The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-08 00:00:00

SHIPPING-THIS DAY.

- -
LONDON, Sent. S.—Wind this day at noon—Soufir-
Wcstcriy ; slrcng breczo and cloudy.
SWANSEA• Sept. 7.—Sailed—Conqueror, for Cape Town
Fitzroy, for Valparaiso.

(BY MAGNETIC •;.ELEGRApit.)
RAVEYE.ND, Thursday Morning.
Arrived,'Sept. B—Dan, from New York—Patriatess, from
Buenos Ayres.

DEAL, Thursday Morning.
Passed—Anne Baldwin, from Ctiebucto—`'ere, from
Jamaica—Persia from Taganrog—Creyune, from Deme-
rara—all for London.
Sailed—lttaburgh Castle and Corea, for the west.

CAPTURE OF A SHARK.—On Thursday morning
last, one of our mackerel boats brought in a specimen of
the hammer shark, which had been captured off Beachy
Head. It was afterwards exhibited in front of the parade.
It was about nine feet long.—Surrey Standard.
PRESERVATION OF THE THAMES FROM POLLU.
TlON.—Yesterday the Thames Conservancy Coln,
missioners, under the provisions of the act of last session,
took vigorous measures to prevent any further pollution of
the waters of the Thames by gas companies and other
manufacturers allowing washing stuff, "blue peter," and
other offensive matter to flow or pass into the Thames ;
also to prevent the throwing of gravel, ballast, L:c., therein,
or its deposit in any position on the banks of the Thames,
or upon any stream thereof within eight relics of the
Thames, from whence it may be carried by flood into the

river.
SECOND MACKEREL SEASON.—Several thousands
of fine mackerel have been caught on the coast of Cornwall
during the past few days. They sold readily at high prices.
A few baskets were sent to London.
Among ihe passongers who arrived at Marseilles
by the steamer Peluse, of the Messageries Imperiales, was
M. Lejean, vice-consul of France at Massoualt (Red Sect).
After being for some time detained a prisoner by the Ent-
peror Theodore, M. Lejean was set at liberty by a decree
expelling him from the country. Tho English Consul still
remains a prisoner.
The Gazette Popolare of Cagliari gives an account
of certain disturbances which took place at Sassan
(Sardinia) during the latter days of August. They began
with a demonstration in favour of the new Communal
Councillors, but cries of " Down with the new taxes I" soon
mingled with the cheers, and the Town-house was literally
besieged by a dense crowd, until a party of troops arrived
and dispersed it. On the following day the people refused
to pay the duties on articles of consumption, which led to a
fresh intervention of troops. Groups were formed in the
streets and reformed as fast as they were dispersed. Up to
the latest accounts about 60 persons had been arrested.
The sandbank in the Saone, which caused the
accident to the steamer on the 10th July last, will soon dis-
appear. The Minister of Public Works has allotted a credit
of 60,000 fr. to the Engineers of the Ponts-et-Chauesees
charged with the care of the river, and dredging operations
are about to be commenced to remove that obstruction to
the navigation.
A FRIENDLY GLASS. BURTON, Olt OLD
SHERRY ?—The quaint old Burton observes—
" That a cup of generous wine to those whose minds aro
still or motionless is, in my opinion, excellent physic." It
may be rather hazardous to give too many extracts or
anecdotes of the inspiring effects of wine; we have no doubt
we could be met by many a sad tale of over indulgence.
Such melancholy topics are, however, out of our province.
Yet statesmen, men of letters, and heroes of every age, have
found their solace in wine. The brightest lights of the
political horizon in their time—Fox, Pitt, Sheridan—
profited as Plutarch says did Lamprius, i.e., disputed best
and shone to most advantage when under the inspiration
of wine. It is not disputed that Sheridan finished the last
act of Pizarro in half-au-hour after taking a plate of sand-
wiches andftwo bottles of claret.—Alcohol versus Teelotd.
lain, by Charles Tovey.
How THE POOR LIVE IN LONDON--(Or, at least,
how it happens they don't more frequently die.)—
The larger part of the poor women in London get a living
by charing and laundry work. The wages of the husband
will not pay the six shillings rent for two rooms, and the
schooling ei two or three boys and girls, and "keep the
wolf from the door" as well. The wife, then, must go out
to work also. A mechanic, working for the shops in his
own neighbourhood, or for those at the "West-end, makes
from 18s to £1 per week ; a labourer the same sum. This
leaves but a small surplus for clothes, I assure you, if any
at all, after the rent is paid and the food consumed at the
end of the week. I know as a fact that most wives who are
too delicate, or are unable for other reasons to go out to
work, never cat meat themselves, and they and their child-
ren mainly subsist on bread and dripping, treacle-water,
and tea. Sometimes a luxury is improvised in the way of
a herring, or an ounce or two of salt butter and a herring
This I know to be the fare of a poor family who, out of
£1 53 per week, have 6s 6d rent to pay, and to support five
young children. The poor man must eat one good meal of
meat now and then in the week, as his health would decline
for want of proper nourishment, and his work would flag
wofudy in consequence. Oa the return of the wives front
the wash-tub or charing they have only time to wash their
chiidren and put them to bed. All day some of the child-
ren have been at the ragged or national schools; perhaps
one boy has been carrying about newspapers, and parcels,
or doctor's medicines, for 3s Gd per week ; another has had
the care of the baby, as well as a small child, and has spent
his time on different doorsteps, exposed to the temptation of
marbles, pitch and toss, and countless perils to himself and
charges in street affrays and melees of different kinds
throughout the day.—Onee a Wade.
A letter from Cyprus gives particulars respecting
the cultivation of cotton in that island. In 1862,
the exports were 6,000 bales; in 1863, 8,500; this year
they will be at least 12,000; and, owing to the greater ex-
tent of land being bought under cultivation, they will pro-
bably soon reach 30,000 bales. These results are the more
remarkable, that all Asia Minor, including the islands, dirt
not produce 8,000 bales ten years ago.
The biddings for £300,000 in bills on India took
place yesterday at the Bank of England. The pro-
portions allotted were to Calcutta £lBO,OOO, and to
Bombay £120,000. The minimum price was as be.
fore—ls 11-0 per rupee on Calcutta and Madras,
and is llid on Bombay, The applications within
the limits amounted to £1,300,000. Tenders on
Calcutta at 2s Ofd will receive about 91 per cent.,
and on Bombay at 2s 01,cl about 33 per cent. No
allotment was made to Madras. These biddings
were about a half per cent. higher than those on the
last occasion.
Baron de Bud berg, the Russian Ambassador at
Paris, has left for Germany to proceed, it is thought,
to Schlangenbad, but first visiting at Studgardt the
Queen of Wartemberg, sister of the Emperor
Alexander.
A letter front Tananarvia of the 15th July, in
the Moniteur du Soir, says—" Manifestations and
movements in favour of the King have been lately
renewed. In the night of the 18th of IVay in par.
ticular, while the Queen at Ambiohi-Magna, 1,200
persons made an attempt against the palace, an alarm
having been given, they were repulsed by the Queen's
Guards. After that outbreak 79 individuals were
arrested. Eighteen of them being sentenced to
death, were executed in presence of an immense
crowd. Almost all those unfortunate men, among
whom were some officers of high rank, persisted to
the last in affirming that they had seen the f
and that the attempt of the 18th May had .or objict
to replace him on the throne. Seven others were
condemned to imprisonment for life."
AN ELOPEMENT FRUSTRATED,—Two of the pas-
sengers who came from Liverpool in the City of
Manchester, and intended proceeding in her to New York,
have bad their intentions frustrated. One of them was a
respectable young lad, aged about 1G or 17 years, and the
other a companion of the opposite sex, apparently four or
five years older. The pair aro somewhat below the middle
height. The mother of young Ccelebs, upon discovering
the flight of her precious boy, came vie Holyhead, and had
the satisfaction of parting the companions et Queenstown
and flinging into the tide a photograph of his intended.
The demoiselle proceeds back to Liverpool, but states that
all will be right again after a short time.—Cork .Reporter.
CHIMNEY SWEEPERS.---On the first of November
an Act of Parliament will take effect to amend the act for
the regulation of chimney sweepers. From that day chim-
ney sweepers are restricted from eraplosing children under
ten years of age, and are not to be accompanied in their
occupations by persons under 16 years old.
The quotation of gold at Parts is about 21 per mille pm., and
the short exchange on London is 25.30 per £t sterling. On
comparing, these rates with the English Mint price of £3
l7s. 10i(L per ounce for standard gold, it appears that gold is
nearly 3-ltths per cent. dearer in Loudon titan la Paris.

The Spithf ad Forts,

There is probably at, the present time no other
portion of the nations' k defences which has so large
a hold on the public mind as the proposed marine
forts at Spithead. This is due to several causes,
foremost among Ns h ich may be noticed the' conflict.
ing evidence rela dve to their necessity given before
the National De .ence Commission by officers of the
highest rank in both services, and other competent
witnesses; the subsequent discussions in the press
and Parliament ; the temporary suspension of the
works and their subsequent resumption, and, per.
haps more than all the foregoing reasons put to.
gether the absorbing interest imparted to the sub-
ject by the naval operations before Charleston and
Mobile. The Defence Commissioners originally
proposed that Spithead should be protected by a
combined system of forts and floating batteries,
and they recommended the construction of five ad-
vanced forts on the shoals—on the Horse Sand ;
Noman, or No Man's Land Shoal ; on the Stur-
bridge Shoal, off Ryde, on the Spit Point ; and on
a point intervening between the Horse Sand and
the south-east end of Portsea Island. Sir Charles
Fox with a staff had been employed by the War-
office department in boring the different shoals,
and a report of the result was drawn up by Sir
Charles for the guidance and instruction of the
'War-office on the subject. Mr Hawkshaw, C.Ee
prepared the plans for the foundations, and three
of those plans—the Horse Sand, the Noman, and
the Stubridge—were ordered to be proceeded with,
the one on the Spit and the one intervening be-
tween the Horse Sand and the Portsea Island
having been thrown out of the scheme. The con-
tract for the construction of these foundations was
signed by Mr Leather, a gentleman who has
gained high reputation by his work at Portland,
in June, 1861; but owing to the temporary sus.,
in deference to the ex-
pension of the works,
pressed feelings of a large party in the House of
*Commons, it is only on the Horse Sand -that any
p-eat progress has been made, and in the meantime
thee Sturbridge Shoal has been abandoned, owing to
the enormous expense which must have been in-
curred in constructing the foundation for the Fort
there from the nature of the shoal. On the 11th of
June, 1864, a special committee was appointed by
the t3ecretary of State for War "to consider the
alterations requisite in the plan for the defence of
Spithead in consequence of the abandonment of the
work on the Sturbridge." This committee was com-
posed of Rear-Admiral A. Mike, chairman; Capt.
R. S. Hewlett, RN. ; Colonels J. W. Gordon, R.E.,
C. V. Cockburn, R.A., and H. D. Harness, R.E. ;
Capt. J. D. Bythesea, R.N. ; Mr. James Fergusson,
with Lieut.-Colonel W. F. D. Jervois, R.E., Deputy
Director of Fortifications, as secretary. This coins
mittee, after visiting Spithead and its approaches,
recommended that a fort should be constructed on
the Spit Bank, about 600 yards to the south-west
of the point on which it was proposed by the De.
once Commissioners to erect a fort. They also
re commended that, as an enemy might pass by the
outer forts and keep so far to the southward as to
be, out of the effective range of the works on the
northern side of the anchorage, a small fort should
also be constructed on the Ryde Sand, about 1,200
yards to the southward of the Sturbridge Shoal. In
accordance with these recommendations of the com-

mit tee the War-office authorities are now employed
at the two points indicated in baling the shoals to
ascertain their nature. The borings have already
been carried to a considerable depth, but with no
promising results. On the Ryde Sand nothing has
3 -et been met with bat a thick layer of sand deposited
rend, and the situation is ass unpromising there
as was the Sturbridge Shoal. The position selected,
60G yards south-west of the Spit point, is equally
unpoomising. It is evidently off the shoal proper,
as De thing has yet been met with in the borings
but send and earthy deposit left on the edge
of the shoal by the action of the tides. The
efforts: of the commission appear to have been
restricted to finding a substitute for the Sturbridge
site, north of the Noman and Horse sites, other-
wise it is incomprehensible that the Warner peal.
tion should have been left without mention in the
committee's report. If the chart published in the
report of the National Defence Commission is re•
ferred to it will be seen that the works now in pro-
gress oa the Horse and Noman shoals form two
points of an equilateral triangle, the apex of which
is the Warner Rock, a trifle inshore of the Warner
lightship. The similitude in the two positions of
Spithead and Charleston in their outer defences is
very striking, but it is all in favour of our own port.
Forts Moultrie and Sumter are 1,900 yards apart.
Tless forts on the Horse and Noman Sands will be
2,06'0 yards apart, but they will be 1,000 yards fur.
ther distant from Portsmouth than Sumter and
Moultrie are from Charleston. The probable failure
of finding any suitable strata on the Spit or Ryde
Sand on which to erect the two forts recommended
by the commission may also induce the authorities
to again take into consideration the propriety of
erecting a fort on the Warner Rock, and thus trebly
locking the front-door entrance into Spithead from
the sea. The three forts would then form an equi-
lateral triangle, both sides of 2,000 yards, and, if
kept armed with the heaviest description of ord-
nance as our knowledge in gunnery progressed, it
would be absolutely impossible for any ironclad that
could ever be constructed to pass through that tri-
angle of fire and float. This plan has met with
much favour. It was first brought into notice by
Captain H. W. Tyler, R.E., then stationed in the
Isles. of Wight, in charge of the fortifications in that
district in the early part of 1863 ; and as time pro-
gresses and our knowledge of the relative value of
fartsmriand armoured ships likewise advances, the real
is
Of Captain Tyler's plan becomes more and
more apparent.
To return, ho
now in han w
e
v
e
r,
more directly to the works
is necessard,
the
so eliorse and Noman foundations, it
progress
had first
been observe that, after a certain
the erection ot
at made in the collection of plant,
and other prehmi n • afg
aing Over the foundation sites,
s
appeared for some j measures, the Government
time to erect the fortee to falter in their determine•
a reaction
The contractor
he contractor never fals
tared. He felt that
the forts were to a certain must come; he knew
eetent as certain to be
constructed as day
Succeeda t(
I)dniht, and he knew
also, as Lord Palmerston
to the House of Com-
a e
mons, that to give up the
seh
would entail nearly as great me at that point
plotion. Under these circuit taaces Itemise as its com
s
steadily went on collecting as, plan; Leather
shore, and the result may now b'eand material
Spithead Forts' works on
.Stokes Bsy shore, at the
opposite Ryde, Isle of Wight, where the e?l,:asearly
partitions for the construction of the forts, t pre-
founda-
tions are made, and where also a desert Strip of
shingle and stunted gorse has been transformed
iuto a busy hive of human industry. The position
has been well selected. It adjoins the Stokes alay
is within half an hour's steaming
railway terminus,
of the Horse and Noman, and its beach offers
safe means of embarking and disembarking in all
Weathers. On the ground is a cement mill, cement
stores, blacksmiths' shops, Sec., with lines of rail-
ins, it in all dirctions, a in of rail
way travers
tion with thee Stokes Bay railway
forming a Julie
company's line, and overhead railways worked by
steam cranes of great power for transporting the
blocks of stone. About 15,000 tons of concrete
rougrouted squared
blocks are at present laying on the e
and bevilled off in readiness to drop into their places
in the foundation courses of the forts, and about
7,oooltons of Peubryn granite, Portland and Run-
corn stones for the same purpose. These blocks
range, according to their position, from three to
seven tons each. Portland and Penbryn stones are
conveyed to Stokes Bay, or Leather-town, as it may
in all propriety be called, by see, but the Runcorn
stones are delivered direct by rail from liirkenheed.
In one pact of the works a portion of the ground is
cemented over and laid out as a " rawing Board,'
on which every stone is laid in its own position as
it will finally Occupy when placed under water,
and is there numbered and marked out with its
ft'llows in coloured lines, and by these numbers and
coloured lines the diver ti es the stone when low-
ered to him from above. In the centre of the station
on the branch lino is built a stout pier, having a
doable line of railway connected with the railways
on the grounds, and on this pier railway a power-
ful steam crane affords the necessary means of re-