The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-31 00:00:00

TILE NAVY.

The crew of the screw steamship Royal Albert,
V 21, C ,apt. H. Lacon, flag of Admiral Stopford, have
seat down her main topmast, and are now stripping
l'Aer mainmast, in order that the defects may be in-
'ap' acted. It is probable that the mainmast will be
cr mdemned.

The screw steam sloop Petrel, 11, is under the
`north crane in Keyham steamyard receiving her
engine gear.

His Danish Majesty's corvette Heindal, Captain
Commaa der Schulz, from Gibraltar for Copenhagen,
arrived in Plymouth Sound late on Thursdayeven-
ing, and on Friday morning saluted the national
flag with 21 gins, and the flag of Port Admiral Sir
H. Stewart with 14 guns, which were duly acknow-
ledged by the citadel and by the flagship Impreg-
nable, 104, Capt. Lord F. Kerr, in Hamoaze.
The screw steam gun vessel Lynx, 5, the crew of
which were recently paid off, was towed on Friday
from the Devonport Dockyard to her moorings up
Hamoaze.

The Lords of the Admiralty have granted the
sum of £25 towards the school library at Chatham
dockyard.
The Isis, 44, sailing frigate, was placed in the
second dock at Chatham on Saturday, to complete
fitting for the West Coast of Africa.
The Pigeon, contract-built screw gunboat, 60-
horse power, was docked at Chatham on Saturday,
to ba completed for the second division of the steam
reserve.

The Orpheus, 21, screw corvette, 400-horse power
(nominal), has been removed from Chatham dock-
yard, where she has been lying since she made her
trial trip to Gillingham Reach. On Saturday orders
were given for a party 'of shipwrights from the
dockyard to proceed on board this morning for the
purpose of completing her afloat for the steam
reserve.

The screw steam corvette Axon, 21, Capt. E. von
Donop, has left Hansoaze, and is now in Plymouth
Sound waiting orders.
The paddlewheel steamsloop Spiteful, 6, Com-
mander Wilson, with the coal depot Alarm in tow,
left Plymouth Sound on Friday for Pembroke.

TRE ABM•

The inner work of the line of defences stretching
from Stokes Bay, on the shores of the Solent, to
Frater Lake, on the Western and upper portion of
Portsmouth harbour, has within the past fortnight
been vacated by the Royal Artillery who have been
stationed there since its completion, some few
months since, for the purpose of extensive repairs;
and yet this Work over its entrance gateway bears
the date of 1859. So recently has the work been
occupied that only four of its guns are at present
mounted, the platforms in most instances not being
yet laid, and in others the metal not yet being laid
on the stone of their traverses. The trace of the
Work presents an irregilar triangular shape, with
its apex cut off on its central front, which is con-
eh acted to mount six 8 and 10-inch guns. Its
right face and flank will mount seven guns of
the same calibre, all the grin on these two
faces, with one exception, fig through em-
brrsures. The gun referred to exceptionally
-works on a central pivot, and fires en barbette,
commanding an advanced earthwork thrown
out on the right flank and rear in the direction of high water mark in Portsmouth harbour. The
left face and flank of the work mounts eight guns
on the terre-pleins, with four 10-inch in bomb-
proof caeemates on the terre-pleine a la Haxo. The
enceinte of the work contains also three mortars.
The gorge or base of this irregulee triengle is
closed by a long brick one-story building containing
quarters for officers and men, and with an entrance
gateway in the centre. Parallel with this row of
beildings, and perhaps 25 or 30 feet further in the
enceinte, runs another range of quarters, which are
strongly faced with earth to the front of the forti-
fication, and which has very much the appearance
of being an after-thought grafted upon
de the original
sign ; it, however, must tend greatly to the
security of the quarters in its, rear in the event of
any bombardment from the front. The whole is
surrounded by a ditch Dres-Caed with ,a
at its salient puhilicres angles. This ditch has, however, b
designed at too acute an angle, or due allowance has
not been made for the want of tenacity in the soil,
as along its greater extent slips of earth have
occurred from its sides which, if not arrested, must
eventually level it with its glacis. A walk round
the ramparts in the interior of the work shows a
good command of the surrounding country, but
everything has a strange neglected appearance--
the unlaid platforms, the embrasures already under-
going alterations and repairs, and, worse than all,
a mass of the brickwork at the angle of the
western pivot gun, some six or seven feet square,
having split from parapet to terre-pleine, and
fallen partially forward, leaving a space of several
inches between it and the remainder of the brickwork.
A glance at the base discloses the cause of this ;
the foundation of the work has given way, and
the superincumbent weight is subsiding and
breaking up. Proceeding along the flat roof of the
quarters which close the rear of the fort, the parapet
wall on its outer edge displays similar symptoms of
subsidence by its cracks and irregularity of outline.
This is more discernible at the wings than in the
centre. Descending from this roof, and entering
the rooms below, the means taken to prevent this
subsidence and general break up are at on visible
—at least, all that have been commenced at pre-
sent. They consist of the ceiling having been cut
through in each instance to the lower part of the
joists, and the insertion of e heavy iron girder,
which is let into the walls on each side of the room.
This would appear to a common sense visitor to be
merely aditing to an already too great surnincum-
bent weight which the foundation is too weak to
carry. Another great and evident fault in the ori-
gine! design of the work is the fact of its being
open to an enfilading fire from its right flank and
rear in the direction of the Nelson column on Ports-
down. The contract work appears to have been
well performed, externally and internally; and in
the instance of the torn brickwork, the bricks
themselves have been broken apart by the force
brought to bear upon them, but the cement itself
has remained firm. We have thus a work standing
guard at one end of an important line of defence
utterly untenable from faults of design or construc-
tion in less than 12 months after it is completed, or
before its guns can be mounted for its defence.
By the death of Major-Gen. S. B. Boileau (1858),
belonging to the fixed establishment of officers, a P.:dnsion for distinguished andrious
generalMerite
services,beemes vacant and is placed at the dis-
posal of his Ro ,
yal Highness the Commander-in.
Chi

Col. Anthony Blaziond Stransham, commanding
the Woolwich division of Royal Marines, received
the official notification from the Board of Admiralty
on Saturday last of his Pl'omotion to the rank of
Major-General, and retired from
_the command. He
a
is suoceeded by Col. Fielding Alex
now Col.-Commandant of the divisindon. er Campbell,
In consequenee of the intention of the Govern-
ment to reduce the strength of the whole of the
British regiments serving in India, orders were on
Saturday received at Chatham Garrison from the
Horse Guards directing the various recruiting
parties to join the depots of their respective
regiments, with the exception of one non-com-
missioned officer and one man of each corps. By
the proposed reduction the strength of each of the
India depots at Chatham is to be reduced to 100
non-commissioned officers and men, all beyond that
number will be sent, early in tip. ensuing spring, to
join the service companies of their respective regi-
ments at headquarters.
The establishment of French classes for the in.
struction of the non-commissioned officers of the
Royal Artillery at Woolwich, under the direction
of M. Baron, has thus far progressed' most favour-
ably, and the' example is now being followed up by
Various other grades throughout the regiment. A
couple of additional classes, consisting of the male
and female teachers belonging to the regimental
schools, have been organised, 12 of the former and
6 of the latter constituting two separate classes. A
number of the most intelligent gunners of the regi-
ment have also made application for instruction in
a similar manner. As the time thus employed in-
.' . - J

(From the Times' awrespondent.)
BEFORE PEKIN, OCT. 17.
When I say "Before Pekin," you are not to inaa-
; gine that we are in the position of a besieging
army, and that we could not get in if we wished it,
for, as the last mail has probable informed you, one
of the gates is now in our possession, and we have
only to push on our advantage to become masters
of the entire town. It was not anticipated that it
would have become ours without some semblance of
opposition, and accordingly on the 12th the Ist
Royal Regiment was sent to take up its quarters in
the " Temple of the Earth," the walls of which en-
close a space of many acres, one of them stretching
parallel to the north wall of Pekin at a distance of
a few hundred yards, and a little to our left of
the Anting-gate. Behind this wall the siege
battery was to have been placed, openings having
been made in it for the purpose, and the plan
of attack was to breach the wall at a distance of
15 feet from the ground, then to storm the breach
with a party told off from the Second Division,
which party, when it had gained the wall, was to
turn to its right, and proceed along the wall to the
Anting-gate, which it was forthwith to occupy.
All this preparation was, however, rendered need-
less by the surrender of the gate, which was given
up to us in the course of the day, and is now held
conjointly by the English and French, one on the
right and the other on the left, our garrison being
composed of the 67th Regiment, the Bth Punjab
Infantry, and some Artillery.
The word " gate" conveys but a faint idea of the
complicated structure which bears that name. As
yon approach the heavy massive wall, 40 feet high,
and, as will afterwards appear, 55 feet thick at the
top, passing by a bridge of stone over a ditch that
may once have been wet, but now is dry, you come
to what I can best term a " semicircular bastion,"
having at what, if it were built according to our
ideas, would be its saliant angle a huge square
tower of several stories, pierced with foxr rows of
loopholes, one over the other, and 12 in each row,
and surmounted by that peculiar pagoda-like roof
with which the willow-pattern plate has made us
all familiar. Leaving this on your right, and keep-
ing along the semicircular excrescence till it joins
the main wall of the city, you come to an archway
which is gate No. 1. Having got into the courtyard
inside this said semicircle, you find another arch-
way in the city wall, facing the aforesaid tower,
and this is gate No. 2, surmounted by a tower simi-
lar to that already described, but apparently in-
tended more for ornament than use, not being fur-
nished with loopholes, and having a balcony round
it at about half its height from the ground. From
this balcony, reached by means of an antiquated
wooden staircase of questionable solidity, I received
my first, and as yet my only, view of Pekin, for
ingress beyond the immediate gate is positively
forbidden. Facing you as you look towards the
city a broad street runs north and south, and at
right angles to it smaller streets along the foot of
the walls. At the junction of these streets be-
fore the gate was an enormous crowd of wonder-
struck inhabitants, gazing with open eyes and
mouths at the European soldiery in the gate, as
the Trojans may have gazed on the wooden
horse when it had passed their impregnable walls.
To keep back this curiosity-stricken mob was a
task of some difficulty to the sentries, and so far
from fearing us were they, that several adventurous
spirits brought with them supplies of fowls, fruits,
and sweetmeats, with which they drove a good
trade with the soldiers on guard. The shops in this
part of the main street, as far as I could see, seemed
to be small and insignificant, as were also the
houses on which we looked down from the wall,
and I was struck with the absence of all large
buildings, or even of the pagodas of which I fan-
cied the pity had been full. In this respect, I am
told, the Tartar position of the city, on which I
was then looking down, is far inferior to the mi.
OVIII,IICI-11 Hair,
.the inhabitants of which
would gladly have opened their gates to us long
ago, and actually made handsome offers of supplies
in case we took up our quarters in their city. I
was not at a sufficient elevation to see the wall se-
parating the Tartar from the Chinese city, but I
could clearly see the whole extent of the northern
part of the eastern and western walls, each about
four miles long, and well provided with gates
similar to that on which I was standing.
It is strange that a city of the size and antiquity
of Pekin should have little or no suburb round it.
The walls in most places look down on green fields
outside, and the only approach to a suburb is the
village in which the British army is quartered,
which, however, is quite detached from the city,
there being a plain of a mile or two in breadth
lying between.
There is a carriage road, of not very steep ascent,
up to the top of the wall at the Anting-gate. Of
this we have availed ourselves to get our guns on
the walls, and the mouths of some howitzers now
frown on the main street of the city, while
traverses have been thrown up across the
wall at each side, thus precluding the possibility
of any attempt of the Tart9rs to dislodge us. The
wall is battlemented in the usual manner, with
square bastions at intervals, which afford a
kind of flank defence, an element of fortifica-
tion generally overlooked by Chinese Vaubans,
and, though there are no embrasures for cannon, I
observed a few light guns lying near the gate, the
largest of them a brass piece marked with the
maker's name, and purporting to have been made
at " Middleburgh" in the 17th century.
You have heard, I suppose, how the Emperor's
Summer Palace has been " looted," to use the word
which the Indian mutiny has domesticated in our
military parlance. Our allies decidedly got to
windward of us on this occasion, and the amount of
plunder which they secured is only equalled by the
amount of valuable property which they destroyed.
When I reached the palace, which is five or six
miles from here, on the morning of the Bth, nearly
all the portable valuables were gone, but enough of
a larger description remained to show what must
have been the magnificence of those now desolate
halls. The English officers were allowed to vi4t
it, but the French being encamped on the spot,
both officers and men were there in numbers, and
the destruction of furniture, mirrors, clocks, and
articles of vertu by the French soldiery was some-
thing almost painful to behold. My time was so
limited, and the crash and din so bewildering, that
I feel 4utterly :unequal to describe this palace, or
rather succession of palaces, with its noble park
full of artificial lakes and mounds and fairy-like
summer-houses, with its marble halls and terraces
magnificent even in their ruin, its gorgeous Rini-
tare, elaborate carvings, and warehouses of silks
and embroideries which not even au army was
able to empty. The sight was a practical transla-
tion of " Vcs victis," and was enough to make
every Englishman pray that night that we migh
never have an invader in London.

Prize agents were appointed to got together as
much property as they could for the benefit of the
English army, and orders were given that all
articles brought away by officers should be handed
over to
at h them. They put a value on each article
which the owner might redeem it if he
chose, or else leave it to be sold for the benefit
of the prize fund. The sale took place
on the 11th and 12th, when a perfect mania of
competition seemed to have seized on all ranks,
and the prices realized were almost fabulous. The
commonest ornament for a table or mantelpiece
fetched from 30 to 50 dollars, anything valuable or
handsome
and the silks, put up in lots
of
a dozen
rollsm at 50 r e,
dollars a lot, generally brought
ch more,
in 80 or 90.

Tho total amount realised by the sale is upwards
of £B,OOO, which, added to the gold and silver bul-
lion found in the place, makes a prize fund of about
£30,000, to be divided—two thirds among the non-
commissioned officers and men who were in the
field on the 6th instant, and one third among the
officers—Generals Grant, Michel, and Napier gene-
rously resigning their claims to participation in it.
A visit to the French camp shows clearly that

OCT. 25.
Winter is fast closing in upon us; the nights,
and sometimes the days, are intensely cold. The
first ice of the season has made its appearance,
and the adjacent hills of Tartary have for some
days been capped with snow. It is time to think
of our winter quarters, and the present intention
seems to be to leave at Tien-tsin the 31st and 67th
Regiments, the 2d battalion 60th Rifles, Fane's
Horse, two batteries of Artillery, and some of the
Military Train. Hongkong is to be garrisoned by
the 44th, now at Shanghae, and Canton by the
99th. The Ist Royals and 87th are to return to
England, as will probably the 2d Queen's and 3d
Buffs. Probyn's Horse and some of the Punjaab
infantry go back to India. The force at Tien-tsin
will be under the command of Brigadier Stave-
ley, C.B.
The Ist division was sent out on the 18th to
complete the destruction of the Summer Pa-
lace, which had been so successfully shorn of its
grandeur some days before. It is now a heap
of blackened ruins, and the demonstration was
accompanied by a threat that if our terms were not
speedily accepted we would do to the palace and
public buildings of Pekin as we had done to the
Palace of Yuen-ming-Yuen. You will be glad to
hear that to our former terms has been added the
stipulation that a sum of £lO,OOO each should be
paid forthwith for the families of the English officers
and gentlemen who died in captivity, and £l,OOO
for each soldier.
The French are to start immediately for their
winter quarters, which are to be at Tien-tsin, on the
left bank of the Peiho ; ours being on the right.
We shall most likely follow, if all goes on smoothly,
in a week or thereabouts. Our troops are tolerably
healthy, with the exception of two regiments which
were some thA -c Lula in
them the proportion of sick is over 10 per cent. It
is strange that service in one of the finest climates
in the world should invariably tell upon men after-
wards; yet the fact is indisputable, and may well
give rise to a doubt as to the policy of establishing an
invalid depot there, for thither and not to England
all the invalids of this army are going.
An issue of warm underclothing has been made
to the troops, and the Military Store Department
promise more on our arrival at Tien-tsin. The
Commissariat, too, are making active preparations
against a time when rivers and roads will be impass-
able. In the matter of food the troops have had little
cause of complaint since they landed, as the rations
have been good and sufficient, with the single excep-
tion of the paltry modicum of rum—one dram daily
of 63 to the gallon ; whereas in India the soldier is
entitled to two drams of 40 to the gallon, and when
he is hard worked he generally gets a third. The
Europeans feel this the more as they see the Pun-
jabee regiments drawing their liquor according to
the Indian scale.
To wind up my letter with the most important
intelligence of all, I can now tell you that the treaty
has been ratified and the war is at an end. Yes-
terday Lord Elgin, escorted by 400 infantry and
150 cavalry, and accompanied by the diplomatic
and military staffs, and three officers of each
regiment, went into Pekin for the purpose
of meeting the Chinese Plenipotentiary Kuug.
The procession was formed at the Llama Temple, a
fine building in our lines, which contains a magni-
ficent white marble monument to Confucius; trid,
starting at 2 p.m., we entered the city by the An-
ting gate, and wended our way for about four miles
through the streets to the appointed place of meet-
ing. The streets through which we passed did not
seem to contain better houses or shops than are to
be seen in Tien-tsin or any other provincial town,
and were only remarkable for clouds of black dust,
with which we were almost suffocated, and which
made one think one was marching through a coal-
yard. It had been suggested that the streets should
be watered, but difficulties were raised, and the
dust-allaying process was confined to a few hundred
yards from the gate. Our destination was a com-
mon looking building, like a large shed, entirely
open at one side, near but not within the precincts
of the palace, and to which a look of temporary
grandeur, evidently foreign to it, had been imparted
by red cloth and carpets. Down the sides of the
room were chairs and tables covered with red cloth
—for the English on the right as you entered, and
for the Chinese on the left ; and at the head of the
room sat Rung at a small table, a corresponding
place being set for Lord Elgin. Kung is the Ern-
peroestrother, and has a high reputation among
his countrymen, many of whom would be glad to
see their present imbecile ruler deposed and Kung
reigning in his stead. He is a surly, dissipated-
looking young man, and the whole proceeding
seemed sadly against his grain, as he regarded
neither the barbarians nor the treaty with a favour-
able eye, and his restless demeanour formed a
striking contrast to the dignified bearing of the
British Envoy. The attendant Mandarins were
plainly and uniformly dressed in dark purple silk
robes, with a square of embroidery on the chest and
back, and the only difference in the Prince's apparel
was that he wore several round instead of two ,
square pieces of embroidery, and a velvet instead
of a cloth hat. Ho rose and advanced to meet Lord
Elgin, who, after an interchange of bows, took his
seat with Sir Hope Grant on his left, and the
business of the day began. This was soon over,
being simply a matter of sealing and signing, and
at the conclusion Lord Elgin and Kung rose, more
bowing ensued, and we sallied forth into the dust
once more.

Tea was handed round during the ceremony, and
a collation of some kind was said to be prepared,
which Lord Elgin declined on account of the late-
ness of the hour. Before the assembly broke up
Signor Beato succeeded in taking a photograph
of the scene, the Mandarins having been requested
to remain steady for the purpose, a request with
which they willingly complied. I hear that the
French treaty is to be signed in like manner to-day.

(FROM ANOTHER CORRESPONDENT.)
CAMP BEFORE PEKIN, OCT. 25.
I should have written you by the last mail from
before this place, only we had outmarched all our

ing to do so till the prisoners were given up, we
fearing lest our attack on Pekin might be the
signal for the execution of the prisoners. Parkes
and Loch, who were in the city, had communicated
to us their safety and whereabout, but of the rest

we knew nothing. I forgot to mention at the

time, but on the morning of the 7th a Royal salute
was fired to let the cavalry know our whereabout ;
large fires were lighted the evening previous,
and fifes and drums played for the same pur-
pose on the top of the mound. This Royal
salute nearly caused the decapitation of Parkes and
Loch ; hut, finding no damage was done, and the
_ .

firing so soon stopped, the Chinese desisted, and
asked Parkes the cause of the firing. On the 9th
Perkesand Loch were given up, the Mandarins in

the city being induced thereto by a threat of sack
_ _

and pillage of the city and palace of Pekin. Of
the other prisoners they knew nothing, but would

send to some of the camps to inquire. _ Parkes and

Loeb being rescued, it now became a matter of im-

portance to gat the remaining prisoners and the

city into our possession. The engineers discovered
that a large enclosure, probably of 100 acres, called