The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-09 00:00:00

THE TRIAL FOR LAND STEAM FIRE ENGINES.

At a meeting of the committee for the encouragement o
improvements in land steam fire engines, held yesterday,
his Grace the Duke of Sutherland in the chair, the follow-
ing prizes were awarded to the successful competitors at the
late trial of engines at the Crystal Palace :—For large class
engines, first prize of £250 to Messrs• Merryweather and
Sons ; second prize of £lOO to Messrs. Shand and Mason ;
small class engine, first prize of £250 to Messrs. Shand and
Mason ; second prize of £lOO to Messrs. Lee and Co. (Ame-
rican builders). The committee highly commended the
class of engine of Mr. W. Roberts, of Millwall.
PRESENTATION OF A VICTORIA CROSS.—This
honourable decoration has been awarded to George
Hinckley, a quartermaster of the Sphinx, 6, paddle-sloop,
for gallant conduct in an attack pn the city of Fung-wha,
China, on October 9, 1862. Hinckley carried off, while ex-
posed to a heavy fire from the enemy in going and coming,
two officers on his shoulders, one after the other. The
Sphinx being about to be paid off at Devonport on Thurs-
day, the ceremony of the presentation of the cross took
place there at the Government Parade, Mount Wise, on
Tuesday. t...bout 1,000 seamen and marines were landed
from th o various men-of-war in commission there to IN itness
the presentation. Admiral Sir Houston Stewart, K.C.8,,
presented the cross in the name of her Majesty.
INSIDE VICKSEURG.—A correspondent of the
New York limes relates the substance of a conver-
sation he had had with a Federal officer who had been
released on parole by the Confederates at Vicksburg. The
writer says : He (the officer) was slightly wounded, and
possessed more than ordinary opportunities for conver-
sation with those well informed, and making his own ob-
servations. Our wounded are as well cared for, and at-
tended as those of their own army. The surgeons, how-
ever, had very limited supplies of food and medicines.
Two meals each day were all that were furnished. These
consisted of a species of bread and a small allowance of
fresh beef. The bread was made of beans, boiled, and then
mashed, enough cornmeal added to make it of the consist-
ency of dough, then baked. No tea, coffee, or delicacies of
any kind were seen by him in the hospitals. The hospital
attendants of himself and several other Union prisoners
were two ladies, who gave them every care in their power,
remaining at their post although our shells were at times
bursting all around the building, one of them killing, by its
explosion. two wounded Union soldiers."

The offices of Surveyor-General of Prisons and
Chairman of the Directors of Convict Prisons, ren.
dered vacant by the decease of Major-General Sir Joshua
Jebb, K.C.8., have been conferred by the Secretary of
State for the Home Department upon Lieut.-Col. Edmund
Y. W. Henderson, of the Royal Engineers, who has for
many years been Controller of the Convict Department in
Western Australia.

FIRE AT THE TZARSKO-ZELO PALACE,—.A. few
days since a fire broke out at the Emperor of
Aussia's palace at Tzarsko•Zele, near St. Petersburg,
through the carelessness of a servant, who forgot to extin-
guish his liglit on going to bed. The servant's room was
situated in the fourth story, on the left side of the front of
the palace, and the fire extended through two stories above:
The church is not destroyed, though much damagabil
the cupola tell in. The pictures and valuable obi t
many of the principal apartments were preserved, butecnisc"
material damage was done to the building.