The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-24 00:00:00

/74; 9t-m

Foreign Mail Packet List.

MAILS DUE.

Ditto, via Marseilles Aug. 6
Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton July:2B.
Ditto, via Marseilles July 28.
Mauritius, via Southampton Aug. 19
Ditto, via Marseilles. Aug. 13
Newfoundland
Portugal
Ditto, by private ship to Lisbon. .
United States and British North America, by Bri-
tish packet ... Aug. 1.
Ditto. by United States packet, via Southamp-
ton
Ditto, via Cork
Ditto, by Canadian packet, via Londonderry ..July 27.
West Coast of Africa, Madeira, and Teneriffe ....Aug. 10.
West Indies and ruin° (except Bahamas and
Honduras)
July 30.
Cuba and Mexico July 30.
Bahamas, via New York. July 26.
Bermuda, via Halifax .Aug. 15.

condition of the army transport service, a eeriimila
sion has been issued by the War office to investi•
gate the entire resources of the department, and to
introduce any improvements which, in their expe-
rience, the committee of officers appointed may be
ready to suggest. The commissioners, consisting of
Lieut.-Gen. Sir T. H. Rose, G.C.8., (Presi-
dent), Lieut.-Gen. Sir Duncan Cameron, K.C.8.,
recently commanding the forces in New Zealand ;
Sir Wm. Tyrone Power, K.C.8., Commissary-Ge-
neral-in-Chief ; Lieut.-General Sir Hope Grant,
G.C.8., Quartermaster-General; Col. Gambier,
Deputy-Adjt.-Gen., Royal Artillery; Col. Clarke
Kennedy, commanding the Military Train at Wool-
wich ; Col. Shad.well, Assistant Military Secretary
at the War-office, and some medical officers, went
down to Woolwich Arsenal last week, and having
been received by the heads of departments, they
made an inspection of the whole of the ambulance
and hospital conveyances, transport waggons, pack
Isaddles, &c., belonging to the Military Train, which
were brought down from the encampment on Wool-
wich-common in marching order for that purpose.
After pointing out some material defects in the
ambulance waggons, Sir Hugh Rose observed that
the pack saddles, which had frequently to be used
for the removal of thewounded in parts of the coun-
try inaccessible to carriages, were utterly unfit for
the service. The Commissioners, who devoted three
hours to the investigation, afterwards inspected the
new system of gun carriages in process of manu-
facture in the Arsenal, and also visited the saddlery
department of the Military Store-office, in which
the pack-saddles are made, and consulted with Capt.
Fenn, the superintendent, as to the practicability of
their being improved as proposed.
The well known Lynall Thomas gun, made in the
Woolwich factories, after terminating a preliminary
course of experiments at Shoeburyness, with proof
charges, so as to test its availability for ship use,
was recommended by the Ordnance Select Com-
mittee to be reduced six feet in length, and to have
the breech-piece considerably strengthened. This
has been completed, and the gun was yesterday
shipped in the Mariana for Shoeburyness for a se-
cond trial. Its weight (formerly 16 tons) has been
increased to 18 tons 7 cwt. 2 qrs. 71b., with a 10-
inch diameter of bore, and the rifling has been mul-
tiplied according to the newly-adopted Woolwich
or French principle. The charges are to consist of
601 b. of powder and 4001 b. shot. Thefiring is simply
to test the advantages of the system of rifling recom-
mended by the Ordnance Select Committee. Two
of the Woolwich 12- ton guns have recently burst
at Shoeburyness under proof, and the officials them-
selves admit that the system has never met their full
approbation. The method, it is stated, was clearly
an erroneous one, as proved immediately after it
was ordered to be carried out. The Lynall Thomas
gun, they predict, must inevitably share the same
fate, as the principle itself is totally at fault.
It was yesterday announced in the departments of
Woolwich Arsenal that Lieut.-Col. Shaw, whose
term of service as Assistant-Superintendent of the
Royal Carriage Department will expire at the close
of the month, will return to his brigade and rejoin
the service of the Royal Artillery about to proceed
to India.

His Swedish Majesty's sailing corvette Chapman,
24, Capt. A. Herkepe, from the Western Islands
July 9, bound for Gottenburg, arrived in Plymouth
Soundyesterday afternoon for supplies.
The hired sailing transports Lady Melville and
Ivanhoe arrived at Spithead on Sunday evening
with troops on board from Madras. The Lady Mel-
ville, which has on board the head quarters of the
Ist or King's Dragoon Guards, sailed again from
Spithead at 2 a.m. yesterday morning for the Thames,
having received orders to land her troops at Tilbury.
The Ivanhoe transferred the invalided soldiers she
brought home to the Florence Nightingale, invalid
transport boat, which conveyed them under tow by
a Government steamer to the Royal Victoria Mili-
tary Hospital at Netley. One troop of the King's
Dragoon Guards, which came home in the Ivanhoe,
will be disembarked from the ship this morning and
forwarded on to Gravesend by the 10 40 a.m. up-
train from Portsmouth, via London-bridge. A de-
tailed list of the officers' names and the number of
troops on board, both in the Lady Melville and the
Ivanhoe, was given in The Sun of yesterday. ,
The Hector, armoured iron screw frigate, Capt.
Luard, made a second and successful trial of her
machinery yesterday, in the open water, south-east
of Spithead, under the supervision of Capt. W. C.
Chamberlain, commanding her Majesty's ship Asia
and the steam reserve at Portsmouth. After the trial
the Hector again anchored at Spithead, where
she will be swung to-day to ascertain the deviation
of her compass prior to proceeding to sea.
The Cruiser, 5, unarmoured screw sloop, was
commissioned yesterday at Portsmouth, by Com-
mander E. Field for service on the Austrian station.
It is to be hoped that England may remain at peace
with the world during the period of the Cruiser's
commission !

Australia and New Zealand, via Southampton Aug. 19.
Ditto, via Marseilles Aug. 13.
Brazil and Cape Verde. by British packet Aug. 5.

-
Ditto, by French packet . July
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena.... Aug. 21.
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton.. Aug 3.
Ditto, via Marseilles July 28.
Faikland Islands
Gibraltar, via Southampton July 27.
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton Aug. 8
Ditto, via Marseilles
India (Bombay), via Southampton. July 28.

Great preparations are being made at Kronstadt
for the reception of the Hon. Secretary Fox, now on
his way up the Baltic with the Miantonomah and
Augusta, delegated by Congress to present to the
Emperor of Russia an address from the United
States, congratulating his Majesty on his escape
from the recent attempt at assassination. A special
reception committee has been formed. No doubt
the inhabitants of both Kronstadt and St. Peters::
Peters-
burg will be charmed to receive and to inspect the
extraordinary specimen of naval architecture pre-
sented by the Monitor, a class of ship peculiarly
well calculated for service in the shallow waters
the Baltic. .

A letter from Tripoli reports a fight between a
body of Turkish troops and a strong force of Arab
insurgents near Benghasi. The Arabs are said to
have been defeated with great loss, the casualties
I
among the troops being comparatively trifling.
FAILURE IN TIIE IRON TRADE.— A failure in the
South Staffordshire iron trade was announced in Birming-
ham yesterday—that of Henry Cresswell, of Tipton, who
has filed his petition in the Bankruptcy Court. The liabi-
lities are estimated at £lOO,OOO. Cresswell was connected
with the Rhos Hill Iron Company, and was in fact one of
the promoters of that concern. Some members of his family
carried on the Tipton Iron Works prior to 1857, and a
stoppage took place at the close of that year. A part of
the old liabilities will make up the aggregate of the pre-
sent indebtedness. The estate will, it is feared, be a bad
one for the creditors.

There is an international commission for the Ex-
hibition of 1877, the object of which is the establishment
of the same coinage, weights, and measures throughout
Europe. England is represented by Mr. Leone Levi.
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