The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-14 00:00:00

THE CHANNEL FLEET.

Before another month shall have passed a Chan-
nel fleet will be in commission at Spithead worthy
the name of England. There will be, at the least,
15 sail of screw line-of-battle ships, supported by a
corresponding number of steam frigales, corvettes,
and screw gunboats. Their cruising and exercising
ground will extend from the Lands-end to the
North Sea. It is believed that the command will
be given to Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, K.C.B.
The following are the line-of-battle ships commis-
sioned and nearly ready for the pendant :

Royal Sovereign l3l
Royal George lO2
Algiers
Colossus
Edgar
Exmouth

Royal Albert
Agamemnon 9
Cmsar
Cressy
Hero
Neptune

Loudon .
Queen .

91
91

Tnifalgar

The above are expect
fleet, and they are ships t]

:ed to form the Channel
he noblest of their class.

THE TRIP OF H. M. S. CURACOA TO

AMERICA.

We have been favoured with the following
extract from a private letter, dated April 18 :
" Annapolis, U.S., April 18.
"According to promise I now sit down to try and give
you a small account of our proceedings since we left Ply-
mouth insipid and uninteresting as they are. On the 22d
February, having taken Lord Lyons and his suite on board,
we started for Washington. Steaming along the misty in-
clement shores of the west country, and through the bois-
terous chops,' we shaped our course to the south, the
weather now becoming deliciously warm and pleasant.
After a week's occasionally steaming and sailing, we came
to an anchor at Madeira. I was greatly surprised at the
altered appearance of this island ; the mountains, instead
of being clothed in the rich Irish looking verdure, which I
formerly remarked and admired, now seemed parched, arid,
And barren looking, owing, I suppose to the failure of the
`wine-crops'— the chief cultivation on the island now
ming made, I understand, for the regeneration of the grape,
detailing off of which, as well as tfie visitors, the natives
soudly complain of. There were about 200 invalids on the
island then, chiefly ladies, many of whom that insidiously
fatal scourge, phthisis,' had set its seal upon. It made
one melancholy to see them riding about on raokes'—so
delicately fair and pallid, and so sadly in contrast with
the bronzed and swarthy appearance of the alliaceously,
redolent, seap-and-water abhorrent Portuguese. Having
coaled, and moderately participated of the liquor of
the country, and hospitality of the inhabitants, we
again proceeded to sea—circling: away to the south,
far into the regions of flying fish, ' white ducks,' and
sangaree, in the hopes of falling in with the south-
easterly trades,' the tail end of which gently fanned
our sails for three weeks, as far as Bermuda, which, as a
matter cif course, we entered and left in a gale of wind.
Between these islands and the Chesapeake' we encoun-
tered strong north-westerly gales, and after a tedious but
pleasant passage of six weeks from England, we came to an
anchor off Annapolis. The following morning Lord Lyons
disembarked, the frigate manning yards and firing a salute
of 17 guns. On his lordship landing a salute was also fired
from the battery at the naval academy at Annapolis, the
principal men of this ancient little place presenting him with
an address and invitation to a soiree, which, however, his
lordship declined, and started immediately for Washington.
The trial of Senator Sickles' for taking the trifling
poetical licence of riddling with a revolver Attorney-
General Key,' for paying rather marked attention to his
wife, forms the chief topic of scandal and conversation at
Washington, as well pabulum' for the penny-a-liners
in gemeral. The popular feeling in favour of Sickles is so
great that the enlightened jury' have already formed an
opinion,' i.e., that they should be lynched' if they were
to convict him ; while on the other hand, the friends of
Key' swear thoy shall shoot him in case of an acquittal.
Washington :s a large, stragesling, though not very populous
city; the strset., ara wile. irregular, mpaved avenues, with
trees on each side, giving the place quite a rural ap-
pearance ; there are some fine public buildings, the capitol
being the largest and most pre!aily situated. The ladies,
I must say, are rather gaeal-leeking, but the male por-
tion of the population are sheet as sinister and reckless-
looking a set of desperadoes as I have ever seen. Strange
to say, though generally well dressed, they all sport most
infernally -battered, outlandish-looking 'tiles,' being, in
fact, shucking bad hats' in every sensa of the word.' I
have made a • piltsrimage to all the places, and seen all the
relics so interesting to travellers : the tree under which Mr.
Key was shot ; the chair and desk where Senator Sumner
was cow -skinned ;' in Congress, also, the very identical
stone spittoon which the venerable South States member,
with such admirable presence of mind, hurled among the
irate and riled members during the late row in the Con-
gress, thereby quelling the disturbance and establishing
the peace of the assembly. I have not seen one soldier,
policeman, or peace officer, since I came here. E„nyono
goes about armed to the teeth, even to 'our contractor,' a
fine specimen of a free and independent American, who
speaks of the President familiarly, as Jim Bee,' delivers
his tobacco juice on the carpet with the force and accuracy
of a syringe, and 'reckons that no tarnation coon or critter
never found him without his doccyrnints,' the aforesaid
documents being a six-barreled shooter' and a formidable
bowie-knife, ingeniously secured in a pocket cunningly con-
trived on the inside of his coat extending from the nape of
the neck to the small of his back. Lord and Lady Napier
have been staying at Annapolis for some time. They
intend to embark to-morrow (19th), when we shall set out
for Old England, and in a month or so you may expect us
at Plymouth again. Mr. Irvine, the Secretary of -,ega-
tion, who came out with Lord Lyons, returned again in the
Curacoa on account of ill-health."—Plynteuth Mail.