The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-21 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

The series of lectures on coast defences and other
artillery subjects, intended for the edification of the
non-commissioned officers and gunners inWoolwich
garrison, was on Wednesday evening last resumed
by Col. E. Wilmot, R.A., Superintendent of Royal
Gun Factories in Woolwich Arsenal. The subject
selected for the occasion was the art of gun-found-
ing. The Colonel confined his lecture entirely to
cast-iron guns. He commenced by pointing out the
great advantage possessed by Woolwich as an ar-
tillery station, and the responsibility which devolved
upon each of his audience to do justice to the oppor-
tunities afforded them, and saki that he had seen
many of the artillery stations of continental coun-
tries, and knew none that combined so many
branches of professional interest and practice. He
then detailed the rise and progress of the science of
artillery, and gave an historical definition of its
early connection with naval warfare, explaining the
manner in which Woolwich claimed a special inte-
rest, as being the place where the most celebrated
ships of the earliest days were built. The lecturer
described, with the assistance of diagram sketches,
the primitive forms of iron cannon, and remarked
that the system of breech-loading now revived, was
one of the earliest inventions, and formerly pos-
sessed an advantage which was of much value, in-
asmueh as the charging cylinder was distinct from
the chase. He then gave a scientific account of the
manufacture .of cast iron, and exemplified the ne-
cessity, of employing considerable care and discern-
ment in its manufacture, otherwise the material
would be burdened with impurities and dross, which
would render the article totally useless, as, even
with the material verypure, and in every way suit-
able, the slightest carelessness in the manufacture
would occasion the most variable results. He then
commented on the value of charcoal in the process
of smelting ore, and the general superiority of iron
thus made to that made with coals and other fuel,
as verified by the tests to which the iron had been
subjected by himself and colleagues at the Royal
gun factories with the bar iron mixtures. The Colo-
nel gave a description of the labour and process of
moulding and casting a gun, the boring, turning,
and finishing, and exhibited samples of iron in
illustration of his theory, as well as specimens which
had been subjected to the tensile strain, from bars
cast with the several guns, and which had broken
at 30,0001 b. to 32,0001 b. on the square inch. Speci-
mens of 1 and 2 inch round wrought iron bars,
made from the borings and turnings of the guns,
'were also produced, which, when cold, had been
doubled under the hammer without evincing any
indications of fracture, but, on the contrary, having
the appearance of remarkable toughness and soli-
dity. The colonel concluded his lecture by telling
the non-commissioned officers and gunners that his
object was to interest them, and to induce them to
look with more perspicuity into the manufacture of
warlike stores, as there was difficulty in arranging
for classes to attend at the Arsenal, where several
of the officers of that establishment have volun-
teered to deliver lectures regularly in the soldiers'
school room on professional matters. He closed his
lecture by explaining the use of the various models
which were exposed on the .table below the plat-
form, and appeared to interest the non-commissioned
officers and men extremely. The desire manifested
by the artillery soldiers to be present at this lec-
ture exceeded that of any former evening, and up-
wards of 100 were unable to obtain admission. It
is in contemplation to erect a spacious robin for the
purpose of these and similar lectures.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS- OF THE

JAPANESE.

The following curious details are given in a letter
in the Debats:—" The police are everywhere, and a
person cannot move without having one of them
near him. When the French landed, it was a place
fixed on beforehand, and police agents were there
ready to escort them to the house where the am-
bassador was to take up his residence, and when-
ever the party left the house to see the shops, the
police agents kept by their side and cried out to
the shopkeepers to hide certain kinds of merchan-
dise, particularly books or maps relative to the
country. Before Baron Gros landed he sent on
shore his sedan chair and his French liveries in
which the men who were to carry him were to be
dressed, and he proceeded in that way from the
waterside to his house ; the moment however that
the Government were informed of it, they consi-
dered it an encroachment on their authority, and
about 600 officials of different ranks were arrested
and punished with fines or bastinado for having
suffered such an enormity. The police stand in
great dread of punishment, for whenever they were
asked to do anything which they thought contrary
to their duty, they showed great alarm and made a
sign by putting their hands to their throats, as
much as to say their heads would be in danger if
they were to comply. To such an extent is the spy
system carried, that whenever any one is appointed
to any particular mission, a second person is ordered
to watch all his motions and give notice of what he
does. When the functions of the spy are openly
avowed, no notice is taken, but when they are secret
and relate to any high functionary, the person fill-
ing the post is obliged to use great circumspection,
or he would very soon have a stone tied round his
neck and be thrown into the sea. In that case, the
Government would make no stir and would not
hesitate, in case of need, to deny their agent. Every
one in Japan appears to enjoy a certain degree of
comfort ; the people are gay and healthy, and not-
withstanding the analogy of race and habits, there
are none of those disgusting scenes which in China
are met with at every step. The Japanese are in-
telligent, polite, and brave, and they show nothing
of that moral degradation into which the Chinese
have fallen. Suicide is not looked on in Japan with
great horror. The usual means adopted is to open
the abdomen in the shape of a cross with a small
sabre, and if the person has strength enough to cut
his throat by a third cut he is looked upon as a
hero. When a functionary or a private individual
has committed anything which will bring him be-
fore a court of law, he anticipates his sentence by
committing suicide. The trial is then cut short,
and his heirs enter into quiet possession of the pro-
perty of the deceased, and the son takes the office
thus vacated by the father. If, on the contrary,
the person waits his trial and is executed, he is
dishonoured, and his family ruined by having all
their property confiscated. In case of an insult,
which in European countries would lead to a duel,
the person receiving it seeks out the other in some
public place, and rips up his own abdomen in pre-
sence of the bystanders. The insulter is obliged
to do the same, or he and his family would be for
ever dishonoured. The old custom of ripping open
the body is, however, in some eases modified ; the
person pretending to commit suicide merely inflicts
on himself a slight scratch, but a friend who is
standing behind birn cuts off his head by a single
blow with a well-tempered sabre. The system of
suicide is, however, so engrafted in the habits of
the Japanese of a certain class that a handsome
dress is kept for the purpose, open in the front,
and when the deed is to take place the friends of
the person are invited to be present, and have a
sumptuous banquet served to them. There are
even professors whose business is to teach the use
of the sabre in a manner so dexterous that the
wound shall not have the appearance of having
been inflicted by a journeyman butcher." We may
remark that this tendency to suicide which seems
to have prevailed in Japan from a very remote
period has apparently lost ground within late
years, as the missionary writers (Jesuits) who gave
an interesting account of the country, state that
it was the custom of the Japanese when any of
them was informed that he had incurred the dis-
pleasure of the Emperor to at once wipe out the
disgrace by self-destruction. The number of deaths
which occurred each year in that way was extra-
ordinarily great.

FALL OF TWO HOUSES AT KENTISH
TOWN.

Yesterday afternoon, shortly after three o'clock,
another of those sad catastrophes which have of
late been so prevalent in reference to buildings,
took place at Kentish Town, causing the greatest
amount of alarm and excitement throughout the
neighbourhood, and resulting in fearful, if not fatal
injury to several workmen.
On the right hand side of the Kentish Town-
road, on the site known as the Kentish Town-fields,
near the toll-gate, and celebrated for having
erected thereon, until within the last few years,
the old farmhouse where Queen Elizabeth is said
to have sojourned on her way to the north, some
extensive building operations are going on, and a
series of new streets are in formation. In one of
these streets, running frOm the direction of the
Kentish Town-road eastward, towards Torriano-
avenue, a number of a superior class of houses are
in course of erection, under the superintendence of
Mr. G. J. Stevenson, builder, of Castle-terrace.
Yesterday the bricklayers, although the fronts of
the houses were by no means finished, had carried
up the party-walls, and the stacks of chimneys
thereon were so completed as to have the ceremony.
performed of hoisting the flags, made of workmen's
handkerchiefs, and some few of the chimney pots
only remained to be set to complete- the work, so as
to entitle the men to the usual refreshment of beer
on such occasions. The stack of the third house
from the corner is stated to have been higher than
those of the adjoining houses, and whilst one man
was stated to be fixing the last chimney-pot thereon,
the entire stack, from some unexplained cause, fell,
dragging with it a great proportion of the upper
part of the party-wall, and these falling over to the
next party-wall and stack, caused that also to fall
in the same direction, thus carrying with it a por-
tion of the third stack and party-wall, together
with the whole of the scaffoldings and their occu-
pants. The fall of the buildings and materials
created so tremendous a noise that it was heard at
the Kentish Town policestation, about a quarter of
a mile distant.

Mr. Inspector Fidge, Sergeant Thomas, And a
number of the S division of police, were immediately
on the spot, and exerted themselves in a most
praiseworthy manner in rescuing the poor fellows,
some of whom, it is stated, had fallen from a height
of between 50 and 60 feet, from their perilous posi-
tion amongst the debris of the fallen buildings.
As fast as the men who appeared injured were got
out they were conveyed into the residence of Mr.
Woolley, surgeon, of Old Chapel-row, immediately
opposite, where they received the prompt attention
of that gentleman, aided by one or two medical
men, who happened to be on the spot. In the
meantime the police had procured cabs and
stretchers, and those whose cases were considered
most dangerous were, after the preliminary atten-
tion of Mr. Woolley, conveyed with the least pos-
sible delay to University College Hospital. One
poor fellow, named Ezekiel Edwards, when taken
out of the rubbish, was found quite insensible, with
blood flowing from wounds on his head, and was
supposed to be dead, but he rallied, and was con-
veyed on a stretcher, to prevent jolting, to the
hospital. The sufferers in that institution are :
John Hicks, aged 35, bricklayer—Left arm
broken, shoulder believed to be dislocated, and
various other serious injuries and bruises.
Henry Cook, aged 31, bricklayer One arm
broken, and serious injuries to both thighs and
various parts of the body.
Ezekiel Edwards, bricklayer—Two severe scalp
wounds on head, left arm said to be broken, and
.
other injuries.
The medical gentlemen at the hospital could not
give any positive opinion as to the probable result
of these injuries to the sufferers, as time had not
elapsed sufficient to ascertain their actual extent.
There were several others more or less injured who,
having received medical treatment, were conveyed
to their own homes.

On inquiry as to the probable cause of such a
catastrophe, it appears to be inexplicable, as the
materials are described as being of the very best
description. There was a rumour that the party
walls and stacks of chimneys were not properly
tied, but this is positively contradicted by the
workmen. A rigid investigation ought, and will
no doubt take place.