The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-23 00:00:00

THE NAVY.

A new machine for drawing ship's bolts having been sub-
mitted to the Admiralty, their lordships have directed it to
be tried at the dockyards for a few months, and a full report
of its capabilities forwarded to the Board by the efficiale.

The screw gunboat Pigeon, 2, 60 horse power, is being
fitted for the first division of the steam reserve in the Med-
way. Sho takes the place of the Sepoy, 2, 60 horse power,
commissioned by Lieut.-Commander W. Welsh for parti-
cular service.

The contractors' trial of James Watt and Company's en-
gines on board the new iron cased ship Research took place
outside Plymouth Breakwater yesterday. The mean speed
of six trials at the measured mile gave 10.356 knots and 85
revolutions. The wind was easterly. With the helm hard
astarboard 39 deg. sho made a half-circle in 1 min. 54 sec.,
and the whole circle in 3 min, 51 see. ; with the helm hard
sport 38 deg. she made a half .circle iu 1 min. 52 sec, and
the whole circle in 3 min. 50 BeQ. These results are consi-
dered very satisfactory.

....,.....1,.1.0

THE ARMY.
In consequence of the corps of Royal Marine Light In-
fantry being considerably below its proper establishments
several adlitional recruiting parties have been despatched
from the headquarters of the several divisions for the pur-
pose of raising inma for that branch of the service. The
following officers from the Chat ham and other divisions
ate now employed to superintend the recruiting for the
Royal Marines in the several districts in England—Lieut.-
Col. R. Parke, Bath— Lieut.-Col. J. C. D. Morrison,
London—Major W. G. R. Masters, Chelmsfori—Major E.
L, Pym, Derby—Major J. y. Holland, Gloucester—Major
G. E. 0. Jackson, Salisbury—Captain J. P. Murray,
Barnstaple—Capt. G. L. Blake, Birmingham—Capt. C. 0.
Baker—Bury St, Edmunds—Capt, E. C. Domville, Exeter
—Capt. C. L. A, Farmar, Hull—Capt. P. Harris, Lincoln
—Capt. W. H. H. West, Liverpool—Capt. R. V. Allen,
Manchester—Capt. W. J. Kinsman, Northampton—Capt.
T, P. Casey, Pontefract—Capt. IV. J. Dunn, Sheffield—
Capt. S. It, Little, faunton—Capt. T. Creighton, Guild-
ford—Capt. C. L. T. "Usher, Norwich--and Capt, R. K.
Willson.

Under existing arrangements the new lines of advanced
forts and other defences on the Gosport side of Portsmouth
harbour contain accommodation for 137 officers-and 3,100
men, exclusive of the Royal Marine Light Infantry. The
total hospital accommodation for this large number of
troops on the same side of the harbour is only for 76 officers
and men, and although the actual number of recruits now
quartered at and around Gosport only amounts to 34 offi-
cers and 8:53 men, as may be imagined there is a constant
transfer of sick from Gosport to the Military Hospital
at Portsmouth, which oan only be carried on at consider-
able expense, as well as discomfort and delay to the sick.
The Army Estimates for 1864-5 contain an. item, "Hasler—
Converting barracks into hospital, £2,000," which is in-
tended to remedy this want of hospital accommodation for
the troops stationed at and near Gosport. The barracks
selected for the purpose contain in their present form as
barracks accommodation for 20 officers and '47 men. They
are built of brick, with hollow walls, and are generally ar-
ranged on the " hut" principle. Their situation is in every
respect suitable for the purpose of a military hospital, as it
adjoins the great Royal Naval' Hospital at Haslar: on the
line of seta beagh extending from the mouth of Portsmouth
harbaur to Stoke's Bay, at the eastern entrance of the
Solent,

The demand from abroad for French produce, which is
steadily maintained, gives employment to a multitude of
hands in the ironworks in Paris and the neighbourhood.
Spain demands locomotives and railway carriages; Geneva,
machinery; Russia, various articles of wrought iron. The
frost has impeded the progress of the new buildings in
course of construction, but other employment is found for
the operatives engaged on them, and it is said that less dis-
tress exists at present in Paris than is usual at this season
of the year. The accounts received from the seaport state
that the markets are generally dull. The price of cotton at
llavre on Saturday was firm at 225 f for Madras ; Havana
sugar, 42f. The Nantes market is likewise quiet. There
were 10,000 bags of Brazilian sugar sold at Marseilles on
Saturday at 36f, and 100 casks of coffee from Porto Rico at
105 f. Smyrna cotton is quoted at Marseilles at 265 f., and

Jumel, 322 f. 50c.
The accounts from the agricultural districts represent the
injury to the young wheat caused by the frost to be less than
was represented by interested parties, Some damage is
spoken of on the banks of the Loire, but the particulars have
not been received. There were few arrivals of corn ships at
Marseilles last w:ek, and millers found it necessary to look
for a supply in the provicial markets on the Saone. The
price of wheat has risen from 50c to 75c the hectolitre in tke
South of France, from Toulouse to Perpignan. Eordeaux
is well supplied with wheat, and the price is quoted at from
191 500 to 20f the hectolitre of 80 kilogrammes. Flour is
in demand from 33f to 361 50c the 100 kilogrammes. The
demand for flour for the English market having ceased at
Rouen, the price, has fallen, and the article is quoted at
from 45f to 45150 c the sack of 159 kilogrammes. There
was a good supply of farmer's wheat in the Paris market
last week, but buyers found it difficult to obtain more than
a reduction of 50c the sack of 120 kilogrammes. There
were no sales of merchants' wheat effected. Oats, barley,
and rye were neglected. Bakers' flour, which was quoted
at from 49f to 631 the sack the preceding week, fell last
week to from 47f to 52f. Flour of the six marks fell 50c
the sack. It was officially quoted on Saturday afternoon
at slf the sack. The factors declared on Saturday 526 sacks
of flour, of which 178 of first quality sold for delivery with-

in 30 days at 47f to 47t 50c the sack.
The princil'al article of speculation in the Paris market
at present is sugar, and prices are again rising. Raw beet-

root sugar is quoted at 81f the 100 dilogrammes.
An idea may be formed of the importance of the beetroot
sugar manufacture in France front the fact that the beetroot
crop in the year 1862 produced 793,000,000 kilogrammes of
raw sugar. During the same period the beetroot distilleries
produced 40,000 pipes of alcohol of 100 degrees strength,
and 40,000 pipes of alcohol of molasses—in all 80,000
pipes, or about 600,000 hectolitres of alcohol. It required
77,000 hectares of land to produce these 190,000,000
kilogrammes of raw sugar. It requires 1,800 kilogrammes
of beetroot to produce 100 kilogrammes of few swear, or
about 24 metrical quintals per hectare (21 acres). It, requires
30,000 hectares of land to produce 500,000 hectolitres of
alcohol. It requires 2,500 kilogrammes of beetroot to pt -
duce 100 litres of alcohol. It is supposed that last year there
wero at least 110,090 hectares sown with beetroot, but there
was a great deficiency in the produce in consequence of the
long continued dry weather. It is calculated that the list
crop will not produce more than from 90,000 to 100,000 kilo-
grammes of raw sugar, and from 30,000 to 35,000 pipes of
alcohol, or about 200,000 hectolitres at 100 degrees strength.
These figures explain at the same time the high price of
sugar and of alcohol, and the complaints of the growers of
beetroot. The last year's crop amounts scarcely to two-fifths
of an ordinary crop. To this first cause of the high price of
sugar must be added others, and among them the deficiency
of the crop in foreign countries, which is estimated at
350,000,000 kilogrammes. The dry weather, by reducing
the crop of beetroot cultivated in France by three-fifths, has
moreover inflicted a severe calamity on farmers. The loss
may be estimated from a report published by the Agricul-
tural Society of St. Quentin. It appears from that report
that previous to the cultivation of beetroot the arrondisse-
ment of Gt. Quentin did not produce more than 15 hectolitres
of wheat the hectare. Since then, in consequence of the culti-
vation of beetroot and the manure produced by feeding cattle
with the pulp, the v heat produced has been doubled.
Previous to the establishment of sugar manufactories, the
arrondissement of St. Quentin possessed but few horned
cattle. At present it feeds tenfold more, and this increase
is entirely due to the nutritious quality of the refuse of the
sugar manufactories when used for ;ceding cattle for the
butcher's stall. Another revolution caused by the cultiva-
tion of beetroot is the substitution by farmers of oxen fcr
horses for field work. The consequence is that trained
plough bullocks are at present more valuable than stall-fed
oxen. .

There are three varieties of beetroot grown in France.
The first is excellent as regards the fattening of cattle, but
it is very poor in saccharine matter. It is, consequently,
never planted except in places where there are neither sugar
manufactories nor distilleries. The yellow globe has bean
recently introduced, and has displaced the first. It contains
more sugar and more mucilaginous substance. It is, how -
ever, more suitable for fattening cattle than for making
sugar, inasmuch as it contains a salt which prevents the
proper crystallisation of the sugar, and cannot be neutralised.
It is grown exclusively by farmers. The third variety,
which is the most admired by sugar manufacturers, is the
Silesian beetroot, better known by peasants as the sugar
beetroot. It is white or red, and it enters completely into the
earth. Sugar manufacturers prefer the roots which weigh
from 21b to 41b. The Silesian beetroot is said to be capable
of producing from 10 to 12 per cent of sugar. It contains less
mucilaginous principle and less acid than the yellow globe,
and the extraction of its saccharine matter is less difficult.
When the extraction of sugar from beetroot was first at-
tempted, manufacture's produced scarcely more than 1 or 2
per cent. of sugar capable of being crystallised. The machi-
nery for the extraction of sugar was then naturally imperfect.
At present from 5 to 6 per cent. is the average production.
A small quantity of boiled beetroot has produced 81 per cent.
It is expected that when further improvements aro made in
machinery raw beetroot sugar may be sold at lid the pound.
The demand for wine is becoming more brisk at Bercy.
and at the entrepot on the Quay St. Bernard. The retailers
in Paris, who sold largely during the Carnival, are now re-
plenishing their stock ; they give the preference to the wines
of the South of Franca, which contain more alcohol. Now
Bordeaux wino is likewise in demand for private families.
The following aro the last prices :—Roussillon, 1862, 18
degrees, 42f to 45f the hectolitre—Narbonne (old), 38f to
40f—Montagne, 1862, 281 to 301—Tavel (old), 321 to 351'-
1 Bordeaux, 1863, 85f to 90f the cask of 228 litres—Cher, 751
to 80f the cask of 250 litres, exclusive of the octroi duty.
The demand for wino is still moderate at Bordeaux.
Some small farmers, however, at St. Estephe have sold all
their last year's crop at from 350 f to 600 f the tun of 912
litres. Some purchases have likewise been made in the Lower
Medoe at from 3501 to 4001. The sales in the city are regu-
lated by the requit ements of the consumers, Some tuns of
Narbonne of the last vintage were sold last week for mixing
at from 1801 to 225 f.
There is a better demand for wino at Nantes. Ordinary
is called for at 25f the barrel, and superior at 55f and 57f.
There was a large amount of business done in leather and
tallow at the great fair of Caen, which is held on the first
Monday in Lent. Ox and cow hides brought from 05f to
1041 the 100 kilogrammes, and sheepskins, unwashed, from
7f to 101 each; ox grease, for melting, from 90f to 1001 the
100 kilogrammes ; and mutton suet, 751 to 90f,
The Director-General of Customs has addressed a circular
to the agents under his orders, dated Ist inst.. instructing
them that a French factory has been established at Why-
day, on the western coast of Africa, which has lately become
the scat of a new Imperial Consular agency. Porto Nuevo,
another position ou the same coast, has bsen lately placed
under French protection.
The Minister of Finance has decided, after consulting
with his colleagues of the departments of the Marine and
of CoMmerce, and at the suggestion of the Director-General
of Customs, that palm and cocoa oil, imported under the
French flag from Whydah and Porto Novo, shall enjoy the
benefit of the ordnance of May 16, 1863, regulating the
duties payable on produce arriving from the French estab-
shments on the western coast of Africa.

HARDLY PROBABLE.—Those who have studied
the position of the Royal Academy and the National
Gallery (says the Queen) will not be much surpassed to
hear that Government is now proposing to give up the
whole of the3Trafalgar-square building to the Royal
Academy, and send the National Gallery to a building to
be erected upon the site at Burlington-house. It is now
many years since the late Prince Consort developed his
favourite scheme of taking the National Gallery down to
Kensington, "The Boilers" were then his pet hobby, and
all the national collections (the British Museum included)
were to find their way down S,W., and become part of that
vast scheme for a Fine Art and Scientific University, over
which his Royal Highness and Messrs. Cole, Dilke and Rod-
grave were to be the presiding geniuses. During Lord Derby's
last short tenure of office, an attempt was made to accede to the
Prince's wishes in this respect, but it was happily forbidden by
the House of Commons. Subsequently it was agreed that the
National Gallery was to occupy the whole of the building
in Trafalgar-square, which was to be adapted and re-
arranged for the purpose, and the Academy was to build for
itself a habitation upon a site to be granted to it for the pur-
pose in the gardens behind Burlington House. This seemed
all, right enough, for the Academy has plenty of money to
build itself a house withal, and is so much of a private body
in its character, that to give it a site to build upon would be
treating it very handsomely. This plan was considered to be
settled upon, and the Atherkeum went the length of an-
nouncing that plans had been adopted for the new Royal
Academy. But if these plans ever existed, they have never
since been taken from the drawer to which they were role.
gated. The Academy had not then, and has not now, anj
idea of spending its money in such a way. Its influence in
the Government has been sufficiently strong not only to
withstand the breath of hostile criticism with which it has
been assailed for years, but oven to bettor its position in
spite of it. It haesquietly bided its time, whilst Govern-
ment was spending money upon the Trafalgar-square build-
ing with the pretence of fitting it for the reception of the
National Collections, and it now quietly steps forward to
reap the fruit of its long- suffering and indomitable patience.
More public money is to be spent in providing a now
National Gallery in a back street behind Piccadilly, and the
Royal Academy is to hold undivided possession of the im-
proved nest, in which it has been so long perfo:rnieg the
Part of the cuckoo.