The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-08 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence,
____.•_

Detachments consisting of 12 non-commissioned

officers and gunners, with one officer of the Depot

Brigade Royal Artillery, four officers, one officer's
wife, and two children, and two men of the 2d bat-
talion of 14th Regiment, have embarked on board
the Macduff, at Gravesend, for conveyance to Mel-
bourne. A detachment of the Army Hospital Corps
bas also proceeded from Chatham and embarked at
Gravesend, on board the Maori, for New Zealand.
Letters received by our Chatham correspondent
from Gibraltar describe the great activity now pre-
vailing among the Government officials in making
the neccssery preparations for the shipment of the
supplies of mules l.urchased in Spain by the G:--
verntnent agents for employment in the Abyssinian
c tuipaign. The whole of the arrangements con-
nected with the purchase of the mules have been
carried out under the superintendence of Deputy-
Commissary Gen. Fitzjames E. Watt, Mr. Fitz-
gerald being specially engaged in making the pur-
chases of the mules throughout Spain, and hiring
muleteers, the latter being described as being only
too glad to obtain employment in the British service
on any terms. The cholera is stated to have entirely
disappeared from Gibraltar, but a new disease,
which is termed the " seven agues," has made its
appearance. The disease, which appears to have
been imported from Morocco, is not generally fatal,
but disappears about a week after the attack, leav-
ing the patient weak and exhausted.
Yesterday Major-General
_Freeman Murray, at-
tended by the officers of his personal and divisional
staff, commenced the half-yearly inspection of the
battalions of infantry under his command in the
Chatham district. The Divisional orders issued the
previous day directed the troops comprising the Ist
depot battalion to form on Chatham-lines at 11 a.m.
yesterday, and each man to be furnished with 15
rounds of the blank Snider ammunition. Owing,
however, to the unfavourable weather and the heavy
rain which fell, this portion of the inspection did
not take place yesterday, Gen. Murray devoting
the morning to the inspection of the battalion offices,
schools, orderly-rooms, barrack-rooms, and the
books and accounts of the division. In the afternoon
the corps comprising the Ist battalion, including the
Ist and 2d battalions of the Ist Royals, Ist and 2d
battalions of the 15th Regiment, 2d battalion 17th
Regiment, 50th Queen's Own Regiment, and 109th
Regiment, under command of Col. J. W. S. Smith,
C. 8., formed up upon the general parade-ground,
Chatham Barracks, where they were inspected by
corps by Gen. Murray, when they afterwards went
through the manual and platoon exercises, followed
by a few other manceuvres which the disposition of
the ground would allow of being carried out. At
the close of the movements Gen. Murray inspected
the officers in the sword drill. The inspection will
be resumed to-day, when, should the weather permit,
a field day of the battalion will be held on Chatham
lines.

During the visit of the members of the Board of
Admiralty to Chatham dockyard several important
improvements were ordered to be carried into effect
at that establishment during the forthcoming year,
the charges for which will appear in the estimates
now under consideration. Among the principal
works decided on is the erection of a permanent iron
roof in No. 2 dock, in which the ironclad frigate
Hercules, 14, 5,226 tons, 1,200 horse power, is
under construction. Hitherto the mechanics em-
ployed on the iron vessels building in the graving
docks at Chatham have suffered much from the in-
clemency of the weather in the winter from there
being no shelter provided for the workmen. Their
lordships have now decided on placing a permanent
iron roof over the whole of the docks, sliding shutters
being let into the roof at the top to admit vessels
being docked with masts. Some additional travel-
ling cranes are also to be erected, in addition to
which machinery more powerful than that now in
use in the factory is to be purchased for preparing
the armour plating for the ironclad vessels now
building.
The screw steam transport Queen of the South,
having embarked a steam launch and various medi-
cal and other stores, left Plymouth on Saturday for
Bombay.
The Prussian steam frigate Hertba, Capt. Heldt,
and the corvette Medusa, Capt. Strobel], sailed from
Plymouth on Sunday for the Mediterranean.
The screw steam corvette Rattlesnake, 21, Com-
modore Wm. M. Dowell, C. 8., was appointed to
leave Plymouth yesterday for the West Coast of
Africa.

Admiral Farragut, United States' Navy, accom-
panied by Capt. Leroy, senior officer of the Staff,
and Lieut. Watson, went down to Woolwich yes-
terday morning in Mr. Penn's paddlewheel steam
yacht Engineer for the purpose of making an in-
spection of the departments of the Royal Arsenal.
The Admiral was also accompanied, on his embar-
kation at Westminster-bridge, by Mr. E. J. Reed,
chief constructor of the Royal Navy, Mr. John and
Mr. T. Penn, and Vice-Admiral Sir Sydney Colpoys
Dacres, K.C.8., one of the Lords Commissioners of
the Admiralty. The party disembarked at the land-
ing stage of the Royal Arsenal, and were met by
Commodore Edmonstone, Col. Boxer, Col. Clerk,
Capt. Gordon, and the heads of departments gene-
rally. Having partaken of refreshment at the official
residence of the Commodore in the dockyard, whither
they proceeded for that purpose, they again returned
to the Arsenal, at half-past 2 o'clock, and entered,
first, the manufacturing branch of the Royal car-
riage department, in which they inspected the new
Abyssinian equipments and the various methods of
welding and rolling out the scrap iron, and also the
manufacture of the new gun carriages and slides, as
well as the new and highly available method intro-
duced by Mr. Allen, one of the chief constructors of
the department, for cutting plates and blocks of
iron with the handsaw. The American officers
examined attentively the working of a couple of
machines made in that department for the manufac-
ture of plugs, composed of ground clay, and then in
full work, turning out at the rate of 36,000 per
hour, or 160,000 each per day. These plugs have
entirely superseded those of boxwood, formerly used,
and costing about six times the price of those now
adopted. The two machines are under the direction
of Mr. Harrison, one of the most experienced arti-
ficers of the department, to whom Admiral Farragut
and his officers expressed their thanks for the infor-
mation he gave them on the subject. Leaving the
paper mills they inspected the long room in the
Royal Laboratory, where they remained until near
sunset. Proceeding back to the place of embarka-
tion, their attention was called to one of the two
huge Mallett mortars, designed, it is stated, par-
tially by Lord Palnierston for the destruction of
Sebastopol, the first of which failed in the proof test.
Admiral Farragut and his party returned to London
by the Engineer, Mr. Reed and Mr. Penn by the
train from the dockyard.

THE ROMAN CATHOLICS IN THE
OTTOMAN EMPIRE.

(From the Diplomatic Review.)

When " Christians" are spoken of as subjects of
the Sultan, the professors of the Oriental creed
are understood, and their words or wishes, or those
placed in their mouths or engendered in their hearts,
are taken to constitute " Christian wishes and
desires." Those desires are thus rendered by
Consul Palgrave :—" They do not aim at equality
—that they have got—but at mastery."
The Greeks are, however, not the only Chris-
tians in Turkey. They have, indeed, had the art
to make us believe (at least, we have had the
stupidity to accept their word) that what they de-
sire all desire, whilst it is just the reverse. The
Greeks are plotting for the subversion of the Ot-
toman Empire ; the other Christians look on such
an event as the direst of calamities that could
befal them.

The Continental Roman Catholic press has re-
cently contained a Berat of the Sultan to the Syrian
Catholics, taken from the Unita Cattolica, which
that journal prints to "make known the sentiments
by which this sovereign is animated towards the
Catholics of his empire." Not being in possession
of the document, which has been officially pub-
lished at Rome, we can only give the extracts that
the Unite Cattolica has inserted, but which are
sufficient as an example of what the Mussulmans
understand by government, which is allowing