The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-03 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

-
Yesterday morning the sick and wounded troops
who arrived at Chatham the previous afternoon
from Lucknow and Delhi were marched from St.
Mary's Barracks to Fort Pitt, for the purpose of
being inspected by the medical staff at that esta-
blishment. The invalid troops, to the number of
162 non-commissioned officers and men, with eight
women and 18 children, sailed from Calcutta in the
Tyburnia, Captain A. Coote, on the 19th of Nov.,
touched at the Cape on the 6th of Jan., sailed
thence on the 10th of Jan., and arrived in the
Thames on the Ist inst., after a fair passage of 102
days. The troops belong to the sth (Fusileers), 6th,
Bth (the King's), 10th, 19th, 29th, 32d (Light In-
fantry), 34th, 37th, 54th, 60th (Rifles), 75th, 79th
(Highlanders), 80th, 84th, 93d (Highlanders), and
97th regiments, the Royal Artillery, and the Rifle
Brigade, the whole under the command. of Capt
.
A. E. Wilkinson, 9th Lancers, and Lieut. G.
Massey, sth Fusiliers, and in medical cht. arge of
Assistant• Surgeon A. Hoyte, 61st Regiment. h En-
sign J. B. Campbell, 79th Highlanders,
came
viz six
as passenger, on leave. During b passage eni
two e
births and nine deaths occurred oar
invalid troops, one passenger,
sicksailor,
one
and one
•
woman. A large number of the and wounded,
received severe
oed wounds, nearly the
in hard whole troops
ofh a
them
r e
havingee
been engaged
fight-
ing with the Indian rebels. Most of them served
at Lucknow under Gen. Lord Clyde, and at Cawn-
pore and Delhi under Gen. Windham, and also
with the flying army formed by Brigadier Great-
head after the fall of Delhi. The number who have
received wounds which will render them unfit for
further service is very considerable, and there are
several non-commissioned officers and men. who
have lost either a leg or an arm. After the disabled
troops had been inspected at Fort Pitt 36 tint:-
commissioned officers and men were taken into
hospital, and the remainder will be stationed, at
the Invalid Depot, St. Mary's Barracks, until they
have been inspected by a Chelsea Board, who will
determine what men are to be discharged from
the. service. Two prisoners 'a-ho were brought
home—one of the sth, for disgraceful conduct at
Allahabad and one of the 12th, from the' Cape of
Good Hope, where he deserted five years ago—are
to be tried by court-martial at Chatham. At the
date of the Tyburnia sailing from Calcutta the
troop-ship John Bell was receiving invalids on
board, and was expected to sail in-a few dal•Ann.
A series of experiments with one of Sir "
strong's breach-loading rifled cannolkab
took
Light, on place at
Portsmouth last week, outside the
upe ri nten c e
board the Stork gun-boat, theunderruer
of Capt. Hewlett, CM-, Majesty's ship
view was to test the
Excellent. The object
tiilen
fitness of a carriage for of
on sea service, the
itself having been previoukly
qualities of the
iSkoeburyness. The result of
has been of a highly
firing
the carriage experimented upon
satisfactory. nature, the
trifling
ed
alterations to admit of
thesu ffi ei
differententlte sdt sa'ut
only being worked in a sea way wit
this formidable gun
The gun was landed
the greatest ease and security...
.In ian mail we lektrn
requiring a
to oe4ur ne ' MS.
Ay mtheerican Company's FACltivir
on Monday for transmibssion Sdh.
pr received .a• endd
steamship Lady Jocelyn, Capt. Bird, which toot
thaptytbilvElcureso
out troops, left Calcutta on the 14th Jan. ; arrived
at Madras on the 17th, and sailed the 21st; arrived
at Galle on the 24th, and sailed on the 26th for the
Cape and England. She is expected about the end
of March. The Lady Jocelyn brings home the fol-
lowing passengers :—From Calcutta—Capt. Crease,
; Capt. Robinson, her Majesty's 43d Regt. ;
Ensign Webb, her Majesty's 34th Regt. ' • Dr. and
-Mrs. Curling, Bengal Army ; ,Mr. M'Neil and Mr.
Carter. From Madras—Lieut. Engstrom,
.R.A. ;
Major Hobart, Madras Artillery; Conductor James,
nine invalid soldiers, three children, and five insane
soldiers. The Calcutta steamer, Capt. Blackmore,
belonging to the same company, was to leave Cal-
cutta on the Ist Feb. for England.

The boat•builders in the employ of Messri. For-
restt, of Limehouse, have forwarded £2G,. being the amount
raised by subscription amongst themselves, in aid of the
funds of the Royal National Lifeboat
A POPULAR PUBLISHER AND HIS AUTHORS.—
A toast at a late Literary Fund Dinner : " Bone and Skin
—Skin and Bone."—Kelly's Railway Guide.

The real Estate Intestacy Bill was last night
rejected by a very large majority. Two hundred
and seventy-one Noble Lords and Right Honour-
able and Honourable Gentlemen voted against the
sacreligious disposal of landed property whieh
would give any portion to younger sons or daughters
in the event of its not being efficiently disposed of
by the " father during his life time." The right
divine of the eldest son was fully affirmed. He
should receive every acre of land and be entitled to
turn those sprung from the same nuptials on the wide
world penniless if the father had, through careless-
ness, inadvertence, or from cowardly unwilling-
ness to make a will, died without arranging his
affairs,

The question, then, at issue was—What disposi-
tion of his affairs would the small landowner, the
yeoman with a few hundred pounds per annum, or
the retired tradesman, who, being actuated with
the desire to kill his own mutton, and stimu-
lated by the extraordinary facilities afforded
by the Solicitor-General's Bill, may desire to
invest his savings in " dirty acres ?" Surely
he would not desire to see those • who were
just as near and dear to him as the eldest son,
probably consigned to beggary and ruin, while the
favoured one took' all and left them destitute.

It must be reinembered that
the proposed
measure did not contemplate any restriction
an incapacity. There was nothing in the
slightest degree approximating to the French law.
The code Napoleon was not in any degree
plagiarised. If a man, forgetful of the ties of
nature, of all his parental obligations, should desire
.to aggrandise one child at the expense of all the
others, he would be 'at liberty to do so. All that
was required is that he should clearly express that
desire, and that there should be an unequivocal
intimation of his intention to disinherit the " detri-
mentals," as they are facetiously termed by wrinkled
'dowagers or manceuvring mammas who have cer-
tain goods to be disposed of in the matrimonial
mart.

The matter could not in any degree affect the
" select upper crust." The favoured ten thousand,
- who constitute " the world," have all lad elaborate
settlements executed on their marriages, disposing
not only of everything in possession but in re-
mainder, expectancy-or reversion. Those who are
still in a state of celibacy know that they will have
to swallow the pill before they change their con-
dition, and that the family estate must be duly
settled, terms created charges fixed, and all other
preliminaries arranged. It is a matter of compara
tively trivial consequence whether they die
intestate or otherwise, for their affairs are already
settled, the amount of jointure fixed, and the

charge for younger children—the same whether
one or a dozen—completely arranged. Such
parties as we have above referred to are not
in any degree interested. We must descend a few
steps on the social ladder.

The real question then is—What will should the
law make for those members of the middle and
less wealthy classes who have, through apathy and
indifference, neglected to dispose of their freehold
property? We believe that if ninety-nine out of
every hundred could be canvassed, they would
wish for an equitable.distribution, and that all their
children should share .in the proceeds. Should
there be any romantic feeling respecting an estate
which had remained centuries in the family, it
will be easy to preVent its alienation. But
the met who have such inheritances will
take sufficient care to avert the dreaded evil.
The majority of those affected will be those who
have made their money, and who would be quite
willing that the properties which they themselves
had purchased should be sold under the great
facilities afforded by the Solicitor-General's mea-
sure. .. Indeed, such would be- the result in almost
every case, and it would be far better, both for the
inheritor and the community at large, that the
freehold-should be sold to an unincumbered posses-
sor than that one-third of the annual produce
should go by way of jointure to the support of the
widow, and another large portion for family charges
to the uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters, and
sons and daughter's of the late proprietor. Those
who know anything of Irish estates could speak of
the terrible effect produced by the accumulation of
such burdens. The Bill has been rejected for this
year, but we hope and believe that ere long it will
obtain the legislative sanction, and that this stain
on the national statute-book may be for ever
, removed.

Mr. T. D. FITZGERALD has done quite right in
again calling the attention of the Legislature tothe
subject of sectarian oaths. While the Jew Bills
were under discussion, we held it to be bad gene-
ralship, as well as a needless unkindness to the

Jews, to complicate their claims with the re-ad-
justment of the Catholic oaths. Catholics, however,
did their part in liberating their Jewish fellow-sub-
jects, and that ground for longer silence on their
own grievance is now removed. Their grievance, we
say advisedly, for they feel it to be such ; and we
cannot insist on retaining the present form of the
oath without alleging that Catholics are advocates
of regicide, of snbversion of old settlements of
property, and of mental reservations. We do not
enumerate a desire to subvert the Establishment
of the Episcopal Church (not the Church
itself which is established in Ireland) as amongst
the crimes whith• the oath flings in their teeth. If
so, the Attorney-General ought to be at once in-
structed to prosecute a well-kn Own society; which
for years has been lecturing, publishing, meeting,
and acting most publicly, for the subversion of all
Establishments of Religion, and which has indeed
a local domicile in, Sedition Street, We believe it is
named in the Government books, vulgarly called
Fleet-street. If Catholics are to be sworn not to
assail the Establishment, a fortiori, English Dis-
senters ought to be so too—the Society referred to

having several Members in the House of Commons ;
indeed, dUring the last Parliament, their Magnus
Apollo, Mr. MIALL, was there himself and made a
long and confessedly able specch,too, against the Irish
Church.

The idea of a compact having been made
in 1829, which Catholics are not at liberty
now to alter, or rather to seek to get altered, we

think absurd in the extreme. We have no such

Mede and Persian legislative compacts. It is per-
fectly competent to King, Lords, and Commons, to
alter the Hanoverian succession itself, if they see
fit. Imprudent enough it might be ; but were

sufficient cause shown, were a Prince of WALES,

for instance, to become so disloyal to his country,
as to be an object of general aversion, it would be
the duty of the Legislature to bar him of his other-

wise lawful inheritance. We scout still more the
fancy that any arrangement between different
parties or classes in the nation, which can be proved
unfair, or which, in process of time, becomes so,
should not be revised. Eapecially is this the case
when the aggrieved party is but a minority, and must
make out its case therefore so, clearly to the aggriev-
ing party, that the latter is constrained, by conside-
rations of humanity and justice merely, to grant
the required relief.

We certainly think the time 'is now come when all
the unworthy safeguards of this kind which have
been imposed by the dominant Church on the less
favoured churches should be utterly abolished.
There is, we believe, a declaration required of
Dissenters who are elected Common Councilmen
under the late Municipal Act, to the effect that
they will not, in virtue of their office, do anything
hurtful to the " Establishment." We should, in-
deed, be inclined to suggest to Mr. FITZGERALD the

desirableness of including in his bill all oaths and
declarations, Parliamentary and municipal, and
others, if they exiit, which any of her MAJESTY'S
subjects are required to make or take, be-
cause they do - not accept the Thirty-nine
Articles, the Prayer-book, and the Angli-
can Episcopate. The time is surely come when
r these brands • of intolerance and badges of
inferiority ought to be effaced or destroyed for ever,
The doctrine of any inherent superiority in a
Church, evolved by a kind of almost lottery process,
from Romanisra, Lutheranism, and Calvinism, from
Tudors, Stuarts, and the Commonwealth, is now a
doetrine of the clergy only. The laity now respect
each others' Christian creeds and worship sincerely,
and are becoming every year more averse to what-
ever creates social distinction and on reli-
gious grounds. As Lord STANLEY has both said
and written, the whole tendency of the age
is to' 'thorough Religious Equality ; it may
indeed be called one of its characteristics. Like his j

Lordship, we cannot deplore this. Of all religions
Christianity was never designed to confer political
or legal superiority on its professors, much less to
exalt one class of its professors at the expense of
another.

1 IVe do not see Lord. STANLEY'S name in the divi-
sion list, and we much regret to find on the
mron g side some members of the present Govern-
ment,-from whose liberality of religious sentiment
and general intelligence we should have expected
better things. Ought such names as Mr. DISRAELI,
eL
thisYT T OwNi t to
hi. i
Mr.e placedßA i,L,
iSnirtbile.saCmAleßlNisB; oannaa sSui br j Ee
c.tl3rl k.
the lay-preaching member for Camberigdegneusshiroen,inMer;
could SPOONER, Mr. NEWDEGATE, et ho
Some other members of the Government should
have known better, bUt perhaps we hardly
expect better from them.
We must confess
almost to Wonder, that the
House could find enough in so plain a matter to
occupy its time for so long, or that 113 noes could
be whipped up by all the efforts of the Treasury.
The oaths we believe to be no safeguard whatever,
while they -are wantonly insulting to those
who are required to take them. Why not
swear. Presbyterians that they will do no injury
to' " black prelacy," as their " standards" have
it, or rather that they now regard it as white ?
Why not swear the successors of the Puritans that
it is not lawful to create " martyrs of blessed 1

memory" by decapitating lawless Kings ? Why
not swear members of the Anti-State Church So •
ciety that they will not imagine, compass, or con-
trive the destruction of the Establishment ? The
truth is that reason and argument, not oaths, must
now be the defence of all that is worth defending.
Indeed, if protective oaths were needed on behalf of
any party it would be the feebler one, the minority,
who need them; and members of the Church of Eng-
land should be sworn not to take advantage of their
being in a majority, to oppress by legislation Ca-
tholics and other Dissenters. Should Mr. FITZ-
GERALD'S bill be defeated he might, perhaps, pro-
pose another, suggesting certain things which all
English Churchmen should swear to, in order to
secure the liberties of unendowed and unprivileged
sects. Dissenters and Catholics might cull a choice
selection of persecuting canons and sentiments from
Church of England offices, laws, and acknowledged
authorities, were they to rummage her compara-
tively modern antiquities—antiquities still so ten-
derly cherished.

MR. G. T. F. SMITH'S WEATHER _PRE-
DICTIONS FOR MARCH, 1859.

enerally fine to the 6th, and windy near then, probably
slight rain may occur near the 6th day ; from 10th to 13th
stormy and variable, with rain or hail storms ; from 14th
to 17th still very stormy ; from the 17th to 20th or 21st it
will be stormy and very windy at the Equinox, variable
with bright gleams of sunny weather; and this kind of
weather, so variable, with sunshine and storms, continues
to the end of the month.

The average of mild weather has still continued, as men-
tioned in the explanatory remarks in reference to January
last, a period in,which a powerful combination of inclement
testimony failed in its results ; and, as previously stated,
tends to strengthen my anticipation of another comet's ap-
proach to our hemisphere. It will be remembered that
similar anticipations in reference to the last comet were
not mistaken:,

LECTURE ON THE USE OF COMB US
TIBLE MATERIALS IN WAR.

On Tuesday last, a lecture was delivered in the
theatre of the United Service Institution—Major-
General S. Stanhope in the chair—by J. Macin-
tosh, Esq., " On the Use of Combustible Materials
in the New . Strategies of War." In order to ex-
plain his remarks, he classed them under five
heads :-Ist. Facilitating attack by ships of war
against sea-face fortifications. 2d. Facilitating
attack upon earthworks. 3d. The inefficiency of
the ordinary shell and fuse as used during the late
Russian war. 4th. The destructive powers of in-
cendiary shells when used against shipping, &c.
oth. Method' of preventing troops, &e., from cross-
ing rivers. Mr. Macintosh then went on to say
that he would propose to aid our navy in attacking
strong sea forts, by attaching an incendiary naval
steam brigade, consisting of small and inexpensive
steamers, having suitable iron compartments filled
with his combustible compound, composed of pre-
pared coal, tar, and naphtha, which can be easily ob-
tained in any quantities, and at a trifling cost. These
vessels would be sent in ,wind and tide favouring,w ith
a time fuse ignited leading to a bursting charge.
On exploding the bursting charge the inflammable
fluid would be scattered on the surface of the water,
causing the immediate ignition of the naphtha, and
producing a dense black suffocating smoke, which,
driven by the wind against the sea face, enters the
embrasures, and. either suffocates or drives away the
enemy's gunners, leaving the forts in our possession.
Another plan was to discharge a sufficient quantity
of the naphtha upon the surface of the water to
windward of the fortress, and ignite it by means of
a shell or rocket containing naphtha and potassium ;
by the great affinity of the latter for oxygen, the
floating liquid, which cannot mix with the water,
will be immediately inflamed. The lecturer then
proceeded to explain his method of driving the
enemy from their earthworks and rendering them
untenable, by . firing into them diaphragm
shells filled with his compound, and contain-
ing a bursting charge. The naphtha from the
bursting shells saturates the earth, and continues
to burn with a dense smoke. There was also
another kind of shell explained for use against
troops, the shower of inflammable material from
which sets fire to anything combustible with which
it comes in contact. It would be of great use in
disorganising masses of infantry or cavalry. A
third kind of shell with a bursting charge was de-
scribed, containing naphtha, with a few pills of
potassium, which in the bursting of the shell ignite
the naphtha. These would be useful for marine
purposes for firing into harbours amongst shipping,
stores, &e. Mr. Macintosh concluded his lecture
by explaining the use of his invention in the de-
stroying of pontoon bridges, rafts, &c. The lec-
ture was attended by the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lords
Overstone, Ingcstre, and Ranelagh ; Lieut.-General
Sir W. Codrington, K.C.8., General Cannon, Vice-
Admiral Ryder Burton, Major Farrell, Captain
Stopford, R.N., and many members of the naval
and military professions.

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THE SUN.
THURSDAY. MARCH 3, 1859.