The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-17 00:00:00

THE ARM Y.

Earl de Grey and Ripon, Under-Secretary of
State for War, accompanied by Major• Gen. A.Tu I lob,
Director General of Ordnance, yesterday paid an
official visit to the several departments of the
Royal Arsenal, Woolwich.

The Government having decided on enlarging
and extending the present ordnance stores and
gun-wharf at Chatham, to meet the increasing re-
qwirements of those establishments, an important
application from the War-office was yesterday
submitted to the Chatham Local Board of Health,
through the Royal Engineer Department. ',quest-
ing the sanction of the Board to the eiovernment
acquiring the public road lead-=g from High-street
through Globe-lane to .ae drawbridges passing
over the trenches ~.id skirting the building known
as the mate,. 'souse. The purpose is that the Ord-
nance .ores may be extended as far as one side of
.:Ae public thoroughfare known as the Military-road,
including the adjoining plantation, the Government
thus adding to the enclosure an additional six acres.
In return for the road and land thus ceded to the
Government the War Department proposes to hand
over the Military-road, now belonging to the Crown,
to the public of Chatham ; in addition to which it
would construct a new roadway leading from Med-
way-street into the Military-road, besides giving
the public some other advantages. The application
on the part of the authorities g,,ve rise to consider-
able discussion at the board, the majority cf the
members considered it desirable that every facility
should be given the Government for increasing
their establishments, provided they would grant
the town a site on which to erect a townhall and
other public buildings, tow greatly needed. Ulti-
mately it was decided to refer the application to a
committee, and that a special meeting of the Board
be convened to take the proposal of the Government
into consideration.
i A number of non-commissioned officers were
1 yesterday despatched from the head-quarters of the
Royal Engineers, Chatham, to various districts, for
the purpose of raising men for that branch of the
service, which is much below its proper strength.
The young men required for the Royal Engineers
1 are_skilled mechanics, printers, surveyors, engra-
-1 vers, and photographers.

SINGULAR CASE OF BREACH OF CONTRACT.--The
Nantes Tribunal of Commerce has just given judg-
ment in an action brought by a Madame Fouille against
Count de Kona, to recover 500 f. for breach of contract,
under the following curious circumstances : Notwithstand-
ing his aristocratic rank, to which it appears that he is by
birth entitled, the defendant has for some time past been
travelling the country in a caravan, exhibiting his countess,
popularly known as
"La Bell Normandie," in the cha-
racter of a giantess. While recently exhibiting at Nantes,
the countess suddenly resolved to retire from public life ;
but the count, unwilling to relinquish so lucrative a busi-
ness, determined to find another phenomenon of the same
kind, and, after some titne, discovered what he wanted in
the person of a widow named Fouille, a dealer in second
hand clothes, at Saumur. A bargain was concluded and
duly signed, by which the widow, a woman of huge size,
engaged to act in the threefold cc, acity of servant, dame de
compagnie, and giantess, for a salary of 150 fr. per month,
and one-fourth part of the sums collected from the spec-
tators after each exhibition in the caravan, She was also
bound never to go out of the caravan except very early in
the morning or after dark at night. The agreement
likewise contained a clausa by which each of the contract..
ing parties would incur a forfeit of 500 fr. in case of not
fulfilling its conditions. The wid ,w was duly installed
in the caravan, but owing to some difficulties raised
by the countess, she was discharged before appearing in
her public character, and she in consequence sued the
count for the amount of the stipulated forfeit. The de-
fendant elk ged as his reasons for discharging
the plaintiff
that she was an indifferent cook ; but the tribunal—consi-
dering that cooking was not the principal object of her en-
gagement, as was evide'.t from the high salary promised,
and that she had not failed as a giantess—decided that she
was entitled to the forfeit, and condemned the plaintiff to
pay 500 f., with the costs of suit.
FIRE ON BOARD THE GREAT BRITAIN.—About
eight o'clock on Thursday evening the watchmen
connected with the Great Britain, lying in the Bramley
Moor Dock, discovered a dense volume of smoke issuing
from the hatchway of the cook's berth. Assistance being
promptly at hand, in about an hour after the alarm was
given the fire was effectually subdued. The damage done
was trivial. How the fire originated is unknown.