The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-17 00:00:00

Buttevant. ' The following proceed to Bombay :
Lieut. W. C. E. Scott, 51st Light Infantry ; Cornet
W. A. Atcherley and Cornet H. R. Abadie, 14th
Light Dragoons ; Ensign J. Y. Allan, 71st gh-
landers, and the following non-commissioned officers
and men :-12 men of the 14th Light Dragoons,
from Maidstone;. 32 men of the Bth Hussars and 32
men of the 17th Laneds, Nth eanteklitity ; 32 men
of the 56th Regt., froM Colchester ; 20 ;Oh
71st (Highlanders). from Stirling ; 16 men of tiid
89th and 14 men of the 95th, from Fermov ; and 15
men of the 57th, from Cork. The above draughts
complete the number of reinforcements held in
readiness to proceed to India.
. Col. E. Wilmot, R.A., Superintendent of the
Royal Gun Factories, Woolwich Arsenal, yesterday
gave an interesting lecture, in the Artillery school-
room, at Woolwich, to a crowded assembly of offi-
cers, non-commissioned officers, and gunners of the
Royal Artillery, on the manufacture of ordnance,
as carried on in the Royal Arsenal gun factories.
The lecture was the second of a series commenced a
short time ago by Col. Wilford, R.A., Governor of
the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. The
lecturer entered into a minute description of the va-
rious phases of the art of gun-making, and addressed
his discourse mainly to the non-commissioned offi-
cers and privates, taking peculiar pains to elucidate
his remarks by the most intelligible matter-of-fact
details suitable to the understanding of each of his
hearers, referring principally to the casting and
turning out of brass guns alone. He enlarged his dis-
course considerably by an historical reference to the
ancient custom of casting in bronze, and illustrated
his remarks by constant allusions to various sketches
nailed to the walls of the room, which afforded his
hearers great facility in understanding the matter
before them. The lecturer took the opportunity
of introducing several specimens of the rude weapons
used in ancient warfare, such as spears, bows, breast-
plates, &c. The colonel then explained to his audi-
ence the nature and composition of gun metal, the
various chemical and other tests employed to ana-
lyse its character, &c., and remarked that as the
knowledge of gun-casting had hitherto been, as it
were, " a sealed book" to the professional soldier,
his endeavours to elucidate the matter could not be •
considered a task of supererogation. The informa-
tion; he said, was of importance ; and he was happy
in being able to edify them ona subject with which
it was the duty of the Artillery soldier to be made
acquainted.' He then gave a concise detail of the
present method of moulding and casting guns, so
manifestly superior to the old system, and preyed,
with the assistance of a number of diagrams laid
out for the purpose, that the science brought to
lkar now-a-day will be the means of an immense
saving to the country both of time and money. The
lecturer remarked with reference to the rifled
cannon that if a rifle can be constructed so as to
fire from a man's shoulder a similar weapon can be
made, of larger dimensions and calibre, and with
equal utility fitted to a carriage. The colonel con-
cluded his lecture by many interesting remarks on
the mode of working the present factories, the
boring and finishing the guns, and passed a high
encomium on the former scientific officers in charge
of the proof department. He stated that the use-
ful records left by them were in a great measure
the means of the growing success of the establish-
ment, which he hoped, by the perseverance of all
concerned in it, would eventually prove to be worthy..
of the name of this great nation. After a few en-
couraging remarks specially intended for the
young soldier, the audience withdrew. A number
of the non-commissioned officers and gunners ap-
proached the tables on which were deposited the
various models, specimens, &c., on which the colonel
entered into'a courteous conversation explanatory of
the different items of ancient warfare on which they
expressed a desire to be further enlightened.
The War Department yesterday chartered the
transport Eleanor for the conveyance of military
stores from Woolwich to the Isle of Ascension, and
the Chebueto for Jamaica.
Major-General Sir W.F. Williams, Commandant
of Woolwich Garrison, has returned to Woolwich
from Nova Scotia.

PRESIDENT BUCHANAN UPON THE
FREEDOM OF THE UNITED STATES.

At the centennial celebration of the occupancy
of Forts Duquesne and Pitt, held at Pittsburg on
the 25th of November last, among the letters of
excuse for non-attendance was the following from
the President of the United States. Having regard
to the present unsettled state of the country, the
opinions expressed by Mr. Buchanan possess a
peculiar importance :

" Washington, Nov. 22.
" Gentlemen,—l have had the honour to receive
your invitation to be present on the 25th inst., at
the centennial anniversary of the capture of Fort
Duquesne, and I regret that the pressure of public
affairs, at a period so near the meeting of Congress,
renders it impossible that I should enjoy this privi-
lege.
" Every patriot must rejoice while reflecting
uppn the unparalleled progress of our country
within the last century. What was at its com-
mencement an obscure fort, far beyond the western
frontier of civilisation, has now become the centre
of a populous commercial and manufacturing city,
sending its productions to large and prosperous
sovereign States still further west, whose tcrritories
were then a vast, unexplored, and silent wilder-
ness.

" From the standing point at which we have
arrived the anxious patriot cannot fail, while
reviewing the past, to cast a glance into the
future, and to speculate upon what may be the
condition of our beloved country when your
posterity shall assemble to celebrate the second
centennial anniversary of the capture of Port
Duquesne. Shall our whole country then compose
one united nation, more populous, powerful, and
free than ony other which has ever existed? Or
will the federacy have been rent asunder, and
divided into groups of hostile and jealous States?
Or may it not be possible that ere the next celebra-
tion all the fragments, exhausted by intermediate
conflicts with each other, may have finally reunited,
and sought refuge under the shelter of one great
and overshadowing despotism ?
" These questions will, I firmly believe, under
the providence of God, be virtually decided by the
present generation. We have reached a crisis when
upon their action depends the preservation of the
Union according to the letter and spirit of the con-
stitution, and this once gone all is lost.
" I regret to say that the present omens are far
from propitious. In the last age of the republic it
was considered almost treasonable to pronounce
the word disunion.' Times have since,sadly
changed, and now disunion is freely prescribed as
the remedy for evanescent evils, real or imaginary,
which, if left to themselves, would speedily vanish
away in the progress of events.
" Our revolutionary fathers have passed away',
and the generation next after them, who were
inspired by their personal counsel and example,
have nearly all disappeared. The present genera-
tion, deprived of these lights, must, whether they.
will or not, decide the fate of their posterity.
Let them cherish the Union in their heart of hearts
—let them resist every measure which may tend
to relax or dissolve its bonds—let the citizens of
different States cultivate feelings of kindess and
forbearance towards each other—and let all resolve
to transmit it to their descendants in the form and
spirit they have inherited from their forefathers,
and all will then be well for our country in future
time.
• " I shall assume the privilege of advancing years
in reference to another growing and dangerous
evil. In the last age, although our fathers, like
ourselves, were divided into political parties which
often had severe conflicts with each other, yet We
we never heard until within a recent period of the
emplyment of money to carry elections. Should
this practice increase until the voters and their
representatives in the State and national Legisla-
tures shall become infected, the fountain of free,
government will then be poisoned at its source, and
we must end, as history proves, in a military'
despotism. A democratic republic, all agree, cannot
long survive unless sustained by' public virtue.
When this is corrupted and the people become
venal, there is a canker at the root of the tree of
liberty which will cause it to wither and die.
Praying Almighty God that your remote pos.
terity may continue century after century, for age°
yet to come, to celebrate the anniversary of the
capture of Fort Duquesne in peace and pros-
perity, under the protecting banner of the con-
stitution and the Union,—l remain, very respect-
fully, your friend,
" JAMES BUCHANAN."

ESCAPED FROM THE ICE.—The fine steamer
Edinburgh, which sailed a short time ago from Leith, 'O5
frozen in at Cronstadt. It was feared that she would I
main in that position for some months, and it was propose°,
rather than bring the crew home, to place them on half-
pay. The intelligence, however, has just arrived by tele'
graph that the ice has been broken up by a sudden than',
and that the Edinburgh last Sunday morning was once
more on her way to the port of Leith.

WESTERN BANK OF SCOTLAND.—AII the judgl
°lithe Court of Session, except Lord Murray, have decide
that the decree sought by the liquidators of the Wester:
Bank of Scotland against the' contributories who have rt
paid the late call of £lOO per share ought to be grant
without notice to the parties, and on the ex parte statement
of the liquidators ; further that the minute of the 4th °f
October, 1858, of the liquidators, stating the assets and lift'
bilities of the bank, and intimated to all the shareholderis prima facie evidence that a dccreo for the call would
just and 'beneficial, and that it will be competent to each:
individual contributory to suspend the decree, and raise 0
question of his special liability ,by suspension.