The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-13 00:00:00

133,203 0 120,100 0

Do. to the State ou agree-
ment of June 30, 1848 45,000,000 0
Govern. stock reserved 12,980,750 14
Di. disposable

45,000,000 0
12,980,750 14
52,188,103 58
1,025,850 0
4,000,000 0

New share., not settled '477,67.5 0
Hotel and furn. of bank 4,000,000 0
Landed property of
branch banks ..... . 6,276,595 0
Expenses of managemen t 533,935 66
Sundries

5,939,768 0
133,059 45
4,340,214 60

Total 1,183,096,993 03 1,148,131,546 79
Certified by the Governor of the Bank of France.

DE GEKMINY.

THE NAVY.

The paddlewheel steam frigate Terrible, 21, Captain F. H.
H. Glasse, from the eastward, arrived in Plymouth Sound
on Wednesday, to assist the Valorous in towing the Queen,
112, to Deptford.
The St. George, 120, is ordered to be fitted with a screw
at Devonport Dockyard.
His Netherland Majesty's steam frigate Eversten, 51,
Captain May, left Plymouth Sound on Thursday morning.
The Diadem screw frigate, 32, Capt. W. Moorsow, C. 8.,
arrived in Portland Harbour on Tuesday night, having on
board Sir John Pakington, First Lord of the Admiralty,
Admiral Sir R. S. Dundas, K.C.8., Admiral Milne, Lord
Lovaine, M.P., Mr. H. L. Corry, M.P., and Colonel Greene
&c. Their lordships and party landed on the following
morning and made a complete inspection of the breakwater
works, attended by Mr. John Coode, the engineer-in-chief,
and Mr. J. T. Leather, the
.contractor of the works. The
Coastguard men of the district, with the officers of the
various stations, were drawn up on the depot under the
command of Captain Lnckcraft, R.N., and were inspected
by their lordships immediately on landing. The inspection
of the breakwater works, convict quarries, and Verne-hill
works, &e., occupied their lordships during the remainder
of the day.
During the month ofJuly there arrived at Falmouth, ir-
respective of the regular coasting trade, no less than 340
vessels from foreign parts for discharge or ulterior destina-
tion, embracing as per following summary 24 different
flags,—viz.:—English, 129; Sardinian, 32; Austrian, 21 ;
Norwegian, 19; French, 15; Swedish, 14; Dutch, 12;
Danish, 11; Oldenburg, 11 ; Spanish, 11; Bremen, 10 ;
Prussian, 9 ; Mecklenburg, 8; American, 7 ; Russian, 6 ;
Neapolitan, 6; Hanoverian, 5; Hamburg, 3 ; Rostock, 3 ;
Portuguese, 2; Belgian, 2; Genoese, 2; Tuscan, 1 ;
Lubeck, 1 ; total, 340. The aggregate register tonnage of
the above vessels amounted to 86,856 tons. It is remark-
able that not one Greek vessel is included in the list of
arrivals.
The Great Tasmania freightsbip sailed yesterday after-
noon from Spithead for the Mauritius.
The Royal Sovereign, 131, new screw threedecker, was
taken out of Portsmouth Harbour to Stokes Bay, yesterday,
by Captain Gordon and the staff of the steam reserve, to
try her speed, which, after the uso-.1 rung on and down the
measured course with and against the tide, as eraged a mean
of 12 knots per hour. She was not masted.
The Trafalgar, 120, line-of- battle sailing ship, was yester-
day towed up from Sheerness to Chatham, and anchored off
Folly Point. She is to be taken into the fourth dock at
Chatham Dockyard for the purpose of being cut down, the
Lords of the Admiralty, on their recent inspection having
ordered her to be converted into a 90-gun screw steamer,
and to be fitted with engines of 500-horse power.
The Amphion, 36-gun screw steam frigate, George S.
Thunder, chief engineer, is ordered to be taken into dock at
Chatham for the purpose of undergoing a thorough repair,
and afterwards to be fluted for the steam reserve.

The Rhadamanthus steam shore transport, Mr. Sturdee,
master in command, left Woolwich yesterday, laden with
machinery for the Immortalite, the Lion, and Orlando, in
the western yarils. At Plymouth the Rhadamanthus will
ship, and sail for Pembroke, with the sai►s, gear, and crew
intended for the 116-gun ship Windsor Castle, to be launched
on the 26th inst.

The experimental screw steam corvette Challenger,
launched at Woolwich in February last, is completed in the
factory department, and was on Tuesday removed from the
basin to No. 3 dock to be coppered, after which she is to be
conveyed to Sheerness to be laid up in the second-class
steam reserve.

The Humane Society of Dunkirk last week terminated
and launched a lifeboat, built on the principle of the Royal
National Lifeboat Institution of Great Britain, after the
design of Mr. James Peake, Assistant-Master Shipwright
of Her Majesty's Dockyard, Woolwich, and fitted nn Mr.
Beeching's plan. The committee conducting the affairs of
the society having solicited Mr. Peake's inspection of their
boat prior to its being applied to its destined purpose, he
proceeded to Dunkirk on the 2d of July, and discovered that
the water had penetrated into the air cases, and under the
deck, and that the cork was saturated with water, which
circumstances would tend to a rapid decay of the boat. The
deck was consequently removed, the inside of the boat
cleared, a watertight deck fitted, with ball, valves, &c.,
solid chocks fixed for the relieving tubes, and the upper
sides of the end cases flattened with cork. The above-named
alterations occupied three weeks, when the boat was launched
over the pier into the sea 10 feet below, and was submerged.
She instantly righted, and relieved herself of the whole of the
water in a very few seconds, to the great gratification and
no small amazement of a crowd of spectators who had col-
lected to witness the event. Mr. Peake remained in Dun-
kirk until the boat was finally completed. At the conclusion
of dinner at the principal hotel, the chairman of the com-
mittee presented to Mr. Peake a large silver medal, in tes-
timony of their satisfaction, and as an acknowledgment cf
his courteous and efficient assistance.

ATTEMPT 2'o L A UNC II TILE STEAM Eli

MERSEY.

The attempt to launch the fine screw steamer Mersey, 40
guns, which was made at Chatham Dockyard yesterday
afternoon, resulted, we regret to say, in a total failure,
as the huge vessel obstinately refused to leave the slip
on which she has been constructed. The Mersey is
longer than any line-of-battle-ship in the British navy, and
is a truly noble specimen of naval architecture, in which
science has of late years made such rapid strides. Her
construction reflects the highest credit on Mr. F. J.
Laire, the master shipwright at Chatham, and Messrs.
Henwood and Fincham, his assistants, under whose super-
intendence she has been built. She is a sister ship
to the Orlando, 50, screw steamer, recently launched at
Pembroke Dockyard, and the second of the immense screw
frigates which the late Lnrds of the Admiralty ordered to be
laid down to compete with the large war steamers which have
been constructed for the navy of the United States. The
Mersey has been an astonishingly short time in building,
baying only been commenced in the early part of last year.
She is built from the designs of Rear-Admiral Sir Baldwin
W. Walker, K.C.8., Surveyor of the Navy, who has taken
much interest in her progress. In order to accommodate
her the slip on which she was built had to be lengthened con-
siderably, none of the other slips at Chatham Dockyard being
long enough to receive her. She is half the length of the
Great Eastern, and the following figures will give some idea
of her immense size :
Extreme length
Length between perpendiculars
Length of keel for tonnage 264 5.75
Extreme breadth
Breadth for tonnage ..... 5l 6
Breadth moulded 5O 8
Depth of hold
Burden in tons, 3,726 70-94ths.
The total length of her engine space is 133 feet, and she will
be fitted:with machinery of 1,000 horse-power. About 100
tons of her machinery are at present on board.
The launch was fixed to take place at a quarter after two
o'clock, at which time there were several thousand spec-
tators present, who crowded the galleries and every avail-
able spot from which a view of the vessel could be obtained.
At half-past two Miss Nicholson, the daughter of Mr. W. 11.
Nicholson, Rochester, was conducted to the head of the
e
vessel by Mr. Laire, and that young lad y p
the ceremony of " christening" the Mersey. Immefodiately
eftrwards the last dog-shore was knocked away, but to the
err me
surprise of the officials connected with the dockyard the
huge vessel gave no signs of moving down the ways" into
the Medway. Mr. Laire, who appeared very anxious for
ave orders for the
the launching of the vessel, immediately g
ship to be eased by splitting
the large blocks which in a
measure stayed her, and this operation, which occupied
nearly an hour, was cotnpleted ; still the Mersey, with
Leviathan-like obstinacy, refused to /neve_ the sixteenth
part of an inch. Matters were now bees.ming serious, as the
I tide was ebbing fast, and in a very short time it would have
been attended with great risk and damage to launch her at
all. A large number of shipwright 4, under the direction of
Mr. Lairs and Mr. Fincharn, were then employed to drive
wedges beneath the vessel in order to start her, at the same
time the foreblock was knocked away. Notwithstanding
every attempt on the part of a large body of shipwrights ille
ship could not be induced to leave the stocks, although every
block had been removed and powerful screws applied to
move her. After working fur about two hours Mr. Laire
ordered the shipwrights to shore the vessel up again, and
she now remains firm on the stocks.
With regard to the failure in the attempt to launch the
Mersey—the first which has been known to occur to any
vessel at Chatham Dockyard for a great number of years—
on which the Mersey is built, which has
it is believed to occur from the sinking of the ground at the
head of the slip
carried the " way s" down with it and destroyed the incline.
There is no doubt this supposition is correct, as the clip hp
being only the second vessel built on quite new, the Mersey
it; And although CVOrY PrecAutlQA was taken by Nears.