The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-26 00:00:00

THE FUTURE WAR SHIP.

The experiments made with guns and ships of war
have been perfect in their continuity, but, so far as
the taxpayer is concerned, very unsatisfactory and
imperfect in their results. The drain upon the
national purse has been very heavy, but it is not un-
likely to become more oppressive. In order to
remove the apprehension and probability of wasteful
expenditure naturally arising from these indecisive
experiments, it is proposed to make the ram a direct,
instead of an auxiliary means of attack. This pro-
jected war-ship of the future is to I e of a singularly
formidable character, and capable of inflicting
immense damage upon an enemy's fleet. It is true
that the admission is made that £lOO,OOO would just
build one such vessel, but then 'we are assured that it
would, when moving at a velocity of 25ft. per second,.
trike any ironclad afloat with a force equal to
20,000 tons. This monster rain would sink, in
fifteen minutes, an iron-clad which has cost the
nation half a million sterling ! Will the artillerists
allow the naval architects to stop after the construc-
tion of the new ram ?

" WEEDY SCREWS."

It is perhaps in some measure owing to the high price
of hay and oats in France just at present that the large
shipment of racehorses from the shores of that coun-
try has taken place, as well as to the fear of their seizure
in case the animals:should be needed for cavalry pur-
poses. It is said that the long drought lessened the
amount of forage in the provinces, so consider-
ably, that scarcely sufficient quantity has been
left for the present large demands of the

•
• ,
14
, ( tan Var•

HER MAJESTY.

BALMORAL, AUG. 23,

The Queen, accompanied by Princess Beatrice, walked
out this morning.
Prince Arthur went out shooting.
In the afternoon the Queen drove to the Glassalt Shiel,
accompanied by Princess Beatrice, and attended by Miss
Cavendish and Miss Lascelles.

Princess Louise rode out, attended by Lady Churchill.
Prince Leopold drove out in the morning and after-
noon.

CRYSTAL PALACE.-ONE SHILLING DAY, THURS-
T;AUGUST 25.—Admissions by season tickets, 2,343 ;
ditto on payment, 5,692 ; total visitors, 8,035.

The Globe regrets to learn from very good antho-
rity that in the present state of affairs but a compara-
tively insignificant proportion of ' the gentlemen who
recently passed for direct commissions in the army can
possibly be provided for.

The Bishop of Manchester or. Wednesday conseo
crated a new church near Bolton. His lordship expressed
hi great joy at the fact that the church was to be free,
and open to all, and said that system was more in accord-
office with the spirit of Christianity than any other.

KICNT HOP-PICKERS.—During the present week
numbers of men, women, and children—the chief portion
Irish—have arrived in the hop districts in Kent in search
of employment. The plantations are heavily laden, but
at present hop-picking is only partially begun.
Owing to the demands of the war, the steamer of
the French Messageries, which should have left Mar-
seilles on Sunday with the China mails, was detained,
and the effect will be that the letters sent by that route
will be delayed perhaps for a week. The export of specie
being stopped from France, that which may be intended
for the East must necessarily be sent by the Peninsular
and Oriental steamers.

[ADVERTISEMENT. ]—Holloway's Pills.—Wrongs made
Right.—Every day that any bodily suffering is permitted
to continue renders it more certain to become chronic or
dangerous. Holloways's purifying, cooling, and strengthen-
ing Pills are well adapted for any irregularity of the
human body, and should be taken when the stomach is
disordered, the liver deranged, the kidneys inactive, the
bowels torpid, or the brains muddled. With this medi-
cine every invalid can cure himself, and those who are
weak and infirm through imperfect digestion may make
themselves stout and strong by Hollyway's celebrated
Pills. When the system is out of order, and an unusual
depression weighs down the spirits, a few timely doses of
this medicine will dispel the threatening illness and spare
suffering.

METROPOLITAN GOSSlP.—Tuunsp AY.

The old saying, " uneasy lies the head that wears a
crown," is no longer true, at least in England. While
Ministers are toiling hard in town or the neighbourhood,
and exciting the pity even of political opponents like Sir
Stafford Northcote, while journalists are denying them-
selves their well-earned holiday and following the for-
tunes of war in their arm chairs (greatly to the benefit of
their readers who thus escape the usual silly
seaEQn), Queen Victoria is 600 miles away from
her Ministers and her capital, is deep in
the heart of the Highlands, remote even from all

railways. There is no other sovereign in Europe who
can thus afford to disregard the momentous events which
are taking place on the Continent. We never knew
before how much we owed to Father Neptune for placing
that twenty miles of water between us and Europe.
Royal heads may rest calmly upon royal pillows in this
sea-girt isle, even though the nations do furiously
rage together. Perhaps heads that are not
royal, and which are not able to sleep quite
so readily, will puzzle themselves with questions as
to the advantage of State arrangements that involve con-
siderable expenditure and even more inconvenience. In
fact, journals so widely different as the Times, the Daily
News, the Lancet, and the Economist have been putting the
matter very forcibly before the British public, and if no
immediate result ensues from the general cogitation it is
not to be supposed that there will be none hereafter.
I find that the conviction among military men is that
the volunteers are the nucleus of a force that might be
most valuable in the event of a war in this country, but
that they are at the present moment utterly incapable of
serious military operations, and would certainly be ex-
posed to great disaster if brought into the field. One
radical fault is that the volunteers have not learnt to act
in brigades, and thus would be unable to effect any
movement requiring combination. Their unacquaintance
with the Snider rifle is notorious. This indeed is not
their fault, and there is hope that it will be remedied
before long. For the other deficiency the only cure seems
to be the. camping out of local companies on convenient
spots where they may co-operate in large numbers. It is
not unlikely that Devonshire, which set the example of
volunteering to the rest of the kingdom, will adopt this
expedient ; if so, other counties will do well to follow
suit.

Captain Sherard Osborn, in the able letter which he
published in Tuesday's Times, refers to the new port which
will before long be the nursery of the North German
navy. This port, lam told by an English naval officer
who has visited it, is really a magnificent harbour. It
used to be called Jande, but when the idea of making it
into a great dockyard and arsenal was carried out, the
name was changed to Wilhelmshafen, in honour of King
William of Prussia, who opened it.
I have lately had an opportunity of making a short
cruise in one of the new class of ironclads, which includes
the Invincible, the Vanguard, the Iron Duke, and the
Audacious. They are magnificent vessels. A landsman
is naturally struck in the first place by the marvellous
roominess of the officers' accommodation. Instead
of the dark confined holes which constitute the cabins
and the wardroom in the bulk of her Majesty's ships,
especially in some of the earlier ironclads, we see in
these new vessels light, airiness, and height sufficient to
allow a tall man to stretch out his arm without touching
the top of his cabin. The reason of this improved accommo-
dation is the increase in the size of our naval artillery. A
vessel that would formerly have taken one hundred and
twenty guns and required eleven hundred men, will now
take fourteen or sixteen guns, and need only from four
hundred and fifty to five hundred men. At the same time
the actual tonnage of the ship is increased. The advan-
tages of this arrangement are manifold. Every
gun becomes an infinitely more formidable weapon,
it it served by fewer men, and there is thus vastly
greater comfort and convenience for the crew in time of
peace, and far less slaughter in action. These advan-
tages have been obtained by a method of training and
working guns invented by Captain Scott, and when I saw
the arrangement, so simple and so effectual, which he has
devised, and witnessed with my own eyes the enormous
benefits which have been obtained by it, I could not but
feel ashamed to think of the shabby way in which
this great nation has treated its benefactor, and is still
treating him by continuing to enjoy the fruits of
his many years' labour and heavy personal expenditure,
without paying him a farthing reward. Other advantages
possessed by these ships are remarkable steadiness and
easiness of handling. The vessel I was in was almost as
steady as a church, although there was sea enough to
render the closing of the ports necessary. The other
quality I have mentioned is secured by the twin screw,
which will enable the vessels that possess it
to turn round and round with the greatest speed
and with the shortest possible diameter. Thus one
of thesevessels would be able to pour a storm of shot and
shell into the enemy, while she herself would be constantly
dodging round her comparatively free. It is expected
that some of these vessels will be commissioned during
the next two months, that is if the stores and material
are forthcoming. That point is rather doubtful, for, in
spite of Mr. Childers's positive statement in reply to Sir
John Hay, there is abundant evidence—l have it from
persons peculiarly qualified to speak—that the resources
of the dockyards have been reduced to a degree that
would have been disastrous if we had been forced into
war.

London, even when nominally emptied—that is, by
deducting 10,000 and a little army of Philistines from
3,000,000 inhabitants—tells the tale of the times as plainly
as ever in the very shop windows and at the street
corners. Alsace and Lorraine may be placarded with
proclamations from the Roi de Prusse and S.A. le Prince
Royal, but the peasantry have skedaddled, and there is
nobody to read those startling documents. Bloomsbury
and Southwark and the surrounding districts, however, are
filled with placards quite as startling—the contents bills of
the morning and evening papers, that those who run stop to
read, and who, havingread, without spending threepence on
the Times, a penny on the Sun, or a halfpenny on the Echo,
may be pronounced well " posted up " at any hour of the
day in the latest telegrams. War maps, again, are in-
creasing and multiplying. Just now I have emerged from
the Dudley Gallery, in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly,
where the Messrs. Thornton, like men of en-
terprise as they are, have constructed a gigantic
plan of the seat of war, which you look down
upon from a sort of platform gallery surrounding it as it
lies there spread out before you on the floor of the apart-
ment. Yonder is the tricolour flying over beleaguered Toul,
over invested Metz, over bombarded Strasburg. Clusters
of toy soldiers represent here the army of the Crown
Prince advanced beyond St. Dizier—here the armies of
Prince Frederick Charles and of King William,
or rather of General Steinmetz, massed toge-
ther beyond Vionville and Rezonville. MacMahon
east of Rheims—Bazaine north of Metz, though not so
far to the north-west as Montmedy. The whole is very
cleverly done, and gives one a rapid, comprehensive view
of the actual situation. New names are filled in—the flags
of the black eagle and of the tricolour are moved hither
and thither—the toy soldiers advance or retreat as
the case may be, as the telegrams arrive.
So that the Bond-street lounger—if there be
such a creature in town, just new, on the sly, or even in
existence at all nowadays— has but to turn into the
Dudley Gallery from the pavements of Piccadilly at any
time he pleases, and, without the trouble of reading those
dreadful bores the Correspondents, or those very confusing
and contradictory telegrams via Paris and via Berlin, can
see at a glance how those fellows in the red trousers, and
those other fellows in the spiked helmets, are getting on
among the foughten fields of Champagne.
Clubland, however, is a wild waste, where the waiters
have nothing whatever to do except wait, the very hall-
porters having, ad libitum, a monopoly of the pick of the
newspapers. Several of the chief clubs are undergoing
their autumnal repairs. The Athenaeum is enclosed in a
cage of scaffolding. The Junior United is delivered up
inside to the painters and whitewashers. Rotten Row is
an exercise-ground for an occasional groom. Parallel
with the Row, the navvies who are completing the
alterations of the Serpentine are just now masking
what looks very much like a railway cutting.
In point of fact, it is simply an excavation which is being
filled up with the black mud from the bottom of the dry
bed of the Serpentine, into which the gravel taken
from the cutting is emptied instead. The stream will
thus be rendered shallow and pure, while the otherwise
abominable black mud will nurture the roots of the
flowering shrubs which are to be planted over it in
abundance.

Cross the Row and you come upon that gorgeous folly
the slowly-completing Albert Memorial. It stands, as we
all of us rather painfully remember now, on the site of
that Fairy Palace of Crystal which, nineteen years ago,
was to have inaugurated an epoch when war should be no

more. As I look at it, crusted and lumped and bossed
with sculpture, smothered over with gold, and glittering
like a gigantic jewel in the sunshine, it seems to me
as if Homer and Beethoven, Shakspere and
Napoleon, Bacon and Aristotle, Raffaelle and
Charlemagne all rolled together into one could hardly have
aspiredto a more sumptuous cenotaph. It is an
exaggeration of courtly homage to a Prince whose
chief merit is that his life was blameless, and that he him-
self was remarkably accomplished. It is not high treason
to say that it is almost a satire in its way, being, as it
is, so utterly out of proportion to the fair fame it com-
memorates. When one thinks of the sufferings requiring
alleviation, not merely now exceptionally out at the seat
of war, but perpetually here in the midst of us in Lon-
don, I feel constrained to protest against this as a squan-
dering of wealth upon a most extravagant testimonial.
"Literature and the War" would make a very good
subject for a magazine article. Here are a few items which
I present to any industrious compiler. The Times is said
to have increased its circulation one half, although
its war correspondence has been singularly poor.
In fact but for Bismark's confidential com-
munications to the clever German professor
who acts as Berlin correspondent, and who writes Eng-
lish as though it were his native language, the "leading"
journal would have been left far behind by its cheap con-
temporaries. Foremost in the race by a long way has
been the Daily News, whose war correspondence has really
been most admirable, and should permanently establish
that enterprising aper. Not the least interesting of its
letters have been those written by the special correspon-
dent in Paris, Mr. Parkinson, who accompanied
Mr. Pender in the Red Sea telegraph expedition,
and has recently published a book upon
it. Mr. O'Shea's letters in the Standard
have also been very good. The penny papers are said to
have increased their circulation from 75 to 100 per cent.,
and judging from my own experience I can readily believe
this. The proprietors of the City Press have imported a
Parisian fashion, the kiosk, and have erected one in the
Poultry. It would be a great blessing to the Londoner
hurrying through the crowded streets if these
kiosks were erected in every principal thoroughfare, so
that he might thereby be saved the annoyance
and hindrance of being beset by the army of
dirty, ragged, shouting boys who now press round
him and get under his legs. But then these
little urchins, many of whom are really, so far as their
costume is concerned, a disgrace to civilised society, would
be deprived of the handsome incomes which they are now
making and the fortunes which they are accumulating in
preparation for the time when they will be news-vendors
and newspaper proprietors, and have a seat in Par-
liament.

A German correspondent writes that two celebrated
German litterateurs are now at the Crown Prince's head-
quarters. They are Ludwig Pietsch and Gustave Freytag.
The latter is well-known as the author of the interesting
novel "Soil and Haben" (" Debit and Credit ") which
was translated about a dozen years ago by the late Mrs.
Austin. Pietsch is less known in England, but is highly
esteemed as a journalist in Germany. He was travelling
to the war in a waggon among bags of oats when
an officer in plain undress uniform and foraging cap, and
distinguished only by a star which was nearly hid by his
waterproof cloak, rode by, and, observing Pietsch, at once
recognised him. " What," said he, " have you no better
carriage than that ? Then you must have a seat in mine.
Come along at once. Harrach, you take Pietsch under
your protection, you and he and Freytag should travel toge-
ther. Lebe wohl." The person addressed was Count Harrach,
the famouspainter. The speaker was the Crown Prince. The
three fellow-travellers hada comfortable carriage belonging
to his Royal Highness assigned to them. They were constant
attendants on the Prince in the camp, and Freytag was
placed at his right hand. The three men of peace consti-
tuted themselves a head-quarters of a separate kind, and
hoisted a flag on their tent with the inscription " Head-
quarters of German Literature and Art," to the astonish-
ment of the French natives, who had thought that
France was to take light and sweetness into Germany,
and did not expect that Germany would bring them ink
France.

Of other literary news the chief item is that Mr.
Swinburne is engaged, on a poem, which, without regard-
ing Mr. Aytoun's previous work, he will call " Bothwell."
As soon as Professor Jowett has completed his Plato he will
bring out a theological work. Professor SeeleY
will republish in the autumn a collection of
essays which he has contributed to the Magazines, and
will also publish his lectures on Roman History which be
has delivered at Cambridge. Professor Goodwin, °
Harvard College; is editing an English version of Phi-
tarch's " Moralia,' in five vols., with an introductory
essay by Mr. Emerson. Plutarch seems to be popular in
the United States. Readers of the life of Arthur Clough
will remember that it was while he was in that country
that he brought out his edition of the "Lives." Mr. B.
Black has translated Guizot's History of France, and it
will be published in 21 monthly parts by Low and Mar-
ston. Mr. Justin M`Carthy begins his new tale, "Lady
Judith," in the forthcoming number of Tinsley's Magazine.
London Society has passed out of the hands of Mr. Janie
Hogg into those of Mr. Rickard Bentley, the publisher of
Temple Bar. Mr. Henry Blackburn, the author of MO'
trated books on Spain and Normandy, will be the new editor
of the former magazine. Mr. Hogg starts in opposition a
new magazine called English Society, with regard to which be
promises great things. The People's Magazine is about to have
a new editor. The Christian Times has changed hands•
Messrs. Cassell are about to issue with the new edition
of their Family Bible an engraving of Mr. Smethan:e3
picture, " The Hymn of the Lord's Supper. " This pie"
ture I remember commending very highly when writing
about last year's exhibition of the Royal Academy. n
is wonderfully unconventional and powerful. Mr•
Smetham is as facile with his pen as with
his pencil, and has frequently contributed article;
to the London Quarterly _Review : that on Blake,
the artist, was by him. Finally, I may mention that
Murray is pushing his English hand books well, the sal°
for the Continental ones being, of course, a. most nil this
year. Mr. Burgess, editor of the Leamington Courier, L 4
writing a guide-book to Warwickshire for the literarY
potentate of Albemarle-street.

The papers have mentioned the death of Mr. Brockin"
hurst, formerly M.P. for Maclesfield, at the ripe age
82. He was an eminently cautious and prudent man'
When the great division upon the conduct of the Palmer'
ston Government with regard to the war in Denmark
was impending, every available vote was required. 1
Brocklehurst, then 76 years old, was one of those whop
Mr. Brand had impressed for service in the lobby.
that time the member for Macclesfield was some"
what shaky, and was not accustomed to frequent
the House of Commons very often. This was an
occasion which would not allow him to remain at
home. At the same time he was like most ladies of that
rnd the present, and, indeed, all time. He had " nothing,
to wear." So, in honour of the approaching Ministerial
triumph, and in order that he might accomplish his poi:
tion of it with greater eclat, he went to a tailor, 1111'
ordered a new suit of clothes, but with the express tonal'
tion that if he died before the eventful division night, the
tailor was to take the clothes back. He lived to wear
them, not only then, but on the Macclesfield hustings °.
the following year. He continued to sit in Parliament
until the dissolution of 1868.

In Sir Frederick Pollock, science and art have lost tb
warm friend. He was particularly strong in that dePart-
ment which may be called the meeting ground of science
and art—photography. He had an enormous farnill:
I believe twenty-four children, many of whom have die-
tinguished themselves in the law, in literature, and in
governMent. He lived to see his great grand children.

FALL OF A WALL-SEVERAL PERSONS

INJURED.
An accident by which several persons were injurel
and many more very much frightened happened
Hathersage, Sheffield, on Wednesday. A sale was going
on, and either sitting on or leaning against a wall iinnie‘
diately opposite to the auctioneer were about thil4/
persons. Without the slightest warning about nilaV
feet of the wall gave way, throwing down and h.
burying several of those who were seated upon or stand
under it. For a time there was great excitement, will°
was increased by the loud screams of women and children'
several of whom were rather seriously injured. One
woman was almost buried under the debris. Fears were
entertained that there were children under the fallen
brickwork, but upon its removal they were found to be
groundless. —Sheffield Independent.

DuNviLLE and Co., Belfast, are the largest holder!
of whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is r onareenclue;
by the medical profession in preference to French brand .
plied in casks and cases for home use or exportation. Quotal.4
on application to Messrs DUNVILLE & Co., Royal Irish
tillories, Belfast ; or at the'. London Offices, 4, Beaufort Buildi"
SLrand, W.C.