The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-25 00:00:00

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as many as 20 varieties of oranges, differing in
colour, flavour, and size, and among them all there
is not one that is not wholesome and agreeable to
the taste. One of thcbestis that called cam du-nong,
or orange-sugar ;it is odoriferous, about the size
of the orange of Europe, but rather flattish in shape;
the inside is of a yellowish red. colour. Another
kind, • rather inferior to the above in quality, but
still very good, is the cam-sen, or orange of Para-
dise. The skin and the inside are of a pale red.
It has something of the stimulating sharpness of
the lemon, but is milder and sweeter. The kind
which is superior to all the others is the cam-tien,
or King's orange, and it is in fact, reserved for the
'clic of the Sovereigp. There is no formal prohibi-
tion against the cultivation of this orange, but it is
necessary to keep it secret, for if the tree were
discovered the owner would be compelled to deliver
up all its fruit to the Prince.. It is of the same form
and size as the European fruit; the rind, which is
green, and as fine as the thinnest silk, is almost
transparent ; and the filaments of the inside, of a
rose colour, can be seen through it. When it is
opened it imparts a delightful odour to the room in
which it has been eaten, and no fruit of the species
has a more delicious flavour.

THE GREAT ,EASTERN.

The preparations necessary for fitting this noble,
vessel for sea have at _last been, decided on ' and in
the course of another fortnight or so an army of
workmen will be busily engaged in all parts of the
ship, inside and out. For various economical reasons
it is considered that the work of finishing her in
every respect shoUld be divided between three se-
parate contractors, and though the contracts have
not-yet been finally entered into, there is but very
little doubt but that this will be the course pursued.
To one person will be entrusted the iron work still
requisite in the hull and in the construction of the
poop and masts, while separate contracts will pro-
vide for the rigging and sails and the cabin fittings
and joiners' work. No money will be wasted in
the mere frippery of decoration, though at the same
time all the fittings will be of the best and most
substantial kind and quite worthy the position
which the ship must occupy, not only in England,
but in the mercantile marine of the world. The
design for the poop is complete in all its details.
All of it will be constructed of iron, and some idea
of its size may be gathered from the fact that the
chief dining saloon, 120 feet long by 47 feet wide
and 9 feet high under the beams, will be in that
part of the vessel. There is to be a large number
of bath-rooms allotted to each class of passengers,i
all of which will be kept supplied with hot and
cold fresh and salt water. The contractors are to
commence their work on the 15th of February, and
are bound under penalties to complete all in five
months from that date. The long-expected first
trial trip will therefore take place about the middle
of Slily, when it is intended to run out from Wey-
mouth to the middle of the Atlantic and try the
ship under all possible conditions of sail and steam.
This short voyage will probably occupy about six
days, for the lowest estimate yet made of her speed
allows her 17 knots, or about 181 statute miles an
hour, the speed of a Parliamentary train. What
may be considered as the commencement of
the work of fitting will be taken on Satur-
day next, when the large iron floating
Derrick launched last autumn will be used
for the purpose of hoisting in the main shaft
of the paddle engines and the rudder. The former
weighs no less than 40 tons, the latter 13, and each
of these ponderous masses of iron work have been
finished off with as much care and even neatness as
if they were intended for the works of a clock.
Both these will be deposited in the fore part of the
vessel in order to assist in bringing her more down
by the head when the blades of the screw are being
fixed. The latter have not been attached to the
screw bars, as in case of ice during the winter
enough might have formed round them to have
held such a mass of the loose pack as with the flow
of the tide might have seriously endangered the
ship. Trotman's anchors, by which she is now
moored, would never, of course, have given way ;
but the chains unquestionably might, and, once
adrift, she would instantly, in the nautical phrase,
" have taken charge of the whole river."
So much has been truly said and written as to
the importance of the Great Eastern in a mercan-
tile point of view that all have tacitly overlooked
how, as a vessel of war, she would, to this country
at least, be almost invaluable. In those ever recur-
ring estimates of our national resources with which
two or three suchvessels as the Great Eastern could
afford in time in war is never alluded to, because
never suspected. Yct, in the construction of this
unequalled vessel, and forming a noble model on
which others may be built, our national resources
have, we believe, received such a development as
few at the first glance would perceive. The Great
Eastern, however, would make the fastest, strongest,
and most terrible of all war ships, if war instead of
commerce were to be her destination. Her carrying
power alone would be a most formidable element.
Ten thousand fully-equipped soldiers, with all the
requisite materiel, and even the due proportion.
of staff and field officers' horses, could be trans-
ported at once to any point of need with greater
convenience and in less than half the time now oc-
cupied by the fastest ships, as there would be no
delay for coaling. If even the least sanguine ex-
pectations as to her speed are fulfilled she would
be able to land a complete corps d'armee in India
within 40 days from the time of her leaving Eng-
land, while her vast space on deck would afford a
floating parade ground, on which recruits might be
drilled to a tolerable state of efficiency, even while
on the voyage. The ordinary delays of winds and
currents would so little affect her gigantic steam
power that the time of her arrival with such a
force might be calculated upon to a single day.
With such a rapidly moving fortress and camp-
always at the control of the Government the effect
would be to economise, while it increased our war-
like resources, and, by reducing the distance to our
furthest outposts by one-half, bring about precisely
those results at sea which railways have already
effected on land in military tactics. The difficulties
of the present means of oceanic communication
oblige the Government to maintain larger forces at
all points of the empire than are actually requisite
at one and the same time. With two or three such
vessels as the Great Eastern such a necessity would
be obviated for the future, and the Government
would have increased strength even at a reduction
of the present military establishments. Continental
nations are well aware that the secret of England's
weakness as a military Power is not so much due '
to the smallness of her army as in the necessity for
its dispersion. Once show that the means already
exist for obviating this necessity, and England's
T) osition as a military empire, able in ten days to
tra2sport an army of 30,000 men to any part of
will be second to none on earth. The
EpoulirtlPc.,ti results which would be certain to accrue
train the Government having at its disposal such
I;puld be almost equally important.
iat la
then be, with a closely consolidated cwosids of ships
em-
pire, the power of Grea Britain plus her colonies
and dependencies. M. Lesseps might sink all the
money in France in his Suez Canal, and Mr. Buch-
anan assert American morality and manifest destiny
at the expense of poor Nicaragua. England need
never strive about a right of way wizen her quickest
and safest path would then lie over lier old tradi-
tional element. With fewer continental interests she
would have a higher continental position, and could
afford to leave the passage through Egypt to take
care of itself when her own manufacturing skill said
enterprise placed within her hands the means of
passing by a safer, quicker, and a better path, and
one above all in which none can follow her. Pro-
vided only that the question of the Great Eastern's
speed be satisfactorily determined all the rest is a
natur4 sequence, the end of which we can no more
see now than from Stephenson's first locomotive
could be predicated our present railway system.
The revolution which a squadron of such vessels
would effect in war would be as great as their
results in commerce, and then we should for the
first time really see steam doing for the ocean what
it has already done for the land.