The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 7, 1863.

The Mediterranean Extension Telegraph
Company.

HALF-YEARLY MEETING.-(THIS DAY.)

The ordinary half-yearly meeting of this company was
held this day in the London Tavern ; H. Moor, Esq., in
the chair.

The CRATRMAN, in moving the adoption of the report,
informed the shareholders that their affairs had so improved
that it became quite unnecessary for the company to apply
to her Majesty's Government for assistance under their
guarantee. The interruption in the Malta and Alexandria
line he did not think would cause any serious diminution
in the receipts for the current half-year, and with
respect to the company s cable, it continued in
the most excellent order. Since the last report the cable
of the Italian Government had been successfully submerged,
and the transmission of messages between Malta and Great
Britain had been greatly accelerated. The directors recom-
mended the payment of the usual dividend on the preference
shares, and the same dividend as last half year on the gene-
ral shares. The directors under this arrangement would be
able to add a sum £514 18e. 3d. to the reserved fund, which
was at the rate of 10 per cent. on their receipts.
The report was unanimously adopted, and the proceed-
ings terminated with the usual vote of thanks to the chair-
man.

LAW INTELLIGENCE--This Day,

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
(Before Mr. Commissioner Fane.)
A VERY HARD CASE-RE CRITTEN.

This was an application for commitment under the Small
Debts Act for non-payment of £9 13s, 2d., according to the
law of the Court.

The facts of the case were that the defendant was sued
in one of the superior Courts for a sum of £2 13s. 2d., and
judgment was recovered against him—the costs amounting
to £7—and he was summoned to this Court under the
Small Debts Act, and ordered to pay 10s. a-month; and,
not having kept up his payments, the present application
was made for his commitment.

The defendant's wife attended, and Mr, Denney kindly
volunteered to state the case and oppose the application.
He said that the defendant was a labourer at the Euston-
square Station, and the debt was contracted by his wife
without his knowledge ; and, as he had his wife and six
young children, it was impossible he could pay 28. 6d. a-
week out of 20s. a week. Besides, the plaintiff ought to
have sued in the County Court., and therefore was not en-
titled to costs.

His Honour—He was only exercising his legal right, and
creditors are not to be set at defiance. What can I do, I
must commit him.

Mr. Denney—Surely, your honour will not commit a
man in such a case ; it would be a monstrous shame and a
manifest injustice.

His Honour—A man when he has contracted a debt is
bound to pay it,

Mr. Denney—lf he has the means, but you cannot com-
mit him without it is shown he had means to obey the order.
his Honour--He ought not to have contracted the debt.
Mr. Denney—He did not, it was his wife entrapped by a
pedling traveller—in fact, a tallyman.

His Honour—l can't help that ;if he does not know he
must find it by sad experience. if a creditor takes harsh
measures I can't help it. I can't give way to sympathy,
but administer the law as I find it. It is a hard case.
The plaintiff was inexorable, and his Honour said he
must commit for 10 days. _ _ _

Mr. Denney said the man would lose his place. Would
his Honour make a fresh order, to give him an opportunity
of paying ? .

His Honour--The time is past. He ought not to have
consented to pay. _ .

The order was therefore made.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

GUILDHALL.

Two respectably-dressed men, named Sparks and Gent,
were placed at the bar, the former charged with stealing,
and the latter with receiving, a quantity of fat, kno ging it
to have been stolen.

From the evidence of Smith. the detective officer of the
City police, it appeared that he and another officer named
Legge received information that a great deal of property
had for some time been disappearing from the premises of
Messrs. Benbow and Co., 12, Little Britain. Certain cir•
cumstances transpired, and Sparks was taken into custody
on suspicion of being the person who had stolen the fat,
and then both officers proceeded to 27,Hackney-oval, where
they took Gent, who carried on the business of a manufactu-
ring perfumer into custody. They told him of the robbery,
and afterwards searched the house, when they discovered
two tin cans which had contained fat. On being asked to
explain how he become possessed of the property, he said
he had bought it, in the regular way of trade, from a per-
son who had called upon him. They then took him into
custody, and when they arrived at the station-house Sparks
was brought from his cell, and Gent was asked if that was
the person of whom he had bought the fat ; he replied that
it was, and said he had no idea it had been stolen. Before
they took Gent from his house his wife was about to make
some observation, whoa he immediately checked her, and
told her to be quiet, and say nothing. There were three or
four boys at work in oile of the back rooms filling pomade
pots, but when he (Smith) searched the prisoner Gent's
bill-file he could hardly find a single invoice or receipt for
payment of materials with which he carried on his trade.
Some further evidence having been given the prisoners
were remanded until Wednesday next.

MARKETS---This Day.

MARK-LANE.

Fresh up to Mark-lane, to day, a small supply both of
old and new English wheat was received. The whole of
the supply, however, was not disposed of, yet no material
change took place in prices compared with Monday. The
quotation for new was 48s. to 565. per qr.
There was a full average supply of foreign wheat on the
stands. Generally speaking, the trade was very inactive,
and prices were barely supported.
Floating cargoes of grain moved off slowly at about
stationary prices.

The market was very moderately supplied with barley.
The demand, however, was in a sluggich state, at late

rates.

In malt about an average business was transacted, on

former terms.

The supply of oats was moderately large. Nearly all
qualities were in slow request, at barely'previous quota-
tions.

Both beans and peas met a slow sale at late currencies

The import of American flour being very large, viz.,
57,770 barrels, the demand both for English and foreign
qualities was inactive, and, in some instances, prices were
somewhat easier.

ARRIVALS THIS WEEK.
Wheat. Barley. Malt. Oats. Flout.
English 410 2O 1 760 BO 1 320
Irish.
610 -
Voreign 26,280 3,540 I , 22,930 1 57,770 brls

NEW GATE AND LEADENHALL.
The supply of meat on sale is moderate, and the trade
rules heavy at barely stationary prices.

Per Sib. by the carcase.
silsd
Inferior beef .. 3 0 3 4
Middling do. 3 6 3 8
Frirne large do. 3 10 4 0
Do. small do. .. 4 0 4 2
Large pork 3 4 3 10
Inferior mutton. 3 2 3 6

sdsd
Middling mutton 3 10 4 2
Prime do 4 4 4 6
Veal
Small pork
Lamb

BOROUGH HOP.

The accounts from those parts of the plantations which
have hitherto been comparatively free from blight are very
favourable, but from other districts the reports at hand are
discouraging. In the neighbourhood of Maidstone, Can-
terbury, and a few districts in East Kent and in most parts
of Sussex, the bine is looking well. Since our last report
the demand for nearly all kinds of hops has ruled inactive ;
nevertheless, prices have been steadily supported. The
foreign import continues moderate for the time of year.

.Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.

VALETTA, Aug. I.—Her Majesty's paddlewheel
frigate Magicienne, 16, Capt. W. Armytage, ar-
rived yesterday from the Piraeus and Calamata in
three days. She brought as passengers Ensign
Powell, 25th Regiment, and Miss Wodehouse. She
will return to the Piraeus, after the arrival of the
next mail from Marseilles, with despatches for the
commander-in-chief and letters for the squadron,
now in Greek waters. Her Majesty's screw fri,:ate
Orlando, 46, Capt. 0. G. Randolph, left Malta har-
bour this morning with a mail for the Piraeus, tak-
ing as passengers Dr. Stothert, R.N., to join the
Liffey as chaplain and naval instructor; Mr. Roe,
RN., assist-paymaster, to join the Firefly ; Mr,
R. S. Lea, Mr. H. Hallett, Mr. M. S. Bree, Mr. H.
orentell, Mr. G. Dixon, and Mr. G. D. Lee. Her
Maj :st3't3 screw line-of-battle ship Queen (76), Cipt.
C. F. Hiilyar, now at the Piteous, is to proceed
home to be paid off. It is expected that the Or
lando will be sent from the Pit mus to join the squad-
ron cruising on the west coast of Greece. Her Ma-
jesty's screw corvette Malacca, 17, Capt.G. J. Napier,
has received orders to proceed home immediately.
It is reported that her presence is required in Eng-
land in reference to the proceedings of a certain
courtmartial held some months ago in Malta har-
bour on one of her lieutenants. Her Majesty's
screw gunboat Surprise, 4, Com. W. H, Whyte, re-
turned yesterday from target practice outside the
port. The injury to the screw propeller of her Ma-
jesty's corvette Cossack, 20, Corn. W. R. Rolland,
proved to be a fracture of the shaft, which has
been temporarily repaired in the naval dockyard
at this island, and an entirely new shaft hes also
been made for her, to be fitted in case of any
future accident. Her Majesty's gunboat Growler
Lieut. Com. J. C. Drew, returned into port to-day,
from surveying service in the channel. She will
leave again on similar service in a day or two. The
Governor of Malta, Sir John Gaspard Le Marchant,
and family left yesterday, in the Peninsular and
Oriental Company's steamer Pera, for England. It
is expected that his Excellency will be absent about
a month or six weeks. The English screw steamer
Hawthorns, Capt. R. Donaldson, which is to be
employed in repairing the Benghazi and Alexan-
dria cable, is still in port, but it is expected to leave
on Monday or Tuesday for the scene of operations.
There is an intention of surveying officer from her
Majesty's ship Medina with the Hawthorns; to as-
sist at the operation, the Medina having taken some
part in surveying the route previous to the laying
of the cable.

The Lords of the Admiralty at Portsmouth re-
sumed, their inspection yesterday by making a tour
in the dockyard and visiting the site of the intended
naval barracks, adjoining the north-east end of the
yard. They landed from their yacht at the King's-
stairs, there being comprised in the party, in addi-
tion to the names given in The Sun of yesterday,
Mr. Stansfeld, M.P., and Capt. Hall, private secre-
tary to the Duke of Somerset. On the landing
place they were joined by Mr. J. E. Reed, Chief
Constructor of the Navy ; Rear-Admiral Superin-
tendent George Elliott ; Sir Richard Mayne, Chief
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police; Mr.
Mallalieu, Inspecting Superintendent of the Metro-
politan Police in her Majesty's Dockyards; and by
the heads of the various departments in the yard.
Atter visiting the office of the Admiral-Superinten-
dent, where they spent some considerable time,
they commenced their perambulation of the
yard. These annual visits of the Board of
Admiralty to the different dockyards have be-
come now a mere matter of form, aid possess
less public interest every succeeding year. Every-
thing is made ready for the announced visit, and on
arrival their Lordships see everything through a
coloured medium, which has been expressly prepared
for their use. The only points of interest, there-
fore, met with during a long day's walk yesterday
were their visits to the Royal Sovereign turretship ;
to the workshop containing 'the furnaces and ma-
chinery for heating, bending, drilling, and planing
the armour plates for ironclad ships; the arrange-
ments for the experimental coating of armour plates
with copper or brass by an alkaline-electro deposit;
to the dock building at the north end of the steam
basin, and to the site of the intended naval barracks.
The Royal Sovereign is considerably advanced since
our last notice, but she will not be out of the hands
of the dockyard authorities before Christmas. The
total number of the Royal Sovereign's armour plates
is 133, and of these IC4 are bolted on the ship's
side. The inch iron deck plating, with its inch butts
and straps, is all completed, and a few of the 6 inch
oak planks which will form the outer casing of the
upper deck are fixed in their places on the iron
plating. The pilot house is complete both in its
armour and internal fittings. The turn-tables and
beds of the three after-turrets, which will carry one
gun each, are complete, and the turrets themselves
are in progress. All the armour plates for these
turrets, with the exception of six, have been re-
ceived from the contractors. The foremost turret
is complete is everything but its armour, and that
has not yet been received from the contractors.
These turrets, in their construction, very much re-
semble the Chalmers target. They are formed of a
cylinder built up on h.shaped angle iron ribs, set
up, 20 inches apart, on a turntable, The inner skin
of the cylinder is of half-inch iron, and out-
side this skin, and between the ribs in the
20 indies space, is fitted in firmly with
teak ten inches in thickness out wards from
the iron skin. Over the outer surface of this series
of iron cells filled in with teak are crossed, diago-
nally, wrought iron straps 4 by 1 inch wide, and
outside this combination of iron and wood is placed
8 inches more teak, on which will be fixed the 51-
inch armour plates. The turret will thus present a
target face 25 inches in thickness. The two gun-
boats are placed pretty close together, and are oval
in form. They measure each 3ft. Sin. by 25in. Iron
ballast has been placed on the top of the turret to
represent the weight of the armour-plates it will
have to carry, and in experiments made by Capt.
Cole it was found that, with eight men at the winch
handles, the turret made a complete circle in four
minutes and 40 seconds. Yesterday, with the same
number of men at the winch handles, a quarter
circle and the same distance back again was made
in one minute. The Duke of Newcastle and a party
visited the ship on Wednesday, and spent a consi-
derable time in the foremost turret examining the
details of its construction and manner of revolving,
with great apparent interest. The ship is being
ventilated on the plan of Dr. Edmonds, of her
Majesty's shin Victory. The arrangement at the
north end of the steam factory for the experimental
coating of an armour-plate with copper is the
greatest known attempt yet made in electro-metal-
' lurgy, and that it is being now made is due to the
anxiety felt by the Controller of the Navy and the
Admiralty to discover a means of preventing the
oxidation from which iron-clad ships at present so
severely suffer. Mr Walam of London, who is carry-
ing out the experiments at Portsmouth, laid before
the Controller plans for enamelling iron with brass
or copper with the use of an alkaline solution, the
deposited metal to be of any specified thickness,
brightness, or hardness. In accepting Mr. Walam's
preposition, as an experiment copper was selected as
the metal to deposit, and the arrangements are
now so far complete that yesterday a trial plate, lb
feet in length, was exhibited covered with a thin
deposit of copper to show its nature. • In one part
of the building, where the apparatus is fixed, lay
the armour plate for coating, uncleaned, and rough,
just as it came from the drilling machines. It !Lb
15ft. in length, 3ft. sin. in width, and 44-In. in
thickness. Nest to this huge piece of metal was a
piece of iron plate suspended in slings, 15ft, in
length, 2ft. 6in. in width, and lin. in thickness.
This had just been taken out of the pickling tank,
and scrubbed with sand,
from the surface of the iron, which was then seen
in all the clear lines of its gray fibre. A few feet
plate was a plate of similar
from this cleansed all impurities being gone
dimensions, but which had just been removed from
the depositing tank, where it had been placed four
hours. When removed, it was found to have re-
ceived a really beautiful and bright hard coating of
copper. These three plates thus illustrated the
three stages—the uncleansed, the cleansed, end the
electro-plated iron. The process of elect ro-eoatino
by Mr. Walam's process, and the arrangements of

his batteries and tanks, are as follows :—ln the
upper story of the factory are erected the necessary
batteries, in this instance composed of a series of
five cells, containing a zinc surface of 720 square
feet, and of copper of 1,500 square feet, the cells
being charged with about 1,200 gallons of diluted
sulphuric acid. From these batteries conductors—
bands of copper 3in. wide and gin. thick—lead
down to the depositing tank, which is 17ft. long,
18in, wide, and 6ft. in height, and filled with a
solution of cyanide of potassium and tartarate of
ammonia. This tank is of iron, and has an outer
casing, which enables the solution to be heated by
steam. The pickling or cleansing tank is nearly of
the same dimensions, and filled with a
weak solution
of sulphuric acid. The iron plate is placed in this
tank fist for a certain time, then taken out and
scrubbed with sand, and afterwards placed in the
depositing tank, the solution in which completes
the cleansing process and prevents the formation of
any oxide between the hare iron and the deposited
metal. The solution in the tank being heated next
to 150 deg., the batteries are connected, and the
copper is not only deposited upon the iron, but is
driven into the open pores of the metal, and thus
becomes_ a part of the plate itself, and forms an
almost indestructible enamelled coating. The Duke
of Somerset holds a levee at the Royal Naval Col-
lege, Portsmouth, this morning, and other members
of the Board will visit her Majesty's ship Asia and
the steam reserve, and inspect the Excellent, Duke
of Wellington, and other ships.
The screw corvette Cadmus, 21, 400-horse power,
which has been taken into No. 4 dock at Chatham,
for the purpose of undergoing some heavy repairs,
is ordered to be fitted with a topgallant forecastle
for the protection of the crew during inclement
weather. A similar addition is likewise to be made
in the fitment of the Scylla, 21, 400-horse power,
which is being brought forward for the first divi-
sion of the Chatham steam reserve.

One of the iron-clad steam-rams recently con-
structed at the Thames Ironworks for the Russian
Government yesterday went down the river on her
trial trip, preparatory to her departure for Cron-
stadt. It is stated that her sailing was hastened
materially by orders from the Russian Government,
in consequence of the diplomatic question now wait-
ing a reply. The armour casing of the ram is incom-
plete, and the remainder of the plates shipped on
board, in order to finish the casing in their own dock-
yard on her arrival, On nearing the offing of Wool-
wich dockyard, at 645 yesterday morning, the
officer of the watch on board the Marine Society's
ship Warspite, Lieut.-Commander Sulivan, super-
intendent, perceived that the ram was making
headway, uncontrolled, towards the Warspite's
quarter, and gave an alarm to that effect. The
ram was in tow of a steamtng, the Napoleon. She
had her own steam up, she was totally unmanage-
able, and, as anticipated, ran into the Wartpite's
port-side, striking her obliquely just abaft the fore-
chains, doing considerable damage, the principal
part of the injury being under water. The ship
has since been listed over to prevent her filling with
water. The whole of the outside lining was crushed
to a considerable length, the trenails knocked away,
and both fore and main chains were also injured.
One of her boats was also damaged. The starboard
cathead of the ram was carried away, and she lost
ono of her anchors, which was afterwards recovered
with the stock broken in the collision. The War-
spite will have to be docked for repairs, the cost of
which it is calculated will exceed £l,OOO.

Her Majesty's screw steamsloop Alacrity, 4, 475
tone, 200 horse power, Commander John K. E.
Baird, was paid out of commission on the 3d inst.
in Sheerness harbour by Captain C. Wise, Aide-de-
Camp Superintendent of the dockyard. She was
commissioned at Sheerness in December, 1859, and
has since been employed in the Mediterranean
under Vice-Admiral Sir William F. Martin, K.C.8.,
Commander-in-Chief of that station. Since the re-
turn of the vessel to Sheerness she has been stripped
and dismantled, and is now placed in the third divi,
sion of the Sheerness steam reserve.

The following appointments were made yesterday
-at the Admiralty :—Commander A. H. W. Battis-
combe, to the Snipe; Lieut. John S. Eaton, to the
Adventurer; A. F. St. Clair, midshipman, to the
Nile; Arthur Kinsman, midshipman, to the Virago;
William Billing, naval cadet, to the Nile; Edward
W. Coleman, assist.-surgeon, to the Snipe ; Robert
Grieve, assist.-surgeon, to the Warrior; John Has-
ler, assist.-paymaster, to the Snipe; Jonathan M.
Page, first•cla9s assist.-engineer, to the Orontes ;
Thomas Scott (a), confirmed as first-class assist.-en-
gineer in the Pembroke; William Rumble, first-
class assist-engineer, to the Cumberland, for the
Wizard; Alexander Brown, promoted to acting
first-class assistant in the Galatea ; and Robert
Jago, second-class assist.-engineer, to the Ajax.