The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 25, 1863.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.
The Achilles is to be furnished with four masts,
and, should the results of the experimental trials be
satisfactory, a similar rig will be adopted in future
vessels of her size and class. The iron masts have
been received at Chatham from the firm at Chep-
stow by which they were manufactured, and are now
pieced temporarily on board two of the sailing ves-
sels in the ordinary until required to be shipped on
board the Achilles. The foremast is 104 feet in

Length, and 2 ft. Bin. in diameter; the second

mast is 103 ft. Gin. in length, and 31t. gin. in

diameter; the mainmast measures 121 ft Sin, with a
diameter of 3ft 4in, and mizen mast 81ft, and 2ft
2in in diameter. All the masts are hollow, and will

serve as ventilators between decks. The bowsprit
is of wood, and in this respect differs from that of
the Royal Oak, and other iron-clad ships, which

have their bowsprits of iron. Its length is 37ft 9in,
and diameter 2ft Sin. The mainyard is 105 ft in
length, with a circumference of 6ft 3in, and the

yard of the second mast is of the same dimensions.

The fore mainyard is 7lft in length, and the cross-
j ack-yard of the mizentnast the same length. The
spankerboom is exactly 70ft in length.
The sailing frigate Venus, lent by the Admiralty
for the accommodation of the crew of the Peruvian

'rigate at Greenhithe, being no longer required for
:hat purpose, is ordered to be sent round to Chat-

ham, where she will probably be fitted as a training
ship for the volunteers of the Naval Reserve.
It is announced that a considerable reduction will
shortly be made at Chatham dockyard by the dis-
charge of several hundred boys and men. The re-
duction will affect the hands belonging to all the
departments, and will, in the first instance, include

a large number of the hired men who have been

aken on during the last few years. The policy of

discharging any number of mechanics employed on
the iron frigate Aehilks is questionable, seeing that
the iron frigate Bellerophon and the iron•cased ship
Lord Warden hare been delayed in consequence of
there being no hands who can be spared from the

other ship; in progress. The whole of the dockyard
mechanics engaged on the Achilles were formerly
shipwrights employed on the wooden ships, and

since trained at the cost of considerable time and
labour to become workers in iron. In addition

:0 the ordinary established dockyard hands,

hired workmen have also been taken on from

time to time, and those have attained considerable
proficiency in ironwork. If the country is not to
stand still in the career of iron shipbuilding which
it has commenced, the services of any men now dis-
charged will inevitably be required as soon as they
have turned their backs on the dockyard gates. Two
hundred men and boys will, it is understood, be
discharged from the ropemaking department, the
machinery recently introduced as well as that about
to be erected enabling the authorities to dispense
with their services.

The contractors' trial of the engines of the iron,
plated screw steamship Prince Consort, 35, took
place outside Plymouth breakwater, and proved
very successful. The moan speed of the six runs at
the measured mile was 13.132 knots an hour; the
revolutions of the engines were 561 per minute.
Her Majesty's screw steam corvette Scylla, 21
guns, 1,467 tons, 400-horse power, Capt. Richard
W. Courtenay, who has been appointed in the place
of Capt. S. G. Cresswell, superseded at his own re-
quest in consequence of ill-health, was yesterday
taken from Sheerness to the measured mile oft' Map-
lin Sands for the final trial of her engines and ma-
chinery previous to departing for sea. The trial was
conducted under the superioendence of Capt. W.
K. Hall, of her Majesty's ship Cumberland, 70, com-
manding the Steam Reserve at Sheerness. The en-
gines were in charge of Mr. W. Rumble, inspector
of machinery afloat, and Mr. G. Blasland, chief en-
gineer of Sheerness dockyard. Capt. Cresswell was
also on board. The vessel made six runs at the mea-
sured mile with full boiler power, and attained an
average speed of 10.387 knots an hour, with a
draught of water 17ft. forward and 19ft. aft. The
revolutions of engines were 57 per minute, pressure
of steam 201 b., vacuum 24. Two runs were also
made with half-boiler power, giving a result of 9.092
knots, revolutions 45, pressure of steam 201 b., va-
cuum 241 b. There was a slight force of wind
from S.S.W., and water smooth. The circle was
turned at full boiler power, with helm port 21 de-
grees, in 4 min. 55 sec., the diameter of circle being
405 feet ; at half-boiler power, with helm starboard
36 degrees, in 5 min. 30 sec., diameter 419 feet.
Messrs. John Penn and Son are the builders of her
engines, which are fitted with Smith's screw pro-
peller, diameter 16 feet, pitch 3 feet 6 inches, length
3 feet. The trial was considered to be of a highly
satisfactory character, both the vessel and machinery
answering every expectation. It is not yet decided
when the vessel will leave for her destination, as
she is waiting the arrival of Capt. Courtenay, when
she will be inspected by Vice-Admiral Sir C. 8..
Lambert, 1C.C.8., Commander-in-Chief at the Nore,
and immediately afterwards proceed to sea.
The following appointments and promotions have
been made at the Admiralty I—Capt. R. W. Cour-
tenay to the Scylla, vice Capt. Cresswel!, super-
seded on account of ill-health; W. H. Adams, sur-
geon, additional to the Britannia ; Dr W. M'Mahon
and J. A. Macdonald, acting assist.-surgeon, addi-
tional, to the Euryalus; W. H. James, second
master, to the Royal Adelaide, as supernumerary;
Gerard J. Capes nominated to a naval cadetship;
Arther G. Hall, naval cadet, to the Pelorus ; W. H.
C. Pooke, naval cadet to the Euryalus ; W. U.
Moore, naval cadet, to the Revenge ; H. J. Wick-
ham, A. G. H. Hervey, H. N. Budding, J. Ferrers,
F. R. Sandilands, and W. J. Moore, midshipmen,
to the Gibraltar; M. A. S. Edye and C. H. P. Jones,
midshipmen, to the Revenge ; T. Lumley, chief en.
gineer to the Indus, for the Research ; John D.
Lamont, in the Nile, promoted to engineer; A.
Lawton, in the Orlando, promoted to first class
assist.-engineer; H. W. Wilkins, W. E. Blackburn,
and Edward Boulton, assist.-engineers, to the Asia,
as supernumeraries; J.T. Stockting, assist-engineer,
to the Dauntless, for charge of the engines of the
Argus ; R. E. Chiswell, assist.-engineer, to the Daunt-
less, for the Argus ;
J. W. Hawes, assist.-engineer,
to the Colossus ; J. T. S. Flynn, assist.-engineer, to
the Cumberland, as supernumerary ; George Tyree,
Charles J. Cock, and W.
engineers, to the Indus, G. Mifirtrney, assist.-
engineers,
S. Brown and Charles H. Crane, assist.-clerks,
additional, to the Ear '
as supernumeraries ; Wil-
liam
yains.
me

order. Quarters for 40 additional married men
have been recently completed at the Cambridge-
cottages, besides the 80 already occupied there.
Including 100 cottages on the common, comfortable '
accommodation is available for 220 married soldiers.
In addition to the above, the War Department have
sanctioned the erection of other batches of cottages
in the same locality. An infant's school is also to
he built within the enclosure of Cambridge-cottages,
for the accommodation and reception of 150 chil-
dren. The General and Staff subsequently visited
and inspected the gerriaon and brigade schoels
under the superintendence of Mr. Wharry, where
nearly 1,000 children are instructed, and where their
moral progress, as well as their personal tidiness, is
carefully directed. The General visited each class
in succession, and exarained many of the children
rather sharply. Tho adults' schools were afterwards
examined. There were about 400 non-commissioned
officers and gunners present. The pupils of every
class in these schools were likewise closely ques-
tioned, and at the conclusion of his inspection, Gen.
Dacres announced that, except in a few cases of
minor importance, he had no remarks to make but
those of unqualified approbation. Gen. Dacres, and
the officers who accompanied him, were of opinion
that the school instruction of the non-commissioned
officers and gunners might with advantage be made
to bear more directly on their ordinary duties as
artillerymen.

hear.) This a proof that not to the season alone,
but that also to the improved skill of the farmer,
the nation is indebted for the increase in the main
element of its wealth, and perhaps Professor Liebig
is not too sanguine when he says, in the remarkable
pamphlet which has just been published, recom-
mending the utilisation of the sewage of towns,
that in the continued progress of agricultural im•
provement in the three kingdoms, England, Ireland,
and Scotland will give corn sufficient to supply the
wants of the whole population, without purchasing
corn from abroad. (Hear, hear.) I need not
detail to you the many causes which have con-
tributed to this progressive increase in the fertility
of the soil, such as the more liberal employment of
artificial manures, the bolder recourse to improve-
ments in machinery, the more careful selection of
seeds, a better system of rotation of crops. Per-
haps I might mention among the minor causes
some few things in which the landlords may claim
some share of the merit—such for instance as when
they have not only permitted, but somewhat en.
couraged the removal of superfluous hedges, the
thinning, when it is neither useful nor ornamental,
of hedge-row timber, and the opening the fields to
the air. (Hear,hear.) While on this head perhaps
I may be allowed to say that drainage would be
more extensively practised if the stipulations with
regard to Government aid were somewhat relaxed
—(hear, hear)—for there really are some soils on
which drains four feet deep and so far apart do
little or no good. (Hear, hear.) lam aware that
tenant farmers would be much more eager appli-
cants for drainage, and would much more cheer-
fully pay a per centage upon the outlay of the Go.
vernment aid, to which unfortunately the landlords
were often compelled to resort, if the landlords
would take more into consultation the tenant far-
mers themselves as to the peculiar requirements of
the soils in which they embark their capital. The
bounty of the season has been the more opportune
because, although the root crops are more promis-
ing than they were at the early part of the summer,
still on the whole they are likely to be much below
the average, and that circumstance, together with
the very partial nature of the hay crop, which,
although good in quality, and even abundant in
some parts, is still deficient in others, is likely to
raise the price of meat, and to diminish
the quantity of stock which the small farmer
may be able to keep through the winter.
(Hear, hear.) That brings me to a matter of
the most vital importance both to the farmer and.
to the public at large. I mean the alarming extent
to which of late years disease has prevailed amongst
all kinds of stock. I may point out more portico-

larly the prevalence of the lung complaint amongst
cattle. A very eminent authority at the Internee
tional Congress of Veterinary Surgeons at Hamburg
has given us an account of the mortality of stock in
the three kingdoms, and his statement is really most
startling, for he computes that in the six years end-
ing 1860 the value of the stock which have perished
in Great Britain and Ireland is £24,500,000, whilst
the quantity of stock which has been imported from
abroad within the same period is less than £4,500,000;
so that the nation has lost within that period four
times the value of the stock which has been imported.
Professor Gangee ascribes this great mortality prin-
cipally to the introduction of foreign stock, and he
justly observes that, although he is not desirous of
stopping free trade in foreign stock, still this amount
of disease from which not the farmer alone, but the
consumer, is the sufferer, partly because it must tend
to increase the price of meat, and next because the
consumer is the sufferer from the quality of the
diseased meat which he purchases, and this enor-
mous amoant of money which is lost not to the far-
mer only, but to the whole nation, has become a
matter of paramount and serious importance. Pro-
fessor Gangee suggests, and very properly, that all
persons who have discovered any effective remedy
for that disease should make it known as a great
public benefit. (Hear, hear.) Perhaps some one
present may be able to give us the result of experi-
ments in inoculation. I may mention, with great
deference, a slight experiment which I made at Tol-
leridge. Two cows out of ten were attacked by the
lung disease, but I have not had one cow attacked
since I tried the experiment of inoculation. Professor
Gangeo suggests as a valuable preservative against
milk fever to which cows are subject, a dose of Epsom
salts previous to calving. I know you will pardon
me for these heavy and dry details, which I give es
an inducement to those who are more competent
judges than myself to offer hints and suggestions
for our general instruction. (Hear, hear.) And
now for a few moments allow me somewhat to
widen the scope of our surveys. In proportion as
England has extended not only her colonial empire,
but her foreign trade, the condition of our country.
men, whatever their class and calling, is liable to be
affected by the vicissitudes of foreign nations, some-
times affecting our commerce,sometimes our honour,
sometimes threatening our very safety itself; and
if these vicissitudes should unhappily entangle us
in the perils of war, there is no clues in the commu-
nity which it would more sensibly affect than the
inhabitants of the rural districts. War for a time
may raise prices, but then it draws money,
it impairs the facilities for credit, and it
ends in taxes of which the land is pretty sure
to bear the principal burden. And it weighs
more heavily on the heart than the fear of pecu-
niary loss, because it is from the rural class that our
armies are mainly drawn, and every newspaper
which records a victory for which the streets of the
metropolis may be joyfully illuminated announces
to many a country home, from the hall to the cot-
tage, the mournful death of a brother or a son.
(Hear.) When I addressed you in this room about
two years ago I dwelt perhaps at some length upon
those remarkable events which had rendered the
age in which we live memorable for startling and
sudden changes. During the two years that have
elapsed since that time Europe has continued to
exhibit the same political elements of change and
disorder. While in America a civil war unprece-
dented for the merciless waste of treasure and of
kindred blood continues animated by passions which
appear to us at a distance so void of reason, at this
moment the newspapers of the Northern States of
America are actually inviting Canada to exchange
the disorders and oppressions of British dominion
for the mild blessings of American peace and bro-
therhood. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) One might
have supposed that even the vainest American
would have thought that this was not the most
favourable moment to persuade Canada to desert
the old Union Jack for the American
flag of the
stars and stripes, just at the moment when that flag
is so torn in two that the stars are gone and the
stripes remain. (Hear, and laughter.) Now, whilst
the old world is thus disturbed and the new world
is thus convulsed, it seems too commonplace to say
that England must remain upon her guard. Not
that I am one of those alarmists who suppose that
these shores are always on the point of being in-
vaded, and certainly I am not disposed to render
this as expensive as war by costly Preparations for
imaginary dangers. But still I consider that there
is no duty more obvious to a British statesman than
the vigilant maintenance of the British navy, for if
even a tight for England as a first-rate power is to
be decided by force of arms, the battle is more
likely to be fought in the midst of the Mediterra-
nean or the Atlantic Ocean than in the straits of
the British Channel. (Hear, hear.) It is not from
any boast of national vanity that I say how much
the great interests of universal civilisation and the
noble cause of national freedom are bound up
with the material prosperity and moral power of
England; for it is not the least remarkable feature
of those changes to which I have adverted that they
all take England as their model and example in the
institutions which they seek to establish. (Hear.)
You recognise in it the material prosperity of Eng-
land, the advantages of her political system; and
you revere in it the moral power of England, as the
adTocate of hurannity and freedom. (lieftr, hear.)