The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-09 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Major-Gen. E. C. Wavle,C.B., commanding the
military district of Woolwich, having been granted

leave of absence from duty, the command was yes-
terday taken up by Lieut. and.Brevet-Col. C. S.
D'Aguilar, C. 8., B brigade Royal Horse Artillery,
senior army officer in succession. Capt. A. H. W.
Williams, A.D.C. to the General, has likewise ob-
tained leave of absence, together with a large pro-

portion of the officers of the garrison. Assist.-Com-
nlissary-Gen. C. Swain, having been appointed mi-

litary accountant and commissary-general in charge
at St. llelena, has left Woolwich, and was to embark
yesterday on board the mail packet at Southampton,
to relieve Assist.-Commissary-Gen. R. Uniacke, or-

den:(l home. lie has been on that station since Jan.
1, 1855.

Col. R. G. Connolly, commandant Woolwich
division Royal Marine LiglA Infantry, appointed in

succession to Major-Gen. Maxwell, promoted, will

assume the duties of his new post on the 11th inst.

The officers of the division gave a farewell dinner,

at their mess-quarters yesterday, to Major G. Wat-
son, paymaster to the division and purveyor to the
Royal Marine Infirmary at Woolwich on his retire-
ment. Major Watson was appointed paymaster on
June 30, 1811, and on the completion of the new
Naval and Marine Infirmary, adjoining the Royal
Marine Barracks at Woolwich, he received the ap-
pointment of purveyor on July 1,1853. He i 3 now
succeeded by Capt. J. C. Travers, on his resigning

the post of aide-de-camp to the late Inspector-Gen.
of the corps of Royal Marines.
The old line-of-battle ship Belleisle, lent for some
time past, and moored in the Thames, off Greenwich
as a cholera hospital ship, is ordered to be removed to

Sheerness, being no longer required for that purpose.
A portion of her moorings was yesterday re moved
in preparation for her departure on Friday. A short
time ago she was run into and severely damaged on

her F tarboard quarter by a passing steam-vessel.

Some short time since we called attention to the
state of the sea-beach at high-water mark at and
near Southsea Castle, Portsmouth, and of the mea-
sures being taken to check there the further inroads

of the sea upon the beach-line and the several costly
defensive works erected just above high-water mark.
Objection was then taken not only to the design of
the work, but also to the material employed--beech
piles ; but this notice of the work going on had no

effect upon the authorities, as the same measures have
been pursued ever since, until the recent gales. The
great fortification now constructing at Southsea

Castle to defend the entrance from Spithead of

Portsmouth Harbour Channel, stands on a project-
ing point of the low-lying land of Southsea-common,
round which the sea in a south-east gale lashes with
tremendous fury, and each successive year in conse-
quence marks a fresh and certain wasting away of the
coast line and encroachment of the sea. Along

this strip of coast—about 5,000 yards between
the mouths of Portsmouth and Langston
Harbours are planted .the defensive works
of " Southsea Castle," " Lumps," " East-

ney," and " Cumberland" forts. The last-named
fort is protected from the sea by an immense shingle
bank called the " Woolsinors," but the three first,
situated nearer the harbour of Portsmouth, are fully
exposed to the action of the sea in a south-east gale,
and this, if not effectually checked, must soon level
the terre-pleins of the works with the tides' high-
- water mark. The means yet taken to check the
further inroads of the sea have been merely dia-
gonal short piling from high to nearly low-water
mark, with outer rows driven only about one-
third their length, as a breakwater piling. The
uselessness of such an arrangement, notwithstanding

its enormous expense, has been sufficiently
proved by the gales of Friday and Saturday
last, which have demolished the breakwater piling,
tore up the " groins," and made a clean cut through
the sea-beach into the ditch of the fortifications.
Had not the wind veered, as it fortunately did just
in time, round to- the south-west, immense damage
would have been inflicted on these costly works, and
Southsea-common would have been flooded. It is
the opinion of resident civil engineers that the only
effectual means to stay the destruction of Southsea
beach and forts by the sea in south-easterly gales
would be the construction of a connecting channel
or canal between Southsea Castle and Cumberland-
fort points, the excavations made for this purpose
along the line of sea-beach being made use of iu the
formation of a sea wall, or breakwater, on the sea-
ward side of the canal. The work would not by any
means be expensive. It would preserve the line of
beach and the forts, and it would give a means of
outer communication to vessels of any draught of
water between the harbour of Portsmouth and the
still deeper and more extensive waters (..f Langston
harbour.
The Coquette, 4, screw gun vessel, Commander
A. G. R. Roe, 677 tons, 200 horse power, arrived at
Spithead yesterday from China, and is ordered into
Portsmouth Harbour to dismantle and pay out of
commission. She sailed from Singapore on the 4th
Sept., passed Anjer on the 13th, and arrived at the
Cape of Good Hope on the 21st October. The Cape
was left again on the 31st of October, St. Helena
reached on the 15th Nov., and left again on the
following day, arriving at Fayal on the 22d Dec.,
and sailing thence on the 21th. . Strong south-east
gales were experienced from the Western Islands to
the chops of the Channel. In the Channel strong,
south-west gales. Her Majesty's paddle frigate Va-
lorous was at the Cape of Good-Hope, and the
Ranger and Greyhound at St. Helena. The follow-
ing vessels were spoken by the Coquette :—The
Royal Union Mail Steamer Celt, Nov. 8, lat. 24,
18 S., long. 443 E. ; the British bark Edla, Dec.
9, lat. 20 15 N., long. 32 28 W. ; the British bark
Etneline, from Caldera for Swansea, Dec. 10, lat.
21 27 N., long. 33 26 W. ; the British bark Eliza
Sanders, Dec. 20, lat. 35 17 N., long. 27 19 W. ;
the British bark Sandbank, from Demerara for
Liverpool, Dec. 31, lat. 41 9 N., long. 20 54 W.
The Rapid, 11, screw sloop, 672 tons, 150-horse
power, commander W. B. Stubbs, arrived at Spit-
head yesterday from the Cape of Good Hope station,
and afterwards went into Portsmouth Harbour to
coal, and land a seaman who had broken his leg,
having received orders to proceed round to the east-
ward to dismantle and pay out of commission. The
Rapid sailed from Simon's Bay on the 21st of Oc-
tober, arrived at St. Helena on the 4th of Novem-
ber, and sailed again on the 6th ; arrived at Ascen-
sion on the 12th, sailed again on the 15th ; arrived
at Sierra Leone on the 25th, and sailed thence again
on the 28th. The Rapid experienced a heavy gale
from the northward off the Western Islands on the
17th of December, and a succession of strong winds
from north and east from that date until the sth of
January, when the wind veered to south-west. As
unarmoured sloops weakly built of wood and small
engine power both the Rapid and Coquette will
most probably be broken up after being placed in
reserves.

The screw steam corvette Racoon, 22, Captain
Richard Purvis, at Devonport, is alongside the yard,
receiving stores for sea service. She will go into
No. 4 dock when it is ready to receive her.
A court-martial was held on Monday on board the
Royal Adelaide, guardship, in Hamoaze, for the trial
of Sub-Lieut. Trafford Leigh Mallory, on two sepa-
rate charges of drunkenness. Capt. G. J. Napier, of
the Canopus, presided ; Mr. William Eastlake acted
as Deputy Judge-Advocate and Mr. Beer was pre-
sent on behalf of the prisoner. The prisoner was
serving on board the Lord Clyde, and the charges
a*tinst him were—first, his having on or about the
19th of November last returned on board that vesel
drunk ; second, of his having subsequently, on or
about the 29th of December, been drunk on board
the Lord Clyde, and incapable of doing his duty.
On the night of the 19:h of November the prisoner
went in the Lord Clyde's dingy on leave of absence
to visit some friends on board the Satellite, both
vessels then lying in Plymouth Sound. On his re-
turn the dingy was capsized. The prisoner and the
other persons in the boat were rescued, taken on
board the Gladiator, and after restoratives had been
administered to them, conveyed on board the Lord
Clyde. Several witnesses declared that the pri-
soner when then brought on board his ship, and
subsequently again on December 28, was intoxicated,
and incapable of doing his duty. Mr. Beer, in de-
fence, pointed out to the Court that, in the first
case, while the prisoner was on board the Gladiator,