The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-05 00:00:00

The Blowing up of the Lotty Sleigh.

At a meeting of the Liverpool Town Council, on
gaand h
Wednesday, someeiinterestingpmentof
facts relative to the
a gunpowder were elicited
duringra a discussion which followed the reading of
concerning the blow-
er directlyIt was stated that
ianrgepuoprtoffrotmhathLeeTtotywnslCeilgerhk.,
parliamentary or
vessel destroyed in
tiohaearieahaatdbbyeetnhenoewvinonlaratieonf
tohfeany
of gunpowder on board
i heir placing
vessela opposite the
largeand
town, and that the Board, of Ordnance had no power
to order the present magazines to be moved out of
the river. The magazines, which are moored about
three miles above Liverpool, when full contain up-
amcloourainntgi thy
up-
wards of 500 tons of gunpowder, and if, by the
agency of lightning or any other cause, the powder
on' board these vessels exploded, the towns of Liver-
pool and Birkenhead would ba shaken to their
coundation and probably destroyed. Several mem-
bers urged upon the Council the necessity of deal-
ing with the matter in an earnest and decided
manner. One member stated that some years ago
a vessel moored opposite Seacombe took fire when
she bad thirty tons of gunpowder on board. The
first impulse of the crew was to desert the ship,
but finding that they could not launch their boat,
they exerted themselves energetically, and ulti-
mately subdued the fire. Had the men succeeded
in gaining the shore when the first alarm of
fire was even, an incomparably worse disaster
than the recent explosion would have fallen
upon Liverpool and Birkenhead. During the
month of January, 1863, the quantity of gun-
powder shipped at Liverpool for the West Coast of
Africa alone, amounted to 4,054 packages, contain-
ing 500 barrels, 290 quarter barrels, 650 kegs, and
tour boxes. It was ultimately decided by the
Council to refer the matter to the Fire Prevention
Committee, to take such steps as they thought pro-
per, and in the meantime, to watch the proceedings
of the Liverpool Mersey Dock and Harbour Board
On the subject.

We find in a Copenhagen letter the following
sketch of General Meza, the Danish commander-in-
chief:—" The General has descended from a family
of Spanish Jews, who settled in Denmark about a
hundred years ego. Although more than seventy
years of age, he retains many of the qualities which
with the bulk of mankind are the happy privilege
of youth, and become dimmed long before the green
old age he enjoys. In this, es in every other re
spect, ho is a worthy oppenent of Baron Wrangel,
Prussian general. who is nearly an octogenarian,
but was never seen in a cloak, and will head a
charge with something like-the fire be exhibited at
Waterloo. Herr de Meza was born at Elsinore, the
son and grandson of wealthy medical practitioners.
At the time of the English attack he entered the
the Artillery, and served as an ensign in the bat-
teries of Frederickshaven during the campaign. On
peace being restored, he soon distinguished himself
by a knowledge of mathematics, which procured
him a place in the School of Artillery, and in course
of time made him a teacher in the School of War.
In the war of 1848 he obtained a brigade, and was
appointed chief of the Artillery. There was hardly
an office in the army whose military powers were
looked upon with greater distrust by the people
as well as the troops. The pedantic and capri-
cious dogmatist, whose crotchets had been
hawked about the capital, and formed the delight of
ensigns for many a year, was to encounter ail the
disagreeables of war. That he knew more than any,
man in the country how to point a gun, and calcu-
late the flight of a ball, every one readily admitted;
but a man who had never allowed a window or a
door to be opened, and was wont to appear muffled
up to the eyes—a man who was ready to faint on
hearing an accent misplaced on one of his favourite
French v. ords—did not seem to be the sort of fellow
to live in a camp and beat the enemy. However,
when it came to the test, Meza unexpectedly re-
vealed himself in a new character. In the field no
one cared less for wind and weather than the morose
and hypochondriac general, who, healthy as he
was, had considered himself a sickly valetudinarian
alt his life. No one was more ready to encounter
the inclemencies of the temperature, no one was
more exacting in this respect tnan the adorer of can
de Cologne and the smelling bottle. In all the more
important encounters of the campaign he was at the
head of the artillery, indefatigable, and as discrete
as spirited and bold. His services at Bau Schles-
wig, Nippel and Dyppel, won him the applause of
the army, and made him a full colonel by the end
of the year. On the sanguinary 12 April he took
the two Saxon guns, the chief spoil of the war in
Danish hands. Having subsequently commanded at
Aisen, and garrisoned Fridicia, he took part in the
heroic sally in which the Germans were repelled,
and relieved the besieged fortress. His excellent
conduct on this occasion won him a general's brevet,
which a few months later was succeeded by stars,
together with his appointment to the command of
the ordnance. The re-opening of hostilities in the
second half of 1850 found him an invalid ; having
undergone a serious operation he was unable to take
the field. On the 24th July, however, he fought
at Staderup, and the day after shared the honours
of Idsted, in the staff of General Krogh. Retreat
became necessary, but it was eonducted with con-
summate skill by our hero, whose reputation in-
creased amidst the disasters of the day. The troops
bad not marched very far, when, bringing the
artillery to a stand, and re-forming, he repelled the
enemy, and checked the pursuit. At the conclu-
sion of the war he was named Inspector Royal of
Artillery, and in 1858 received the command of the
forces in Schleswig, Jutland, and Funen. Having
subsequently held command at Copenhagen and
Zealand, he had, a month ago, the honour of being
sent over to the continent to defend the Denne-
vverke. His military talents were shared in an
eminent degree by Colonel Kaufmann, the chief of
his staff. Kaufmann, a Holsteiner by birth, has
been in the civil and military service of the king-
dom for many years, and proved himself a cool and
intelligent officer in the war of 1848. Of late be
Las acted in various capacities, representing his
government in the Diet at one time, and then sub-
mitting to be sent to Kiel to coerce the university
and frighten professors into loyalty."