The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-10 00:00:00

THE NAVY.

Her Majesty's steam transport Urgent, Com-
mander J. W. D. M'Donald (with the troops on
board, as enumerated in The Sun of yesterday),
steamed out of Portsmouth harbour yesterday at
noon, and anchored at Spithead. It was blowing
a gale at the time from S.W. She will proceed to
her destination (Malta) as soon as the weather
moderates.
Her Majesty's steamship Algiers, 91, was com-
missioned at Portsmouth yesterday by Captain G.
W. D. O'Callaghan.
Her Majesty's steam transport Himalaya, Com-
mander John Seccombe, at Portsmouth, is dis-
charging a quantity of old ordnance and naval stores
from Malta. She has commenced coaling and filling
up with provisions, &c., for further service.
About 200 men were sent on Monday from the
flagship Impregnable, in Hamoaze, to expedite the
fitting of the screw steamship St. Jean d'Acre, 101,
at Devonport.
The screw steam sloop Racer, 12, Commander
the Hon. T. A. Pakenham, sailed from Plymouth
on Tuesday for the North America and West India
station, touching at Bantry.
The paddlewheel steam sloop Vulture, 6, Captain
F. A. Campbell, which left Gibraltar, January 29,
is hourly at Plymouth.
The Rodney, 90, sailing ship, is ordered to be
navigated round from Portsmouth to Chatham
Dockyard, where she is to be docked and made
ready for sea.
The Trafalgar, 120, in dock at Chatham, being
converted into a 90-gun screw steamer, is nearly
completed, and will be ready to be undocked next
month, when it is understood she will be attached
to the Channel fleet.
The residence of Commodore the Hon. James R.
Drummond, C. 8., aide-de-camp to the Queen and
superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard, is in pro-
gress of thorough repair, and is ordered to be com-
pletely renovated throughout. The attestation of
documents and the performance of similar official
duties connected with the establishment tempora-
rily devolve on Mr. Vincent Williams, of her Ma-
jesty's ship Fisgard, and according to seniority on
any naval officer who may happen to arrive on
duty at Woolwich.
Commanders J. Roche, W. M'llwaine, W. Speck,
T. D. Stewart, and G. Kennicott are promoted to
be captains on the half-pay
.list. Lieutenants S.
Strover, A. Grose, T. Cartwright, T. Brydges, and
W. W. Oke are promoted to be commanders on the
reserved half-pay list.
The following appointments were made yester-
day at the Admiralty J. Bellet and J. Atkin-
son,
midshipmen to the Gannet; J. E, Haines,
second master, to the Calcutta ; George E. W.
Yates, master's-assistant to the Termagant ; Fre-
derick Seaton, master's-assistant to the Gannet;
E. L. W. Wright, assistant-surgeon to the St. Jean
d'Acre ; Matthew Inman, assistant clerk to the
Britannia ; and John C. Sabban, assistant clerk to
the Termagant.
A favourable report has been made to the autho-
ritiesl
of the result of the experiments with the new
description of rifle bullets invented by Captain J.
Norton.

It was yesterday stated in Woolwich Arsenal
that Mr. Armstrong, the inventor of the wrought-
iron rifle cannon, has entered into a contract with
her Majesty's Government, and that a considerable
number of the guns are to be forthwith supplied
for the use of the Artillery.

THE BURNS' CENTENARY.

CARLISLE ALBERT CLUB.

The members of this club and their friends dined
together in the Lion and Lamb Inn, in celebration
of the centenary.. Philip Howard, Esq., of Corby,
occupied the chair, and Mr. D. M'Alpin the vice-
chair. There were about sixty gentlemen present,
every,available seat being occupied, and we believe
that a great many applicants for tickets had been
disappointed. Amongst the company were Mr. G.
Dixon, Mr. R. Dixon, Mr. Davidson, Mr. Aiken,
Mr. T. Donald, Mr. W. Jackson, Mr. G. Mounsey,
Mr. J. Clarke, Mr. Ald. Creighton, Mr. T. James,
Mr. W. J. Fairlie, Mr. J. Irving, Mr. Bowman,
Mr. Bendle, MrDaly, Mr. Alco, Mr. Sowerby,
and other well-known citizens. An excellent dinner
was served by Mr. Milburn, the company sitting
down shortly after five o'clock.
The cloth having been removed, the CHAIRMAN
gave the usual loyal toasts. In proposing the
Prince Consort, he reminded the company that the
club was named of honour of his Royal High-
ness, having been established shortly after the
Royal marriage. In Portugal and some other
countries, he said, the Prince Consort receives the
honorary title of King after the birth of a Prince,
hut although he was without such a title, Prince
Albert had proved himself worthy of the respect of
this country, as a patron of the Arts, and as a man
of cultivated mind.
After the toast of the Army and Navy, also given
by the Chairman, " Scots wha hae wi' Walace
bled" was sung by Mr. Binning.
Mr. R, DIXON proposed " The Mayor and Cor-
poration of Carlisle, " expressing his regret that the
Mayor was not present.
Mr. G. MoUNsEY replied.
nig CHAIRMAN then rose to propose the toast of
the evening, and begged that in the first instance
" The Memory of Burns" should be drunk in solemn
silence. This having been done, he proceeded to
moy that he might have wished that the toast had
fallei to an actual fellow-countryman of Burns, but
he was happy to remember that he had at least one
claim to do it, as he had himself been born in the
metropolis of Scotland, and if therefoie he spoke as
a Seotchman he hoped he might secure their sym-
pathies. In order partly to ascertain the motives
and the instincts that largely guided Burns in his
life and poetry, he would shortly glance at the poet's
predecessors. The grandfather and fore-elders of
Burns held under the Keiths, Marshals of Scotland,
the two representatives of which great house de-
clared for the Stuarts in 1715. Their estates were
confiscated, and the family of Burns were involved
in the same ruin, and were driven from their hold.
ings at Dunnottar, in Kincardineshire. This would
account for the strong leaning towards the Royal
House of Stuart evinced by 'Robert Burns, besides
which the cause of adversity naturally engaged the
generous mind of our bard. The great uncle of the
poet made his way to Montrose, and was successful
in trade ; and from him, in a direct line, sprung Sir
Alexander Burns, whose fall we had to lament in
Cabul. The grandfather and parents of Burns
Continued to adhere to their rustic pursuits. Wil-
liam Burness or Burns the father of the poet, was
obliged to flit from his holding and seek his for-
tunes elsewhere. He struggled against adversity
with unflinching fortitude, his character being
touchingly drawn--
poem the Cottar's by his son in that beautiful
Saturday Night. His mother
there also
and we know fnni appearsr as the thrifty housewife,
her biographer that she
shared her husband's anxiltty to secure a good edu-
cation for her children. wa,
was not correct to speak
Burns
of as an uneducated man, or even altogether
as a self-educated man.(Hear, hear.) Scotland
hadthe glory of having established a system of gene-
ral education—dating from 1646—which gave her
a start over almost all other nations. It was to that
system, as well as to the intellectual vigour and s
energy of her sons, that cotllniictlwed her position
and her influence aurotea.
forerunners of Burns as Allan Ram:;;;,';—n(l7- if we
looked looked to India we would see that great part
machinery of that great empire had been organised
and conducted by the sons ofCaledo
Caledonia. Hear.)
anear.)
To a relative of his mother, John Murdoch,
in-
dustrious pedagogue, Burns owed great part of his
education, and always mentioned him with kind-
ness. Burns first drew his breath near Ayr—
•' Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a toon surpasses
For honest men and bonnie lasses."
But it was at Kilmarnock that his poems first saw
the light; and perhaps the difficulties that lay in
the way of publication by one in his
“positionby
were
no disadvantage. Some authors had,
y faltering
steps and slow," approached the temple of Fame—
he, by one vigorous bound, reached its portals.
(Hear.) The appearance at Kilmarnock of the first
edition of his poems was like an electricalck, and
his fame spread at ones. This was py attri-
butable to the spread of education, and partly to
the intense patriotism of the people for whom he
wrote and sang. There was something in that Kil-
marnock edition, humble as was its form, that must ,
endear it to every friend of literature, the first I
communication to the world of a genius that had
now become so celebrated. (Cheers.) The Edin-
burgh edition was ushered in under higher pat-
ronage, and its dedication to the noblemen and gen-
tlemen of the Caledonian Hunt was worthy of a hardy
son of the soil
tone. He
would read
once so grateful and so lofty in its
is When you godread the concluding passage—
the poet, "in the fortha to waken the echoes," said
,taent and favourite amusement
of your forefathers, Pleasure ever be of your
When
and may social.await your return
When harassed in courts Joyd
lings of bad men and bad measures,ps with the jost-
consciousness of injured worth attend limy the honest
to native seats ; and may domestic hn pyour return
iss, with
a smiling welcome, meet you at your happiness May
corruption shrink from your kindling-
glance ; and may tyranny in the ruler and
tiousness in the people, equally find you an
able foe !" (Cheers.) These were the feelings
which animated the poet. He (the chairman)
would not follow him through his life nor do more
than allude to the characteristics of his poetry.
Amongst the first of his compositions was the " Twa
Dogs," which was not, as might be supposed from
its title, some description of p. canine scuffle.
Dryden had introduced an intricate argument on