The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-25 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge in-
spected yesterday, on the parade in front of the
Horse Guards, the 2d and 3d battalions of the
Grenadier Guards, for the first time since his ap-
regiment in the place
The two battalions
at 10 o'clock. Col.
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manded by Col. his Serene Highness Prince Edward
° f
attended SaxSaxe-Weimar,
maClifton, rC.B.
to The Duke of Cambridge,
Col. arrived on the parade
shortly after the line was formed, attended by
Major-General Sir. J. Yorke Scarlett, the Adjutant-
Cn,
General; Major-General Sir Richard Airey, the
Quartermaster-General; Major-General James R.
Craufurd, attached to the Foot Guards; Captain P.
Smith, acting Brigade-Major; Lieut. the Hon. C.
G.Eliot, &c. The assembled troops having presented
his
line
iitnotyhalree sides of a square.
ground,arms
on Highness on the
dthepeloayrreidvailntoof
The Duke then rode down the front and up the rear,
the band playing during the inspection. Both bat-
talions next marched past in slow time by compa-
nies, and then in grand divisions in quick time.
After advancing in line of contiguous column, the
officers were called in front, and were addressed by
his Royal Highness, who expressed his satisfaction
at the appearance of the regiment and the precision
with which the evolutions had been gone through.
The troops, after saluting the Duke before his de-
parture, were marched back to their respective bar-
racks. The short notice in an evening contemporary
of the inspection abounds in mistakes, officers being
named as being present who are absent abroad, and
others mho have retired from the service.

The spring half-yearly change of quarters of the
Division of Foot Guards will take place on Tuesday
next, the Ist proximo. The 2d battalion of the
Grenadier Guards remove from the St. George's,
Wellington, and Magazine Barracks, to Windsor.
The 3d battalion remove from Portman-street Bar-
racks to the Wellington Barracks (old wing) and
Buckingham Palace. The 2d battalion of the
Coldstream Guards remove from Wellington Bar-
racks and Buckingham Palace to Portman-street
and St, Sohn's-wood Barracks; the Ist battalion of
Scots Fusileer Guards from Windsor to St. George's,
Wellington, and Magazine Barracks. No orders
have been issued for the removal of the Ist battalion
of the Coldstream Guards, quartered in Dublin.
A detachment of the Grenadier Guards, consist-
ing of 150 men and eight officers, under the com-
mand of Captain the Hon. F. Stanley, have arrived
at Eastbourne to undergo a course of rifle practice
at the range, which is said to be the best in Great
Britain. Detachments will continue to be sent dur-
ing the summer.
The existing fortifications which command the
main entrance of the Channel of the Medway have
just been considerably strengthened by the substi-
tution of the new 110-pounder Armstrong guns, 10-
inch, B.inch, and 68-pounder smooth bore ordnance
for the guns formerly mounted on those defences.
The whole of the guns are mounted on dwarf tra-
versing platforms, fitted with the improvements in-
troduced by Col. Colquhoun, R.A., consisting of
hollow soled trucks and raised racers, by means of
which additional facilities are obtained for working
the guns. The excellent position in which the new
guns are mounted, combined with their enormous
calibre, as compared with the former armament of
our coasts, would make it impossible for any hos-
tile vessel to force the naturally intricate estuary of
the Medway. In addition, however, to the existing
lines of fortifications, several powerful forts and
batteries are gradually being raised along both sides
of the entrance to the Medway, forming, as it were,
a double chain of fortifications, rendering a success-
ful attack on either Chatham or Sheerness dock-
yard impossible. The largest of these batteriesis that
which is now in course of erection on the command-
ing projection known as Garrison Point. Already
the foundations of this massive casemated fort have
been completed. The foundations consist entirely
of brickwork, resting on a broad substantial con-
crete bottom carried to a great depth, in order to
support the enormous weight to be thrown on them.
The fort will occupy nearly the same site as the
Halfmoon and Cavalier Batteries erected upwards
ave recently
of the work
obfee2noOdecmenotliusrhieeds bthotehporfowsehcuicthienh
the bricks which composed the foundation of the
two demolished batteries were found to be in such
excellent preservation that most of them were again
for
th s
used for the foundation of the new fort. This saved
a considerable expense, no less than 2,000,000
bricks
part of the
b
settled sufficiently to sustain the weight to
eing reAqusired soon a
thefoundations are con-
sideredbe placed on them, the work of raising the super-
structure will be proceeded with, in order that the
fort may be completed and mounted with its ar-
under-
taking
ar-
mament alone.
before the close of the present financial
year. The cost of erecting this fort, great as it
has been, will be trifling compared with that in-
curred in building the two large forts higher up the
Medway, on each side the river, at Darnetness and
Folly-point, close to the entrance of Chatham har-
bour. The position for the two forts at the stops
named is certainly the very best which could have
been selectcd, but in the prosecution of the works
the most formidable obstacles have to he encoun-
tered. In selecting the locality, however, it
would now appear that the necessary precautions
had not been adopted to ascertain the nature of the
soil on which it was intended to place two enormous
forts, the result of which is that on a soft, spongy
soil, scarcely firm enough to sustain a hut, it was
decided to place a powerful brick fort. The ex-
penses already incurred have been something enor-
mous. From the rate at which the works proceed,
and are then destroyed, we may infer that years
will lapse before the battery now attempted to be

erected at Bishop's-marsh is ready to mount a single
gun. In order to obtain the necessary foundations
the soil had to be excavated to a depth of about 10
ft.; but no sooner was this accomplished than the
ground gave way, and the water rushing in ren-
dered useless the work,'.: that had taken months to
complete. There 14 ere destroyt:.!l at the same time
about 30,000 tons of materials, whicli
had been
deposited on the ground for conversion into concrete.
It was then decided to attempt a new plan to relieve
' the enormous outside pressure on the foundations
by driving piles, and throwing up the earth exca-
vated to form a counterscarp, the piles themselves
being securely bolted together. Again, however,
the treacherous soil gave way. A third attempt is
now being made to lay the foundation of the bat-
tery, the plan adopted being on a principle where-
by additional safeguards are taken to prevent land-
slips, and these up to the present time have been
attended with success, though how far the method
will answer time alone can show. Every exertion
is now being made to hasten the completion of the
battery, in order to make up for time lost, but even
now the utmost precautions require to be taken for
a thorough settlement of the foundations before a
single brick of the superstructure is laid, or from
the warnings already given, the fort, as soon as
completed, may suddenly sink out of sight, or crumble
to pieces through a natural yielding of the soil. The
same difficulties, although in a minor degree, have
had to be encountered at the works (la the opposite
side of the river, at Folly-point. The guns from these
batteries will effectually guard the passage of
Pinope-reach, and will be so arranged that they will
cross their fire and effectually bar the passage of any
hostile flotilla attempting to ascend to Chatham
harbour, even supposing that the vessels had suc-
ceeded in passing the batteries at the entrance of
the river. Considerable progress has been made in
the erection of the formidable forts on the western
shore of the Medway, near the Spit of Grain, which,
it is anticipated, will be completed and armed by
the same time that the batteries on the opposite
shore, Garrison-point, are finished. It is now de-
cided not to remove the large martello tower erected
a few Sears since at the entrance to the river, the
new forts having been so constructed that the tower
will not interfere with the range of the guns
mounted on the batteries. The martello tower
cost between £20,000 and £30,000, and is a very
formidable structure, of great strength, and mount-
ing a tier of four guns carrying the heaviest metal.
Its admirable position has induced the authorities
to allow it to stand.

An important branch has just been added to the
Royal Laboratory in Woolwich Arsenal, and is
closely approaching completion—namely, a new
factory, fitted with appropriate machinery for the
purpose of repairing damaged war stores returned
from foreign stations, or such as in many cases are
rendered unfit for use by transport. The building is
of corrugated iron, and covers a space near the new
shell foundry, measuring 150 ft. by 100 ft.