The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-25 00:00:00

gage the Austrians horn what it is to compete with
the French. The peace now signed has no solid
basis, and cannot be considered as lasting in its

character.

Last night a public meeting was held in Holborn
to take into consideration the removal and eviction
of numbers of the poor women, children, and aged
men of the district, because their dwellings were re-
quired for improvements in Holborn valley. The
resoluticks passed were very sensible, and deserve
attention. One of them was to the effect that the
I crowded condition of the poor in houses not fit for
human habitation " was an evil of such magnitude
in this city that it called for the immediate atten-
tion of the Legislature." A letter was read from
Mr. TORRENS, which contained some truths on the
subject. It said that harder things have been ac-
complished, but now more needful and useful than
this result of rectifying the evils under which the
poor suffer in this respect. It is indeed a disgrace
to our civilisation that such hardships should be in-
flicted on those who are not able to protect them-
selves. We trust that something decisive will be
done in this question next session. Lord DERBY
has the credit of being the first to turn the
attention of Parliament in that direction ; and
though some declared he was mistaken in
his opinion- the time has shown that he was only
too correct in predicting that great misery would
ensue from the thoughtless conduct pursued of
driving out the poor tenants without providing them
with a habitation. In a letter to the standard of
to-day this subject is alluded to, and it is truly said
that great discontent prevails among the poor of
the metropolis in consequence of the great hard-
ships that are inflicted on them through the change
so rapidly taking place in so many directions. As
for the large buildings erected for the poor the writer
states that " really one could gather such a cloud of
witnesses to prove that none of the poor we are
speaking of could afford to live there that one is
almost ashamed to be compelled to make the asser-
tion." The great increase in house rent must be
also taken into account, and it is no exaggeration
to say that, both directly and indirectly, the many
schemes for the improvement of the metropolis press
hardly, upon the poor. At the present season it
it is particulaily to be deprecated that so
much overcrowding should exist; and it may
be noticed that people are very prone to
descant upon the want of care and cleanliness ob-
servable in the dwellings of the poor, without
taking into account how difficult, if not impossible,
it is to prevent such evils under the present system
that prevails. To leave the wretched classes here
alluded to to the tender mercies of landlords is a
great blunder of political economy, and it may also
be called an unrighteous act on the part of autho-
rities, for it is neglecting those who are not able to
defend their own cause.

The members of the British Association have been
discussing a matter of great national and political
importance. In section G mechanical science,
those vital points of national defence, which have
so long perplexed our statesmen and burdened our
taxpayers were regarded in their scientific aspect.
In this section Captain NOBLE read a very valuable
paper "on the penetration of shot, and resistance
of ironclad defences," in which:he detailed the re-

Isults of some experiments on iron plates, which had
been made by the Ordnance Committee. These ex-
periments were made with the view of ascertaining
the power of resistance of ironplates to steel-shot,
and as this is a matter upon which it is imperative
that our authorities should arrive at some definite
conclusion, it will be interesting to examine the
result. The general rule was penetration, and al-
though the experiments were not fully carried out,
this fact was considered established. The plates were
41 inch and 51 inch, and the experiments were made
with shells and spherical shot. It was proved that
the plates might be perforated by heavy shot at low
velocity, and still more effectually by light shot at
a high velocity. • This was the result of direct
firing, much greater force of shot being required
for oblique firing. The superiority of steel
shot was found to be very strongly marked,
cast iron projectiles being nearly useless
against armour plates. The pointed shot was
found to be superior to either the flat or the
hemispherical, and the substance of the con-
clusions arrived at was, that iron plates, as a
rule, could be penetrated by steel projectiles
from a 12-ton gun. Iron-built ships, in which
the backing is composed of compact oak or
teak, offer more resistance than wooden ships
similarly clad: The general result of the experi-
ments were not, however, very satisfactory as to the
invulnerability of our ships, and Admiral Sir E.
BELCHER, had some reason on his side when he said
that unless it were possible to render vessels abso-
lutely impenetrable it was better to leave them
unarmed. Such is, in fact, the principle which
modern science has adopted with respect to our
troops. This principle, however, is not accepted in
naval warfare, so we must go on trying our guns
against our ships, and our ships against our guns,
until the odds are pretty fairly #alanced. Sir
WILLIAM ARMSTRONG, no mean authority, who was
present during the discussion, objected to the use of
long projectiles, expressing his belief, which appears
theoretically well pointed, that a long projectile
would have a tendency to crumple up instead of
damaging the plate against which it impinged.
Colonel SYKES looks. on all modern inventions as
hopeless, and after candidly telling the assembled
company that he believed the millions which we had
spent on our fortifications had been thrown away,
he stated a new and very unpleasant idea by asking
whether it would not be possible to destroy the
crew of an American 111onitor I.iy stopping up the
ventilating shaft? These uncanny-looking vessels
are not very popular in the service already, but if
the sailors are to anticipate such an unheroic catas-
trophe, they will be still less inclined to go into
action with them.

Such are the differences of opinion on a
very practical matter, and we need not wonder
that doctors disagree in questions of theory and
speculation. But, unfortunately, this matter of
national defence is something more than a mere
abstract problem to be solved this way or that way
according to the favourable theory of the moment.
We have spent precious years in debating and con-
sidering on experiments, and the end of it is that,
after an expenditure to be reckoned by tens of mil-
lions, we should find ourselves, if suddenly plunged
into war, in a very awkward position. No one
wishes to go to war if it can be avoided, but the
most extreme member of the Peace party would
admit that it was a position unworthy of England
to keep up naval and military establishments and
to be unable to protect herself. Yet what is the
fact? The weakness and inefficiency of the Navy
is notorious, and the lack of naval reserves has
been reluctantly admitted in Parliament by the
chief of the Admiralty himself. As for our troops,
a battle on the Continent throws us all into a panic
from a conviction that our men are armed with an
inferior -weapon. What have our authorities been
about? The advantage of the breechloader has
' been recognised for some time, and the arms might
have been earlier adopted in the service. .With re-
ga;•d to the navy we have certainly been called