The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-07 00:00:00

RAILWAY BILLS.

In Lord Iledesdale's Committee, on Tuesday, the
following bills were passed :—The Bristol and Exeter
(additional powers), to raise £125,000 by shares and
£41,500 by loan ; the South Yorkshire (to raise
£150,000 by shares and £50,000 by loan) ; and the
Wrexham and Minera (transfer). The Presteign,
Clun, and Bishop's Castle was adjourned. In the
Standing Orders Committee the Macclesfield,
Knutsford, and Warrington Bill, to raise £400,000
by shares and £133,000 by loan, was passed.
In the General Committee of the louse of Com-
mons the following bills were passed :—The Stour-
bridge ; the North British and Leadburn, Linton,
and Dolphinton (Amalgamation); the North British
(St. Margaret's Diversion), to raise Z 40,000 by shares
and £13,000 by loan ; the North British (New
Works, &c.), to raise additional sums of £160,000
by. shares and £53,300 by loan ; the North British
Strling, &c., Branches) ; the Brynmawr and Blaen-
avon, to raise £50,000 by shares and £16,600 by
loan ; the Devon Valley and North British (Arrange..
ments), to raise £20,000 by shares, to enable the
North British to subscribe £60,000; the New Rom-
ney, to raise £85,000 by shares and £28,300 by loan;
the Bedford and Northampton and the Longton,
Adderley Green, and Bucknall, to raise £60,000 by
shares and £20,000 by loan.

In seven other committees the following bills were
heard and adjourned :—The South Eastern and Lon-
don, Chatham, and Dover (London, Lewes,. and
Brighton) Bill; the Midland (Ashby and Nuneaton,
&c.) ; the Midland (Branches, &c.) and London
and North Western and Midland Counties Coal
Fields; the Pembroke and Tenby, the Swansea and
Clydach, and the Swansea Vale ; the Llantrissant
and Taff Vale Junction and the Ogmore Valley
(No. 1.) ; the Caledonian and Scottish North East-
ern, the Caledonian (Corstorphine Junction), and
the Caledonian
(Lanarkshire, &c., Branches).

GRAND JUNCTION CANAL.
The half yearly meeting of this company was held
on Tuesday, at the office, Surrey-street, Strand ,
.
Mr. Anderson in the chair.
Mr. ROGERS, the secretary, read the report, which
stated that the net receipts for the past half year
had been £36,122, or an increase of £991 over those
of the corresponding half of 1864, while the expen-
diture had been £893 less. The works of the canal
were in good order. The committee had purchased
the wharf property on the Paddington embankment
for £12,000. To meet the existing and threatened
competition by railway companies, and with the
view of the entire or partial conversion of the canals

' between London and Birmingham into a mineral
and goods railway, they had instructed the engineer
to make a survey, which would be completed in
about a month. The profits for the half year, after
paying interest on the preference stock and working
expenses, amounted to £26,513, which, added to
the balance in hand, made a total of £32,755, from
which the committee recommended a dividend of
£2 ss. per share, free of income tax, leaving a ba-
lance of £7,264.
The CHAIRMAN, congratulating the shareholders
on the sound condition of the undertaking, moved
the adoption of the report and dividend, which hav-
ing been agreed to, a vote of thanks to the chair-
man concluded the proceedings.

Naval and Miltary Intelligence.

We understand that Capt. H. W. Hire, of her
Majesty's screw troopship Orontes, has submitted to
the Admiralty a plan for utilising the present
" bridges" on the upper deck of troop and other pas-
senger screw steamvessels as " lifeboats." The screw
now having superseded paddlewheels in these ves-
sels, the old paddlebox lifeboat is lost as a means of
saving life at sea, or of landing quickly any large
body of troops. It is with a view to meet this de-
ficiency that the plan now proposed as the joint de-
sign of himself and Mr. John White, shipbuilder, of
Cowes, has been so far matured. A boat is to be
built for the Orontes which will also serve as a
bridge. It will be 10ft in width and 50ft long, the
breadth of the ship, and it will be constructed on
Lamb and White's patent. When launched from
the ship and filled to the gunwale with water, it
will, by means of air cases, be able to carry 150
men, each man carrying with him 20 pounds of food
or stores. There can be no doubt as to the fitness
of Lamb and White's patent in the construction of
such a boat, and the most important point after-
wards remaining for consideration is the mode pro-
posed forgetting the boat in and out of the ship from
its bridge position, above the level of the hammock
nettings, to its boat position, afloat on the water
alongside the ship, and back again from boat to bridge.
This is accomplished in the following manner:—The
boatis mounted athwart the ship's deck as a "bridge"
on a platform which is nothing more or less than a
set of launching ways, the keel of the boat fitting

in a groove, and the bilges of the boat resting on
the side "ways." These ways are pivoted in the
centre on stout stanchions, and their ends are held
in position over the ship's hammock netting on each
side by screw stanchions. The ship's bulwarks next
these screw stanchions are cut into a large pore on
each side rather wider than the boat, and when open
throw outwards. If the boat has to be lowered,
the screw stanchions are lowered on the side re-
quired, the port opened, and the boat on its ways
lowered down until the lower end of the ways rest
on the ship's side over her waterway. The striking
up then of an ordinary dogshore releases the boat,
and sends her off and afloat alongside the ship. In
getting her in again two threefold tackles, from davits
fixed at each end of the ways, lift one end of the boat
on the lower end of the inclined ways ; another
tackle from their further end hauls the boat into its
seat ; the ways and boat are then swayed into posi-
tion again, screw stanchions are set up and fasten-
ings made good, and the whole has now become a
bridge again. The boat is thus got in and out of
the ship without any purchase from her masts and
yards. The platform of the bridge is formed with
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boat and its ways when in position on board a steam-
ship as her bridge. This, however, Capt. Hire will
have to deal with ; and if the scheme can be carried
into practical effect a very considerable addition
will be made to the troop-landing powers of our
screw troop steamships and to the life-savingpowers
of all our screw steamships at sea.

The Royal Sovereign, 5, turret-ship, Capt. Herbert,
has landed her gun from her after-turret at Ports-
mouth, and made ready for the firing test at her
after turret from thelo-inch rifled gun now on board
the iron frigate Bellerophon, Capt. E. Tatham, also
lying at Portsmouth. No day has yet been named
definitely for the experiment, although, of course, all
kinds of rumours are current both as to time and
conditions, but the steel shot have been received at
Portsmouth dock-yard, the 10-inch gun is mounted
on board the Bellerophon, the gun has been dis-
mounted and landed from the after turret of the
Royal Sovereign, and both ships have but now to go 1
out of Portsmouth harbourto make the experiment.
The Pearl, unarmoured screw corvette, 1,469 tons,
400-horse power, Capt. J. F. Ross, fitting out at
Portsmouth for service in China, received yesterday
bronze and silver coin to the amount of about $500,000
for conveyance to Hongkong. The Pearl is complete

for sea.
The large floating shears in Chatham harbour,
which have been employed for some weeks past in
lifting the engines, machinery, and iron masts on
board the armour-clad frigate Northumberland, in
• Victoria-docks, were yesterday towed back to Chat-
ham dockyard, their ser %ices being no longer required.
The old line-ef-battle sailing ship Belleisle, for-
merly used as an hospital ship in Chatham harbour,
; has, on the application of the committee of the Sea-
[ men's Hospital Society, been lent by the Admiralty
to be used as an hospital for seamen arriving at the
port of London suffering from cholera. The Belle-
isle has been towed round from Chatham by the
Medusa, paddle wheel steamer, Ma3ter- Commander
Potter, but during the passage up the Thames was
run aground. She was got off during the following
tide without having sustained any but trifling in-
juries.
The hired transport Queen of the Clippers, J.
Hitchens, commander, and the Ariel, T. Winter,
commander, are now at the Royal Arsenal pier,
Woolwich, taking in cargoes of hutting materials for
military accommodation in the Island of Bermuda.
The former ship will carry 220 tons, consisting of
iron beams, girders, planking, &c., and the latter will
ship a similar cargo, amounting to about 800 tons,
and will be ready for sea in a few days.
The Italian ram vessel Affondatore has left Mill-
wall, having been completed for sea. She is now
at Greenhithe, it is stated, swinging for the adjust-
ment of her compasses, and her convoy, the Prin-
cipessa Clotilda, has gone down from Woolwich to
Gravesend to await her arrival there, in readiness
to proceed to Naples, their present destination.
The Duke of Cambridge, Field-Marshal Com-
manding-in-Chief, visited Aldershot Camp on Mon-
day, and reviewed the troops at the station. His
Royal Highness, accompanied by Major-General
Lord George Paget, Inspector-General of Cavalry,
and Lieut.-General Sir Hope Grant, Quartermaster-
General, arrived at Farnborough by the 8 o'clock
train from London, and immediately proceeded to
Cove Common, where the infantry were drawn up
in quarter distance column by brigades, The march-
ing past of the division being dispensed with, field
manoeuvres commenced, lasting without intermission
for nearly two hours. At the conclusion the regi-
ments were ordered home, and marched past his
Royal Highness in op m column of companies. The
Duke then proceeded -to Elmoor, where the cavalry
brigade was formed up. No time was lost by an
inspection or marching past ; but the regiments im-
mediately proceeded to manoeuvre by the new pivot
drill, at which they were employed for about an
hour and a half. After this they were dismissed to
their quarters.
On Monday Majo :-Gen. Sir Robert Walpole,
K.C.8., in command of the troops in the Chatham
district, commenced h is half-yearly inspection of the
corps of Royal Engineers, at head-quarters. The
inspection was commenced at 10 o'clock by Major-
Gen. Sir Robert Walpole, attended by his staff, in-
specting
the barrack buildings, halls of instruction, ,
lecture rooms, schools, t aces, and other portions of
the Royal Engineer establishment, accompanied by
the officials at head-quad. .tors. In this duty he was
occupied until the afternt ion. The entire force at
head-quarters numbers 9 5, non-commissioned offi-
cers and men, together upwards of 100 officers,
including the 7th, 11th,
21st, 22d, 35th, 36th, 37th,
38th, 39th, and 40th comp ani
es The garrison
hole of the companies
toordaesrssemisbslueedindirreevcitee h
review
orderte lv't
a the inner lines for
the customary inspection and
id-day manoeuvres ;
but the heavy rain which fell 414,r, ing the afternoon