The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-19 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1863. t

la the House of Commons yesterday Mr. BRADY,
in moving the second reading of the Diseases Pre-
vention (Metropolis) Bill, said that the measure
would impose penalties upon diseased persons
hiring public vehicles and upon the drivers of
those vehicles whenever they knowingly con-
veyed such persons. Mr. AYRTON said ho believed
the bill was uncalled for, and would be found
practically inoperative. Mr. HENLEY said he
thought it was desirable they should take some
step for the purpose of abating the evil in ques-
tion, bpt he doubted whether the present measure
c)uld be carried into operation. Sir G. GREY
said he believed it would be hardly possible to place
the bill in a satisfaJtory shape ; and he would sug-
gest that they should postpone the further conside—
ration of the subject. Mr. BRADY acceded to this
suggestion, and the second reading of the bill was
postponed to the 27th of May. The Consolidated
Fund (.00,000,000) Bill was read a third time and
passed. The House adjourned at 20 minutes past
one o'clock.

Another series of experiments in Gunnety
has again demonstrated the extraordinary
advances made by our scientific Engineers. There
has been a new trial of strength, speed, and accu-
racy between the Whitworth and the Armstrong
cannon. ltemembering the derision that used to
be cast cf yore upon what—not so very long ago,
by the way l--people were wont - to regard as the
hallucinations of a poor crack- brained dreamer, like
Captain WAnNEn, the extent of the advance made
in the fabrication of heavy artillery, partakes, in-
deed, of all the attributes of the marvellous. In
evidence of this, it is only requisite to enumerate
very briefly, and in the plainest terms, what it was
that was actually done on Tuesday last, that is as
recently as only the day before yesterday, ai the old
scene of their cAatentions, between those real
"Masters of Ordnance," WHITWORTH and ARM-
STRONG, viz., Shoeburyness.

It should be premised, moreover, that those who
witnessed on Tuesday, at Shoeburyness, these ex-
traordinary feats-of-arms, were precisely the very
men best qualified to appreciate them. There were
officials and there were men of science looking on
with deeply scrutinising eyes at the all but miracles
accomplished under their gaze. Among the crowd
of visitors, his Grace the First Lord of the Admi•
raity, the noble and gallant Secretary of the Admi-
ralty, all the junior Lords of the Admiralty !
Together with their lordships, Earl DE GREY and
RIPON, from the War-office, attended by the gallant
general the Deputy-Inspector of Ordnance. Be-
sides these most competent witnesses, there stood
upon that familiar ground, sacred to Bellona
though bloodless, shaken with tremendous concus-
sions, blackened with gunpowder, and strewn
with fragments of shattered iron and timber,
atterting by their splintered appearance the de-
structive force employed against them—there stood
there, upo, those debris-littered fiats at
ShoeburyneEe, among a throng of civil engineers,
the Heroes of
-Day, Sir WILLIAM AR3fSTROZIO
and Mr. Wnirwouni,
together with the members
of the Ordnance Select Committee, and the mem-
bers of the Iron Plate Committee. A fit audience
and true, it will be allowed.

Now for the marvels that were actually done be-
fore this gathering of spectators, as rteently as the
day before yesterday down at Shoeburynesi. They
there accomplished these feats of arms
by the
aid of guns, in which were pitted
against each other, the capabilities of
the old smcoth-bore 08-pounder, Sir WILLIAIi
ARK-sTRoNG's 110 pounder rei v lee sun, ''app""
with special steel shot cut down at the brae for the
purpose of reducing them to 651 b. weight, Sir
WILLIANt's 300-pounder muzzle•loaded rifled shunt
gun, Mr. WurrwoßTH's muzzle-loading 150-
pounder or 7-inch gun, and Mr. LYNAM. TilomAs's
9-inch or 300. pounder rifled muzzle-loading gun.
The two guns last mentioned, it should be
obs Erred cat Paclont, being made by Colonel
A2;P.E.R.22 at Wool-wicb, on the built-up 1