The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 22, 1867.

15in. of iron plating resting upon a simple sys-
tem of longitudinal and transverse iron girders filled
in with stone and concrete, and having an inner
lining or skin or iron plating of about an inch in
thickness. There will be two tiers of embrasures
for 18-ton guns round the fort, and the latter will
be capped by four turrets, each in the form of a
truncated cone, constructed on plans proposed by
Capt. Steward, R.E., resting on brickwork piers,
built up from the fort foundations,' therefore inde-
pendent of any support from the fort itself. Each
turret is intended to carry two 23 ton guns. In the
rear of each of the two circles of guns which are to
look through the embrasures of the forts are the
living rooms of the garrison. Traverses will be built
up between each gun in masses of concrete, enclosed
in iron-plate casings. Each fort will mount 55
18-ton guns in the two circles or casemates, besides
the eight in the four turrets.
The objectionable features in the plans for these
forts appear to be an unavoidable weakness in their
structure, owing to their composite character and
the number of openings in their sides, the limited
power of their armament, and their incapability for
reconstruction or investing with greater strength,
of either offence or defence, at any future time.
Models of these forts are now lying at the War-
office, but it is not improbable that even now great
alterations may be made before the forts are built
from them. It must always be allowed that if these
forts are ever attacked by an enemy it will be with
special craft, carrying not 18, but very probably 50
or 60 ton guns. To make the forts of real service
in any possible wars to come upon us in the future
they should be so built that we could remove their
armament and replace it with weapons of greater
power as science progressed onwards in their manu-
facture. With bare room for mounting 18-ton guns,
the Spithead forts become degenerated to torpedo
stations, with their guns only of service to protect the
nests of mines which niay lie hidden in the waters of
the deep channels which wash their base. The Spit-
head plan of marine forts is made up with three others
in conjunction with the Horse and Noman—the Spit
Shoal, the Ryde Sand, and the Sc. Helen's Spit. The
Spit fort foundations stand on firm gravel at 20 feet
below low water and spring tides; the diameter of
the base ring at high-water level will be 151 feet.
It will carry 17 guns in casemates, 13 of which firing
seawards will be protected by armour plating, and
will be 18 tons each. Four firing in the rear of the
fort are to have iron shields. Two turrets on Capt.
Steward's plan are to surmount the work and carry
23 ton guns. This work with Southsea Castle
stands at the outer entrance to Portsmouth Harbour
Channel. The fort to be erected on the Ryde Sand
will be similar in character. The foundations of
both are only as yet in process of construction. The
fort at St. Helen's, which is the outermost of all the
marine works at and around Spithead, is intended
to mount 15 guns in casemates, but a serious diffi-
culty has been met with in constructing the founda-
tions which delay the work. The site of the foun-
dations lies in a very exposed position, and to make
it as secure as possible a ring of iron caissons filled
with concrete and brickwork in cement has been
sunk 23ft. into the shoal outside the perimeter of the
fort. The sand within this ring has been dredged
out and filled with concrete. It is this ring of cais-
sons which is now reported to be giving way to the
action of the sea and the battering force of the
shingle in heavy gales bursting on the point. South-
sea Castle is another of the works bordering on the
anchorage of Spithead, which the sea, in the fury of
its south-east gales, is threatening to root up and
destroy. It holds, with the marine fort on the Spit
Sand, almost within speaking distance, a firm grip
upon the throat of the entrance of the narrow chan-
nel under Southsea beach, which leads from Spit-
head to the entrance of Portsmouth harbour, and no
ship or floating battery ought ever to swim past and
between the fire of their guns. Southsea is massive
open earthworks, with the embrasures prepared for
iron shields. The old stonebuilt castle in the centre
is to be fitted with guns behind iron shields, and 13
inch mortars will throw their shells to Spithead from
the rear of the earthworks ; 22 of the heaviest rifled
guns will be mounted on the earthworks. The other
supporting defensive works around Spithead anchor-
age arc Lumps and Eastney batteries, the Puckpool
mortar battery on the island shore, a mile cast of
Ryde, and the granite-fronted semicircular fort (for
iron shields) building on Gilkicker Point. The for-
mer is built, and is now receiving 38 sea service
13-inch mortars. The value of a vertical fire in
any defence of Spithead can scarcely be over-
estimated, but the Puckpool battery must be armed
with a more scientific, reliable, and farther reaching
weapon than the " obsolete" 13in. iron pot before:it
can be hoped to inflict any certain damage upon
steam war ships rushing to and fro at Spithead, and
all but one of present mortar range. Gilkicker
Fort is an imposing looking enough structure, with
its grand outline of massive granite arches, although
it has yet to be fitted with its iron shields. It will
mount 27 heavy guns in its iron shields, and 16
13in. sea service mortars in the rear. As a com-
posite work of granite and iron it would offer but
a poor defence against such floating iron citadels as
would inevitably be brought against it by such an
antagonist as France in time of war. It is also very
contracted in its dimensions, the utmost amount of
training for the 22-ton gun being 20 degrees.
There were other works to be seen by the Duke of
Cambridge during his inspection of the troops and
fortifications in the south-west district and around
Portsmouth, including the heavy iron shielded works
at Hurst Castle, the Cliffend, Warden, Hather-
wood, and other batteries at the Needles passage,
with the Golden-hill fortress and general keep for
the western end of the Isle of Wight, and the works
on other parts of the island, all designed for the
defence of the great dockard and arsenal at Ports-
mouth from the incendiary schemes of any possible
future enemy. A large amount of these provisions
for the insurance of our chief naval establishment
has already been effected, although very much, as
we have endeavoured to show, yet remains to bo
done. Vast sums of money have been and aro being
expended, and with the commission of a goodly
number of " eccentricities," we have, at all events,
the satisfaction of knowing that, with even the ex-
cessive stupidity displayed in some of them, they
form but a certain amount of percentage on the
gross amount of work done.

AMERICANS PARIS.

" Sordello," the able Paris Correspondent of the
New York Evening Post, writes as follows in relation
to " the vice of Paris :"

The Parisians are the most feminine people in the
world. They give the same trouble to moralists as
their women. Every one calls them immoral, and
but few can help being pleased with them.
Send a man of moral integrity to Paris ; one who
cherishes the hope that humanity will not repeat the
decadence of Rome. Let him ride down the Boule-
vard des Italiens between six and ten o'clock. No
more beautiful, living, brilliant spectacle in the cities
of the world, and none more saddening. The idle-
ness and luxury, and wandering immorality of three
continents glut with a living mass the broad, smooth
pavement of the dazzling street. Men of all nations
stroll or sit under lights, before cafes, and the demi-
nzonde glide or ride in the splendour and oriental
luxuriousness of wealth wantonly used, coquette
with imperial grace, or in coarse tinsel flutter with
affectation ; while others, in the dark garments of
the poor and wretched, demurely walk past the
tempting blaze and glitter of jewellers' shops, from
which flash the light of diamonds, and in which
shines the burnished gold of costly bracelets. No
such spectacle is to be seen in New York. The
whole of Broadway illuminated, and at night, would
be far from rivalling or resembling the Boulevard
des Italiens, which, since the time of Louis X VI.,
has been the rendezvous of opulence, aristocracy,
and pleasure. _ _

To put in phrases this life of the Boulevard a
Parisian jargon has been formed, a slang such as
grows in the mouths of the men of the streets,
and which is unintelligible to a stranger. A
Parisian writer has described the Boulevards of
Paris, and from him we can take a few sen-
tences. There is a traditional and popular name
for the Boulevard des Italiens ; it is Boulevard
de Gand, which, when pronounced, " evokes
ideas of fine suppers, of prolonged orgies, of per-
petual carnivals. The mass of 'the public imagine
it an infernal whirl, where the sons of good fami-
lies treat courtesans and sup with the intention
of rolling under the table. Without doubt, its
secret history would justify the idea. But it is
more than that. It is the course of display for
fashionable follies, for false arbiters of taste, for the
dissipaters of fortunes who use their last ray of
intelligence and their last voice in debauchery. It
is also the promenade of gentlemen, of men very
serious, habitues of cafes and restaurants, grand
proprietors, capitalists engaged in vast specula-
tions, gentlemen of old race, directors of com-
panies," &c.

ing ; see those women ; learn to hate luxury and
detest pleasure if you can, and make one more
model republican, nourished with the idea of the
brotherhood of man and the sacredness of women is
our civilisation. What you sec is the future of
your own democratic cities ; when time, the increase
of wealth, and vanity, pride and ambition, :have car-
ried you, as they will, from the declarations of the
rights of man, unless you supplement it with the
idea of brotherhood and the idea of the sanctity of
women, both of which necessitate respect for the
poor and protection for the weak.