The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-18 00:00:00

tile Ajax, 60,„ at -Portsmouth ; and C. T. Compton
(1344), recently serving as First Lieutenant of the Fan-
tome sloop, 12, on the Australian station, have been
promoted to be commandep3.

Captain Smith relieved Rear-Admiral Courtenay as
superintendent of the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar,
and the Clarence Victualling-yard, Gosport, on Satur-

day-
Smith, C. 8., It E.,
Major-General Sir Frederick
commanding Royal Engineers in Portsmotith garrison,
is reported to be the lieutenant-governor of that fortress,
vice Bentinck, appointed to a division is the Crimea.

THE DRAKE MORTAR VESSEL.
On Saturday the experiments on board the Drake
mortar vessel, fitted by Capt. Julius Roberts, Royal
Marine Artillery. at Portsmouth, were continued off
Shoeburyness. The great advantages possessed by this
system of fittings and the principle of construction over
the old plan have caused the Admiralty to press these
experiments forward. The question as to the principle
has been decided by the experiments, but the more vital
one, that of the strength of ironwork in the carriage
requisite, is still a subject of trial.

DESTRUCTION OF THE TOWN OF CHRIS-
TIANSAND
BY THE BRITISH SQUADRON,
cjAST OF AFRICA.
The .Prometheus, 5, paddle, Commander J. H. Sel-
wyn, arri.:ved at Sierra Leone, Oat. 28, 11A days from
Gibraltar. According to orders left by the commodore,
she immediately embarked seven officers and about 120
men of the 2d ai:d 3d West India Regiments, to join the
force previously ontto Accra in the Britomart. She
also convoyed a colonial steamer with additional troop'.
When the mail steamer left Accra on the Bth, she was
at that place, together with the Scourge, 6, paddle,
Commodore Adams, and Dolphin, brigantine, Lieutenant
Commander Webber. There had been some smart
fighting with the native population, who were in a state
of revolt, arising out of the refusal to pay duty on spirits.
The whole the then town of Christwhich iansan
lost bad beena
good
de-
stroyed by English steamers, had
many men.
The Minx, 2, iron screw gun-vessel, Lieut. Com-
mander Ryves, left Lagos, Nov. 6, for Prince's Island,
where she would water, and thence proceed to Ascension
to recruit the health of her crew, having 26 hands sick
with the fever.
The Crane, 6, Commander Miller, was at Lagos on
. Nov. 6.—Plymouth Mail.

ROYAL MARINES.
The following is a copy of a letter from the Admiralty'
to Major-General Srl Jowl Owen, K.C.11.K.H., ou
retirement from the duties of Deputy-Adjutant-Gene-

rat
"Admiralty, Dec. 13, 1854.
am commanded by my Lords Commissioners
of the Admiralty to acknowledge the receipt of your
Lotter of the 11th inst., and I WTI to acquaint you that
in accepting the resignation of your appointment as
Deputy-Adjutant-General of the Royal Marine Forces,
my Lords are sensible that you have continued to dis-
charge your duties with zeal and fidelity to as late a
period as the state of your health would permit, and my
Lords much regret the loss of your services, which have
been alike honourable to your6elf and useful to the corps
in which you have been so long and so highly distin-
guished.—By command. "R. OSBORNE."
Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Robert Wesley, on re-
ceiving his appointment as Deputy-Adjutant-General,
in the room of Major-General Sir John Owen (retired),
had it announced to him that it was conferred with the
rank of colonel.

OF S

N'EDEN'S