The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-30 00:00:00

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

Orders have been received at the several outports
to render the guard-ships fit for active sea service .
The dockyards ,:re to get the tiea-stores for each
ship made complete and kept separate from other
stores, that they may be ready at the shortest notice
The Ganges, 64, Captain Smith, C. 8., has been
paid off at Sheerness, in the most creditable style
The stores of the ship were returned with as little
deterioration as could possibly be expected, although
they were delivered in a very short time after arrival
from a foreign station. And as to the men, their
conduct was most examplary as they attended the
pay-table and afterwards quitted the ship. They
were quiet, orderly, and respectful, and out of a
ship's company of 750 officers, seamen, marines, and
boys, there was not a single one of them drunk The
manner in which the Ganges has been paid off affords
another proof of the improved habits of cur men-of-
war's men. It ti Iso refs eta the highest credit on
Captain Swiih and his staff; for if they bad not been
good and correct office wc ero quite sure so grafi,
tying a report of foe coLfia of the men could not
be given.

Captiu, Cusp-:trick Manilton (1847) has
been appointftd to study steam at the factory,
Wool wich.
Surgeon-44n 11.11Vhinnie (1847), late of the
Frolic, 16, to th,-, Ve,,ovios, Devooport
Chit 4 Engineer—Benjamin Hoar, to the Vesuvius.
Assi,tant Surgeons—Edwa:d W. Pritchard, to the
Vesuvius ; Daniel Saunders, noting, to the Victory,
flig-ship at Portsmouth.

Gunner—Glories Hicks, to the Horatio, screw
guard-ship, Sheerness.
Boatswain—John Donohough, to the Horatio.
Carpenter—Richard Cleverly, to the Horatio.
PORTSMOUTH, JAN. 29.—The Gorgon steam-sloop,
Commander Paynter, came alongside the jetty to-day
to dismantle, prior to being paid off. The small
freight she brought (8,000 dolls.) will be conveyed to
the Bank of England by Messrs. Casher, freight
agents and wine merchants, of this port, to-morrow.
Mr. H S. Gibson, paymaster and purser of the Driver
steam-sloop in the Pacific, came home in the Gorgon
on Admiralty leave, and Mr. Whittall, clerk of the
flag-ship Portland, has been made acting paymaster
and purser of the Driver, vice Gibson.
The Lightning Admiralty steam-yacht, Master
Commander Allen, came into harbour this morning
from the Channel Islands with the Committee of Ob-
servation and Survey, whom she conveyed thither on
Sunday.
The Adder steam-vessel returned to Sheerness last
night. _

The Rodney, 92, Captain C. Graham, C. 8., has
been taken over to her former moorings off Gosport.
The Arrow ketch is being broken up in No. 6 dock-

PORTSMOUTH GARRISON.

We are informed the 7th, 48th, and 95th Regi-
ments, quartered in this garrison, have received orders
to send out additional recruiting parties to augment
their strength twelve men per company, or 120 men
each regiment.
The depots of the 42d, 36th, 67th, and 69th Re-
giments, recently formed into four companies' depits
from their late reserve battalions, are ordered to allow
their supernumeraries to volunteer into other regi-
ments.

Guns of a larger calibre than the present (32-
pounders) are about to be mounted at Fort Moncton,
on the Gosport and Anglesey shore.
The 7th and 9th Regiments have been practising
the great gun exercise at the Platform Battery every
day during the present week, under the tuition of the
Royal Artillery. They appear to make great pro-
gress in the drill.
PLYMOUTH, Tunitsper.---Her Majesty's steam-
sloop Hecate, 6, Commander Hand, having had defects
made good, and taken in 100 tons of coal, is now in
Barnpool, waiting orders.
The Vesuvius steam-vessel is ordered to be com-
missioned forthwith by Commander F. L. Barnard.
The steam-sloop Magicienne, Captain Ramsay, is
ordered to be docked.

The transport Diligence is ordered to take in stores
and provisions for Libon and Gibraltar.
The ketch Sparrow, 2, was paid off on Saturday.
The Lords of the Admiralty have ordered the fri-
gates Bacchus and Lavinia to be moored in the Sound
and Barnpool, as coal depUts. This arrangement will
expedite the supply of fuel to steamers and diminish
the cost of pilotage.
WOOLWICH, JAN. 29.—Mr. Dinnen, Assistant In-
spector of Machinery at Somerset-house, visited the
Horatio yesterday, at Sheerness, to inspect her ma-
chinery, and found the whole in good order and ready
for sea service. With the exception of some work
to be done to the rigging, which Captain the Hon. S.
F. Carnegie is having executed, this fine ship, fitted
with a screw propeller and engines of 250-horse
power, is in a very efficient state : her guns and car-
riages being on board, and the former ready for
mounting, which can be accomplished in a few hours
The Amazon steam-frigate was also inspected by
Mr. Dinnen, and her machinery found in excellent
seagoing order.
The Polyphemus steam-sloop, now ready at Wool-
wich, is ordered to be taken to Sheerness, wbcre she
will be stationed as an advanced war steamer, and all
the vessels ready for service at the various ports are
to be fitted with their guns on board, and to be kept
in such a state of efficiency as to be fit for service, if
manned or commissioned, on the shortest notice.

"DEATH Ilv THE POT:"

A GRAVE QUESTION IN WHICH DOCTORS DIFFER.
There is one question relative to the substitution of
soft water for hard as well as pure for impure, which
ought not to be allowed to remain longer in its present
unsettled, contradictory, and dangerous position—namely,
the question relative to the poisonous influence of
leaden pipes and cisterns on water, soft or hard, pure or
impure, or on both. Until lately, it has been an axiom
with our standard chemical writers on toxicology end
medical police and jurisprudence, that the softer and
purer the water, the more likely is it to act on lead, and
to be thereby poisonously impregnated; and that the
harder the water, the more likely is it to remain pure
and unimpregnated by the lead. True, these hitherto
accredited authors have admitted or declared, on the one
hand, that perfectly pure soft water, per se, will not act
on lead, and, on the other hand, that hard water will.
But then they have explained the apparent inconsistency
of such a declaration with their owa, n the onenproudentiala hand,ndmost it
important axiom, by alleging tht
lead with pure soft water is liable to be so influenced by
the air, and by carbonic acid gas, dissolved in the water,
as to become corroded, and then to impregnate and
wainnecdorrinosi
loin hard water, is so
the other hand,
with neutral sul-
ictosnot
such as that of lime, so mu
leadpois on
withth the
hardat water
water'eont continually; I ye; s
pe while,eiala y
a,nwda water,
thus a s
pro-
tected to
phates,
hard 3
become
acted onin lzryus
either from farther waste in itself, or
the
84116
con-
tributing any continued poisonous from
impregnations to the
water. Since the 'agitation of the metropolitan supply
question, however,
water for the hard and
and the prevalence
desire to substitute pure soft of a very general
otherwise shockingly impure
evidence has been adduced which,s.upply at present in use,
ex-
pressly to contradict these heretoforeex facie, appears
We feel it therefore
this vital and most absolutely necessary to insist that
fully examined, important subject shall be forthwith
,discussed, and settled. Builder.
T.

RE FOOT GUARDS.—The following are the
changes of the stations of her Majesty's regiments of Foot
Guards,_ ordered to take place in the first week in the month
of March next :—The Ist battalion of Grenadier Guards
will move from Wellington Barracks to St. John's-wood
liVracks ; the 2d battalion from Windsor to the Tower of
London ; and the 3d battalion from St. John's-wood Bar-
racks, to St. George's Barracks, Trafalgar-square. The Ist
battalion Coldstream Guards will move from Chichester to
Wellington Barracks, and the 2d battalion from Portman-
street Barracks to Windsor. The Ist battalion Scott's Fusi-
lier Guards will move from the Tower of London to Chiches-
ter, and the 2d battalion from St. George's Barracks to Ports.
man-street Barracks.
EXTRAORDINARY OCCDRlLENcE.—Yesterday morn-
ing, at an early hour, great excitement prevailed among the
inmates of the workhouse, High-stseet, 6t. John's, Wapping
in consequence of a female, named Sarah Torson, aged 69
years, being discovered in a copper of boiling water by one
of the washerwomen employed in the establishment, under
circumstances of an extraordinary character. The deceased
had been in the workhouse several years, and was always
considered of sound intellect. About seven o'clock yester-
day morning one of the girls proceeded into the washing-
room to light the copper fire, after which several of the
females began to prepare for the usual day's work, and when
_
they considered the water was sufficiently heated, one of
" 'd
them went to put some clothes into the boiling .=cltu , when other
she screamed at the sight of a woman's head and shousleerds,
projecting from the copper. An instant alarm wa! ffas' ed
when several men came to the spot, who found the deceased
nen she
in a sitting position, and completely boiled,
fbr
,rte.'s dragged out of the copper, the skin and fie:eh
e he
Mr. Nash, the surgeon, of High-street, being sent
off.
for,
as the de-
on his arrival pronounced life to be quite extinct twoa sn
to th e
after-
ceased was fearfully scalded from head to foot.
wards ascertained that the deceased must have g. .
top of the copper by climbing up, ir. The
stool which had been placed by the side of thecoPP.'k
..
deceased had evidently got into the copper while
.t.n.e.. liquid
was cold, unobserved, with the assts tance of a
and then quietly waited until it ,boiled.
The waterTA nonvliyNar ms._ TheeacheAdtohers otherhoue night
as a
es.
of ours, was hurrying alongget Ale-
roan, an acquaintance
in the garb of an
street, he met a tall man agricultural
pickaxessed each other before the gentleman.
and spade over his oulder,estallsen:
bourer, carrying a
passed
the other had turned suddenly
nSecaoorcmeilnyghacdotiltottiswo
, him by
and grasping the shoulder,steppe d
ear-
wardJor-
quickly,
in his face
erhaehaviour, and s
round, himself turned also. The
selc'ohnedcsoun. countryman
look 3cl
wit out speaking. Sur-
omewhat appreb ensive,
•
f hostile intentions—for it was dark, and tin : street
indeed, o
,„niparatively deserted—our friend drew back and as Iced the
n' what be wanted ? " Mester," was the reply, in a deep
pnseisstelYd at this Strang.
hoarse tone, "my name's George Wright. I'm fra ul Staf-
fordshire; and I'm clemming, by G.__. ~ Then. • was no
mistaking the haggard co, ntenance the .woful at: 'ire of the
eye: the indices of starvation were'com lete "I f you've a
wife and little children at home (the starving mAn conti-
nued); but no, I see its time enough for that yet; :however,
give me a ha'penny to get bread with, and I'll bl,t, ss you."
Our friend put money into his hand, which, though trilling
in amount, seemed a fortune to the poor fellow, and received
in return a benediction rude, but evidently from tb e depths
of the heart.—Liverpool Times.
The late adjudication of the Lyons and I Vvignon.
Railway has caused great activity in the iron founds ies in the
department of the Loire. Furnaces which have bee n dismed
for some years past are 110 W re-lighted.