The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-29 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The 39th Regiment of Foot, now stationed at
Fleetwood, \Veedon, and Manchester, has received
orders to embark on Monday morning at Liverpool,
for Belfast, on board the Government transport
screw steamer Orontes. The Orontes will take the
39th on board from the Prince's landing-stage.

The Tamar, troopship, Capt. Sullivan, left Ports-
mouth yesterday at 4 p.m. for Kingstown with the
28th Regiment, from Aldershott, under the com-
mand of Major C. R. B. Calcot, and comprising 21
officers, 780 rank and file, 3 officers' wives, 79 sol-
diers' wives, and 83 children. The greater portion
of the regimental baggage was left in the dockyard
for conveyance in some other ship, not having
arrived in time for embarcation, a source of much
inconvenience to officers and men, and arising en-
tirely from some mismanagement, as it left Alder-
shott on Tuesday in time to have arrived and to
have been shipped yesterday morning before the
arrival of the troops. After disembarking the
28th at Kingstown the Tamar will return to Ply-
mouth and embark another regiment for Portsmouth.
In accordance with an order received at Chatham
from the Horse Guards, a detachment of gunners
from the Ist division of the Depot Brigade Royal
Artillery has proceeded from head-quarters to Ports-
mouth to augment the artillery forces at that dis-
trict. A detachment of Royal Artillery from the
Depot Brigade, Maley, has arrived at the head-
quarters of the Ist division, relieving the force de-
spatched to Portsmouth.
The season for operations on the fieldworks by the
Royal Engineers at Chatham having terminated,
working parties of officers, non-commissioned offi-
cers, and sappers, selected from the depot and other
companies at head-quarters, are busily engaged in
levelling the earthworks constructed during the
summer, destroying the batteries and magazines,
filling the trenches and parallels, and restoring the
fieldworks at the lower lines to their former condi-
tion. The portion of the Royal Engineer establish-
ment known as the south gunshed battery atßromp-
ton barracks has been converted into a practising-
ground for the officers and men under instruction,
and fitted up with the requisite appliances for
instructing the Royal Engineers in the erection of
model batteries, magazines, and other field-works
in sand. The officers and men of the mounted A

troop of the Royal Engineer train, who recently ar-
rived at headquarters from Aldershot, are quartered
in the North-square, Brompton Barracks, recently
vacated by the battery of Royal Artillery.
Capt. Lascelles' battery and a detachment of No.
7 battery sth brigade Garrison Artillery, consisting
of three officers and 68 non-commissioned officers
and men, proceeded from Woolwich yesterday to
Shoeburyness for the purpose of completing their
annual gun practice.

Major-General Maxwell, promoted from com-
mandant of the Woolwich division of Royal Ma-
rines, yesterday returned from leave of absence,
and gave over the command to his successor, Col.
R. G. Connolly, Second Commandant, from the
Plymouth division. General Maxwell has been in
command only 18 months, and by the singular
routine of the service he will now retire from active
life, notwithstanding that his age and constitution
befit him for the performance, in all probability, of
many years' arduous and active duties. He will
leave the garrison with the regret of every officer
and man belonging to the corps, who were described
by General Warde at his late inspection of the gar-
rison as " one of the happiest and best conducted
corps in her Majesty's service."
Letters were received yesterday in Woolwich
nt rtohoepsllip Walmer
12th Sept. last, with troops
Castle, which
IproceededGarrison
f rt oo ins e tah
oe
of the sth brigade garrison Artillery, bound for
Madras. The Walmer Castle, on delivering letters
to the Cape mail, dated the 2Gth October, was in
lat. 8.40 N., long. 20.29 W., off Cape Verd Islands,
and was expected to cross the line in the course of
four or five days. The ship had experienced some
very severe weather, but the voyage on the whole,
it is stated, bad been ordinarily satisfactory. There
had been three births and one death. This is the
only intelligence received at Woolwich of the troops
since their departure from the Channel.

The Reindeer, screw sloop, Commander E. Nares,
arrived at Spithead yesterday, en route to the Pacific.
After receiving a few supernumeraries she will
proceed on her voyage, calling at Plymouth.

- The hector, ironclad, Capt. Luard, is ordered to
be completed on Saturday, the Ist pros., and is ex-
pected to leave on the 3d for Ireland.
The Helicon, despatch vessel, Commander Field,
will leave Portsmouth this morning for Queenstown.

A high-pressure surface condenser steam engine,
manufactured by Messrs. John Penn and Sons, of
Greenwich, for one of several large steam launches
ordered by the Admiralty to be built at Chatham
dockyard, has arrived at that establishment. A simi-
lar engine has also been manufactured by Messrs.
Maudslay and Co. for another of thesteam launches.
The engines are constructed for driving the double
four-bladed screw, each with its independent set of
shafting.
Some very powerful machinery has arrived at the
factory in Chatham dockyard from the establish-
ment of Messrs. Smith, Peacock, and Tennant, Vic-
toria Ironworks, Leeds. The machinery, which is the
largest of its kind ever manufactured, is for use in
planing, drilling, and otherwise preparing the 9-inch
and 8-inch slabs of rollediron armour-plates for en-
casing the sides of the iron-clad frigate Hercules,
and the other ships to be built at Chatham. It is
Mated that designs are in preparation at the Admi-
ralty for vessels of a far more powerful character
than any now afloat, the armour-plating of
which will be 10 inches, and even 12 inches, in
thickness. Among the other machines re-
cently erected in Chatham dockyard is a large
40-ton steam-hammer, one of the largest of the
kind in use in this country. This hammer was used
for the first time in forging the sternpost for the
Hercules, but, notwithstanding its size, broke under
the operation. The works connected with the forg-
ing have consequently been delayed for nearly a
fortnight.

The following appointments were made yesterday
at the Admiralty : Lieut. B. W. Box, to the Sharp-
shooter, as Lieut. in Command, vice the Hon.

Richard Hare, who has been superseded at his own
request ; William H. Harris, master, additional,
to the Cumberland, for service in the Rodney ;
Charles B. Willcocks, assist.-paymaster, to the
Ocean ; and A. Smith, assist.-paymaster, to the
Fisgard, as supernumerary.

The " Standard's" Estimate of the Leaders
of the Reform League.

Our contemporary, the Standard, lacking argu-
ment, yesterday indulges in sneers against the
leaders of the Reform movement. "It has always
been a matter of contemptuous surprise that a
movement like that of the Reform League, con-
templating, as it does nothing else, than the uproot-
ing of our political system, and the destruction of
the largest and most united party existing within
it, should be engineered by a nobody like Mr.
BEALES (M.A.), assisted by a posse of professional
agitators of the LucRAFT and ODGERS type." Per-
haps the Standard gives the prominence it now ac-
cords to these nobodies in its columns from a noble
sense of fair play. The idea of such people, assisted
by the long list of obscure agitators it further on
enumerates, entering the lists against the largest and
must united party, besides its contemptuous pity,
must excite its compassion, otherwise it surely would
not aid in bringing them prominently into notice.
To the contemptuous surprise must no doubt be
added a pleasing sense of security on the part " of
the largest and most united party." We were under
the delusion that the party led.by the " nobody" Mr.
BEALES was numerically larger than any other, but
then if its leader is nobody it is not likely that his
followers are somebodies. Nobody is an unfortu-
nate word for the Standard to have used. It em-
braces the very essence of the whole question.
The people led by Mr. BEALES are, politically,
nobodies, and both they and their leaders naturally
wish to be somebodies. The English Constitution
recognises them as individuals, and what they assert
'is, that " the largest and most united party" have
succeeded in depriving them of the rights which the
Constitution of this country accords them. If these
rights be conceded, the Standard declares that then
a Parliament will be formed in which poverty and
uninstructed numbers will give law to rank, wealth,
and intelligence. For a lengthened period rank,
wealth, and intelligence have given law to poverty
and uninstructed numbers. The more confined the
oligarchy of rank, wealth, and intelligence became,
the worse, and the more oppressive was the law
they gave. The broader the constituencies have
been made, the more has equity entered into the
framework of the laws given. The " nobodies'
argue that they have been deprived of their ancient
" rights" by the usurpation of rank and wealth.
The narrower the constituencies became under the
influence of this rank and wealth the more corrupt
they grew—the lesser became the nobodies, and
the greater the somebodies It may be very un-
reasonable on the part of the vast* mass of this
nation to desire to have a. voice in their Govern-
ment, but somehow or other the people have become
penetrated with this wish, and are not likely to
rest till they have tried their strength with
" the largest and most united party." It is
not their desire to uproot any English
institution, or unduly to weigh against any class.
They wish simply to recover the rights of which
their forefathers have been deprived ; and to secure
a system of legislation which will fairly represent
the 49-50ths of the people who have now no voice
in the Government. It is a fact that most of the
great reforms carried out in this world have been
inaugurated and engineered by nobodies, for the
very simple reason that it is not the privileged
classes that lead movements directed against their
own privileges. If the people of this country waited
till the Duke should be born to lead them, they
would have to wait for some time before they re-
cover their rights, and they prefer taking the best
leaders they can get, and engineering the movement
with material to their hands. It may be a matter
of congratulation to the Standard that their leaders
should besuch obscure agitators, and their means of
engineering so poor ; but if the Standard, and other
organs of Tory opinion, continue to write so much
about these obscure persons, they will at any rate
soon cease to be unknown to one Englishman out
of a hundred, and this reproach will cease to be
urged against them. The League is much obliged
t 6 the Standard, which is a very widely cir-
culated penny paper, for giving such prominence
to its requirements. Fifty thousand pounds are
wanted to carry on the organisation of the League,
and our influential contemporary gives to this more
than the publicity of an advertisement. We were
not aware of this till informed by the Standard,
but now that we know it we wish all our readers to
know it also. Were money really required in Eng-
land to strengthen a movement which excites such
general sympathy throughout America the sum
would be quickly forthcoming ; but the English
people are well able to meet the small wants of the
Reform League.: Should the battle become very
hot, and an arpeal be made to the friends of the
movement in America, it would then be time for
us to announce the fact. At present there is no
such necessity. In proof of this we may state that
a few days ago the Standard gave some statistics,
showing the sum which would be lost to the opera-
tives of London if they obierved the •holyday an-
nounced by the League for the 3d December next.
That sum amounted to hundreds of thousands, and
if they could afford to sacrifice so much money on
a mere holyday, they can afford to keep the
movement alive, which is their only means of
attaining to a political existence against
the opposition of the " largest and most
united party" in the kingdom. In conclusion, we
must remind the Standard that it is a Tory measure,
and not the standard by which the Reformers
can be estimated fairly. It is a very good and in-
diligent standard when measuring its own giants,
but a standard which has an unfortunate habit of
expanding when taking the measure of those op-
posed to its politics. People, that our eyes and our
intellects tell us are great men dwindle down to
the dimensions of Tom THUMB when this standard
is brought to bear in estimating their bulk. Mr.
BEALES and the other obscure agitators are not,
therefore, likely to be much affected by the an-
nouncement of their relative importance, though
some of them might naturally be surprised.—Anglo-
, American Times.