The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-21 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

Lieut.-Col. Shaw's improved system of gun car-
riage was tested on Friday at the proof butt in
Woolwich Arsenal, in the presence of the Ordnance
Select Committee. A6B pounder gun, from which
the trunnions had been removed, and which has
been mounted on the carriage for the purpose of the
experimental trials at Woolwich and Shoeburyness,
discharged ten rounds with perfect success.
The detachment of the Coldstream Guards, under
the command of Lieut. the Hon. Heneage Legge,
having completed their course of firing at East-
bourne, returned to the Wellington Barracks on
Wednesday. On the same day detachments from
the Ist and 2d battalions of the Coldstreams, con-
sisting of six officers and 130 men, under the com-
mend of Cols. Baring and Goodlake, proceeded to
Eastbourne for musketry practice.
From an order received last week at Woolwich it
appears that the War Department have at length
decided on introducing the Whitworth rifle as the
future arm of the service. A large number of the
rifles have been manufactured and stored at Wool-
wich, in the Royal Arsenal, for distribution. The
whole of the Line regiments now stationed at Al.
dershot are ordered to be supplied forthwith. Three
companies of the 60th Rifle Brigade, in command of
Col. Sir J. Campbell, are ordered to take np their
quarters in the Royal Artillery Barracks at Wool-
wich during the present week, to go through a
course of rifle practice in the Plumstead-marsh.
They will be equipped with the Whitworth rifle
oa their arrival.

A huge block of iron, cast in the foundry at
oolwich, weighing 55 tons, and intended as the
base of one of the Nasmyth steam hammers used
in wielding the gun coils in the Royal gun facto-
ries, was on Friday hauled out of the foundry to be
fixed in its position. Its removal through the Ar-
senal, which is to be effected by means of double-
purchase hand engines, in consequence of its enor-
mous weight, will occupy three days.
Mr. St. George, who has been long employed by
the Military Store Department in Hyde-park, has
been appointed to an important district in North
Britain. He will succeed, we believe, Superinten-
dent Pearce at Edinburgh, the latter gentleman
being about to retire.

: THE INUNDATION AT SHEFFIELD.

bIIEFFIELD, Sunday.

The scene of the flood was visited again to-day
by many thousand people, including enormous num-
bers who had come by train from distant towns.
Additional bodies are found daily, but there are still
about forty unaccounted for. The district com-
mittees are labouring hard to mitigate the great
distress resulting from the flood. Clothing and
other assistance has already been supplied to large
numbers of persons who were starving, but the
immediate claims are so numerous and pressing
that much remains to be done. Great efforts are
being made to clear away the mud and filth left in
cottages and streets; but though 100 carts are at
work, and from 300 to 400 men, the streets are
scarcely more passable that they were some days
ago, such is the quantity of mud thrown out of
houses and cellars. Disinfectants are being freely
used, fears being entertained that the Effluvia from
the mud, which in the warm weather is already be-
coming very disagreeable, will generate fevers or
other contagious disease, unless the greatest pre•
cautions are used.

The cause of the bursting of the reservoir gives
rise to much comment. An engineer supplies to the
Sheffield Independent the following, understood to
be an authoritative account of the bursting of the
reservoir

" Knowing something of the conformation of the
rocks about Bradfield, and having visited the dam
since the flood, I venture an opinion, which I
think is the right one, of the cause of the sad disas-
ter. In digging for the foundation of the puddle
bank the contractors of the water company had to
contend with great volumes of water issuing through
the fissures of the rocky strata underlying the
lower part of the valley; Special engine power
had to be used to keep down the water, and a
labour of somewhere about twelve months was
required to cut off the streams and get a toler-
ably dry bed for the muddle bank at the depth
of GOft. Having made a good puddle wall, the com-
pany built their embankment with the soil from the
sides and bottom of the valley above, thus having
the strata of the open shelving rock. The puddle
wall appears to have been sufficiently thick and
strong. Possibly a somewhat broader foundation
might have been better ; but I do not in the least
believe that the mere pressure on the embankment
of any amount of water the dam would hold could
have damaged it in the least. The complaints made
of the friable character of the soil covering the puddle
bank and forming the outer portion of the embank-
ment are childish. The real cause of the bursting
of the resorvoir I take to be this. The rocky bot-
tom and sides of the valley having been bared, the
water in proportion to its quantity and weight found
its way through the fissures of the rock into the
courses of the springs which proved such a serious
obstacle to the laying of the foundations of the
puddle bank. As the pressure became great the
water forced its way on and on until it undermined
the foundations of the puddle bank, probably at last
splitting it in two, and causing the crack in the top
of the embankment. A remarkable circumstance

to be taken into account in ascertaining the cause of
the flood is that about 9 o'clock in the evening the
water in the darn lowered two feet. This appears
to be inexplicable except on the supposition
that the water found an inlet into the rocks.
The rending away of the outer half of the puddle
bank would naturally let down the top of the em-
bankment outwardly, as it was in fact let down ;
and the water, thus rushi Is, over the hollow thus
made, would carry the lower part."

THE INCREASED VALUE OF THE PROPERTY AND
INCOME OF THE NATION during these 40 years has
been £90,008,000. The following table shows how it has
accrued:--

NET AmousT 01, PROPERTT AND INCOME LIABLE TO
ASSESSMENT.

1815. 1856.
Land .. --.." ....... £41,521,492 .. X 38,153,935
House.' 16,259,400 .. 48,435.585
Quarries, mines, ironworks, canals,
and railways
Farmers' profits
Funds

74:5-51',0"96
Trades and professions ....
Government departments

X132,388,,226 .. £242,467,3418
These figures are an exceedingly interesting record of the
progress of tke nation.

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Surrey, of thirty years' diseased lungs, spitting of blood, liver
derangement, and partial deafness.—Cure, No. 47,121. Allis
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