The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-26 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

VALETTA, Nov. 20.—We learn by telegraph that
her Majesty's screw frigate Endymion, 21, Capt. C.
Wake, having on board the brother of the Tycoon
of Japan, arrived at Marseilles on the 17th inst.,
six days from Malta; her after engine having
broken down, the trunk, air-pump, piston, and
cylinders being damaged in the same manner as in
the accident which occurred to the machinery of her
Majesty's ship Bristol some time ago on the West
Coast of Africa. ,The Endymion:is ordered back to
Malta for repairs, which it is expected will occupy
about ten weeks. Her Majesty's ship Wizard, Lieut-
Commander P. J. Murray, returned on the 17th
inst. from Candia, having been relieved there by
the Tyrian. She brings no particular news further
than that it was expected the struggle would be
protracted through the winter. Her Majesty's ship
Racer, 11, Lieut.-Commander L. Brine, arrived
here on the 18th inst. She left the Pirzas on the
7th inst., arrived at Marsasousa on the 9th, but
finding communication impossible, owing to a
heavy gale, proceeded to Ras-el-Halil, and an-
chored. Capt. Brine proceed to Marsasousa by
land, taking with him Mr. Dennis, Vice-Consul at
Benghazi, Lieut. Darwall, another officer, and six
men, as well as a guide and an interpreter,
and a camel to carry provisions. The party reached
the ruins of Apolonia on the 12th inst., distant
about 20 miles, and Mr. Dennis was able to inspect
and take the measurements of the Cipolin columns,
which was the object of the expedition. On the
13th the Racer arrived off the harbour of Marsa-
sousa, when Lieut. Darwall was sent on board.
This officer having separated from his party, was
seriously injured by an Arab, who had robbed him
of his gun, money, and a portion of his clothes, and
attempted to murder him. Complaint was made
to the Mudir, who promised to do everything in his
power to capture and imprison the thief, but it is
not likely that anything more will be heard of the
matter. The Mendoza, hired steam transport, with
troops for the Abyssinian expedition, arrived here
on the 16th inst. from England, and the Parana,
with 254 mules, arrived on the 17th from Gibraltar.
Both vessels proceeded for Alexandria after coaling.
The Malta and Alexandria telegraph cable, commu-
nication by which had been interrupted since the Bth
inst., has been repaired, and a notice was issued to-
day that messages can be forwarded as usual.

Her Majesty's screw troopship Orontes, Capt H.
Phelps, according to present orders will leave Ports-
mouth with troops, on a round of relief service, on
the 3d pros. She is now filling up with provisions,
coal, and stores alongside Portsmouth dockyard in
readiness for her voyage. _ _ .

The Fox, screw storeship, Staff-Com. ➢Moriarty,
C. 8., is loading with hemp from the stores of the
disused roptry of Portsmouth dockyard, and other
stores, for conveyance to Cbatbacn and other ports.

The Danac, 6, screw sloop, 1,287 tons, 350 horse
power, ordered for commission and foreign service,
the latter commencing on the West Coast of Africa,
had not hoisted her pennant of commission up to
sunset yesterday, but Capt. Sir M. M'Gregor was
expected at Portsmouth every hour. The I)anae,
with her high rate of speed and her far-reaching 61-
ton rifled guns, will be a greater terror to the slave
steamers on the West Coast than a score of such
vessels as we have hitherto sent there—vessels that
would possibly steam eight knots, while the slaver
was sure to steam 12.

The Blanche, 6, 350 horse power (nominal), fit-
ting at Chatham for commission, is ordered to be
removed to Sheerness for the purpose of being
docked, there being no dock accommodation for her
in Chatham-yard.

Yesterday Major-Gen. F. Murray, commanding
the division at Chatham, accompanied by Col. E.
Ward, commanding Royal Engineers, Brigade-Major
W. W. Lynch, Captain F. S. !ferries, 65th Regt.,
aide-de-camp, and other officers of the Staff at head-
quarters, embarked on board the paddlewheel
steamer Adder, Mr. W. J. Blakey master comman-
der, at Chatham dockyard, and proceeded out of
the harbour on a tour of inspection of the batteries
and other defences under construction for the better
protection of Chatham harbour and dockyard. The
principal works, on which, including the cost, of the
land, a sum of little less than £lOO,OOO has been
expended up to the present time, are two powerful
batteries erected on the projecting points on either
shore near the harbour entrance, at Folly Point and
Darnet Ness, but although commenced several
years since, their completion seems more hopelessly
distant than ever. From the commencement of the
works there has been one continued series of mis-
haps. Under the principle of construction adopted
the forts are gradually settling down, and at one
time it would appear to have been a serious ques-
tion whether the superiscumbent weight placed on
the substructure would not cause them to disappear
altogether before a gun was mounted on them. For
several months past all work on the forts has been
abandoned, but hopes are now entertained that with
the means adopted by the engineers and contractors
to arrest any further settlement of the foundations
the massive structures have at length been made to
stand. Already two separate firms have been em-
ployed on the undertaking, and it would now ap-
pear that the Government has entered into a con-
tract with Messrs. Mansfield and Co. for the com-
pletion of the forts at DarnetNe:=s, and with Messrs.
Lee and Co. for furnishing the defencesiat 1100 Ness
and Folly Point. Gen. Murray and Staff were en-
gaged for some time yesterday in the inspection of
the different works.

Detachments of time-expired men and other
troops belonging to the Ist battalion of the 2d
Royals, 2d battalion of the 10th Regt., 64th Regt.,
106th Regt., and 109th Regt., to the number of 77
non-commissioned officers and men, under the
command of Capt. E. S. Beville, 109th Regt., have
arrived at Chatham Garrison froth the service com-
pataies of their respective regiumts iu Imlia,

Yesterday the committee formed at the Mansion-
house in the mayoralty of Sir T. Gabriel, for rais-
ing a fund for the relief of the widows, orphans,
and aged parents of the men who perished in the
calamitous colliery accidents at the Oaks pit, near
Barnsley, and at Talk-, in Staffordshire, held a
meeting for the appropriation of the money sub-
scribed on the occasion. Sir Tnomas Gabriel, the
late Lord Mayor occupied the chair, as president of
th,) committee. Mr. Gibbs reported to the meeting
that the total amount subscribed at the Mansion-
house, including interest., was £24,959 odd ; that, in
addition, £2,800, had been subscribed at Liverpool,
and £1,150 at Halifax. In addition t) these, again,
£29,528 odd had been collected in Yorkshire for the
relief of the Oaks colliery sufferers, and about
£13,500 for those at Talk. With these facts before
them the Mansion-house Committee, with the aid
of the local representatives, proceeded to consider
and settle a scheme of relief for the widows
and families of the sufferers by the Oaks colliery
calamity, which had been prepared from authentic
data, and partly upon the basis and experience of
that of the Hartley colliery, by Mr. W. P. Pattison,
an actuary. Previous to the meeting this document
bad been most carefully scrutinized and sifted, both
in the interests of the subscribers and of the suf-
ferers, first by the general committee at the Man-
sion-house, and afterwards particularly again and
again by Sir Thomas Gabpiel and Sir Sydney
Waterlow, after which ordeal it und!rwent exami-
nation at the conference yesterday, and was finally
adopted, subject to a possible rectification of a few
of the items. The investigation lasted upwards of
three hours. The effect of the scrutiny yesterday,
and at previous meetings, was to redirce the
original estimate of the actuary, with re-
gard to the Oaks colliery, by a sum of from
£7,000 to £B,OOO, which, or some part of which,
will go towards a fund for the relief in future
of sufferers by any similar calamity. In the case
of Talk, the local subscriptions amounted to about
£13,500, and the local committee had expended
about £1,300. The committee made a grant of
£1,500 to the authorities at Talk towards their
local permanent fund, or rather with the view to
recoup them their actual expenditure and something
more in the relief of the sufferers by the calamity.
Originally the Mansion-house Committee, acting on
a suggestion made to them by Lord Derby, founded
on his experience in the administration of the Lan-
cashire cotton famine fund, expressly stated in their
public advertisements soliciting subscriptions, that
in the event of the public benevolence furnishing
funds more than sufficient to meet the requirements
of that particular emergency, the balance would be
retained in the hands of trustees as the nucleus of
any similar subscriptions that should be thought
necessary at some future time to raise for the pur-
pose of meeting a like calamity. Both Sir Thomas
Gabriel and Mr. Samuel Morley dwelt yesterday
upon the wisdom of that precaution, as shown by
the event, without which the whole of the Mansion-
house fund would have been divisible, pro rata,
among the families of the sufferers by the Oaks and
Talk explosions, without reference to the absolute
requirements in either case. But now, by the
operation of that saving clause, the committee will
have a very considerable surplus at their disposal—
probably as much as £12,000 or £14,000 for the
mitigation of distress consequent upon similar acci-
dents ; and, as if to confirm still more the wisdom
of that precaution, the Ferndale calamity occurs
just at a time when a surplus arises, and remains
in the hands of the trustees for disposal.