The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-15 00:00:00

THE CAPTURE OF PUEBLA.

The New York Herald's correspondent at Havana
gives the following particulars of the capture of
Puebla :
" The heavy artillery, which had all arrived and
been placed in position, opened fire on Puebla on
the morning of the 16th. A breach having been
opened in the fort of Totimehuacan, an assault was
ordered for that night, and in the midst of the
attack a Mexican officer, one Colonel Mendoza,
presented himself to General Forey with a message
from General Ortega, to the effect that if he would
cause the attack to be suspended, and permit the
garrison to retire with their small arms and some
field artillery, the town would be surrendered.
This proposition was rejected by General Forey,
and shortly afterwards a flag of truce was sent by
Ortega announcing his unconditional surrender.
"At 11 a.m., on the 17th, the French were in
possession of the town, and continued to arrive
during the 18th and 19th, on which last mentioned
day General Forey took up his quarters in Puebla,
making his entry amid a salute of 101 guns.
Among the garrison which surrendered were the
commander-in-chief, 23 generals, 900 officers of all
grades, and from 15,000 to 17,000 men of all arms.
" The French lost in the attack not more than
between 50 and 60 in killed and wounded. On the
20th General Bazaine marched on Mexico, at the
head of a division, and the whole army was to
follow, with the exception of a sufficient garrison
in Puebla to keep the guerillas in check.
" The above is in fact not only the substance but
almost the language of the principal despatch. I
omit the details of artillery and provisions captured,
because the figures have escaped my memory ; but
if I remember aright there were but eight rifled
cannon among the many taken.
" We have also an account of an attack made on
the French by General Comonfort on the Bth inst.,
in which he was repulsed with a loss of 2,500 in
killed and wounded and prisoners. The attack was
made to cover a large convoy of provisions for
Puebla.

" I expect to hear of very little resistance at the
capital of Mexico, for the garrison there is not made
of the stuff that can be relied on to hold out long.
Probably the next English mail will bring the news
of its surrender."
The New York Herald of the 3d says :

" By the French war steamer Finisterre, Captain
Cardin Esterie, which had arrived at New York
from Vera Cruz, we have news direct to the 19th
inst. Captain Esterie doubts the news of the cap-
ture of Puebla. The latest news from the seat of the
fighting received at Vera Cruz was to the 16th of
May, and the captain sailed on the 19th, when the
French troops held one•half of the city, and the
Mexicans the other. The part held by the latter
was so strongly fortified, that he thought a long
time would be required to take it. Accounts from
other sources, however, confirm the report of the
capture of Puebla, and of the advance of General
Bezaine on the city of Mexico. According to these
confirmatory accounts, it appeals that on the 16th
May, the French having established a parallel
at about 200 yards from Totimehuacan, opened a
brisk fire upon that position, and dismounted all

its guns.
The Mexicans fought bravely, but the next
day the parallel having been extended up to the
foot of the fortress, the Mexican officer, Mendoza,
presented himself at the camp, asking Gen. Forey
to let the garrison leave with its arms, luggage,

la Marina of Havana of May 26 --
" On the Bth inst. General Comonfort, who had
received reinforcements, attempted to attack the
French in the rear, and was confronted by Gen.
Bazaine's division, which, as we have been in-
formed, completely routed theit:''Oppotients. The
battle took pince at San Lorenzo. Gen. Comonfort
105t.2,500 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners,
seven or eight pieces of rifled cannon, and the
greater part of his arms and munitions. It seems
that the principal object of Comontort's attack was
to cover the entrance into Puebla of a large convoy
of provisions and ammunition.
" General ,Forey had received a portion of the
heavy artillery which he had been expecting, and
on the 16th he had' a battery mounted in front of
the fort of Totimehuacan, one of the strongest in
Puebta. His artillery was brought into play this
day, and by the 17th a breach was effected. General
Forey then ordered an assault ; but all resistance
soon ceased, and the French army having entered
into the city, General Ortega surrendered uncondi-
tionally with all his forces.
" Besides the general-in-chief, 23 generals, 900

officers, and 17,000 soldiers were also made prisoners.
The whole of the artillery of the city also fell into
the hands of the French, and all the ammunition,
arms, &c.
" On the 20th a division of the French army
marched for Mexico. There would be left in Puebla
only the garrison necessary to prevent the raids of
guerillas, and the whole of the other forces would
also march for the capital."

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, June 13.

It has often been a matter of regret that Dublin,
notwithstanding its rank as the second city in the
United Kingdom, with its increasing population
and wealth, has not contained any institution in
which the citizens might meet for the enjoyment
of rational amusement blended with instruction.

It has no gardens or place of public assembly,
no central point of attraction and interest to all
classes, where they could meet, attend concerts,
hear lectures, &c., The only buildings available for
such purposes are the Rotunda, which is inconve-
niently situated—far at the north side of the city,
from which the tide of fashion has long receded ;
and the Metropolitan-hail, a smaller building, let by
a company, chit fly for religious objects, and used
on Sunday as a place of religions worship. These
buildings, being private property, are let at a high
rate, and they are wholly inadequate to meet the
wants of the city, even if their situation were more
central. But at the south side of the Liffey, in which
direction the city is rapidly increasing, and where the
enterprising and progressive portion of the commu-
nity are, for the most part, located, there is no
large hall or place of meeting whatever avail-
able for the public. The exhibitions of various kinds
in the house of the Royal Dublin Society, the con-
certs of musical societies, and the reunions of dif-
ferent bodies, which have been rather frequent of
late, have created a very wide;y-felt want for such
an institution as a permanent exhibition building
and a winter garden. To supply this want a com-
pany was recently formed, and a piece of ground,
south of Stephen's• green, called the Coburg-gardens,
and the Hutchinson estate, which beeame the
property of Mr. Benjamin Lee Guinness, has been
purchased, walled in, and partly laid out for a win-
ter garden. Yesterday the Lord-Lieutenant, in the
presence of many of the chief men of the city, and
a large concourse of spectators, laid the first stone
of the buildings. They will comprise a winter
garden, where horticultural exhibitions and prome-
nades may be held, a concert-hall suitable for the
production of the works of the great masters with
an effect hitherto unattainable in this city, a
smaller concert-hall adapted for the musical so-
cieties of Dublin, a gallery for the exhibition
and sale of pictures, a department for the dis-
play of manufactures and useful arts, a polytech-
nic museum and theatre for lectures on popular
subjects, the whole to be placed in the midst of
ornamental pleasure grounds, in which the skill of
the landscape gardener will be displayed. The com-
pany has been founded on sound commercial prin-
ciples, and the address to the Lord-Lieutenant, read
by Mr. Parkinson, the secretary, stated that the
capital had been subscribed in a short time by up-
wards of 600 shareholders, including, among per-
sons of every rank, the Duke of Leinster, who fills
the office of chairman, Mr. Guinness, vice-chairman,
who gave the greater portion of the land on the most
advantageous terms, and Mr. Dargan, whose mas-
ter mind is the mainspring of progress in Dublin
and its vicinity. The address concluded by stating
that it was a subject of much congratulation that
the building was to be commenced by a nobleman
who has always given a helping hand to institu-
tions calculated to advance the social condition of
the people of Ireland, and has in this instance given
a marked proof of interest by becoming a share-
holder in the company. Lord Carlisle replied to
the address in the following terms :—" I can assure
you I have come to the discharge, of my
.allotlted
part of the ceremony of this day with
sure. I feel this in two capacities. In my
first,
tail to
of your brother shareholders, I cannotspecialapsoe:e-
of an under-
undpr such auspicious ei!earndsdtiatnioc:
witness with interest and hope the inauguration,
'to other ad-
taking which, I trust,
in a m.inomaent, I will allude, will
ve. Next, as the chief
vparonvtaeghesigtholywrheimehy.,
this I
or for the time being of country, cor-
diallygovern'se with the higher and more dis-
interested "nterested motives which have presided over the
Wholeprogress of the design. I rejoice sincerely
sympathise
that among the multiplied instances of the increas-
ing enterprise and improving taste of this commit-
tee, among the number of ecclesiastical, collegiate,
municipal, and commercial structures which rise

on every side of us, one spot should be set apart for
bringing rational and refined entertainment within
the reach of all classes, and adding to the public
stock of blameless amusement. It will, indeed,
be the best, though we do not wish it
to be the only reward of the friends and patrons
of this enterprise, when they shall be enabled to see
large 'numbr-rs of their fellow citizens, with their
wives and families, issuing perhaps from humble
homes, and closing the labours of the counter and
the factory in the unrebuked enjoyment of the
beauties of nature and the treasures of art. The list
which your address presents of the varied attrac •
tions which are to be gathered in this favoured spot
portrays an enchanted scene where Flora is to girdle j
the shrine of every Grace and every Muse. I feel,

VALETTA, June 6.—Since I wrote on the 3d inst.
no movements of any hind have taken place among
the ships of war in port. Rear-Admiral Austen has
assumed the command in the absence of the Com-
mander-in-Chief, and the red flag has consequently
taken the place of the blue on board the different
ships. Rear-Admiral Yelverton's flag (blue) flies
on board the Revenge, 73, Capt. C. Fellowes. The
Meeanee, 60, Capt. G. Wodehouse, is the only other
line-of-battle ship in port. Both of these vessels
will shortly proceed for a cruise. The Wanderer,
4, Commander M. C. Seymour, will leave to-morrow
for Corfu with the overland mail for the Comman-
der-in-Chief. The Alacrity, 4, Commander T.
Baird, will go home in a few days to be paid off-
The Cockatrice, 2, Lieut.-Commander Gillsom, will
leave to-morrow for Constantinople. The other
ships in port are the Hibernia, receiving ship, bear-
ing the flag of Rear-Admiral H. T. Austen, C. 8.,
the Caradoc, 2, the Medina, 4, and the tenders
Boxer and Growler. Foreign—Egyptian steam-
frigate Feizi-Gilhad. Brigadier-General Atherley
arrived the day before yesterday by the Peninsular
and Oriental Company's steamer Delta from Eng-
land, to replace Brigadier-Gen. Bates in the com-
mand of the 2d Brigade. The following also arrived
by the Delta for Malta :—Lieut. G. Hawkins, Lieut.
Cunningham, Lieut. N. E. Sharp, Capt. Stephens,
Ensign Graves, R. W. F., and Mr. Brown, R.N.
Accounts from Athens of the 30th state that in con-
sequence of rumoured disturbances on the Turkish.
frontier, her Majesty's corvette Pelican, 17, Com-
mander P. Brook, had been sent to visit Stylida,
Larnica, and the Gulf of Velo. Guards of armed
citizens continued to patrol the streets of Athens
after nightfall. Her Majesty's corvette Icarus, 11,
Commander N. Salmon, VC., arrived at the Piraeus
on May 28 from Malta."
The blocks are being prepared on No. 7 slip, at
Chatham dockyard, for laying down a large iron-
clad frigate, one of the new class of armour-plated
ships ordered by the House of Commons to be con-
structed at the various Rr.yal dockyards, the whole
of which will be built from designs submitted to the
Admiralty by Mr. E. J. Reed, The slip on which
the new vessel is to be constructed is the only one
at Chatham dockyard which has facilities for build-
ing armour-plated vessels. No orders have yet been
received at Chatham as to the description of vessel
intended to be built on the other vacant slip at the
dockyard, but it is probable that one of the squad-
ron of wooden ships of a new class which are to be
built at that establishment, as opportunities arise,
will be shortly commenced under the vacant shed.
The Esk, 20 gun screw corvette, Capt. Hamilton,
made her official trial of speed at the measured mile
in Stokes-bay on Friday, under the superintendence
of Capt. H. Broadhead, of her Majesty's ship Asia,
prior to leaving Spithead for foreign service. She
drew 16ft. 4in. of water forward, and 18ft. 2in. aft ;
was complete in stores of all kinds for sea, and
had 27.0 tons of coal on board. Six runs
at the measured mile with full boiler power
gave results consecutively as follows ;-10.315,
8.181, 10.746, 8, 10.975, and 7 875 knots; the
mean speed of the six runs being 9.415 knots.
The maximum revolutions of the engines were 70
and the minzmunz 68, with a 201 b. pressure of
steam and 24 inches vacuum. With half-boiler power
four runs were made at the mile, the speed of the
ship in each case being 9.218, 7.453, 8.683, and
6.977 knots, the mean speed of the ship during the
four runs being 8.2 knots. To test the engines they
were stopped in seven seconds from the time of
moving the telegraph, were started ahead under
the same conditions in 10 seconds, and were moved
astern in 18 seconds. The screw the Esk is now
using is a common or Admiralty pattern, having a
diameter of 12 feet, a pitch of 9 feet 8 inches, and a
length of 3 feet. At the conclusion of the trials the
Esk again anchored at Spithead, but, being under
sailing orders, will leave for her destination as early
as possible.
The Charger gunboat is ordered to proceed from
Portsmouth to the Thames, where it will be placed
in Messrs. Young and Magnay's dock, and fitted
with a new description of propeller, patented by
Mr. Curtis, of London, and from which great results
are confidently predicted. The principle of the new;
propeller is an application of the universalo
"shoulder" joint, by means of which the rudder
a ship will be
claims that by these means
redotnheanher
and propeller are always in a parallel line. The
. in-
ventor'bration from action of the
own length, and all vi
able to describe a circle in
at which exists
backwater upon the rudder is effectually away
with, The difference between the new
h principle. and
.
little
n °
carriage with its fixed wheels
between the railway
and axles and the ordinary road carriage with its
the old is precisely the same
. as. t
Pivoted axle and wheels.