The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-30 00:00:00

SCOTLAND.

Aberdeenshire—Lord Haddo became Earl of Aberdeen
December, 1860—Mr Leslie
Ayrshire—Lord Crichton Stuart died, October, 1859
Sir J, Fergusson
Banffshire—Major Duff resigned, April, 1861—Mr R.
W. Duff
Fifeshire—Mr Erskine Wemyss died, April, 1864 —Sir
R. Anstruther
Forfarstire—Lord Duncan became Earl of Camperdown,
Jan., 1860—Hon C. Carnegie
Kirkcaldy...Colonel Ferguson resigned, July, 1862—Mr
R. S. Aytoun
Selkirkshire—Mr Lockhart resigned, Aug., 1861—Lord
Henry Scott
Sutherlandshire—The Marquis of Stafford became Duke
of Sutherland, March, 1861—Sir D. Dundas
Wick —Mr Laing was appointed Indian Finance Minister,
Oct., 1860—Viscount Bury

In confining ourselves to the changes which have taken
place in the House of Commons, we have not noticed the
re-elections consequent on the formation of Lord Palmer-
aton's Government in June, 1859. In the majority of cases
the new Ministers were returned without opposition, and
in the few instances where the seats were contested the
members of the Administration were successful. Thus, at
Bedford, Mr Whitbread, as Lord of the Admiralty, was
victorious over Captain Pelhill Turner—at Hertford, Mr
Cowper, as Vice-President of the Board of Trade, van-
quished Mr Dimsdale—at Newcastle, Mr Headlam, as
Judge-Advocate-General, beat Mr Cuthbert—at the Unia
varsity of Oxford, Mr Gladstone, as Chancellor of the
Exchequer, was an easy winner over the Marquis of
Chandos—at Sandwich, Mr Knatchbull-Hugessen, as a
Lord of the Treasury,was successful over Sir James Fergus-
son—and in Cork county Mr Sergeant Deasy, as Attorney.,
General for Ireland, won a victory over Viscount Campden.
The only instance in which a member of the Government
has appealed to his constituents and lost his seat was in the
case of Colonel White at Longford,
An analysis of the changes will show that of the 169
members returned by the 52 counties of England and
Wales, 26 have been elected since May, 1859, representing
6,199,329 of the population, and 160,829 electors. Of the 338
sent by the 240 cities and boroughs, 96 are new members
representing 76 constituencies, 3,634,277 inhabitants, and
248,334 electors. Total changes in England and Wales, 102
constituencies, 122 members, representing in the aggregate
9,853,606 of the population, and 379,163 electors. Among
the 64 members returned by the 32 counties of Ireland,
there have been 11 changes in nine constituencies, whose
population at the last census was 1,937,594, and whose
united-electoral roll contains 56,052 names. Ireland's 33
cities and boroughs return 39 members, and in 11 of these
constituencies there have been 12 changes, the population
amounting to 259,402, with 9,154 electors. Total changes
in Ireland, 20 constituencies, 23 members, representing
2,196,986 persons, with 65,196 electors. Scotland has 30
members allotted to its 33 counties, and in these there have
been seven changes, the population amounting to 874,645,
while the electors number 20,783. Distributed amongst
the 76 cities and burghs of the sister kingdom are 53 mem-
bers—only two have been :changed, the population of the
districts amounting to 40,471, with 1,637 electors• Total
changes in Scotland, nine members, representing 915,116
persons, with 22,320 electors. It will be seen that, adding
the boroughs to the COunties4 since the general election, 131

P.RICF ..4d
STAMPED ....5d

constituencies in the United Kingdom have sent 154 now
members to Parliament, representing a united population
of 12,265,718, with 466,679 electors. But, dividing the
boroughs from the counties, the changes in the three
kingdoms give these results :—ln the counties—consti-
tuencies, 42—members, 41—population, 9,oll,s6B—elec-
tors, 237,654. In the cities and borouzhs—constituencies,
89—members,110—population, 3,953,150—e1eeter5,229,925.
For the vacancies which have arisen in England and
Wales there have been 72 contests-63 in the boroughs
and 9in tho counties—in Ireland, 7-5 in the boroughs
and 2in the counties—in Scotland 3, in the counties only.
Thus altogether there have been 68 contests in the bo.
roughs of the United Kingdom, and 14 in the counties ;
total, 82. 49 constituencies have therefore been uncon-
tested in returning their now members. Of the changes
which have taken place there were 16 in 1859, 33 in 1860,
28 in 18C1, 25 in 1662, 34 in 1863, and 18 in the year now
closing, Of the causes which have led to these 151 vacan.
cies, 61 members have died, 51 have resigned consequent
on iii health, old age, or promotion to appointments involv.
ing the loss of their seats; 26 have become peers, either by
succession or by creation ; 11 have been unseated, and two
new seats have been made.

Liberals were succeeded by Liberals in 55 of the consti-
tuencies—eight counties and 47 boroughs. Conservatives
were succeeded by Conservatives in 41 places-22 counties
and 19 boroughs. In 22 constituencies Liberals have been
replaced by Conservatives-8 counties and 14 boroughs,
while Conservatives have been returned for the two seats
which have been Greeted, Birkenhead and South Lanca-
shire. - This would make a total Opposition gain of 24 seats
in the following order :—Aberdeenshire, Ayrshire, Bever-
ley, Birkenhead, Boston, Brighton, Bucks, Cork (county),
Coventry, Devonport, Exeter, Great Grimeby, Harwich,
Herts, South Lancashire, Leicester, Londonderry, Oxfor,l-
shire, Southampton, Taunton, Tynemoutt., Wakefield,
South Wilts, and the North Riding of Yorkshire. On the
other hand, Conservatives have been replaced by Liberals
in nine constituencies—three counties and six boroughs.
namely, Belfast, Berwick, Bodmin, North Durham, East
Kent, Montgomery, Plymouth, Roscommon, and Whitby.
The net gain to the Conservatives since the assembling of
the present Parliament is therefore 15 seats. At Lincoln
the gain to the Liberals through the substitution of Mr
Seely for Major Sihthoip was subsequently counterba-
lanced by the victory of Mr Chapman over Mr Heneage.
In like wanner at Pontefract the Liberal gain through the
election of Mr Childers in the room of Mr Overend was
afterwards nullified by the succession of Major Waterhouse
to the seat which Mr Monckton Milnes had hold fora quar-
ter of a century.— Western Morning News, Dec. 29.

The War in America
(From the index.)

The last mail from America bore, on the face of
the telegram, about the heaviest news that has been
received from the Confederacy this year, Happily
we are in a position to assert with tolerable CODfis
deuce that one half is false and the other half so
highly coloured as to deprive it of the painful
importance at first attached to it. The two great
features of the news are the alleged capture of
Savannah and the reported defeat of Hood.
It is strange that they should have so
easily deceived the English public. We will
take the Savannah canard first. It originated
with a paper published at Baltimore, on the strength
of a report furnished by a nameless individual at
Fortress Monroe, from a transport which left
Charleston Bar on the 14th inst. This can hardly
be considered very satisfactory evidence, even if un-
eantradicted. But the Richmond papers publish
news up to a later date than any intelligence that
could have been received at Charleston Bar on the
.14tb, and in their columns not a word is said as to
"the capture of Savannah, or even its attack. What
facts the Richmond papers do give decidedly nega-
tive the assault and capture, for they report the
stormieg and capture of Fort M'Allister, 16 miles to
the south-west of Savannah, on the Ogeechee River,
on the 14. h inst. ; and it is absurd to suppose that
Sherman would have marched with his v. hole army
15 miles away from Savannah for the capture of a
solitary fort, and march 15 miles back and then
capture SaCannah after eight hours' fighting, in thi
course of 24 houre. Savannah is a strongly fortified
town, standing on a very easily defensible site. Its
communications with Charleston, and therefore with
Virginia, are intact. Its garrison is said to consist
of a force numerically equal to Sherman's. To
suppose that he would attack such a town with his
jAded troops is to suppose him mad ; and to believe
that in eight hours, without siege artillery, he had
compelled General Hardee with 10,000 men to sur-
render; is to display an amount of belief hardly to
be expected, even in this age of eager credulity.
AU that is certain is that Sherman has reached the
sea, and opened communication with Dahlgren's
fleet; that he has obtained a point of egress; and
that what is left of his army is safe. Safety and
not conquest was his first object. The former he
has in all probability attained by the capture of
Fort M'Allister; the latter, we venture to assert,
he will not be in a position to achieve for some time
to come.

The news from Nashville does not rest on an
debatable a basis, but it is evidently exaggerated.
According to the Federal accounts, General
Thomas on the 15th made an attack upon the
Confederate lino, had captured vast quantities of
materiel, 16 guns, 1,000 prisoners, and driven
back the left wing of Hood's army some eight miles
with the loss of 500 men. The weight of the attack
appears to have been directed against that portion
of the army which blockaded the Cumberland River
west of Nashville ; and here, no doubt, the Federal
gunboats obtained a success for Gen. Thomas's army.
But it must be observed that no mention is made of
a general attack, so that there is no reason to believe
that the position of the centre and right of Hood's
army was in any way endangered. The whole affair
seems to have been rather a successful sortie than a
great battle, and it is evident that if another en-
gagement took place on the subsequent day it would
come off under very different conditions. The Fedes
rale would lose the aid of their gunboats, and they
would have to assault and carry earthworks defended
by veteran soldiers. Moreover, a few hours would
suffice to recall Forrest with his cavalry and give the
Confederates a vast superiority in that arm. Gen.
Thomas has not often had occasion to make inde-
' pendent reports to his Government. But we have
invariably noticed that when he does write a deN
spatch it is highly inventive, and we quite expect
that the arrival of the Cunard steamer will show a
very different version of the matter. It cannot be
denied, however, that Hood's position was a weak
one. He must have occupied a line some seven miles
in extent. He had despatched one division and an
his cavalry to Murfreesborough, another division had
gone northward into Kentucky. The force with which
he had partially invested Nashville could not have
much exceeded the command of Gen. Thomas, and
we question the prudence of holding such an extended
line with his greatly reduced strength. Of the sub-
sequent battle of the 16th we cannot speak with
certainty. According to unofficial reports, Thomas
had gained a great victory, bad driven Hood from all
his intrenched positions, captured 3,000 prisoners and
30 cannon, in fact, routed the Confederate army. The
story is improbable, to say the least of it, but
Hood's intrenched positions have been taken,it must
have cost the Federals too dearly to admit of a very
active pursuit of Hood's army, and Forrest's supe-
riority in cavalry will prevent any disaster. A
battle will have been lost, and Nashville will have
been saved ; but Northern Georgia and Northern
Alabama will not the less have been rescued fron-
the invader. As to General Canby's flourish of
trumpets about the severance of Hood's commu-
nications with Mobile, it is simply absurd. Hem,
drew neither men nor material from Mobile
ane
more than he did from Richmond, and Genera
Warren might with almost as much reason have
boasted of cutting his communications with Peters.
burg. But Cauby's despatch is a fair specimen 0!
Yankee brag. We are not without hope that
Thomas's victory of the 16th will turn cut,
Schofield's triumph et Franklin, a very doubtfu
“ffair. The public has so often heard of Con-
federate armies "routed and demoralised," which
a week afterwards have struck a vigorous and
succcessful blow at the enemy, that it will be
slow to believe in the pleasing prospect held up
by a Federal organ in this country of General
Thomas reoccupying Southern territory as far
south as "the Etowah river."

7-- A,,

~~;'~}

.
Naval and Military Iptelligenee.,
Yasterday the operations of fixitit theiiiil
.'.moor-plates to the sides of the trope ad frigate
^rigate Bellerophon, 14, 2,246 tons, 1,000 horse
power *as commenced in the second dock at Chat•
ham, in which that vessel is under construction,
and the work of bolting the thousand tons and up-
wards of armour to the Exterior of the frigate will
be proceeded with as rapidly as the resources of
the dockyard will permit. The plate fixed to the
midship starboard sides yesterday was one of those
supplied by the Millwall Iron Company, to which
firm hes been confided the task of preparing the
armour-plates required for the vessel. It is one of
the best rolled iron, and weighs nearly seven tone,
its dimensions being loft. in length by four feat
in breadth, and 6in. in thickness, the uniforrn thick.
!less of the nrinour-platcs carried by the Beller°.
phon along both sides of her midships battery. The
Warrior, Achilles, and, Bieck Prince will be prc.
vided with_ plates of 4.n. only. In addition, how.
ever, to the extra thickness of armour...plating given
to the Bellerophon, her inner or skin pleves are
I tin. in thickness, which is De arty an inch in emcus

of the inside plates of the Achilles, the lattek frigate
having her inner plates worked to 9 ICiths of en
inch only in thickness. Between the outer and
inner plates of the Bellerophon, however, -the
timber backing has been very materally reduced,
the planking to which the armour plates are at.
taohed being only 10in. in thickness, the additional
couple of, inches in the thickness of iron- which
cover her sides being considered more than an equi-
valent for the reduction effected in the wooden
backing.
,In the Bellerophon it will thus be seen
that shot and shell will have to penetrate 7:in of
solid • iron -and-- the teak backing, while in the
Minotaur -the thickness of armour plating and
inner: plates is but six inches, and in the

-Warrior only five. • The. bolts' 'for' seraring—flio'
plates to the sides of the frigate are prepared at
Chatham dockyard, where arrangements have also
been completed for galvanising them, without in<
curring the delay t xperienc2d in the construction cf

the Achilles by sending the bolts from the dociyard
to London to be galvanised by a private firm, and
afterwards received back at the dockyard. Espeo
rience would seem to prove, however, that little real
advantage is obtained from the use of galvanised
bolts, end it is therefore at present intended to dias
pense with that process in the case of the Bellero-

Ilion by the use of the ordinary bolts of 24in. in
..•.

thickness. Six steam cranes arc constantly em-
ployed alongside the Bellerophon dock in lifting the
iron required for that vessel, and two more, of con-
siderably larger dimensions, are now being erected
alongside by Messrs Taylor and Co., of the Bri-
tannia Works, Birkenhead, for hoisting_the armour
plates to their place. In the construction of
the iron frigate the utmost energy is being shown,
and as an instance of the rapidity with which
she is being built, it may ho stated that the first
piece of iron for her keel was lowered into the dock
on the Bth of April last, and she is now sufficiently
advanced to receive her armour plates. -From her
present rate of progress she will be completed and
:Abet before the close of the approaching year,' the
Bellerophon in this respect presenting a remarkable
contrast to the Achilles, which was constructed in
the same dock.

The iron frigate Achilles, Captain E. Vansittart,
remained at Spithead yesterday, awaiting orders
from the- Admiralty, who it is anticipated will
direct ber to proceed to Davenport to be docked
and replace her damaged propeller with a perfect
one. The diver who has been sent down to examine
the ship reports two out of the four blades of the
:..crew to be broken off from the boss, but no other
damage is visible. The suddenly accelerated spud
of the Achilles' engines on the loss of these two
out of her four screw blades, to which wP re-
ferred in The Sun of yesterday, when not', _

accident, is just one of those circurustanceat is
always attended with the greatest possib' ° ~anger
to the engines where no certain mecha7 I self-
acting control is applied for the admission of steam
to them according to the actual amount of work
being done bythe prpp4lt,r, No accident did occur
to thu entities of the Ac.Nilltza on Wedirt-a:lay-ty
heir suddenly increased number of revolutions, eon
itquont upon the loss of her propeller blades; but
the face remains that serious danger for some mo-
ments did exist from the " racing" of the engines,
Ind serious danat,gr) to the machinery was in all
drubability only averted by the prompt measures
ttken by the offivrs in charge of the engine-room.

'here arc two sets of conditions under which all

item ships are liable to damage seriously their ma.
tihinery when under full steaming power by the sud 4
len " racing" of their engines. One is when a ship,
like the Achilles, suddenly throws off a portion of
driving surface of her propeller; the other is
when a ship umler steam, in a heavy or following
iea, lifts her stern, and with her stern her screw also,
occasionally out of the water. In such cases the
engines " race," to use the technical phraee, by the
loss of resistance on the driving faces of the screw.
blades, and the danger to the ship's engines is ale
ways imminent under such circumstances, and car:
only be averied as was done, happily in the Achilles
by a prompt attention to the throttleevalve, or the
accident really occurs as it did to the Himalaya by
the racing of the engines, as the ship, running at
tremendous speed on her return to England from her
lifted her stern to the seas and
lwaistthfoitrepigron voyage,pellerclear of the water. We have ex-
plained how the Achilles escaped accident to her ma.
chinery, but the Himalaya cracked her shaft
through, and will lie a useless ship for at least three
month in Portsmouth harbour before she can again
be made! ready for sea. In the mercantile steam
navy this danger to engines is very effectually met
by the application of a "governor," which regulates
the admission of steam to the cylinders, in accords
ante with the actual work done by the propeller.
The " Silver governor" is generally admitted to be
the best contrivance of the kind, and it is already
fitted on board upwaids of 300 vessels in the mere
oantile navy. The apparatus is extremely simple
and effective. So long as the engines run at a unie
form rate of speed the governor gives the) steam free
admission to the engines ; but the slightest deviation
from this uniformity of motion closes the throttle.
valve and stops the supply of steam until the engines
resume their even motion.

In our report of
.the first trial of the Achilles at
Portsmouth, which appeared in the Sun of the 15th
inst., the ship's propeller was described as being " a
fourbbladed Mangin.'' This is now explained to
have been an error. The screw of the Achilles has
its four blades set round the boss at equi.distant
intervals, singly, but Nos. 1 and 3 blades slightly
in advance of Nos. 2 and 4. The ordinary Mangin
screw has its four blades set on the propeller boss in

pairs,
. The following appointments were made yesterday
at the Admiralty :—Lieut. Thomas Ramsbotham to
the Royal Adelaide—R, D. Clemente, midshipman,
to the Hector—Geo, B. Long, naval cadet, to the
Achilles—Henry D. Philips, nominated to a naval
cadetship—Geo. H. Ryan, surgeon, to the Shannon
—and he, C. Meagher, paymaster, to the Meander.

Foreign Mail Packet List.

MAILS DUE.

Australia and Mauritius, via Southe.mpton. . . Jun 18,
via Marseilles.... .. Jan. 12.
Brazil and Cape Verde, by British packet.
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena..Djilenc. 529.
Obina, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton. Jan. 2.
via Marseilles ...Dec. 27.
Falkland Islands . ....... • . $
Wbraltar, via Southamptk ,-1 ..
India (Calcutta), Ind `o IG,I, via Southampton Jan. 2.
via ~c'eutliaini‘4.ioaniN.l .......... I.ll°B** l)l)cece: 27.27*
India (Baubay),
via Mars;.:illes Dec. —.
?ortugal.... ......
\lalt, Egypt., and Aden, via . th
9ou._anipt.oli D,.c `,7.
—.via Marseille:. Dec. —.
.!..Tewfuundland
Oporto and Vigo .. ..........
U. S. and British N. America, by Brit.. packct.... Du..: 2,?.
by D.S. razket....
Lv Canadian packet. Doc. '..;0 .
W.C. of Africa, Madeira, and Tcneriffe Tan. Yi.
Are
rhmsatmuDec. 29.
Jan. 12.
da (ditto)
Cuba and Mexico Dec. 29.
11Be,tlnas di(evsia anNdew yo Pacificr k)

The only other steamer to arrive from New York
this week is the Glasgow, which sailed on the same day as
;he Hansa. No later news is likely to be received before
Monday, the next Cunard steamer being the Canada from
Boston, which was to sail on the 21. et.