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

of wooden vessels. After lying id'e on the stocks
for six years she was taken in hand a few months
since and completed, it being intended to equip and
despatch her to sea forthwith. The Myrmidon is
one of the Wanderer class of vessels, but during her
progress several improvements have been effected
in her. She was originally laid down from the de-

signs of Mr. Isaac Watts, the late chief constructor
of the navy; but, in consequence of the powerful
description of armament she is intended to carry, it
has been found necessary to deviate in several im-
portant particulars from the original designs. She
has accordingly been strengthened by the removal
of the wooden deck beams under the guns, and the
patent iron beams, from the Buttery Works, sub-
stituted. A free use has also been made of iron
stringer plates and iron stiffening bars to strengthen
the topsides, while additional stiffness' and rigidity
have been imparted to the entire structure by the
adoption of iron bulkheads and angle iron
wherever found to be practicable ; the whole of
the alterations, which have been effected under
the direction and superintendence of Mr. P. Thorn-
ton, the master shipbuilder at Chatham, rendering
her one of the strongest vessels of her class. The
stem was partially taken down during her altera-
tions and raised about two feet higher to give her
additional buoyancy forward, vessels of this class
being generally so much down by the head, and con-
sequently exceedingly uncomfortablein bad weather.
The following are the principal dimensions of the
Myrmidon :—Length between perpendiculars,lBsft.;
length of keel for tonnage, 165 ft. 7iin. ; extreme
breadth 28ft. lin. ; breadth moulded, 27ft. 6in. ;
depth in hold, 14ft. ; burden in tons, 694 66-94th.
The following will be her armament :—One 7-inch
61-ton gun, and one 64-pounder, on pivots ; and
two 20-pounder breechloader chase-guns. The
arrangements for the launch yesterday were
of a very simple character, a gallery being
erected at the head of the slip for the
accommodation of the heads of departments con-
nected with the port and garrison. At half-past 2
the cord which held the last of the supports was
severel by Miss Baker, daughter of Mr. Baker,
chief inspector of machinery afloat at the dockyard,
and immediately afterwards the vessel glided down
the ways into the harbour amid the cheers of the
spectators. The Myrmidon was launched with the
whole of her machinery fitted on board. She will
be masted to-day, and afterwards placed in dock to
be completed for commission.
The sailing Indianman Trafalgar, Capt. Stock-
poole, R.N.R., one of Messrs. Green's Blackwall
fleet, arrived at Spithead yesterday from Kurrachee,
with the following officers and time-expired men
from various regiments :—Capt. Leith, 79th Regi-
ment (in military command) ; Staff Assist.-Surg.
Hale (in medical charge) ; Capt. Fordyce, 45th
Regiment; Lieut. Goad, 45th ; Lieut. Boldero, 97th;
370 time-expired soldiers, 17 women, and 27 chil-
dren. The stormy weather prevented the troops
from being disembarked from the ship at Spithead
yesterday. The disembarkation will be effected
this morning, and the troops forwarded to the de-
pots of their several regiments, the Trafalgar after-
wards continuing their voyage to London.
The seamen of Her Majesty's ship Excellent, at
Portsmouth, on Tuesday evening, gave " An As-
sault of Arms and display of Naval Gymnastic Ex-
ercises," in the Governor's Green Volunteer Drill-
room, in aid of the " Seamen's Widows, Mothers
and Orphans' Annuitant Society." The arrange-
ments were made by Mr. Tuohy, professor of the
sword, pike, and bayonet drill, and of gymnastics
to the Royal Naval College, and the programme
was highly successful.
The following freight ships, having taken in New
Boxer ammunition and other war stores at Wool-
wich, have sailed for their destination as follows :
The Silksworth for New Brunswick, the Jura for
Ilalifax, and the Flying Fish for Barbadoes.

RAILWAY BENEVOLENT IN STI7 UTION.

The annual dinner i❑ aid of the funds of this
inqitution was held last evening at Willis's-rooms ;
Mr. C. Dickens in the chair. There was a large at-
tendance.
Sir D. GOOCH, M.P., chairman of the Great
Western Railway, responded to the toast of the
Rouse of Commons.

The CHAIRMAN, in proposing "Prosperity to the

funds of the Railway Benevolent Institution," made
a humorous and characteristic speech. lie said that
although it was not 50 years since one of the first
literary authorities of the country insisted that the
speed of the fastest of the railway trains that the
Legislature had disastrously sanctioned should be
limited by act of Parliament to 10 miles an hour,
yet it did somehow happen that every day there
were trains running pretty smoothly at the rate of
50 miles an hour. At one time vaccination was ob-
jected to on the ground that it would have a ten-
dency to impart to the human child something of
the nature of the cow, whereas vaccinated children
at the present time were found to be as easily distin-
guished from calves as ever they were, and certainly
they had no cheapening influence upon the price of
veal. (Laughter.) It was objected also that chloro-
form was a contravention of the will of Providence,

and with no better reason it was prelieted that the

railway system, if anything so absurd could be
established, would infallibly throw half the nation
out of employment, The very cause of this festival
meeting, apart from the tributary channels of occu-
pation it had opened out, had called into existence
and employed a population of upwards of 200,000
persons. It was obvious that these could not be
rich, although their duties demanded great care and
exactness, and although our lives were every day,
humanly speaking, in the hands of many of them.
For the most part these men occupie4 places that
did not require skilled workmen, and that would be
therefore always open to great competition. IVages
could not be high where competition was keen, and
railway directors, in the bargains they made and
salaries they paid, had to deal with the money of
the shareholders, to whom they were accountable.
It thus happened that railway officers and servants
were not remunerated by any means splendidly,
and could not hope to do more than meet the ordi-
nary wants and hazards of life. By reason of the
dangerons nature of their avocations the hazards
were so exceptionally great that it was stated, on
the authority of a Parliamentary paper, that
whereas one in 8,000,000 of passengers was killed,
the proportion in the case of railway servants was
one in 2,000. Hence nine years ago the Railway
Benevolent Institution became established, and this
was the ninth occasion of publishing from the chair
the banns between the institution and the public.
It was nevertheless his duty to tell, as if for the
first time, what the institution was, before asking
whether there was any just cause or impediment
why those two parties—the institution and the
public—should not be joined together in holy charity.
(Cheers.) The objects of the society were to grant
annuities out of the interest of invested capital, and
annual pensions, varying from £lO to £25, to dis-
tressed railway officers and servants incapacitated
by age, sickness, or accident ; to grant similar pen-
sions to distressed widows ; to educate and main-
tain orphans and children ; to provide temporary
relief to those requiring it; and to induce railway
officers and servants to insure their lives in some
well-established office. This was the society—
simple, sympathetic, practical, easy, sensible, and
unpretending. The number of its members was
largely on the increase, and had reached 12,100,
and the amount of its invested capital was nearly
£15,000. It had done a world of good and a world
of works, ant it was gratifying to know that the
annual cost of its management had never been £25.).
(Cheers.) It could not however do more good until
it had more money. The means of the society were
far too limited to allow of their giving more to ap-
plicants, even if they were helped to the utmost
by the great railway companies ; and even if they
were helped, as he hoped they would be shortly
by some of the great corporations of the coun-
try which railways bad done so much to
enrich, the means of the society would still be too
limited. In a word, these railway officers and ser-
vants on their road to a very humble and modest
superannuation, could no more do without the help
of the great public than the great public on their
road from Torquay to Aberdeen could do without
them. (Cheers.) Therefore he (7esired to ask the