The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-13 00:00:00

ENGLAND'S PREPARATIONS.

On Thursday about eighty men of the Naval Reserve
arrived at Woolwich by steamboat from London and pro-
ceeded to the practice range adjacent to the Royal
Arsenal, where a section of a man-of-war has been erected
for their instruction in naval gunnery, through a course
of which every man in the reserve has to pass during his
annual training. The excellent practice made by the
several detachments at the targets proved the care taken
in their preliminary drills.
A deputation from Woolwich went to Whitehall on the
same clay
.to see Mr. Cardwell, but found that he was
engaged in *Council, and were received by Lord
Northbrook. They urged the immediate and entire sale
of Woolwich Dockyard, but were informed that accord-
ing to present arrangements about two-thirds would
be sold, the basins only and the grotind to the west being
retained for the embarkation of horses and troops in time
of war. . _

Mr. N. Barnaby, the president of the commission for
carrying out the duties lately discharged by the Chief
Constructor of the Navy, has been on a visit to Chatham
dockyard, during which he spent some time in the inspec-
tion of the Sultan, Glatton, and the other ironclad vessels
building and fittinc, at that port, and in the transaction of
official 100141'0os with. the heagis of the master-shipwright
- . —"department.
Enlistment is progressing on both sides of the Thames.
The majority of the recruits seem to belong to the class
of unemployed labourers ; only a few of them are Lon-
doners, while some respectable-looking and well-dressed
young men are among those enlisted by the cavalry ser-
geants. The Royal Engineers state in their placard the
inducements they offer to young men of superior intelli-
gence and to tradesmen t join. Announcements are
also posted that boys under sixteen years will be taken
for the Royal Navy, but that any boy who has been in a
reformatory is disqualified for the service.
The War Office, it is said, have ordered some ambulance
waggons from contractors.
The Standard is informed, "on the very best autho-
rity," that there is a lamentable deficiency of proper fuses
in store.

The reports of experimental trials of the Martini-Henry
arm have been issued, together with the remarks of a
special committee appointed to consider the same. The
committee think it proper to observe that there can be no
doubt that the main cause of the miss-fires which have oc-
curred with the arms was the weakness of the spiral springs
as originally issued. The concurrence of opinion on this point
appears to be decisive, independently of the information
which the Committee have received from other sources.
Indeed, it is admitted that the springs were not so strong
as those approved by Mr. Martini, who states in his letter
that he employs a spring of 401b5., but thinks that 331bs.
.will answer. He finds the springs issued in the two arms,
presented to him from Enfield; were only 361bs. It also
appears that the springs of the 200 experimentl arms
were not so strong as those of the arms with which the
original experiinent were made, on the success of which
was based the recommendation that the rifle should be
adopted. The following objections are made to the breech
mechanism :—A. That accidents may occur in spite
of the bolt and indicator. Six reports contain
an expression of opinion that the bolt and
indicator are insufficient to afford complete security
against accidents. The committee observed that
the system is not necessarily attended with danger if the
soldiers are properly trained. There is only one instance
in which the " pull-off " trigger is complained of as
being too strong previous to the substitution
of the stronger springs. There is, however, no
doubt that the stronger spring has increased
the pull-off to an inconvenient degree. The attention
of the Superintendent Royal Small-Arms Factory has
been called to this point, and he has stated that there
will be no difficulty in making the pull-off the same as
that of the Enfield rifle. The Committee state that
there can be no doubt that for the naval service a shorter
rifle would be preferable, and the committee consider that
a rifle of the same length as that in use by the Rifle
Brigade and 60th Rifles would be more serviceable than a
rifle of the present length, for the following reasons, viz.:—
The rifle will be lighter, better balanced, and handier ; on
the other hand, it will be shorter, as a pike, and not so
convenient for firing in two ranks standing, objections
which do not seem to have caused the rifle regiments
to condemn the short rifle, and which the committee do
not think sufficient to weigh against the advantages be-
fore named: