The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-29 00:00:00

~.~_

//' ,

~~~"

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

APPOINTMENT.

Lieutenant W. C. Coffin to tho Recruit

CHATHAM, AUG 28.—The Gloucester, 50 gims, And
Southampton, 50 guns, in dock, repairing and littinl4
sea for the last six months, are -now- both ordered
to be fitted for ordinary.
The Warspite, 50 guns, and the Albatross, 16-gun,
brig, which were paid off last July, are to have their
defects made good, and are to be brought forward wits2l
out delay for commission.

The Sfutine' 12 guns, in dock, has had her defeCts
made good ; she has been fresh caulked, and :will be
recoppered in the course of next week ; she is ordered
for commission.

The Bulldog steam-sloop, Commander Davis, is nll
a-taut.; her paddle-box boats, each 32 feet in length,
are now on board, and her gnus are expected on board
next week. A seaman, named Mackenzie, captain of the
forecastle of this vessel, being desirous to have a spree
for a night in the town of Chatham, .about eight o'clock
in the evening of Wednesday, endeavoured to swim to
Chatham, a distance of nearly two miles: When oppe,
-site to the Gun-wharf, the sailor feeling exhausted, dha
cries for assistance being heard by seine waferince, they
put off in a boat, and found the man nearly sp,nr, and
lauded him at the Gun-wharf. Thence he was taken
•and put to bed at the Prince of Wares public-house. The
poor fellOw is likely to recover. The man Teas afraid to
swim to the new stairs, near to the dockyard, as a marine
sentry was stationed, and he was sure to be captured for
attempting to desert.
The Aid, Smallman, master, remains with stores
from Portsmouth; and the Duck, Savage, master, is re-
ceiving a refit.

WOOLWICH, AUG. '27.—The following account of the
trials of the Rattler and Polyphemus steam-vessels, to
test the comparative merits of the screw-propeller with
paddle-wheels, is extracted from a letter received by a
gent!emstn- at Woolwich :
. .

- "The Rattler, screw-propeller steam vessel, is de-
scribel as being very fast under canvass, heating most-
of the line-of-battle ships, and with Oh ir own weapon_
too. She is well handled, and 'particiearly expert at
shipping and unshipping her screw. It only takes five
minutes to unship it, and ten minutes to ship it again
It takes the Polyphemus steam-vessel two hours to ship
her paddle floats, and nearly as long to take them off.
Without performing this operation her sailing is bad,
but without the floats she not only keeps her station,
but beats most of the liners. The Vanguard and the
Superb are the only vessels that have a decided advau-
. tage over the Polyphemus. The latter steam-vessel
lately _had a trial with the Rattler and the Cy-
clops under canvass. The Rattler beat the Poly.
phemus in five hours two miles and a half, and the
Polyphemus beat the Cyclops half a mile. It must be
taken into consideration, however, that the Polyphemus
had lost her jibboom on the day before, and could not
carry either jib or topgallant sail. The Polyphemus also
tried under steam with the Rattler. The vessels were
made fast stern to stern, and the Rattler walked off with
the Polyphemus at the rate of two miles an hour. The
vessels were then fastened bow to bow, and the Poly-
phemus towed the Rattler half a mile. In both trials the
revolutions of the machinery of the Rattler were reduced.
from 23, the usual number, to 17, and the Polyphemus
made seven revolutions in the first trial and nine in the
second, out of 20, the usual numb;r. The vessels then
tried a run of 18 miles in smooth water with light wind,
when the Rattler beat the Polyphemus three-quarters of
a mile."
The Sidon steam, frigate, on Sir Charles Napier's
plan, has taken in her guns and gun-carriages at Wool-
wich, and when her masts 'are put in will proceed to
Deptford to be fitted for tea; she is expected to be ready
in October next. One colour-sergeant, one drummer
and thirteen privates of the Woolwich division of Royal
Marines have been placed under orders to embark in the
Sidon, to-morrow, and/she will take her Marine Artil-
lerymen on board when she goes round to Portsmouth.
PORTSMOUTH, Ana. 28.—The North Star, 28, Cap-
tain Sir E. Horne, Bart., C. 8., sailed for Chatham this
morning, to be paid off. She is one of the old class of
twenty-eights, known in the service by the name of
" donkey frigates," and will, if found to be in good re-
pair, most probably be turned into a coal depot, or re-
ceiving ship. s

The Anierica, 50, Captain the ion. John Gordon,
was inspected this afternoon by the Port Admiral, Sir
C. IL Ogle. She is ordered to Plymouth, it is pre-
sumed, to be paid off, as she has nearly served her three
years. We are happy to hear that Sir Charles Ogle
has, with his usual goodness of heart, written to the
Admiralty in explanation of the conduct of Lieutenant
Lindsay, who, it will be remembered, was censured by
the Court for the manner in which he gave his evidence
at the trial of his captain on Wednesday last. It seems
tiat Lieutenant Lindsay was, at the time ho came into
Court, labouring under considerable depression of spi-
rits, in consequence of having lately received some
extremely distressing domestic intelligence, which to-
gether with the suddenness of his summons to appear as
a witness—which he himself explained at the time—and
a certain defect in his speech, not likely to be diminished
by his having to speak on matters of importance in a
roam crowded with strangers, gave hi 3 answers an ap-
pearance of hesitation and want of decision, which we
were sorry to see was misconstrued.
The Victoria and Albert is in the harbour cleaning
and coaling, and the Fairy is in attendance at Osborne.
The Cambrian, 36, is still in clock, but will be taken
into the basin early next week, to be refitted and pre-
pared for commissioning.
The Gladiator, steam-frigate, Captain Robb, will bo
reported ready for sea by the lit of September.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent leaves Os-
borne to-morrow morning for Frogrnore House.
The Duke of Wellington paid a short visit to Gosport
on Wednesday last. lie rode round the lines, and in-
spected some of the new works. His Grace was accorn-
panied by the Marquis of Anglesey and Colonel Car-
dew, commanding Royal Engineers of the south-west
district.
Yesterday the whole of tho Royal Marine ArCilery
off duty marched out to Fort Cumberland for general
practice at the sea and land service batteries. The
firing, which was from guns of vulous doscriptions and
calibre, was admirable. Nothibg could exceed the pre-
cision of the practice freln the 10 inch mortars. As
several of the officers e,"ad the majority of the men pre-
sent have but lately joined this bran of the service,
great credit is due to Colonel -Gibsone (commanding)
and to Adjutant Savage for the rapid manner in which
the great degree of efficiency evinced in to-day's drill
has been attained.

The excellent band of the 74th Highlanders is in at-
tendance on the Court at Osborne. The 13th (Prince
Albert's) Regiment of Light Infantry is under orders
to
the leave this garrison, for Weedon, on being relieved by
36th.

TOTNES.—AAx.—EarIy on Friday last (the day
of the Queen's arrival here), a person entered the town of
Totnes in great haste, made instant inquiries for the mayor's
residence, and proceeded thither with a letter, purporting to
be a communication from one of her Majesty's attendants,
stating that it was her Majesty's intention, upon going down
channel from Torbay, to proceed up the river Dart, and view
the town of Totnes and neighbourhood. Immediately upon
the receipt, of this communication, his worship proceeded to
summon the town council, to adopt the necessary prelimi-
naries for her Majesty's reception, and to show the loyalty of
the good folks of Totues. The bells sent forth their merry
peals ; all the town's people were soon in active bustle, and all
the artillery that could be mustered soon sent forth their re-
pprts ; flags were suspended from various parts, and every
one emulated his neighbour to put forth their best display
fer the occasion. After being thus engaged for several hours,
and some time being allowed for reflection, many began to
think the steamer was a very long time in coming from so
short a distance as Torbay to the river Dart; and upon
maturer reflection and inquiry, it was ascertained that her
Majesty's flotilla had proceeded down channel for lymouth,
and that his worship, with the other authorities of Totnes,
had been hoaxed'.—Plymouth Journal.
FRIGHTFUL AND FATAL OMNIBUS A CCIDENT IN
llOLllORN.—Yesterday morning, between the hours of nine
aaan
which
hiicaa lz ,
a oftptcpciii3dcbnatenattended
with fatal conse-
quences, a most frightful character,
quences, occurred in Holborn, nearly opposite Drury-lane,
to an individual (name unknown). It appears that at the
time mentioned one of the City omnibuses was proCeeding
towards Paddington, and deceased, a respectable looking
person, sitting on the box with the driver ; as they reached
Drury-lane he turned round suddenly to look at something
in the road, and was dislodged from his seat, falling with
great force on the stones. The vehicle was, of course, im-
mediately stopped, and the unfortunate man was picked up
perfectly insensible, and removed to the St. Giles's Infirmary,
where he expired in a few minutes after his admission. Tile
body has not been identified, but information of the circum-
stance has been forwarded to Mr. Wakley, M.P., the
Coroner.
A horrible story was circulated yesterday in the
neighbourhood of Middlesex Ilospital. On Sunday last a
respectably-attired young man, stepped into the shop of Mr.
Jest, baker, of No. 1, Nassau-street, with a large pie to be
baked; having deposited the dish on the counter, the fellow
remarked that " care should be taken with that pie in baking
it, as it contained a good deal of meat." lle then departed.
The pie was baked, but the owner omitting to send for it
some suspicion was excited, which continued to increase day
after day until Thursday afternoon, when Mrs. Just sug-
gested to her husband to keep the " dish "no longer, there
being a strong and offensive effluvium arising from its con.
tents. The crust having been raised the parties were horror,
struck at finding the contents to consist of the remains of a
newly-born child. Information was immediately disnatched
to the Marylebone Court House, and the district officer has
since communicated with Mr. Wakley, the corolier. The re-
fined brutality of the affair renders it of belief.
ROBBERIES IN LINCOLN'S INN AND THE QUEEN'S
TnEamts-.--Yesterday's Police Gaze.:;ie, amongst other rob-
beries, contains two tram the abg*%-e. mentioned places. The
workmen, it appeared, have I.:Sen for some time employed in
the council room, New lon, Lincoln's Inn, and on their re-
turn to work on Thursday morning, saws, planes, and other
valuable materials, to them, had been taken away. Tim
police have been most active in tracing the poor men's pro-
perty, but, unfortunately, without success. The other
property, consisting of brass ornaments, tumblers, wine
glasses, bottles of champagne, candlesticks, and several
other articles, belonging to Mr. James, Mrs. Legg, and Mr.
Abingdon, was taken, no doubt, by some person well
acquainted with the theatre, but of which no clue has been
obtained.

THE LATE FORGERY CASE.—It now appears that
the forgery on Messrs. Coutts was committed, not by an ad-
dition of ciphers to the small amount originally added to the
cheque, but by the obliteration of the writing through a
chemical process, and the substitution of a larger amount.
Had there been a coloured surface on the cheque it would
have been next to impossible to obliterate the ink without
raising suspicion by discolouring the surface also, but the
cheques in this particular house are uniformly white, with
the exception, of course, of the words in print.
GRAND CRICKET-MATCH AT SOUTHWELL.—NOT-
TINGIIIAMSHIRE V. ALL ENQLAIsu.--On Thursday a grand
match at cricket was commenced on the ground at South-
well, for the benefit of JAL W. Clarke, late of this town, be-
tween six gentlemen or Englaud and five players, againsto
gentlemen of Southwell County Chfo and five players 9f iN
tinghamahlre with Mynn, Esq. NottinghallAro having
won the toss wcs in I.
Irst, and made
108. All
contintilil
.ye °alien:l7d, ";hiteirti4:,;(3rattiiiltilenintgs on
4 Thursday,
el.)u
en ea
away,
oar Cer-
ruevswpoarn4den9ti royea,utahyayingliauclycit:,/cli:Qttri4edirowo.un'n. way—they mle