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

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 7, 1863

NOTICE.
THE LADY EMILY PONSONBY'S NEW
WORK, " MARY LYNDLIAY, in 3 vols., vi ill be ready
at all the Libraries on Friday, July 10.
Hurst and Blackett, rub' ishers, 13,Great Marlborough-street,

Now ready, with a LETTER from the Author, in 3 vols.,
FOURTH EDITION of LOST AND SAVED.
By the Eon. MRS. NORTON.
" This story is animated, full of exciting situations and
stirring incident... The characters are deline ted with great
power. Above and beyond these eh merits of a good novel,
there is that indefinable charm with which true genius in-
vests all it touches. In the largest sense. too, these volumes
have a noble and courageous purpose."—Daily News.
Hurst and B'ackett, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

Now ready at all the Libraries, in 2 vols., 285.,

LORD WILLIAM LENNOX'S FIFTY
YEARS' BIOGRAPHICAL REMINISCENCES.
" Lord William Lennox has given us, in these two very
charming volumes, a pleasant glimpse of society, and the
different celebrities of every kind and character wno, meteor
like, have come and gone during the last halt century. The
work cannot fail to amuse and interest all who read it."—
Sun.
- - •

Hurst and Blackett„ 13, Great Marlborough-street.

A CRITIQUE on the NEWSPAPER PRESS,
in the
LITERARY TIMES,
Every Week, ld.

MR. CHURCH'S New Picture, the ICEBERGS,
painted from studies made in the Northern Seas in
the summer of 1859.—German Gallery, 168, Ne by Bond-street,
W. Admission, is.

PART S.-GRAND HOTEL DU LOUVRE.
Established in 1855.—Situated in the niost Central part
of Paris, clue de Rivoli and Place du Palais Royal—Six hun-
dred Bedrooms at from 3 to 201r--,0 Sitting-rooms at from
4to 201 n—a richly decorated Dining Saloon—Table d'Hote
at six o'clock—Public Coffee and Dining Rooms—Choice
Wines—Dinners served a la carte both in the dining-rooms
and the private apartments—Reading and Conversation
Saloon.. ; -also Saloons for Ausical, Wedding, and other par-
ties -all Newspapers and Serial Publications received—
Divans, Coffee, Smoking, and Billiard Rooms—numerous
Bath-roams—Carriages on the premises—first-class Private
Equipages at command—Omnibuses 7unning to all the rail-
way stations—Postal Letter-box—Telegraph-office day and
night—Photographic studio—a staff of 6ervants Speaking all
Languages.

T " OXFORD
6, OXFORD STREET.
Will be performed Selections from the following Operas :
LA CIRCASSIENNE, MARTHA, and
MASANIELLO.

Supported by Miss Russell, Miss Townley, Miss Ellison,
Messrs. Albert, Green, Bernardi, Huish, Kimberley, and
W. Evans, with full band and chorus.
Conducted by Mr. Jonghmans.
Drew Dean's Flute Solos
Master Sanders, the Juvenile Vocalist.
lINSWORTH, the modern Demosthenes.

-- • • - - •
Eugene, W. Ran And BERT
ARTHUR a, J. utehenson,
RANDand the marvellous
AR.
The HALL has been newly Decorated and Ventilated, and
is now one of the most Beautiful in the Metropolis.

CANTERBURY HALL AND
FINE ARTS GALLERY.
NOTICE.—ENTIRE CHANGE OF ENTERTAINMENT.
The Last Two Weeks of the-Marvellous ARTHUR and
BERTRAND, the Two French Clowns.

ARTHUR LLOYD'S bur
for himlesque Drama, arranged expressly

SAM COLLINS, with new Songs.
UNSWORTII, the celebrated Stump Orator.
EUGENE, and TAYLOR.

GRAND SELECTIONS from OP
S.ERAS, GLEES, and
CANTATA

Principal Artistes —lfiss Russell, Miss Townley; Mr. Green,
Signor Bernardi, and Signor Tivoli.
_ _

Conductor, Mr. Jongtmans.
Admission—Hall, 6d. ; stalls and balcony, ls.

1D OYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE; The
RISARELIS, in an entirely new Performance of their
own invention, EVERY EVENING during the Week.

11,0YAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. The
FAIRY FOUNTAIN EVERY EVENING, at Halt-
past Ten o'clock.

IVOYAL ALHAMBRA PAL A CE.—The
MAORI WARRIOR S.—Unprecedented Attraction—
The 3laori Chicfs, who arrived from Australia on board the
Dover Castle on the 22d June, will give a REPRESENTA-
TION of VARIOUS SCENES of NATIVE LIFE EVERY
EVENING. The Maori War Dance—The Maoii Game
Launching the War Canoe—Maori Wrestling—The Maori
Double War Dance, &c., &c. Commencing at Half-past Nine
o'clock

ARGYLL ROOM S.--JULLIEN'S
PROMENADE CONCERTS.
NOTlCE.—During the Week the Selections will be—" Der
Frieschutz "—" a Forza del Destino "—" Il Trovatore "
"Don Giovanni," &c.
LEVY, the great wonder on the Cornet-a-Piston, plays
from half-past Nine to Twelve.
Admission, ls.

It T. CARRICK begs to announce to his
Artist Friends and the Public, that his Photographic
Establishment, 32, Regent-street, Piccadilly-circus, is now
in full operation.
Cartes de Visite, 10 for 10s. 6d ; 21 for £l. Miniatures on
Ivory, Marble, and the Photographic base in his former
styles.

31 ARBRES ONYX d'ALGERIE.—One
Thousand objects made from this beautiful marble,
and comprehending every variety of work of decorative art,
including clocks, candelabra, vases, gueridons, inkstands,
tazze, card trays, jardinieres, porte-bouquets, lamps, ring-
stands, &c., are now being exhibited, in the Onyx Salon, at
Messrs. HOWELL, JAMES, and Co. s, 5,7, 9, Regent-street.

ESTABLISHED 1833.
BOWDEN'S YERATED GINGER BEER, in
glass or stone bottles, warranted to keep good twelve
months. Lemonade, Soda-water, rotass, Seltzer, and every
description of Mineral Waters.—Manufactory, No. 3, White
Hart-street, Drury-lane, W.C.

THE FARMER'S BAROMETER, 505., a
new Instrument, by Negretti and Zambra, will cor
rectly indicate whether the Barometer falls for Rain or for
Wind. Particulars by enclosing stany.-1, Hatton-garden;
57, Cornhill ; and 122, Regent-street.

RIIPTURES.—BY ROYAL LETTERS PATENT.
WHITE'S MOC-MAIN LEVER TRUSS
(PERFECTED AND EXHIBITED IN THE GREAT
ExHIBITIONS OF 1851 AND 1862), is allowed by upwards of
Two Hundred Medical Gentlemen to be the most effective
nvention in the curative treatment of HERNI A.
The use of a steel spring, so often hurtful in its effects,
is here avoided—a soft bandage being worn round the
body, while the requisite resisting power is supplied by the
Moc-Main Pad and Patent Lever, fitting with so much ease
and closeness that it cannot be detected, and may be worn
during sleep. A descriptive circular may he had,' and the
truss, which cannot fail to fit, forwarded by post, on the cir-
cumference of the body, two inches below the hips, being
sent to the manufacturer,

Mr. WHITE, 228, Piccadilly.
Single Truss, 18s., 215., 265. Bd., and 31s. 6d. Postage, le.
A. Double Truss, 31s. 6d., 425., and 525. Bd. Postage, is Bd.
An Umbilical Truss, 425. and 525. Cd. Postage, Is. 10d.
Post-office Orders to be made payable to John White,‘Post-
ornOe, Piocadilly.

NEW PATENT
ELASTIC STOCKINGS,
KNEE-CAPS, kc., for Varicose Veins and all oases of
Weakness and Swelling of the Legs, Sprains, &o. They are
porous, ltglit in texture, and inexpensive, and arc drawn on
lire an ordinary stocking. Price 4s. 6d., is. 6d., 108.9 to 16s.
each. Postage 6d.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TEUES.-114ny have been the Chinese debates in
the British PA.Helmut, and many more may we fore-
see in the years that aro to come, each resembling
that which has gone before it in the scope of its
arguments. " Justice," " humanity," economy," one
party will exclaim, as they urge a rigid abstinence
from all political intermeddling ; " necessity," the
other will answer, ae they proceed to show that with
out arms in our hands and the will to use them we
can rkither trade, nor travel, nor even, live within
the borders of the Chinese Empire. When the evil
time shall pass away none can dare to predict, but
at present it seems as if weakness and anarchy and
the call for European interference were not likely
soon to cease out of the land. The hour of doom
has sounded for the old fabric of Chinese govern-
ment and society. The cloud which in the early
days of this generation began to form has become
blacker, until now it covers with a thick darkness
. . . .

that ancient civilization. Weakness begets violence,
violence promotes the enmity of foreigners, whose
chastisements in turn tend to raise up rebels and
Pretenders against the humiliated Government.
The blows struck by England twenty years ago, by
breaking the spell of Imperial invincibility, had not
a little to do with the rise of the Taepings, who since
1850 have been constantly busy at their work of de-
struction in the empire. The natural insolence and
cruelty of the Chinese nature, increased by civil
wars, has broken out again and again within the last
few years, leading to fresh hostilities with the
Christian nations, and further weakening the influ-
ence of a Government already beset by gigantic rebel-
lion. While thus the Chinese political system seems
approaching its end, the European element is
plainly acquiring increased importance. Things
have gone so far that the House of Commons is now
appealed to, and asked to discountenance the for-
mation of permanent military bodies for service
within the Empire. At Shanghai a force is en-
rolled for the defence of the place and the surround-
ing districts ; and Captain Sherard Osborn will soon
be in Chinese waters ready to carry on active hos-
tilities against the rebels, and support the authority
of Prince Kung throughout such parts of his Re-
gency as a British seaman can reach. It is this
swerving from the paths of peaceful commerce that
Lord Naas last night desired to condemn. With
great elaboration he laboured to show that it was
neither our duty nor our policy to interfere in be-
half of the regular Government. To the usual
arguments in favour of neutrality Lord Naas added
others less commonplace, though hardly more con-
vincing. A man of pace will treat the question as
one which general and abstract principles are
sufficient to decide. Like Mr. Cobden, he will con-
tent himself with saying that the Chinese have
governed themselves for several thousand years,
and need no interference from us now. He will
consider that whether there be peace or war within
their borders we have nothing to do with the mat-
ter, our business being confined to buying tea and
silk from whomsoever will bring it down to us,
whether he be Imperialist or Taeping. We may
regret war and destruction, as we regret the flood,
the drought, or the blight, but we should no
more think of increasing our commerce by the in-
vasion of a neighbour's soil to compel political
tranquillity than to enforce the sunshine or
the rain. Lord Naas, however, is not content
with this course of argument. He suggests
that the rebellion is not an abnormal phase of
Chinese history. Resistance to misused authority
has always been a doctrine of the philosophical
Whigs of that empire. The right of rebellion had
always been recognised by the great Chinese writers,
and the people had been consistent in reducing the
doctrine to practice. Years had often passed in
such rebellions, and the country after their success-
ful close recovered and went on as prosperously as
ever. Why, then, may not the Taepings be now
working out a great and salutary change in Chinese
politics ? There are the usual elements. One or
more Pretenders a long and bloodthirsty warfare
of many years, desolating whole regions, and bring-
ing what in other countries would be thought
irremediable evils on the Empire; a weak Govern-
ment, unable to rescue some of its largest cities
from the grasp of its enemies ; these are what have
been found in China for ages past, and they
are now seen once more. True, the Taepings
are unable to overthrow the Government they have
risen against. They are strong enough to overrun
and to hold permanently certain regions, but they
are not strong enough to change the dynasty. Yet,
if we do not misapprehend Lord Naas's argument,
their rebellion is nothing so extraordinary in the
annals of China as to call for any action on our part.
Whether the Government was victorious or van-
quished, or whether, as is more likely, the rebellion
smouldered on for years, it would be merely a
healthy and natural process that was going on,
and we should impede recovery by attempting
to stop the progress of an inevitable malady. Our
own opinion is that these arguments, whether
philosophical, or economical, or political, in favour
of doing nothing and of seeing a vast wealth-pro-
ducing region: ruined by marauding savages, are
founded in error. As to Captain Sherard Osborn
and his companions, we are not under the neces-
sity of" defending them, It has always been held
that foreigners may enter the service of a legitimate
Government, and, leaving aside the question whether
periodical Chinese revolutions are necessary, there
is no service more praiseworthy than that of pro-
tecting the most flourishing cities of Eastern Asia
and the banks of the greatest rivers from the attacks
of insurgent armies which destroy wherever they
come. The British Government, however, is quite
independent of these officers, and not responsible for
their acts, although it has authorised them to enter
the service of a friendly State. All that this country
is doing is to carry out honourably and cordially
the principles on which the last reconciliation with
China was effected. We have been placed by the
Chinese Government—thanks to the courage of our
soldiers and sailors—in the same position that Russia
so long occupied alone. We have a Minister at
Pekin, we have the opportunity of representing our
viewe and wishes, and it is stated that the Chinese
ruler is ready to attend to our advice. It may be that
it is impossible to prevent the decay of Chinese
society, bat it is possible and for the benefit of both
native and European that peace and order should
prevail, and that the industry of the people should
resume its wonted course. The Government of
Pekin asks our assistance in effecting this; and
those who know the country think that much may
be done by the support of a Power like England,
and the use of a small naval force. Considering the
magnitude of the British interests involved, it is
impossible, as it seems to us, for the government
to hesitate. Unbounded resources, untold wealth,
exist in a region traversed by bands of robbers,
to whom the brigands of Naples are saintly and
gentle. To those regions we are freely admitted
by treaty, and only the state of the country pre-
vents our reaping the full advantages of former
exertions. We are now called upon to guide the
destinies of that mighty population, and in con-
junction with other European nations to take care
that the collapse of its ancient systems may do as
little harm as possible to them and to us.
POST.—Upon Monday next, it will be seen by our
Parliamentary report, the House of Commons will
in all probability resume the debate upon Mr. Roe-
buck's motion for the recognition of the Southern
States. We cannot help thinking that whenever that
debate is resumed, there is a point connected with it
which must receive a more solemn and seri-
ous attention than has been yet devoted
to it. Proceedings have taken place in the
course of that debate which challenge a
decision on the question whether the House of
Commons can permit any of its members to profess
to be the bearers of communications from a foreign
Sovereign to Parliament in opposition to the Minis-
ters of the Queen. In opening the motion Mr. Roe-
buck took upon himself to say that he was autho-
rised by the Emperor to make certain statements to
the House of Commons. In the best days of the
House of Commons the uttering such words would
have been instantly followed by a motion to take
them down. The statements of which Mr. Roebuck
thus professed himself the bearer related to matters
which were the subject of State communication be-
tween the French Emperor and the Queen. Nay,
more, they involved a complaint of the manner in
which the Queen had treated the diplomatic commu-
nications of the French Sovereign. Mr. Roebuck
had the presumption to say that he had been desired
by the French Emperor to make a complaint in his
name to the House of Commons of the conduct of
the Foreign-office, and also to tell the House of Com-
mons the Emperor's sentiments upon the question
which had been the subject of official correspondence
with the Government of the Queen. The official
organ of the French Government has formally dis-
avowed the part which Mr. Roebuck in his
ofe
mar-
vellous statement attributed to the Emperor
_t.re
French. So far as his Majesty is concerned', TAO
explanation is very simple and complete.o
members of the British Parliament sought a
view with him, which the Moniteur rather...W ther
u
cantly observes he had no reason to refuse;7
another
he would so easily be induced to grant th" 0
wthe
!te
the Moniteur does not say. In that interview were
Emperor freely expressed his opinions, alv"

already well known te Europe, upon a subject of inte-
rest both to England and to France. Upon this simple
incident is based the statement made by Mr. Roe-
buck, a statement in which the Emperor saw with
amazement himself represented as having sent a
message to the British House of Commons, and es
having selected Mr. John Arthur Roebuck to be the
bearer. We did not need the announcement in the
Moniteur to comprehend the erect truth. Before
that announcement appeared most persons Ni b° knew
anything of the character of the French Emperor
and of Mr. Roebuck had made up their minds that
the statement of the latter originated in that morbid
vanity which is of all human passions the most likely
to give rise to grotesque delusions. Some words
of good-natured complaisance were sufficient to
make the person to whom they were ad'
dressed imagine himself an accredited agent of
an Emperor ; and the same vi nity which sug-
gested the delusion of necessity prompted the an-
nouncement to the astonished House of Commons.
Another member has however rushed into print to
claim his share in the Imerial confidence, and his
participation in the mission from Napoleon 111. to
the British House of Commons, and Mr. Roebuck
and Mr. William Shaw Lindsay are the illustrious
Ambassadors through whom, if we are to believe
themselves, the Emperor of the French conveys his
wishes and sentiments to that assembly. This is
something more than silly impertinence. It is a
grave offence against the constitution and the
law. It is a violation of the first duty which sub-
jects owe to their Sovereign, and Englishmen to
their country. Great lawyers have held that any
public communication, on matters of State, between
a British subject and a foreign Sovereign is a
high misdemeanour. 'But unquestionably it is so
for any British subject to thwart and oppose by
such communication the councils of his Queen.
Unquestionably it is so to bring to the people of
this country a message from a foreign Sovereign in
opposition to the policy of the Queen. The een
is the only representative of the nation to foreign
States. With the Queen alone rests the right of
holding intercourse, in the name of the nation, with
the authorities of those States. The right of send-
ing and receiving ambassadors is one of the highest
prerogatives of the Crown. That prerogative is
infringed when any one of the Queen's subjects
presumes to make himself the medium of communi-
cation on matters of State policy between a foreign
Sovereign and any portion of the people of this
realm. The House of Commons must judge what is
due to their own digaity and to their respect for the
constitution and the prerogative of the Queen. If
they think fit to permit Mr. Roebuck and Mr.
Lindsay to play out en the boards of St. Stephen's
the little farce of " The Twin Envoys; or, The Im-
perial Ambassadors," the best that can be said of it
is that everybody will perfectly understand that it
is a farce. It may have one advantage. It may
teach persons in high station the dangers of con-
versing too freely with the Roebucks and the Lind-
says who may find their way into their presence.
We have a very strong suspicion that there is no
one more heartily sick of the names of his illustrious
visitors than the Imperial personage whom they
assumed to represent. The moral of the whole
matter may perhaps be nothing higher than this—
that frankness and politeness are very good things
in sovereigns as well as common people, but are
not the only qualities requisite in an interview with
a gentleman who cannot resist the temptation of
publishing to the world that he has actually had a
conversation with a real live Emperor upon affairs
of State.
HERALD.—The accident of London life which
allows as to live without any knowledge of our
next-door neighbour, has had a curious exemplifi-
cation in the state of things which has just been
discovered in the interior of a respectable trades-
man's shop. Who would have thought that in a
genteel part of Hackney the worthy inhabitants
have been having through months an undertaker in
their midst who has been systematically turning
his house into a burial-ground, and evading the
dues of sexton and parson by taking charge of the
corpses of his neighbours as permanent members of
his household ? The skeleton was not in his cup-
board, but under his work-bench.
,The memento
mori never took a more palpable form even with the
skull and open grave of the Trappist Brothers.
Death was here, and death there, and death every-
where. Three children lay about him in as many
coffins in various stages of decay. One had been
so long with him that it had shrunk to the skeleton.
Another was so far decayed that the head fell off as
the body was touched; and all three bore traces of
attempts to subdue the effects of decomposition by
the corrosive action of lime. There were two other
large coffins enjoying a like family distinction, but
were void of their adult tenants. As we run
through the catalogue of the inmates of his house
and home, and recal the months through which they
were allowed to sojourn with him, one is tempted
to ask with Hamlet, " Has this fellow no feeling of
his business that he sings at grave-making d
to inquire how it happens that houses under the ken
of the police, and subject to visits from all sorts of
legal authorities, can have been allowed to have
remained under such ghastly tenantry. " The
custom that made it a property of easiness" to the
Danish grave-digger, no doubt had a like effect on
the English undertaker; but the public have in-
terests that hardly allow of so free an indulgence
of taste; and it would be charitable to hope that
there was no worse motive in action. He had
the coffin in the cases of the adults, the skeletons
in, the case of the children, and he saved possibly
some paltry fee in reference to the burial ;
but, except for these trivial considerations,
the only repayment which this respectable trades-
man, enjoying the full confidence of the parochial
authorities, received for the proximity of the most
offensive and revolting of nuisances, was that "feel-
ing of the business" that had at last given it a
"property of easiness." The long use of the most
repulsive calling will end in giving an artistic re•
lish for some of its traits and characteristics. The
associations growing up of time are like the lichens
covering the rock, they give a new surface to ideas
nakedly not prepossessing. The daintiness that at
first repelled is succeeded after long use by another
that appreciates, and the enthusiasm of the laun-
dress, in " Dickens," over the corpse of the dead
husband, is, perhaps, quite as natural as the refined
appreciation of a Correggio or a Canova by a higher
class of connoisseurs. But, beyond the study of a
phase of character that we may well wish to be
unique, there are some important public considera-
tions involved in this strange neglect of all the de-
cencies a healthy state of society associates with the
treatment of the dead. There is no better law than
the old Roman one—lntra muros mortuos ne sepelito
—but it asks some vigilance as the price of its full
utility. The passing of the Berial Act, which in-
hibits the use of cemeteries not situate at some dis-
tance from towns, has made interments at once
more expensive and troublesome, and the tempta-
tion to offences like those of the Hackney under-
taker must be too strong to be resisted by many
poor persons who are not aided in their duty by the
fact that their professional calling obliges them to
visit cemeteries and bury the dead. We have re-
peatedly been hearing complaints of the length of
time poor Irish families are accustomed to keep
shut up with them, in narrow rooms, the kodies of
children or deceased relatives; and accordingly, as
occupation may prove pressing, money wanting, or
the people themselves indolent, it is easy to see that
the cae of the undertaker may be that of hundreds
through the different parts of the metropolis every
month. For a week or more the corpse is retained
in an every day increasing state of offensiveness ;
but when the decomposition is past tolerance, the
first expedient may be expected to be adopted
which offers itself as a means of relieving them-
selves of a nuisance, whose existence they must
suspect to be a legal offence, and which they
v ing,
whatever and tthhoeer
know to be a serious danger. It is as well
to know that a contingency which is n_
likely to be growing less :s provided for
0.7
the provisions of the statutes which sr
_1
ofl
medical inspectors for districts and inspheec ors
operation nuisances ; and the public, but especially t
should not be slow in bringing into The
may call for it.
interposition whenever a case
undertaker,
licence, too, assumed by this Hackney
ads to cover
is one which, if permitted, might
.be
be made
he
The identity. of t
a great deal of crime. dead police,
t bies
estiller certificate
fimcoartee nn
thatce rt
appa inl thano h toneat
of
deathanand
might
other. There were
to facilitate the covering to
inspectorydi of health f
disappea.cring
subject
of
pain.funlopthuibnlgic
ft°iietunenc o we know
twowbi
echo ffin
on s t discovereden ants
that it mi
, got be .
je
such a
manner of their
ex-
tended to subjects reach' Paco less hoto infanticide
which prohibits ourw et
hbei
spring-
fleetly.g
up has already beeng er n
aegnstub.
rumour, and we
are not certain that there should not
be an increasingly active use of whatever legal forms
Ywe have, in order that the public may
better guarantee in reference to the f have some
u
infants supposed to have been • furtive burial of
still-born,
innovation which tends to cheapen the
Every
in any of its stages is a e'aPen the value of life
we ha e all the most imppublicortantcannot be
of stakes, and the
not be too .
tically interposed to vigilantly or energe-
_ protect society from the mis-

r e guard against an
chief. Mr. Humphreys, the coroner, gave as his
reason for holding an inquest on one of the infants
found festering in a respectable trademan's house,
that " great numbers of children were found in
parcels in various parts of the metropolis, and that
no one knew where they came from." The state-
ments made by Dr. Lankester are equally sugges-
tive of a painful alarm on the most delicate of all
social subjects. In our state of civilisation and
morals there is everything to fear from the remotest
approximation to the habits of thought or system
of life of the Chioese ; and we hardly know any
bettersp ct
increasing popular demo-
ralisation than the fencing round life in its infantile
condition with every security that may make its
e
as much a part of our public morals as it is
certainly
of our public policy.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

_-- 4-

THE NAVY.
The officers of the steam reserve at Devonport
entertained their chief, Capt. A. Cooper Key, C. 8.,
on board the Indus in liamoaze last week, on the
occasion of the conclusion of his command at that

port.
The Russian sloop of war Possadnick and the two
gunboats Naysdwick and Rasboiwick, from China,
which have been for some time in Plymouth Sound,
left on Saturday for Cronstadt.
The paddlewheel steam sloop Sphynx, 6, Com-
mander J. W. Jones, from Portsmouth, recently
returned from the China station, arrived on Satur-
day morning at Plymouth, where her crew will be
paid off. She will be placed in the 3d division of
the steam reserve in Hamoaze.
The paddlewheel steam sloop Geyser, 6, Com-
mander Mark R. Pechell, from Kingston, with
supernumeraries for the receiving ship, arrived at
Plymouth on Saturday afternoon.
Leteers received at Plymouth from the paddle-
wheel steam frigate Leopard, 18, Capt. Charles
Leckie, dated Hongkong, May 10, state that the only
other ship of war there was the Princess Charlotte,
12, Capt. Matthew S. Nolloth. The screw steam
sloop Perseus, 17, Commander Augustus J. King-
ston, left on the 16th May for the fleet at Japan, and
the Leopard was expected to follow immediately
after the arrival of the next mail from England.
Her master's assistant, Mr. Meesom, was drowned
on the 29th April.
The Renard, 4, screw steam gunvessel, 680 tons
200 horse-power, Commander Charles J. Rowley,
was paid off at Sheerness dockyard yesterday under
the superintendence of Capt. Charles Wise, A.D.C.,
superintendent of the yard. Commander Rowley
was complimented by the Capt.-Superintendent on
the very creditable-manner in which the paying off
had been accomplished through the good conduct of
the men, the time occupied being less than a quarter
of an hour. The Renard will be placed in the third
division of the Sheerness steam reserve.
Mr. E. J. Reed paid a hurried visit to Portsmouth
Dockyard and 11,M.5. Warrior yesterday from the
Admiralty.
Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, G.C.8., the
Naval Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, has
placed the Pigmy steam tender at the disposal of the
officers of the Tinited.States frigate Macedonian dur-
ing the stay of that vessel at Spithead. Yesterday the
officers and cadets landed from the vessel, and accom-
panied by the American Vice-Consul at Portsmouth,
Mr. James Garrett, visited the dockyard, and dis-
played great interest in the inspection of the ropery,
the turret ship Royal Sovereign, the iron frigate
Hector, the ironcased ship Royal Alfred, the Hector,
nearly ready for commission, and the Sovereign and
Alfred, converting. To-day the Warrior iron fri-
gate, St. Vincent training ship, Victory flag ship,
and the Royal Clarence Victualling-yard will be
visited. To-morrow or Thursday, as may best suit
Captain Luce and his officers, Vice-Admiral Sir M.
Seymour will give an entertainment in their honour
at the Admiralty House.
The Hector, 32, iron frigate, has been placed in
the Warrior dock at Portsmouth, to have her bilge
pieces or keels bolted on, and to be otherwise pre-
pared for her official trial prior to being finally re-
ceived by the Admiralty from the hands of the con-
tractors, Messrs. Napier and Sons, Glasgow.
An important code of regulations for the guid-
ance of the officials and others engaged in bending
and preparing the slabs of iron used in armour-plat-
ing the iron frigate Achilles, 50, and the other ves-
sels under construction at Chatham dockyard, has
been promulgated by order of the Lords of the Ad-
miralty, and is to be strictly sortadhred to. The regu-
lations are drawn up from therep f the Armour-
plate Committee appointed by the Admiralty, of
which Capt. Sir John C. D. Hay was the chairman.
The committee included a number of scientific offi-
cers belonging to both branches of the service. The
committee, in their report to the Admiralty, state
that they have examined the various processes
adopted in bending the iron plates, and are of opi-
nion that the plates need not suffer deterioration in
quality from any reasonable degree of bending, pro-
vided the process is properly performed. It is the
nature of wrought iron to admit of such changes of
shape without injury. The most essential prepara-
tion for the process of bending is that the plate
should be sufficiently heated, for it is only under this
condition that it will acquire the ductility and soft-
ness and freedom from elasticity necessary to admit
freely the change of shape. The committee consider
that a good red heat is probably the minimum that
will suffice ; " blood red" or " cherry red" is hardly
sufficient. The committee, however, deem it neces-
sary that certain precautions should be taken in the
process of heating the plates-Ist. That the heat be
not carried to such an extent as to injure the iron ;
2d. That the heating be done gradually, so as to
heat the large mass uniformly throughout its sub-
stance ; and 31. To have the heating currents
or
so arranged as to prevent fierce fire curilrarp
from impinging on the edges
damage
arrisses of the plate, by which to
good red
would be done. Probably from rovided
brightest red are the safest limitsh;eraesclit;
reason to
the proper precautions be taken, t
plate Will be rather
believe that the quality of the
improved by the heating thanoocethoserwise, as if the
will be equiva-
the metal softer.
iron happens to be hard the prd r
lent to annealing, and will red e
• adopted at Portsmouth in
The process of heating
t appears to comply
the presence of the com
and the committee
o be well re-
te
be-
with the required conditiomutsit,
ee
pla :g rim h e
head plates is
bent
lieve the quality of the
The mode of bend
tained. the committee conceive
a matter which
safely left to wedgeechanical advisers of the Admi-
ad
The tap process, as adoptedralty. at
the advantage of s-
Portsmouth, has simplicity ; but
committee think it would be btt •
the com e er the change
of could be effected h
of shape -y dead pressure—hy-
draulic, for example—instead of by blows. The
inexpedient to bend
committee consider it highly •
thick plates cold, or only slightly heated, as there
are very few kinds of iron s
bend cold, even in small bars, without
ductile to
structure of the metal, and in 'la injury to the
at-
tempt must be in • large masses this
jamas for if the external sur-
face should escape injury the
produce undue internal strain, process will inevitably
the pov, era of resistance very detrimental to
The • under the blows of shot.
following appointments were made at the Admiralty
yesterday afternoon
Richard Sleeman,•
chief engineer, to the Indus, for the
Sphinx.
T. Stead, assistant engi •
neer, to the Asia, as supernu•
merary.
J. T. Ch
annon, engineer, to the Fisgard, as supernu
merary.
W. R. Leeson, acting engineer, to the Indus, for the
Ripple.
J. C. Walsh, surgeon, to the Pembroke.
It. Humphry, assistant surgeon, to the Maunder.
Thos. L. Bickford, assistant surgeon, to the Fisgard.

THE ARMY.

Col. Crofton, whose death we announced yester-
day, entered the service in 1831. He served in
Spain during the Christino and Carlist war in 1837
and 1838, and was taken prisoner by the Carlists.