The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-19 00:00:00

The London Royal Naval Reserve.

Yesterday the Duke of Somerset, First Lord of
the Admiralty, inspected the London section of the
Royal Naval reserve attachei to her Majesty's drill
ship President, lying in the Canal or South Dock
of the West India Dock. This being the first
official inspection of this popular service by the Lords
of the Admiralty, the event created much interest,
and numbers of well dressed people lined the bank
of the dock to witness what they could of the pro-
ceedings. The Duke of Somerset, who was attended
by Admiral Hanshaw, and Captain Hall, the First
Lord's private secretary, went down from the Ad-
miralty by boat, and landed at the canal pierhead
on Millwall. His Grace then proceeded on board
the President, and was received by Captain Mould,
R.N., the commander of the President, Commodore
Ryder, R.N., Mr. Mayo, the Registrar-General of
Seamen, Captain Gardner, Inspector of the Royal
Naval Reserve, the officers of the Reserve, and a
guard of honour, composed of a portion of the men
now on chill, who formed in open rank and pre-
sented arms. The officers of the Reserve in at-
tendance, viz. :—.4leuten
ants John Howe Brown,
John F. Trivett, Stephen Jarman, Sam. H.Wright,
the officer in charge of the guard, T. C. C. Kerr,
T.
J. Walters (the drilling officer), Sub-Lieutenants
W. Curtis Coulcher, Robert Maynard, Cuthbert.
Vaux, John Wright, J. T. S. Green, and C. IL
Palmer (also an officer in charge of the guard)
were
presented to his Grace. The Duke then made a brief
survey of the upper deck, and the very clean appear-
ance of the frigate and the general arrangements
showed the care and attention that were taken in
the management of the ship. He then went on the
main deck, which carries 28 68-pounder guns and
the men commenced exercising at the guns. They
acquitted themselves in a manner that probably
could not be surpassed even on board the Excellent.
The men first manned both sides, cast loose the
guns, loaded and ran them out, fired one round, and
stood easy for further orders. They then manned
the starboard guns, and fired three rounds of broad-
side firing. The enemy was next supposed to be on
the port side. It was afterwards imagined to be
crossing the frigate's bow, and the order was given
to secure for raking ahead. The order " Up to your
quarters" followed, and then the starboard guns
were fired with remarkable steadiness and alacrity.
Next a second and fourth gun carriage were sup-
posed to be disabled, The two guns were raised,
the disabled carriages removed, two others trans-
ported across the deck and put into their places,
and the guns run out, the whole being accomplished
in one minute and 48 seconds. There followed
three rounds of quick firing, and, after a very brief

pause, while the enemy were supposed to be coming
down on the port bow, the order was given to man
the port guns and double shot them. Four rounds
oflindependent firing, port, beam, quarter, and beam
again were discharged. The men displayed the good
drilling they had gone through in shifting breech-
ing ; they also manned both sides, prepared for
raking, and fired on starboard beam. Lasitly both
sides were manned and the guns were secured for
sea, which brought the gunnery practice to a close.
The Duke of Somerset, with the rest of the party,
were then conducted into the drill shed, where a
large number of the Reserve were drawn out, and
they went through the usual musket and cutlass
exercises in a very creditable manner. The Duke
of Somerset then informed Captain Mould, the
Commander of the President, that he was much
pleased with all that he had witnessed. The men
had performed their duties in a way that reflected
not only credit upon themselves, but upon those
who had instructed them. The manner in which
they had worked at the guns, and gone through
the exercises in the shed, gave satisfactory proof of
the care that had been taken in their drill. At the
same time he also spoke of the hearty feeling with
which the men had joined the service. He desired
that what he expressed should be communicated to
the officers and men. This having been done by
Captain Mould, the men were dismissed.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

GLASGOW AND SOUTH-WESTERN.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held on Wednesday, in Glasgow ; Sir A. Orr
in the chair.

The report, an abstract of which has appeared in
lie Sun, was taken as read. . _ _

The CHAIRMAN, in moving its adoption, said the
directors felt confident that the shareholders would
be satisfied with. the present position of the com-
pany's affairs, and they had great pleasure in pro-
posing an increased dividend, notwithstanding the
additional expenditure on capital account, a large
portion of which was at present unproductive. In
the last session of Parliament they had obtained
power to construct a direct line to Kilmarnock,
which would have the effect of shortening their
line to the South, and, by means of the Glasgow
Union, would give them a direct line across to
Edinburgh and Leith and the east and north of
Scotland. They had also obtained access to the
important town of Greenock by means of the
Greenock and Ayrshire. They had got powers to
make lines from Ayr to the main line from Kil-
marnock to Dumfries, and in connexion with their
mineral line from Muirkirk, and also a line from
Dairy Junction towards Largs. They had also ob-
tained running powers and increased facilities over
and Scottish Central Railway to Perth and Dundee
in the act amalgamating that company with the Ca-
ledonian, and they had arranged with the North
British Company for mutual facilities over their re-
spective systems. They had thus become one of the
great lines of communication between England and
Scotland, and therefore they hoped to obtain their
fair share of the large and increasing through traffic,
of which they had hitherto been deprived. During
the last session they had also got the entire control,
by amalgamation with the Castle Douglas and Dum-
fries, the Maybole and Girvin, the Kirkcudbright,
and the Bridge of Weir. Those four companies
being now part of their system would be worked ad-
vantageously for the benefit of the company. The
contracts for the works on the City Union had been
settled, and the contractors were ready to commence
the portion of line forming a junction between their
line and the college so soon as arrangements could
be made, and the bridge over the Clyde would be
begun forthwith. The addition of traffic which the
new lines would give them would, he had no doubt,
help them onwards to greater strength and increased
dividends. The company's railway was in excellent
order, and portions of the line were being relaid
where it was necessary to do so.
The report was unanimously adopted, and a divi-
dend at the rate of 6 per cent. per annum was de-
clared on the ordinary stock of the company, in
which the preference stock participated to that
amount.