The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-15 00:00:00

Royal United Service Institution.

Mr. N. J. Holmes delivered an important lecture
last evening, Admiral Codrington presiding, " On
the Construction and Management of the Electric
Torpedo." The details were mainly novel, having
been the result of the private experiments of himself
and Captain Maury. The electro torpedo was a
weapon of defence against which both rifled guns
or iron-clad ships were powerless, and it could be
used alike for nines or submarine purposes. But
to be effective it must be certain in its explosion at
the very instant desired. General Grant had
planned to use it in his attack on Petersburgh, but
the explosion was not effected at the right time, and
the plan miscarried. The Confederates used the li
torpedo with great success on the James River,
giving cause for,the making of the Dutch gap canal,
and delaying for a week the progress of the Federal
fleet. At Wilmington where the Federals captured
210 guns, the only iron-clad vessels destroyed were
by the torpedoes. In 1854 the Russians laid down
torpedoes, which were to be exploded by the
mechanical fracturing of a tube containing
sulphuric acid, which then inflamed chlorate of
potash and fired the torpedo. In 1859 the Aus-
trians laid down electric torpedoes in the Bay of
Venice, and by registering the sites where they were
moored on a view of the bay thrown down on a
table by a fixed camera obscura the passage of a
vessel over any of them could be seen by the ob-
server and the torpedo fired. In those the Abel fuses
were used, but the torpedoes could not be tested, as
the passage of even a faint current of electricity would
explode the weapon. This difficulty was completely
surmounted by Mr. Holmes and Captain Maury,
by the application of a bridge of platinum wire over
the fuse. Through this bridge the current from a
Wheatstone exploder and other magneto-electric
instruments of strong power could be harmlessly
the fuse
from
sent, and telegraph messages transmitted through
the torpedo itself from one fort to another. But if.
a shock of frictional electricity.was
would not pass by the bridge, and
By this means of transmitting
orderci
transmitted, it
fired.it
was manifested to the officer to
moment bcould certainly
station to station, the proper
cha
ri::ef the htehem,and torpedo
e
fusaahcoarmizoeniii
their action at theilcrittihcea
lines of direction of the
be relied upon,
etnheentlayl,is.leyoe
tal telescope, torpedoes beintigjelvatehi
coincidence with the fine wires crossing the field of
telescopeth of the observer at one Station, could
do
moment Nnv tn aoun
as
at the
eeertain by the telegraphic message when she was
in line with the wire of another telescope
corresponding observing station, and then at the
very period of the intersection of the directional
lines, at the exact instant the vessel was over the
torpedo, it could be unerringly exploded by the fric-
tional electricity of the firing apparatus, by the ob-
server himself merely pressing do.;vn a key attached
to hie telescope, which brought th© exploding elec--
tricity into play. If the wires were cut by dredg-
ing boats or vessels an alarm-bell was rung by the

;ongresslonal Plan of Reconstruction.

The report of the joint onCommolttnetery.l Recon-
struction, of the United States Senate and House of
will awaken
pro-
intense
o-
Representatives
in
ter interest
st is o
throughoutf a character
the whichcu
poses the terms upon which it is expected that Con-
gress will be willing to admit the people of the
seceded States to participation in the affairs of the
Government, and its provisions are of such a nature
as will cause intense feeling among the participants
in the late rebellion, as well as in the breasts of
Union men who stood by the Government during
the war. Hence the manner in which the report of
the committee will be received at the North and the
South is likely to be entirely different. The ex-
rebels are unwilling to endure any penance, to sub-
mit to any terms, or to agree to any compromises.
They claim a right to go back to power with all the
privileges which they relinquished in 1861, and if
anything is due to them they rather intimate that
rewarding them for their treason would be just and
generous. The report of the Reconstruction Com-
mittee does not propose any such liberality. It pre-
sents to the country certain terms necessary for
the safety of the Union as it was, and is as the
basis of what may be called a treaty of peace. The
first matter of importance is the settlement of the
status of all persons in the United States under the
Second—Thato regulate
male
citizensth e s e
im eaopt
rt,
eee
srr
Indians
odotunihassetn
stiuittuunnttiioitootennd ; the second is the nature of represen-
tationi
First—Thatcfthteheqpn
according rali fii
e °ts
on and 9 erectors;
tation ; the third the conditions of representation ;
c
tors; and the fifth
es
tnh t
the
t ai vg
the subject of the annulment of thwilebel debt.. To
certaincesoinafm2Celnodnymgreaents to the
s oft
taxeda tt
States
pshUroanilllitdbeedde
a,Slitkaete.isa aarlle
the States.
Congress shall
bebe -
apportionedpoipmumlautnioitnies o f citizens
that if 'any excludingportion
excluded from voting, except from the participation
in the rebellion, or other crime, the basis of repre-
sentation in such State shall be reduced in the pro-
portion which such male citizens excluded shall bear
to the whole number of male citizens over 21 years of
age. For instance, in a State where male citizens of
all colours vote the representation will be on the
whole population, excluding Indians not taxed.
Where there are negroes above 21 years of age, in
States where negrocs do not vote, the reduction will
be in the proportion which they bear to
the white
voting population. If, for example, there are one
million of white voters in a State, and one hundred
thousand adult male black, in ascertaining the basis
of representation, counting white men, women, and
children, and black women and children, there shall
be a reduction of one-tenth, and the representation
shall be settled according to the usual Congres-
sional apportionment. Where, as in some of the
Southern States, the proportion of black to whites is
heavy, the reduction will be very considerable, but
in those States there will be a representation founded
on the black population, women and children. By
this plan all attempts to compel the admission of
blacks to suffrage will be avoided ; it will be a ques-
tion for each State, founded on political necessity,
or the changes which time may bring in the ideas of
the people.
The third amendment proposes to. punish the
crime of rebellion by excluding from political privi-
leges in Federal elections for five years, or until
July 4, 1870, all persons who participated in the
Rebellion, or gave it aid and comfort. This will
not affect the rights of such persons to participate in
elections for State officers.

The fourth amendment proposes that the Con-
federate debt shall never be assumed by the United
States, and that no compensation shall be made for
slaves freed by the result of the war.
As accompaniments to these proposed amend-
ments, are two laws, one of which declares that,
when the amendments are ratified, any State lately
in insurrection may be admitted to Congress upon
modification of its Constitution accordingly, and hi
such case the State so ratifying the amendment
. _

shall be allowed to assume the direct tax due the
i United States, and be allowed ten years for pay-
; ment. Another proposes to exclude the leaders of
the Rebel Government from eligibility. to Fe•
deral offices, also of West Point officers who
participated in the rebellion, and officers of
the rebel army above the grade, of colonel,
and of the rebel navy above the grade of master '•
also all who maltreated Union prisoners during the
war. This proposition would exclude from office
nearly all the old politicians who led in the rebellion
and insure the choice of new men. The former
would still have power as voters, however, after
1870, but they would not be able to distribute the
Federal offices among themselves.
These propositions are of very grave import. In
some particulars they agree with what the President
has recommended. In others they may be at
variance with his policy. Presuming that they are
ratified by Congress, they will go before the coun-
try the most exciting issues which have been
brought to their attention for many years.

STAFF APPOINTMENTS.—SeVeraI desirable appoint-
ments on the Staff at home will become vacant in
the course of the autumn. Lieut.-Gan. Sir S. Cotton and
Sir L. Garrott give up the Northern and South-Eastern
districts on the Ist October, in consequence of their promo-
tion to their present rank. Sir R. Walpole's period of Staff
service expires about thesamo time, and the Chatham com-
mand will be at the disposal of the Horse Guards. The Ca-
valry Brigade in Ireland and an infantry brigade in the
same country will be open, as Majors-Gen. Key and Hon.
A. Gordon will have completed their time in September.
Geus. Cotton and Garrett have not been a year lathe enjoy -
ment of their commands, and their removal, after so
short a time, would seem to suggest the selection for these
posts of Major-Generals so far down the list that they might
look forward to holding their places for a longer period. Be-
sides, at places like Shorncliffe, where regiments returning
ferhernathlaomng,
forrecruits, smartened u,t
awnodu would
seem that younger and more active officers, with tolerably
recent regimental experience might be advantageously
chosen. The Manchester command is scarcely of so much
consequence, and there an older officer, one perhaps whose
health had not allowed him to complete his Staff service
abroad, might be chosen. But advantage would follow not
only to the troops, but to the general officers themselves, by
having these appointments given among the junior major-
generals, for each officer would find his employment lasting
to about the time at which he might expect his regimental
might
colonelcy, and from the date of his employment
income
calculate upon the same :mount of professional
during the rest of his cat eer.—AllnYa _ratly
Gazette.
DEAD-MEAT MARK W
THE METROPOLITAN DEAD-3
length some prospect of a
e
are glad to learn that there
atis
sith the Dead-meat Market in
commencement being
mad°
wll ears the corporation . have
Smithfield. For more than y
Smithfield t
allowed the valuable site of . to remain one of the
waste places of the city o. f London, yielding nothing to the
t'
funds, and existing only as a nuisance to the
corporate
which hood. Ihe delays haveneighbour been interposed
have caused great inconvenienceand by the city unneces-
nse to the Metropolitan
sary expense and Great Western Rail-
way Companies, who have been unable to complete
their
works up to the point where they •
might deliver the moat
from their trucks at once into the market.i So far as the
public interests are concerned, the too,
fully sacrificed in this matter, and grielavtee rheceonn dsehrnae--
tion of the conduct of the city authorities can be afforded
than is given by a visit to that filthy
den of Newgate-
market, into which so large a
portion of the supply of meat
for the metropolis is now
is not a town _ huddled every morning. There
England which is so wretchedly served in
this matter of meat markets as London, and there is, on
the other hand, no place in the world in which greater
facilities exist for receiving and distributing the supplies
of meat as London. Had the city authorities permitted it,
the railways from all parts of England would long before
this have been able to bring the meat into Smithfield. As
now finally arranged, the meat conv,‘yed by the Great
Northern, Groat Western, and other lines, will be lifted
from the rails bolcw Smithfield to the hero! of the market,
and be unloaded direct into the salesmen's shops, and
without any of that unnecessary handling and that repul-
sive and disgusting treatment which it receives in New-
gate-market. It is bail enough that the public should
have the chance of eating diseased meat ; it is insufferable •
that they should be compelled to eat food which has passed
through the defilement of the existing market.--/?aihray

News.
The police of New York are detecting
milk-
men who put water with their milk, and publishing their
names in the papers. the