The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-27 00:00:00

,BER.

T•2lVs-o.
.s. 4,PER
,5,72,VW17,714.7- .
• fall in with witfi the regulations made 7'::tliiiji.',r'''Tjmi)Y-,)
meat of . the camp.,
Some little explanation is requis .:1, •
to the shooting for the National Rifle I sc,;
prizes. The scores displayed a plentiE
" noughts ;" but it must not be supposed from this
that all these " noughts" represent total misses. As
before explained points are gained by both eleva-
tion and deflection, and where a shot fails to score
points in both it has no value whatever. In the
first day's shoating the mirage on the sands was
very great indeed, and, though the direction of 19
out of 20 shots was goo 1, nearly all the shots which
failed to score ricochetted before reaching the
"bounds" in front of the target. This was through
the "No. 1," the leader of the detachment, not
giving elevation enough, and nearly all the first
shots of the detachments, and all the shots of some
were thus lost to the competitors, even though they
were so
.well directed that many of them would
have made a hole in a ship's sitle. Thi win-
ners of the prize, the Ist Kent.,t,3
earp areriteus: of
detachment, and they profited by h i
others, for, firing last, they were enabled to 83 3
that from some cause or other more elevation than
ordinary was required. The Ist Kent is the Graves-
end corps, and is under Capt.-Commandant Leith,
whose men at the previous meetings of the associa-
tion have proved themselves good gunners. It is
also worth mentioning that the guns which the
men had to work were mounted on new carriages,
and these were hard to move, a fact whichaccounts
for the loss oflitne by some detachments.
The shooting of this day was for a challenge prize,
with a purse of money to the winning detachment
called " Scotland's Cup." This is open to be shot
for by one detachment from'every volunteer artil-
lery brigade in the kingdom, and it is to be held for
a year by the brigade whose detachment wins it.
The cup has been raised in Scotland, and the regula-
tions for the competition have been made by Major
lanes, of the -Kincardine. On the pedestal of the cup
the royal arms of Scotland are to be engraved, and
around will be the arms of all the Scotch connties,
the arms of thoSetounties which have subscribed to
the cup being distinguished in a very marked man-
ner from those which have not. Before the detach-
ments marched off Major Jones addressed them
with respect to the then coming competition, and
stated that as it was desirable that all the detach-
ments which desired should fire, and that as it would
not be fair for one brigade to have more than ono
chance of winning the cup (several having more
than one detachment), each brigade would nomi-
nate its champion detachment to compete. It was
also notified if a Scotch detachment won the cup the
if
tu
should
ld competitionsagai
nb
ea
carried
forr
rdiite I v oouvledr h
bet ien
borders Scotland
by
a untill,
English detachment. The shooting then proceeded
on these terms, and the result is that the highest
score in the shooting—the detachment making it
notbeinnogttakenominatedthe
cup. Theasthech shootingampio was
champion of its brigade
—will
better than on the previous day, the men now
being better used to the battery and guns ; and
this day's shooting, it should be remarked, was
carried on amid a heavy wind, and in the first part
of the morning amid heavy rain as well.

VI7AL STIITIS7ICS OF SCOTLAND.

The Registrar-General has now completed ten
years' detailed reports of births, marriages, and
deaths in Scotland—a period generally regarded as
sufficient for obtaining a fair average ; and we have
now, therefore, the means of ascertaining the vital
statistics of the country more accurately than at any
time since Scotland hasheen a nation. The annual
birth-rate in the ten years 1855-61 has averaged
3.447 per cent.; the marriage rate, 0.689 per cent.;
the death rate, 2.135 per cent. The death rate in.
England in thesame period was 2.216 per cent. The
lower mortality in Scotland is due, partly, at all
events, to its smaller proportion of large towns.
The annual death rate in Glasgow in the ten
years averaged 3.01 per cent. In every quin-
quennial period of life the rate of mortality
is heaviest among males with one exception.
Between 10 and 15 the female death rate in Scotland
in the ten years slightly preponderated over that of
males. 9.1 per cent. of all the children born were
illegitimate. In the same period the registers show
only 64 per cent. illegitimate in England, but a
considerable number of births escape registration in
England (nearly 37,000 a year) according to the
Census report), and as a majority of these probably
belong to the illegitimate class, it may be assumed
that the proportion of illegitimate children at birth
is nearly the same in both countries. Owing to the
Scotch law of legitimisation by subsequent marriage
of the parents, fewer persons in the population are
illegitimate in Scotland than in England. The ten
years' returns show some progress of education in
Scotland. In the five years 1855-59 88.2 per cent. of
the men who married and 76.5 per cent. of the women
were able to sign their Dames in the parish register ;
in the five years 1860-64, 89.3 per cent. of the men
and 78.1 per cent. of the women. These numbers
are much above those of England. Arraying mor-
tal diseases in the order of their fatality in Scotland,
we must place first consumption, which in he ten
years upon au average destroyed 2.595 per It,ooo of
population every year. It looks well that old age
comes next, 2.119 per 1,000 dying annually from
this cause, without marked signs of disease. Then
comes bronchitis, taking off its 1.525 per 1,000 per
annum ; typhus or continued fever, 1.018 ; prema-
ture debility, 0.985; scarlatina, 0.920 ; heart dis-
ease, 0.789; pneumonia, 0.730 ; whooping-cough,
0.723 ; hydrocephalus, 0.626. The3e are the ten
most usual modes of exit from life from Scotland.
Next in order, according to the returns for the last
two years of the series, would come diphtheria,
which until 1857 did not appear in the Scottish bills
of mortality at

Foreign Mail Packet List.

MAILS DUE.
Australia and New Zealand. via Southampton..... Aug. 24
Ditto, via Marseilles ................ . ..... ....Aug. 18.
Ditto, via Panama ....... ...... . ........
Brazil, Baenos Ayres, and Monte Vidco
7
Ditto, by French packet .......... July
Cape Verde. by Brazil pacicet Aug. 5.
Cape of Good Llope. AStlendiOa. and St Helena, Aug. 27,
China, Penang, and Singap,re, vie. Son hamptou Aug. 8
Ditto, via Marseilles..... • - • .•• • .
Falkland Islands ..................
Aug
iiibraltar, via Souttiampton .......... . 8.
India, via Southampton ..... . &LiAugg. 8.
Ditto, vl Jul
Marseil cs , . 2.
Malta, Egypt, c'ay 33.
Ditto, Marseilles Au!. 2.
Mauritius, Cape of Coal Hope, and Natal, via
Southampton
Ditto, via Ntareei lea Aug. I.
Newfoundland July 31
Portugal
Ditto, by privitte ship to Oporto ..
Ditto ditto to Lisbon ..
United States, Canada, California, &c., y British
packet my 31.
Ditto, by United States packet
Ditto ditto (New York
Ditto ditto (New York)
Dial ditto (Baltimore)
Ditto, by Canadian packet
West Coast of Africa, Madeira, and Teneriff!
West Males acid Pacific tex.:ept Mexico and Baha-
mas) July 20.
Cub I and ilexieo ../ illy :a'.
Balsa nas, via New York
Bermuda, via ditto July 31

...Lug. 2.
.. Aug. 3

PRESENTS AT PARKINS AND GOlTO'S.—Photo-
graphic Albums, a choice of :1,000; do,:patch-boxes, writing-
cases, dressing-?,asts, travelling-bins envelode-case, blot-
tiu!:•-1)!m1;s, ink-stands, de,lo, 1.09k-slits', work-boxes, tea-
-11 knd-Itgs and rettoul,s, etr.l-eas,,s, !muses, Nta-
tioneu cabniets, t‘cent-bg)ti les, albums :or 1 oJia.4o tanipo,
c'esfe, &7.; cist•-ases, card-bast:ets. p.,AA-books, electre-
gilt and elcgautly-mounted articles. Hibles, Prayer books.
and Church Services, in every type. Parkins ant Gott), 25,
Oxford-strcet. Pile public supplied at wholesale prices front
the I .rgest stock in Loudon.
POAciiiNa AFFRAY.—A few nights since a deg-
pernto poaching affray took place in the preserves at
Middleton Lodge, between Wakefield and Leeds, the
residence of Mr. E. Maude. A gang of eight poachers
entered the grounds, and there was a collision between
them and the keeper, two watchers, and a police-constable
who happened to bo passing on his beat. The poachers
got off, after beating the keeper dreadfully. One num
from the
Suez, frigate
date there
has since been apprehended as being one of the gang.
gute
THE SUEZ CANAL.—We learn from Alexandria
that in the middle of June 5,000 packages of Government
sptoorraesdol,awndeered
passedat
Pont
Saidom Fen
through by water to
put on board the French frigate Sarthe fur C •
ocina Chios,
in the period of seven days, as the first '
experiment on a
large scale, and which having thus succeeded the com-
munication may be said to be
established
between the
liediterranean tliO Rod Sem