The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-05 00:00:00

Naval. and Military Intelligence.

The review season at Aldersht.t wus brought to a close
yesterday by an inspection by the Duke of Cambridge,
Field Marshal commanding in Chief, of the whole of tho
troops at that station. It was intended to have had a bril-

liant field day after the march past and inspection, but the
dust driven by a piercing easterly wind prevented its taking
place. The Duke of Cambridge, attended by Col Clifton,
aide de camp, and Col Herbert, and accompanied by Lieut
Gen Sir James York Soarlett, adjutant general, and Lieut
Gen Sir Richard Airey, quartermaster general, arrived on
the ground precisely at 10 o'clock, havine travelled from
London by the ordinary train at 8 o'clock. The division,
which had been drawn up in two lines of contiguous column

at quarter distance, received his royal highness with the
customary salute, and the inspection was immediately pro-
ceeded with. This being over, the division marched past,
first the cavalry, horse artillery, and field batteries in open
column of squadrons at a walk, and the infantry in open
column of grand divisions in quick time, in the following
order :—A and B batteries of Royal Horse Artillery, Ist
and 2d Dragoons, 14th Hussars ; E and F batteries-9th
Brigade Royal Artillery, the 31st, 85th, 59th, 39th, 83d,
75th, 14th, 62d, and 2d battalion 60th Rifles, two companies
of Engineers, two troops of Royal Engineer Train, and two
battalions of Military Train. The artillery and cavalry
next went past by threes at a trot, and the infantry by
brigades in contiguous column. The artillery and cavalry
again passed the saluting:point in open column of squadrons
id a trot, and shortly after this portion of the division was
ordered to quarters. The Duke of Cambridge then addressed
the commanding officers, the officers commanding brigades,

and a series of manoeuvres by brigades and regiments in
echelon followed, lasting about half an hour, and exactly at
12 o'clock the troops were ordered home. His royal highness
. . .

and suite afterwards visited the cavalry barracks and the

now artillery stables, and, after part ►king of luncheon with
Lieut Gen Pennefather at the headquarters hut, returned
to town by an afternoon train.
The Duke of Cambridge is expected to arrive at Ports-

mouth on the 17th or 18th inst. on his annual visit of in-

spection.
The 64th Regiment was officially inspected yesterday on
Southsea Common, Portsmouth, by Major-Gen. Lord W.
Paulet, C.B. The men were exceedingly steady under arms,
in their marching past, and the subsequent battalion move-
ments. The firing, especially the volley firing, was very
regular and even in delivery, and altogether the 64th passed
through their inspection ordeal with very great credit both
to officers and men.

-
Capt. C. L. T. Usher and a detachment of 30 non-com-
missioned officers and men of the Chatham division of
Royal Marine Light Infantry have left head-quarters for
Greenock, for service on board the Coastguard ship at that

station.
The Bth company of Royal Engineers, which is shortly
expected to arrive at head-quarters, Chatham, from China,
is ordered, on joiningthe Royal Engineer establishment, to
be raised to the proper strength of 120 men of all ranks, its
present numbers being only about 40 non commisbioned
officers and men. The company has been is China a great
number of years, having been despatched from England at
the commencement of the China war. Since its absence it
has lost fully two-thirds of its number ft om death or other
casualties. It will he augmented to its full number from
the depot companies at head-quarters.
_

The screw corvotte Cadmus, 21, 400 horse power, got up
steam abreast the dockyard at Chatham yesterday, when,
with the exception of one or two trifling alterations, the
machinery and engines were found to work exceedingly
satisfactory. She will coal up to-morrow, previously to
making her official trial of speed at the Maplin Sands, and
afterwards go into the first-olass steam reserve, in readiness
for commission, to relieve most probably one 0 the vessels
attached to thu West India squadron.
The iron frigate Black Prince, 40, screw, Capt. Lord F.
Kerr, sailed from Spithoad yesterday morning to rejoin the
Channel Fleet.

It is stated that the Warrior, 40, iron frigate, Capt. the
Hon. A. A. Cochrane, C. 8., and the Himalaya screw troop-
ship, Capt. E. Lacy, are both about to be paid out of corn•

mission at Portsmouth, The Warrior has been already
beyond the ordinary term of commission, and the Himalaya
requires new boilers, Both vessels, therefore, exhibit suffi •
cient reasons for paying out of commission, but the chief
reason, perhaps, consists in the fact that the wooden three-
decker -Victoria is ordered for commission at Portsmouth,
by Capt, Goodenough, as flagship for the Mediterranean,
and the representatives of the Admiralty at present in Eng-
land cannot solve the problem "how to man her" without
putting other ships out of commission. The Excellent can-
not give the quota of gunners' mates and trained gunners,
nor can the depot ships supply her with seamen.
The Tamar screw troopship, Capt. Stirling, has completed
her complement of Welsh coal with 200 tons of north
country coals. The Tamar is under orders to proceed on
troop service to Kingstown and convey thence the 86th
Regiment to Gibraltar, From Gibraltar she will take the
2d battalion of the 8:1 Regiment to China, and from China
she will transport the 67th Regiment to the Cape of Good
Hope. From the Cape she will return to China with the 2d
battalion of the 11th Regiment, to relieve the 99th Regi-
ment, which the Tamar will convey to the Cape on her way
to England.
The recent powder explosion will very probably direct the
attention of the authorities to the present condition of our

public establishments for the storing of combustible mate-
rial, similar to, and in many instances far more dangerous
than that which has caused such devastation at Belvedere
and near St. Petersburg. Oar public powder magazines are
so far isolated from any towns that if they by any mis-
chance blew up the damage would probably be local and the
loss of life confined to the persons residing on the grounds
or employed there. Here, then, may be calculated almost to
a certainty the extent of the damage that would be caused
by an explosion. In our arsenals and gunwharfs, which
are chiefly situated in close conjunction with the national
dockyards and the crowded towns of our seaports, the case
is vastly different, and it will be no great exaggeration to
say that in such situations the inhabitants live in daily
danger of a much more serious calamity than either of those
which have just occurred. Take Portsmouth as an example.
The dockyard at Portsmouth and the town of Portsea are

joined to the town of Portsmouth by the Ordnance-wharf
and Arsenal. Inside the walls of this establishment stand
four large magazines, which at present, in addition to a
large assortment of rockets and other missiles of war, con-
tains upwards of 8,000 filled, or, as they are expressively
named in technical language, " live" shells, the majority
of which are for 8-inch guns. When these magazines
were first erected they were, no doubt, constructed with
all:poseible care, and were isolated from all other build-
ings the companionship of which might be dangerous.
Within the past 18 months, however, a change has taken
place. The magazines now stand within a few yards of the
roaring furnaces of the boiler-house of a newly-erected
Royal factory for the repair of Armstrong guns and their
carriages—a Woolwich on a diminutive scale. A narrow
cart-road and Forme 20 or 30 feet of this new factory only
separate its boiler.house furnaces from the four loaded ma-
gazines. The only sane course to follow under such cir-
cumstances would be to remove their magazines and their
dangerous contents to some more safe and isolated locality.
A gun, we believe, of entirely novel construction has been
invented and patented by Major-Gen. Hutchinson, com-
manding in the west of England, and if the expectations of
the inventor bo only partially realised, great changes will
take place in the construction of much of our ordnance.
The objects sought to be accomplished in the new gun are
—first, that it shall weigh little more than 20 times instead
of upwards of 800 times the weight of the shot, as is usual;
secondly, that without friction it shall impart rapid rotation
to the shot; thirdly, that the shot shall be of the form best
adapted for penetrating the air and target; and lastly, that
it shall leave no vacuum behind it, and no ricochet when it
strikes water. A few experiments have been made at Ply-
mouth. The last took place on the 28th ult. on hoard the
gunnery ship Cambridge, in Hamoaze. The gun is some-
what like a lengthened mortar. The chamber is of the usual
cylindrical form, but only sufficiently long to hold the pow-
der and wadding. It is at the mouth that the chief peculi-
arity occurs. The shot is termed disc shot. Those used last
week were about the size of two very small plates placed
against each other, excepting that the edge is sharp. The
muzzle of the gun is much enlarged, and is formed so as to
receive with great exactness the inner half of the disc shot.
The more accurate the fitting is the less the escape of gas
and the truer the aim that can be taken. When in place the
outer edge of the shot is flush with the muzzle of the gun.
The shot weighed 41b 2oz. The charge of powder Gez, being
1-11th part of the weight of the shot, whereas the usual
proportion is about eue-fourth the weight of the shot, The

gun was of nearly 2001 b weight, double, the inventor said,
what it ought to have been. The first trial was at the 1,000
yards target. The shot -went in a good direction, and pitched
100 yards beyond the mark. The other two experiments
wore at 13 deg elevation for range, and 4 deg. for aim. In
neither case could the position of the shot be observed when
they fell. The tide was out, and doubtless on striking they
buried themselves in the mud. The experiments, as far as
they went, were considered satisfactory. When in the gun
the shot stands in a vertical position, and rotation is caused
by the axis of the chamber lying above the centre of the shot,
and by a small projection in the interior of the muzzle, at
the bottom, meeting the edge of the shot. From the short-
ness of the gun it possesses all the advantages of a breech.
loader, and from the simplicity of its construction and the
little metal used it promises to be a cheap and easily handled
weapon. The projector may be too sanguine, but he avers
that one weighing no more than the ordinary 68 pounder
will discharge a 6001 b disc. The carriage is fitted with a
number of galvanised indiarubber cylindrical buffers (in
contact by their sides, not extremities), placed in grooves on
the flanks of the gun ; these received the recoil. By a simple
mechanical arrangement the rebound was received in a
similar manner on a series of rings fixed below the gun.
This disposition of indiarubber the inventor prefers to any
compressors, as they do not make the'gun jump, to use the
technical expression.