The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-05 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

On Saturday Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Talbot,
Acting Commander-in-Chief at the Nore, accom-
panied by his suite, inspected the screw steamer
Conqueror, 2,845 tons, 500-horse power, Capt. W.
B. Luard, on her return from China and Japan,
with the battalion of Royal Marines. The Admiral
was received on board with the customary honours,
and inspected the principal parts of the vessel, mus-
tering the whole of the ship's company, and wit-
nessing their exercises at quarters. Before leaving,
Sir Charles Talbot expressed to Capt. Luard and
the officers his satisfaction with the appearance of
the vessel after the lengthened period she had been
in commission, and the nature of the service on
which she had been engaged. The Conqueror has
taken up moorings in the harbour, and will be
placed in the steam basin, where she will be dis-
mantled and put out of commission.
A falling barometer and a stiff southerly gale in
the Channel during Thursday night offered another
chance for the trials of the 12k-ton guns and their
carriages on board the Minotaur on the succeeding
dav, Friday. As soon as the atmosphere cleared
sufficiently to admit of objects being seen within
moderate distance of the ship, she weighed her
anchor at Spithead, and, with Capt. A. C. Key and
staff on board, steamed out to the southward in
search of rough weather. A sea heavy for the Chan-
nel was soon fallen in with, but, as on previous oc-
casions, the ship was found much too large to be
strongly influenced by it, her utmost motion when
she lay in the " trough" was not quite ten degrees.
Rolling thus, at what may be fairly termed a maxi-
mum swing of nine degrees each way, the motion
of the ship was easy and regular, and without that
sudden lurching movement which has been sought
for by the ship on her trips, but which she
seems destined never to fall in with. The Mino-
taur is, in fact, as we have stated before, a ship
of too large a tonnage for the present trials. A
Channel sea produces but slight effect upon her, and
a cruise into the Bay of Biscay she is not in
a fit state yet to enter upon, nor could Captain
Key spare from his other duties the necessary time
for such a trial. A continued gale entering the Chan-
nel from the Atlantic may occur and bring with it
such a sea south of the Isle of Wight. as may yet
supply the necessary conditions, and if such an op-
portunity does occur we may depend upon its being
taken due advantage of. It is, however, considered
that enough has been done already to demonstrate
satisfactorily to the most sceptical the possibility of
working 1.2 i-ton guns on a ship's broadside when-
ever a ship's gunports can be opened at sea. This is
of the gravest importance, but it is the. opinion en-
tertained by Capt. Key and his officers, and all who
have conducted or witnessed the trials of the guns
so far as they have yet gone. It is also an opinion
that will be confirmed in its soundness by the intro-
duction of improved mechanical aids in mounting
and working the guns, for, if with the present crude
ideas that direction now being developed by practice
on board the Minotaur so much has already been
achieved, it may very confidently be presumed that
with these same ideas perfected, or possibly super-
seded altogether, by new and better forms, 121-ton
guns will in future be worked as securely and fired
as rapidly on the broadsides of our ironclads as were
the 6-inch and 8-inch guns on the broadsides of our
earliest wooden built screw frigates, before iron-
planked frigates were thought of. From the results
of the experimental firing on board the Minotaur on
Friday no other opinion could indeed be entertained
even if all consideration of what had been done pre-
viously was discarded for the time being. What
practice took place was made from the gun mounted
on Commander Scott's iron carriage and slide, and
the gun mounted on the Admiralty pattern wooden
carriage and slide, the latter fitted with eccentric
rollers, &c., on Capt. A. C. Key's plan, and with
Cunningham's running in and training chain and
winch. The guns were held, in both instances,
under perfect control, under greater control, indeed,
than the old 8-inch or 32 pounders, as usually
mounted and worked, would have been under similar
circumstances. Up to the present time nothing more
need be said about the competitive gun carriages
and their fittings on board the Minotaur than that
the iron box-girder carriage and slide has a very
great advantage over the only rival it can be said
to have at present on board—the iron carriage and
slide from Woolwich arsenal. This is due to its very
superior finish, and is the more remarkable as the
former was made in the factory of the dockyard and
the latter in Woolwich arsenal. The running-in
gear and the compressor fitted to this gun have thus
far answered admirably, but the training gear wants
simplification. The Cunningham traiining and
running in chain gear is simple, and there is no loss
of force by friction ; but it also is open to improve-
ment in some of its details. A part of the chain
gave way on Friday, but the damage was merely
temporary. From the confined space between the
ports on the Minotaur's main deck, where the 121-
ton guns are mounted, there is not room for work-
ing efficiently proper chain training gear such as
Mr. Cunningham's, or, indeed, the triple descrip-
tions of training gears fitted to the Scott gun, but
with a greater space between the guns, which must
be given where they are permanently carried, the
training of the guns in rapid firing from one extreme
angle to the opposite will be carried out with much
greater care, regularity, and rapidity than it can be
at present on board the Minotaur. The 12i-ton
gun has become so associated with the turret prin-
ciple of shipbuilding, from the fact of the Royal
Sovereign carrying that description of gun, for want
of a heavier weapon, in her turrets, that some may
imagine if we succeed in carrying and fighting this
description of ordnance on the broadsides of our
ironclads at sea there will be then no need of turret-
ships. No idea could well be more fallacious.
Whatever the weight of the gun may be which
will be carried on a broadside gun on board
ships of war, all our experience goes to prove that a
turret-built ship constructed on the same lines
would carry guns in her turrets of treble the weight,
yet necessarily fewer in number. The Minotaur
returned to Spithead from the Channel on Friday
evening, and remains anchored there in readiness
for further experiments.

Two 6-inch armour-plates for the double-screw
frigate Penelope, building at Pembroke dockyard
from the designs of Mr. E. J. Reed, were tested at
Portsmouth on Saturday, under the supervision of
Capt. A. C. Key, C. 8., of her Majesty's gunnery
ship Excellent, and under the new conditions of trial
as recently laid down by the Admiralty. Under
the old conditions the armour-plate to be testedwas
bolted on the side of some old wooden ship selected
for the purpose and fired at from the deck of a gun-
boat
moored at a distance of 200 yards, with al
95cwt. 8-inch smoothbore gun, throwing a spherical
shot with a powder charge of 161 b. Under the new
conditions the plate and the gun are but 30ft. apart,
the same weight of shot being thrown at the plate,
but now propelled by 131 b. instead of 161 b. of
powder as before. To carry this into effect a line-
of-battle ship, previously used as a target-ship, has
been cut down to her lower deck beams, and 30ft.
of the lower deck amidships stripped of the overhead
planking and converted into the " proof room." At
the fore end of this roofless space of the ship's deck
is a massively built athwartiPcl' timber bulkhead,
supposed to give supporting
strengths to the plate
under trial equivalent to the strength given by the
side of our best constructed ironclad. Thirty feet
aft of this bulkhead is the battery bulkhead, faced
with 4i -inch plating, and pierced va•th f our
gunports
through which peer 95 cwt. go„.
Five shots at
each end of each plate under trial is the test, and the
shout distance enables the gunners to plant these
shots so that all overlap each other. Utter disin-
tegration of the metal in the centre of the Btu 11 a „pace
where these five blows are delivered as a matter of
course follows, but upon the txact nature of this
disintegration, and the presence or absence of ex-
tended fractures depends the passing and classifica-
tion of the armour-plate. On Saturday the guns
being loaded and pointed at the plates magnetic
tubes were placed in the gun vents, and all hands
were ordered to the deck below. Here a small mag-
netic instrument was connected by wires with the
magnetic tubes in the guns. A few turns with
the handle of this instrument \vas succeeded by
a deafening exploSion, followed in a few seconds
by a shower of iron; the remnants of the broken-
-up shot falling on the deck overhead. This

repeated the required number of times,;according to
the number of plates under trial, concludes that part
of the test applicable to the guns, the other part
being the less exciting one of the measurement and
comparison of the results on the face of the plates.
Messrs. Cammell's plates on .Saturday passed
through their trial successfully.
The Cumberland, 24, Capt. G. Randolph, guard_
ship of the steam reserve squadron in the Medway,
had her crew paid down to 12months, on Saturday,
after which alarge number of the hands were granted
leave of absence for various periods; for the purpose
of visiting their friends, the liberty men leaving for
London by an early train in the afternoon.

The screw steam frigate Doris, 30, having had her
bottom cleaned and valves overhauled, was removed
from No. 1 dock in Keyham steamyard on Friday
and placed in the lock. This week she will be re-
moved to mooring in Hamoaze, preparatory to her
being put in commission by Capt. Vesey.
The screw steam frigate Liffey, 39, having been
overhauled in Keyham steamyard, was removed on
Saturday into Hamoaze, preparatory to her being
placed in Devonport dockyard, in order to be pre-
pared for the first division of the steam reserve.
The screw steam corvette Rattlesnake, 21, Com-
modore Eardley-Wilmot, C. 8., recently returned
from the West Indies, was placed on Friday under
the sheer hulk in Hamoaze, where her masts and
bowsprits were removed. She is now alongside the
Devonport dockyard to complete dismantling, after
which her crew will be paid off.

The Liverpool screw wooden frigate, 35, Captain
Lambert, sailed from Spithead at noon yesterday
for Plymouth Sound and the Mediterranean.
The military invalids brought to England from
Hongkong and the Cape of Good Hope in Messrs.
Teighe and Smith's ship Gresham were disembarked
On Saturday and forwarded to the Royal Victoria
Military Hospital at Netley. A board of officers,
consisting of Rear-Admiral Wellesley, Col. Shad-
well, Adjutant Quartermaster-General, Dr. Innes,
the principal medical officer of the S.W. district,
and other officers, afterwards assembled on board
the Gresham to inquire into the causes of the ex-
cessive rate of mortality which had prevailed among
the troops during the voyage home, upwards of 40
men, women, and children having died on board
since the vessel sailed from Hongkong. The report
of the board was to the effect that the large number
of deaths was solely attributable to the weak and
sickly condition of the troops at the time of embar-
cation at Hongkong, the accommodation afforded
to the troops on board the ship, the height between
decks, and their thorough ventilation, proving the
Gresham to be a ship of unusual excellence for troop
carrying duties. The officers accompanying the
troops on the voyage expressed themselves in terms
of warm admiration of the conduct of the comman-
der of the Gresham, Mr. Brayley, and especially
with the manner in which he endeavoured by every
means in his power to anticipate the wants of the
sick during the voyage. The Gresham is bound to
London to discharge her cargo, but was detained at
Spithead up to last evening by the rough weather.
The 17th Lancers, who have occupied the cavalry
barracks at Colchester since their return from India,
have received orders to hold themselves in readiness
to proceed to Aldershot, and it is expected that they
will take their departure some time in March. It is
understood that they will be succeeded at Colchester
.by the Ist Dragoon Guards, which regiment will
shortly arrive in England from Madras.
Rear-Admiral Robert Spencer Robinson is to be
Controller of the Navy for a further period of five
years ; his appointment is to date from the 17th
instant.

The following appointments were made on Satur-
day at the Admiralty :—Lieut. Lawrence P. Wil-
- Lieut. Henry Fox, and Lieut. W. Thresher, to
the Doris, commissioned; and Lieut. J. Buchanan
to the Gladiator, vice Croke.

The Late Mr. Gibson.

.0-

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
ROME, Jan. 30.

On Saturday it was my melancholy duty to re-
port the death of our distinguished countryman,
John Gibson. I have now to describe the honours
which were rendered to him on the occasion of his
funeral, which was solemnised yesterday at two
o'clock. No sooner was the sad event known than
a general desire was felt and expressed to mark in
some peculiar way the respect which was felt for a
great artist and a good man, and a hurried meeting
of his friends was called at The English Academy of
Arts on Saturday evening. A considerable number
attended, and the Hon. Mr. Walpole having been
voted to the chair, the Dean of Down and several
other gentlemen addressed the meeting, some of
whom were of opinion that a public character should
be given to the funeral. As some difference of opi-
nion existed from a regard to the well-known un-
ostentatious character of the man whom all wished
to honour, and perhaps from a fear of meeting with
opposition on the part of the Government, it was
decided to leave the arrangements in the hands of
Mr. Penryn Williams and Mr. Spence, the attached
friends and Roman executors of the deceased. Mr.
Macbean and Mr. Ercole, the bankers, at the re-
quest of the executors, conducted the arrangements
for the funeral. Invitations to attend were issued
to the members of the Art Academies, to the Em-
bassies, to the English residents and visitors, and
to many foreigners ; while placards announcing that
the funeral would take place on Monday at 2 o'clock,
were posted in the English church and other public
places, the clergyman of the American church
reading it from the pulpit. The body was re-
moved from the house early on Monday morning,
and taken very privately in a hearse to the English
Protestant burial-ground, where it was deposited in
the little chapel erected there. It was a lovely
morning when we drove out of Rome to pay our
last homage to our friend—just such a morning as
an artist might have desired on which to sink to
rest after life's long toil. Before us and behind us
were carriages full of ladies and gentlemen, and
many persons on foot—the healthy and strong, all
tending to the same spot as ourselves. " Five-and-
forty years have passed," said one of my compa-
nions, Mr. Severn, " since I travelled the same
road to attend the funeral of my friend Keats, be-
tween whose imagery and the creation of Gibson I
find no slight resemblance." On approaching the
cemetery it was evident that a large crowd of per-
sons had already assembled. Outside the gate was
a platoon of French soldiers, whose officer was
placed for the time under the direction of the Eng-
lish authorities. With a courtesy and kindness
which cannot be too highly appreciated, General
Montebello accorded this mark of respect to our
deceased countryman, who had been honoured by
the Emperor with the decoration of the Legion of
Honour. Artists were in great force ; all the resi-
dents and visitors among the English and Ame-
ricans of any consideration ; many of the French
and Germans, and not a few of the Romans were
there assembled, and, as was very evident, not
merely to do honour to the man who had attained
the highest eminence in his profession, but to mani-
fest their regard for one who was as much beloved
in private as he was respected in public life. I never
witnessed so large a crowd so fully impressed by one
deep sentiment. It is a beautiful spot is the Eng-
lish Protestant ground in Rome, lying as it does
close to Monte Testaccio on the one hand and to
the Aventine on the other. The very irregularities
of its surface add to its appearance, and relieve it
of that dull uniformity which usually marks the
resting-place of man. Tall, sombre-looking yew-
trees on one side stand there, the silent and perma-
nent mourners for the dead, while flowers, the
flowers of spring, which seemed to have stolen im-
perceptibly on winter, seemed to say that genius
and virtue can never die. By 2 o'clock nearly all
had arrived, and oc the order being given the com-
pany of French soldiers marched in and took its place
on either side of the path which led into the chapel
where the first part of the service was to be per-
d.Bythesideofi the coffin, covered with black
cloth,per-
formed.
re
stood two ladestoion, adnede deep t
he
rothers mourning
of th
e;
more
were the pall-bearers,
intimate friends of the deceased ; and outside were
massed a crowd of friends ready to fall into the pro-
cession.

The Rev. Mr. Watts, the resident curate of the
Protestant church, read the service, and on the con-