The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-31 00:00:00

befitting the-occasion. They certainly never anti-
cipated so grand a welcome. They did not know
whether there would be any yachts or yachtsmen at
Cowes. The reception they had met with was un-
speakably gratifying, and such as none of the Ame-
rican gentlemen who accompanied him ever dreamt
of. (Loud cheers.) He should always cherish a
grateful recollection of their kindness. (Cheers.)
The VICE-CnAirt3sAN (i\l. J. B. Bird) proposed
" The health of the Chairman, their much esteemed
Representative." Sir John, they all knew, was noble,
generous, and good ; ever ready to come forward
and assist in anything calculated to benefit his
fellow-men. (Cheers.)
The toast was drunk with all the honours.

The CHAIRMAN said he had been alluded to as oc-
cupying the honourable position of their represen-
tative. He was the last man to import politics into
a social meeting, but this much he must be allowed
to say—the vessel of the State had not now per-
fectly clear weather or smooth water before her.
Before many weeks were gone he would be called
upon to take his humble place among the crew which
manned her, and he should endeavour to do his duty
by those who sent him there. He only trusted they
might take a leaf out of the log of the Henrietta,
and copy the example of her gallant captain—
(cheers)—that they might know when to crack on
and when to lie too, and that they would be able
alike to avoid the pitiable timidity which always
hugs the shore, and the reckless foolhardiness which,
without chart or soundings, would enter upon un-
known and stormy waters. (Loud cheers.)
" The Press" was next given, and replied to by
Mr. Fiske, of the New York Herald.

" The Health of the Mayor of Newport," and
several other toasts followed, after which the com-
pany separated.

On Saturday morning the Henrietta, Fleetwing,
and Vesta weighed in company, from Cowes Roads,
and setting all canvas, made sail to the eastward for
the inspection of the Queen and the Royal Family
from the grounds of her Majesty's Marine Palace at
Osborne. Abreast of Osborne the yachts ma-
nceuvred and fired a Royal salute, the Queen at the
time being observed on the beach at Osborne with
several of the Royal Family, evidently looking with
great interest at the three noble vessels as they
sailed gracefully past in review order, and fired the
salute from their miniature ordnance.
On Friday night Lord Lennox invited Mr. Bennett and
the Commodore of the New York Yacht Club to meet the
Duke of Edinburgh at dinner. Mr. Bennett having an-
nounced that he held himself in readiness to accept any
challenge from English yachtsmen, the Duke of Edinburgh
agreed to sail him round the Isle of Wight in August next
for £lOO, the Duke to sail in his own yacht.
The Henrietta will sail for Havre early this week.

Miscellaneous American News.

In the annual report of the Director of the Mint
a complimentary reference is made to certain im-
portant improvements in the mode of parting gold
and silver, made and introduced by Andrew Mason,
Esq., Melter and Refiner in the New York Assay
Office. The improvements are to be introduced
into all the Branch Mints. These are of general
interest to refining establishments, and consist,
first, in so adjusting the melts for granulating that
the pure gold, instead of gold bullion, shall consti-
tute one-third of the mixed metal ; and, secondly,
in burning the gold in strong sulphuric acid after
one treatment in nitric acid. The first charge of
nitric acid is to be made larger than the first in the
old process, but twenty per cent. less than the
amount in both, while the consumption of fuel is
greatly reduced and much disagreeable labour re-
moved. It is estimated that the saving in one year's
business would amount to $lO,OOO, rating the cost
of refining, at fiity per cent. greater than in New
York.

', MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 31, 1866.

ton.. It would have been placed in the western part
of Pennsylvania had any inducements been held out
to the managers to do so.
The profits of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New
York, for the month of October were $60,000. The
average number of guests daily were six hundred,
and the estimated profit on each was $3 per day.
Mr. S. R. FisK, who is one of the guests on the
racing yachts, intends to remain for some months in
Europe, where he will collect matter for publica-
tion on his return.
The returns received at the Land Office from the
local office at lonia, Michigan, show that 12,855
acres of the public lands were disposed of during
October, 6,453 acres of which were taken for actual
settlement under the Homestead law. The sales
amounted to $13,195. Under date of Nov. 19th,
1865, the Governor of Wisconsin certified to the
Secretary of the Interior that 2;) miles of tho,
tary waggon road from Fort Wilkins, Copper Har-
bour, Michigan, to Fort Howard, Green Bay, Wis-
consin, for which a grant of lands was made to
these States by the Act of March 3, 1863, to aid in
its construction, has been completed, as required by
law.

Two Spanish frigates have left Cuba to compel
Honduras to observe neutrality in the Chilian
question, and also for the purpose of protecting
Spanish commerce in the Central American waters.
Secretary M'Culloch has prepared a new Tariff
Bill, which will soon be presented to Congress. It
is anti-protective in character. The Secretary pro-
poses a reciprocity scheme for the government of
our trade with Canada, in some particulars re-
sembling that repealed at the last session of Con-
gress.

The following tests of the strength of differen
kinds of rail to resist the blow of a hammer have
been made. The rails were placed under the steam
hammer separately, resting on blocks of iron placed
14 inches apart. Each piece of rail was about three
feet long, and each received the same drop of ham-
mer weighing 700 lb. :

No. blows
lbs. to yd. rec'd from
steam hammer.
Cast-steel rail 6O 83 3.4 in.
Steel-headed rail 6B 42 3.4 in.
Eng. rail, 2 samples 56 ea. 21 ea. 3.4 in.
English rail 56 13 broke
Our Common rail 56 13 3.4 in. 3.16 in
There was no fraeture in any of the above rails ex•
cept the English rail marked " broke."
Mr. Bessemer recently stated, at a meeting a..
the British Association, that American iron—so far
as be had seen it—was peculiarly adapted to the
manufacture of steel by his process. The presence
of sulphur and phosphorus in Staffordshire and
other prominent English irons has been thought to
limit the value of the process to but few kinds of
irons ; but by a recent invention of Mr. George
Parry, of Ebbw Vale, which has been purchased
and improved by Mr. Bessemer, this difficulty has
in a great measure been done away. The new im-
provement is simply a preliminary puddling process
by which impurities are removed. The iron, after
being thus treated, is to be remelted and partially
recarburised, and then acted upon in the converters
n the regular way. Engineering illustrates the
mechanical puddling furnace invented by Mr. Bes-
semer to enable the process to be carried out on a
large scale. By these improvements an immense
field will be open to the Bessemer process, by
enabling it to be applied to irons not previously
available, and will no doubt tend to reduce the cost
of Bessemer steel throughout the world.
The gross earnings of sixteen of the principal
railways, whose stocks are dealt in on the New York
Stock Exchange, were $53,177,425 during the first
nine months of this year, against $54,338,917 in
the same time last year ; a decrease of little more
than 2 per cent. ; while the nett earnings of all the
roads, owing to the reduction in the cost of
material, and to some extent of labour, were larger
than 1865.

Bent. Dented.

1.16 in,
1.8 in,
1.8 in.