The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-26 00:00:00

Hercules has been under consideration of the Ad-

miralty ; it has been further suggested to do away
with the tower. The advantage gained by the adop-
tion of the turntable principle has not been lost
sight of by the French in the vessels building at
Toulon, it being intended to mount each of the
upper deck guns on a turntable, to fire en barbette,
over the edge of a fixed turret, inside which the
turntable will move, carrying the gun with it. The
turrets, or, more correctly speaking, towers, spring
from the sides of the ship, at the corners of her
central battery, and arc carried some feet above the
hammock rail ; about half the tower projecting
beyond the broadside, and half being inboard. This
arrangement enables the two guns on each side of
the upper deck to be fired from right ahead to right
astern, the guns being placed at a sufficient height
above the bulwarks to prevent damage to the ship's
upper works in fore and aft fire. The rigging which
supports the masts is taken well inboard out of the
line of fire, and the boats stowed fore and aft near

the centre of the ship. In addition to the two iron-
clads building at Toulon there are two other armour
plated ships of similar design, constructing at Mar-
seilles for the Egyptian Government, so that the
question as to the best description of turntable has
become an important one. The reports made to the
Admiralty on the principle of towers and turntables
adopted by the French are in a measure unfavour-
able to the invention, the chief objections being the
excessive weight of the towers, the reduction of
space for working the ship, the liability to injury
from the tower becoming indented by a shot, or from

a shell dropping on the turntable and destroying the
machinery, and, most important of all, the great
strength of turntable required to withstand the shock
of discharging the gun, and the liability, from its
exposed position, to damage and consequent stop-
page of the works. The amount of protection
afforded by the towers to the gun and crew is
described as being very small, as compared with the
weight and cost, and without a mantelet, which
might be equally applied to protect the gun's crew
of a flush-decked vessel, the men would be unable to
stand to their guns. As compared with the French
principle Capt. Scott's turn-table has the alvantage
of being placed iu a secure position, while it is of
light weight and comparatively small cost. Should
it. be decided to fit the Hercules with upper deck
guns on the turn-table principle, the right ahead and
astern fire of the French tower guns would be ob-
tained with little or no increase of weight, and
without at all interfering with the space necessary
for working the ship. _ -

The following appointments were made on Mon-
day at the Admiralty :—Commander Augustus Po-
land to the Plover, commissioned ; Lieut. Thomas
H. Royse to the Lord Warden ; Lieut. Henry S.
Sandys to the Rattlesnake; Lieut. George Moric3
to the Revenge ; and Lieut. Henry Fox to the
Duncan. The following appointments were made on
Tuesday : —Capt. Richard Dunning White to the
command of the Mersey, vice Corbett, appointed to
the Britannia ; Navigating Sub-Lieut. Robert W.
Stephens to the Bellerophon ; and William P. M.
Boyle, acting assist.-surg., to the Fawn. The fol-
lowing appointments were made on Wednesday :
Capt. the Hon. W. C. Talbot to be Capt. of the
Royal Alfred, vice Herbert, superseded at his own
request ; Navigating-Lieut. Roger M. Curry to the
Welle:dey, for service in the Myrmidon ; Lieut. J.
L. Wilson to the Urgent ; Lieut. Cecil D. Brough-
ton and Lieut. Horatio Packe to the Seringapatam ;
Lieut. C. S. Browne to the Duke of Wellington ;
Navigating Sub-Lieut. A. Hackman to the
Plover ; Navigating Sub-Lieut. Edwin W. G.
Hilliard to the Dromedary ; Navigating
Sub-Lieut. Edgar C. Baker to the Fox ;
Navigating Midshipman James R. Gow to the
Fox ; Dr. Stephen Bowden, staff surgeon, to the
Excellent; and Edward M'Leisle, first-class assist.-
engineer, to the Indus, for service in the Defence.
Commander G. T. P. Hornby has been appointed
extra Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, vice Sotheby,
promoted to be Retired Admiral.

THE BELGIAN NAHOIVAL RIFLE

111EETIN G.

BRUSSELS, Tuesday Morning.
The Belgian Tir National, which forms the most
important feature of the fetes held on every anni-
versary of the National Independence Day, the 23d
of September, opened at Brussels on Sunday, and
will be carried on day by day until Tuesday next.
Where there are prizes open to the skill of riflemen

of all nations, with " arms of war," there are pretty
sure to be Englishmen ; and though there was not
a numerous assemblage of Volunteers at the early
firing on Sunday morning, there were some present
when, later in the day, M. Vandenpeereboom, the
Minister of the Interior, arrived. A wish—a very
proper one—had been expressed by the English
Volunteers that there should be no more national

receptions, and to this the Council of the Tir Na-
tional de Belgique deferred. This has been notified
in England in such a manner as to lead some Vo-
lunteers to suppose that it would be a breach of

etiquette to attend the present Tir; but the Belgians
warmly repudiate such a notion, and, indeed, special
regulations have been made in order that Volun-
teers who can prove they belong to an authorised,
or, as it would be understood in England, are en-
rolled members of a sanctioned corps, may compete
with Belgian arms for prizes which formerly were
only open to Belgians themselves. In addition there
6o
are all corners' prizes at the short distance of 225
metres,
year the long range
of o
noiertr2es4,°
or
yards,
which was made for
the English last year, is opened as a permanent in-
stitution, prizes being given at this distance for both
Belgians and foreigners competing with rifles which
will carry a bayonet, and the entries, as at the short
distance, are very low indeed.
There will be a special feature of interest to the
English public in connexion with the late interna-
tional visits between the Belgians and English. A
deputation of Englishmen from the north of Eng-
land waited upon his Majesty the King not long
since, and requested to have the honour of present-
ing his Majesty with his portrait. The King con-
sented, and the artist commissioned was Mr. Charles
Mercier, who jS P a,ptain of the Gth Royal Lanca-
shire Militia, and he has been engaged for some time
past upon the work in the Brussels Palace, where
the King honoured him with several sittings. The
presentation was intended to be entirely private, but
the Belgians having expressed a warm desire that it
shall be publicly made, the desire will be complied
with, and it is understood that the King will pub-
licly receive the gift, which is really worthy of a
King's acceptance, at the Tir National on Wednes-
day, the 24th. The portrait is a full-length life-size
one, and has been greatly admired by all who have
seen it. It is still in the studio of the artist at the
Palace.

On Monday the opening of the grand fetes was
announced by a salvo of cannon being fired in the
park. At 11 o'clock the fine cathedral of St. Gudule
was thronged, the congregation consisting of the
authorities, the military, and the people, at the
funeral service and le Deana in memory of the men
who fell in the successful struggle for independence.
Their tombs were ceremoniously visited after the
service, and the Place des Martyrs, when the
tombs are, was handsomely decorated and illumi-
nated in the evening. It was pointed out with
some little pride on the part of the Belgians that
in the enrolled list of the names of the citi-
zens who died for the love of independence
are the names of Englishmen, and all who could
be recognised as subjects of the British Crown
were cordially welcomed to view the tombs during
the touching ceremony of placing inonortelles upon
the monuments. In the afternoon the old Temple
des Augustins was thrown open to public seance of
the Royal Academy of Belgium ; the Nautical So-
ciety held a grand international regatta on the canal
(the Allee-verte), and the musical societies of the
whole country assembled in the Botanical-gardens,
and marched in procession to the Place Grande, the
fine square in front of the Hotel de Ville, where M.
Auspach, the Bourgmestre of Brussels, and the
College of Echevins presented to the victors, in the
presence of assembled thousands, the medals pre-
sented by the Government and the municipal autho-
rities, and won in melodious contests. All the so-
cieties carried banners, and the processions were
headed by a troop of cavalry and the bands of the
Grenadiers and Ciyicinia Garde, making in the whole