The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-09 00:00:00

THE JAPANESE NAVY.

It is somewhat remarkable that just at this time,
when we are launching from our dockyards a flotilla
of unarmoured gunboats of good offensive powers
and speed, and of light draught of water in propor-
tion to their tonnage, the Japanese Government
should be pursuing a precisely similar course, the
gunboats our Admiralty are sending afloat being
also intended specially for service on the coast of
Japan and China, and those for the Japanese
Government being constructed on the banks of the
Thames.

Three of these latter have already sailed from the
Thames for Japan, and a fourth, the Assunta, made
her trial trip on Saturday, and will follow her
consorts in the course of a few days.
The Assunta is a vessel of 280 tons, having a
length between perpendiculars of 120 feet, a breadth
of 22 feet, and a depth of 9 feet 10 inches. She is
propelled by a pair of 30-horse power two-cylinder
engines, the cylinders having a diameter of 251
inches, with a 14-inch length of stroke. They drive
a single screw of two blades, the diameter being 16
feet, and the pitch 10 feet 6 inches. The boilers are
placed with their backs to the engines, and the
stockhole is thus kept distinct from the engine-room,
but with side communication between the two ; and
the boilers being low-built, with a space of between
two and three feet between the tops of the boilers
and the overhead deck beams, which gives perfect
ventilation and keeps down the temperature of
both engine room and stokehole. All the other
arrangements between decks are of the same
favourable character. In the after part there is,
for so small a vessel, unusual spacious accom-
modation for the officers, in a commander's cabin,
six cabins for other officers, and a ward room, or
mess cabin. The magazines for po,vder and shell,
adjoining the after cabins, have been built about
double the size that is usually given in such vessels.
The accommodation for the crew forward is ample
for the number of men she will carry, and the holds
below have good space for provisions, water, and
stores. The armament of the vessel consists of one
6-inch muzzle-loading rifle, one 40-pounder breech-
loader, and two 24-pounder howitzers. The rig is
that of a three-masted schooner, spreading a large
area of canvas for the size of her spars.
The Assunta was launched a few days previous to
her trial trip, the vessel being sent afloat with steam
up and all sails bent aloft, and a five hours' run
under steam was at once taken down the river with
her—a remarkable testimony to the efficiency of her
machinery.

On Saturday she left Gravesend at 7 a.m. on her
official trial trip, in charge of Captain G-. W.
Matthews, the machinery of the ship being in
charge of Mr. Stevenson, acting managing engineer
to the builders of the boat and her engines, the
Messrs. Dudgeon, of Mil'wall. Tide, high water ;
wind, W.S.W., strong. The engines averaged 132
revolutions per minute between Gravesend and
Shornmeade Point. On opening Sheerness from
the mouth of the river the wind was found freshen-
ing, and the little craft met a lively roll of a sea
as she steamed down for the Admiralty measured
mile off the Maplin sands, and for a run over the
distance between the Nore and the Mouse light ships.
The Fore light was passed at Bh. 2Gm. 405., and on
reaching the Malpin two runs, with and against the
tide, were made over the mile with the following
results:

No. of Speed of ship Steam. Vacuum. Revolutions
run. knots. • lb. inches. of engines.
1 12.121 ... 30 25.5 136 -137
2 8.690 ... 30 25.5 136-136
Mean speed of the ship, 10.105 knots.
The distance between the Nore and the Mouse
light was run in 35 minutes, the revolutions of the
engines taken six times during the run being 135,
135, 136, 137, 136, 136.
The vessel, after her time runs over the Maplin
mile and the distance between the North and the
llaplin light vessels, was steered for the Downs,
and her lower fore and aft sails set on her. Under
this additional propelling power she spun along at
groat syeed, Passing the Girdler light vessel at 10.20,
the Prince's Channel light vessel at 10.40, the Tongue
light vessel at 11 o'clock, and rounded the North
Forelatfl at 11 49 ; her rate of speed over this dis-
tance being 14 knots per hoiir. After rounding the

North Foreland the wind drew rather more to the
southward, and as the vessel stood on for the South
Foreland it freshened again until it blew half a gale,
the sails of the vessel now doing but little good, the
wind coming short. The Gull light vessel was
abeam half-an-hour after noon, and shortly after-
wards the Assunta was tacked and stood in for the
land under Deal. On weathering the South Break
buoy and the edge of the sand the vessel was kept
away for the inner channel through Pegsvell Bay
on her return towards Gravesend. The mouth of
Ramsgate harbour was passed, and the Dike chan-
nel cleared at 1.18 p.m., and the North Foreland
rounded again at 1.41. From the Foreland the run
back to Gravesend was done under easy steam, and
the Assunta reached her moorings off the Town-
pier at 7 p.m., after 12 hours' steaming.
During all this day's work the engines were never
stopped from the time of starting from Gravesend
until the vessel's return in the evening, nor did a
warm bearing or any other of the many little diffi-
culties so often met with on trial trips with new
machinery occur to give trouble to the engineers or
cause a slackening of speed.

THE REFORAI .DEMONSTRA7 lON IN

DUBLIN.

(From the Freeman's Journal.)

An aggregate meeting of citizens, called by the
Lord Mayor upon a requisition presented to him,
was held on Tuesday night, in the Mechanics'
Institute Theatre, to receive a deputation of
English Reformers, and to advance the cause of
Irish Reform. The meeting was densely crowded,
and great enthusiasm prevailed. Amongst those
present were :—The O'Donoghue, M.P. ; Mr.
Edmond Beales, M.A., President of the English
Reform League ; Mr. Ernest Jones, Alderman
Carter and Mr. Grant, of the Yorkshire Reform
League, Leeds ; Councillor Burt, Glasgow, Presi-
dent of the Scottish
.Reform League ; Councillor
Moir, Vice-President of the Scottish Reform
League ; Councilor Murray, Manchester ; Mr.
Frederick Clayton, Manchester, Honorary Sec-
retary Northern Department of the English Re-
form League ; Mr.:James AP.Adam, Glasgow ; Rev.
Mr. Mullins, P.P., Castle Pollard, &c.
The LORD ALiYOR presided, and, in opening the
proceedings, avowed his belief that if the Irish
people were true to themselves they would obtain
Reform and an amendment of their grievances.
He went on to say : I have ever been for household
suffrage untrammelled by the disastrous con-
dition of either residence or rates—(cheers)— ,
rates to enable an army of agents to pore over
books, and find out whether a man has paid his
poor-rates or no, and disfranchise him if he won't
vote for the candidate in whose pay they are.
(Hear.) That system has been known and prac-
tised in Ireland, and it had been known and prac-
tised in England. And many of those who at-
tempted to carry this bill by their votes--a great
charter of rights, as I believe it to be—still hope
to disfranchise 50 per cent. of the workmen of
England. (Hear, hear.) lam conscious this meeting
will exhibit that harmony and good temper which
ever characterize Irish assemblies ; that you will
hear our English friends. They have not come
here as enemies and foes, as many of their nation
have done. They have come hero as friends.
(Cheers.) And I believe that if you inaugurate

the movement here to-night, it will spread through-
out the country, and that when the Chancellor of
the Exchequer comes to Ireland he will go back
to the Cabinet and say they must have an Irish
Reform Bill. (Cheers.) I believe my friends here
wish, as an act of simple justice, to present an
address to Mr. Beaks. (Cheers.)
Mr. P. J. STANLEY, Secretary of the Irish Reform
League, read the following letter :
Wildbad, Aug. 30, 1867.
Dear Sir,—Your letter of the 24th instant having
arrived at my house after I left England, has only
just reached me. I have long been convinced that
complete justice to Ireland was scarcely to be hoped
for, unless preceded by a reform of Parliament
sufficiently thorough to take away the present
predominance of the landed interest, and transfer
a large share of political power to classes who are
not under the influence of landed or Church pre-
judices. There is considerable reason to hope that
the Parliamentary Reform which we have now
obtained may, at least in some degree, accomplish
this. Whatever power has been gained by the
working classes or by the advanced Liberals will,

I am convinced, be used for the complete redress
of the grievances of Ireland on the two most fun-
damental points, the Church and the land. On
the former, they will aim at perfect religious equa-
lity, not in my opinion by the endowment, but by
the disendowment of all religions. On the land
question they will, I believe and hope, be satisfied
with nothing short of complete assurance to the
tenant that all value added to the land by his
labour or expenditure shall belong to himself ;
together with a well-combined system of measures
for the formation of a numerous body of small
proprietors, either cultivating their own land, or
secured by a permanent tenure at a quit rent. I
entertain a sanguine hope that this will also be the
policy of the leaders of the Liberal party. By
firm union of Britisli and Irish Liberals on

these principles, the grievances of Ireland may
soon be redressed, and the embittered feel-
ings which those grievances have engendered
will not long survive them. There is no wish in
any section of the British people to be unjust to
Ireland ; for many years past the source of mischief
has not been in any selfish intentions of the na-
tion, or even of the ruling classes. Ignorance of
what the circumstances of Ireland require and
' deeply-rooted prejudices—namely, less hurtful to
England than to Ireland, are the causes of the evil.
The ignorance is now rapidly becoming dispelled,
and the prejudices in the minds of the working
classes, and of the advanced Liberals, do not exist.
An era of hope, therefore, is opening for Ireland,
which, if improved by wise and harmonious action
on the part of your representatives and of ours, may
make the connection between the two countries an
unalloyed benefit to both. In addition to the two
great subjects which I have already touched upon,
there are, no doubt, many other matters which
will demand legislation. On these it will be for the
Irish people, after due deliberation, to make their
opinions and wishes known to the Reformed Par-
liament ; and I have no fear that the course which
shall most approve itself to intelligent Irishmen,
will fail to obtain the support of English Liberals.
The most pressing of these subjects is the reform of
the representation, and I would strongly urge the
Irish Reformers to prepare the heads of a bill,
which, while embodying the essentials of a real
Parliamentary Reform, may be such as can be offered
to the Parliament which passed the English Reform
Bill with a fair chance of being adopted, and to
give to such a bill their united support.—l am, dear
sir, yours very sincerely, " J. S. MILL."
The Honorary Secretary then read the following
address to Mr. Beaks :
" Dear Sir,—Th4 council and members of the
Irish Reform League desire, on this, your first visit
to Ireland, to tender you their warmest welcome,
and to offer you their heartiest congratulations on
the success which has attended the labours of the
National Reform League of England, of which you
are the esteemed and able president. Much of that
success is due to your wise and prudent counsels,
to your indomitable energy, to your loyalty to prin-
ciples, and to your unswerving course of upright
conduct. Your knowledge of law enabled you to
defeat the Government in the Hyde-park proceed-
ings, of world-wide notoriety, when the Govern-
ment and its officers were obliged to admit that
they were wrong and you were right. Their Parks
Bill you were mainly instrumental in defeating,
and the Reform Bill, giving household and lodger
suffrage in English boroughs, is due almost entirely
to you and the bold and manly course taken by
the National Reform League. Mr. Disraeli had
the sense to understand 6 the signs of the times,'
and, dragging the Tory coach up-hill, he carried
a measure which a year before it was only through
the medium of yourself and others, it was said, any
could be found to demand. Even Tory lords state
that the Reform Bill is your work rather than
that of the Government. We rejoice with you in
the success of your efforts. We feel satisfied you
will carry the ballot also ; and tho Irish Reform