The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-25 00:00:00

LIGHTS AT SEA.

The Piedmontese Gazette publishes a Royal de-
cree approving of a series of regulations, to come
into force from the Ist Jan. next, requiring all ves-
sels under the Piedmontese flag to carry certain
lights from sunset to nightfall, in order to prevent
collisions at sea. All steamers are, from the above
date, to show a white light forming an arc of 225
degrees at the fore topmast head, a green light form-
ing an arc of 1121- degrees on the starboard pad-
dlebox, and a red light on the larboard one. On
board screw steamers the latter are to be situated
on the gunnels. They are, ' moreover, to be pro-
vided with shades so situated that the green light
cannot be seen from the larboard, nor the red light
from the starboard side. Sailing vessels or steamers
under sail without steam are to carry the same
lights except that at the bow. Pilot-boats are to
carry a white light at the masthead. in addition to a
moveable one, to be hoisted every quarter of an
hour. Vessels anchored in roads or channels are
to show a _white globular light two decimetres in
diameter, visible from every point of the horizon,
at an altitude not exceeding six metres. In dark
nights with a clear sky the white lights at sea are
to be visible at a distance of five miles ; the red
and green at a distance of two ; the white lights
on board vessels at anchor at a distance of one
mile. Besides precautions every steamer is
to have a steam whistle at the bow at a
height of 21 metres from the deck ; besides
a bell and a horn for signals during fogs, when
the whistle is to be heard every five minutes ;
sailing vessels or steamers under sail are, during
fogs, to sound the horn when they are on the star-
board tack, and toll the bell when on the larboard
one. For small sailing vessels there regulations
are somewhat modified, their lights being smaller
and more portable. To understand the, operations
of this system, let us suppose that a vessel A sees
both the red and green lights of the vessel B ;
the captain will at once perceive that he is running
straight in B's course. If he sees a white light
above the coloured ones, he concludes that B is
a steamer ; in the contrary case he recognises her
as a sailing vessel. If A only sees a red or a green
light, then B's course is either parallel or perpen-
dicular to A's, the colour denoting whether it be
on the starboard or larboard side, and so on.
The importance of having the shades so placed that
only one light may be seen when the two courses
do not coincide in a direct line is obvious. On
board steamers there are always to be at least three
men on the watch ; one at the bow, and the others
at the sides. During fogs all vessels are to ease
their speed. In narrow channels, vessels are, as
much as possible, to take the starboard side. There
are several other minor details which we omit ; but
we have said enough to show that if the above rules
were adopted by all nations, collisions at' sea would
become next to impossible.

GUILDFORD, 0c..: _
The polling in this borough commenced to-day at
eight o'clock. :The number of electors is about 560,
and a great number ofthem had recorded their votes
at an early hour of the day, but from the com-
mencement it was evident that the return of Mr.
Onslow was almost certain. The first return was
made at 9 o'clock, when the numbers were declared
as follows :
Onslow
-Evelyn
Majority for Onslow —32
At 10 o'clock the numbers were-
-201
Evelyn
nw
171
Majority for Onslow —27
At 11 o'clock :
Onslow
Evelyn
Majority for Onslow
At 12 o'clock :
Onslow
Evelyn
Majority for Onslow
At this time it will be seen that 459 voters had
gone to the poll, and the returns for each succeed-
ing hour made very little alteration in the numbers,
Mr. Onslow still retaining about the same majo-
rity. At the close of the poll the numbers were—
Onslow
Evelyn
Majority for Onslow
There was no official declaration of the poll, the
Mayor having appointed Monday morning for that
purpose. There was a good deal of excitement
in the town during the day, and several fights
took place between the adherents of the two candi-
dates, but nothing of a serious nature.