The Express.
London, England, 1868-06-17 00:00:00

(Timms astrrra's Amorcy.)

THE SUEZ CANAL.
PARIS JIINZ 16, Emmen,.
In to-day's sitting of the Legislative Body, the
bill sanctioning the loan of the Suez Canal Com-
pany was passed by 183 votes against 8.

NORTH GERMANY.
BERLIN, Juxa 16, ETIMINO.
Count Bismarck leaves this evening for Varzin,
his estate in Pomerania.
The use of Welsh coal has now been introduced
throughout the Federal navy instead of coke.
The North German Parliament adopted to-day
the bill relative to the abolition of gambling
houses.

AUSTRIA.
VIENNA, Jmrz 16.
At to-day's sitting the Upper House of the
Reichsrath passed without debate the bills for the
withdrawal of 25 million florins of the floating
public debt, and for the proposed modifications in
the prose laws.

AUSTRALIA.

KELBOI:7II.NE MAT 24.

A new Ministry has been formed and four of its
members have been re-elected. The •
erg
elections are proceeding. The shipmente of gold
to England since the departure of the last mail
amount to 164,12 S ounces.

AMERICA.
NEW YORK, Jusrx 16.
The Cunard steamerTarifa arrived out at 3 a.m.,
and the Hamburg and American steamship Alle.-
mannia at 5 p.m. to-day. The steamers leavin g
to-day for Europe take out 6.50,000 dole. in specie.
Closing Prices : Gold, 1401 ; Sterling Exchange
on London, 1101 ; 5-20 U. S. Bonds, 1882, 1I3;
ditto, 1883, 111; Illinois, 163 ; Erie, 89} ; Cotton,
M. Upland, 29; Petroleum, standard white, 33c.
Flour, extra State, 9 dole. ; Corn, old mixed,
1161.

A concert in aid of the Metropolitan Association
for Promoting the Education of Rules,. an eseentially
practical end useful association, is to be given on Friday
evening, the 19th inst., M et. bass's-hall, ander the
vzilortziseml Princes
distinction.t PlrPti=
Title= and Bmico, Mdmes. Trebelli-Betiini. and Osborne-
Williams, Wisp. Foil, Bettod, Scalene, Ferensi, ltokl-
tamsky, Bird, Osborne-Williams, Banyan, Beeves, &e.,
with a band and thorns of 160 performer% have kindly
promised their earvicam

NOVEL Aoatrarr.—Yeeteharitient three o'clock,
an extraordinary accident, • tuxedo:AM with
more serious eonseqaances than destruction of a
few tuna of spirits end the demolition of one of the hand-
somest shop-fronta in the south of London, occurred at
Mediator's corner, Londombridge. A single-horse van,
heavily laden with hales etwool, having slipped the wheel
skid en the Borough incline, the hone bat all power over
its load, and was forced violently flown the hill, semis the
footway, through the shop-front of Yeses. Findlater,
Mackie, and Todd's wine and spirit stores, where the
startled clerks had only jest time to escape the destruc-
tion occasioned by the unexpected intruder, whose antics
before he could be removed added considerably to the
damage dens in the first instance by the amident.
• The Tea Duty being reduced, Horuirann's Pure
Tea fa eold td. per pound cheaper. Title Interesting het will=
rant mown, even further Morass the flinnand let these
brapanporeed Seas. Dm are sot said beee.bat cob isfaseballet
niausdi "114nolgisil.«.."—tAdmiisimeatJ , .

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The important experiments with iron land
defences and heavy guns commenced this morning
at Shoeburyness, and they will be resumed to-
morrow morning and on the succeeding day. The
discussions that have taken place in parliament
and in the press upon the question of fort con-
struction bore their natural fruit to-day in an
assemblage of spectate's:slow than ever before col-
lected at Shoeburyness: Aponsiderable proportion of
the gathering were military and naval, or official
men, including the Duke of Cambridge, Sir John
Pakington, Major Palliser, Admiral Seymour, Sir
W. Anetruther, and Sir John Hay ; but there were
also many gentlemen who may be said to have
represented the civilians of the country, and
amongst them may be mentioned Lord Wharn-
cliffe, Mr. O'Beirne, /ILL, Mr. Roebuck, M.P., Earl
Spencer, Lord Fiche; 11,35:01dajor Anson, M.P.,
Mr, Hawkshaw, and 'girded members of the iron-
plate committee. There were, too, some repre-
sentatives of foreign countries, notably the Count de
Pans, who was accompanied by several distin-
guished Frenchmen. A special train brought
about 400 persons from London, and, with a strong
contingent from Woolwich, there were, little short
of 600 gentlemen upon the ground. • Same diffi-
culty was experienced in getting from -Southend
to Shoeburyness—a distance of six miles—and the
little watering-place was for the time robbed
of all its conveyances. The Ordnance Select
Committee, by whom the experiments were pro-
moted, anticipating an unusual number of visitors,
framed strict orders to prevent crowding round the
target, or otherwise getting into mischief and
danger, and the rules had to be most stringently
enforced.

The experiments have chiefly been directed at
the compartment or casemate of the Plymouth
Breakwater Fort. Of late numerous complaints
have been made that the experiments would not be
honest, and that the charge. of powder to be used
were so reduced that they would afford no adequate
tort. At the last moment several members of
parliament and others interested in the matter
made representations sufficiently weighty to induce
an alteration of the pro me. On the
whole the balance of • on given to-day
by men whose idea. are worth repeating is, that
the target and the guns have been fairly made to
answer the experiment for which they were in-
tended. In making their arrangements the com-
mittee had in view the probable distance at which
ships would be able to engage the fort, looking to
the fire of the adjacent works, which command the
channels of approach as well as the space outside
the breakwater, and to the shoals in front of the
breakwater. This, they say, would render it im-
possible for large ships to manoeuvre at a lees dis-
tance than 500 yards. The actual distance of
battery,' however, to-day has been 200 yards.
Plymouth fort is a casemated one-tier battery,
oval in shape, and mounting 18 guns. The casemate
represented by to-day's target is to receive
10-inch rifled guns of 18 tons, charged with
60165. of powder and 401 b. shot. This target, if
so expensive and complete apiece of iron-work can
be thus called, is 22 feet long, and straight. The
work is more elaborate than the fort itself, but as
it is a detached fragment, while the fort itself re-
presents the strength which a union of such frag-
ments would give, the objection to it on that
account is not worth much. A portion of
it is composed of three layers of 5-inch
plates, a portion has an additional layer, mak-
ing the total thickness 20 inches, and there
are at the back supports or " struts,"
that increase the thiclmess occasionally to
32 inches. This formidable specimen of our
land defences that are to be wars made
at the Atlas Works, Sheffield. Opposed to it was
a battery of five guns, two of which only have to-
day given us a taste of their quality, One of them
wee Abe 12-inch rifled gun of 23 tons, made at
Woolwich, and throwing a projectile of 60011 s.
weight. The bore alone is 12 ft. 2 in. long, and
the total length of the piece is 15 ft. The conical
shot has to be lifted by half a dosen strong men,
and is sent to do its deadly mission by a charge
of powder weighing Vibe. The other gun was
the much talked of American Rodman. It is
about the same length as the other, and similar
in appearance, but has a smooth bore of 15 inch s,
and throws a round ball of 4501b5. The=
charge generally used is about 501bs. of
and 601bs. of American powder.
The firing began about eleven o'clock. Owing
to the destructive character of the experiments all
spectators were kept under cover while the actual
firing took place. The " cover" is a series of
splinter-proof sheds with thick earthwork walls,
to catch the fragments that each discharge scatters
around ; and at the sound of a bugle there was •
general stamper for shelter,which after the firing had
ceased became a scramble for precedence in inves-
tigating the result. The first experiment was
with the 12-inch Woolwich gun with a full charge,
and with the 6001bs. conical shot, at a section of
the target where there were four plates, and atotal
thickness of 20in. The shot made no marked
effect beyond shattering the first plate,
and partly penetrating the second. A 12-inch
shell was then fired from the same gun at the
same thickness of target, close to the porthole. It
did not go through, but penetrated the two front
plates in a somewhat ragged manner, and cracked
the additional five-inch bar at the back. Next
came the Rodman, fired with a charge of 801bs.
to equalise the test. The experiment was keenly
watched, because the spectators were composed of
two factions—Rodmanitcs and 12-inhere. The
first shot was badly aimed, struck the ground, re-
bounded upon the target, and made an indenta-
tion. Another shot hit the target in its
20-inch portion, and another indentation, like
a receptacle for a huge bagatelle ball,
was the result. The indentation was 44 inches
deep, and its diameter was 17 inches. The back of
the target append to be uninjured. The experi-
ments with the 12-inch Woolwich gun, the 761 h
ohrurges, and the 60011 i. rifled :shot were then res.
sumed. The projectile pieseed the target to is
depth of 13.4 inches, and was repelled by it a dis-
tance of over two feet, where it lay upon the
ground with point unhurt, but broken off at the
etude. 'Phis was a fair shot at the 20-inch thick-
ness, and the friends at • the weapon were gratified
to find that the -bade af the target was fairly
knocked.to pines by it. •The lame shot was next
brought to bear upon' the 15-inch thickness, and
while it. penetrated target up to the ;tarts,
and stuck there, it shattered the. iron plate at the
back; and hurled a piece of three-inch bolt more
than a yard long to a ednidderable distance. But
for a support which interfered with the shot; it
was claimed by several that it would hare gone
clean through. A 6001 b. shall fired from the
tame pinata- imbedded and broken eff, and did
some slight damage to the inner easing. The bat-
tery was then moved.lo allow of two other trials
which many of the visitors had come on purpose
to see, vie.. the respective merits of a 15-inch
rolled iron plate made hpllemrs. Brown, at Shef-
field, and a 15-inch hemmed iron pieta made
by the Thames Iron Weals Compan
e 6001 be. shot were fired with the
ame eharge as before ; the projectile wont
through the hammered plate with such vio-
lent, that the immense mass of iron was shifted
out of its piste, but it was checked by the
rolled plate just as its point peeped through the
other side, and the effect was a closely cut conical
aperture, the tiny hole made by the point,' and 4
considerable bulging out at the back. Firing then
embed till to-morrow, and the spectators returned
by special train to town. In the absent' of the
official *turn a definite &eon cannot be ar.
tive4 at as totbe know ,te be 'lewd Ina the
..r.72 I.v • ~ : ..,.;

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