The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-01 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Detachments of oficen men belonging to the
three battalions of infantry at Chatham. will leave
that garrison this morning for Hythe, for the pur-
pose of going through an extended course of instruc-
tion in the use of the Snider breechoading rifle, at
the School of Musketry, previously to embarking for
India or the colonies. The following officers have
received orders to proceed to Hythe with the detach-
ments, viz.: Capt. F. Falkner and Lieut. C. King,
50th (Queen's 0 Am) Regiment ; Lieut. W. Mills,
2d Battalion 14th Regiment ; Lieut. R. F. W. Rynd,
Ist Battalion 22d Regiment ; Lieut. H. W. Nichol-
son, 82d Regiment ; and Ensign A. T. Fisher, Ist
Battalion of the 2d (Queen's Royal) Regiment.
The officers of the 57th Regiment, who, as stated
in The Sun of yesterday, returned this week with a
detachment of the regiment from New Zealand, on
landing at Liverpool, presented a letter to Captain
Roberts, of the ship Maori, which had brought them
from Auckland, in which they thank him for his
attention to their comforts on the voyage.
The Snipe, screw gunboat, recently arrived at
Portsmouth from foreign service, was paid out of
commission at that port on Tuesday.
Private letters received from her Majesty's screw
troop-ship Euphrates, Capt. Rich, state that she
made the passage from Spithead to Cape Verd in
8 days 20 hours, averaging nearly 11 knots, with a
consumption of coal of about 45 tons per 24 hours.
A naval court-martial assembled on Tuesday on
board her Majesty's ship Victory, at Portsmouth, for
the trial of Mr. Stewart and Mr. M'Kay, chief en-
gineers of the first class in her Majesty's Navy, on
charges of " neglect of duty, disobedience of orders,
and drinking intoxicating liquors to excess." The
court condemned Mr. Alexander Stewart to lose six
months' time and to be severely reprimanded. Mr.
M'Kay the court sentenced to lose all seniority as
assistant-engineer, to be dismissed from her Ma-
jesty's ship Waterwitch, and to be severely repri-
manded. Capt. Hon. F. Egerton was president of
the court.

T2y3 Volunteer Artillery Contests at Shoe-

buryness.

SHOEBURYNESS, Wednesday.
The sun and fortune shine together on this meet-
ing of the association, for not only does the weather
continue uninterruptedly fine, but the prize list of
the meeting, which, it must be confessed, was
rather scanty, even though it showed a Queen's
Prize of £lOO, a Prince of Wales's of £2l, and a
Duke of Cambridge's of £lO, has been considerably
and considerately added to ; the volunteer artillery
officers and their friends, having appealed to the
public and the Government in vain for assistance,
have determined to help themselves, hoping to be
able in time to enforce the claims of the association
upon the consideration of the Government and the

public.
A meeting, convened by the council of the associa-
tion, was held yesterday of all the volunteer artillery
officers in camp as representing the volunteer artillery

service of the country. Among those present were
Colonel Harcourt, of the Cinque Ports Administra-

---
tive Brigade (president) ; Colonel Sir James Baird,

of Midlothian ; Colonel Clementson, Colonel Durn-

ford, Major Scrivens, Major Horne, of Midlothian;

Major Court, of Dover ; Major Macintosh, of In-
verness ; Captain Baines, of Essex ; Duff and
Studdert, of the City of London ; Leith, of Graves-
end ; Elgin, of the City of Edinburgh ; Bathurst,
of Kent ; Hughes, James, Englebach, Sankey, and
Brassey, of Liverpool ; M'Kewu and Spark, of
Ist Surrey ; Keane, Jeffrey, Rutley, Hunter, and
Lieuts. Minister, Bratt,M‘Minn,Gearns, and d'Eye.
Col. Harcourt expressed pleasure at seeing so many
officers as were assembled, and he said they had
been called together that the council might hear
the opinions of the officers connected with the ser-
vice as to the future course of the association, which
he was happy to say had now come to a turning-
point which seemed to indicate future success. The
weather was now everything that could be desired,
which was far from what the association had pre-
viously had—(a laugh, and hear")—and the men,
though there were not so many as last year, were
more than the year before, and they were quite

equal in discipline and drill to any body of men who
had been there before. The council had many
difficulties to encounter, for the association had not
received the amount of support it had looked for
and needed, and ought, in fact, to have received.
The Government, too, had not treated the associa-
tion well. Deputations of officers had waited upon
Sir John Pakington, who had given them fair pro-
mises, and as yet nothing more ; but still stronger
representations would shortly be made to Sir John,
as to the claims which the association had upon Go-
vernment support. The gallant colonel stated that
it was necessary to increase the prize list, and it
was thought this could be done by the officers taking
collection books. A suggestion had been made that
the association should move its meetings from place
to place, that it should go to Liverpool one year, to
Scotland another, for the encouragement of the
northern brigades, which had shown so earnest a
desire to assist the association. He should be happy
thus to move ; but then, it must be remembered,
that at Shoeburyness, in the assistance which the
Royal Artillery gave, great expense was saved, and
there were many other advantages at Shoeburyness
which were not to be obtained elsewhere. He felt
compelled to say that unless the association had the
guarantee of a sum to cover the expenses which would
be incurred by moving, the meetings could not be
held elsewhere, so it was to be understood that if
there was an urgent desire to have the meetings at
Liverpool, or Scotland, there was a ready way of so
getting the meeting by raising the money to cover
the cost. Sir James Baird then addressed the meet-
ing, and he held that it was more advantageous to
hold the meetings at Shoeburyness than elsewhere,
as the volunteers who came there had the advantage
of all matters connected with artillery in that famous
school of gunnery. He promised, on behalf of
Scotland, that more subscriptions should be sent in
to the funds of the association, and he said the men
who had come from the North were so highly de-
lighted with the instruction they had received that
the number of detachments next year would be
greatly increased. If it should be determined by
the association to hold a meeting in Scotland, he
would guarantee a good range of ground for an
encampment, and a hearty Scotch welcome ; but,
unless the money for going to Scotland were
subscribed, he should advise the association, for
the reasons he stated, to stop at Shoeburyness.
Many other speeches were made, the speakers being
Capt. Leith, as representing Kent ; Lieut. d'Eye of
Suffolk ; Lieut. Gearns, of the Ist Tower Hamlets,
who, Col. Harcourt announced amid cheering, had
sent the association £lO in addition to his subscrip-
tion ; Capt. Englebach, Lieut. Minister, Lieut.
Stevenson (of Durham), Capt. Brassey, Capt. Stud-
dert, Major Horne, Capt. Elgin, Capt. Baines, and
many promises of hearty support were given on be-
half of various counties. A vote of thanks to the
president closed the proceedings.
At a parade which was afterwards held of the
whole camp Col. Harcourt expressed to the men his
opinion that they had shown the true volunteer
spirit in coining so far to contest for prizes, some of
which, he acknowledged, were not equal to the occa-
sion. He was sure, he said, that they would be
pleased to hear that steps were being takefi to greatly
increase the prize list. The winners of the Adair
Challenge Mortar, which was not a prize to be kept
until won twice, would receive £lO, which had been
kindly given to the council by Lieut. Gearns, of the
Ist Tower Hamlets Artillery. There was a second
i.riz3 of £lO given by Lord Limerick, and a third,
of £5, by the officers of the Ist Surrey. Ile was
happy to announce, too, that at the competition on
Friday of all the detachments which had won prizes,
for the Association Badge, the Messrs. Elkington
would give a handsome silver cup, value £lO, to
the " No. 1" of the winning detachment ; and Capt.
Brassey, of Liverpool, would give £5 to the detach-
ment making the highest avenge score during the
meeting. These announcements were received, as
it might be expected they would, with demonstra-
tions of eatisfaction.
'The- Queen's P
prize is to be competed for to-mor-
row (Thursday) with the Armstrong rifted gun, and