The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-25 00:00:00

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

Lieutenant his Royal Highness Prince Alfred
accompanied by Major Cowell, lan/led yesterday at
Portsmouth dockyard from his ship, the Racoon,

20, screw corvette, Captain Count Gleichen,
at Spithead, and paid a farewell visit to Capt. Scott
and the officers of her Majesty's ship Victory. The
Racoon is under orders to sail for the coast of Scot-
land this day.

The Royal Oak, 32, iron-cased frigate, Captain
Campbell, sails from Spithead to-day to join the
Channel fleet.

The screw gun-vessel Renard, 4, 630 tons, 200--
horse power, Commander Charles J. Rowley, ar-
rived at the Nore on Tuesday from the East Indies
and China, and saluted the flag of Vice-Admiral
Sir W. J. Hope Johnstone, K.C.8., Commander-in-
Chief at the Nore. Shortly after her arrival the
Vice-Admiral, accompanied by his mite, went on
board and inspected the ship, when the crew, were,
mustered and exercised at quarters. Since the Re-
nard has been in commission, a period of close upon
four years, she has been employed principally in
China, Japan, and the islands of the Indian Archi-
pelago, and has lost a considerable number of men
from sickness. Only one officer who was appointed
to the ship at the time she was commissioned re-
turns with her. The Renard is to be immediately
dismantled and paid off into the third division of
the steam reserve, and orders have been received at
Chatham that none of her bulkheads or other inter-
nal fittings ale to be removed.
Admiralty orders have been forwarded to Chat-
ham directing that the following screw gunboats,
attached to the steam reserve in the Medway, toge-
ther with their engines, and the whole of their
masts and gear, complete, are to be sold out of the
service—viz., the Dwarf, the Fidget, the Mastiff
the Manly, the Pelter, the Spey, the Thistle, and
the Tickler. The whole of the above were con-
structed for the Admiralty during the time of the
Russian war, and nearly all were built by private
shipbuilding firms. They are, generally, in good re-
pair. It is probable that some, if not the whole of
them, may be purchased for the Anglo-Chinese
squadron, their light draught of water and the com-
parative high rate of speed attained by their high-
pressure engines, rendering them exceedingly effec-
tive for ascending the shallow rivers or running
close in shore. The Admiralty are still undecided
as to the ultimate use of the large squadron of
iron mortar vessels now lying high and dry at
Chatham dockyard, in the same position which
they have occupied for years past. Means, how-
ever, have been taken to arrest any signs of decay
in them by ventilating the inner parts of the boats,
all of which are housed over with wooden rooffing.
The whole have also recently received a coating of
red lead. It is questionable, however, whether,
from their size and other circumstances, any of

them will ever again be available for the purposes
for which they were originally built, and their re-
tention, therefore, in the service, in their present
form, is open to question. The squadron of gun-
boats ordered to be disposed of are to be sold by
public tender.
After a protracted illness, Admiral the Hon. Sir
G. Elliot, K.C.8., died yesterday .morning shortly
after 9 o'clock, at his residence at Prince's-terrace,
Kensington. The gallant officer, who was the se-
cond son of Gilbert, 12th Earl of Minto, by Anne
Maria, eldest daughter of Sir George Amyand, and
consequently brother of the late and uncle of the
present Earl of Minto, was born the 12th August,
1784, and married in May, 1810, Cecilia, youngest
daughter of Mr. ;as. Ness, of Osgodrie, Yozkshire,
by whom, who died in May, 1848, he bad a nume-
rous family, his eldesf'son, George, having obtained
his flag rank in the navy, and among his married
daughters are the Countess of Northesk, Lady W.
Compton, and Mrs. Drummond, wife of Captain the
Hon. Jas. R. Drummond, C. 13,, one of the Lords of
the Admiralty. The Admiral entered the navy in

1794, as a first• class volunteer, on board the St
George, 98, bearing the flag of Admiral Sir Hyde
Parker, and was present in Lord Hotham's actions
in March and July, 1795, and was on board the
Goliah when that ship led the British fleet into
action, on the Ist August, 1798. For some time he
was on board the San Josef and the St. George,
flagships of Lord Nelson and Sir Charles M. Pole,
in the latter of which, under the gallant Captain
Masterman Hardy, he was present at the action off
Copenhagen in April, 1801. After various services
afloat he, according to O'Byrne, in October, 1808,
captured La Jena, French corvette, of 18 guns and
150 men, after a running action of nearly an hour.
He also, when in command of the Aurora, in an
action of three hours with some Spanish gunboats
near Tarifa, captured three of the enemy's ships. At
the reduction of Java he was recommended to the
notice of the Admiralty for the ability he displayed
in superintending the landing of the troops. After
chastising the pirates of Sambas, in Borneo, and
afterwards assisting Col. Macgregor in reinstating
the Sultan of Palembang, he returned home, and
was for some time unemployed, his next appoint-
ment being, in 1827, to the Victory guardship at
Portsmouth. In September, 1837, the year he
obtained his flag rank, he was appointed Comman-
Good Hope, and in
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command of the fleet
in China, where, in the additional capacity of joint
plenipotentiary with Capt. Charles Elliot, R.N., he
superintended the earlier operations of the war from
July to November. He returned home in 1841 in
ill health, from the combined effects of the climate
and over exertion in the discharge of the onerous
duties attached to the command. Admiral Elliot
filled the office of First Secretary to the Admiralty
from December, 18M, until April, 1835, and was
subsequently, until his appointment to the command
at the Cape, a Junior Lord of the Admiralty. In
1830 he was appointed a naval aide-de-camp to
King William IV.; in September, 1831, nominated
a Companion of the Order of the Bath, and made a
Knight Commander of the Order in November last.
His commissions bore date as follows :—Lieutenant,
12th August, 1800 ; commander, 14th April, 1802 ;
captain, 2d January, 1804; rear-admiral, 10th
January, 1837 ; vice-admiral, 13th May, 1847 ; and
admiral, sth May, 1853.
The following appointments were made at the Admiralty
yesterday :
J. W. B. Baron, Assistant-Engineer, to the Asia, as
supernumerary.
W. 11. Sedgwick, ditto, to the Himalaya.
Richard Stevens, ditto, to the Ajax.
E. E. Williams, ditto, to the Dee.
A. H. Symes, ditto, to the Fisgard, as supernumerary.
W. B. Cleaverley, ditto, to the Excellent, for the Stork.
Nominated Naval Cadets—M. W. H. Somerset, R. Find-
, lay, and W. S. Taylor.
Lieut. Thomas V. Williams, to the Excellent.
Lieut. the Lord Arthur P. Clinton, to the Revenge.
Lieut. C. S. P. Woodruff, to the Excellent.
Lieut. J. B. Barnett, to the Majestic.

THE ALLEGED ASSAULT AT ErsoM ON THE
DERBY DAY.—Ati application was made at the
judges' chambers on Tursday for a writ of procedende in re-
spect to an indictment against a sporting gentlernan named
Saunders, which had been removed by ccrttorart, as stated
in the Morning Post, from the Surrey Sessions to the Cen-
tral Criminal Court, for trial at the July sessions. The in-
dictment was for an assault on a policeman at Epsom on the
Derby-day. Mr. Saunders, who was described as of Sus-
sex. House, Hyde-park, was held to bail, and Mr. Lewis
(Lewis and Lewis) obtained a writ of certiorari from Mr
Justice Keating to remove the proceedings from the Surrey
Sessions. Mr. Pollard, from the Treasury, now applied to
quash the writ, on the ground that Epsom was not within
the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, and there-
fore the learned judge had no power to make the order.
Mr. Lewis, jun., attended, and admitted that, as Epsom
was not within the limits of the Central Criminal Court,
the case was not tried as directed. Mr. Justice Williams
granted the writ of procedendo, and the indictment will be
tried at the Surrey Sessions, commencing on Monday
next.