The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-21 00:00:00

.ISPINOINr
THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 21, 1864.

NEW NOVEL BY NOELL RADECLIFFE.
Now ready at all the Libraries, in 3 vols.,
SYBILL A LOCKWOOD.
By NOELL RADECLIFFE,
Author of " Alice Wentworth," " Wheel within Wheel," &C.
Hurst and Blaekett, 13, Great Marlborough street.

Now ready at all the Libraries, in 2 vols., 215.,
AGUARDIAN ANGEL.
By the Author of " A Trap to Catch a Sunbeam."
" Clever as are most of the anthoress's productions, we are
planed to think she never did greater justice to her talent
than when she wrote • A (uatdian Angel.' Ihis agreeable
story will be one of the most popular the has ever published."
—Messenger.
Hurst and Blackett, 11, Great Marlborouqh-street.

Now ready all at the Libraries, in 3 vols.,
AT A. T T I E. A STRAY.
ILL By the Author of "No Church," "Owen : A Waif," Azc.
"A very attractive and interesting. tale."—Sun.
"An admirable work. It is a picture of life so true and
vivid as to rivet the attention from first to last."—Reader.
Hurst and Blacke t, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

On Friday nest, in 2 vols. post Bvo.,
BLACK MOSS: a Tale by a Tarn.
By the Author of " Miriam May."
Richard Bentley, New Burlington-street

Now Ready, in Crown Svo.,
FOOTPRINTS ON THE ROAD.
By CHARLES KENT.
Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly.

NEW WORK BY Z ADKIEL.
Just published,
THE SECOND :EDITION of Vol. I. of the
HANDBOOK OF ASTROLOGY, price 35. 6d. ; also,
reeentiy published, Vol. 11. of the same, price 4s.
G. Berger, Newcastle-street, Strand.

PARLIAMENTARY DESPATCH AND AGENCY OFFICE,
No. 5. Upper Charles-street, Parliamelit-street.
AN A NALYTIOAL INDEX to the DIVISIONS
of the present SESSION (1864) is in course of compila-
tion by Mr. GEo. M. MITCHELL. and will be ready for circu-
lation at the prorogation of Parliament. Th.s work will
show members and their constituents how each member
voted, whether for or against public and private measures
during the session; total number of times, with ,majorities
for and against, &c.
Subscription, One Guinea.
Members can have their Divisions for the whole Parlia-
ment in extenso upon application to the above office.

MR. W. S. WOODIN'S
ELOPEMENT EXTRAORDINARY,
and
BACHELOR'S BOX,

-
an Entirely New Entertainment, at the Polygraphic Hall,
King William-street, Ca aring-cross, EVERY EVENING,
at eight (except Saturday); Saturday Mornings at three.—
Stalls, and box stalls, 3s. ; area, 28. ; amphitheatre, la. A
Plan of the Stalls may be seen, and Seats secured at the Hall
from eleven to five.
Next Morning Performance, Saturday, May 7, at three.

MR. and Mrs. GERMAN REED, with Mr.
JOHN PARRY, will appear in their new ANGLO-
EGYPTIAN ENTERTAINMENT, THE PYRAMID. To
be followed by THE BARD AND HIS BIRTHDAY, a
new musical tercentennial seance, by William Broutzn, Esq.,
sustained by Mr. and Mrs. German Reed; and THE SEA-
SIDE, or MRS. ROSELEAF OUT OF TOWN, by Mr. John
Parry. Every evening (except Sat ;rday), at 8 ; Thursday
and Saturday mornings, at 3.—ROYAL GALLERY of IL
LUSTRATION, 14, Regent-street. Unreserved seats, ls.,
2s;; stalls, 35.; stall (spring) chairs, 55., can be secured in ad-
vance at the Gallery without fee.

THOXF O R D,
6, OXFORD STREET, W.
THIS EVENING will be performed the new and success-
ful Opera, by M. Guonod, FAUST, with augmented band
and chorus, supported by the following talented principal
artistes :—Miss es Russell. Fitz-Henry. Tyrrell, Walmslev
Messrs. Morley, Tivoli, Green ; and ITN BALLO IN
MASCHERA.
Director. Mr. F. Jonghmans.
To-morrow Evening, THE MERRY WIVES OF WIND-
SOR, by Otto Nicolai.
Comedy by UNSWORTH and EUGENE, Mr. T. Maclkgall,
W. Randall, G. Hutchenson, G. W. Jester, Miss Nelly Power
(the juvenile comedienne), &e., O.
Admission—Area, 6d. ; stalls and balcony, ls. ; private
boxes, 10s. 6d.
Open every Evening.

H A L L,

CANTERBURY
Westminster-road, London.
THIS EVENING,
Will be produced, with alterations and improvements
in production, the New Illusion, surpassinz anything yet
attempted. entitled THE TERCEN rENA ; or,a
WIT 11 SHA.KSPERE, written expressly
appW. F. Vander-
yell, Esq., in which Mr. W. Randall will remr.
ALso, PRINCE BLOSSOM;
OR, THE FAIRIES OF TILE MAGIC FOUNTAIN AND TIIE

NEW PATENT CURTAIN HOOK that
requires no sewing, and, if reversed, can be used for
many purposes. To be had of all shops in sown or country.
Patentees, W. TENT and Co., 23, Birchin-lane, London, E.C.

THE PLANET JUPITER. when magnified 250
times with the NEW £5 TELESCOPE, appears seven
times as large as the moon is to the naked eye ; and the other
planetary bodies proportionately. It will also distinguish
the face of a sheep and features of a man four miles, shot
marks upon a target two miles, acid time by a church clock
10 miles. This instrument is guaranteed in writing to per-
form the whole 01 the above, and to be equal in the most im-
portant respects to telescopes costing £7O. It has a 3 inch
superior achromatic object gl ass, two eyepieces, &c., with
portable metal tripod stand with jointed claw feet. Persons
are invited to apply for a diagram with other particulars, and
eight sheets of testimonials from scientific and other gentle-
men, including Lord Itosse. Sent free by book post.—S. and
B. SOLOiIONS, 39, Albeinarle-street, Piccadilly. Powerful
small pocket telescopes, opera, race, field, and general out-
door glasses.

shell, a segment shell, and a solid shot. The come
mon shell is 21-ft. long, and carries 471 b of powder.
The segment shell carries upwards of 500 segment
pieces, weighing nearly 1 lb. each, which are dis-
persed on bursting by a charge ot Leib of powder,
ignited either in flight or on striking an object by
the action of the time or percussion fuse. The ordi-
nary solid shot is of cast iron ; but the most fermi-
dwahbilcch per:, jr er
carries
tea
bursting;
charge of 24!b. Steel
shells containing molten iron can also be used
against plated ships.
In the two years that have Pearly elapsed since
this gun has been made only 27 rounds have been
fired from it with 701 b. and 901 b, charges. Four of
the latter charges were fired, two of them with rifled
shot; and these, like our system of overproving
generally, have done the gun more harm than good,
and made it after proof a less safe gun than it was
before a shot had been fired from it at all. The
first rounds were fired to teat the velocity of the
shot on leaving the gun, and its velocity on striking
the target at 1;500 yards. For this practice it was
laid at 3 deg. elevation, and when fired the noise
was less painful than that 100-pounder; but the
shock of the explosion was very great, and became
distressing to those who were obliged to stand near.
The enormous bulk of the projectile made it per-
fectly easy to trace its progress from the muzzle of
the gun to its mark ; and nothing could more
strikingly demonstrate the accuracy of the piece or
the care with which it was laid than watching the
huge shot rising with a long 'wavering roar high
into the air as it culminated and then began its
downward flight till it struck full on the, little
black spot at which it was aimed, and then
ricochetting on, bound after bound, till its course
was lost in a long thick trail, half send, half water.
It was impossible to- ascertain its velocity at the
screen, as the first shot struck on the-right side of
the target, uprooting one of the supports of the
screen, which fell aside. The second shot, -which
was aimed to the left to avoid the same mishap,
broke up the screen with the splinters of the target,
and again there was no result as to velocity at that
point. As the tide was low, and it would take a
long time to repair the screen, the trials for velocity
at 1,500 yards was abandoned, and only three more
rounds were fired at this elevation to test accuracy.
This test, considering that the cast-iron shot used
varied from 5201 b to 6121 b in weight, and that of
the backet of water poured into the gun after each
discharge very nearly a quarter was once left in
the bure, showed that, as far as flight of shot went
it was as perfect as it well could be. Its mean error
in range—that is to say, the difference between the
shot which fell nearest and that which fell furthest
—was only 161. yards, while the average ot the
error from the true line of fire was Ift gin. A still
more formidable experiment, as regards testing the
strength of the gun, was next tried. The elevating
screw and all the quoins wore removed, so that as
the breech was depressed the muzzle of the piece
was gradually brought higher till it rose to the
portentous height of 23 deg 19 sec—the highest
elevation, we believe, at which any large rifled gun
has ever been tried sinoe rifled guns were thought of.
No one expected the gun carriage would have sur-
vived the tr al, and very few believed in the gun,
though they showed their confidence in its principle
by standing by it. The gun was fired, and the huge
shot went towering with a terrific roar higher and
higher into the air till it disappeared in the clouds.
Yet still the ear could trace its progress as it went
roaring onwards, fainter and fainter, till as it seemed
on the very verge of the horizon, it alighted on the
sands, which it threw up in a cloud, and went blun-
dering on fir a short distance further. Strangest
of all, however, was the kind of after roar; which
seemed to begin in the clouds, and as it gethered
force came hoarsely down from the upper air in
a dull reverberation that seemed almost mysterious
in its vague sullen noise. The flight of the shot
was nearly half a minute (26.2), and its first greze
on the 'earth was 7,400 yards, or nearly 4-1 miles.
Three shots were fired at this enormous elevation,
giving a mean range of 7,300 yards, a mean error
between the nearest and furthest shots of 89 yards,
and a mean deviation from the true line of fire of
21 yards. The gun was then depressed to 5 deg.
elevation, at which five rounds were fired, giving
the astonishing result of a mean error of 26 yards
and a mean error in line of 013$ or as nearly as pose
sible 24 feet. At 10 deg. the mean error in range
was only 45 yards between the longest and shortest,
while the mean error in line was precisely the
same as at 23 deg., that is to say, 2.9 or 71 feet. In
all 47 rounds were fired on Monday, which, with
the charges previously discharged at proof and
against iron targets made a total of '74 shots. At
the close of the day, and early on
Tuesday, careful
impressions were taken of the bore of the gun, and
these at once showed the value, if not the necessity,
of Sir William's latest improvement_the steel
lining inside the iron coils.
The gun showed signs
of wear. The fibre of the rim in the coils was
clearly indicated on the glean.
perehe mould, while
between some of the welds there were little fissures
varying from the 100th to the 60th of an inch in
depth, and from a quarter of an inch to two inches
long. All these were in the Powder chamber at the
heel of the shot; none were in the rifling, where
the grooves were as sharp as
when they were first
turned. Compared with the impressions taken
when the gun was first delivered at Shoebury, the
trials of all kinds which hees
taken place since
have opened and
then seem todeepened the cracks
that a third,
rather more and less than one half
they were at first,
more than Beyond all doubt,
however, the coils may be said to be gradually
it is only a quest,
not
opening, and
the inner coil will stand a large number of rounds
before it gives Way Once the inner coil yields,
all the others on the outside become useless
until the place of the .
'll defective coil is supplied
with a tube of steel, a_
all the modern
Armetrongs are now built with. There seems, how•
ever, not the slightest rehasen to doubt that the
piece
will bear easily all t e
i rounds, 250 in number,
with which the committee ntend to test it. Corns
performancesthe 600
paring the of pounder for
accuracy with the perfotneenceof the French, the
Scott, and the Lancaster gun, which ei
ach are now com•
peting at Shoebn
ry, the 600 pounder has on the
whole a clear gain at 5 deg. and 10 deg. of eleva-
tion, as the subjoined table shoos e
Firm eeveere.
E
Mean rror in Mean Error in
Range* Line.
Yards. Yards.

French ........... 33'5 • 4.7
Scott ................ 35'7 ........
15'9
Lancaster ............ " .... 4.3
....... .
poo pounder .......... 25 " ...
TENTH E
I.EYATIOX.
Ittean Error in Mean Error in
Range, Line.
Yards. Yards.
46 ............ 10.6
French ..............
0 COO pout,.
,geott
On Tuesday t::
.........
.1
. 63'8 ............ 28.2
continued for
' -der ...... 75 ' ....... 12 9
La,..,c, ......
eanttiß2owfet.refrom
the
muzzle
" !cr .......... 64 ............ 2.8
`lOO yards it was
muzzle it was 1,240 ft. per b` ,
velocity, which was .. and at 1,000 yards. At the
of the gun, at 530 yards, . 'cond, at 500 yards it
had diminished to 1,17`,./ff.i at '''' .Icities no to
1,122 ft„ corresponding with the eel. -
• ago. It
1,5t3,? yards, which were taken °vole t!mt,
„.
1. time
has been saij this gun would take so lob':
e "Ye se trei Ind
in loading as to (:;minish ita ,ralue as ari enk.
,
war. The result of the trials of Monday _ and Tut..
day showed this objection to be in practice as illua
sort' as almost all the others which are from time
to time brought forward against the use of very
heavy ordnance. The average time occupied in
loading by men who had never served the gun
before was only 2-il min., though not the slightest
haste was used, .or any attempt made at quick
firing.
Some valuable experiments were commenced
yesterday by the Iron Plate Committee to test the
hardness. end general suitability of steel shot sup.

•;218 6

plied by Mr. Krupp, John Brown and Co., Messrs.
Sanderson, Brothers, and Co., and various other
makers. The shots were used against 5-inch plates,
and Mr. Krupp was the only maker whose ehot,
during yesterday's trial, went through one of these
plates. Only one shot did so, however, and, as no
other competitor fired against that identical plate,
it wou:d be premature to call this a victory for Mr.
Krupp. Neat to Mr. Krupp's in order of merit,
and close upon them in penetration, were those of
John Brown and Co., and the difference between
the performances of these shot was by no me Ins so
great as the difference in their prices, Mr. Krupp's
being about £5O per ton, whereas those of Mr.
Brown, which are almost as good, are only £3O.
All the shots, however, did very well, and showed
the necessity for a largo supply of these formidable
projectiles for both army and navy. At present not
a single steel shot has been ordered for either
branch of the service. All these projectiles were
fired from the old and much-abused Armstrong
110-pounder breech-loader, which with only 12-
pound charges, always had immense effect on the
plates, and which, as we have said, in one instance
sent the shot not only through the plate, but deep
into the bank behind it. The trial of La Gloire
target, which is looked forward to with the greatest
interest, is not likely to be made for some days yet.

The Thames Embankment.

When Parliament passed the bill for the embank-
ment of the north shore of the Thames, the ins
habitants of the metropolis, forming their estimate
of the probable progress of the undertaking on the
usual speed at. which our public works advance,
were not at all sanguine that the present genera-
tion would be able to enjoy a walk by the banks of
the ricer from Westminster-bridge to Blackfriars.
They knew they were doomed to plant the acorn,
but they very much feared that they were
not to see the oak. However, from what has
already been done in the formation of the Em-
bankment, the oldest amongst us may hope to see
our great river quite a different thing from what it
is now ; and there is every probability that car-
riages will be rolling along its margin from West-
minster to the city before the Houses of Parliament
are finished or the liens have taken their places on
the pedestal of the column in Trafalgar-square.
The idea of embanking the Thames is not a new
one. As a theory it is traced back to the days of
Sir Christopher Wren ; but the merit of giving
effect to it pertains to the Metropolitan Board of
Works. Some years ago a book was published
by a French author in favour of effluvium. He pro-
duced statistics to show that the nightmen of Paris
and other continental cities invariably escape cholera
when epidemic; but the British Legislature has for
a long time steadily refused to adopt that view,
and when some six or seven years ago the Thames
smelt so badly the great main drainage scheme to
relieve the river from the sewage of the metropolis
was adopted by both houses with scarcely any op-
position. The system decided upon was one of high
middle, and low level sewers; and it is to the prac-
tical inconvenience of constructing the low level
sewer on the south of the Thames that we owe the
embankment. Notwithstanding the great number
of people carried daily by the river steamers between
the east and west ends of the town, the traffic along
the Strand, Fleet-street, St. Paul's Churchyard, and
Cheapside, even under ordinary circumstances, is
more than these thoroughfares can accommodate
with convenience and safety to the public, but the
confusion, loss of time, and actual danger occa-
sioned by the ripping up of one of those streets for
the purpose of laying down gas or water mains, or
cleansing the old and comparatively small sewers,
have long been a subject of complaint and remon-
strance. When therefore the Metropolitan Board
of Works had to set about constructing the low.
level sewer on the north side it at once occurred
to them that to carry it under the streets just named
would involve a diversion for many months of the
most considerable traffic of London ; and they
saw that an embankment of the Thames, while
adding immensely to the beauty of the me-
tropolis and providing a new thoroughfare from
west to east, would afford them an opportu-
nity of constructing the north low-level sewer
without the slightest inconvenience to locomotion.
Aocordingly, they brought the matter under the
notice of Mr Cowper, the First Commissioner of
Works, who succeeded in having the bill passed
under which the works along the river are now
being constructed.
The portion of the north shore of the Thames
which is now being embanked is that from West-
minster-bridge to Blackfriars-bridge. Already there
are embankments along nearly the whole of the
liue between Westminster and Chelsea, but there is
not much prospect of seeing the portion of the
snore between Blackfriars-bride and London-bridge
embanked, owing to the great value of the wharves
and to the river being rather narrow between these
points. A bill has passed for the embankment of a
portion of the southern side, but its operation is
confined to the shore between Westminster and
Vauxhall bridges. Whether the southern bank
between Westminster and Blackfriars bridges will
be embanked is a question the consideration of
which has been reserved. Should it not be decided
in the affirmative, what the Board of Works is now
doing will be only a partial, though a splendid and
useful, work_ There is to be a roadway 100 ft. in
width from Westminster to Blackfriars. Of this
about 70ft will be devoted to vehicles and the re.
maining 30ft to foot passengers. Bat the 100 ft
do not represent the entire space of reclaimed mud-
bank, which will vary in extent of area at different
points, in some the width being as much as 400 ft.
The total length of the Embankment is about 7,000 ft,
but it is divided by the bridges into three sections,
each of which will be viewed by itself. Indeed the
line of vision could scarcely be continued from one
section to tne other, for there is no doubt that the
first span of the Charing-cross Railway bridge,
with its cylindrical supports, will very much mar
the appearance of the Embankment at that point,
and destroy what would otherwise be a fine through
view from the river frontage at Whitehall. At
Westminster the roadway will rise at an elevation
of 1 in 80 to the level ef the bridge, and will be set
back some 30 or 40ft from the face of the Embank-
ment wall. The intervening space is to be reserved
' as a promenade and a steamboat pier, to which there
will be access from the bridge by a wide and impos-
ing flight of steps. There are not in any city in the
world more disgraceful makeshifts than the present
approaches to the steamboat piers on the Thames,
and most of the piers themselves. The latter are
used•up barges, with a sort of sentry box, styled a
ticket office, at one end—the former commence in
narrow lanes and end as they join on to the barges
in an extension of the contrivance used in shipping
cattle—a long and narrow pen open at both ends
and generally rickety. How these gangways and
piers have been suffered to continue so long, and
with such an immense and growing traffic on the
river, is a wonder. The Embankment will put an
end to them, and substitute handsome avenues, and,
in most instances, really convenient landing places.
Between Westminster and Hungerford Bridges
there will also be a pier for smaller craft, and at
Whitehall-gardens the elaborately sculptured
water-gate, after a design by Inigo Jones,
which now stands at the end of Buckingham-
street, will be re-erected. The public will not have
access to the entire space behind the roadway from
-vestminster to Hungerford Bridge. The Duke of
iltleh will obtain a considerable addition to his
Bum. -hich, when the Embankment is cone
garden, N't- -me down to the roadway. Thus,
strutted, will u.
0: bank will form a portion of his
what is a" a Mil Nearer to Hungerford.
the Board j Works will obtain
Grace's private grouna ..
bridge, however'
f a large space which they intend to
plant
to a
pose 'ession o
public recreation ground. On
and convert in
z Hungerford and Waterlog Bridgegi
either. side° '