water. Then a parting shot was given from the
12-inch Woolwich gun—the heaviest in the service
—and the 6001bs. shot was fired with 761bs. of
pellet powder. This severelest was directed at a
comparatively weak part of the target, which was
made still weaker by several former shots having
penetrated the immediate Tieinity. It it hardly