The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-12 00:00:00

RAILWAYS.

An Account of the proposed Amount of Capital, and of the
Sums authorised to be Borrowed, in the Railway Bills de-
posited with the Commissioners of Railways, for the present
Session of Parliament.
Amount of Capital
Amount of Sums authorised to be Borrowed

Total Capital and Lnan
FREDERICK W. A. BRUCE, Secretary.
Office of Commissioners of Railways, March 10, 1847.

CAPT. WARNER'S INVENTION.
A Copy of Report of Officers appointed to make a Trial o:
Mr. Warner's Long Range, addressed to the Master-
General of the Ordnance.
(Confidential.)
To Field-Marshal the Most Honourable the Marquis of
Anglesey, K.G., &c. &c.

London, Dec. 9, 1846.
My Lord Marquis,---We have the honour to forward to
your Lordshp, for the information of her Majesty's Govern-
ment, the journal of our proceedings as a Committee ap-
pointed to inquire into Captain Warner's inventions.
Our attention has as yet been directed only (agreeably to
our instructions) to that denominated the "Long Range,"
the trial of which took place in your Lordship's presence on
the evening of the 28th of November.
From this document it will be observed that our earnest
desire has been to bring this long-pending question to a fair
practical proof, by giving Captain Warner every facility of
exhibiting his invention, consistent with our public duty.
The amount of Captain Warner's own estimate was fur-
nished to him by the Government, the place of operation was
chosen by himself, and also the direction of the object to be
operated against; finally, after Captain Warner had stated
his preparations were complete, five days elapsed before all
circumstances suited his perfect convenience and were fa-
Aionrable for making his experiment.
We have now the honour to report that this trial proved
a failure; and having given the subject our most serious
conaideration, we are of f ho, a1i,....7.;..;.et=za
ing (arm trom the complicated nature of) the mode of opera-
tion, and the uncertainty of precision of aim, this invention'
of- be " Long Range" cannot be made available 'for the
general purposes of war; and we beg farther: to remark that
the principle of action will always be discovered upon -the
first exhibition.

We await your Lordship's orders as to our future pro-
ceedings, Captain Warner having stated that he would not
enter into the subject of his " explosive powers," or other
inventions, until the long range is finally disposed of.
We have, Sic.
(Signed) H. D. CHADS, Captain, R.N.
J. A. CHALMER, Lieut.-Col., R.A.

(By order of the Master-General and Board of Ordnance.)
R. BYHAM, Secretary.
Office of Ordnance, March 5, 1847.

ASSOCIATION FOR THE REVIVAL
OF SACRED MUSIC.

EDINBURGH, Mancn 9.
Public meetings were held this morning and this evening,
n the Music ball, of the classes of this association, which is
patronised by the Queen, the Queen Dowager, Prince Al-
bert, and a number of the Scottish_nobility. The society
was instituted in November, 1844, principally with the view
of improving Church psalmody, of instructing teachers,
precentors, and the children of schools of all denominations,
in the principles of vocal music, and to prepare and fit young
persons to impart these principles; and although unsup-
ported by the community in au adequate manner as a na-
tional institution, capable of exercising a benign influence
over those sections of society for whose benefit it was de-
signed, it has nevertheless demonstrated its efficiency and its
value. Hundreds of children have acquired the principles of
an art, calculated to afford rational amusement and enjoy-
ment, as a substitute for the gross and demoralising gratifica-
tions which the want of purer and more elevated ones too
frequently induce. Dr. Mainzer, the musical director of the
association, who has gratuitously taught its classes since
their formation, not only teaches his pupils to cultivate
the eye and voice in reading and singing, but also the ear, in
listening to melodies, so that on hearing a tune, they are en-
abled to translate and to write it down in musical notation.
Every one acquainted with the science will admit that teach-
ing capable of effecting this must be of the most thorough and
masterly description ; the appearance made by the classes to-
day, however, fully established the fact, for on some notes and
airs from Mozart being handed, from the auditory, to Dr.
ainzer, and he having played them on the pianoforte, the
advanced pupils very readily and successfully announced the
notes, although they had never heard the airs before. The
principle of mutual instruction has been beautifully carried
on in these classes. Dr. Mainzer teaches the children to read
all the exercises to a certain page in the elementary manual,
which many of them then communicate to ether children,
numbers of the boys and girls having ten, twenty, sixty, or
eighty pupils ; one girl, of 11r. Dunn's school, has taught
more than two hundred children, and on examination
it has been found that children taught by these children
are as well instructed as the elementary classes taught by
Dr. Mainzer himself. Having adverted to the principal
steps by which a great national movement for harmonizing
the humbler classes has been began, we shall now allude
more particularly to the proceedings which came under our
notice in the Music-hall. With the exception of Dr.
Mainzer, who presided at the pianoforte, the spacious
orchestra was occupied by 700 children, whose happy counte-
nances and neat appearance formed a most interesting sight.
The children were first examined in their elementary exer-
cises, the advanced classes singing counterpoint and fugue;
the notes of different intervals, and musical phrases being
mentioned, they then struck the musical sounds; or on melo-
dies from Hayden, Handel and other masters being played by
Dr. Mainzer, the superior classes, even when they had not
heard them before, announced the notes of sehicli they were
composed. These pupils, on sounding a tuning fUrk, can strike
any note and chord of any key of the scale of six or seven
sharps or fiats, and sing, with little trouble in tuition,
the compositions of Marcello, Handel. Arnold, Kent,
Mozart, and other great composers. Where all was pleasing
and well performed, it is almost invidious to particularise.
The modulations and cadences were observed by the children
in a manner that would have done credit to senior artists,
but it was when the full chorus of 700 voices was heard that
the effect became truly grand and imposing. " There is nae
luck about the house " had a most powerful influence upon
the auditory, whose plaudits where spontaneous and universal
the " Rowan Tree" was also a favourite; as were also Che-
rubini's " March of the Night Patrol," and Luther's Chorale.
To educate not only adults but children in the pleasing art
of music is an advance in civilisation, the practicability of
which has been amply demonstrated in the experience of
this society, which it will be the honour of Scotland to per-
petuate among her most efficient and invaluable institutions.

OURT CIRCUL.
The Queen and Prince Albert, accompanied by Prince
Edward of Saxe Weimer, walked in the plantations of Os-
borne House on Wednesday afternoon.
Mr. G. E. Anson arrived at Osborne House on Wednesday.
His Serene Highness Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar and
Mr. Anson joined the Royal circle at dinner.
Yesterday morning her Majesty and her Royal Consort, ac-
companied by Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar, took their ac-
customed early walk.
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, the Princess
Royal, and the Princess Alice, walked out
on Wednesday
afternoon. Yesterday morning the Royal children walked
and rode on ponies on the beach.
His Serene Highness Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar, left
Osborne House yesterday morning, crossed in the Fairy to
Gosport, and proceeded to Winchester.
Lady Caroline Somers Cocks, Maid of Honour in Waiting,
left Osborne House yesterday for town.
On Wednesday afternoon, about half-past four o'clock,
a sad accident occurred at the new building at
Osborne. It appears that some workmen were removing a
centre under one of the arched passages of a very consider-
able portion of the building now in progress, and it is sup-
posed that owing to something slipping, one end of the centre
or framework on which the arch was formed acted as a lever
under the arch, and raising it, caused the displacement of the
materials of which it was composed, and the weight of which
falling on a scaffold below it, precipitated the whole to the
ground, together with some of the workmen who were
engaged upon it. The principal foreman of bricklayers, who
was on the arch at the time giving directions to his men, for-
tunately escaped ; but we regret to learn that three of the
labourers are injured—one man named Blake very severely
on the head, a second named Gale has his leg broken, and
the third named Morris has two of his ribs fractured. Her
end ita: ht alarm.
beingikr j Majesty tgyna,ennd
hh iass
tRe ittg he nspAgt
,Partilnde.egaAv
el hiemr i-m,
direc-
tions that the best surgical assistance should. be sent fo and•
everything possible to alleviate their sufferings should be
provided for tkem. Mr. Weedon, of East Cowes,-and Mr.
Cass, of West Cowes, quickly arrived, - and did all They
thought the cases admitted of. We regret that the report
of the medical men yesterday morning was, that they con-
sidered Blake is in considerable danger, but that the :other
two men are doing well.
The Governor of the Bank of England and the Deputy-
Governor, had an interview with the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, yesterday, at his official residence in Downing-
street.

Mr. Robert Gordon had an interview with the Earl of Cla-
rendon, yesterday, at the Office of the Board of Trade.
Mr. Bagshawe had an interview with the Right Honours-
able Edward Strutt, yesterday, at the Office of the Commis-
sioners of Railways, in Great George-street.
The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England had a gene-
ral meeting, yesterday, at their Office in Whitehall-place.

A CHEAP DINNER FOR THREE BISHOPS.--11l
book kept by the bailiffs of Oxford, at the time when Cran-
mer, Latimer, and Ridley were in custody there, the follow-
ing entry occurs of the bill of fare and expenses of the dinner
for the three prisoners on the Ist October, 1554 :—Bread and
ale, 2d.; oysters, ld. ; butter, 2d.; eggs, 2d. ; lyng, Bd. ; a
piece of fresh salmon, 10d. ; wine, 3d. ; cheese and pears,
2d. ; the whole three dinners, 2s. 6d. What would some of
our modern Right Rev. Fathers in God say to such fare as
this ?
DEATH FROM AN EXPLOSION OF PORTABLE GAS.

—The following melancholy accident, by which a highly
scientific and much esteemed French gentleman, Baron
d'Ancet, lost his life, is related in the newspapers of Rio de
Janeiro recently received. The Baron, it appears, was about
to establish at Rio a laboratory on a grand scale, but on the
18th of December last, after entertaining a few friends, be
went to bed, and placing a portable gas-lamp on a table, he
drew it to his bedside and took a book to read. About mid-
night, the lamp not giving sufficient light, he ordered his
servant bov to bring him some more gas. At this moment, the
boy began to execute the order,. and a current of air from a
door left open carried the gas i
in contact. with the burning
lamp; an explosion of the gas n the tin took place, the
greater part of which fell on the unfortunate baron, setting
the bed sheets on fire. with the curtains and pillow-cases.
Baron d'Ancet was scalded from head to foot, and plunged
ad
ni r ehcotul yr, into
and at
hceonl cold-bath, br
eastshe,d hiswhere he
woundrem remained
himself, fora
with quarter art er o
cotton,f
and would not consent to have any medical assistance called
in until the next morning, confident nothing could be done to
save him. Under this impression, and in excruciating pain,
surrounded by his physician and friends, who tried every
means to alleviate his sufferings, ho expired in a few hours
after. His attention was directed more to his servant than
to himself; the boy was seriously burnt, but hopes were en-
tertained of his recovery, without the use of one arm,