Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-12-12 00:00:00

MESSRS. SHELL kRD AND HODGSON'S DRAPERY
ESTA.DLISHMENT.—The above-named spacious premises
are now open with a choice and extensive stock of win-
ter goods. In order to afford purchasers greater facili-
ties for the selection of goods, particularly such as are
to be worn at night, the proprietors have recently added
a magnificent salon or show-room, ,in which, by an
ingenious mechanical contrivance, bll dresses and other
articles of evening costume can be exhibited by gas-
li,ght. This is evidently a great advantage to the pur-
chaser as such articles when seen by day ate so apt,
from their peculiar texture and colours, to deceive pur-
chasers as to their real nature.
ANNDAL MEETING} .0i THE IRISH SOCIETY.—This
society which was established in 1818, will hold the
annual meeting of its-Liverpool branch this evening in
Hope-hall. The objects of the society is to promote
scriptural education and religious instruction among
Irish Roman Catholics, chiefly by means of instruction
in their own language. The meeting will be addressed
by the Rev. Hugh Stowell, of Manchester ; by the Rev.
Dr. M'Neile, and by the Rev. J. Alcock, of Dublin. In
the addresses of the reverend gentlemen named, the
results derived from the efforts of the society through
the dissemination of the Bible, in their own language,
among the Irish population, will be &tailed. The
meeting cannot fail to be a highly interesting one, and,
we hope, it will be largely attended. •

HEAVY ORDNANCE AND LONG RANGE

OF ARTILLERY.

Some experiments, says the Observer, which
were recently made with a heavy Armstrong gun,
the exact results of which have not been allowed
to transpire, have, we believe, shown that iron-
plated ships will not be able to resist the fire- of
these guns, and the French Government may
spare itself any further expenditure upon ships
of this description beyond the four which were
building at the close of last year. The trials
made last August from the Stork. gunboat with
68-pounders discharged against iron and steel
plates at a distance of two hundred yards,
showed that iron or steel-clad ships could really
be more easily destroyed at that distance than a ship
entirely of timber; and since that period it has been
found that a 68-pounder is capable of completely
perforating four-inch iron plates. Considerable
advance has been made since 1854 in the powers
of penetration of heavy shot, attributable no doubt
to the discovery of the Armstrong gun, for at that
time a 68-pound solid shot, fired at 400 yards,
penetrated 41-inch plates to half their depth, but
even that a succession of discharges would com-
pletely break up the plates. It is curious to find
that, after the lapse of so many years, the civi-
lised, or rather the fighting world, is againcom--
ing round to the principle which was first applied
to artillery, namely, that of using very heavy
projectiles. The heavily armed frigates, such as
the Mersey, the Orlando, the Niagara, and the Mer-
rimac, which are the order of the day in France and
America, and these, with small gun-boats, armed
with one or two large guns, are growing steadily
in favour of this country. It is not impossible,
however, that when the occasion arises for a
naval engagement, the long ranges for heavy
guns will not be relied upon much more than in
the recent campaign in Italy, where, after all, it
was the bayonet and close attack that decided the
fate of so many battles. It may be useful to have
guns to carry three or five miles 'for the purpose
of attacking fortresses, or naval arsenals and
establishments, but when the tug of war comes,
as in the ever memorable case of the. Shannon and
the Chesape4e, or Lord Nelson with the San
Nicolas and San Josef at St. Vincent, there will
still be called into exercise the run alongside, the
grappling irons, and,the dash of the boarders,
which have done, so much for the glory of the
British man-of-war.

Pursuing the history- of the progress of heavy
ordnance, we find that next in order is the
wrought iron gun made at the Mersey Iron
Works, and which was presented to the Govern-
ment by Messrs. Horsfall. It had a 13 inch
bore' and carried a solid shot of 280 pounds ;
with a charge of 50 pounds of powder, and an
elevation of 15 degrees, the shot was projected a
distance of 5,120 yards. With the Armstrong
gun the readers of the Observer must be already
acquainted. , Heavy guns made upon the same
principle have been discharged- at iron plated
ships with results to which we have adverted at
the commencement of this notice. It has been
found that with a charge of only five pounds
Of powder, a 32-pound shot may be thrown
from this gun a distance -of five and a
half miles. The great steam ram now in'
course of construction at the Thames Iron
Works will be armed with thirty-six of the
Armstrong guns, each of which will be capable of
throwing a shot of one hundred pounds weight a
distance of five miles. This extraordinary ad-
dition to our naval power will be 380 feet in
length, 58 in breadth, 411 in depth ; its. tonnage
6,177 tons ; the engines are to be of 1,250 horse
power; her -total weight at sea 9,000 tons; and
her speed 16 miles an hour. A most remarkable
-
vessel of war is now being designed by Mr. Page,
to be submitted to her Majesty's. Government, of
such 'a nature as to. defy the• utmost poWers of
existing ordnance, and which will be capable of
throwing with accuracy 700 explosive shells per
hour into any dockyard three miles distance.

•r
' • I
upon
We' heat, what we deem'o be good authority, '
that the Government , have it in cOnteMPlatiOn to
'establish an arsenal at or near Retford on: a somewhat
.extensive scale.--:YottinOam, JourOal.
• The 'medical practitioners announce that a rather
strongly developed small-pox is. raging epidemically at
Paris. - It does not attack children alone, but older
people, who have too long omitted to have themselves'
re-vaccinated. 'The Countess.B., who bears an. historical
name, has just been attacked with this disease.. . .. - '
. IMPORTANT CAPTUit:g OF, RAILWAY THIEVES.-At
the Birmingham Police-court, on Thursday, two men
named ..Woolf . Barnett, • Steelhouse-lane, shoemaker,
and Thomas "Green, of .LoWer. Temple-street,: hawker,
Were 'placed 'in 'the dock under the folloWing circum-
stances :--Serjeant Went, of the Staffordshire. Police, .
stationed .at. Tamworth, stated -that about two o'clock
that morning he received inforination that the two
prisoners, accompanied by a third man, and having a large
quantity of ;property with theni, were passing, per mail
train, en route for Birminghain, Acting witla'great
promptitude the ofdaer:once telegraphed to Birming-
_ham this fact, , and .SuPerintendent Glosinp,- without .a
moment's delay, 'despatched Serjeant Warwick and
police-constable M'CorMicii; who• fortunately ':succeeded
in taking the tWo:ptisoners at 'NeW-street station:. , As a
pOrtion of . the mail train passengers had got out before
,1
the arrival of the police, owing to the short notice,
the. third -man of thelang got' off' at detected, carrying.
with him a large ackage of goods; . Inspector , Manton '
said he had been or some months specially employed.
by. the Louden a cr Noith:Tnitein Riitinq ',g(3l4pany
1
to endeavour to dettot ' a gang of clever ; 'thieves
from Birmingham,. who, taking trips Of same, twelve'
or twenty miles, and aided' by certain parties, effected
successful robberies of goods in course -of transit from
the different railway stations. ' The I.two prisoners he
knew well *part of thil gang,. which consisted.' of eight
or ten' very.-Clever and experienced thieveS: .:.Manton
added 'that at. this . very time the prialimer in the dock,
Woolf Barnett; renting a- honseat,4a. '6d. per week, had
an action in the superitir courts,' pendkeitgainst the
London and North-Western Railway Ceinpany, to recover
the 'Miner £l4O, the valie of a lot of shoes, whiCh, as
Barnett had pleaded, were hisproPerty, and which had been
stolen from the station atrßescottManton said there was;
evidence to show that -packages, 'ostensibly containing.
manufactured shoes, but in fact partly made up of,bricks
and rubbish, were 'sent per rail,. and by connivance §tolen
by 'members of their gang, and. the company sued for'
their value. The.g2Ods found this morning in possession
'Of the prisoners consisted ofhoSiery,.COtton goods, braces,
and a variety of other property, . which there was no
doubt had been stolen. Se cant • Went asked - for and.
obtained a remand until to-day, in . order that inqUirici
might be made as to the owners.of the prOperty. One
package, there is reason to suppose, is the property of
Evans and Co:, of Derby. Thus this ' extraordinary
matter stands, and it' is to be hoped that the exertions
of the police will lead to the capture of the third man,
who was lucky enough to get off with his package from
1 New-street Station.—.Birmingkon Post.
.• • '.