The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-03 00:00:00

By A. ES KELL. Surgeon• Dentist, Grosvenor-street, W.

"The present may be looked upon in some measure as a
popular supplement to the author's former work, 'A Treatise
on Dental Surgery ;' and should be perused by those who are
troubled with their teeth."—Morning Advertiser, Aug. 31,
1865.

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Sold by Simpkin and Marshall, and may be had of all book-
sellers.

Demy Bvo., price Is.,
WHAT FOOD TO EAT.
Y By W. W. IRELAND, M.D. (late of lI.M. Bengal Army).

London : F. Pitman, 20, Paternoster-row.

Just published, extra cloth gilt, gilt edges, price 3s. 6d.,
DIAMOND DUST.
Collected by ELIZA. Coox.
London : F. Pitman, 20, Paternoster-row.
Second Edition, extra cloth, price Is. 6d.,

•
THE LITTLE THINGS OF NATURE.
By LEO H. G nut port, Author of "Life : its Nature," Ac.
"It has seldom been our lot to read a book more beauti-
fully written and more deeply interesting than the one before
us."—Christian News.

•" He presents scientific facts, whether physical or metaphy-
sical, in a form which makes them far more relishable than
the most imaginative novels."—Norfolk News.

Lobdon : F. Pitman, 20, Paternoster-row.

Second Edition, dewy 4to , cloth, price 7s. 6d.,
ryinE PSYCHONOMY of the HAND ;
1 or, the Hand an Index of Mental Development, accord-
ing to MM. D'Arpentigny and Desbarrolles. With thirty-
one tracings from living and other hands. By B. BEAMISH,
Ac., Author of "Lite of Sir M. I. Brunel."

London: F. Pitman, 20, Paternoster-row.
Fcap. Bvo., extra cloth gilt, gilt edges, price 3s. 6d.,
LOVE : a Selection from the best Poets, by
THOMAS SHORTER, Editor of "A. Book of English
Poetry," ac. _ _ _

London : F. Pitman, 20, Paternoster-row.
Cloth, price 35.,

VEGETABLE COOKERY, PASTRY,
PICKLING, &C.

This Work contains Receipts for above 400 dishes, pre-
pared without the use of animal food. It possesses an espe-
cial interest at the present time on account of the high price
of meat, and the prevalence of disease among cattle.

London; F. Pitman, 20, Paternoster-row.

11,0YAL FREE HOSPITAL, Gray's-inn-road,
in the immediate vicinity of the Great• Northern Rail-
way Terminus, King's-cross.
Patron—Her Most Gracious Majesty the QUEEN.

Vice-Patron—His Royal Highness the Prince of *ALES, K.G
President—Rio Grace the Duke of BUCCLEUCH, K.G.

This Hospital, founded in the year 1828, the first to estab-
lish the principle of free admission to the sick poor, without
the delay and difficulty of Governors' orders, is wholly de-
pendent for support on voluntary contributions and legactes.
It affords relief to a large number of in-patients, and, in
addition to this, the average number of attendance of the
destitute sick has for a considerable period averaged between
3,000 and 4,000 weekly.
The Committee earnestly solicit the ASSISTANCE of the
benevolent, as the premises of this Hospital are 'capable of
containing several hundred more beds, had the Committee
the requisite funds to maintain them.
Contributions are received by the Treasurer, Edward Mae•
tenant', Esq., Nicholas-lane; also by Messrs. Coutts and Co.;
Drummond and Co. ; Glyn. and Co. ; 114sfries and Co. ; Ransom
and Co. ; Prescott, Grote, and Co.; Smith, Payne, and Co. ;
Barclay and Co. ; W Deacon, and Co.; Overend, Gur-
ney, and Co.: Nisbet and Co., Berners-street ; I. Barned and
C 3., LiVPI7,OOI ; and at the Hospital, from 10 till 5.
STANFORD SMITH, Secretary.

Her Majesty's Ship Royal Alfred.

This frigate, the finest of our converted ironclads,
and intended to be the most powerfully-armed vessel
of her class afloat, differs from all other converted
ships in her Majesty's navy in the disposition of her
armour-plating, closely approaching the ships built
on Mr. Reed's designs in this respect, and, pf the
ships of foreign navies, the Imperial French frigate
Belliquense, recently launched and now fitting at
Toulon for service as a flagship on the Pacific station.
It is worthy of remark here that the Royal Alfred's
arrangement of armour-plating in her central bat-
tery and water-line belt is an adaptation of the
Chief Constructor of the French navy, M. Du Puy
de Lome, as illustrated during the late visit of the
French fleet to Spithead in the partially plated two-
decked ships Magenta and Solferino, and which has
been introd'iced for the firsttime in the frigate form
into the Imperial navy in the Belliqueuse, and now
into our own, as a conversion, in the Royal Alfred.
Beyond this one fact of the similarity in the dispo-
sition of their armour there is scarcely anotherpoint
of comparison in which the two ships agree. The
Royal Alfred is a converted ship, the Belliqueuse
has been built and completed for sea according to
her original plans. Our ship in her conversion has
been specially prepared to carry ten 12i-ton 225-
pounder rifled 9-inch guns in her central bat-
tery, and eight 6i-ton 7-inch rifled guns in unar-
moured (if we except the bows and stern) ports. The
Belliqueuse's armament is not yet, perhaps, quite
decided upon, but her ports have only been fitted
for the French naval breech-loading 84-pounder
gun, and this gun will doubtless compose her arma-
ment to the number of possibly 2Q, part of which
only will be fought behind the armour of the central
battery. In speed the two ships should be about
equal, the engines of the Belliqueuse being 900-horse
power nominal, and those of the Royal Alfred 800.
In looking at the Royal Alfred as she lies afloat in
the basin after floating out of the dock, the spaces
occupied alternately wood and iron on the exterior
of her hull strike the eye in a remarkable manner.
First it is seen that the entire circuit of the ship at
the water-line, and to some 4ft. above the water-
line, is bound round with a band of armour-plating.
The plating is Gin. in thickness along the centre of
each side of the ship, and tapers off gradually thence
to its minimum thickness of 3in., where the extreme
ends at each side meet at the stein and the stern.
This band is the commencement of the protecting
iron plating of the ship. At the head of the ship
this plating, in its tapering thickness, is carried up
from the water-line belt to the beams of the upper
deck, and continued longitudinally round the curve
of the bows nearly to the forward cathead. By this
arrangement provision is made to protect the ship
from being raked by an enemy's guns in the event
of the enemy's broadside being brought across the
Royal Alfred's bows, either by any manoeuvre of
the ship herself or that of the enemy. The outer
hawsepipe on each bow is extended upwards and cut
with a square head, so as to form a gun-port from
which one of the ship's 6i-ton guns can be fired
nearly in a line with the ship's keel. The ship's stem
inclines slightly inboard from the water-line, and is
free of headrails or figure-head, or any superfluous
overhanging weight. From the after-part of this
bow armour-casing the hull of the ship is unpro-
tected above the water-line belt for about 75ft. on
each side, the ten ports in this unarmoured portion
of the ship's gun-deck being fitted for the 6i-ton
rifled 7-inch gun. Next this 75ft. space the
6-inch side armour of the central battery com-
mences, and extends aft to a distance of 100 ft. This
central battery represents the real fighting power of
the ship at close quarters. It is cut off from the for-
ward and after ends of the ship on the gun-deck by
athwartship bulkheads, faced with +inch armour
plates. On each side are five ports, which have been
specially constructed for fighting 12i-ton guns
through. They are about 14ft. apart in the clear,
and measure, on the outside at the armour plating,
35in. in breadth by 44in. in depth, and on the inside
are embrasured to 6ft. This extraordinary size of
the ports, as compared with those of all our other
ironclads, necessarily weakened the ship's side very
much, especially as her old gun-ports, which had
been constructed for 68-pounders only in her first
conversion as a 35-gun frigate, had to be filled up
and fresh ports opened for the large ordnance it has
now been decided she is to carry. To remedy this
weakness the side has been strengthened as far as
possible Aith iron, and the gun-ports arc each faced
outwards with a wrought-iron elliptical-shaped port
plate with the port wrought in its centre. Each
plate is Bft. in length by about Gift. in breadth, and
has a tapering thickness of metal of from 4in. round
the port to liin. at the outer edge of the plate. The
plates are let into the wood planking of the ship's
side, and the 6-inch armour rests upon and bolts
through them. Next in order, abaft this central
battery, comes about 35ft. of the ship's side, un-
armoured above the waterline belt of plating, and
to this succeeds the armour-plating which encases
the ship's stern, which tapers from 4iin. to 3in. as
with the bow plating, and is also pierced with two
gunports, through which, under favourable condi-
tions of weather, a fire maybe opened nearly on aline
with the vessel's keel. All the armour-plating on the
ship is pierced wherever necessary with scuttles for
the admission of light and air on the ship's lower
deck, and also with scuppers for the direct emission
of water from the gun deck. Neither of these advan-
tages is possessed by any other of our converted iron -
dads. The finish of the work in every part is most
[ admirable, and reflects the highest credit on the
master shipwright's department of Portsmouth dock-
yard. The ship is coppered up to her load-line, 27
feet, contact between the copper, or rather Muntz
metal, on the ship's bottom being prevented by a
wooden belt being built from the ship's bottom
below the water line, and overlapping with its upper
edge the lower edge of the waterline armour-belt.
The metal which coats the ship's bottom ceases at
the loadline about half way up this wooded belt,
and thus contact between the iron-plating and the
Muntz metal is afvoided. Inboard the Royal Alfred
exhibits fine roomy decks, upper, main, and lower.
Fitte,d for the duties of a flagship, she has a commo-
dious suite of poop cabins aft, and also a roomy
forecastle forward. The appearance of her main
or gun deck is somewhat remarkable for a wooden-