The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-31 00:00:00

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PRICE 4d.
S TAMPED 5(1.

thousands of lights and the waters sparkling under
their influence, presented.
The guests included, besides M. de Chasseloup
Laubat, the French Minister of Marine, M. Dupuy
de Lolme, chief constructor of the French navy, and
the principal French officer in command of the fleet
at.Spithead. Among the English guests were Sir M.
Seymour, Admiral Sir S. Dacres, Sir G. Buller,
commander in chief of the south-western district,
Capt. Seccombe, Capt. Hornby, Capt. Herbert,
and several other. English naval officers in command
of our fleet at this port. At 10 o'clock M. de Chas-
seloup
Laubat took his departure and proceeded on
board the Leine Hortense. His leaving was the sig-
nal for lighting up the ship, every one of whose
port-holes was immediately illuminated ; blue lights
being at the same time exhibited all round her gun-
wale and at her yard arms.
Thus passed off the first of the entertainments
which has been given to our allies in return for
their recent magnificent hospitality, and if all the
others which remain to be given are equally suc-
cessful, we shall have no reason to be ashamed of
the mode in which our part in these international
festivities has been displayed. The Lords of the
Admiralty appear to be perfectly satisfied with the
proceedings so far, and the expression of their
satisfaction on any occasion is, some naval officers
will tell you, not a thing to be easily secured.
While alto chief officers of
,the French...fleet, were.-
being c-ttertained in the Duke of Wellington those'
who remained behind at Spithead were the guests of
the officers of the Black Prince, on board -which
magnificent vessel a splendid hospitalitiwas grace-
fully. dispensed. •

Thus morning—it is pleasant to have to tell it—
there was not, at 9 o'clock a single cloud to be seen
on the whole broad surface of the sky. Blue above,
blue 'below ; 'for everybody has taken to living here
no* on the witier: Things, therefore, may be safely
said to begetting on swimmingly at Portsmouth,
and, indeed; there need not be the slightest appre-
hension that it will be otherwise till the French fleet
leaves our shores on Saturday next, if the sun will
only .continue to shine out as brightly as he does
now.

'The forenoon was passed by the French officers
and otir Admiralty in visiting the public esta.-
blishnients.. on shore, M. Chasseloup Laubat, with
the, Admiral commanding and the chief officers: of
the French floetelanding at the dockyard shorqy
before noon, accompanied by the Duke of Somerset
and other'members of the British Admiralty. The
chief points of interest visited in the "dockyard
were-the iron-cased ship Prince Alfred in No. 3
dock; the Scorpion and Wyvern turret-ships, the
iron frigate Minotaur, the armour plate workshop,
imithery, foundries, &c. In the Royal Alfred our
visitors had an opportunity of criticising our method
of convertinia 90-gun wooden line-of-battle ship
to a ship -clothed with eight inches of iron amid=
ships, and carrying 300-pounders. They may'hot
have aged ' with all our notions in • maliirig this
change,-,butt otherwise could not but admit that :if
the • ship could be sent to sea working eIE-1
eiently 14-ton guns on her broadside, • she'; must.
prove to bg a formidable war vessel. On -board"
the Scorpipn and Wyvern, Mr. Laird's'
would-be --roNers; was exemplified ,the turret 's-yg'z°
tem, by which these two ships' each carry4A
or, rather, are enabled to carry, for the Wyvern has-1
not yet got her guns—each four 12-ton guns,: with
sixmonths' stores and provisions, and' eight 'nye
cdal at full steaming power, with a dihuglit of waiter
of 0n1y.16 feet 6 inches. The tiiiret
been so often' described in the columns of ,TheStni
in the reports on the trials of the Royal Sovereign,
and has become really so familiar to the general
public from the large public, discussion which the
system - has gone through ; that there- Ydifiallig-6-6
reason for describing it at any greater length here.
In the armour-plate shed one of the last armour-
plates for the Royal Alfred was taken from the
heating furnace and bent to the required shape for
fixing ou the ship's side, the hydraulic press, radial
machines, and planing machines being also in full
work for the inspection of the Lords of the Admi-
ralty and their guests. In the smithery the monster
steam hammers and excellent internal arrangement
of the whole building were duly admired. The iron
frigate Minotaur was also visited, and while on
board this magnificent frigate much interest was
manifested in the investigation of Commander
Scott's iron gun-carriage, designed by that officer
to meet the difficulty now experienced in working
12-ton guns on a ship's broadside. A visit to the
large iron and brass foundries, a cursory look at the
factory and the miniature steam basin, with a pass-
ing inspection of the plan for the extension of the
dockyard, concluded the visit. Among other public
establishments visited—in this instance non-officially
—by the officers of the French ship, were the ar-
moury and gunwharf. The Armoury of Portsmouth
Arsenal, though not comparable in its proportions
with the noble Salle d'Armes of Cherbourg, nor yet
perhaps quite equal to it in the interest attached to
its contents, is nevertheless a place well worth a
visit even from such keen-eyed critics as our French
friends. Like many other public buildings in
and around Portsmouth, a vast deal of material has
been crowded into a very small space within the
walls of the Armoury. At Cherbourg a very
effective display is made throughout the length of
the Salle d'Armes by only some 9,000 muskets in
their arm-racks ; yet here, in this small Armoury of
Portsmouth—a room not much exceeding one-
eighth the length of the one at Cherbourg—are
standing in open racks no less than 20,000 Enfield
rifles, from none of which a shot has ever been fired.
As may be readily imagined but little space is left
by these 20,000 arms for fairly exhibiting other de-
scriptions of arms and the curiosities usually found
in such places. There are, however, in spaces be-
tween the arm-racks through the room, some very
valuable suits of ancient armour, plain, fluted, em-
bossed, and chain, and also tilting spears of the
different periods, with a goodly collection of weapons
of fearful size and weight, with which men of old
cracked each other's iron shells when clothing them-
selves in lieu of, as now-a-days, their castles and
ships in iron. Round the base of the walls of the
room are ranged in chronological order every de-
scription of shot and shell made for rifled cannon up
to the present time The walls and roof have been
newly and very tastefully decorated, and on the
former may be seen the Chinese breach-loading
six-pounders, the State flag of the celebrated Com-
missioner Yeh, the official dress of the mandarin who
held command of the Peiho forts at the time of their
capture, and in recesses in the salle and entrance-
hall are some interesting specimens of bronze cast-
ings as vases and incense-burners, the Chinese cha-
racters on which indicate the date of their produc-
tion at 1800 years prior to the Christian era. In
the other parts of the arsenal are piles of guns,
breech and muzzle loading, of Armstrong build, and
the cannon casting ordnance, of none of which we
have reason to be ashamed.

Only with regard to the extent and general ar-
rangement of the dockyard there was nothing at
all of interest to exhibit to our friends. On the
contrary, accustomed as they are to the magnificent
naval establishments at Toulon, Brest, and Cher-
bourg, Portsmouth Dockyard must have appeared
simply contemptible, its stores and buildings being,
with one or two exceptions, confused masses of
bricks and mortar, jumbled together without any
design. In the plans, however, for the great exten-
sion of the yard, the works for which have at length
really commenced, and concerning which many per-
tinent questions were asked, there was plenty of
material of which, in comprehensiveness and unity
of design, we could dilate with jut pride and rg'i- a t
ifi-
cation, even in the preaenee of our keal-eyed allies.
The chief features of this first extension of Ports-
mouth Dockyard consist o a tidal basin of about 14
acres, accessible fol, ships of the largest class at any
time of tide. From thisfn there will be two locks
and one docks 414 Q AGOegaliQ at any period of the

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