The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-14 00:00:00

TTIE'"TSITN, LONDON, MON(tiA.Y EV_ENI-NG, APRIL 14, 11356.

TILE POST I lON OF THE GuVERNME.NT.

(From the Morning Post of this day.)

The Government, since peace has been pro-
claimed, have been defeated twice, and are now
underlying a challenge to combat a l'ovtrance,
from one of the subordinate members of the ex-
tinct Cabinet of Lord Derby. Parliament and its
factions, conceiving that the country is brought
safely into the haven where it should be, consider
that they are now at liberty, and that now is the
proper time, to throw into the sea the pilot who
managed the business for them in the storm. We
wish to do every one, even an opponent, justice,
and it is only just to say for the large party who ,
occupy the Opposition benches, that their political
conduct throughout the late war has been of a
much higher character than that which has here-
tofore been exhibited by Parliamentary parties in
a like position. We have, thank Heaven, had
had none of that open advocacy of the cause of the
enemies of the country, for the sake of discomfiting
the Ministry, which distinguished the Opposition
in the days of the Peninsular War. Nor have we
been scandalised in this our day by avowed exulta-
tion, on the part of the politicians out of office, at
failures resulting from the operations of adminis-
trators in office. It is but just to give Mr. Disraeli
and those who act with him credit for this. They
have been generally discreet, and some times for-
bearing, and we will not attempt to diminish aught
of the honour which may accrue to them therefrom
by stopping to inquire for ourselves, or suggest to
others, how much of this discretion and forbearance
might be attributable to the consciousness of want
of cohesion in their own party or of inability. We
will not stay to discuss the probability of this ; how-
ever interesting and attractive its consideration
may be, it is a mere matter of party politics, and
the present state of public affairs is too critical to
spend time upon its entertainment.
It is evident that combinations of parties or fac-
tions in the House of Commons are possible, by
which, at any moment, the existing Government
can be put in a minority, and from them that it
must be evident to every one who has watched with
care the temper of Parliament since the proclama-
tion of peace, that not only has some such combi-
nation been put on foot, but that it has been
i 1-
ready put into active movement, and been brought,
on more than one occasion, to bear upon the policy
and conduct of the representative body. It in-
fluenced the treatment of the nomination of the
Select Committee upon Local Charges upon Ship-
ing, and carried the motion of Mr. Cowan against
the Government on the militia question. Some
such kind of combination—a combination of the
many Derbyites, the few Peelites, and the scat-
tered Radicals may possibly, whenever it comes on,
enable Mr. Baillie to count for his motion upon
America, more Ayes than Noes. Houses of Com-
mons, as they have been constituted since the Re-
form Bill, have ever been full of caprice, and the
very Abbots of Unreason, nor do they seem to be
capable of attaching themselves to any Minister,
however ablet however, successful, or however po-
pular, for more than two or three years. The Re-
formed Parliaments have ever been restless and
greedy of change, and the excitement of party
strife ; and it is quite on the cards that, now that
they feel themselves safely landed out of the great
struggle in the East, they may join a Mr. Baillie,
or a Mr. Anybody else who will constitute himself
a lever for the occasion, to have a heave at the
Statesman who has landed them, for no better rea-
son than that they want a new play and a fresh
set of actors on the stage.
We trust they will have more consideration and
more true sense of the present position of the coun-
try and its public men. We cannot conceive any-
thing more untoward than a defeat of the Govern-
ment of Lord Palmerston in the present juncture.
It could scarcely be expected that Lord Palmer-
ston, governing through a Parliament elected
before the war, and called together under the in-
fluence of his political opponents, would yield his
position without an appeal to the country; it would
not be just to the country that he should do so,
and a general election at this moment, with
Europe, though declaredly at peace, unsettled
from east to west and from north to south, would
be only one degree less hazardous and harmful than
an abrupt change of Councillors and of Councils.

COMPARATIVE CABINETS.

(From the Press.)

No divining wand is needed to fortell the catastrophe
of a Cabinet beaten twice in one week. Peace being
proclaimed, the weakness of the Ministry becomes palp-
able to all. The progress of events has brought Go-
vernment into a position which may be described as
status quo ante " Coalition." Whoever examines the
list of the Russell Cabinet, as it stood in 1860, will find
that in representative tone and official aptitude it was
con,iderably superior to the Ministry over which Lord
Palmerston presides. The country, however, was not
satisfied with the old Whig families, and it expired of
exhaustion. The present Ministry has now no
longer the factitious support of a continental war to
divert scrutiny from its pretensions, and to lull
the dissatisfaction with its debility. If Lord John
Russell, with his united " great Whig party," was not
able to administer affairs, how can a patchwork connec-
tion strive against the pressure of the House of Commons
recovering with peace its right of free inquiry ?
The present Government is manifestly weak, both col-
lectively and individually. As a Cabinet, it represents
no policy ; as a Ministry, it has little special ruling ta-
lent. Its Premier has passed the period when the mind
can adjust itself to urgent calls for vigorous effort. Mr.
Disraeli happily reminded the noble viscount of the am-
biguity of a career in which many years were spent under
the tutelage of Lords Liverpool and Castlereagh.
When Lord Palmerston was young he was a dubious
Liberal in his speeches, and a zealous Tory in his votes ;
when he is aged he is a Premier of a " Liberal" con-
nection, which suspects him of being "an old Tory" in
false colours. Though fatally facile with his pen and
speech, Lord John Russell was at least zealous as an
administrator ; but the conduct of Lord Palmerston in
the Home-office shows bow little the country can ex-
pect from him on education, administrative reform, or
the amendment of the law. Whether from the levity of
his character, or a peculiar incapacity for discerning poli-
tical principles, Lord Palmerston has never shown that
moral vision inherent in a great ruling nature. He was
never the chosen leader of a Parliamentary party, and
accident alone precipitated him into the Premiership.
The age demands energetic application of sound princi-
ples. Force and freshness are necessary for the treat-
ment of the social problems that press for solution ; but

in so conventional a character as that of Lord Palmer.
ston it would be vain to look for profound ideas. To
coquet with opposites, and to embrace nothing heartily,
has been the inherent vice of his flashy system of poli-
tics, at once unstable and unsound.
Next to the Premiership the office of Lord Chancellor
is the most important, and in that post the Russell
Cabinet had the superiority. Nobody ever hinted that
Lord Cottenham was a failure on the woolsack, and he
had great weight with the profssion, while, ai a law
reformer, he did not fall shorter of expectation than the
present keeper of the Great Seal. In the secretarial
departments of administration the Russell Cabinet, weak
as it was, again had the advantage. As to the Foreign-
office, we shall allow the friends of the Earl of Clarendon
and of Viscount Palmerston to decide which was best

suited for the post. In both Cabinets Sir G. Grey filled
he office of Home Secretary, and of late there have been
some manifestations that the lively but not powerful baro-
net has not so ready an access to the ear of the house as

in former times, but his efficiency has been impaired by
his want of stamina. In the Colonial-office it
would be absurd to dwell on the degree of
intellectual difference between Earl Grey and ➢lr. La-
bouchere, The first had a philosophical intellect, though
spoiled by its propensity to crotchets ; but originality
wag never imputed to the present Secretary for the
Colonies.

Take, again, the financial department, and we are cer•

tain (that the colleagues of Sir C. Lewis will admit that
Sir C. Wood had more aptitude for the post. In saying
that we do not at all compliment Sir C. Wood ; big trail.-

ing was more official than that of his predecessor, and his
early experience as private secretary to Earl Grey gave
him familiarity with " the City." But it is in " the
eternal city," and in philosophical dissertations on its
archxology, that Sir C. Lewis finds his chief speciality.
He is, without question, an emi*'uit scholar; but his
greatest friends, like his literary critics, will admit that
he has not as much weight in politics as in letters.
Colleges may applaud his learning, but capitalists will
dispute his budgets.
Lord Minto, as a Lord Privy Seal, was not so reticent
in speech as Lord Harrowby ; yet we cannot forget that
in the Maynooth Commission, over which Lord Bar-
rowby presided, portions of the evidence were prema-
turely disclosed to the Court of Rome, and, though Lord
Harrowby is an incarnate cycloparlia in variety of know-
ledge, in a long Parliamentary career his lordship has
never shown eminent talent for affairs. Like his ac-
complished father, Lord Harrowby belongs to "the
waverers," the political interest in our domestic poli-
tics which the Premier most cultivates. Lord Minto,
a least, was head of the Elliotts, and kept all the
Scotch cousins quiet, besides pos,essing what Sir
James Graham would call " a short cut" to Wo-
burn Abbey. We incline, also, to think that Sir
Francis Baring, as First Lord of the Admi-
ralty, was more popular with the Navy than
Sir Charles Wood. Lord Broughton (Sir J. C. Hob-
house) was a weak Minister for India ; his successor,
Mr. Vernon Smith, is a highly respectable gentleman,
with many good personal qualities, but we not perceive
his distinctive faculties for dealing with that mighty
Oriental problem, which requires more attention than
is given to it by the dilettanti Whigs of our time.
The same relative inferiority is manifest in the subor-
dinate parts of the two Cabinets. Mr. Baines
left his place at the Poor-Law Board from failing health,
and he is one of the Ministerial supernumeraries ; but
we cannot forget that his office of Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster was held (under the Russell Minis-
try) by Lord Campbell, with abilities great as his energy
and experience. The President of the Board of Trade
was Mr. Labouchere, who had important connections ;
and the office is now occupied by Lord Stanley of
Alderley, more qualified as an electioneering ally
than an economical administrator. The Postmas-
ter-General of the Russell Cabinet was the Mar-

quis of Clanricarde ; his successor is the Duke of Ar-
gyll, to whose merits as a statesmen justice alone could
Le retidere'l in one of his Grad's long lectures.
In the materials of such a Cabinet we do n.-it see "the
men" fit for giving to the country "the measures" upon
whi :13 it ha, set its heart. A Wh4.l. Cabinet, with two
statesmen like Lord John Russell and Earl Greyexclud-
ed from it, is a political anomaly. Tn. Ministry, there-
fore, is neither a party °shine', nor is it ( what was called
in the last oentury)a "broad-bottomed Administration."
It has no hold upon large and powerful classes of the
community. The Peelitos on one flank, and the politi-
cians of Manchester on the other, keep aloof from it,
and it has only lived for the last few months upon " the
chapter of accidents." Without a policy, distrusted by
its nominal followers, such an Administration cannot
stand. The lath-and-plaster edifice, with its varnished
stucco, must crumble before the first shook.

THE SUPPLEMENTARY SITTINGS OF
THE CONFERENCE.

(From the Illustrated London News.)

For nearly forty years it was a matter of reproach
against British statesmen and the British people that
they habitually and systematically disregarded foreign
politics. The revolutions and insurrections of 1848, and
the war which ultimately grew out of them—and which
has just been brought to a sudden, if not a satisfactory,
conclusion—awakened them both somewhat rudely to a
sense of their mistake. It was a misfortune to this coun-
try, no less than to the world, that there was only one
or at most two English statesmen in the year 1853, who
knew the true relationships of the Continental States
towards each other, and towards this country ; or who
had studied politics, not alone with reference to the
narrow arena of the British Isles, but with reference to
the equilibrium of all Europe, and to the general in-
terests of the civilised world. Are the people and their
statesmen wider awake or better informed at the present
moment ? Is the Peace of Paris—signed, but not yet
ratified—worthy of the efforts that have been made to
obtain it ? And have the Plenipotentiaries, or the Po-
tentates who pulled the strings of their deliberations,
looked even five years before them ? They have done
much for the passing day and its longings for repose ;
have they given a thought to the morrow and to the
troubles with which it is heaving? _ _ _

Let us consider for a moment I.;:rhat the war has settled,
and what the Peace has left unsettled, that we may be
the better enabled to judge both of the War and of the
Peace ; and of the state of affairs which has been inau-
gurated by the Cori:rences. At Paris, "all has gone
on merry as a marriage bell." The Russians have shown
themselves humble ; the Allies—England alone excepted
—have been all smiles and sunshine towards the foe ; an
heir has been born to the house of Bonaparte amid the
congratulations of diplomacy; the disput3 with Turkey
bas been adjusted to the apparent satisfaction of all con-
cerned ; the price of diamonds has risen twenty per cent.
in Paris, to the immense delight of the smug jewellers
of the Palais Royal and the Boulevard des Italiens ;
Paris has given itself a holiday ; Prussia has hugged
herself in the pleasant delusion that even she has dune
something towards the restoration of the Peace which
she prizes ; and the great Czar of all the Russias—
sharing the general satisfaction—has announced to his
people that the objects of the-war are accomplished;—
that, the rights of the Christians in Turkey being secured,
he has sheathed his sword, and made terms with his
opponents upon whom be has thus imposed his own
views and his own course of policy. England and
Austria have acquiesced in considering the war
a purely Turkish one ; Turkey, of course, had no
call to consider it anything else ; and Europe,
by the intermediation of all who took part in the Con-
ferences, has narrowed the subject to this one issue. On
this one issue Peace has been proclaimed. France, Rus-
sia, and Prussia are happy; Turkey is not very much
dissatisfied ; Austria is somewhat bewildered ; Great
Britain thinks she ought to be happy, but has a mis-
giving that, somehow or other, things are not so plea-
sant or so right as her good friends and allies endeavour
to persuade her they are ; while gallant little Sardinia
boldly proclaims her dissatisfaction, and treats the Peace
as of little value and of problematical permanency.
Perhaps Lord Palmerston and Lord Clarendon share the
opinions of Count Cavour in this matter ; but on this
point the public has no means of judging. All that it
' knows is the Conferences are yet sitting, and that the
postscript of their deliberations, like that of a lady's
letter, may perhaps turn out to be more important than
the body of their note.

To heal a quarrel is a grand and a beneficent work ;
but to patch up a difference or a dispute for a day, with-
out heeding whether it may break out with increased
virulence to-morrow or the day after, is a work that
merits little praise, either for its wisdom or its benevo•
lence. We do not assert that the Peace which has just
been concluded is unsatisfactory, for as yet we do not
know its terms. The French and the British Govern-
ments have both proclaimed it to be honourable to all
parties and humiliating to. none ; and the public must
await the authoritative and official promulgation of the
treaty before it can deliver its verdict upon the contract
to which it has become a party. Yet it is impossible to
deny that there is an uneasy feeling in the public mind
of this country;—tbat the pacification is considered to
be too sudden and premature to augur a long continu-
ance ;—that having had it in our power to clothe the
Angel of Peace with new garments, white and unsul-
lied, we have dressed her up in rags and patches ;
that we have put out a fire in the forecastle, and taken
haveno heed of the leak in the hold ;—that we been so
anxious to bestow mercy and display generosity to a de-
feated foe, that we have forgotten or neglected to do jus-
tile to our friends—that we have driven the robber from
the door of Turkey, hut have refused to take him into
custody; and that in accepting Sardinia for an ally we
have tacitly accepted responsibilities towards that
Power, and towards the Italy of which she is the hope
and the representative, which we have failed to meet
except with empty promises and idle sympathies. This
instinctive feeling on the part of the public may be right
or it may be wrong ; but it would be foolish to deny
that it exists, or that it will continue to exist, until the
tongues of our diplomatists and statesmen are unloos-
ened, and the true state of the case made patent to the
whole world.

Whilst continuing to hope that the Peace mly de-
serve all the favour with which the French have greeted
it, we cannot shut our eyes against the deep signifi-
cance of the remonstrances which Sardinia has made cn
the affairs of Italy ; and on the unexpected complica-
tions which may thence result in the international rela•
tions of those who were lately allies or foe'. France,
for Napoleonic purpose=, may have views with regard
to Rome with which Protestant England may possibly
sympathise, and against which Greek Russia may have
nothing to allege ; hut against which Austria may feel
herself bound to protest; even if her protest should take
the form of forty thousand men at Ancona. The designs
of Sardinia upon Lombardy and Venice, while highly
agreeable to the Italians in those provinces and else-
where, may perhaps not be in any degree disagreeable
to the Emperor of Russia, who can have no great
amount of good towards his good friend Francis Joseph.
great Britain may in like manner be well disposed to
punish King Bomba ; but if it be a portion of his pun-
ishment, as it must, if this country have anything to
do with it, to insist upon some degree of constitu-
tional freedom for the unhappy Sicilians, who de-
serve it ; and for the equally ill-governed but less
unhappy N(apolitans, who seem to have no great desire
for freedom—we do not well see how the Emperor of the
French can be a party to the chastisement. We say
nothing of Poland, Hungary, or Germany. In Italy
alone there are ample materials for the disquietude of all
Europe, even though the Peace of Paris may, as regards
Turkey, be all that the friends of Turkey can desire,

It is a mistake to suppose that the War was merely a
Turkish one ; and that no other or higher interests were
involved in it than those of the Ottoman Empire. It
is possible that all these things have been conidered ;
and that at the sapplementary sittings of the Conferences,
which are likely to continue for several days, the affairs
both of the Scandinavian and the Italian peninsulas are
receiving the earnest attention which they merit, if the
Peace is to be as stable as it is said to be honourable.
In the mean time let it be noted, as a sign how the wind
blows, that, in proportion as Russia shows herself in-
clined to curry favour with France, Austria endeavours
to attach herself more strongly to Great Britain. It is
well no doubt to boll° when there is occasion for re-
joicing, but the British people in this case are not likely
to hollo very loudly till they are quite certain that they
are " out of the wood."

Nava. and Military Intelligence.

The review of the fleet at Spithead by the Queen is
ordered to take place on the 23d inst. (St. George's-day).
Her Majesty will arrive at Gisport from London at 11,
and will leave on her return at 5. The following naval
aides-de-camp are summoned to attend her Majesty on
the occasion :—Admiral Sir W. Park€r (first and princi-
pal), G,C.8., Cornmatider-in-Chief at Devonport ; Capt.
Sir B. Walker, K.C.8., Surveyor of the Navy ; Captain
the Marquis Townsend ; Capt. Lord G. Paulet, C.B. ;
Capt. Lord E. Russell, C.B. ; Capt. H. J. Codrington,
C. 8., of H.M.S. Algiers ; Capt. Sir T. Maitland, C. 8.,
of H.M.S. Excellent ; Commodore the Hon. F. T. Pel-
ham, C. 8., Captain of the Fleet ; Capt. G. Elliott, of
H.M.S. James Watt ; Captain Robert Smart, K.H.,
Superintendent of Pembroke Dockyard. To-morrow
evening the Lords of the Admiralty will arrive at Ports-
mouth, and on Wednesday morning will order the
fleet through the evolutions intended to be per-
formed on the 231. The following ships.and vessels
were at the anchorage yesterday :

Guns.,
Duke of Wellington,
screw
Royal George, screw
Conqueror, screw lOl
Exmouth, screw
Nile, screw ... . ...... 91

Guns.
Trusty, sctrew
Meteor . .
Glat ton, screw A
Forth, screw mortar ship 12
Enrotas .
Rattler

Orion
James Watt, screw 9l
Cxsar, screw 9l
Algiers, screw
Rodney, sailing ship
Majestic, screw sl
Cressy, screw
Colossus, screw - 'EI
Brunswick, screw Bl
Sanspareil, screw
Hawke, screw
Russell, screw • 6O
Edinburgh, screw
Hastings, screw,;
Hogue, screw
Ajax, screw
Arrogant, screw _ _ 47

Conflict, 'crew
Horatio, screw
Centaur, paddle
Dragon, paddle
Merlin, paddle
Basilisk, paddle
Bulldog, paddle
Goigon, paddle
Driver, paddle
11 eels, paddle
Geyser, paddle
Mohawk..
Hydra
Coquette
Intrepid
Sparrowhawk
Belleisle

Mmander., sailing ship 44
Retribution, paddle 22

Vesuvius
Sealark .

Esk, screw 2l
Pearl, screw corvette
Cossack, screw 2l
Cruizer, screw l7
Magicienne, paddle
Thunder, screw

Rolla
Lightning, paddle
Alban, paddle
Otter
Lizard
Porcupine, paddle

And about GO gunboats.

The Eurolas' Sparrowhawk, Lizard, Porcupine, and
the gunboats,, Lively, Erns, Delight, and Mackerel ar-
rived on Saturday from the eastward ; the Prometheus
arrived in the night from the Thames ; and the Sham-
rock, B)uncer, Drake, and the Traveller gun-boats yes-
terday.

A vast number of excursionists visited Portsmouth yes-
terday by the South-Western and South Coast. Railways.
The following notice has been published by the Purt
Admiral :

" NOTICE.

" ET COMMAND OF THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF THE
ADMIRALTY.

" Steamers, sailing-vessels, and boats are not to attempt
to cross the line of the ships of war aboat to be reviewed
on the 23d inst., nor on any account to pass bet wean the
columns; nor are they to occupy any part of the man-of-
war channel between Spithead and St. Helen's during the
evolutions.
" Steamers are to keep to leeward of the columns or
ships in the order of sailing, as their smoke might prevent
signals being quickly noticed, thereby causing accident.
" Vessels are not on any account to pass to windward of
the Royal Yacht if it can he possibly avoided.
" Masters of vessels must be aware that the evolutions
of so large a number of men-of-war require a considerable
apace, and they are therefore to steer accordingly, and not
close in to interrupt the evolutions. They themselves will
alone be answerable should any accident occur.
" GEORGE F. SEYMOUR,
" Vice-Admiral, and Commander-in-Chiet.
"Victory, in Portsmouth harbour. April 9, 1856."
Her Majesty's steam troop-ship Megaira, 6, Com-
mander John 0. Johnson, arrived at Spithead at 5
o'clock yesterday afternoon from the Black Sea, Malta,
and Gibraltar. She brought home two naval invalids, 30
seamen from the Pride of the Sea, two from the Enterprise,
and two from the Red Rover, lost in the Black Sea. The
Megwra has been five years in commis,ion ; she left
Spithead on her last voyage on the 27th of April,
1854 ; since then she has been employed exclusively in
the Black Sea, and has been, generally speaking, a re-
markably healthy vessel. She made the greater part of
the passage home under canvas, her machinery, boilers,
sc., .being in a very defective state, bat she will serve
very well for the accommodation of the privileged at
the forthcoming review, being a capacious vessel of 1,400
tons.

The London, 90, Captain W. H. Jervis, was towed
by the Confiance and Zephyr from Hamoaze into Ply-
mouth Sound on Saturday. She is appointed to sail
to-day for Spithead, and will probably be accompanied
by the paddle-wheel steam-frigate Tulture, 6, Captain
F. H. Glasse.
The copper of the Calcutta, 84, Captain W. K. Hall,
having been examined and repaired, she was taken out
of the basin dock at Devonport on Saturday. Her crew
got up lower yards and topmasts, and pointed topgal-
lantmasts the same day.
The crew of the screw steam-ship Centurion, 81, Cap-
tain W. J. Williams, at Keyham, bent sails on Saturday.
She will be taken out of dock to-day, and will go into
Plymouth Sound to-morrow.
The Widgeon and 1143rtle paddle-wheel steam-vessels
arrived at Sheerness on Saturday, each having a new
mortar vessel in tow, from the river Thames.
The new mortar vessels Nos. 46 and 47, built by
Messrs. Harvey, of Ipswich, now fitting at Sheerness,
are ordered to be hastened, to enable them to be eot
ready for joining the squadron at Spithead.
Considerable improvements are being made at Sheer-
ness to make the workshops complete in every respect
for She preparation of steam-engine machinery similar to
that formerly executed at the Woolwich factory.
Two wooden mortar vessels, 4.0 s . 53 and 54, of much
more formidable dimensions than those hitherto brought
to Woolwich, were on Friday Se wed up from the factory
of Messrs. Briggs, of Sunderland, by the Eagle tug-boat,
and were forwarded thence on the following day to
Sheerness, to he masted and rigged for service. The 18-
inch mortar, landed at Woolwich Arsenal a few days ago
from Liverpool, is to be despatched to-day to Shoebury•
ness, to be submitted to a series of experiments, it being
the intention of the authorities of the proof department
to put the Nova Sc Ala iron of which the mortar is cast
to a thorough test.
The steam-tug Monkey, 130-horse power, Second-
Master G. Syndercorube, arrived at Woolwich on Satur-
day morning from Sheerness, bringino. 70 supernume-
raries of the fleet. These were immediately distributed
on board the gun-boats Procris, Spanker, Grappler, and
Thrasher, which soon afterwards left for Greenhithe.
These vessels are all stored and equipped for three
months' service, and are to join the squadron at Ports-
mouth.
The paddle-wheel steam-vessel Kite, 3, 170 horsepower,
having undergone thorough repairs, is again in perfect
service order. She has been commissioned by Second
Master Alfred Joseph Veitch temporarily, and is to pro-
ceed to Portsmouth.
Her Majesty's freight ship Emma Eugenie Captain
M'Clelland, arrived at the new pier off Woolwich arsenal
on Friday evening, with No. 3 company sth battalion of
the Royal Artillery under the command of Capt. Hill
and Lieut. Strange. They were medically attended by
Staff-Assistant-Surgeon J. A. Laing, and consisted of 56
non-commissioned officers and gunners, 12 women, and
1! children. The Emma Eugenie likewise brought home
seven invalids of the 36th and 16th regiments, who pro-
ceeded on Saturday to Fort Pitt barracks at Chatham
under the command of Capt. Hill and Dr. Laing. She
sailed from Jamaica on the Bth of Feb., and experienced
heavy gales for some days at the commencement of her
voyage, the wind veering from the south-west to north-
east, occasioning heavy squalls, which continued until
the lflth. She arrived on the 29th of March at Kinsale,
and sailed on the sth of April for Woolwich. No casu-
alties occurred during the voyage, with the exception of
the death of one woman from consumption. One birth
likewise took place.
The steamer Antelope was on Saturday morning paid
off at Woolwich Dockyard.
Two more gun boats will be launched by Mr. J. Laird
frost his Birkenhead building yard on Saturday next.
The following appointments were made on Saturday
at the Admiralty : —John Pooley, to be assistant-pay-
master to the Sanspareil ; A. Whiffin, to be assistant-
paymaster to the Hawke ; T. J. T. Wood, to he assist
ant-paymaster to the Osprey ; F. Woods, to be assistant-
paymaster to the Alacrity.
On Saturday last an inspection of the several depots
under orders ter embarkation to join _the heard-quarters
of their respective regiments, took place at Chatham, by
Col, Jervis, commandant of the provisional battalion.
The depots of the following regiments appeared on the
parade-ground—viz., the sth Northumberland Fusiliers,
under the command of Capt, W. Lyons ; the 12th Regi-
ment, the depot of which is under the command of Brevet-
Major F. G. Hawley ' • the 26th Cameronians, under the
command of Capt. W. Mosso ; the 37th ft, giweet, under
the command of Lieut. Armstrong ;end the 40th and 45th
Regiments, in charge of Capt. J. Goff. Toe men ae-
ptared in their new uniform and were in heavy marching
order. The sth Fusiliers will embark for the Mauritiu
the 37th Regiment for Ceylon, and the 45th for the Cape
if Good Hope.
On Saturday afternoon the whole of the troops belong.
ing to the Royal Engineers' esabltehment at Chatham,
underthe direction of Col. Sandham, R.E., were engaged
in siege operations of a highly interesting character. The
experimentelook place at thepraetising ground connected
with the Royal Engineers, near the Casemate Barracks,
St. Mary's, and were conducted wish the view of show-
ing in what manner masses of troops can defend them-
selves when opposed to an enemy in the field. Excava-
tions had been made, and earthworks thrown up by the
troops belonging to the Royal Sappers and Miners to
illustrate the various modes of defence when engaged
in an open or enemy's country. Several excavations
had also been made for the purpose of showing the lite
lity and advantage of rifle-pits: During the siege opera-
tions some mines, which had been prepared to illustrate
the practical working of the experiments, were fired in a
successful manner, the foroe of the explosions scattering
the earthworks and the balks of timber with which they
had been covered. The troops belonging' to the Sappers
and Miners engaged in the siege works were under the
direction of Captain Fitzroy Somerset, R E.
The following circular memorandum has been issued
by the Horse Guards, dated April 7 :
"As boys authorised to be enlisted for the caval. y and
infrantry of the line are entitled to a free kit,' under
the provisions of the royal warrant of the 22d of January
last, it is to be understood tl.at' the bounty of 21. 25.,
formerly allowed for their equipment, with necessaries
is disooutinued."

MILITIA.
The Galway Militia, about 500 strong, under the com•

mand of Lieut.-Col. the Earl of Clanearty, embarked at
Liverpool on Saturday for Galway in the screw steam-
ship Andes, which, after di-,eint.arkirig Them at Dublin,
will proceed to Vie Crimes to bring home troops. The
Alps also sailed for the Crimea from Liverpool on Sa-
turday.