The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-06 00:00:00

THE NAVY.

VALETTA, Feb. I.—Her Majesty's screw line-of-
battle ship Meeanee, 60, Capt. G. Woodhouse,
which had been so long expected from the Phone,
but had been detained on account of the rather un-
settled state of affairs in Greece, arrived on Sun-
day last, in five days, bringing with her naval in-
valids and old stores. These were transferred to the
Trafalgar, 72, screw line-of-battle-ship, Captain Y.
Mason, which had been awaiting her arrival, and
the Trafalgar sailed on the following day for Eng-
land, to be paid off, taking with her several hun-
dred bags of biscuits for the depot at Gibraltar, and
the following passengers :—Lieut. Scriven, R.E. ;
Lieut. Higgins, 25th Regiment ; Ensign Jefferson,
and 47 naval and military supernumeraries. The
Cossack, 20, screw frigate, Capt. W. R. Rolland,
left at noon on Monday for Bengazi, with Mr.
Saunders, electrician to Messrs. Glass, Elliot, and
Co., to test the Malta and Alexandria cable, and
after landing her passengers on Wednesday sailed
on return to Malta, arriving here on Saturday
morning. M. de Sauty, electrician to the same
firm, has passed through Malta for Alexandria to
test the Alexandria end. He is expected back to-
night, to await the arrival here of the cable ship,
which is on her way from England, when he will
proceed in her, with an efficient staff of engineers
and workmen, to repair the fault. From the test-
ing already made at Bengazi it has been pretty
surely ascertained that no electrical defect exists,
and that the interruption is owing to some mechani-
cal accident, which is believed to have happened
nearer to Bengazi than at first supposed. It was
most probably caused by a ship's anchor. Wind
and weather permitting, no difficulty is anticipated,
a speedy and complete repair being effected. While
on the subject of telegraphs I muust mention that
the electric cable which arrived here last week in
the English screw steamer Semaphore, is for the
Italian Government, to replace that laid
by Messrs. Newell and Co. between Otranto
and Avlona, on the Albanian coast, and which
has defied all attempts to repair it. The
new cable was made at the works of Mr. Hen-
ley, the manufacturer of the Persian Gulf cable.
This short line will prove of great service in com-
pleting the communications with Greec© and diffe-
rent parts of the Levant. There is a rumour that
the Italian Government intends shortly to lay a cable
between Marsala and Tunis, to be constructed also
by Mr. Henley, which will place Malta in almost
direct telegraphic communication with that regency
and the province of Algeria. The Mediterranean
Extension Telegraph Company have announced
that the line between the Dardanelles and Solo is
interrupted, and that messages must consequently
be sent by post to Gallipoli. The Caradoc, despatch
vessel, Lieut, Commander E. Wilkinson, has let;
Messina for Marseilles, where she is awaiting the
arrival of Sir Henry Buiwer, whom she will convey
back to Constantinople, via Messina. Her Majesty's
screw frigate Phoebe, 35, Capt. T. D. A. Fortescue,
left Malta on the 27th ult., with a company of Royal
Engineers, under the command of Capt. Bland and
two subaltern officers, to assist in the demolition of
the fortifications of Vido. Several amateurs pro-
ceeded in the same vessel, among them Major-Gen.
Ridley. Her Majesty's screw gunboat surprise,
Commander W. H. Wayte, arrived this afternoon
from Corfu and Zante, having left the former place:
on the 29th, and the latter on the 30th ult. She
brings news of the arrival at Corfu of the Phcobe
No orders had been received to stay the destruction
of the fortifications at Vido. There has been an
Austrian frigate in port since the 14th ult. awaiting
sailing orders. She is the Conte Dsndolo, Capt.
Barone S. Dawdau Olewsky, and came hero from
Alexandria and Candia. The French screw steamer
Jean Baptiste arrived yesterday from Marseilles,
with upwards of 100 horses for the Egyptian Go-
vernment, and proceeded for Alexandria, after
replenishing fuel and water.. Ensign A. G. Dunn,
100th Foot, a promising young officer, expired on
the 22d ult. at Fort Ricasoli. The deceased was
a brother of Colonel Dunn, V.C., commanding the
same regiment. Major Robert Dillon, formerly
of the 32d Foot, and one of the few surviving
veterans of the Peninsular campaign, died
on Wednesday last, at the age of 77. He had been
a resident of Malta for many years, and was much
esteemed. A serious accident had occurred to Mr.
Brook, a midshipman of her Majesty's ship Orlando.
He fell from aloft, and received such severe injuries
that his life was in a very precarious state. Her
Majesty's iron screw storeship Supply, Master-Com-
mander Bowden, arrived this afternoon from Eng-
land with stores for the fleet. The screw steamship
Syria, of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, ar-
riving to-day at 4 o'clock, having made one of the
fastest passages from Alexandria on record. Lady
Elgin arrived at Suez on the 27th ult., in the
Feroze, and after resting a few days was to leave
for Alexandria on the Ist of Feb., and embark for
Marseilles in her Majesty's steamer Psyche, which
had room for her suite. It was not known if the
Psyche would take the Malta or Messina route. The
Racoon was expected to leave for Malta immedi-
ately on the arrival of Lady Elgin at Alexandria.
The third official trial of the royal yacht Alberta,
on this occasion, as on the second trial, under the
personal supervision of Rear-Admiral R. S. Robin-
son, Controller of the Navy, took place in Stokes
Bay, near Portsmouth, on Thursday. Captain his
Serene Highness Prince Leiningen, with Sir C.
Phipps and General Grey, from Osborne, and Vice-
Admiral the Hon. Sir Fredrick W. Grey, K.C,8.,
with Rear-Admiral the Hon. J. W. Drummond, from
the Admiralty,were on board during the trial. Before
the yacht left Portsmouth harbour for the trial
ground, Rear-Admiral Robinson intimated through,
the officer in command of the yacht, Capt. H. Broad -
head, to the newspaper correspondents at the port,
who were present according to their usual custom on
the occasion of any trial of interest, that he, as the
Controller of the Navy, objected to any report of the
day's proceedings being made public. Under these
unprecedented circumstances our correspondent de-
clined to go out of the harbour in the yacht. We are
unable to furnish any report of the trial, and the re-
ports which we have already published are so far
incomplete as the results of Thursday's experiments
might in any way have borne relation to them. How
far this vessel is likely to fulfil all the duties for
which she was constructed may very easily be sur-
mised from the fact of their renewed trials. Hoc
far she actually will fulfil those duties will very
speedily be ascertained from the future metamor-
phoses she must undergo before being pronounced
fit for the Queen's service, if indeed in the mean-
time she should not be condemned as altogether
unfit, and her machinery taken out and placed in
some other vessel.

The following appointments have been made at

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the . _miralty :—Lient. J. NL D. Elph
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the Prince Consort ; W. H- Adam, surg )
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Adventure; S. S. C. Hall, assistant pa 7 /,•
the Royal Adelaide, sup.:rrumt•rqry ; Rohtt- S
son, second master, to the Duncan far the Nimb'e ;
J. M. Ross, master's assistant to the Duncan for
the Nimble; Lieut. R. F. Broadrick, to the Cano-
pus ; Lieut. A. Eaton to the St. Vincent, vice K.E.
A. Dyer, assist, paymaster, to the Duncan for the
Nimble; F. H. Henderson, first class ase,iht. engi-
neer, to the Cornwallis, for the tendirs ; amd E. W.
Boulton, assist. engineer, to the Duncan.
Septimus Robert Welch has been appointed
Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve.

The French Pepys and the French Evelyn.

-

Within the last two yes.rs, the " Journal of the
Marquis de Dangean" has been published in nine-
teen volumes, and the "Memoirs of thu Due ao Fq.
Shiloh" in twenty vo;unirs. Of these works, which
pair naturally together, Sieldiog matter for a plea-
sant dash of arecdoticol gossip over the Court of
Louis XIV,, the new number of the Elitiburi,h
J? view speaks as follows
Without Duvall the Memoirs of Saint-Simon
would perhaps never have existed in their com-
plete form ; without Saint-Simon the dry and frigid
daily annals of Dangeau would never have been
printed. Dangeau is the stock, incapable of pro-
ducing palatable fruit itself, on which the most
luxuriant and aromatic growth of French literature
in that age
was grafted. Dangeau, in his daily task
of four and forty years, never rises beyond the level
of the Court Circular; he witnesses the most im-
portant events of an eventful reign without an ex-
pression of wonder or emotion; even his anecdotes
are without point; he is as exact and as unmeaning
as a piece of clockwork. saint-Simon, on the con-
tram painted in colours that will never die every
figure and every scene, the bare mention of which
suffices to his mechanical anti-type. In the steurkr
entries of the. one it is .scarcely possible to trace
more than a feeble pulsation of passions 'which
might have touched the soul of even a master of
the ceremonies; in the torrent of eloquence and of
scorn poured forth by the other, Versailles lives
again, with all its conflicts, its follies, its jealousies,
and its power. Dangeau was a gilded insect,
hovering about the Court parterre, or enthroned
upon its blossoms; Saint-Simon was a mind, intent
to try the Conzt by the touch and standard of
honour, rectitude, and truth. The former shared
the pleasures and the honours of Louis XIV. with-
out limit ; the latter cared little for his pleasures,
and never possessed his confidence; but stood lc-
hind his throne and upon his tomh to be the avenger
of his faults, even to the third and fourth genera-
tion. The easy and prosperous Marquis cared
not to cast a look beyond the galleries of
Versailles, in which he spent his existence ; his
conception of immortality was an apotheosis on a
ceiling. How little could he have conceived it pos-
sible that he was day by day preparing materials
for one who was to speak of all he adored in the
language of doom—to consign himself and all his
silken fellows to the pillory of history,and to herald
by lurid and prophetic flashes the approach of that
storm which the monarchy of France was not des-
tined to survive ! Dangean, born in the King's own
year, had seen the dawn and the meridian of a
gay, splendid, and victorious reign, and his idolatry
of the Royal Sun of France was at least. sincere.
When Saint-Simon came to Court, 37 years
younger, the shadows were already lengthening ;
an age of cant had succeeded to an age of vice ;
the gloom of religious bigotry was followed by the
shame of unsuccessful war and the horror of unna-
tural deaths : long before he had completed his task
the grave had closed upon Louis, and the heavens
themselves were gathering over France.