The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-13 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

The Megaara, screw troopship, Commander S. I
H. Henderson, will embark to-day at Portsmouth,
for conveyance to Devonport, the City of Dublin
Militia Artillery, comprising 2 field officers, 4 cap-
tains, 7 subalterns and 4 staff ; 25 sergeants, 7
drummers, 353 rank and file, 29 women, 52 chil•
dren, and 5 horses.
Yesterday the whole of the troops selected to
proceed to St. Helena embarked at Gravesend on
board the Akbar. They included 176 non-commis-
sioned officers and men of the St. Helena Regi-
ment, 51 non-commissioned officers and men of the
Royal Artillery, and 23 sappers of the Royal En-
gineers, together with a few women and children.
Capt. S. H. Prenterville and Capt. E. C. Barnes,
St. Helena Regiment, proceed in charge of the re-
inforcements. 1 The embarkations were effected
under the superintendence of the officers of the
staff from Chatham garrison.

Some experiments were made yesterday on the
fieldworks of the Royal Engineers, at Chatham,
with the view of putting the description of battery
known as Groves's to another test, in order to
ascertain wherein that battery, used on a recent
occasion at Cuxton, failed. The scene of the
operations yesterday was the large waste of ground
at the rear of the Brompton barracks. Here a two-
gun battery of earth had been thrown up, and hav-
ing been completed in allsrespects ready for mount-
ing the guns upon it, the necessary arrangements
were commenced for blowing the whole up. The
requisite excavations having been completed, ten
charges of powder, each of about 61b weight, were
deposited in the chambers. On the occasion of the
grand explosion at Cuxton, the voltadc current was
exhausted before it reached the charges of gun-
powder, owing to the great distance—several hun-
dred yerdq—that the battery was removed from
the charges. In the trials yesterday care was
taken to place the batteries much nearer the force
to be acted upon, and the result was in every way
satisfactory. Immediately the signal was given,
the gunpowder in the mines exploded, the mass of
earth being thrown high into the air with a dull
roar, and the earthwork entirely destroyed. It
should be stated that the gunpowder used in
the explosions yesterday had only been placed
in the mines a very short time, whereas
in the operations at Cuxton the powder, which
weighed nearly a ton weight, was of necessity placed
in the galleries for several days prior to the ope-
rations, and thus, of course, became damp. This and
the circumstance of the voltaic current having to
travel through an extent of wire, whereby it was
weakened, will satisfactorily account for the partial
failure of the operations carried out at the cliff at
Cuxton.

The Hampshire Artillery Militia have received
letters of readiness to proceed to Portsmouth, there
to be disembodied on or before the 15th of
October. They will therefore leave Pembroke-dock
(where they have been stationed for the last 16
months) on the Bth pros. The regiment was em-
bodied in September, 1858, and has in the interim
attained a high degree of discipline. Their effi-
ciency at shot and shell practice is best attested by
the great number of targets destroyed, and has
already called forth the highest eulogiums from
Major-Gen. Bloomfield, Inspector-General of Artil-
lery. It seems a pity thus to throw away the ser-
vices of 400 fine, well set-up young men, on whose
training so many thousands of pounds have been
expended in ammunition alone.
The Ist Stafford Militia left Portsmouth by spe-
cial train at 7 p.m. yesterday, for the northern dis-
trict, and will be quartered at Newcastle and Sun-
derland. This fine regiment consists of 2 field offi-
cers, 7 captains, 13 subalterns, and 5 staff ; 42 ser-
geants, 16 drummers, 757 rank and file, 57 women,
and 20 children.