The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-08 00:00:00

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The annexed Circular Memorandum was issued
yesterday to General and. Staff officers and officers
commanding infantry regiments, , depot battalions,
and depots, relative to instruction in musketry :
" Horse Guards, March 26.
"The General Commanding-in-Chief, having reason
to believe that rifle practice is impeded in consequence of
soldiers not being sufficiently practised in the platoon
exucise before being handed over to the Instructor of
Musketry, finds it necessary to remind commanding
officers and others that this, as well as other portions of
the company drig, should be taught by the Adjutantand
Serjeant-Major ,• that the present system of 'platoon
was promnigatedso far back as June,lBs4 ; consequently
that every reg:meet and depot ought to have been long
since proficient therein, and that General officers will be
expected to bring to notice every instance which they
may have observed of continued neglect in this par'Acu-
lar, t 3 which they will be pleased to give their especial
attention at the ensuing inspections.
" Captains and subalterns are requested to attendrifle
practice with their companie., and to make themselves
eqnel ly acquainted with the instruction of musketry, as
well as battalion and company drill, of which, indeed, it
is a component part.
" Field officers should also render themselves conver-
sant with the theory and practice of musketry, and it is
more especially incumbent on commanding officers, who
(and not the rifle instructors) are responsible for the effi-
ciency of their men, to acquaint themselves with this
m. eb important part of the soldier's training by careful
study Of the book of regulatiene, by giving their personal
superintendence to the drill and practice of companies
under the instructor, and by availing themselves of the
assistance and informatian to be derived on the subject
from the district inspectors of musketry at their periodi-
cal visits ; and his Royal Highness looks to General offi-
cers of districts, divisions, and brigades to see that all do
their duty in this as on every other head of service.
"All serjeant-majors of infantry are to go through
the curse at the school of musketry, and those at home
are t be held in readiness to proceed to Hythe on the
next relief of detachments.
"This order is to be read to the assembled officers of
infantry regiments, depot battalions, and depot.
"By command.

"G. A. IVETIIERALL, Adjutant. General."
An order was received at Portsmouth yesterday
for expediting, by night and day work, the gun-
boat flotilla ordered for China.
The Transit iron steam troopship, Commander
Ennis Chamber? went to Spithead on Monday
night, and left yesterday for China, with the troops
before reported.
Yesterday the head-quarters, staff, and two troops
of the 3d (Prince of Wales's)Dragoon Guards, com-
manded by Col. J. D. Dyson, arrived at Chatham
from Dublin, under orders to proceed to Canter-
bury Barracks, where this regiment is to be sta-
tioned. The following officers also arrived with the
head-quatters--vlz. Capt. H. Marsh, Lieut. C. B.
Mulville, Lieut. H. W. Berkeley, Cornet G. It.
Rawlinson, Cornet and Adjutant J. Don, and As-
sistant-Surgeon 0. J. White. The 3d Dragoon
Guards to relieve the 11th Hussars, removed to
Hounslow.
The Minx steam-vessel, Lieut. Roe commanding,
arrived at Spithead yesterday evening from the W.
Coast of Africa station. She left Ascension on the
.'3(l ult., and Sierra Leone on the 27th. She has
been exceedinglyhealthy the whole term of her ser-
vice on the coast. She has been 60 miles up the
river Lagos, settling the disputes with King Koski.
She brought a small mail. She left at Ascension
the French men-of-war Dragon and Phlegethon ; at
Sierra Leone the British steam men-of-war Medusa,
4, Com. Raby ; Trident, 6, Corn. F. A. Close ;
Hecla, 6, Com. Aplin • and Insolent gunboat, the
latter repairing her boilers ' • with tide French war-
steamers Jean d'Arc and Euphrates. The Minx
brought home as pr.s.sengers Mr. Sturdee, Master
RN. of H.M.S. Tortoise; and Mr. Young, As-
sistant-Paymaster, of ditto.
The screw steamship James Watt, 91, Capt. T.
V. Anson, and the screw steamship Nile, 90, Capt.
G. N. Mundy, which arrived on Sunday from Ports-
mouth, were inspected on Monday in Plymouth
Sound by. Port-Admiral Sir Wm. Parker. The
James Watt went into Hamoaze on Monday, and
the Nile wiil go up to-day; both their crews are to
be paid off.
The screw steam gunvessel Nimrod, 6 Captain
Roderick Dew, arrived at Plymouth on Sunday
with mails for China.
The paddlewheel steamvessel Dee, 4, Master-
Commander T. C. Pullen, left Plymouth on Mon-
day with supernumeraries for the eastern yards.
The screw steam gunvessel. Surprise, 4, Com-
mander S. Cresswell, went from Hamoaze into Ply-
mouth Sound on Monday to try her machinery.
The Scorpion, 6, Master-Commanding J. Parsons
(1855), has arrived at the bt ore from the. West
Indies, where she was employed as a surveying vessel.
She is ordered to be stripped and paid off into or-
dinary at Chatham.
A number of invalid troops who were sent from.
Chatham garrison to Bath, for the purpose of under-
going medical treatment in that city, have returned
to the hospitals at Chatham, and a fresh party of
invalids will be forwarded, it having been found
that the troops experienced great benefit from their
treatment at Bath Hospital.
A new 91-gun two-decker screw steamer, to be
called the Atlas, is proposed to be laid down at
Chatham dockyard, to be built after the same dimen-
sions as the Renown, 91, recently launched there.
The screw steam-sloop Miranda, 15,Capt. H. Hall,
which left Malta on the 4th of March and Gibraltar
on the 28th, entered Plymouth Sound yesterday
afternoon, but left again for Sheerness under Ad-
miralty orders. She has about 20 supernumeraries
and invalids from the Black Sea fleet, and landed
at Plymouth part of the crews of the merchant brig
Sera?ha, of Swansea, and the bark Uncle Charlie, of
Liverpool, both wrecked at Jaffa on the 3d Feb.
Captain Bunce, Captain Fitzgerald, Lieut. Hill,
Lieut. Thompson, and Lieut. Macey, in command
of a detachment of the Royal Marine forces at head-
quarters who 'are under orders for embarkation,
assembled on ,Woolwich-common yesterday morn-
ing, in order to go through a theoretical course of
exercise and drill, preparatory to being supplied
with the new Enfield rifle, in which they are or-
dered to be thoroughly mstructed.
Lieuts. Dodson, Blake, Ley, and Donellan, in
charge of 180 rank and-e of Royal Marines, were
yesterday morning paraded at head-quarters,
Woolwich, and having been inspected by the Com-
mandant, they proceeded to Deptford dockyard to
relieve Lieuts. Travers, Sims, Arwett, and Willis,
with the detachment on guarcrthere.
Captain O'Connell's 7th company, 3d battalion,
and Captain Forde's Ist company, 4th battalion,
Royal Artillery, under orders for Canada ; and
Captain Chancellor's Ist company, 4th battalion,
with Captain Waller's 2d company, 14th battalion,
for Halifax, are to embark to-day from Woolwich
Arsenal on board the ship Lebanon.
The Moorsfort and the Nelius are likewise' or-
dered to go down to Woolwich to embark the four
companies of Artilleryunder orders for Hong Kong.
The screw steam store-ship Hesper was yesterday
morning undocked at Woolwich, after being fitted
with Griffith's patent screw-propeller, and the gun:
boat Leven was admitted into dock to complete her
fitment for China.

The Admiralty yacht Banshee is ordered to leave
Woolwich to-day at 11, and proceed to Dover, to
convey his Excellency Feruk Khan, the Persian
Plenipotentiary, and suit 9 to Calais.

Her- Majesty's screw steam-frigate Euryalus,
Capt. G. Ramsay, C.B. arrived at Spithead on
Monday night at sunset from the North American
and West India station, and left yesterday for. Ply-
mouth, to be paid off.
The office of Private Secretary to the First Lord
of the Admiralty has become vacant by. the resig-
nation of Mr. Thos. G. Baring. Mr. C. N. Kempe
has been appointed private secretary to Mr. B. Os-
borne, vice Mr. Stapylton; resigned. Mr. E. N.
Swainson has been appointed private secretary to
Mr. Phinu, vice Mr. Graves, promoted.
The following appointments were made at the Admiralty
yesterday afternoon :
Commanders—C. E. Ff. Vernon, to the Cordelis ; Thos.
Goss, to the Coast-guard.
Surgeon—Dr. W. Wood, to the Haat' g
Assistant-Surgeon—Dr. Thos Ciogbleum,l'o. the Hastings.
Mr. .1. T. Partridge and Mr..
T. Greet have been nomi-
nated Masters' Assistants.

THE MISSING AUSTRALIAN STEAMER,

The last accounts of the Oneida are to the 4th February,
on which day she left King George's Sound--a post just
within the south-west point of Australia, and to which
she had kept her time to the day. For her safety there are
no apprehensions, brit that her machinery has met with
some derangement there is little doubt, for, having kept
here time in the hardest part of her passage, the perform
anee of the rest could be calculated to a nicety. Had her
machinery become deranged shortly after rounding Cape
Leuwin, the south-west extremity of Australia, she would
probably make for Swan River, as the nearest settlement,
and on the delivery of the Simla 's mails on Monday we
shall know how far this may be from the dates thence. She
may, however; have met 'with the accident after reaching
midway between Cape Leawin and Ceylon, in which case
she might endeavour to reach the latter under canvass,
bat, failing her ability to do so, the island of,Mauritius,
though more distant, would be under her lee, and for that
she could proceed. The Cambria advises us that the mail
steamer which the colonists had put on the line between
Mauritius and Suez at their own expense, without any aid
from Government, bad arrived at Suez with dates from
Mauritius of the Ist March, but without any accounts of
the Oneida. Her non arrival at that island we take no ac-
count of, as it is the la,t place she would bear away for,
her commander knowing he could always reach it, being
dead to leeward on nearly the whole of his track. There
is still another course that he may have pursued, and that
is to steer direct for Aden, for which the winds would be
more favourable than for Ceylon. As to any apprehension
for the safety of the ship and her living freight, none what-
ever need be entertained from this delay, as any accident
which would deprive her of the aid of her machinery
would involve more than the loss of this much time.—
L iverp9ol