The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-30 00:00:00

CANNON AT TBE INVALIDES.

The Moniteur cle l'Arnzee, in speaking of the
salvos of artillery usually fired at the Invalides on
the occasion of the opening of the Legislative Ses-
sion, gives the following historical account of what
is called the " Triumphal Battery" of that estab-
lishment :—" That battery has existed -since the
construction of the Hotel. The Emperor Napoleon
presented it with a great
1.,
numberwho ehfapdieiet eneeref eewauend, o
n, the fruit of his victories.
The battery is now composed of 18 guns, namely—
Cannon : Austrian, one 48-pounder and one 27;
Prussian, eight 24; Dutch, two 24; Wurtemberg,
one of 12; Venetian, one 32. Long howitzers: Two
Russian of 0 20. Mortars Two Algerine of 0.33.
The guns are divided into two half batteries, one on
the right, and the other on the left of the Hotel.
There are also disposed on the right and left
20 guns—viz., 16 Algerian 24-pounders; one
Chinese, 0.156 ; one Cochin Chinese, o'lBo, and two
French, 12. The Austrian 48-pounder was cast at
Vienna in 1681. On its chase is an eagle, with out-
stretched wings, pouncing on a dolphin, darting its
beak into the head and its talons into the sides, and
having as motto, Conquer or die.' The 27-pounder
was cast in 1580 ; it has also a bird on the chase,
with the following motto in German, As soon as
my song resounds in the air walls will fall to the
earth before me.' The eight Prussian guns formed
part of the large number of guns sent from Vienna
to Strasburg after the victory of Austerlitz, and
were cast at Berlin in 1708, by order of Frederick 1.,
the last of the Electors of Brandenburg, and first
King of Prussia. Each gun was dedicated to one
of the Electors, whose likeness, in relief, is on the
chase. Three other guns of the same kind were
melted down during the blockade of Strasburg in
1814, to be converted into coin. The two Dutch
24-pounders were taken in the citadel of Antwerp
in 1832. The Wurtemberg 12-pounder is of light
and elegant form, and 12ft. in length. The chase
is surrounded by a serpent of natural size and thick-
ness. It also bears the representation of a Prince
in full armour, and of the four elements—water,
fire, earth, and air; and also of hope, justice, faith,
prudence, and force. There is no date or inscrip-
tion, but only the arms of Wurtemberg. The
Venetian 32-pounder bears the arms of the Re-
public, and the Lion of Saint Mark, holding the
Golden Book. The two Russian howitzers came from
Sebastopol, and bear numerous marks of French
balls, but have nothing remarkable about them be-
yond their glorious origin. The two Algerian mortars
b
Pasha, to whom God renders easy
everythingea bear the
undertakes.' The 16 large eel lbto it
eh dg inscription, in Arabic,—' Cast by
order e
Alge-
rian guns were placed at the Invalides, on the pro-
position of Marshal Chauzel, in 1830, as a trophy of
the capture of Algiers. The two guns from China
and Cochin China are souvenirs of the brilliant feats
of arms which threw them into the possession of the
French. The two siege guns, 12-pounders, came
from the arsenal of Pores, in Greece. They are of
French origin, and belonged in 1798 to the batter-
ing train of the army of Egypt,
under General
Bonaparte, but were abandoned during the retreat
of the army. They were afterwards mounted on
board one of the Egyptian vessels of war, and after
the battle of Navarino were restored to France."

At the meeting of the Electric and International
Telegraph Company on the Gth of February a dividend of
31 per cent, for the put laalf-Year will In roconmeAded.