The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-22 00:00:00

NAVAL AND MILITAR.Y.

It is rumoured that an application has been made for
£50,000 for the replenishment of the stores of Ports-
mouth Dockyard, in order to conform to the recent order
that a twelvemonth's stock is to be kept up. At Wool-
wich Arsenal great activity prevails. Additional work-
shops are being erected in the east laboratory among the
buildings in which cartridges are manufactured, and pre-
parations are being made for the immediate employment
of several hundred extra hands.

The colonelcy of the 18th Hussars has become vacant
by the death of Sir Charles Routledge O'Connell. He
was a General in the Army, and a Knight of St. John of
Jerusalem. He was married in 1826 to Catherine Anne,
daughter of Major-General J. P. Murray, C. 8., and
cousin of the ninth Baron Elibank.

Reinforcements for the East left Chatham yesterday
for Portsmouth, where upwards of 400 men will embark
in the Serapis, which sails to-day for Alexandria.

OUR ARTILLERY.

We look upon it, says a contemporary, as now prac-
tically decided that the future armament of our field
artillery is to consist of a muzzle loading system.
It is probable that the guns will be 9-pounders
of 8 cwt., and 16-pounders of 12 cwt., and the
only question of any importance yet to be de
cided is of what material these guns shall be made.
The Indian Government have adopted bronze for their
nine-pounder muzzle-loading field guns, and we sincerely
trust the gun foundry at Cossipore may be
enabled to turn out trustworthy weapons of this
metal. The Imperial Government, however,
is as yet uncommitted to any great extent,
and, looking to the want of success that has
attended our experiments with bronze, we think it highly
desirable to abandon this metal, at least for the present
Little or no attention has of late years been paid to the
casting of bronze cannon, and it is possible that our
founders may ultimately hit upon some method
by which this material may be cast sound and
solid. We cannot, however, afford now to wait
for this. We, want gnns at once? and, as we
have said on more than one occasion failing bronze wo
must fall back upon wrought-iron and steel—that is to say
a steel barrel surrounded by wrought-iron coils. It would,
no doubt, be possible to make guns wholly of coiled wrought-
iron ;it might even be possible to line the existing
bronze guns with coiled tubes of Marshall's iron, and to
send these tubes to India to be fitted to the guns there ;
but, on the whole, we deprecate the use of coiled barrels
for muzzle-loading field gulls. Coils are excellent for
affording circumferential strength, but they are
unsuitable for the bore of a gun—firstly, because the
metal is comparatively soft; secondly, because the pos-
sible opening of the coils may serve to retain portions of
ignited cartridge, and so render loading dangerous. With
regard to lining bronze guns, the operation would be a
difficult one to perform so as to ensure a perfect fit at the
breech, and the gun so lined would, after all, be a mere
makeshift, and on the whole as expensive as a
new one of steel and wrought iron. We are satisfied,
therefore, that greater economy would in the end be se-
cured by supplying the Imperial service altogether, and
the Indian Government at present, with wrought-iron
muzzle-loading field guns with steel barrels ; and we trust
that these weapons may forthwith be ordered in large
numbers.

It is stated that a large order has been received in Lon-
don for the manufacture of tents for the Prussian army.
The number required is 5,000, each of them capable of
accommodating twenty men, so that shelter by this means
would be provided for 100,000 soldiers.

Miss DAVIES.—Thin lady, who will in all proba-
bility be returned for Greenwich as a member of the
London School Board, founds her claim on a ten years'
active and successful operation for the improvement of the
education of girls. She was the main founder of the
Ladies' College at Hitchin, which is to be in connection
with the University of Cambridge. She was foremost in
promoting the Oxford and Cambridge local examination
for girls. She was instrumental in securing the Commis-
sion on Endowed schools, and has constantly written
articles and books on the different branches of female
education and the modes of livelihood for girls; and,
contending as she does for the necessity of the female
element in the management of every school, shews her
aptitude for this duty very effectively. Miss Davies is of,
comparatively mature age, is of very pleasing appear-11
ance, has a tactical manner, and a readiness of resource ,
and judgment. In every respect she is strictly feminine"
in her demeanour, and exhibits none of the Ways which
are attributed to the conventional "strong-minded."