The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-23 00:00:00

si.HE SON, LONDON MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1871.

THE IRONCLAD SULTAN. 1
The departure of the great ironclad ship SultAn, from
Chatham for Portsmouth, has been again postponed. She'
was to have left the Medway on Saturday, but it is now
understood that she cannot leave for a fortnight or three
weeks in consequence of the work still to be completed.
She has been taking coal on board, and has now received
about 800 tons ; but this large supply would last only about
five days if the engines were fully at work with all the fur-
naces alight. The size and number of the furnaces are in-
dicated by the fact that the ship will require about 60
stokers. The whole of the concrete ballast, packed in the
compartments of the hull, and calculated to give the
necessary stability to the ship, has now been stowed away,

ACTIVITY AT WOOLWICH.

In spite of the lamentations concerning the ruined state
of Woolwich, and of the poverty which does undoubtedly
exist, especially in the dockyard district, there are signs
of increasing activity on all sides. Though the dockyard
is for the present closed, measures are being taken to
utilise its empty buildings by converting them into manu-
factories connected with the Arsenal or barracks, and it is
stated in official quarters that the whole of the control
stores at the grand depot, near the common, will shortly
be removed to the dockyard, and the depot given to the
Royal Artillery for the erection of additional barracks,
stables and gun sheds. An order has been received at the
Royal Gun Factories directing that in consequence of
the successful trial of the 35-ton gun, twelve others of the
same weight, are to be constructed during the present
year, it being yet undecided whether the calibre of the
bore shall not be increased by half an inch, and the
outer coils strengthened so as to permit of the gunpowder ,
charge being increased from 1201 b. to 1501 b., an enlarge-
ment of the bore to that extent being necessary to insure
the ignition of the maximum charge. There are also to
be built at the gun factories, on the Woolwich principle,
twenty 25-ton guns and twenty I*-ton guns, all of which
are to be completed this year. The Royal Carriage De-
partment has received a requisition for 15 batteries of the
new pattern iron field-gun carriages, which will make the
department even busier than at present. Plans are being
prepared at Woolwich for the erection of additional
workshops at the gunpowder factory Waltham Abbey,
owing principally to the demand for the newly-
approved pebble powder ; and the Royal Engineer
department is fully engaged in new works at various
Government establishments throughout the country.
Notices have been posted at the Royal Arsenal gate
stating that stokers are reqUired for the Royal Navy, and
there are notices in divers tavern windows inviting lads
who have been used to horses to join the Royal Artillery,
and promising 10s. reward to anyone who shall bring an
eligible recruit to the sergeants at the recruiting depot.
On Friday two batteries of the let Division Depot Brigade
Royal Artillery left Woolwich by rail for Shoeburyness
and the Isle of Grain, and the rest of the division, includ-
ing the headquarters, will proceed to Sheerness next
Tuesday,

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.
The Army and Nary Gazette says :—There is no truth
in the tumour that Captain Stanhope is about to resign
the post of Private Secretary to the First Lord of the Ad-
miralty, and to be succeeded by Captain Goodenough.
—Captain John D. M`Crea (1862) will succeed Captain
May in command of H.M.S. Northumberland, owing to
the term of service of the latter officer having expired.—
The depots of the 41st and 61st Regiments will remain at
Fermoy for the present, pending the decision of the War
Office with reference to the quartering of the depots of
regimefits on foreign service.—Nothiug is decided with
respect to the Indian Artillery reliefs for the season 1871-
72.—The Boxer cartridge cannot be made applicable
to the Gatling gun, and there are some doubts of its
being made applicable to the Martini-Henry rifle.
According to the United Service Gazette, directions have
been issued from the Admiralty to the effect that no
foreign officers are to be permitted to attend the torpedo
classes for instruction in the use .of that weapon of war-
fare.—" The torpedo net," invented by Staff Commander
Kiddie, R.N., has been approved of by the authorities at
Whitehall.—The Admiralty have, in consideration of the
present aspect of European affairs, declined to grant per-
mission to six Turkish officers to study gunnery on board
H. 31 S. Excellent.
The Government plan for the Militia has not transpired,
but as far as we (Broad Arrow) can learn, it will not
include any scheme for compulsory enrolments by ballot,
nor any " local conscription," such as that sketched out
by Lord Derby a few days since. It will probably deprive
the Lords-Lieutanant of their patronage, and will also
take from the officer commanding all right to refuse the
enlistment into the service of any Militiaman who has
gone through one year's training.

AFFAIRS AT TIIE ADMIRALTY.
The following important statements appear in an article
in the Pall Mall Gazette :—lt is not true that Mr. Childers
has resigned ; or perhaps it would be more accurate to
say that his resignation has not been accepted. For though
we know nothing of the facts of the case, we hardly
doubt that Mr. Childers has offered to resign,
thereby performing a manifest duty to himself
and to the country whose laborious and pains-
taking servant he is. It is a time when he cannot
work ; and a time when we cannot afford to have his
work neglected. As long as he remains in office he will
be tempted to do that which may completely overthrow
him ; and to leave the duties of an office like his
undone at a moment like the present would be so
serious an inconvenience for the country, and so ut-

terly disorganising to the department itself, that we
feel compelled to object to the arrangement. Mr.
Childers' illness is not only a great misfortune for
himself, it is a misfortune for the country also.
But unless he is allowed the perfect rest to be found in
the difference between doing nothing and having nothing
to do, the evil for him will be only aggravated ; while as

.or the other consideration, it certainly will not be advai.
tageous to continue for an indefinite number of weeks or
months the present state of affairs at the Admiralty.
Something must be done. The condition of things in that
important office of State is far worse than the public has
any knowledge of ; and since the natural conspiracy
of official silence prevails there, as everywhere else,
and since her Majesty's Secretaries have no difficulty in
commanding the services of such facile apologists as he
who wrote on this subject in the Daily Telegraph
on Friday, we feel all the mote bound to speak plainly.
At this moment the Admiralty, deprived of all
governance, is falling into a very dangerous state of
confusion. Bound by regulations issued
.by a
sick man from his bed, it is incapable, at a time when
clear policies and prompt action are of extreme importance
of making any decision what'ever. It is forbidden to
assemble and consult. The members of the Board are
prohibited from formally taking counsel together, or as-
suming any collective responsibility for the necessary pre-
parations and expenditure of the coming year ; and mean-
while—the condition of Mr. Childers being such that
he has been obliged to forbid the reference of
papers to him—not even remonstrance or expla-
nation or suggestion is possible. The department is at all
points hampered and restrained by the will of an adminis-
trator incapacitated tor the study of a single paper, or
always for recollecting at the end of an hour what he
happened to say at the beginning of it. We know
well what feelings of painful sympathy such
a statement must awaken in every generous man
who reads it. We who belong to the constantly
increasing number of hard-worked men make the
statement with more concern than the reador understands
probably ; but it is too serious a matter fdr amiable eva-
sion. How serious it is may be sufficiently indicated by
the fact that in the present suspension of all life and
authority in the Admiralty, preparations are being made
for the discharge of more than a thousand workmen from
our dockyards, and for abandoning the prosecution of those
works ordered in August last.
It would heve afforded us much pleasure to have the
report of Mr. Childers' retirement contradicted, had we
not full assurance that the retirement is only delayed, and
that for a very short time. That Mr. Childers is seriously
ill, there is, we fear, no room to doubt—as little, indeed, as
of the fact that there are good Cabinet reasons why the
honourable gentleman should not meet Parliament,
even if he could, and that any minute inquiry into the
present condition of the Admiralty, answered by a bold
and plain-speaking witness, would reveal matters to
I show how infinitely more personal considerations operate
in the Admiralty than those of duty or the interests of
the country. Mr. Childers, we are sorry to believe,
cannot attend, from personal inability ; but the reve-
lations which would inevitably result from his pre-
sence before Parliament would reveal something
unparalleled even in the history of this illus.
tri nis Board, and explain something of the reason
of the reputation which it has so well earned to
the bitter cost of the country. We exaggerate in no
degree when we say that the present condition of the
Admiralty is precisely that of the Kilkenny cats, and the
business of the most important brimch of the public de-
fence is almost at a standstill in consequence. In fact,
we have now before us an example of what a First Lord,
who would do anything, has always had to contend with
when any member of the Board happened to be dissatisfied
and recalcitrant. The uttermost ingenuity is being
exerted by the Government, in order to mystify the public,
and every day affords a new rumour.--United Service
'Gazette?

A "Boarclmen's Co-operative Society" is in
process of organisation in the metropolis, and its prospec-
tus seems to offer very fair prospect of putting
"the right man in the right place "—wherever that
right place happens to be—between two advertising
boards.
We (Nature) rejoice to hear that there is at last
a chance of a large amount of scientific knowledge being
required at the hands of naval and military officers. This
is as it should be, and we earnestly hope that the long-
needed reform will not stop here.
Mr. Forster, C. 13., of the Financial Department of
the Treasury, and Mr. Lack, of the Board of Trade, have re-
cently been engaged on and completed the revised
Tariff. They are now inspecting the various departments
of the Custom House establishment at Thames-street,
assisted by.. the Surveyor-General, in order to effect a
simplification of the work done, and also a reduction of
the staff.
SPA.—In a valley near the frontiers 'of Prussia lies,
half hidden by foliage and hills, one of the prettiest little towns
on the Continent ; and although it only boasts of some five
thousand inhabitants, it is the gem of Belgium, and the fashion-
able resort of its notabilities; and not of them only, for when
the season is at its height, titled and distinguished visitors
crowd every avenue and every rendezvous. Not only Princes of
petty States, ex-Potentates, or the Counts and Baroni which
crop up so plentifully en a foreign Oil, but the'men of mark in
society ; the statesmen, warriors, and leaders of "their respec-
tive countries. The great men of Great Britain are amongst the
number, for they gladly braoe up their faculties and re-invigorate
their systems at this health-re#oring spot, after the fatigues of
Courts, Parliaments? and Sessions. The reulette-table has its
votaries, but the waters are more omnipotent still—strongly
impregnated with iron, that needful 'auxiliary in renovating
'enfeebled constitutions ; and those who esteem the waters too
nauseous are glad to meet with that delicious substitute—the
Elixir de Spa." This holds high rank as 'a table liqueur,
possesses a delicate perfume andexquisite flavour, and being
distilled from the flowers and plants of the district, is at the
same trine greatly prized for its tonic, digestive, and gently
stiMulating ualities. The manufacture of this liueur forms
the chief parqt of the staple trade of Spa, which may be said to
consist of the important Distillery of Messrs. Schaltin, Pierry,
and Cie, the inventors of the Elixir le` Spa, and the manufac-
turers of ornaments in the pretty Spa ood. A " petit verre"
of the Elixir de Spa is the favourite prelude in Belgium to a
"dejetiner 8. la fourchette," in order to give zest to the appetite,
for which purpose it is equal in efficiency to the nauseous
absinthe ; and the burly Flemish burgomaster's admirable
, dinners are usually capped with a wee glass of this invigorating
; native cordial, which is universally pronounced to be the best of
; Table Liqueurs. It may be obtained through your wine mer-
I chant.—Wholesale DepOt—SCOTT BROTHERS, 8, Duke-street,
Adelphi, Lendon.