The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-17 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

VALETTA, July 10.
The regular mail being delayed, I take advantage
of the departure to-day of a French steamer, the
Juuon, for Marseilles to send a line. Her Majesty's
screw iron troopship Tamar, Capt. E. W. Sullivan,
C. 8., left Malta ou the 2d inst., in the evening, for
Quebec, having on board Lieut.-Col. L. F. Far-
rington, 28 officers, G 92 non-commissioned officer s
and men, 57 women, and 79 children, of
the 29th Regiment. The Prince Consort, iron-
clad, Capt. E. A. Inglefield, having got her big
guns on board, and completed her repairs, is to
leave to-morrow for Hyeres, to join the Commander-
in-Chief, who had reached that rendezvous from
Gibraltar. The Tyrian gunboat, Lieut.-Commander
the Hon. A. Montagu, also leaves to-morrow to
join the squadron. The Caledonia, 24, ironclad,
bearing the flag of the Commander-in-Chief, Lord
C. Paget, and the Arethusa, 35, arrived at Hyeres
on Sunday, June 30, having proceeded all the way
under sail. They found already there the Royal
Oak ironclad, which had arrived on the 28th from
Malta. The Psyche despatch vessel, with the mails,
joined them on July Ist. The commander-in-chief
was to leave in the Psyche on the 3d inst. for Mar-
seilles, and proceed thence to Paris, returning to
Hyeres in about ten days, when the squadron would
move up to Toulon, and afterwards visit Nice and
the ports of Italy. The latter part of the programme
will no doubt be changed in consequence of the ap-
pearance of cholera all along the Italian coast.
There have been no appointments or removal of
officers since the previous adl ices, with the excep-
tion of Mr. J. S. Pearce, clerk, who had been lent
to the Psyche from the Arethusa for service during
the absence on leave of Mr. Hodge, Assist.-Pay-
master, in charge of that vessel. Mr. Hodge having
rejoined, Mr. Pearce has returned to the Arethusa.
Her Majesty's surveying steamer Hydra, Capt. P.
F. Shortland, arrived here on the 4th inst., and
being from Aci, in Sicily, was placed in quarantine.
She left again to-day, with a health guardian on
board, to pass the remainder of her term outside,
which time will be employed in taking soundings in
the Malta Channel. The Trinculo gunboat, Lieut.-
Commander V. de Sandars,leaves to-day for Patras,
after the court-martial which is to be held on Mr.
Stout, first-class assistant-engineer, accused of
bringing off liquor to the ship without permis-
sion of the commanding officer. The Austrian
screw steam frigate Schwarzenberg (bearing the
broad pendant of Commodore the Chevalier Alois
Pokorny), Commander Zaccaria, arrived on the
Gth instant, from Castelnuovo (Dalmatia) and Va-
lona. The Austrian ironclad Archduke Ferdinand,
Captain Alfred Barry, arrived the same day from
Pola and Valona. The latter ship, it will be remem-
bered, was the one which ran down and sank the Re
d'ltalia in the memorable battle of Lissa. She has
come here, without guns and ammunition, in order
to be docked, and is at present in the hands of the
dockyard. It is expected both ships will leave in
about ten days. The Grand Duke Alexis of Russia
passed through Malta during the last few days on
board the Russian steamer Olga, on his way from
Odessa to Cadiz, to join the Alexander Nevski fri-
gate, and proceed in her on a scientific voyage to the
West Indies, subsequently visiting the United States.
Cholera has, I regret to say, appeared in our lazza-
retto among the refugees from Tunis and Sicily. On
Friday afternoon a woman, who had already under-
gone 19 days' quarantine after her arrival fromSusa,
was attacked, and died in about 17 hours ; and on
the following day another woman of the same party
was attacked, and died after an illness of the same
duration. A third case, that of the master of a Sici-
lian sailing vessel from Trani, terminated fatally on
Sunday evening, the 7th inst., after eight days' qua-
rantine. Since then there have been no other cases,
and the island generally, both as regards the military
as well as the civil population, continues to enjoy
excellent health. Great praise is due to Government
for the energetic steps they have taken to stop the
spread of the infection. Among other measures a
resident physician has been appointed to the lazza-
retto, and the regulations have been rendered stricter
than ever with regard to the disinfection of the
clothes of passengers immediately on landing, and
the public roads in the vicinity of the lazzaretto have
been walled up. It is also under consideration to re-
move the soldiers from Fort Manoel, and to convert
it into a cholera hospital, for separating the sick
from the healthy. Quarantine has been increased
from 21 to 30 days on arrivals from all places where
cholera exist 3, and as it has been ascertained that re-
fugees by availing themselves of the Marseilles route
might reach Malta from Tunis and other infected
countries in pratique, precautions have been taken
to prevent an apprehended influx of immigrants
from that quarter. At a meeting of the
Board of Health, held to-day, it was decided to warn
the agents of the Marseilles steamers that vessels
having passengers on board from infected countries
will be put in quarantine on arrival at Malta, and
no passengers will be allowed to land. The object,
no doubt, of this measure is to put agents on their
guard against shipping passengers at Marseilles com-
ing either from Barbary or the Italian and Sicilian
ports. The lazaretto being at present full, several
vessels with refugees from Tunis on arrival here
have been ordered off the island. The last accounts
speak somewhat more favourably of the cholera at.
Tunis, and at Susa, where it was most severe, no
cases had occurred for four days. Much distress,
however, prevails, and a public subscription headed
by the Governor, has been got up in aid of the suf-
ferers. £lOO has been granted from the island funds
for their succour.

BIRMINGIIAII.—Mr. Dixon's friends have become
the possessors of Mr. Murphy's tabernacle, and Mr. George
Dawson, M.A., was to address the supporters of the former
on his behalf last evening. Both parties aro exerting them-
selves immensely. Mr. Dixon's friends imagined that they
had nothing to do but to nominate any ono of their roll of
candidates and have a "walk over," whereas there will be
a sharp contest. Mr. Lloyd is really a most formidable
opponent, and Mr. Dixon's friends are at length awakened
to that fact. Such is the urgency of the case that Mr.
Bright is coming down.

METEORITES.—On this subject M. Wilfrid do
hFaoanovoicealsleio,oatoscgioeonttei,fihea
oWproi
bt el
irs
hive whom
had
ohfave often
highly in-
teresting articles in the Revue des Cours Scientifiques. After
condensing in the former articles all wo knew concerning
fire-balls and falling stars, the author, in the last article
published, ventures to suggest an hypothesis, which ap-
pears worthy of some consideration. Certain observers, be
remarks, suppose the atmosphere of our globe to be com-
posed of two envelopes of different composition, each, of
course, gaseous and transparent, but of a peculiar and dis-
tinct nature. Whether this be true or not, M. do Fon-
vielle does not presume to decide, but he points to the
circumstance that even in the inferior region there
is a considerable difference between the strata con-
taining atneous vapour and those that do not. It
may be admitted, he thinks, that this difference is the
image of that which exists in the upper regions
with regard to the gaseous bodies entering into the COM'
position of the media. To this it may bo objected that
the chemical analysis of the specimens of air taken in
the higher strata, whether by balloon ascents or on the
summits of mountains, reveals no perceptible difference .
their composition, except that of aqueous vapour, carbonic
acid, and other secondary ingredients; but our author i°
not without a suspicion that such analysis may have been con-
ducted with insufficient precautions ; for Mr. Graham,
.tho
well-known inventor of dialysts, has detected a prodigious
quantity of condensed hydrogen in the pores of the aerolitn
of Lernato. Now, hydrogen is not a constituent of the
atmosphere except as an element of aqueous vapour, and
hence it is by no means improbable to assume that the
interplanetary space may be filled with hydrogen, the
lightest gas we know. If such were the case, Valtzls
planation touching the enormous diminution of the diarue
for of comets when they approach the sun would be con-
firmed ; and it might moreover be supposed that there
would be the least possible friction iu an atmosphere ?I,
hydrogen, even in those regions where the pressure is
perhaps a thousand times greater than exists at the bottom
of the deepest oceans.