The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-13 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

THE DUTIES 01' TEUSTEES.—In Vice-Chancellor
Malins's Court, on Monday, a case:was heard in which the
trustees of an estate refused to pay a sum of money to the
niece of the testator, the legacy being, to "Ann Haslop," and
her name being "Mary Ann." The defendants pleaded that
there might be a great niece called "Ann," but the Vice-
Chancellor said that in no case could a great niece be
-entitled, and as there was no justification for the refusal
to pay, there must be a decree with costs.—ln a similar
case, the widow of the testator bad been reduced to
the greatest straits, though property amounting to £350
had been placed at the London and Westminster Bank by
the trustees. She had applied to the defendants, one of
whom gave her ls. and the other ss. Vice-Chancellor
Malin said they must pay the costs up to the hearing,
and there must be an account. A summons must be
taken out, and he would direct investment in New Indian
Stock, which would produce £l5 a year, and payment of
the income to the plaintiff now.
UNWHOLESOME MEAT.—At Guildhall, on Monday, a
greaseboiler, named Barnes, carrying on business in Suffolk,
was sent to prison fur a month for sending to the New
Meat Market the carcass of a pig unfit for human food.
A farmer, named Bryant, also from Suffolk, received a
similar sentence for sending the carcasses of four sheep
unfit for food to the same market.

THE MARYLEBONE CLUB.-At the Marylebone Police-
court, the case of the Marylebone Club was brought under
notice. Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Russell appeared to answer
the charge of keeping a place for betting. A police-constable
said he went to the house in plain clothes, and took
out a ticket of membership for ss. He saw betting-lists
on the wall, and saw the defendants make bets. For the
defence it wassaid that this was as much a club as Tatter-
sall's, that none but members were allowed to enter, and
no bets were made except with members. Mr. Mansfield
said he would give his decision on Thursday next.

THE CEMETERY FRAUDS.-At the Central Criminal
Court, on Monday, Joseph Kitchen was indicted for em-
bezzling various sums of money with intent to defraud the
Abney Park Cemetery Company. The jury returned a
verdict of guilty, with a recommendation to mercy on
account of the prisoner's previous good character. Mr.
Lewis, on the Fart of the prosecution, joined in the
recommendation. The Recorder passed a sentence of six
months' imprisonment.
EMBEZZLEMENT BY A BANK CLERK.—At the Central
Criminal Court, George Dickson pleaded guilty to embez-
zling sums of money belonging to his employers, Messrs.
Smith and Payne, bankers. The Recorder said the
prisoner bad been in a responsible situation, but engaged
in betting transactions, and plundered his employers. He
sentenced him to five years' penal servitude.

Another stzike amongst the colliers in the Barnsley
district seems imminent. Owing to the depressed state of
the trade, the proprietor of the Mount Osborne and other
pits in the neighbourhood, employing from 600 to 70C men,
bas intimated his intention of reducing the rate of pay-
ment. Tho men have held a meeting, and resolved not to
.ccept tho reduction.

A lamentable occurrence took place at the port of
Goole on Saturday evening. A billy boy lighter, called the
Stone Merchant, laden with copper ore, for the Goole
Alum Works, was coming up tho river, in charge of a
steam tug, and when abreast cf the Lock Hill, the tug
stopped to allow the lighter to swing round on a taut rope.
Just at this time the screw steamer William Caulman was
leaving the steam packet lock for the continent, and the
two vessels came into violent collision, the sloop sinking
instantly, taking down with her the master, John Car-
michael, of Hull, and his wife. The bodies have not been
recovered.

THE GREAT PROBLEM SOLVED.—The New York
rapers of the Ist publish the following despatch:—" San
Francisco, Tuesday, June 29.—Successful experiments
have been made in this city with a working model of an
aerial navigation machine. It not only ascended into the
air, but was propelled in any required direction by the
machinery, and it has the capacity for carrying eight or
ten persons, being constructed for the purpose of making
trips to New York. The inventor is confident that the
tr;p can be made in twenty-four hours."
THE EARL OF WESTMORELAND AND HIS CREDITORS,
—ln Judges' Chambers, on Monday, four summonses
came on before his lordship, Mr. Baron Bramwell, in refe-
Nence to the Earl of Westmoreland. They had been taker
out (except one) on the part of the Earl for liberty
to the Sheriff of Northamptonshire to sell by private
contract, instead of public auction, and in case of a new
execution a public sale was preferred. The several
solicitors in the matter discussed the applications.
The execution creditors asked for a sale by con-
tract, as beneficial compared to a public auction.
The Sheriff of Northamptonshire was represented before
the learned judge, and he wished an order to enable him
to sell by contract. It was stated that the
property other than that claimed by the Dowager
Countess would fetch about .C5OO. more than by
public auction. The first execution was by Mr.
Solomon for £3,000, the next by Messrs. Beyfus for
£9,000 and upwards, and then other executions would take
if any was left. Mr. Davn Bramwell made the order for
leave to 4111.)Y private contract.

THE VALVE OF FORTS.

(From the Anglo-American Tin-es.)

Some telling statistics have been brought tobear on
that disputed point, the value of forts. The figures
show the enormously increased cost of defending,
say a seaport, by ironclads instead of by forts, the
difference being little short of ten to one, while the
efficiency is less. There are certain points which must
be defended ; on these points, from shore to a depth
of more than six fathoms, fortifications should be
erected, as they are cheaper, as they remain at
the place where they are a necessity, and when
there are better adapted to the required work than
ships. The estimated cost per gun in the improved
ironclad is £lOO,OOO, a sum beyond all comparison
greater than the cost per gun of erecting and main-
taining fortifications of equal strength, even where a
ship would anchor, though in such depths the expen-
diture on the fort is mainly sunk in the foundations
under water. The cost per gun mounted in vessels of
the Warrior class is about £ll,OC°. In the Hotspur,
where the strength of the plating is enormous and
the guns very powerful, though few in number, the
cost per gun is £97,000.; but in forts of stone,
plated with iron, it is £4,000 per gun, and of earth
only £2,509. While :he difference in the first outlay is
so great the cost of maintenance is still more dispro-
portionate. To keep in repair a steamer with its
engines, wear and tear of hull and gear, not to men-
tion the crew, must cost more than a fort, the items
of repair being much larger, while the ship goes
more speedily to destruction than the fort. The cost
then per gun in outlay and repair mounted in a first
class ironclad is said to equal £lOO,OOO, while tak-
ing the most improved forts, including those con-
structed at Spithead, in instances, we believe, in
over ten fathoms water, the expense per gun would
not reach one-tenth that sum. In blocking Ports-
mouth against an attacking fleet forts are indis-
pensable, unless an ironclad squadron superior to
the enemy is to be kept constantly at anchor at
Spithead ; and as the Needles are being rendered
impassable to hostile ships by the erection of such
forts as that of Hurst Castle, and of those at
Portsmouth and at Spithead, it follows that the
squadron before necessary—for Portsmouth must,
at all cost, be defended —is liberated for the
work which more properly appertains to it. In
fact people do not sufficiently separate two dis-
tinct things when discussing the value of forts.
Forts are defensive, fleets are offensive, and it would
be a mistake to apply the more costly offensive weapon
for work which can be better done by the cheaper
defensive system. As such arsenals and dockyards
as those of Portsmouth, in England, as well as of
Norfolk, in America, must be defended, if there
be no forts at the proper points, ships must take
their place. Hence the fleet, which may be neces-
sary for a service of the utmost importance else-
where, becomes tied to a depot where are grouped
things of great value, which, if left, may be destroyed
by an insignificant attacking force, while the ships
cannot be wholly calculated on, as they may be
driven to sea by a gale of wind, or, worse still,
ashore. Given then the necessity for guns to be
mounted at certain spots, which undoubtedly exists,
and the value of forts is obvious ; nor that only,
for they are almost indispensable. A British officer,
whose experience is considerable, and knowledge of
the subject intimate, maintains that the English
system of erecting forts has approached to perfec-
tion, and in consequence some of the fortifications
along the English coast are the strongest in the
world, indeed, almost invulnerable, while their ar-
mament is the most powerful. In contrasting the cost
of these with ships he has a right to take the new class
of ironclads, the forts being also iron-clad, and it is
amazing to learn the enormously increased cost per
gun in the men-of-war. Vessels of the Warrior
class are egg-shells as compared with those now
building, and this may well be so when the expense
has risen from /11,000 per gun to £90,000. It is indeed
true, that war is in this day a game of science and
money, for nothing but mechanical power and in-
genuity can meet the attack of such monsters
wherever a nation has a vulnerable place on the sea.
The ordinary guns now used will deliver on a given
surface a blow nearly five times as great at 200
yards as the 68-pounder delivered, while this dispa-
rity is very much increased where the distance be-
comes greater, as the gnus of the present thy carry
their force and velocity much further. Th 3 pro-
gress made is not confined to guns, but includes
projectiles ; the introduction of a harder material,
of for ms more suitable for penetration, having done
most to give guns their present power. Chief
among these is the chilled iron elongated shot,
which is represented as being much superior •to
steel ; the latter when pointed, on striking a target
almost invariably alter the form, while the former
goes through seven inches of iron without any per-
ceptible effect on its point, though the body is fre-
quently broken. Admiral ROBINSON laid it down
as a rule (the truth of which appeared to be ad-
mitted in a general way in the evidence given be-
fore the Royal Commission on Fortifications) that
the resisting plate to be effective must be as thick as
the diameter of the attacking guns' bore ; that is,
the shot from six-inch guns would be resisted by

iron plates of six inches, as would seven-inch plates
resist seven-inch guns, and so on. There is scarcely
a limit to the size of the artillery which may be
mounted on a fort while there is a limit to the
weight of the gun which can be carried in a ship.
Naval officers think it possible to mount a gun of
25 tons, but we believe that no such gun has as yet
been shipped. The heaviest of British construction
is 22 tons, but one of 13.3 inch has been used in
throwing an elongated projectile of 600 lbs. In
weight of metal the forts must always have the
advantage, whether against an attacking fleet or
army ; obviously in the latter case, where the
heaviest siege train gun even thought of for the Bri-
tish service is but a seven-inch breech-loader, weigh-
ing 72 cwt. To move anything weightier with an
army would, if not impossible, be so cumbersome
as to delay operations, check the whole movements
of the force, and be dangerous in a hostile country.
Allowing that the fort being stationary affords a
better target for a ship, it is also true that being
stationary its accuracy of fire is much greater than
that of amovingplatform, andthe material used in the
construction of the strongest can only be destroyed
by repeated shots striking the same place, or near to it.
Although there can be no doubt as to the value of
forts as thebest means of defence against ships at cer •
tainpoints,thevalueof fortifications to stop the march
of an army may be more conjectural. The increased
range of projectiles has so changed the old systems,
so widened the operations, that it is impossible no w
to construct fortifications effectually to protect a
point of attack, except on a circle so large as to
require an army for its defence. Their value in this
way may be doubtful, and there is no experience of
actual war to guide since guns and targets attained
to the present perfection. Richmond was defended
by an army, but nearly all the fighting was in the
open field, and artillery has become more effective
since its fall. The siege of Sebastopol is of no
value, for the guns there used were much the same
as those with which NELSON fought the battle of
Trafalgar. The French campaign in Lombardy
did not test the question, as the Treaty was con-
cluded before the Quadrilateral was invaded, and
the Prussians ran past lioniggriaz, the fort behind
the Austrian army at Sadowa, when it proved
worthless as a means of checking the advance of
the victors, though it would have been of much ser-
vice in the campaigns of GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.
It is a disputed point what the fort of Konig-
griitz did to save the routed Austrian army hold
absolute destruction, yet it in no degree stopped
the advance of the Prussians on Vienna. But whe-
ther useful or not against an invading army, the
value of forts at certain spots on a coast, in moun-
tain passes, or even on rivers, is so manifest, that
we cannot understand how the doubt could have
I arisen or such a question come up for debate.

The Japanese Government has made full and
final payment, with interest, for the ram Stonewall, pur-
chased by the American Government two years since, and
the money has been placed in the Treasury to the credit of
the Navy Department.
DuNvILLE and Co., Belfast, are the largest
holders of Whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is re-
commended by the medical profession in preference to French
Brandy. Supplied in casks and cases for home use or exporta-
tion Quotations on application to Messrs. Dunville and Co.,
Belfast; or 4, Beata Strand, Loudon, IV,C.—[Ad
Tel ilbealellt_

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.