The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-26 00:00:00

EXPLOSION OF DOCKS.

The engineers and Mr. Deane were not com-
pletely ready to blow up the east pier of the Eng-
lish portion of the docks till a quarter past four on
the afternoon of Jan. 8, although noon had been
given out as the hour of the explosion. By the
former hour, although it was raining and blowing
pretty fresh, a larger number of officers had col-
lected together inside the dockyard wall than per-
haps at any one time before. Amongst them, in
addition to a large number of Royal Engineer offi-
cers, together with some Spanish and Danish
engineers, there were present—the Commander-in-
Chief and Staff, Lord Wm. Paulet (with his aide-
de-camp), Generals Windham, Straubenzee, Crau-
furd, and Sir Richard Dacres, Lieut.-Colonels
Taylor, N.A., and Turner (commandant), the four
majors, and several officers of the garrison. After
a few minutes' delay, in which time it became
generally known that 25 charges of nearly 4001bs.
each—say 10,0001bs. of powder, were tA fired.
The notice was given to Mr. Dea iby 1,2, 3, to
explode at the last figure being hallooed out ; there
was a breathless anxiety, but nothing followed.
Again 1,2, 3 was cried out, but to the algusement
of tome sad the =quo of alotignant,
- . - -

silence still prevailed. At last Mr. Deane him-
self appeared through the dockyard gate from the
outside of the high stone wall where his voltaic
batteries were placed, and on being interro-
gated, he stated that the connexions must be
broken or out of order somewhere, and that if the
discrepancy could not be immediately found out,
the explosion would not take place that night.
By this time it was getting dark, and as there ap-
peared no chance of the cause of the failure being
quickly found out, everybody left, each finding his
way back to head quarters in the best manner he
could. Next day it was discovered that the pla-
ting wires had got disarranged during the tamping,
and that Mr. Deane had been too much hurried
at the last. But still matters were mended suffi-
ciently by half-past four in the same afternoon to
allow of nine of the charges being fired—eight of
which went off. Nothing can exceed the obstacles
with which our engineers have had to' contend in
the way of water ; still as yet they have been toler-
ably successful. The French have not yet com-
menced to work at their keep or lock, correspond-
ing to our centre dock, in consequence of the depth
of water in it. Since the last thaw our west dock
has nine inches of water in it, and many of the
shafts, after sinking 20 feet, present great obstacles
through the same cause.

THE BALTIC.
KIEL, Jan. 22.—The ice has now almost entirely
disappeared from this bay, and the steamer with
the Copenhagen mail came direct into the harbour
yesterday and returned in the evening to Corsoer,
having on board the Danish Princes and Princess
who have lately been here on a visit to their rela-
tives at the Palace. The winter to them, there-
fore, does not appear to present the difficulties of
navigating these waters which had induced the
English Admiralty and their officers to withdraw
the squadron which had been left to maintain the
blockade of the Russian ports. Some estimate can
now be formed of the extent of the con equences
of that proceeding, as by the latest accounts re-
ceived from Revel it is ascertained that 35 vessels
had already arrived at the single port since the
raising of the blockade ; and to show how univer-
sal the movement has been, the mere enumeration
of the ports from whence they bad proceeded will
he quite sufficient. These are Rostock, Memel,
Lubeck, Stockholm, Wisby, Farosound, Born-
holm, Swinemuride, Wismar, Kiel, Bremen, Bos-
ron, U.S., Messina, Hull, and Dundee. The vessels
from England and Scotland were not satisfied with
reaching a Russian port in safety, but afterwards
proceeded to Helsingfors, as did also a steamer
from Lubeck, which had long been watching such
an opportunity, and many of these vessels had
already been chartered to load return cargoes
of Russian produce. It may appear superfluous
now to refer to such circumstances as the
return of peace will render any consequences that
occur of little importance ; but it is nevertheless ne-
cessary that such a result of mismanagement should
be recorded, that the most stringent measures may,
on any future occasion, be adopted to prevent its
recurrence—more especially as the general idea
here•still continues to be that, although the basis
for preliminaries as to peace may have been ac-
cepted by Russia, there will be so much difference
of opinion as to the details, that the negotiations
will eventually be broken off, and that hostilities
will be resumed with the return of spring, both in
the Black Sea and the Baltic.