The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-23 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The screw steam frigate Galatea, 26, Captain
Rochfort Maguire, lately returned from her station
in the West Indies, wasp laced alongside the sheer-
hulk in Hamoaze on Friday, when her masts were
removed. She was then taken back to Devonport
Dockyard to be cleared out. Her crew will be paid
off to-day, after which she will be placed in the
fourth division of the Steam Reserve.
The screw steam gunboat Dapper, tender to the
Britannia, having shipped stores at Devonport, left
yesterday for Dartmouth.
The screw steam storeship Fox was hauled into
Keyham Steamyard yesterday, for the purpose of
discharging stores.
All the invalids from the West Coast squadron
brought to Plymouth on Friday by the screw steam
corvette Rattlesnake, Commodore Arthur P. E.
Wilmot, C. 8., were sent ashore on Saturday from
the Sound to the Royal Naval Hospital at Stone-
house. In consequence of the continued severity of
the weather, her small spars have been made all
snug. Her powder and live shell have been dis-
charged, and she was ordered to be removed yes-
terday afternoon into Hamoae, where she will be
inspected by the Port Admiral instead of in the
Sound, the usual place of inspection. After being
dismantled, her crew will be paid off at Devonport.
She was put iu commission on the 16th of August,
1862.

Some alterations will take place in the armament
of the ironclad frigate Bellerophon from that pre-
viously ordered by the Admiralty. In accordance
with an order received at Chatham Dockyard, she
is not intended to mount any of the 110-pounder
Armstrong rifled guns at all. Their place will be
supplied by three of the 6-ton rifled guns, of the
Woolwich pattern, outside the gun battery. The
orders given to the War Department for providing
her guns now states that the Bellerophon's arma-
ment will consist of ten 124-ton rifled guns, each
throwing a nominal3oo-pounder shot, which she will
carry on her shot-proof midships gun-battery ;
two 6-ton rifled guns at her bow battery, one 6-ton
rifled gun mounted at her stern, and a 40-pounder
ordinary Armstrong gun fordeck service. The whole
of the 124-ton guns mounted on her central battery
will be trained and worked by machinery, which is
now being manufactured at the dockyard, the me-
chanical appliances already tried with such satisfac-
tory results in the case of the 121-ton gun already
mounted in the Bellerophon having shown that with
a couple of seamen at the training gear, the gun may
be brought round and placed at any angle of the arc
in which she moves in less than a minute, the car-
riage and slides being moved with each gun. It
should, however, be remarked that the machinery
fitted to the ship's guns in the Bellerophon is only
for training the guns, and has nothing in common
with any mechanical appliances to enable 300-poun-
der guns to be cast loose, loaded, trained, and fired
with the vessel in a beam sea, and rolling to the
greatest conceivable angle. Unless some simply-con-
trived machinery easily worked is combined with
arrangements for rapid firing, the 300-pounder guns
which are now being placed on board most of our
ironclad ships will be worse than useless. It is for
this reason that the forthcoming trials of the Mino-
taur are looked forward to with interest, as deciding
the practicability of working the heaviest kinds of
ordnance by mechanical appliances under the most
unfavourable circumstances of wind and weather.

Railway and other Companies.

METROPOLITAN RAILWAY SCHEMES.

The report of Mr. Bazalgette, the engineer of the
Metropolitan Board of Works, states that Parlia-
ment had within the last two years sanctioned 34
railway bills, proposing to construct 165 miles of
railway, at an expenditure of about £15,500,000, with
borrowing powers for an additional sum 0f£5,750,000.
It might have been supposed that the ground was
pretty well filled up, and the metropolitan railway
requirements satisfied for the present. They were
hardly prepared for an addition of 40 new bills this
session, contemplating the formation of an addi-
tional length of 104 miles of railway within the
metropolitan area, at a further expenditure of
£19,000,000 more. The effect of all metropolitan
railways and street improvements was the destruc-
tion of large masses of houses, the occupants of which
were driven towards the suburbs, and the area of 1
London was thereby extended: Much temporary
inconvenience was caused by this process, but its
ultimate illect would be beneficial if a free commu-
nication .between all parts of London was provided
for all classes of the population. The railway bills
for the year 1865-6 include within the limits of de-
viation about 15,000 houses. Assuming that one-
half of that number of houses be destroyed, this
would amount to 1-16th part of all the houses in
London, and the occupants of these must find homes
nearer to the suburbs, and would require ready
means of access to the centre. Many of this year's
projects am competing lines, several having the
same objects in view, from amongwhieh Parliament
would select the best, and the others would proba-
bly be rejected. As usual the metropolitan sewers
must be cut into pieces by the Underground raiiways
and pneumatic tubes, and public roads and streets
were to be raised or depressed somewhat abruptly.
The schemes proposed might be enumerated as fol-
lows :—A tunnel under the river Thames for car-
riage and foot passengers was proposed from Dept-
ford to the Isle of Dogs, and a railway tunnel just
below London-bridge for connecting the city and
southern railways. Two railway bridges over the
Thames just below Putney-bridge, and one just
above it, and close to the Chelsea Waterworks aque-
duct ; also two others between Putney and Barnes,
making five new bridges, in addition to the two
existing bridges, over the Thames within a distance
of a mile and a half.

Four lines of railway were projected to Barnet,
three to Alexandra-park, three to Richmond, four
to Croydon, and two to Clapham.
Three lines are to traverse London from east to
west ; one on the north, one through the centre,
taking the line of Oxford-street from Notting-hill
to Smithfield, and one on the south.