The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-16 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Certain measures have been taken by the autho-
rities for the despatch of vessels and troops from
Portsmouth to aid in suppressing the Fenian out-
break in Ireland, should such aid be required. No
haste is observable in any of the preparations, and
the inference, therefore, is that there is more than
sufficient power already at the command of the Irish
Government. A telegram received at the head-
quarters of the Portsmouth division of Marines
Light Infantry at Forton Barracks, Gosport, di-
rected that the available drilled men in barracks
should be held ready for immediate embarkation to
Queenstown. The officers and men, four companies,
with their subalterns, and 300 rank and file, were
accordingly paraded at au early hour yesterday morn-
ing in readiness to march at a moment's notice on
board the vessel appointed for their transport, but
the telegraphic wire between Whitehall and the
office of the Port Admiral at Portsmouth conveyed
no definite orders on the subject up to sunset last
evening, and the detachment remained at head-
quarters. The ironclad frigate Lord Clyde, Capt•
Roderick Dew, is under orders to proceed to Ireland
from Spithead ; but in her case also the Admiralty
wire failed to give any definite order up to sunset
yesterday. It iss most probable that should the
presence of the Marines Light Infantry be still
desirable in Ireland, the Forton detachment may
embark this morning on board the Lord Clyde for
conveyance to Queenstown. The armour-plated
iron frigate Hector, Capt. Luard, anchored in Cowes
Roads, is also available to strengthen the Irish Coast
Squadron, aid convey, if required, a detachment of
marine artillery or troops of the line. The Wiveru,
4, steam turret-ship, Capt. H. Burgoyne, V.C.,
sailed from Portsmouth harbour for Holyhead and
the Mersey onWed nesd ay evening. The S t o rk, screw
gunboat, tender to the gunnery ship Excellent, sailed
from Portsmouth yesterday morning for the Mersey
conveying a quantity of ammunition for the use of
her Majesty's ship in that river. The Black Eagle
paddle yacht, Staff Commander J. 'Miller, sailed
from Portsmouth yesterday afternoon for Plymouth
en route for Queenstown. The two new and im-
proved wooden screw gunboats Netley and Trinculo,
60-horse power each, were brought down Ports-
mouth harbour yesterday and placed alongside the
dockyard to receive their crews and be despatched
to Ireland. One of them is, however, to be docked
this morning, and this must necessarily very con-
siderably delay her departure. The Himalaya screw
troopship, which has absorbed a very considerable

portion of the resources of Portsmouth yard for the
past six months, but has now for some days been
understood to be ready for service, is ordered for
temporary commission this morning for troop service
to Ireland if required.
the dockyardQueenstown
staff
it was
had dis-
covered,o
She, however, has no stores
on board, and yesterday when it was considered very
probable that her orders might be to immediately
embark the Marines Light Infantry detachment and
start at oonfc
course,e lv i tla it
that for
yet done with the ship. A. swarm of men were set
to work upon her, laying down oilcloth on her
saloon and cabin floors, and .making other altera-
tions of her interior equipment, which should, as a
matter of ordinary precaution, have been done days
ago. The Bellerophon frigate, at present in Ports-
mouth harbour, is available and' ready to reinforce
the fleet off the Irish coast if required.
The departmental officers at Woolwich, whose
duties at the approach of the new financial year are
naturally heavy, in preparing and auditing the ac-
counts and making arrangements for the Estimates
required for tho ensuing season, are more than usu-
ally engaged in meeting demands both for the navy
and army of a renewal of equipments according to
improved plans. The method of defending and
arming the country, which only a few years ago was I
pronounced to be the most effectual of the age, has
now been totally abolished, and a thorough revolu-
tion has been recognised in that branch of the War
Department on which the aaost material interests of
the country depend. The new system,Vthieh has re-
ceived the sanction and approbation of Gen. Peel,
is ordered to be introduced as speedily as the re-
sources of the establishment will admit. The Pal-
liser shot and shell (chilled) and the Fraser cheap
guns are to replace the Armstrongs ; the boxes, car-
tridges, and ammunition, and the Snider breech-
loading rifles arc being issued with the promised de-
spatch, and the wrought-iron gun carriages, plat- I
forms, slides, &c., foi land and sea service on the
Woolwich principle have been shipped in large num-
bers, and are still in renewed request by the Admi-
ralty and the Secretary of State for War. At no
time since the Russian war has the establishment of
Woolwich Arsenal been more actively engaged than
at present, notwithstanding the numerous new re-
sources of improved machinery and mechanism
which have advanced with the time. A moderate
supply of the new rifles and ammunition is de-
spatched periodically by the Ordnance store vessels
to the whole of the out stations, and in cases of
emergency by railway and other means. Last night
a large number of cases of the new cartridges and
ammunition were sent off from Woolwich Arsenal
as a reserve for the army in Ireland.
The trials permitted by the Lords Commissioners
of [the Admiralty with the petroleum boiler in
Woolwich dockyard have resulted satisfactorily as
anticipated, Mr. Richardson, the inventor, having
succeeded during the latter period of the experi-
ments in evaporating 18-911 b. of water per lb. of
creosote, daring a trial of seven hours. The new
fuel gave off at times a great deal of smoke, which
caused a most offensive effluvium, the construction
of the boiler being such as to impede a full gaseous
blast sufficient to destroy and consume the smoke as
intended. Mr. Richardson has, it is understood, in
consequence, applied to the Admiralty for the use
of a large common marine boiler for the purpose
of future trials. It was stated as the opinion of
the local naval engineers and other officers who
were present that with such fuel the gunboats
in the tropical seas would be rendered habitable and
comfortable. The experiments were attended by a
verylarge number of persons, representing the prin-
cipal engineering and shipping firms, and also by
many owners of yachts, who are desirous of using
the new fuel instead of coal.

The Ordnance steam storeship Earl de Grey and
Ripon, H. T. Moore commander, with returned war
stores from Portsmouth, arrived at Woolwich yes-
terday morning, having been detained in the North
Foreland by a thick Mg. e arrurfleet
15,000 powder barrels, and brought to Woolwich 20
20 pounder Armstrong guns shipped for service, but
ordered to be returned By reason of the new regula-
tions whereby they are pronounced out of date, and
also 37 tons of useless powder and ammunition, and
other stores..

The contract between the Thames Ironworks and
Shipbuilding Company and the Prussian Govern-
ment, for the purchase by the latter of the Fatikh
armour plated iron frigate, was signed in Berlin a
few days back ; and this formidable vessel will now
be completed by the company with all possible de-
spatch, for delivery to the Prussian naval officers
appointed to receive her in this country. Her name
is to be changed from the Fatikh to the William I.
A model of her is being completed by the Thames
Shipbuilding Company, which will first be exhibited
at the Paris Exhibition, and afterwards to for-
warded to the King of Prussia. The frigate was
originally laid down by the company to the order of
the Sultan, from designs by Mr. E. J. Reed, by the
special permission of the British Admiralty. On the
frigate approaching completion, however, the
Turkish Government were unable to meet their
financial part of the contract, and the purchase of
the Fatikh was thrown open under these circum-
stances to other Governments, Prussia eventually
becoming the purchaser. The Fatikh, or, as she
may now be called, the William 1., is remarkable
(in addition to being a ship of unexceptionable
strength of frame, thickness of armour, and high
engine power) as possessing batteries of guns fought
on her upper deck on arcs of circles behind armoured
fixed shields, over her bowu and stern, and on her
broadsides forward and aft of her centre on each
side.

The screw corvette Cossack, 20, 250 horse power,
Capt. Richard D. White recently returned from
the Mediterranean on the completion of her term of
commission, has been removed from the Medway
into the steam basin, where she is now in the hands
of the dockyard workmen and the crew, who are
stripping and dismantling her preparatory to her
being put out of commission. Yesterday the War
Department arrived alongside the Ordnance wharf,
Chatham, with the guns and carriages on board,
and her shot and shell will be unshipped to-day.
She is intended to be paid off on the 23d inst., should
her books and other official documents be returned
from the Admiralty from that date.
The following appointments were made yester-
terday at the Admiralty :—Steplien 11. Moore, pay-
master, additional, to the Indus, for the 3lalabar ;
Robert F. E. Morison, paymaster, to the Seringa-
patam ; Henry A. Malaker, assist.-clerk, to the
Adelaide ; John Francis, engineer, to the Racoon ;
and Thomas Jones, Ist class assist.-engineer, to the
ebra.

There arc 2,455 lodges of Odd Fellows in the
United States with 179,706 members.
A seduction case which has excited some interest
has occupied the Court of Common Pleas for some
days, and was concluded yesterday. The plaintiff
was Mr. Chas. Murphy, whose only daughter, a
very young lady, had died in consequence of giving
birth to a child, of which the defendant, Mr. ltobt.
Doughty, was alleged to be the father. The parties
were engaged to be married, and the alleged seduc-
tion occurred when the defendant was on a visit at
her father's house. The families were very intimate,
and both were people of property. Damages were
laid at £5,000. The jury, after an absence of 15
minutes, brought in a verdict of £l,OOO, and 6d.
costs.

LADvErarsEmiarr.]—Holloway's Ointment and Pills.—
Self Help.—ln sickness it was a momentous matter to find
an easy, ready, and reliable remedy for outward disfigure-
ments and inward disorders before the inestitnabl4 dis-
covery of these preparations. 'No invalid need now be at
a loss for successfully managing ulcers, sores, tumours,
boils, bruises, sprains, &c. Enveloping Holloway's me-
dicine aro very intelligible printed directions for using
them, which should be attentively studied and immediately
followed by the application of his treatment. Sooner or
later the sufferer will assuredly triumph over the worst
diseases. This searching ointment disperses all those
malignant humours which aggravate many diseases of the
skin, often prevent the cicatrization of ulcers, and never
kindle inflammatory tendencies in the system.

Postai, rIENTS. --- Postmaster - General
Randall seems to have undertaken to redeem his
political failure by infusing a new spirit of im-
provement into the service of his department,
Since Mr. Blair and Mr. Kasson left the office
little or nothing has been done, until now, to,
bring up the service to the popular demand. The
postal distributing cars, which they originated
and Mr. Dennison broke up, before they had had ;A
fair trial, are now being introduced on the Wap,'ll_
ington and New York route. All the way, wails
on that route are to be carried by the express
trains, and dropped and taken in as the cars sweep
by the stations, and overhauled and distributed by
clerks in the cars during the trip. In order to take
aboard the mail bags at stations where the train
does not stop, a post with an arm, or a crane, will
suspend the bag, and a crane attached to the car
will catch the bag, which will fall into a network,
as the train pass(... The mails from the cars will be
thrown -without difficulty at all points. Similar ser-
vice ought to be put upon all our main routes, and
will be, if the right spirit pervades the department.
Mr. Randall is doing something, also, to sim-
plify and improve our arrangements for sending
mail matter to foreign countries. They are now
very intricate, unreliable, and expensive. We pay,
for instance, 24 cents on a letter to or from Great
Britain, and 4 cents for a paper ; which is an
abominable swindle, and a burden upon free corre-
spondeuce between the two most intimate countries
of the world, that is a shame to both Governments,
Mr. Randall gives us encouragement that this may
be improved in about a year! A twelvemonth to
reform such an evil
r Itought not to last another
thirty days, ana would i if the sfirit 'of Cyrus
Field or any respectable Boston or New York
merchant could be infused into the heads of the two
departments. To many of the countries of Europe
and Asia, it has heretofore been even impossible to
send papers or periodicals from this country by
mail. They could always be started ; the Govern-
ment would take papers and money to pay the
postage ; but the chances were ten to one, even if,
for such a country as Switzerland, that they were
never received, and when they were, there was
always another postage to pay by the receiver. Mr.
Randall now announces arrangements for the re-
formation of all this ; and that papers and periodi_
eals may be sent to the following countries of
Europe and Asia, by the Bremen and Hamburg
mails, at the affixed rates of postage, which are
exacted in advance, and which pay through to the
point of destination. These rates are high and
cumulative, awkward, and burdensome, but it is
something gained to be assured that the work will
be done at any price :