The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-23 00:00:00

THE GUILDHALL.

Yesterday the first stone of a new roof for this
ancient civic edifice, which dates back upwards of
four centuries and a half, was laid with some
ceremony, in the presence of a large gathering
of the principal members of the Corporation. The
old roof which was nearly 200 years old, having
been erected shortly after the fire of London in
the place of the original one that was destroyed
in the conflagration, had become very dilapidated
and unsightly, and its removal had been long
pressed on the Common Council, chiefly by Mr.
Deputy Lott, as well as a work of necessity as
in consideration that it was not at all in harmony
with the structure itself, and was, therefore, offen-
sive to architectural and archmological taste. For
some time past the subject has been under the con-
sideration of a committee of the Corporation, with
Mr. Kelday at its head, and on the report and re-
commendation of that committee the Common
Council resolved recently to expend about £24,000
in the entire reconstruction of the roof, in denuding
the building itself of a thick coating of cement with
which it is generally covered, and which conceals
much of its original ornamentation, and in restoring
some of the foundations. The removal of the old
roof has been for some time in progress, and it is
said the new one will be so far completed by the 9th
of November next as to admit of the usual civic
festival being held in the hall on that day. It will
be an open oak roof, somewhat resembling that of
Westminster Hall in the interior, and will exactly
correspond with the period in which the hall itself
was built, and indeed with the original roof itself,
as far as the style and character of that can now be
ascertained after the lapse of more than 450 years.
Externally it will have a very high pitch, with a
louvre in the centre, the lower pert of which will be
a lantern of the size of an ordinary sitting room for
purposes of light and ventilation, and the upper
portion of a tapering metal spire about 150 feet
from the ground, and which will be seen all over
London. There will also be eight dormers or sky-
lights on each side of the roof to give light to its
interior. The design is a joint production by Mr.
H. Jones, the city architect, Mr. D. Wyatt, and
Mr. E. Roberts, and the work is being executed by
Messrs. Myres under a contract with the Corpora-
tion. The members of the Improvement Com-
mittee, 35 in number, including four of the alder-
men, with Mr. Kelday, their chairman; Mr. Chap-
lin, chairman of the City Lands Committee; the
Rev. Mr. Simpson, chaplain to the Lord Mayor;
and the principal officers of the Corporation, assem-
bled on the roof yesterday at the ceremony of
laying the corner-stone. Mr. Kelday in a brief
address recounted the history of the hall itself, with
a passing allusion to the character and purposes of
the ancient guilds is the city of London, of which
it was the chief gathering place, and to the way in
which they differed from the livery companies as
they exist at the present day. The Guildhall, he
said, was begun to be built is the year 1411, in the
reign of Henry IV., and the time of Sir Thomas
Knollys, then the chief citizen. It was 20 years in
building, and was first used for a Lord Mayor's
banquet in 1501, in the mayoralty of Sir John Shaw.
The roof was destroyed by the great fire of 1666,
and afterwards repaired and restored under the
direction, it was supposed, by Sir Christopher Wren
in 1662. That roof, as being out of keeping with
the edifice itself and wilh the roofs in vogue at the

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period of its erection, bad provoked t he nnfaVour.
able criticism of men of taste for the Is st 150 years
and more, and the covering at length h aving fallen t.
into decay the Corporation had resolved to avail
themselves of the opportunity'to restore it after its
pristine style, and so wipe out the reproach which
attached to them in connexion with the old roof.
In a cavity of the bed of the stone yesterday a
bottle containing a number of coins, with photo-
graphs of the whole of the. members of the Improve-
ment Committee, was put, and that done, the stone
was then lowered into its place by Mr. Myers, the
contractor, and the Rev. Mr. Simpson having asked
a blessing on the walk of which it was the begin-
ning, the ceremony was brought to a eloee.

The Alabama and the Ilearsa,ge.

-,8,_-

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN

SIR—I tifnd herewith a copy of the official re-

port of Capt. Semmes of his late eugsgement: with
the Uoited Stc:tcs' ship licarsogv, which you racy,

perhups, think wczthy a place in yOur columns. - -
I avail myself of the occasion to note one or two
inaccuracies in tl-!e letter of your corrasprident,
dated at Southampton on Monday, and published
in The Sun of Tuesday. The crew of the Alabama
is there stated at 150 men ; she had, in fact, but
120, all told.

Again, as to her armament ; thf;t of the lie trsaga
may be correctly given by your comsponde nt. I
do not know what it was. The Alabama ht .d one
7-inch Blakely rifled gun, one 8-inch smooth-bore
pivot gun, and six 32-pounders, smooth-bore, in
broadside.

I am, Sir, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
J. M. MASON.
24, Upper Seymour-street, June 22.

"Southampton, Jane 21, 1864.
. _

" Sir,--I have the honour to inform you that, in
accordance with my intention, as previously an-
nounced to you, I steamed out of the harbour of
Cherbourg between 9 and 10 o'clock on the morn-
ing of the 19th of June for the purpose of engaging
the enemy's steamer Kearage, which had been.
lying off and on the port for several days previously.
After clearing the harbour we descried the enemy,
with his head off shore, at a distance of about
seven miles. We were three-quarters of an hour
in coming up with him. I had previously pivoted
my guns to starboard, and made all my preps•
rations for engaging the enemy on that side,
When within about a mile and a quarter of
the enemy he suddenly wheeled, and bringing his
head in shore, presented his starboard battery to
me. By this time we were distant about one mile
from each other, when I opened on him with solid
shot, to which be replied in a few minutes, and the
engagement became active on both sides.

"The enemy now pressed his ship under a full
head of steam, and to prevent our passing each
other too speedily, and to keep our respective
broadsides bearing, it became necessary to fight in
a circle, the two ships steaming around a common
centre, and preserving a distance from each other of
from a quarter to half a mile. When we got within
good shell range we opened upon him with shell.
Some 10 or 15 minutes after the commencement of
the action our spanker gaff was shot away, and
our ensign came down by the run. This was imme-
diately replaced by another at the mizenmasthead.
The firing now became very hot, and the enemy's
shot and shell soon began to tell upon our hull,
knocking down, killing, and disabling a number of
men in different parts of the ship.
" Perceiving that our shell, though apparently
exploding against the enemy's sides, were doing
him but little damage, I returned to solid shot
firing, and front this time onward attended [alter-
nated ?] with shot and shell.
" After the lapse of about one hour and ten,
minutes our ship was ascertained to be in a sinkin g
condition, the enemy's shell having exploded in our
sides and between decks, opening large apertures,
through which the water rushed with great ra•
plait y.

" For some few minutes I had hopes of being able
to reach the French coast, for which purpose I gave
the ship ail steam, ani set such of the fore and
aft sails as were av:zilable. The ship filled so ra-
pidly, however, that before we had made much
progress the fires were extinguished in the furnaces.,
and we were evidently on the point of sinking. I
now hauled down icy colours, to prevenr the, fur-
ther destruction of life, and despatched a beat to
inform the enemy of our condition.
" Although we were now but 4.00 yards from each
other, the enemy fired upon me five times after my
colours had been strcck. It is charitable to suppose
that a ship of war of a Christian nation could not
have done this intentionally.

" We now turned all our exertions towards saving
the wounded and such of the boys of the ship wh.3
were unable to swim. These were despatched in my
quarter boats, the only boats remaining to me—tae
waist boats having been torn to pieces.
" Some 20 minutes after my furnace fires had
been extinguished, and the ship being on the point
of settling, every man, in obedience to a previous
order which had been given the crew, jumped over•
board and endeavoured to save himself.

" There was no appearance of any boat coming to
me from the enemy atter my ship went down. For-
tunately, however, the steam yacht Deerhound,
owned by a gentleman of Lancashire, England, Mr
John Lancaster, who was himself on board, steamed
up in the midst of my drowning men and rescued a
number of both officers and men from the water. I
was fortunate enough myself thus to escape to the
shelter of the neutral flag, together with about 40
others, all told.

"About this time the K.careago sent one, and
then tardily another boat.

"Accompanying you will find lists of the killed
and wounded, and of those who were picked up by
the Deerhound ; the remainder, there is reason to
hope, were picked up by the enemy and by a
couple of French pilot boats, which were also for-
tunately near the scene of action.
"At the end of the engagement it was discovered
by those of our officers who went alongside the
enemy's ship with the wounded that her midship
section on both sides was thoroughly iron coated;
this having been done with chain constructed for
the purpose, placed perpendicularly from the rail
to the water's edge, the whole covered over by a
thin outer planking, which gave no indication of
the armour beneath.

" This planking had been ripped off in every direc-
tion by our shot and shell, the chain broken and
indented in many places, and forced partly into the
ship's side. She was most effectually guarded, how-
ever, in this section from penetration. The enemy
was much damaged in other parts, but to 'what
extent it is now impossible to tell; it is believed he
was badly crippled.
"My officers and men behaved steadily and gal.
lantly, and though they have lost their ship they
have not lost honour.
" Where all behaved so well it would bs invidid
ous to particularise, bat I cannot deny myself the
pleasure of saying that Mr Kell, my First Lienten-
rcegonarddititoonhienr
and shell.rooms, and that he
assistance
awohti,
odhe
ts
he rev
sehs igp r ewaetnctr ei
nd
ti
ot foraction th e
wfii
tnhe
rbeart
dt eerrye ,d mmaeg agzrienaet,
by hie
coolness and
judgment as the fight proceeded.

ship, battery, and crew;
66 The enemy was heavier than myself, both in
but I di; r.oZ, know. until
the action was over that she was also ironclad.
" Our total loss in killed and wounded is 30,—t0
wit, 9 killed, 21 wounded.
"I have the honour to be, very reEpeetfullys
your obedient servant,

" R. SEMMES, Captain."

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