The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-18 00:00:00

I must premise that I only reached Portsmouth an
hour before the dinner on the 6th took place ; that I did
not know I should be called on to propose any toast, till
I took my seat at table, where I found a printed list of
toasts, from which it appeared that Colonel Jones, the
Commandant of the Portsmouth division of Royal Ma-
rines, was to have proposed the before-named toast, but,
as he was ill, his name had been erased, and mine writ-
ten down instead. I was, therefore, taken by surprise,
and if any thing in my speech can be construed to im-
ply that I meant to give Sir Howard Douglas a priority
over Sir John Pechell, in the introduction of the present
gunnery system, my words must have borne a meaning I
never intended them to convey. What I stated was that
" Sir Howard's publication, printed in 1819, introduced
the question of gunnery more generally to the notice of
the Navy."
A reference to dates will prove that the view I take of
this question is correct. In the year 1814, Sir John Pe-
chell printed a pamphlet, entitled, "Observations upon
fitting Guns on board her Majesty's Ships." It contains
full and minute instructions for doing so. The greater
part of these suggestions have been adopted. The pam-
phlet is dated March the Gth, 1814, Bermuda, and was
officially transmitted to the Admiralty by Admiral Sir
John Borlase Warren. These papers were finally re-
ferred to the proper Board, but were not acted upon.
On the return of the San Domingo, under the command
of Sir John Pechell to Spithead in the same year, 1814,
she was inspected by Rear-Admiral Foote, assisted by
four Captains. The official Report made by them to
Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton, the Commander-in-
Chief at Portsmouth, stated that the gunnery equipments
and training of the San Domingo were so superior to
those of her Majesty's ships in general, that they were
induced to recommend them for general adoption in the
Navy, stating that their value and efficiency had been
proved by the celerity with which the San Domingo had
been cleared for action, and the extraordinary rapidity
and precision of her fire. The Admiralty of that year
(1814) expressed their approbation, in replying to this
official Report, through the Commander-in-Chief. It is
merely an act of justice to record that tangent sights,
similar in principle to those which have since been esta-
blished in the Navy, were then fitted to the San
Domingo's guns by Sir John Pechell; that he had adopted
a plan for obtaining horizontal fire, the efficacy of
which had been shown in the actions of the Phcebe
and Shannon ; and many other methods for instruct-
ing officers and sexinen in a thorough knowledge of
the management of their guns, which are detailed in
the pamphlet.

rshafl not enter further into details, nor shall I
touch on what has since been done by others, because
that part of the question is fully discussed in the
United Service Journal, for the month of September,
1839.

Shortly after Sir John Pechell's return, in the com-
mand of the San Domingo, in 1814, he proposed that one
of the guard-ships should be made a school of gunnery
instruction for training officers, gunners, and seamen—
this proposal was not acceded to. In 1817 Sir Howard
Douglas transmitted his work on Naval Gunnery to the
Admiralty in MS., and in Nov. 1819 he was authorised
to publish it. In that work he alludes to the assistance
he had derived from communications on naval gunnery
with those distinguished officers, Sir Philip Broke and
Sir John Pechell ; and I know and feel that both Sir
John Pechell and Sir Howard Douglas will both rejoice
to see this question fairly stated.
In 1825, Sir John Pechell, when in command of the
Sybille, printed a second pamphlet, on the fitting of
ships' guns. In 1827 he again brought forward a pro-
posal for establishing a floating depot, or school of naval
gunnery, and presented a minute to the Lord High Ad-
miral on the necessity of extending the gunnery training,
improving the equipments, and rendering the gun exer-
cise more definite and uniform.

In 1832 he prepared and arranged the present esta-
blished exercise for great guns in our navy, and, finally,
in that year drew up the minute which established the
Excellent, during the administration of Sir James Graham.
In that minute he adopted some things from Sir flow-
ard's book, but there can be no doubt, from a reference to
dates, that to Sir John Pechell is due the claim of priority
as well as of unwearied perseverance in working out this
great national question; though it cannot be denied, that
the good seed sown in the minds of the naval world by
Sir Howard Douglas's publication, between the years
1819 and 1832, prepared the way for the adoption of the
important measure, which Sir John Pechell finally car-
ried in 1832.

I cannot close my remarks without stating that the
establishment of the Excellent, which was formed during
Sir James Graham's administration, has been doubled as
to the number of its officers and men, by Lord Minto
and the present Board of Admiralty, and expressing my
deep sense of the warm interest and solicitude his Lord-
ship and the Board have constantly evinced for the effi-
ciency and success of every part of the establishment.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
THOMAS HASTINGS, Captain, R.N.
Portsmouth, Aug. 14, 1841.

CHARTIST MEETING AT BATH.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR—From the great interest taken in the above pro•
ceedings, your insertion of the inclosed abridged report
in The Sun will much oblige
Your's very respectfully,
C. CLARKE.

A highly respectable meeting of the middle and work-
ing classes took place last evening, in the large room,
Kingmead-square, for the purpose of hearing an address
from Mr. Henry Vincent, on the present position of
affairs, and in defence of the principles of which he is
the well-known advocate.
At eight o'clock Mr. Vincent, Mr. Alderman Crisp,
and Mr. Oliver, temperance lecturer, entered the room
and were received with loud cheers, Mr. Alderman
Crisp was unanimoasly called to the chair, and opened
the proceedings by observing that they seemed to have
less objection to his taking the chair than the parsons
had to friend Bolwill some time since at the upper room.
It is a pity these clerical gentry do not come amongst
us and endeavour to enlighten our understandings, for
they say we wander in darkness. God knows, in the
estimation of some of Mother Church's sons, I have been
wandering from the dear old lady long enough, yet none
of her faithful shepherds endeavour to call me back again
by convincing me of my error.—(Laughter and cheer:.)
Mr. Crisp, at some length, dilated on the probable re-
sults of the Tories being in office, and the necessity of the
people improving in knowledge and virtue, and uniting
for the attainment of further organic changes.—(Cheers.)
The Chairman then introduced Mr. VINCENT, who
said—Ladies and Gentlemen. in a country possessed of
good institutions, and amongst a people in the enjoy-
ment of social happiness, the interterence of a 'humble
citizen like myself in its public affairs might be consi-
dered to require an apology; bat in a country like ours,
where the aristocratic principle reigns supreme—where
civil distinctions and honours are showered upon the
wealthy and high-born—where the mass of the
people are politically slaves, and are reduced to a state
of social destitution ; the only explanation necessary is
the public exigence, which calls upon the meanest man
to, use the power God has endowed him with to aid in
working out his country's regeneration. Such, Gentlemen,
is my position—a novel one, I admit ; but warmly as I
have been attached to the principles of liberty from
boyhood—fervent as have been my aspirations for the
good of my fellow-creatures in times when public excite-
ment ran high, and we had advanced, as it were, to the
very threshold of victory, I should consider myself a
pigmy in soul if I did not rise above my usual enthusiasm
now that the cloud of oppression thickens around us.—

(Loud cheers.) I mei 3-ou to-night for a variety of rea-
sons—to speak of principles lasting as nature—to rouse
the sluggard—to spur on the intelligent—to
whisper hope in the ear of despair—and
to shake the virtue and intelligence of the
city, in the quivering features of our cowardly oppres-
sors.—(Loud cheers.) Mr. Vincent, at some length,
proceeded to show the causes that led to the defeat of
the Whigs at the late election. He said that four years
ago the Chartists had clearly pointed out, that unless the
Whigs took their stand with the people, another elec-
tion would be their total ruin. He ridiculed the notion
of Conservatism having triumphed, and illustrated seve-
ral propositions to show that the democratic principle
flourished as vigorously as ever. He proceeded to explain
the principles on which government ought to be founded,
and to show the end it ought to have in view is the hap-
piness of the governed. He had been prosecuted for as-
serting that our Government did not exist for the benefit
of the governed. Nearly two years of correctional im-
prisonment had been inflicted upon him, but he now felt it
to be his duty to declare, before a more intelligent jury,
that the British system of government existed only to
uphold the power and wealth of the few, and to enslave
and degrade the many.—(Loud cheers.) Mr. Vincent
proceeded to show that the full measure of justice con-
tained in the People's Charter could be as easily ob-
tained as the smallest organic change. He showed that
the aristocracy would never yield to the popular will
unless compelled by a strong unity of virtue, intelli-
gence, and courage.
Here a gentleman in the room forwarded a note to
Mr. Vincent, asking, if the Charter could not be obtained
at once, if it would not be better to contend for a single
point ?__

Mr. VINCENT, in reply, enforced with considerable
effect his former proposition,—that the Charter can be
as easily carried as any one of its points. He said,
—Perhaps the gentleman who forwarded the note
is in favour of the Ballot, and thinks that
obtained, all other good measures would _ follow ;
but my experience teaches me, that unless the consti-
tuencies are made too large to be purchased, fatal acts

NATAL-GUNNERY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sin,—May I request that you will favOur tne by in-
serting in the next publication of your paper the enclosed
letter, addressed by me to the Editor of the Morning
Post, at the close of last week.
I am induced to hope you will comply with my re-
quest, because I have no other object than that of cor-
recting the erroneous impression which a part of my
speech (as reported in the Morning Post) at the dinner
given by the Navy and Marines at Portsmouth on the Gth
of August to Sir Robert Stopford, is calculated to
produce.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,
THOMAS HASTINGS, Captain, RN.
Excellent, Portsmouth, Aug. 16, 1841.
TO

THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING POST.
SlR,—The speech I made at the dinner given to Ad-
miral Sir Robert Stopford by the Navy and Marines at
Portsmouth, on the 6th of August, 1841, on proposing
the health of Sir Charles Napier, the Captains. Officers,
Seamen, and Marines, who so nobly supported him on
the coast of Syria, has not been correctly reported, and
there has been so entire an omission of a most important
part of it, that I feel myself called on to request that
you will publish some explanatory remarks. As head of
the gunnery establishment, which has received such con-
stant support and liberal encouragement from the Lords
of the Admiralty, I feel it incumbent on me to correct
this omission, and to do justice to the utmost of my
power.