The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-06 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.
•

His Highness Tokugawa Mimbutaiho, brother to
the Tycoon, was expected to visit Aldershot yester-
day, to be present at a winter field day on Eelmoor
Hill. The troops were in readiness—in fact, on the
regimental parades, when a telegram was received
at head quarters postponing the visit for a few days.
The morning was very foggy and damp, though
the day turned out a beautiful one, and his High-
ness might come on a good many December days
without having so favourable a one as yesterday.
The field day bhing countermanded, brigade parades
for the infantry and route marching for the cavalry
and horse ar,illery were continued for a time. The
troops were all in quarters by 12 o'clock.
The armour plated wood built frigate Royal Oak
has returned her gins into store at Portsmouth, and
is landing her other stores, preparatory to being
paid out of her present term of commission. With
her thin outer skin of armour-plating on the ordi-
nary wood-built side, the latter having no inner iron
skin, and with bolt ends and nuts projecting on the
gun-deck, the Royal Oak is only fit for service in a
home port at a flag or coastguard ship, and for this
kind of service she will moat likely be appropriated.
Such a ship would not pay for conversion to carry a
heavier armament, nor could she be made, under
any •conditions of alterations or expenditure of
money, fit to take her part in line of battle in a fleet
of ironclads of the present day. Even the Royal
Oak teaches us things, however, which should not
be forgotten, as illustrative of our present system of
naval maladministration. We may mention three
instances in this wise :-1. Rifled guns with their
carriages were sent out to Malta for the ship, to

supersede the old-fashioned 8-inch smoothbores with
which she sailed from England, but as no fittings
were sent with the guns the ship returned to Eng-
land with her old smoothbores still on board. 2.
The Lords of the Admiralty are so well posted up in
all matters relating to the armament of the navy
that on the arrival of the Royal Oak in Portsmouth
harbour from the Mediterranean their lordships
could not say whether 12-ton rifles or ordinary
68-pounder smoothbores were mounted in her bat-
teries ! They therefore telegraphed to Portsmouth
for the necessary information. 3. As the captain
of the Royal Oak is senior to the captain of the
Steam Reserve at Portsmouth, no orders can be
given by the latter officer to the former relative to
the machinery and stores of the ship (as is the cap-
tain of the Steam Reserve's special duty) in the
progress of the necessary preparations for paying
out ,of commission. Fortunately, both Captain
Chamberlain and the captain of the Royal Oak are
officers who prefer the " gooi of the service," as it
is somewhat pedantically phrased nowadays, to their
own personal feelings, and therefore the difficulty
may be got over. The naval administration of
England is, to say the very least, full of strange
anomalies.

A naval court-martial assembled yesterday on
board her Majesty's ship Victory, for the trial of
Joseph Bennett, a first-class boy, serving on board
Her Majesty's paddle sloop Gladiator, Capt. D'O.
D'Aplin, on a charge of striking at the master-at-
arms of that vessel with a cutlass. The court found
the charge proved, and sentenced the lad to receive
48 lashes, and be afterwards imprisoned in Le►ves
Gaol for two years with hard labour.
The following is an extract from a private letter
received by our Portsmouth correspondent from
Montevideo, dated Oct. 29 : " Iler Majesty's ship
Narcissus was at Montevideo on the 30th October,
with the Nassau, Gleaner, and Spider ; the latter
vessel returned from Maldonado on the 27th. At
Buenos Ayres were the Linnet and Doterel. The
war in Paraguay goes launching on as ever. The
peace negotiations of Mr. Gould, Secretary of Lega-
tion and Lieut Michell, in her Majesty's ship Doterel,
seem to have had no effect. Cholera has set in up
the river."

The following promotions were made yesterday
at the Admiralty
Lieut. W. Neilson to the Pyladas ; Chas. W. G. Spring,
midshipman, to the Liffey ; William Barton, navigating-
midshipman, to the Dana° ; Henry R. Johnston, navi-
gating-n.i•lshipman, to the Pyl ides ; Charles D. Lindsay,
paymaster, to the Pylades ; William Rintoul, assistant-
paymaster, to the Pylades; Frederick James, asdstant-
paymaster, to the Cumberland ; Edward Armstrong, clerk,
to the Pylades; Herbert E. Ridge, assistant-clerk, to the
Pylades; Walt.. .r Fame], clerk, to the Danae ; Samuel
Crooke, assistant-clerk, to the St. Vincent; Charles J.
Hill, navigating-lieut., to the Royal Oak; Jesse Dixon'
navigating-lieut , to the Pylados.

PRESENTATION TO SIR BARTLE FRERE.

A ceremony of somewhat novel character took
place yesterday at Willis's Rooms—the presentation
of an address from native Princes to the ex-Governor
of Bombay, who doubtless thought that there was
an end to all such honours when he bade farewell
to the Presidency. Addresses of this complimentary
kind are sometimes, as Lord Lyveden said, expres-
sive of a sense of favours to come; but in this in-
stance the value of the tribute cannot be depreciated
by the imputation of unworthy motives. Sir Bartle
Frere has finally given up the position in Bombay,
which he held with so much credit to himself and
advantage to the natives under his rule, and his
work in India itself is probably done. The Princes
of Kattywar, therefore, were not tempted by in-
terested considerations to pay their respects to an
officer who no longer is placed in connection with
their sovereignties. It was a spontaneous and an
unexpected compliment to a distinguished member
of that class of our countrymen in India which has
well maintained the honour of this country in the
eyes of great native potentates.
It would be assuming too much familiarity on the
part of the public with Indian affairs to suppose
that they are acquainted with the services and
career of Sir Bartle Frere, and, therefore, it is
not likely that they know very much about the
Princes of Kattywar. Nevertheless, they are rulers
of no small renown or consequence in their own
dominions, the members of a gallant race, ruling
over a brave and warlike people, and fully compe-
tent to discriminate between good government and
bad. These Princes and chiefs are, as a rule, tri-
butary to the Guicowar or to England, the former
rights of the Peishwa now being vested in this
country. Kattywar is in the province. of Guzerat—
so much geographic knowledge was doubtless pos-
sessed by every one present at the ceremony yester-
day—but even the Anglo-Indians, except from the
Bombay side of India, must have been indebted to
Sir Bartle Frere's speech for much additional infor-
mation. The Princes who signed the address—
about 20 in number—are sharing in that wonderful
progress to which the ex-Governor referred yester-
day. They have not been insensible to the claims
of education, and they are anxious to get a railway
constructed through their part of the country—a
project which has been talked of since the days of
Lord Dalhousie. Even in a land which is proud of
"long descents" the potentates of Kattywar are re-
spectable, for their families date back, as Sir Bartle
Frere told his friends yesterday, to a period long
anterior to the Crusades. The ancestors of some of
the Princes who signed the address formed alliances
with the Solymans. What the present rulers are
doing may be judged from the general condition of
the Western Presidency. The enterprise and spirit
of the natives—especially of the Parsee community,
.which uas largely ter.resented at the muting yes-
terday—have pacedllona:ay in the van of progrots
in Lidia. The irtnio-!; ! and rapid changes nhich
it i;arile Frere i•poke of are ecitainly visible to a
hug( r x;ent in his former seat of awho.ity than
ekes h 1 As a!1 cl;,s es of Anglo-Indians awl na-
ive-z a tho iniprovement is greatly due to his
j,":15 —to his courag,c and spirit and
untiring energy. Tito ceremony yesterday ha,: a
speci 11 s'gnificance in the proof it affords that the
native ehkfs are not hostile to " innovations " if
they are properly prepared for them, and that
they respect a firm and wise ruler who will recom-
meia to them such reforms. The message from
Kattywar has, therefore, more interest than ordi-
nary incidents of tlie kind.

Many of the Anglo-Indians concerned in the
actual government of India who happen to be now
in London were present yesterday, and there were
also several ladies in the room. The address was in-
troduced to the company by Lord Lyveden, in a
speech of great cordiality and good feeling, in which
the audience werereminied of the successful labours
ant very marked services of Sir Bartle Frere iu the