The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-13 00:00:00

THAMES.

HIGHWAY ROBBERY.—Dennis Manning, aged 28
years, Thomas Donovan, 32, and Margaret Hames,
18, were charged with highway robbery and violence.
The victim of the prisoners, who belong to a
dangerous class of thieves, was Charles Quantrick,
a seaman. He was passing along Cannon-street-
road, St. George-in-the-East, last night at half-past
9 o'clock, on his way to the Sailors' Home in Well-
street, when Manning came up on one side of him
and Donovan on the other. Manning said to him,
in a familar tone, " How are you ; how do you get
on ?" The sailor replied " Very well." Manning
said, " You don't know a person ; you don't recol-
lect my taking you to the Sailors' Home ?" He
was then attacked by the three prisoners and much
ill-used.

The prisoners, who were well-known thieves,
were committed for trial.

Mr. Galt, Finance Minister of Canada, said at
the M`Gee dinner that if Canada would 6e annexed to the
United States $300,000,000 would be its share of debt, and
he added that, with such a sum the people of Canada
could build the Intercolonial Railway, buy the whole of the
North-west Territory, and build the Pacific Railroad,
besides enlarging the canals, &c.
THE UNITED STATES MONITOR MONADNOCK.—
A correspondent of the London Standard, writing from St.
Thomas, gives a description of the monitor Monadnock, one
of the United States Pacific squadron. The writer says:
—" As this monitor is the first of her class which has
made a long sea voyage, it may not be uninteresting to
your readers to have a short description of her. As she
now lies in the harbour with her low, rusty sides, about
eighteen inches out of the water, funnel and two turrets,
she certainly does present a most curious appearance, and
one cannot but admire the ingenuity of the Yankees for
inventing such a ship, but also must allow them credit for
the pluck they display in trusting themselves on board of
her for a voyage of some 15,000 miles. She is about 250
feet long, 1,200 tons register, and has engines of about
250-horse power. She has stowage-room for. 350 tons of
coal, of which, when steaming full speed at a rate of about
eight knots an hour, she burns from 22 to 25 tons per day.
I was informed that she has two screws. On going on board
you are most courteously received by the officers, and al-
lowed to go over the whole ship, when the first thing that
strikes ono is the immense solidity of the whole concern.
You at once perceive that you are on board a war vessel,
which would not be easily destroyed either by the new
system of 'ramming,' or by good-sized guns. All along
the deck holes about 6 in. in diameter, covered with thick
glass, serve to give light down below, and some
can be opened when in harbour fdr the sake of air.
The Monadnock has two revolving turrets, each con-
taining two 20-ton 15-inch guns, which throw a solid
steel or iron shot of 5001 b. three miles with an immense
charge. They are muzzle-loaders and not rifled. The car-
riage of each one weighs eight tons. They are certainly
fine pieces of ordnance. When in action the guns are
loaded inside the turrents, the rammers and sponges being
constructed on the telescopic principle; then run outside
the porthole and fired. The gun at once recoils, and a
piece of solid iron, the same thickness as the turret, in-
stantly fills up the porthole, which both prevents the
smoke getting inside and keeps the shot and shell of the
enemy from entering. The turrets revolve, one in every
three minutes, and the tops of them are covered with
gratings of the strongest iron in order that any smoke
may escape that way. The inside of the turrets is lined
with a thick padding covered with canvas, so that no con-
cussion may be felt from shot striking it outside. I was
told on board that when the turret is struck by a ball the
concussion is so great that if any one is touching the iron-
work he is at once thrown down. On the top of the
turrets are placed the pilot-houses, from which the
Captain issues his orders and fights the ship. These
houses are of a great thickness, eleven inches I
was informed, and have small holes - all round,
through which the commander takes his observations.
It is so arranged that the monitor's anchor is weighed
on the main deck, in order that at no time may any of
the crew be exposed to an enemy's fire. I noticed that
the ship was constructed of 1-inch iron plates, the sides of
these being composed of six of these plates rivetted
together. She bears the marks of her late engage-
ment at Fort Fisher, Wilmington, ono 10-inch shot
having struck her, just at the top of her side, making
a good dent in the plates ; another struck her forward.
After going all over her, and seeing what an enormous
mass of iron and wood she is composed of, one cannot
really help being convinced that the Monadnock is an
ugly customer, and a vessel that would do great destruc-
tion amongst a fleet of wooden vessels ; at the same time
I must acknowledge that she is not the ship one would
choose to make a Transatlantic passage in."
THE LIVERPOOL AND NEW ORLEANS STEAMSHIP
COMPANY.—A public dinner was recently given in New
Orleans to Capt. J. Glover, of the steamer Alabama, of the
Liverpool and New Orleans line. In response to the toast,
" The British Steamship Company," the host, Mr. Stone,
said "That the merchants of Liverpool and London, remark-
able fora sagacity to which England is indebted for much of
her prosperity, should at this time, so soon after that ter-
rible civil commotion which we have lately experienced,
consummate so long-delayed an enterprise, evinces a con-
fidence in the stability of our ,Government and the pros-
perity of our country, notwithstanding our changed system
of labor ; and, I may further add, of the practicability and
wisdom of the reorganising policy of our noble and magna-
nimous chief magistrate, which we are pleased to recog-
nise as the very highest compliment that could possibly
be paid to our Republican system. Yet, to England, more
than to any other nation, is the civilised world indebted
for its civilisation. Commerce not only developes the
resources of nations, but is a humaniser, adjusting the
differences, and as our lamented Lincoln would have said,
hewing the rough edge and rounding the corners,' of
conflicting systems of government to man's necessities,
ennobling his nature and benefiting the *mid. This enter-
prise, the subject of this occasion, dill do much to en-
courage the arts of peace, which, by God's sanction, let us
hope may never again be disturbed, and in a few short
years when old differences shall be forgotten, and old pre-
judices obliterated, the ' Crescent City,' now under a
cloud, shall merge brighter than a star in the firmament,
and become, as nature has destined she shall become,
second to no other on the American continent. May
Captain Glover live long and maks many trips, and may
Mr. Hunter enjoy in green old age a rich harvest, of which
this is but the breaking of the soil."

AN ENGLISH COTTON COMPANY FOR AMERICA. —A
Washington correspondent states that a number of Eng-
lish merchants and bankers are looking to the organisation
of a National Cotton Company. English capitalists who
have been trying to produce cotton in Egypt are making
constant inquiry as to the movements of the freedmen and
the cultivation of cotton lands in the South, evidently
desiring to invest their money where they can realize
better profits than they do in other lands. Mr. CONWAY,
late of the Freedmen's Bureau in Louisiana, has been re-
quested to proceed to Liverpool and London for the pur-
pose of giving such information as will securo the invest-
ment of English capital, and the employment of Southern
freedmen in their cultivation of cotton. General HOWARD
favors this project, and thinks that by turning capital into
the South much can be done to settle difficulties now en-
countered in the operations of the Freedmen's Bureau.
The General will either assign Mr. CONWAY to the charge
of freedmen's schools in Kentucky and Tennessee, or
permit him to accept the mission to England.