The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-25 00:00:00

!NCH ELECTIONS,

The trial of the Black Prince, 40, iron screw hi-
gate, Capt. Wainwright, took place at Portsmouth
on Friday, and was concluded at a late hour. Capt.
Broadhead superintended the trial with his staff—
Mr. 7, Ward, assist.-engineer of the dockyard ; Mr.
Eames, acting inspector of machinery afloat, &c.
Mr. Matthews and Mr. Holliday represented the
makers of the engines, Messrs. Penn and Son. Six
runs were made with full boiler power at the mea-
sured mile, the mean speed of the six runs being
13.501 knots. The revolutions of the engines were,
maximum, 54, and the mean 531. The load on the
safety valve was2slb, and the indicated horse power
5,309. The draught of water was 26ft forward and
27ft aft. The propeller was a Griffith's of 24ft bin
diameter, 28ft 6in pitch, and 4ft 10in length. Two
runs were next made at half boiler power —six
boilers, the mean speed of which was 12 221 knots,
te revolutions of the engines being 47. The trials
of speed having been concluded the ship was next
tried in making circles under full steam. With a
starboard helm the full circle was made in 10min
3sec, the half circle in smin 20sec, the angle of the
rudder being 18 degrees, with two turns of the
wheel, and the revolutions of the engines 48, having
been 54 previously to commencing the circle. With
a port helm the fall circle was made in 10min 25sec,
the half in smin 32sec ; the angle of the rudder was ,
221 degrees, the turns of the wheel 21, and the re-
volutions of the engines 48. There were in both
instances 12 men at the wheel. The speed attained
by the ship was about one-tenth of a knot less than
on her last trial. The time occupied in making the
circles exceeds the average of our ships of war; but
the Black Prince is a long ship, and the steering
power she possesses is not at all in proportion to
her length. She is steered by a screw over her
rudder head, but the lever arms of the screw are so
confined in to the rudder head that the greater the
angle is made with the rudder the less the power of
the steering screw becomes. It will be seen by
what we have said that, in consequence of this
defective power of steering, the Black Prince
could not, however urgent the case might be, turn
quickly in narrow wat,.rs.
The bottom of the iron screw yacht Fairy, in
dock, at Portsmouth, has been surveyed and re-
ported upon. The vessel has been coated with the
M'lnnes protective and anti-fouling compositions,
and men are now engaged in scraping the plates.
The iron is in good condition, perfectly sound in
every part, and without corrosion. This is one of
the most successful results that have attended the
application of copper compositions to the bottoms of
iron ships at Portsmouth.
Mr. James Stansfeld, the Junior Lord of
the Admiralty, did not return to London with his
colleagues on Friday evening. He remained at
Portsmouth and was actively employed on Satur-
day in continuing his visit of inspection of the va-
rious departments of the dockyard connected with
the Admiralty, accompanied by the Commander-in-
Chief, Sir M. Seymour, and Rear-Admiral G.
Elliott, Admiral Superintendent.
The screw steam frigate Emerald, 35, Capt. A.
Cumming, steamed into Portsmouth harbour from
Spithead on Saturday, and will be placed in No.
10 dock to-day to ship another screw propeller for
further experimental trials.
The Megeera, screw troopship, Commander Mad-
den, will sail from Portsmouth for Jamaica this
morning, and will take out only 15 men to join
their regiment. She will, on arrival there, be
employed in removing troops from and to different
stations in the West Indies and the West Coast of
Africa, and will probably be absent about 12 or 18
months from England.
The Cura9co, screw steam frigate, Capt. Sir Wm.
Wiseman, will also sail from Spithead to-day for
the Australian station, where Sir William will as-
sume the position of Commodore. The Curagoa, will
take out with her a mail for Madeira, the Cape of
Good Hope, and Australia.
The Albacore, screw gun vessel, made an official
trial of her machinery at Plymouth on Saturday,
under the superintendence of Commander Miller
and Mr.Eames, acting inspector of machinery afloat.
The trial gave very satisfactory results.
By the Cape Argus of the 28th March we learn
that the screw steam transport Himalaya, Captain
Edward Lacy, left Simon's Bay on the 28th March,
with the 96th Regiment, for East London, to re.
lieve the 13th Light Infantry, then at King Wil-
liam's Town. The 13th was under orders to go in
the Himalaya to the Mauritius. She would then
convey the 6th Fusileers to Natal, and return to
England with the 85th, their term of foreign service
having expired. The 2d battalion of the 11th will
continue in garrison at Cape Town. Assistant Com-
missary-General Eichbamn, acting at the Cape as
military accountant to the War Department, is
under orders to proceed to China, having been re-
lieved byAssistant Commissary-General M'Clintock,
who went out in the Himalaya.
The screw steamship Sanspareil, 70, Capt. George
Le G. Bowyear, from the East Indies and China,
bringing supernumeraries and invalidsfrom the fleets
there, is expected in Plymouth in about ten days.
The screw steam storeship Supply, 2, Master
Commander W. H. Balliston, from the eastward,
will touch at Plymouth to receive stores, before pro
ceeding to the Mediterranean.

The screw steam frigate Leander, 39, Capt. Har-
vey, from Spithead, arrived in Plymouth Sound on
Saturday. There is some defect below, and divers
have been down to discover the extent of it. The
Leander may be placed in dock after the report of
the divers has been received.
The Cossack, 20, 250-horse power, Capt. W. R.
Rolland, got up the steam at the Nore on Saturday
to test her engines, which were found to work very
satisfactorily. It was announced at Chatham yes-
terday that she will join the squadron in the Me-
diterranean.

The paddlewheel steamer Otter, tender to the
Chatham steam reserve, has been found on examina-
tion to be so defective, both in her hull and machi-
nery, that it is expected she will be broken np. A
report is to be made by the dockyard officials to the
Admiralty whether an iron ship for a tender to the
steam reserve is to be preferred over a wooden
steamer to replace the Otter.

(FromGalignam's Messenger.)
The letter of Count de Persigny to the Prefect of
the Seine on the subject of NI. Thiers' election is
the object of very sharp attacks on the part of the
non-official journals, and of unreserved eulogium
from those which support the Government. The
following taken from the Constitutionnel will give
an idea of the tone adopted by these last-mentioned
organs of public opinion :
" The veil is at length torn away, and we congra-
tulate the Government upon the fact. The intrigues
of both the clever and the simple are shown to the
world. The dream of certain adversaries of the
Empire was to obtain the acceptation of M. Theirs
by the Government, partly from its own accord and
partly by force, to quietly introduce him into the
Legislative Body, under some ill-defined colours
which would permit even the friends of the Go-
vernment to receive him upon the benches of the
Chamber, and to group around him as admirers of
his oratorical talent. Personally M. Thiers would
not be an obstacle to any Government. He pos-
sesses more intelligence than character. If on the
one hand he has shown how little dynasties weigh
in the balance of his self-love, on the other his
want of firmness causes him to be little feared as an
adversary. M. Thiers must therefore be only looked
upon as an instrument in hostile hands—an instru-
ment, however, which the passions of those who
influence him have but very unskilfully handled.
When they induced M. Thiers, in spite of his un-
willingness, to go to the Broglie meeting, their
only object was to show that he was in their hands;
in that, they rendered a service to the Government
whose generosity would probably have been taken
by surprise, if M. Thiers had presented him-
self alone without the significant cortege im-
posed upon him. At present what does it
matter to us? Universal suffrage will cer-
tainly defeat its own enemies. But even should
M. Thiers, by an impossibility, obtain success, he
would have little to boast of. Isolated in the midst
of the new Assembly—a general without soldiers—
confronting a resolute Government—he would be
reduced to share with M. Jules Fevre, on certain
days and at certain moments, the command of the
Five, and he would soon regret that the position
resulting from his weakness should not have been
spared to his merit. He would have done better to
continue to write excellent works for future gene-
rations, for with talent books may be written, but
a man cannot govern without resolution."
On the other hand, the Presse, the Temps, the
Gazette de France, and the Debuts strongly disap-
prove of the hon. Minister's letter, and seem to im-
ply that the fact of M. Thiers appearing before the
electors did not call for any such intervention. We
select from among the journals just named the fol-
lowing observations from the Debats :
" The letter is not only, in fact, a manifesto
against a candidate, but a declaration of principles
which, if the words of the Minister had the force of
law, would engage not the present alone, but also
the future of the Imperial Government. Ths Mi-
nister of the Interior does not indeed accuse M.
Thiers of making too little account of the electoral
oath, and of entering the Chamber with the pre-
conceived design of overthrowing the present system
of Government. More equitable than those jour-
nals which people imagine, erroneously no doubt,
to receive official inspiration, Count de Persigny
does not go so far as to make such an insinuation.
What, then, is the reproach he brings against M.
Thiess ? Nothing less than that he wishes to re-
establish a system of Government ' which removes
authority from its natural basis to throw it as food
for the passions of the Tribune,' that is to say, if the
naked truth may be told, a mode of government more
completely constitutional. M. Thiers is simply ac-
cussed of wishing to introduce into the Imperial
Constitution, without the least intention of destroy-
ing it, institutions which, if not absolutely the same, are at least analogous to those which France
possessed, under different names and in various de- grees, from 1815 to 1854. If we were disposed to
indulge in the easy pleasure of proving the Minister
of the Interior to be in contradiction with himself,
we might perhaps inquire what that liberty is
which he so much admires in England and inces-
santly offers to us as the future reward of our good
behaviour; we might ask what is to be understood
by that favourite expression ' English liberty,' so
frequently employed by the Minister of the Interior.
Bat we will content ourselves with observing that,
notwithstanding all the powers with which he is
invested, the Minister of the Interior has no legal
right to engage the future of the Government in so
absolute a manner; our Constitution is eminently
perfectible ; it has already undergone useful amelio-
rations, and no one has a right to fix beforehand an
impassable limit to these salutary modifications. To
the Emperor and the Senate is left the care of pro.
posing or accomplishing these improvements."
The same journal remarks in these terms on the
Address to the King of Prussia before the Chamber
of Deputies at Berlin :
"It is respectful to the Crown, firm with regard
to the privileges of the Chamber, worthy of a great
iadsesae m
ofbtlhye, anddut
ie s deserving
a
be a
liberal
o, be
and a ti on
Christiano f
honest men. Taken as a whole, this manifesto can
be displeasing to none but the Bismark Ministers.
King William 1., if he were wise and have a just
King (the true definition of a modern Soverei.sn),
will not consider it as offensive to him. However, with
the Prussian Chamber there is always some reserve
to be made. The Address reproaches the Ministry
with not having promoted the progress of Ger-
man unity, This introduction of the question of
German unity into the address has a threefold in-
convenience. In the first place it was imprudent
to complicate an internal question, sufficiently grave
of itself, with an external question of no less gra-
vity ; secondly, the progress of German unity does
not absolutely depend on any Prussian Ministry,
whatever it may be; and, in third place, if the Bis-
mark Ministry be unassailable on any matter in a
Prussian point of view, it is with regard to the
efforts it has made to secure the extension of the
Prussian influence and policy in Germany. This is
proved by its conduct in the affair of Hesse. The
fault does not altogether lie with M. de Bismark if
Prussia, after long being the exclusive depository
of German civilisation, suddenly finds herself in the
presence of an Austria regenerated by liberty."
The Siecle has received the following " communi-
cated note" from the Ministry of the Interior:—
" TheSiecle has formed objections on two different
occasions to the form in which the Prefect of the
Seine has introduced to the electors of each of the
nine electoral circumscriptions of this department
the candidate recommended by the Emperor's Go-
vernment, and has also asked by what right that
functionary had placed the expenses of that publi-
city at the charge of the public money. The official
designation of candidates in view of legislative or
other elections is not only the legitimate exercise
of a right on the part of the Government, but
as h looked opkreeds
present
stshesuaechcominpllisBh4mB ebnyt omf
.aJduuletsy.Falvtrew,
Opposition candidate in the fifth circumscription
of the department of the Seine, when he was
Under-Secretary of State
with M. Ledra-Rollin
at the Ministry of the Interior, and by M. Emilie
011ivier, Opposition candidate in the third, when
he was extraordinary-commissioner in the depart-
ments of the Bouches-du-Rhone and the Var to the
same Ledru-Rollin, and not, as was lately stated by
mistake, to General Cavaignau, who had put an end
to M. 011ivier's revolutionary office after the events
of June, and in consequence of the disorders at Mar-
seilles, so Emily repressed by General Parchappe.
The designation of the candidates supported by the
Government is therefore an act of Governmental
authority, effected in the publichientntesreeist, and not in
wthhey i
t interest
assumesof the
he cfaonrdmi d
oa
ft eso t
isjoyffi cial notices v esee andTha That
s the same immunities. Besides, it to be
forgotten that the administrative expensemssn
en-
department are derived from an annual alloweaanch
agreed upon as a composition, and for that reasoene
the public treasury is completely disinterested in
the question of expenses, raised by the Sleds.
Consequently, if the Prefect of the Seine rightly
thinks that he should support alone the expense of his public acts, that manner of viewing the dignity
of his functions will not affect in any way the State
Budget. As to the circulars of the candidates re-
commended by the Government, they are printed
upon coloured paper, and distributed at their own
expense."