The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-01 00:00:00

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA
COVENT-GARDEN.

Under the management of Miss L. Fyne and Mr. W. Harrison.
THIS EVENING "(Thursday), will be produced the grand
)era, entitled LURLINE, by W. Vincent Wallace. Messrs.
W. Harrison, Santley, Corri, and G. Honey ; Misses Louisa
ryne, Pilling, and F. Cruise,
Condaotor, Alfred Mellon.
To conclude with the new grand pantomime, called PUSS
IN BOOTS ; or, Harlequin and the Fairy of the Golden
Palms. Messrs. W. H. Payne, H. Payne, F. Payne, Barnes,
Tallien, Infants Lauri, and Miss Clara Morgan.
Doers open at half-past 6—Commence at 7.

THEA TRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buckstone.
THIS EVENING, will be performed the new and original
Comedy, three acts, entitled THE OVERLAND
ROUTE. in
Messrs. C. Mathews, Buckstone, Compton, Chip-
pendale, Mrs. C. Mathews, Miss Weekes, and Mrs. Wilkins.
Followed by the new Haymarket Comic Christmas Panto-
mime, VALENTINE'S DAY; or, Harlequin and the Fairy
of the True Lovers' Knot. The pantomimists the unrivalled
Leolereqs.

THEATRE-ROYAL LYCEUM.-
Sole Lessee and Directress, Madame Celeste.
Brilliant and Increased Success of the new Drama—Colette

Dubois and Therese Defarge, by Madame Celeste.
THIS EVENING, the new Drama of A TALE OF
TWO CITIES, by Tom Taylor, Esq., from the story of that
name by Charles Dickens, Esq. Principal characters by Mr.
James Vining, Walter Lacy, Villiers, Rouse, Forrester, J.
Johnstone, T. Lyon, Morton, Palmer, White, H. Butler,
Clifford, and Fredericks ; Misses Kate Saville, Stuart, Turner,
Mrs. Campbell, and Madame Celeste.
After which, will be produced the Grand Christmas Ex-
travaganza and Pantomime, KING THRUS HBE AR D, the
LITTLE PET and the GREAT PASSION, in which is pre-
sented one of the most novel, costly, and brilliant effects ever
witnessed —designed and painted by Mr. William Callcott.—
King Thrushbeard, Miss Julia St. George.

Commence at 7.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.-
Lessee, Mr. A. Harris.

THIS EVENING, the Comedy of MONEY. Messrs. Geo.
Melville, Ryder, Frank Mathews, Widdicomb, H. Bland, IT.
Baker, Garden, Graham ; Misses Carlotta Leclercq, Clifrord,
and Mrs Charles Young
After which, a new Christmas burlesque pantomime, by H.
J. Byron, called JACK THE GIANT KILLER ; or, Harle-
quin King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
Jack, Miss Louise Keeley—liarlequin, Mr. Cormack -Panta-
loon, Mr. ?aulo—Columbine, Miss Caroline Adams—Clown,
Mr. A. F. Forrest

W THEATRE - ROYAL, ADELPHI.
JEW THEATRE - ROYAL, ADELPHI.
Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. BenJ. Webster.
First Night of a New and Original Comedy, by Watts
Phillips, entitled PAPER WINGS.

THIS EVENING, ICI ON PARLE FRANCAIS, Mr.
L. Toole, Chas. Selby, Billinzton, Mrs. Chatterlev, Mrs. Bil
lington, Mee Kate Kelly, and Laidlaw. _ _

...
After which, PAPER WINGS, Mr Alfred Wigan, J. L.
Toole, D. Fisher, Billington, P. Bedford, Stuart, C. Selby,
Eburne, C. J. Smith, Powell, Romer, Mrs Alfred Wigan,
Miss H. Simms, Miss Kate Kelly, and Mrs Chatterley.

Followed by DINORAH UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
Messrs. J. L. Toole, P. Bedford, Eburne, C. J. Smith, Miss
K. liery.
Doors open at half-past six—Commence at seven. Box-
Ofitoe open from 10 to L No charge for securing seats,
nor for bills of performance. All fees to servants of this
establishment are strictly prohibited.
Aoting Manager—Mr. Wm. Smith.

ROYAL ST. JAMES'S THEATRE,
King-street, St. James's. Lessee, Mr. T. B. Chatter-
ton. Directress, Miss Wyndham. The nearest Theatre to
Chelsea, Pimlico, and Westminster, the Park being open to
carriages and foot passengers all hours of the night.
THIS EVENING the performances will commence with
I WILL, IF YOU WILL.
After which, FIRST AFFECTIONS. Messrs. H. T.
Craven, G. Spencer, and Miss firyndhaxa. •
•

Followed by a new burlesque called DIDO. Mr. Charles
Young, Mesdames Wyndham, Clara St. Casse, Murray, Eliza
Arden, C. Ranoe, A. Evans, and Corps de Ballet.
To conclude with MAGIC TOYS. Miss Lydia Thompson.

Reduced Prices—Gallery, 13d ; Pit, Is. The Box-ofEce open
from 11 to 5 daily. Doors open at half-past six ; perform
ance commences at 7.

CANTERBURY HALL
THIS EVENING,
LITCREZIA BORGIA,
(Oonizetti).

CONCERTS.

, .
Donna Lunreila ....... Miss Russell.
manic. Orsini Mrs. Anderson.
Gennaro Mr. Henry Herbert.
Don Altonzo Signor Tivoli.
Conductor—Mr. Jonghre ans.
Comic Vocalists —Messrs. George Hodson (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Critchfield, and E. W. Mackney.
Several interesting Pictures are added to the Fine Arts
Gallery. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated and
beautified, and constitute one of the most unique and brilliant
sights of the metropolis.
The gallery is open from 5 till 11 on Sunday Evening.

THE WEATHER.—SuN OFFICE, MARCH 1, 1860,
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
• 49—highest since noon yesterday.
36—lowest this morning and during the night.
49—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-30.08.
WIND, South-West ; light, and fine.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
TRIM DAY.—Morning, 6h. 48m.—Afternoon, 7h. 14m
To-moußow.-Morning, 7h. 46m.—Afternoon, Bh. 27m

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THE SUN.

&_4

LONDON, THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1860.

Another• " great fact " is the rifled gun made of
cast iron, throwing enormous solid shot to a distance
of five or six miles with extraordinary accuracy of
aim—all this having been actually accomplished
according to the simple and ingenious system con-
trived by Mr. JOSEPH WHITWORTH. The inven-
tor of this astonishing system will soon d&i.btless
be Sir JOSEPH Wurrwoßm, receiving, what he has
earned equally well with his eminent contemporary
Sir WILLIAM ARMSTRONG, the knightly accolade
from the hands of her MAJESTY. Very recently,
as will have been remarked by the general rsader,
our own columns and those of the rest of the public
newspapers have given detailed reports of the sur-
prising success attendant upon the Whit worth
guns under the test of many severe experiments.
Those experiments have proved beyond the reach
of further incredulity that poor Captain WARNER
was at any rate not talking altogether idly and at
random when he insisted upon the possibility of
manufacturing pieces of ordnance capable of hurling
a cannon ball to a distance of several miles. When
he used not so very long since to talk of his long
range, he was regarded derisively by the mass as
doing little else than just pulling the long bow.
Yet here in 1860 we are put in possession of cast iron
guns that the inventor not merely insists can throw
but that actually have thrown ponderous cannon
balls to a distance of over five miles and a half,
doing this, moreover, as we have said, with an
accuracy of aim truly astounding.
Mr. WHITWORTH, the inventor of thew wonder-
ful guns, has very recently (in fact his letter is
dated only the clay before yesterday) penned a com•
munication singularly interesting in its character,
elucidative of many of the hitherto only partially
recognised advantages brought to light the other
day for the first time by the flash of his marvellous
ordnance. Speaking in the first instance of the
stress not unnaturally laid upon the surprising
magnitude of the range attained by these guns in
the course of the recent experiments, Mr.
WHITWORTH observes, however, at once "My
rifled guns have not been made expressly with the
view of obtaining great range; that is one of the
advantages they possess, but it is not obtained at
the sacrifice of others." And he adds to this em-
phatic intimation immediately afterwards—" They
are all adapted, not only for firing solid shot, but
also for hollow shot, which may be filled with
molten iron, and for every description ofshell. The
capacity of the shell is easily inoreased by add-
ng to its length; and, as my guns are rifled
throughout and require no chamber, shells of any
length may be fired with any requisite charge of
powder." In reference to these last observations
have we not but just now had, so to speak, a lumi-
nous glare thrown upon this frightful n,dvaatage
accruing in this manner from the use of the \\TIIIT
WORTH cannon, as a means of 11,irlinc, to co huge a
distance hollow shot filled with molten metal
or shells charged with other kinds of liquid or de-
tonating destruction ? Has not that veritable Fire-
King or SULTAN-KEBlR—Captain NORTON writ-
ten to ourselves and to our contemporaries these
startling and burning words ? " The recent ex-
periments with WiliTwoßTH's rifle cannon," writes
Captain NORTON, " more particularly his three-
pounder, throwing its elongated shot to the distance
of five miles and a half, prove that he could throw
elongated rifle shells, charged with liquid fire,
from the high ground at Ryde, Isle of Wight, into
its arsenal and dockyards of Portsmouth." And

• •

Captain NORTON adds, impressively, "It therefore
becomes a question for our Government to ponder well
whether it wouldbe wise to expend millions of money
in constructing fortifications that would now be ut-
terly useless." It is a solemn consideration enough at
any time—but particularly at a time when (in the
very act of entering, at considerable cost, into a
commercial treaty with France) we are expending
£30,000,000 within the: year upon our maritime
and military armaments !
Reverting, however, to Mr. WHITWORTH'S letter,
we come to the record of a fact which certainly
escaped observation in the published accounts of
the late successful experiments. During these
experiments, Mr. WHITWORTH here tells us—" in
some series the longest ranges were attained
by the last shots fired, and the piece, as it
was warmed by the discharges, became clearer
than it was after the first or second
shot." As to the explosive power attained
under his system, he writes, " I may mention that
the service cast-iron 68-pounder rifled by me, when
tried at Portsmouth in 1858, propelled my flat-
fronted shot through one of the 4-inch wrought
iron plates, and also through the ship's side on
which they were firmly bolted, the range being
450 yards. In no one instance, I believe, has a
single shot been driven through the 4-inch
plate." The experiment he tells us in this
instance was not repeated, "as the cast-iron
gun burst." But he adds immediately,
" All the guns, however, which I have myself made
are ready for any proof and any comparison that
may be required. Their strength is such that they
can be elevated on their carriages, and be fired, if
necessary, as mortars, at any angle, with the largest
charge of powder that can be consumed in them."
Indeed, he gives proof sufficient of this when he ob-
serves—" The 3-pounder was repeatedly fired at
an angle of 35 degrees, and attained a range of
more than five and a half miles, without
doing the piece or its carriage the slightest
injury." Nor is this all. For later on in his com-
munication he writes distinctly—" Of the dura-
bility of my guns I can speak with the utmost con-
fidence. Being made of the harder and tougher
homogeneous iron, they must be more durable than
forged guns, made of comparatively soft and fibrous
wrought iron. From one of them up wards of 1,500
shots have been fired, chiefly at high elevations, with-
out the gun exhibiting any injury or sign of wear."
The other facts enumerated in Mr. WHITWORTH'S
letter are hardly less worthy of consideration. In re-
gard to these, however, we must content ourselves by
directing our reader's attention to the whole com-
munication. The above extracts comprise the chief
of the salient points in the document upon which
we have been here desirous of expatiating.

A Dissenting Minister, who in point of intelli•
gence is without a rival among the clergy of all
denominations, the Rev. THOMAS BINNEY, Minis-
ter of Weighhouse Chapel, visited Australia about
a year ago, for his health, and during the time of
his residence there preached to overflowing con-
gregations in all the colonies, the local authorities,
and even a bishop being forward to do him honour.
As he had been there during elections under the
Ballot, and as he had every opportunity to form a
judgment on its moral workings—for Mr. BINNEY
has never taken an active part in politics—the
Ballot Society very properly applied to him for his
opinion on its moral effects in the colonies he had
visited.

Our readers will peruse his letter with pleasure.
It is like the writer, cautious and measured, and
free from exaggeration in its statements, but con-
clusive. wile,. he, arrived ho futaud " 0.1.1 with
whom he came in contact, ministers especially, ex-
pressing themselvs as alike gratified and surprised
by the results which had taken place."
He was in Sydney during the general
election, and nothing could, he says, be
more satisfactory than the working of the
Ballot there. What his views were before we
have no means of knowing, but he certainly re-
turned with impressions most favourable to it from
a minister's point of view—the good order and
absence of immoral practices in connection with the
Ballot. Such a testimony is invaluable. Mr.
BINNEN is no ordinary man. . For a period of
more than a quarter of a century he has been the
attraction of all intelligent young men in London
who frequent public worship ; and that from his
reputation among them as an independent thinker,
possessed of considerable command of remarkably
select language.
The letter has struck us the more in consequence
of Mr. E. CRAUFURD'S motion for Thursday next,
"That it be an instruction to the Committee on
the Corrupt Practices Acts to take evidence as to
the working of the Ballot in Australia." Here is
a witness whom the committee ought certainly to
hear. But what, now, will our hardened House
of Commons do with this motion ? They hare
already rejected Mr. DUNCOMUE'S for applying the
Ballot to Gloucester and Wakefield. They have
refused even to put Mr. H. BERKELEY on the
above-mentioned committee. What will they not
do next to shut out the daylight at every
crevice through which it might throw any
available light on electoral corruption ? Mr.
EDWIN JAMES himself has turned his back on the
Ballot, for:which we shall certainly not be surprised
should the electors of Marylebone turn their backs
on him. He, indeed, had the nomination of the
committee, and was therefore the immediate cause
of the exclusion of Mr. BERKELEY, while he ad•
mitted thirteen lawyers, the class who make most
profit out of the present mode of conducting elec-
tions. The House of Commons has been as heart-
less on the subject of the Ballot as Lord JOHN
RUSSELL himself could desire ; on Mr. DUNCOMBE'S
motion there were not fewer than seventy-seven
absentees. If they do not retrieve their character
on Mr. CRAUFURD'S motion—one so perfectly un-
objectionable for honest men—their names deserve
to be displayed in every liberal journal during the
next general election.
Well, on Thursday night we shall hear, as Sir
R. PEEL would have said, what our great Con-
stitution Doctor has to prescribe. He is called
in by his own wish, and we shall see what
Wbiggism in 1860 has to offer us better than the
Tory proposals of 1859. Of one thing we are cer-
tain—we cannot be disappointed. Whatever there
be in the Bill more liberal than that of last year we
shall frankly put down as an unexpected gain.
Mr. GLADSTONE has, at least, the credit of propo-
sing something bold, something to produce some
effect for good or for bad. Do any of us expect
from Lord JOHN anything which shall give the
people of England a particle more of real power ?
Will he liberate the counties from the despotism of
the landlords ? Will he liberate nomination
boroughs from the grasp of Whig and Tory patrons?
Will he save the corrupt boroughs from the gold
of the money-mongers? Will he give representa-
tion in any reasonable proportion to population,
and take it from the TIIETFORDS and ARUNDELS ?
If we are not mistaken Lord JOHN RUSSELL will
leave the constituencies much as they are, and as
much as over at the mercy of the Landlord and the
Lawyer.

The Countess of Desart will leave on Saturday
for Ireland,

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