The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-22 00:00:00

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nication has
Alexandria.
are in hourly
united, and communication restored throughout the line.
The contract for the manufacture of the rolled armour
plates for the after body of the Lord Warden, ironcased
frigate, building at Chatham, has been taken by the firm of
Messrs. John Brown and Co., Atlas Works, Sheffield, at
£39 per ton. Nearly the whole of the 6 inch armour plates
for the Bellerophon, also building at Chatham, are to be
manufactured by Messrs. Chaney and Co., at the Mi 111,74111
Ironworks, and a considerable portion of the plates requirid
have already been sent into the dockyard by that firm.
Under the new regulations adopted by the Admiralty, the
discharge of the hired mechanics and labourers at Chatham
Dockyard, at the end of the financial year, is to be only
nominal, and they arc to be re-entered immediately.

Commodore Dunlop, C. 8., superintendent of Woolwich
Dockyard, accompanied by Mr. Pons,onby, tho naval secre-
tary of the yard, yesterday went on board her 11,;jesty's
ship Ranger, Commander W. E. Gordon, at the powder bucy
off the Royal Arsensal, and mustered and inspected the
crew. After the inspection the Ranger left the buoy for
Greenhill; where she will swing for the adjustment of her
compasses for sea. Her destination is the West Coast of
Africa, to aid in suppressing the tr,ffic in slaves.

Mr, Reed's iron eased Experimental sloop Enterprise, in
dock at Woolwich, is ordored to bo undecked on Thursday
next. Commander Rowley, appointed to the command on
the 10th of December, 1863, will on Saturday formally com-
mission the Enterprise, and ho7st his pennant on board.
The two 70-pounder naval guns and four 12 -pounder
breach-loaders manufactured by Mr. Whitworth, and in-

tended for the competitive trials at Shoeburyness with a
similar number of the Armstrong guns, were yesterday re-
ceived at "Woolwich by Major Freeth, inspector of Artillery,
and will be forwarded, to Shoeburyness in readiness for the
experiments ordered to commence on Saturday, the 2d
proximo.

An enormous cylinder, weighing 30 tons 16cwt. lqr. 261 b ,
intended for her Majesty's iron ship Minotaur, in the 'Vic-
toria Docks, was yesterday received at Woolwich from
Messrs. John Penn and Son, having been conveyed by a
team of 30 horses.

Orders were received yesterday at Portsmouth from the
Admiralty to defer the onbarcation of troops and naval
supernumeraries for China on boerd the screw troopship
Adventure, and to send the ship out to the Quarantine an-
chorage at the Motherbank to wait further orders. A case
of smallpox having occurred on board is the cause of these
measures having been taken. This disease is just now very
rife in Portsmouth and its suburbs, as it is in many other
parts.

Plans have recently been submitted to the Lords Com-
missioners of the Admiralty by Capt. C. S. Dawson, Royal
Fusiliers, doing duty with the Royal Engineers on the na-
tional defences, for carrying eight or twelve 300 pounder
guns (rifled) on the main deck of a ship as ordinary broad-
side guns, without in any way interfering with the vessel's
masts, funnel casings, or the general arrangements of the
decks. The plan for carrying eight guns shows five turn-
table on a line with the ship's keel, and five auxiliary or
radial turntables on either broadside with two radial turn;
tables at the bow and stern. Three of the central turn-
tables are to carry two guns each. The bow and stern tables
carry one each. Each gun will serve four ports, as occa-
sion may require. On the double turntable the guns are
placed muzzle to breach, and by a half turn of the table are
run on to their auxiliary tables in front of their respec-
tive ports, and trained by two men to any angle by the
most simple mechanical means. The plan for carrying 12
guns is very similar to the former, the principle being the
same, but the arrangement of the guns is different. There
are in this case four central turntables on a line with the
ship's keel, and 12 side tables at the ports. Three guns are
carried on each of the central tables, and the whole arma-
ment of the ship is thus concentrated, when stowed as a sea-
going weight, within a space of 96ft. in the centre of the ship,
and the extremities of the ship are thus materially lightened
at sea. These arrangements admit of broadsides being fired,
when the guns are brought into action, of 1,5001 b. in the
first instance and 1,80016. in the second, while both sides of
theeship are in a state of defence. The advantages claimed
tor this system of carrying and fighting guns at sea are :-
1. Concentrating the armament of the ship near the centre
of gravity and insuring the chances of the ship's safety at
sea. 2..,;A certain means of working the heaviest guns
through the broadside ports of a ship's main deck. 3. Em-
ploying shorter, swifter, and more manageable ironclads
than at present. 4. Firing a heavier broadside with a
smaller crew then at present. 5. A means of giving ships a
thicker armour on their sides than can be done with ships
compelled as at present to carry their guns always on their
broadsides.

The follonaing appointments and promotions were made
yesterday at the Admiralty;—Capt. 0, A. Campbell to the
Bombay, commissioned; John Stirling, M.D., to be Staff
Surgeon in charge of the naval hospital at the Cape; James
L. Hearne, midshipman, to the Gladiator; Dr. J. Wingate
Johnson promoted to be Inspecter- General of Hospitals;
Charles Morton and William Dickson Smyth, M.D., pro-
moted to be surgeons; Edward Eckersley and James T.
Page, engineers, to the Euryalus, additional, for disposal;
William Chase, Ebenezer Bennet, John Pickles, Angus
M'lntyre, John Brown (b), George F. Greaves, Samuel H.
Trenham, John Lewthwaite, Robert Pattison, and William
T. Foyer, assist.-engineers, to the Euryalus, additional, for
disposal; James Vercoe, engineer, to the Hastings, for the
Sandfly ; George H. Loadale, acting engineer, to the
Hastings, for the Lark; Frederick Holden, assist.-engineer,
to the Colossus ; and Thomas Pringle, assist

-Engineer, to

the Colossus, for the tenders.

Wil roadfoot has been appointed lieutenant in the
Royal Naval Reeerva.

THE ARMY.

The following promotions and exchanges in the Royal
Artillery, as about to take place, were yesterday announced
at Woolwich :—Col. E. C. Warde, C-8., at present com-
manding the 6th Brigade at Portsmouth, to the command
of Woolwich Garrison, in succession to Major-Gen. Sir
Richard Dacres, K.C.8., whose term of service will expire
at the close of next month ; Col. Eardley Wilmot, 7th
Brigade, appointed to the 6th Brigade; Col. Buchanan,
commanding the 13th Brigade at Woolwich, to command
the Royal Artillery in Dublin, vice Col. Fitzmayor, C. 8,,
Bth Brigade, ordered to India; Col. Cockburn to succeed
Col. Buchanan in command of the 13th Brigade at Wool-
wich; Col. d'Aguilar, C. 8., to the command of the Horse
Brigade at Aldershott, to replace Col. the Hon. G. T.
Devereux, ordered to Woolwich.
Instructions were received yesterday at Portsmouth from
headquarters to suspend all further operations upon the
Sturbridge Shoal in the construction of the foundations for
one of the three proposed marine "Spithead forts." This
course hes no doubt been adopted by the authorities
owing to the insuperable difficulties which exist in finding
any foundation of sufficient strength to carry a part of the
weight requisite to carry ordnance of the "Big Will"
class, which is supposed to be the smallest description of
gun with which these ironcased granite works will be
armed. Whatever cause, however, may have led to the aban-
donment of the work, it is understood to be intended now
to erect a fort on the Warner Rock, where the three forts
would then stand together in a triangular position at the
very throat of the narrow entrance to Spithead from the sea.
Since the Spithead forts have become an acknowledged ne-
cessity this is really the only position in which the three
retained forts ought to be placed. It is the gateway to the
only direct entrance to Spithead from the sea, and the bolts
and bars fixed to secure it cannot well be too strong. Inside
andthis
bgaartsearw ae y the enemy
forced
an and
hem isust be
still
afloat, met and
by foonurgolt i f i
rot hnea boltsds.
The Sturbridge shoal lies off the town of Ryde, and visitors
to the island will remember the mass of staging which rose
above the surface of the water at about a quarter of a mile's
distance from Ryde pierhead, in the direct track of the
steamboats between Ryde and Portsmouth, encircling a
huge iron cylinder, which was being sunk down through.
the shingle forming the shoal, and surmounted by an odd-
looking combination of staging, cabin, and an embryo light-
house. These form the now doomed works, which were
erected for the construction of the foundations of the Sttu'•
bridge fort.

MURDER AT CAMBRIDGE.--0 n Friday evening,
at 6 o'clock, an old lady named Hunt died at Cam-
bridge from the effect of a murderous outrage perpetrated
upon her on Sunday the 28th February last. The deceased
and another aged lady, named Walker, both widows, lived
together at Prospect Cottage, Cambridge, having some small
income. On the Sunday eveningnamed a man, wearing a
mask, and armed with a bludgeon and a knife, entered the
house, forcing his way into Mrs. Hunt's room, pushing the
servant who Was waiting upon her on one side, and then
attacked the poor defenceless old lady with the knife, in-
flicting some serious wounds on her head and face, beside
breaking her arm with the bludgeon. The servant girl
screamed "Murder I" and made her escape from the house
to give an alarm. Mrs. Walker, who was upstairs, hearing
the cries, put her head out of the window and called for
help, when the villain ran upstairs and struck her several
violent blows on the back of the head, leaving her almost
insensible. The fellow then made off; he threw off the
mask, which he left behind, with his hat, cloak, and knife,
in the house. 0 ntside this house was found the bludgeon.
Robbery seems to have been the sole motive of the crime.
On the following Tuesday morning William Morley, alias
Wallis, a young man, by trade a plumber, was arrested by
the police. He had been seen in the neighbourhood, and
some of the articles loft behind were traced to his posses-
sicn. The prisoner had been on friendly terms with Mrs.
Hunt, and only a few days before the outrage had been
reading to her an account of the highway robbery and mur-
der. at Hitchin. A day or two before her death the depo-
sition. of Mrs. Hunt was taken, and, in answer to questions
put to her, she gave a tolerably clear account of the out-
rage. She was unable, however, to identify the prisoner as
her assailant; nor could Mrs, Walker, whose deposition was
also taken, speak to his identity. The inquest on the body
of the deceased was opened on Saturday at Cambridge, and
was ad journed.—ffancheiter Examiner.
Persons in debt may obtriin instant protection against
Imprisonment or seizure of their goods, and an entire release
from all debts and liaLilitles without publicity, by application
to Messrs. Marshall, solietors of the Court of Bankruptcy.
Charges under £5 payable by easy instalments. Offices—
(established 1530),12,Hatt0a-gardeu. City branch-6, 31Oor"
gate-street, epanli.—ADvr.