The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-15 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY.

-0-

BALMORAL, Sept. 12.

The Queen, accompanied by Princess Louise,
drove out yesterday morning, and went out in the
afternoon with Princess Beatrice, attended by Lady
Churchill.

Princess Christian and Princess Louise drove to
Invercauld.

Naval and Military Intelli;:ence.

VALLETTA, Sept. 10.—Her Majesty's screw gun-
vessel Assurance, 4,
_Commander Pym, left port on
the 7th inst. for Syracuse with despatches for the
Commander-in-Chief, who is cruising on the south-
east coast of Sicily. The Enterprise, 4, iron screw
corvette, Capt. Rowley, arrived from Corfu, and
the squadron yesterday ; Corn. Bosanquet, who had
proceeded to Corfu by mail steamer to assume the
command of this vessel, did not succeed in reaching
her, and is performing quarantine at that island.
The next mail for the squadron will be conveyed by
the Psyche, 2, despatch vessel, Lieut.-Cori. Sir F.
Blackwood (now in port), which returned on the
7th inst. from conveying Mr. Drummond Hay, her
Majesty's Consul-General to Tripoli. On Saturday
morning an Italian brig, the Peppino, which left
Genoa on the 25th ult., bound for Constantinople
and Odessa, came off the port to land two sick men,
but there being reaon to suppose they were suffering
under an attack of cholera, the desired permission
was not granted) though every assistance in the
way of medicine, provisions, and water was offered,
as well as extra hands to replace the invalids. On
the same day official telegraphic information was
received here of the Italian sanitary authorities
having placed a quarantine of 15 days on arrivals
from all Austrian ports, including the ports of
Venetia still under Austrian domain. To conform
with this regulation the Malta Board of Health will
doubtless adopt a similar precautionary measure.
News was received by the last mail from England
that Sir Henry Storks would return to Malta in six
weeks.

The chartered troopship Lord Warden, which
has been taken up by the Hon. Council of India for
the conveyance of reinforcements to Madras, em-
barked at Gravesend yesterday Capt. J. C. Warne,
Lieut. William Eccles Mostyn, and 60 non-
non-commissioned officers and men of the 2d batta-
lion of the 24th Regiment, and Lieut. 11. Stokes,
Ensign A. W. H. Hornsby, 36 non-commissioned
officers and men, 5 soldiers' wives, and 9 children of
the 2d battalion of the 19th Regiment from Shef-
field; Lieut. B. Simner, Ensign G. Gosselin, 48
men of all ranks, 7 soldiers' wives, and 16 children
of the 76th Regiment from Shorncliffe ; one fencing
sergeant instructor and wife, of the 16th Lancers,
from Canterbury; one master tailor for Ist Batta-
lion of the 7th Royal Fusileers, from Wahner ; four
soldiers' wives of the 102 d Royal Madras Fusileers,
from Shorncliffe ; and 8 soldiers' wives of the 2d
Battalion of the 10th Regiment, from Chatham.
The Lord Warden left the Thames yesterday, after
being inspected by Major-Gen. Sir R. Walpole,
K.C.8., and will call in at Portsmouth, where she
will embark draughts for the 2d and 3d Battalions
of the 6th Royal Rifles, from the depot battalion at
Winchester, together with the following officers be-
longing to those corps, viz., Capt. N. J. Pauli,
Lieut. R. C. Robinson, Ensign B. Freud, Ensign T.
N. Dick-Lauder, Ensign C. H. Smith, and Ensign
F. G. Doyle. Staff Assist.-Surg. Wm. Alexander,
M.D., will embark in medical charge of the troops.
The line-of-battle sailing ship Superb, 80, and the
sailing frigate Nankin, 50, both of which have been
fitted by the shipwrights and joiners at Chatham
and Sheerness Dockyards, to be used as hospital
ships for the reception of cholera patients, have been
removed to moorings, near Saltpan Reach, neither
of them, in consequence of the abatement of the
cholera, being now required for the special service
for which they were fitted up.
The high tide of Thursday morning caused con-
siderable damage to the works now being carried on
at the entrance to No. 3 dock at Chatham Dock-
yard, the coffer dam in course of construction for the
enlargement of the dock to admit of the double turret
ship Monarch being laid down, receiving very serious
injury. Nearly the whole of the outer row of piles used
iu forming the dam have been• bent and removed,
and altogether the injury effected is so great that
the works will be delayed several weeks, causing
another period of some time to elapse before the
keel of the new ironclad ship Monarch can be laid
down in the dock. In the meantime workmen have
commenced the new vessel in the temporary work-
shop adjoining the dock.

Rear-Admiral the Hon. George F. Hastings,
C. 8., is, we understand, appointed to succeed Vice-
Admiral the Hon. Joseph Denman as Commander-
in-Chief in the Pacific. The Zealous will be the
flag-ship on the station.

The huge Horsf all gun, made at the Mersey Steel
and Iron Company's works in 1856, and presented
to Government, is now lying under the heavy sheers
at the Royal Arsenal wharf at Woolwich for trans-
port, it is stated, to Tilbury Fort, to protect the en-
trance of the river. The gun is well known from
the place it took in target practice at Shoeburyness.
It is a solid forging of wrought -iron, bored out.
The trunnions are forged upon a separate ring,
which is held in place by a key. The dimensions
of the gun, as given in Holley's " Treatise," are :
Length, 15ft. 10in. ; diameter over chamber, 3ft.
Tin. ; length of bore, 13ft. 4in. ; diameter of bore,
as reported by the Ordnance Select Committee,
13.014 in. The weight is 53,8461 b. 2.210 z. The
usual windage is 2in. The gun is not rifled. The
mass of forged iron in the rough was a rude conic
frustrum, about 17ft. in length, rather more than
4ft. in diameter at the breech end, and above 3ft. at
the 'other end. Fuddled rough bars were made from
the best selected Scotch and North Wales pig iron,
and were worked as little as possible before being
sent to the forging department. The puddle balls
were hammered, then rolled into No. 1 bar iron,
and that was cut up, piled, and again rolled into
No. 2 bars. A core, formed of a fagot of square
bars, was first welded up and rounded to about 15
in. diameter. Upon this three several cores or piles
of V,. shaped or voussoir bars were laid on welded
in succession. The extreme diameter of the breech
end was produced by welding slabs over these
again where the mass exceeded 32in. in diameter.
The forging was done under a 15-ton hammer,
and the heating in a reverberatory furnace. Fifty
tons of iron were used, and the process occupied
seven weeks. Above B,ooolb. of powder and 60,0001 b.
of 2821 b. solid shot have been fired from this gun at
various rounds ; among others there have been 90
rounds with 501 b. of powder, 21 rounds with 401 b.
and six rounds with 501 b. at Shoeburyness ; two
rounds with 801 b., at Liverpool, 13 rounds with 201 b.
to 451 b., and 40 rounds with 301 b. With 451 b. of
powder, a number of shell were fired loaded with
lead to weigh 3101 b. and 3181 b. The unequal
shrinkage of the solid breech of the gun during its
manufacture caused a crack, which was afterwards
covered with a breech-plug or false bottom in the
chamber to prevent the lodgment of any burning
material. Although injured in various places, it was
fired with terrific effect at short ranges at the
Warrior target at Shoeburyness, as subsequently
recorded in The Sun, with charges of 2821 b. shot and
711 b. of powder each.

The following appointments were made yesterday
at the Admiralty :—Lieut. W. F. S. Castle to the
Pallas ; J. G. Liddell, master, additional, to the
Fisgard for the Zebra; H. 11. Burniston, paymaster,
to the Zealous; J. Cox, assist.-paymaster, to the
Achilles; E. W. Newnham, assist.-paymaster, to the
Megmra ; J. R. Richards, assist.-paymaster, to the
Royal George ; H. J. Coiling and C. P. Walker,
assist-paymasters, to the Zealous ; G. E. Bampton,
assist.-clerk, to the Zealous ; and T. J. °swell,
nominated a naval cadet.

GOVERNMENT INSURANCE AND ANNUITIES... The
following additional post-offices will bo open on and after
the 17th of SepteMber for the redeipt of proposals for the
insurance of lives or the purchase of Government annuities,
under the Act 27th and 28th of Victoria., cap. 43 : —Bark-
way (Royston), Carluke, N. 8., Coatbridge, N. 8., Feckenham
(Brcansgroye), 6tcnieluvren, N. 8., and Strauraer, N.B.