The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-27 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Her Majesty's partially ironclad ship Research,
4, 1,253 tons, 200-horse power (nominal), having
undergone some extensive alterations and repairs
at Chatham Dockyard was on Monday taken on
a final trial of her engines and machinery at the
measured mile, Maplin Sands, previously to her
departure on an experimental cruise. The ship
was in charge of Capt. G. IV. Preedy, C. 8., Com-
manding the Steam Reserve in the Medway, Mr. W.
Eames, assistant inspector of machinery at Chatham
Dockyard, representing the factory department,
with Mr. W. W. Williamson, inspector of machi-
nery afloat. The Research has the whole of her
stores for a six months' cruise on board, with 120
tons of coal in her bunkers. On leaving her moor-
ings her draught of water was 15ft. 9in. aft. and
12ft. Bin. forward. Her engines are a pair of ordi-
nary trunk horizontal engines, by Messrs. Watt and
Co., with cylinders 50 inches in diameter, the pro-
peller being an ordinary Griffiths screw 12 feet in
diameter, and set at a mean pitch of 16 feet; length
of blade 2ft. 31in.., with an immersion of the upper
edge of 2ft. sin. On reaching the measured mile
six runs were made at full boiler power, the mean
speed being 9.339 knots per hour ; load on safety
valve, 2411 b. ; mean pressure of steam in boilers,
19.831 b. ; vacuum in condensers, 29in. ; maximum
number of revolutions, of screw per minute, 81, and
mean 80. The usual number of runs were subse-
quently made with half the boiler-power cut off,
when the speed realised was 8458 knots. The
vessel was put round the full circle in 5 min. 25 secs.,
with the angle of the rudder at 24 deg. At the
close of the trials the usual certificates were given
of the Research being fit for sea, and on Monday
evening she took her departure from the Nore for
Portsmouth, where she awaits final orders from the
Admiralty. Since leaving the Chatham the Re-
search has been supplied with another gun-carriage,
in lieu of the experimental iron gun-carriage with
which she was previously supplied.
The screw steam frigate Phcebe, 35, Capt. Wil-
liam E. Rolland, at Devonport, will be put out of
commission on Friday next, the 29th inst.

The armour-plated screw steamship Lord Clyde,
24, Capt. Roderick Dew, C. 8., is appointed to leave
Plymouth Sound shortly for the Mediterranean.
She will first convoy to the island of Madeira the
iron screw stcamtug African.

The screw steamsloop Petrel, 3, left Plymouth
yesterday for the Cape of Good Hope. She will
first proceed to Madeira to await the arrival of the
African, which she will convoy to the Cape.
When the transport Percy, Capt. Weatherburn,
which arrived on Saturday with troops from New
Zealand, was leaving Plymouth
after-
noon, a very painful circumstance occurred. The
on Monday
transport had just cleared the Sound under tow of
a steamtug, and was well outside the east end of the
breakwater. The weather Was calm, the sea smooth,
and the troops, chiefly the left wing of the 68th,
were dispersed all over the deck. Suddenly a bullet
crashed through a boat suspended over the bulwarks.
It then grazed one soldier and struck another in the
back. He became insensible immediately, and was
at once conveyed by his comrades to the ship's hos-
pital. Col. Morant, who was in command of the
military, proposed returning to the sound, but when

it was ascertained that the bullet had not entered
the wounded soldier, Capt. Weatherburn prevailed
on the colonel to allow the Percy to proceed. At
the time of the accident the soldier was sitting on a
cask on the main deck, close to the poop. The
bullet came from Staddon heights or Bovisand. A
detachment of the 65th or of the 13th Regiment
were practisingwith their rifleson the heights against
a wall built for the purpose, and nearly 100 ft. high.
It seems incredible that a bullet should have gone
over so high a wall and have struck an object 1,200
yards beyond it. It is stated that the artillerymen
at Bovisand sometimes discharge bullets through a
barrel attached to a large gun, for the purpose of
exercise. Colonel Morant sent by the steamtug a
letter of remonstrance to the Commander of the
forces at Devonport, and no doubt a full inquiry
into the circumstance will be made.

General Sir John Macdonald. K.C.8., expired at
his seat, Dunalastair, Perthshire, North Britain, on
the 24th inst., aged 76 years. He joined the army
in 1803, served in South America and at the assault
of Buenos Ayres ; in the Peninsula from November,
1808, to 1813, and in the South of France from
March, 1814, including the Battle of Busaco, lines
of Torres Vedras, affairs of Redinha Pombal, and
Campo Mayor, first siege of Badajos, battle of Al-
buhera, third siege and assault of Badajos, affairs
of Alva de Tormes, battles of Vittoria, the Pyrenees,
25th (had two horses shot under him), 30th, and
31st of July, and Toulouse ; was twice wounded at
the assault of Buenos Ayres, July 5, 1807 ; twice
in the Pyrenees, July 30, and at the assault of the
fortified rock Arolla, where he surprised the enemy's
post in the valley of Banca, October 2, 1813 ; com-
manded the force which was sent to suppress the
Irish insurrection of 1848. Sir John Macdonald
devoted his latter years to the improvement of the
condition of those living on his Highland estates.
In the list of successful candidates for direct com-
missions in the Royal Marine Light Infantry, pub-
lished in The Sun of the 23d under the head of
" Military and Naval Intelligence," it was stated
that Richard B. Deane, who stands second, was
educated at Burney's Academy, Gosport. This
was so far incorrect. Mr. Deane was educated and
prepared for the examination at Ipswich School,
although he was for some seven or eight weeks im-
mediately before the examination at Gosport
Academy.

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD, JUNE 26.

In a Convocation to be holden on Thursday next, the
28th inst., at 10 o'clock, it will be proposed that the Uni-
versity seal be affixed to " the assignment of the lease of
the Angel Hotel to the University."
The Vice-Chancellor's notice on the subject of the Sacred
Poem runs as follows :—"3lr. Stone, to whom the prizo
for the Sacred Poem had been adjudged, has since been
round not to have been a duly qualified candidate, although
ho had reason to believe that the conditions required of
candidates had in his case been duly fulfilled. The prize
is now adjudged to the Rev. B. C. Caffin, late Fellow of
Worcester College."

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury,
in Downing-street. The Ministers present wore—Earl
Russell, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, the Duke
of Argyll, Sir George Grey, the Earl of Clarendon, the
Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, the Marquis of Hartington,
Earl de Grey, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Duko
of Somerset, the Right Hon. T. Milner Gibson, Lord
Stanley of Alderley, the Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, and
the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers.

The marriage of Mr. Reginal Herbert, son of
Mr. W. Herbert, of Clytha, Monmouthshire, with
Miss Giffard, eldest daughter of the late Mr. T. W. Gif-
ford, of Chillington, was solemnized on Saturday at the
Bavarian Chapel, Warwick-street, by the Right Rev. Dr.
Benoni. After the ceremony a breakfast was given by
Colonel Ponlett Somerset, M.P., at his residence in Strat-
ford-place. There were present—The Duchess of Beau-
fort, the Marquis and Marchioness of Hastings, Lord
Henry Thynno, Lord Vaughan and Lady Lucy Vaughan,
Mons. and Madame d'Arcos, the Hon. George and Mrs.
Vaughan, Mr. and Lady Elizabeth Jones, Mr. and Mrs.
Herbert and Miss Herbert, Mr. F. Herbert, Mr. and Mrs.
Smythe, Miss Lucy Giffard, Miss Talbot, Miss do Winton,
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Granville, Miss Dormer, Miss
Throckmorton, Mr. Blount, Mr. Scrope, &c.

DROWNED WHILE BATIIING.—On Monday night
an inquest was held before the coroner at Shrewsbury,
upon the body of Mr. John Poole, who had been drowned
in the Severn on the morning of the same day. From
the evidence it appeared that the deceased, in company
with his father and several of his brothers, went up the
river at half-past six in the morning to have a bathe be-
fore breakfast. They undressed and went in at a favourite
bathing-place about a mile beyond the town, and the de-
ceased and two of his brothers started to swim across the
river. When half way across the deceased was observed
suddenly to throw up his arms and sink, and ono of his
brothers seeing his danger swam to him and got hold of him
by the arm, but the deceased clung to him in such a way
as to paralyze his efforts to save him, and ultimately ho was
compelled to loose him. Ho immediately disappeared under
the water, and though the Rev. Mr. Yonge, who was ono of
the party, dived several times in the direction where he had
gone down, ho failed to find kim. Mr. Tisdale, borough
surveyor, whose house is near the scene of the accident,
being in his boat at the time, went in quest of the body,
and after a quarter of an hour'ssearch succeeded in finding it
about 200 yards from the place whore it sank. From the
medical evidence it did not appear that the deceased had
been attacked by cramp, and it is supposed that, finding
himself in the middle of the river, with a strong current,
ho lost his presence of mind. A verdict of " Accidental
death" was returned. Mr Poole had just passed a success-
ful examination at Oxford and obtained his degree, and had
returned on Saturday last to spend the vacation at his
father's house in Shrewsbury.
TILE FATAL COLLISION AT LONDON-BRIDGE.—
Mr. Humphreys, the Middlesex coroner, held an in-
quiry last evening at the George and Dragon, Shadwell,
on view cf the bodies of Miss Rebecca Eliza Griffin and
Francis Good, two of the four persons who were drowned
by the collision which took place last Sunday week between
the Eagle steamer and a small boat at London-bridge, as
has already been reported, The evidence was substantially
the same as that taken at the previous inquest upon Miss
Sewell, held by Sergeant Payne ; but the cross-examina-
tion by Mr. Morgan Howard, barrister, elicited the fact
that as the steamer "lay dead" (not moving with her
paddles) athwart the river, near the centre arch of the
bridge, the men whose duty it was to look out were en-
gaged in hauling in a rope from the direction of Fresh
Wharf, and although one of the mon said he kept ono eye
on the rope and another on the river, it appeared that the
boat had come nearly through the arch before she was seen.
Of the seven persons in the boat four wore drowned, three
of the deceased being young women, and the fourth, Fran-
cis Good, being a married man with eight children. The
jury returned a special verdict, " That the deceased were
drowned in the Thames accidentally, and that there was
negligence on the part of the steamer Eagle in not keep-
ing a proper look out."
CONVOCATION.—Both Houses of Convocation of
the province of Canterbury met yesterday for the despatch
of business. Tho Upper House, presided over by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, did not enter on any discus-
sion, but having formally received a certain number of
petitions adjourned. The Venerable Archdeacon Bicker-
steth, the prolocutor, presided in the Lower House. The
House was occupied almost exclusively in discussing the
question of ritualism and vestments in the Church.
JEWS' FREE SCHOOL.—The 49th anniversary of

this institution was held yesterday evening at the London
Tavern. The school was founded in 1817, and had its
origin in the feeling then entertained of the necessity of
diffusing the advantages of education among the poor
children belonging to the Jewish persuasion. It has since
its foundation progressed from year to year in the attain
ment of the objects with which it was set on foot, and the
boys' school at present contains 1,350 pupils, while the
number of children at the girls' school is 858. The sub-
scriptions received amounted to about .£2,000.
MANSLAUGHTER IN WHITECHAPEL.—An inquest

was held yesterday by. Mr. Humphreys in Whitechapel-
road, as to the death of Peter Mann, who had been
stabbed by his father-in-law, Patrick Harrington, under
circumstances stated in the Thames police report published

yesterday. The deceased was a comic singer, who, having
been dismissed from a music-hall on account of his violent
character, had latterly been well known to the frequenters
of the " penny gaffs" in the East-end. On Sunday night
he and his father-in-law and others were drinking together
when a quarrel arose, in which deceased knocked his
wife down, struck her, and pulled her about by the hair.
Whilst he was thus fighting with his wife her father
stabbed him in the breast, causing almost immediate
death. The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter
against Harrington.

THE WAR AND TIIE CAPTURE OF SIIIPS.—At
this time, when the subject of seizure of ships by the
belligerent continental Powers is attracti3g deep and
anxious attention, it is interesting to know that the cap-
tures by the Prussians are limited tb the property of the
contending Governments. Tho ship Bremerhaven, cap-
tured last week, was taken on the supposition that it con
tained Government stores; but this turning out on exa-
mination not• to be the case she was released. A portion
of the fleet still remains at Bremerhaven, and one of the
men-of-war had removed the lightship from the entrance
to the port and taken it to sea.