The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-11 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN CATTLE MARKET.

To-day's market was but moderately supplied with
beasts in very middling condition. The few prime breeds
on offer commanded a steady sale, at full prices ; otherwise
the beef trade was in a sluggish state, on rather easier
terms. The top figure for beef ,was 4s 8d per 81bs. Sheep,
the show of which was by no means extensive, met a dull
inquiry, and, in some instances, the quotations were in
favour of buyers. The best Downs sold at 5s 4d per Slbs.
The few lambs on offer were disposed of at previous rates—
via., from 5s to 6s 4d per 81bs. 'We have to report a dull
sale for calves, on former terms. Pigs were quite as dear
as on Monday, but milch cows were very dull.

Per Slb. to sink the offal.
s. d. s. d.
Crse. &inf. beasts 3 2 3 4
Second quality do. 3 6 3 8
Prime large oxen 3 10 4 4
Prime Scots, &c. 4 6 4 8
Crse. & inf. sheep 3 8 3 10
Second qualityclo. 4 0 4 6

s. d. 0. d.
Primecrs-wool d 0.4 8 5 0
Prue. S' thdown do .5 2 5 4
Largo orse. calves 4 0 4 6
Prime small do 4 8 5 0
Large hogs 3 10 4 4
Small porkers ... 4 6 4 10

Lambs, 5s Od to 6s 4d.

GRL'AT FIRE NEAR TIll? NORTH FORE-
LAND LIGHTHOUSE.

MARGATE, Weda:?sday.—The most extensive fire that has
occurred for many years in the county broke out yesterday
afternoon, and as late as eight o'clock to-night was not
wholly extinguished. The scene of its operations covered
a large superficics, upon which stood sundry ricks of wheat,
barns, thrashing houses, stabling, cow-houses, the farm-
house,- and sundry other outbuildings. The premises
were probably as large as any in the district, and 1- nown
as Blackburn's Farm, standing between St. Peter's and
Kingsgate, near this town. The discovery was made by
one of the farm servants through seeing smoke rolling up
from the centre of the homestead. It was then found that
a considerable quantity of grain had from some cause be-
come ignited, and although an instant attempt was made to
subdue the flames, they travelled with the most extraordinary
swiftness, firing in rapid succession two large barns filled
with grain, 7 ricks of corn, the farmhouse, various agricul-
tural depots, and presented an immense sheet of flame
which could be seen at dark distinctly at Ramsgate,
and it is said by passengers by the steamers on the other
side of the sea. One thing is quite certain, that the while
cliffs of Ramsgate were splendidly lighted up as if some
grand pyrotechnic display was going on. Expresses were
sent off in all directions for the engines, and upon the light
and the smoke of the conflagration being seen front the
distance, the fire-bells were rung with full vigour, and
as soon as a sufficient number of men could be got toge-
ther for manning the engines, those from Margate, Rams-
gate, and the Isle of Thanet started to the scene of
devastation, but the fire had previously obtained too firm a
hold to succumb to such limited hydraulic force, and the
fire continued to spread. Persons travelled to the spot in
coaches, broughams, on horseback, in waggonettes, and,
in fact, all kinds of vehicles. The engines, as before
stated, were unable to combat effectually with such a
vast amount of fire, and every one remarked that the fire,-
extinguishing apparatus in that part of the country was
far from being perfect—not kept in an efficient
state, like those of the London Brigade. Fortunately,
the horses were all saved just in the nick of time, but
the stabling, like the other property, was destroyed. The
total loss must amount to several thousand pounds sterling.
The fire, it is supposed, was caused from some of the grain,
during the late wet season, having been stowed away whilst
damp, and over-heating ; hence the calamitous event,
which in the true sense of the word it has unquestionably
proved to be. Mr. Charles White, of the County Fire-
office, and Mr. Hadsell, surveyors to the principal London
fire-offices, were present during the day, but they were then
unable to find out the amount of loss or the insurance.

MANCHESTER 4ND LIVERPOOL AGRI-

CULTURAL SOCIETY.

WARRINGTON, WEDNESDAY.
The fifteenth annual show of the above-named
society was opened here this morning.
Although this year the total entries are some-
what less than those in 1861, being 1,740 as
against 2,150, there is an increase in several of
the most important departments. The most
interesting part of the show is that of implements
and machinery. There are 70 stands of imple-
ments, and 967 entries. The exhibitors are
from Manchester, Liverpool, Warrington,
Leeds, Lincoln, Sheffield, Carlisle, Knutsford,
Birmingham, Gloucester, Herefordshire, Grantham,
and other parts of the country, and there is one ex-
hibitor from Canada. Steam engines are at work
in every part of the field set apart for implements,
making bricks, driving circular saws, and setting
all kinds of machines in motion. A more complete
collection of steam-engines has probably seldom
been brought together.

The show of horses is unusually good, the tho-
roughbreds being of fine qudlity. The horned cat-
tle are below the average in number. The show of
poultry is extensive. There is but a scanty exhi-
bition of roots, vegetables, fruits, and flowers, but
there is nothing to complain of on the score of merit.
The entries of horned cattle are 73 ; of horses, 119 ;
sheep, 92 ; pigs, 63 ; poultry, 138 ; geese, 11; ducks,
27; turkeys, 3; cheese, 13; butter, 22; seeds and
roots, 74; saddlery, 4. There are also ninety-nine
competitors for special prizes given by the War-
rington local committee to amateur cottage gar-
deners and others. There are 27 entries of flowers.

The annual dinner of the society was held this
afternoon. Colonel PATTEN, M.P., presided. The
dinner took place in a large tent on the show-
ground, accommodating about 400 persons.
Lord SKELMERSDALE proposed "The patrons of
the society, the Earl of Derby and Lord Egerton of
Tatt on."

Lord STANLEY, M.P., who was warmly cheered,
responded on behalf of Lord Derby, and added
—No man, I think, can look at this country
now, and recollect what it was fifteen or twenty
years ago, without being able to bear from personal
observation his testimony to the value of associa-
tions such as this. No doubt we have still some-
thing to learn and a great deal to do, but no man
can now travel in any direction over the country
which he remembers some yens ago in this
neighbourhood without seeing that crooked fences
have been levelled, that small fields have been
laid together, that morasses have been drained,
that weeds are less frequent than before, that
land which was formerly unproductive from wet
has been brought under drainage into a rich culti-
vation, and above all that, gradually and slowly,
yet steadily, in many departments of agricultural
industry hand-labour is being superseded by imple-
ments of the class which we have seen in the show-
yard. (Cheers.) He concluded by expressing re-
gret that there was not a larger number of tenant
farmers in the association, and proposing the health
of the chairman.

CARBINE MATCH.—A challenge, given by the
10th x ent (Woolwich Arsenal) Volunteer Artillery to the
Ist Kent (Gravesend) Artillery Corps, to compete for a
series of prizes with the regulation carbine, has been ac-
cepted, and the match will come off on Saturday next, at
the Erith practice range. The distances will be 100, 200,
and 300 yards.
THE NEW TRAINING SHIPS AT LEITH.—It will
interest our Naval Coast Volunteers to know that the line-
of-battle screw-steamer Meanee, 80, 400 horse-power, 2,591
tons —the vessel is intended to take place of the Edinburgh,
60, on Scotch coast— is ordered to be brought forward for
commission, with a complement of 650 officers and mea,
including Royal Marines. She is to be furnished with an
armament of 24 32-pounders, each of 50 cwt. on her main
deck; 26 8 -inch 65-cwt. guns on her lower decks; and
2 110-pounder and 8 40-pounder Armstrong guns on her
upper deck. In addition to these she will be supplied with
two 12- pounder Aimstrongs, and a few brass field guns for
boat service.

GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY.—After the meeting
of the proprietors, reported yesterday, a special board was
held, at which Mr. Love was e.ected chairman, and Mr.
James Goodson deputy-chairman of the company.
THE METROPOLITAN RAlLWAY.—Yesterday the
immense wrought-iron bridge, consisting of 7 ponderous
girders, the intermediate spaces being arched with brick•
work, was successfully completed across the terminus of
the Metropolitan Railway at the bottom of Charles-street,
Hatton- garden ; and the thoroughfare will be opened for
public traffic in a few days. The other bridge across the
railway at the back of the Sessions House, Clerkenwell, is
far advanced towards completion, and will be opened about
the 24th inst.

The Victoria Shoreham, taken by the War De-
partment, was yesterday towed down to Woolwich,
to embark powder and ammunition ; and the
Thomas of Goole commenced shipping a 12-pounder
battery, 5,000 stand of small arms, and other war
stores.

Admiralty orders have been received by Col. Le-
mon, C. 8., commanding the Chatham division of
Royal Marine Light Infantry, directing volunteer-
ing to be opened from the companies at headquar-
ters for detachments to proceed to Bermuda. The
number of men required is at least 100, the qualifi-
cations required from volunteers being that they
shall possess a knowledge of some common trade, as
smiths, carpenters, &c., in order that they may be
employed in the royal dockyard, where, it is under-
stood, convict labour will shortly be abolished.
Each of the men volunteering will receive duringo..
a ..
the time he is employed at Bermuda 18.3 d. in d
tion to his daily pay.
Major-Gen, Stransham, Inspector-General of the
Royal Marines, yesterday attended in the long rifle
range at Woolwich, and witnessed thethe
stiperinten-
petitive firing of the division under annual com-
petitive
of Capt. Bunce, rifle instructor
yards.totheAbtatlthae-
lion. The ranges were 600 an. do,d h
e was happy in
close of the firing the genehraatl
their progress in the
being able to tell them t
use of the rifle was very satisfactory, and he should
report favourably of the entire division.
The Prussian screw cory et t elaGteazehloi
lelr
,Cosinptmonday. Held t,
sailed from Spithead at a
evening for the
Downs, to embark his Royal High-
ness Prince
malbert for Dotsio.

ARMOUR CLAD SHIPS AN INVENTION
IN 7HE LIME OF ELIZABETH.

Strengthening ships with armour-plates or shields
would seem to be no modern invention. It was
practised in the age of Elizabeth, and with conside-
rable success. This appears from the following
curious extract, which is taken from a contemporary
MS. preserved in the State Paper Office. It was
penned in the year 1596 by " poor Captain John
Yang, of Gt Lawraunce Powitneislane, in London,
near to the owld Swanne," a veteran of 40 years'
experience in naval affairs. Like too many more
of our early mechanical genuses he profited little
by his skill, and (to the disgrace of the Queen) still
less by his patriotism. The captain was specially
employed in the memorable summer of 'BB " for the
discovery of the Duke of Medina," i.e. to give warn-
ing to the Government of the approach of the
Spanish Armada. He was afterwards associated
with another officer of his own rank named Prowse,
in disposing the fire-ships which Effectually dis-
persed that magnificent fleet when anchored off
Calais—a service for which the poor gentleman was
never remunerated, nor even compensated for his
" own great ship, worth more than a thousand
pounds," which was one of the eight selected
for combustion. A very curious document is the
inventory of her contents.

Yong's paper, or "motion" as he designates it,
is addressed to the Earl of Essex. By substituting
shields for "frames," and rendering his account in
modern English, it then might very well pass for
one of those descriptions of experiments in naval
architecture, and the resisting of a ship's hull,
with which we are now-a-days so frequently
favoured by contending engineers :
" May it please yor honor to consider of this
article following :

" If yt maye please yor honor to thinks good of
this mocon to the greats strengthening of her Maty
navye, as other princes have bin inforeed to doe the
like ; that is to saie, some of the greatest shippes
and some of the others to be put into frames madu
of straight & smothe rownde masts, not verge bigg
but reasonable; and the frames to be made in this
sorte, viz , ffrom the fore parte of the forecastell on
the one side, & soe all alongst & rownde abowte the
poope alsoe, and aoe all alongst the other side upp
to the fore parte of the forecastell also ; and that
theare muste bee made rounde holes through the
ships side no bigger then thende of the masts will
go in, close and straighte to fill the wholes; the
eandes of the masts must be made fast down to the
des or overlops ; but you must remember to place
the eandes within boorde, just between yor greats
peece, for hindering of the trauesing of them in the
tyme of seruice, & the longe masts wch must
make the frame without boorde, and theye must
be made faste to the eandes of them wihowte
boord, & fastened with strong plates of Iron made
purpose, or ells with bowlts rings & forlocks,
within boorde & without alsoe; and yor frames maie
be in lengthe without borde 10 or 12 foote longe,
or longer or shorter at yor pleasure ; but the King
of Denmarke in his ships their frames wear eightene,
ffo wre and twentie, & thirtie foot longe with-
owt borde ; but in my opinion they weare to
monsterous longe; but wthin horde thende of your
masts maye be as shorte as you shall think good.
By this pollecye two hundredth men shalbe able to
hold owte a thowsande men, yea two thowsande
men, and alsoe the enemie lying in this great daun-
ger so near to or greate ordynance, & theye being
not able by noe meanes posible to make entrie for
the frames, & wee may easilie sincke them or spoile
them in shcrte time ; & these frames will not hinder
the tackling of the shippe, & you may take them of
when &on when you thincke good. I have seen
the King of Denmark° inforced to doe all this, ar ells
the King of Sweathlande woulde not have lefte him
not one shippe, & if he had left his navye he hod
loste his kingdome alsoe, for the Kinge of Sweath-
lande his ships wears more in number & bigger, &
muche better manmed, with abundance of all war-
like furniture & municen, & of greate copperpeeces
web. shoote a hondredth waight of osementes° er
shot at euery shot; & euery one of his good ships
were made of saker shot proof above in their cage
works, and betweene winde & water of cannon shote
proof, to keep them from sincking ; and theye had
alsoe greate murdering peeces of copper to scowrs
their fights. Aloreuer, the frames foresaide are good
to be used especiallye in the narrow seas., yf the
great inuincible fleet of the Spaniards doe come
again, for the frames will make or navie ten thou-
sand men stronger then euer they weare before. I
meane, If all or the moats parte be put into
fframes of or men-a-war heere put at home, for
that the frames are not to be used in farre & and
long voyages excepts you will bestows them
in yor ships some parte within borde & some
parte withowt, the logest lasht wthowt horde, and
when you come where yor enemies bee you maye
acne put them owt for yor defence; but it will be
troble-,ome to carrie."

In the same paper, Capt. Yong suggests the re-
vival of " the °tilde fashion, in the time of King
Henry VIII.," of having " a cheine nettinge of
iron" suspended to the sides of the largest men-of
war; the adjusting of which he describes at length.
He strongly urges its re•adoption in the Royal
Navy as a perfect safeguard, both against the fire-.
works of the enemy, and their attempts at boarding,

4 Oaernund or Osemuth : i. e., balls made of the best
Swedish iron.

CRYSTAL PALACE.—The unfavourable weather
of yesterday necessitated an alteration in Blondin's per-
formances, which had been fixed to take place on the gar-
den rope. The change into the centre transept had, how-
ever, one great point of interest, Mr. J. Rogers, of the
Strand Theatre, requesting to be carried over the rope on
Blondin's back, a feat which was most successfully per-
formed, amidst the plaudits of the numerous spectators.
BRISTOL SUGAR-MARKET, Sept. 10.—There has
been a fair business doing in British plantation sugars this
week, principally with the refiners, and considerable busi-
ness has also been doing in floating cargoes for arrival, all
at very full prices to 6d
.per cwt. advance. Rum—Nothing
doing.

The Jews at Warsaw have been admitted to the
functions of Chief of Guild and Judge at the Tribunal of
Commerce.

Frost has already made its appearance at Dantsic!,
and from the large cuantity of nuts and beach-mast which q
have been this year produced, the country people declare
that an early and severe winter may be expected.
was
The railway from Fribourg to Lausaoo°
cere-
monies, last week with the usual religious and crabitant
monies, the day being observed as a fits by the
of the country round. The most remarkable
crosses the
°fora the founds
line is the lofty viaduct of Grandfey, Tare of this
Sarine at a height of 78 metres from the fora
and is 333
metres in length. It is made of cast iron, y
lass than two years
of Creusot, and has beea completed in
and a half. Brinton, who is
pr.
THE USES OF ALCOHOL.--
Ai„d in favour of alcohol,
by no means unreasonably Priprery large experience, that
has given it as the result of v
personsncnru
mabl
ec
ro ho of l y
ears,
if
the,
almost whoinvariably,abst a
a coy severe intellectual or phi.
ttaelr toget
coy
e rinfr
are constantly employed in
winds or their bodies give way
sical labour. Either thbieefonce done is very hard to repair.
suddenly, and the miscicance with what I have myself ob-
I can gather from other medical
bwTarehe iserved,osuigs
certainhat quite
dnb.
:oditogobnfin withEi .
imperfect
:_pec,weirvilisfaroiaetcicuuotrhmecolehlys.e
chemical
nlict , concerningtahleoirr indeed i the h
be e way a
fact
ci
tn
that which
in
men : and it speaks
regrow of civilisation men require to take al
in E ome shape or
ployr,
day, under penalty of
hoI every
physiological
c°-
ls idle to ap-
cal experi-
a s
to decide, on their evidence, that we ought to
pealen to
andw
hol a medicine or a poison, but not a food. In name
call alco
of common sense, why should we retain these ridiculous
distinctions for any other purpose than to avoid catas-
trophes ? If it be well understood that a glass of good
wine will relieve a man's depression and fatigue sufficiently
to enable him to digest his dinner, and that a pint of gin
taken at once will probably kill him stone dead, why
haggle about words? On the part of the medical profes-
sion, I think I may say that we have long since begun to
believe that those medicines which really do benefit our
patients act in one way or another as foods, and that some
of the most decidedly poisonous substances are those which
offer, in the form of small doses, the strongest example of
a true food action. On the part of alcohol, then, I ven-
ture to claim that though we all acknowledge it to be a
poison, if taken during health in any but quite restricted
doses ; it is also a most valuable medicine-food. I am
obliged to declare that the chemical evidence:is as yetin-
sufficient to give any complete explanation of its exact
1 manner of action upon the system ; but that the practical
facts are as stliking as they could well be, and that there
can be not mistake about them,—" Cornhilt Magazine" for
ISeptember.