The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-20 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

The experiment of placing a large number of the
troops quartered at Chatham garrison under can-
vas, which was made last summer, having been
attended with considerable success, both as regards
the health and discipline of the men, another:camp
has been formed also this year on the vacant ground
outside the barracks, and within the fortifications,
in order to relieve the crowded Chatham barracks,
occupied by the East India depots, comprising the
first and second battalions. The spot selected for
the formation of the camp is an exceedingly ele-
vated one within the Spur battery, the site being
the same as that chosen for the camp last year. The
ground, having a sloping surface, is well drained,
and well adapted for encamping troops. A
number of commodious tents have been pitched by
the troops, each tent being capable of accommodat-
ing several men together, with bedding, camp fur-
niture, &c. The most rigid rules have been framed
to secure the health and cleanliness of the men who
are to be placed under canvas, and all the sanitary
details will be carried out under the direction of
the medical officers of the garrison hospitals. A
sufficient number of tents having been erected, the
depots of the 10th and 29th Regiments, attached to
the second battalion, vacated their quarters in
Chatham barracks on Saturday afternoon, and
marched into camp, where they will remain during
the summer. Before the troops were allowed to go
under canvas all the tents were inspected by
Major-General Eyre, in order that he might satisfy
himself that nothing was wanting to promote the
health of the soldiers. During the time they are
in camp the men will sleep on portable bedsteads,
the practice of sleeping on the ground having been
found excedingly detrimental to the health of the
troops.
Three officers and 94 men, 2 officers' wives, 2
soldiers' wives, and 4 children of the 2d battalion
Rifle Bripde, with 3 officers and 102 men of the
3d battahon Rifle Brigade, will proceed from Win-
chester to Gravesend for embarkation on board the
Clarence, for
]ooth
on the 23d inst. 50 men ;of
the depot of the o
Regiment will also proceed
Gravesend on the same day from Parkhurst, Isle of
Wight, for embarkation on board the Violet, for
Gibraltar.
Forty invalid soldiers, several of whom returned
to England in the Eastern Monarch, have arrived at
the military hospital at Great Yarmouth during
the past week.
The enrolled pensioners of the Bristol district,
under the command of Lieut.-Col. Whitmore, hav-
ing completed their six days' exercise, were in-
spected on Saturday on Durdham-down
T
by Col.
M'Murdo, C. 8., Commandant of the Military rain.
The men performed a series of evolutions in a vete-
ran-like style, and were complimented by the re-
viewing officer on their efficiency. A large and

fashionable company assembled to witness the re-
view.
The Edmonton Royal Middlesex Regiment of
Rifles is to assemble at Barnet on the 15th of July,
for 21 days' training.
The men belonging to the South Devon Militia
are appointed to assemble for training at Plymouth
on the sth of July, under the personal command of
Lord Churston.

THE HEAD-QUARTERS OF THE
ALLIED ARXIES.

The following letter has been received from
Milan, dated June 12 :
" Decidedly there is to be no new edition of the
famous attack on the bridge of Lodi. The Aus-
trians, wiser than their forefathers, or perhaps made
wiser by their own experience at the Ponte di Buf-
falora and Ponte di Magenta, have taken the pre-
caution of destroying the bridge. Well, where there
is no bridge, no bridge can be taken. Had this
been done to General Bonaparte, as was intended,
in 1796, it would have been a serious inconvenience
to him, for it would have delayed his following on
the heels of the retreating Austrian army. As for
us, Nous nous en moquons.' The circumstances
are widely different. The passage of the Adda
might have offered some difficulties to the army of
the French Republic, which was scarcely so large
as one of our corps d'armee, but it is no obstacle
worth mentioning for an army like that of the
Allies ; and then we have not the same interest to
press back the enemy's forces as General Bonaparte
had. In his time the Austrians had, militarily
speaking, little or no hold in Upper Italy. Once or
twice beaten in the open field, they had to make
the best of their way to the Tyrol and Carinthia ;
all they could do was to leave a few thousand men
in Mantua, and the war was ended until they could
collect in the mountains fresh forces, and attempt
to regain the lost ground. Now this is all changed.
The Austrians have in the heart of Upper Italy a
kind of Sebastopol, connected with the rest of the
empire, not by long, inhospitable steppes, but by
excellent roads, and in many parts even by rail-
ways. Austria can thus, even better than Russia,
concentrate all her forces at this extremity, which
has been prepared for the purpose by the work of
years and the expenditure of millions. Any pres-
sure on her retreating army would only bring it
nearer to its stronghold, from which it ought never
to have come out ; and no pressure would be suffi-
cient to get into the stronghold together with the
retreating army. In one word, General Bonaparte
ended his campaign at the Mincio ; we have to be-
gin there the second and more serious phase of it.
It is well known that the Austrians are preparing
on a grand scale for this decisive phase of the Ita-
lian campaign. They have changed their comman-
der, who has contrived to lose at least 50,000 or
60,000 men in less than a week.
" The King left last night, the Emperor this
morning—a sign that the campaign is about to be-
gin again. The sooner the better. The distances
are so small that we may hope to be in time to
take advantage of the demoralising effect of the
first blows, and anticipate the reinforcements ex-
pected by the Austrians from the interior.
"Milan, to him who saw it during the presence
of the Allied Sovereigns, seems almost a city of
the dead. It is as if the burst of enthusiasm had
exhausted the vital power of the city, and as if it
required some repose to recruit its strength. The
communications, which had been interrupted by the
war, are being gradually re-established. The rail-
way from this to Como has already begun to run ;
that to Magenta will very likely be opened to the
public as soon as it is no more required for the
army. When this is done there will be, with the
exception of the little distance from Magenta to the
station of San Martino, an uninterrupted railway
communication to Turin and France. What an
advantage for reinforcements and stores !
_

" On the Venetian line the Austrians have carried
away the locomotives and most of the carriages, but
the deficiency will be supplied as we advance ; as
for damaging the line itself, they could do little,
except here and there a bridge, which can be re-
stored in a very short time.
" The new Governor of Lombardy scarcely ap-
pears in the foreground, so quietly and smoothly
does the organization of the country go on. As you
saw from the decree which I sent you yesterday,
as little as possible has been changed, the object
being not to devise the best possible government,
but one that should be ready for the emergency.
All that has been done, therefore, is to remove the
number of foreigners whom the Austrian Govern-

ment employed in the public offices, and to concen-
trate the government in the hands of responsible
persons with considerable power, instead of the
collective body which had been such a nuisance in
the late Austrian Administration.

"In the financial organization of the country the
same system has been followed as in the political one.
Here are the two decrees which relate to it :
" VITTORIO EMMANTJELE, &C.

" Seeing our decree of the Bth inst., considering
the necessities of the national war, and in virtue of
the extraordinary powers conferred upon us by the
law of the 25th of April last, on the proposal of
our Council of Ministers, we have ordered and we
order as follows :

"' 1. The direct and indirect taxes which exist
at present in the Lombard provinces are provi-
sionally maintained, excepting what is changed by
the following article :
" 2. As to all that concerns the sale of articles
belonging to the Regia Privative,* the posts, tele-
graphs, and Custom-houses, the taxes, laws, and
regulations now in force in the other parts of the
Royal States will be applied in Lombardy by
special order of the Governor.
" This assimilation completed, the Custom-
house line between Lombardy and the other pro-
vinces will be suppressed.
" We order that the present decree, provided
with the Seal of the State, be inserted in the
archives of the Government, calling on every one
whom it concerns to respect it and make it re-
spected.'
" Another decree orders as follows :

1. Henceforth, during the war, the munici-
palities, or those who enforce the Excise duties,
can exact no tax from or lay any obstacle in the
way of the importation and exportation, deposit, or
consumption of any kind of provisions which may
be furnished for the service of the national and
allied troops, either directly through the instru-
mentality of the military administration or by
private enterprLe and requisitions.
" 2. If hereafter it should be proved that, by
the dispositions of the preceding article, the com-
munity has received a much smaller revenue from
the Excise and octroi than the average of the last
two
years it will receive an equitable compensation
for its losses.
"3. Any law or disposition contrary to the
present one is abolished.
" VITTORIO EMMANUELE.
Milan, June 9, 1859.'
"Thus, with very few exceptions, Lombardy will
be governed for the present by the same forms
which have existed hitherto ; the Lombards will
have to pay the same taxes, and you will see the
spectacle that wuhnaaterwas insupportable
will be, and is already,
strange
submittedian rtuole
natural,wh whole
le
Italian and,
question, turn it as
cheerfullyu n der the
reisfi etehs they
e,
a self-chosen Go-
vernment. Every one thinks it
will bear
you like. Let the foreigner,
tshheomuldecituhaelrley bweelreaHt greater
es alei
like Jerome Paturot, go and search after the best,
not of Republics, but Governments, and find it too ;
has
he will not be less detested than hebeen under
the spirit-killing bureaucratic system .which has
been kept up hitherto in Lombardy. It a matter
of feeling, or call it instinct—animal instinct, if you
like—but so it is. As the gray and red partridge
will not dwell together, so it is with some races,
and more especially with the German and Italian.
Nothing can ever conciliate them.
" As the two cannot dwell together, and neither
will yield, they must fight for it. The proclama-
tions of both the Emperor and the King say clearly
enough that the thing is not done yet, and that the
Italians must help themselves as far as they call.
The appeal has not been in vain, for within the last
two days above 4,000 volunteers have enlisted from
this town alone. The display of military splen-
dour durinf, the presence of the Allied Sovereigns
has, no doubt, contributed to attract the youth, but

even without it there would have been a fair -eon-

tingent. A proof in this respect is the success of
Garibaldi, who, in spite of what he had to pass
through, and in spite of the little attraction which
a small body of men, with greatcoats for uniforms,
and often scanty fare, presented, still contrived to
recruit largely on the road. It is on the peasantry
in the north and the cities, both in the mountains
and in the plains, that we may chiefly reckon for
active co-operation.

* Monopolies of the Government, such A 3 salt, tobacco,
gunpowder, &c,

THE PANAMA ROUTE AND THE
AUSTRALIAN LINE.

The following letter has been addressed to a con•
temporary :
" Sir,—The long-looked-for tender has at last
appeared (conveyance of mails to Sydney and Mel-
bourne, via Panama and New Zealand). I trust
you will find space in the columns of your valuable
journal for these few lines, as they are penned by
one who has not only travelled the Panama and
Suez route, but has visited 37 islands in the South
Pacific and has been a resident in New Zealand for
upwards of 20 years. F rom experience it is my
intention to suggest to the contractors of this line
the names of two or three places suitable for their
stations, as well as a few remarks upon the route
generally, and my reasons for such suggestions.
The boon so long sought for and now about to be
conferred upon the Australian colonies, will not only
be of the greatest importance to the Australians,
but to the company accepting the tender, providing
the contractors display a liberal feeling towards the
Australians, which feeling they may rely upon
will be responded to by the colonists. I am
glad to find that the feelings of the Victorians are
now in favour of this line. It is well known, at
all events among ourselves, that our imports and
exports are annually between 50 and 60 millions
sterling, consequently a fortnightly mail with the
mother country is much required ; passengers from
the Australian colonies will not (with few exceptions,
and on emergencies) pay £l2O to be transferred
from there here, neither will they pay 7d. an ounce
freight on gold dust when a sailing vessel will
bring it home for 3d. per ounce. I find that by
the last Royal Mail steamship Oneida, from Aus-
tralia here, her passengers were 114, gold on freight
£77,000 ; rates of adult passengers, £9O each. In
the last of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's
vessels, Emu, from Australia, there were only 14
passengers (excluding 6 from Adelaide) ; passage-
money by the Peninsular and Oriental £l2O for
adults, European servants £6O ; gold on freight
about £3,000 (hardly worth mentioning). The last
departure of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Com-
pany's ship Teviot took out to Australia 31 passen-
gers ; the last departure of the Peninsular and
Oriental Company's ship Ceylon took out only nine
passengers to Australia ; the Great Britain auxiliary
screw steamship, from Australia to Liverpool, comes
home round Cape Horn in 65 days, bringing 325
passengers (first, second, and third class) ; passage
money ranging from £l5 to £7O a head per adult,
and upwards of £lOO,OOO worth of gold—the
freight on gold I presume at a reasonable rate. I
maintain that any steam company, assisted with a
large and handsome subsidy, can without loss to
their shareholders (but with a good profit) carry
backwards and forwards to the colonies passengers
(first, second, and third class) for the same reason-
able sum as auxiliary steam or sailing vessel com-
panies who have no subsidy. This is not only a
consideration for the directors of the fortunate con-
tractors of the present line, but a very serious con-
sideration for their shareholders. If the present
contractors for the Panama line will consider their
own interests combined with the interests of the
colonists, they will do well, and the colonies will
prosper under their contract, if not, they will
shortly find a most determined and successful oppo-
sition with the auxiliary and sailing ship companies
especially from Liverpool, into which port the majo-
rity of the passengers and bulk of cargo and gold
has for years been imported from the said colonies ;
where one passenger comes home overland from the
colonies, 50 come by sailing vessels, and for every
ounce of gold imported here overland 5,000 come by
sailing vessels. Freight on gold on £12,000,000
at /d. comes to £350,000 ; but at 3d. the same comes
to £150,000, making a difference to the exporters
of £200,000 annually. The Panama line, when
fairly established, will, without a doubt, be known
as the Australian route, and be supported by the
Australians liberally. The Suez line will, as usual,
be called the Indian route. A second postal line
between the colonies and England has long been
sought for even by all the colonial governments,
and the colonists generally appear to be of the
same opinion. The geographical features of a colony
cannot be changed, but the establishment of the
Panama route, the advantages of the earliest point
of departure, or the earliest arrival may be shared
by more than one colony, and thus the local existing
jealousies of the Australian colonies will be brought
to a termination, and all the colonists mutually
benefitted, as well as thousands of our merchants,
by this fortnightly line. It must be borne in mind
that the Panama route is much less liable to ob-
structions than the Suez route in case of European.
war. Some people imagine that Panama is an un-
healthy route ; such ideas are absurd. If passengers
by that route are at all alarmed they have only to
walk from the steamer's deck in the Pacific Ocean
into the railway carriage which will convey them
across the isthmus and into the steamer in the At-
lantic Ocean in the short space of time of about one
hour and a half. The Panama route home from the
colonies is a pleasant route compared to the Suez
route, where the hot winds and calms in the Red
Sea for three or four months together make the
slightest description of clothing almost intolerable
to passengers. Not long after the fortnightly mail
to these colonies is established we shall require a
weekly mail, as our trade is increasing so rapidly,.
Few, perhaps, will believe that the tonnage em-
ployed between New Zealand and New South Wales
is greater than the tonnage employed between New
South Wales and London, the former being 41,000
and the latter 45,000 tons annually. The Panama
route will in all probability open up a new trade
between the Australian colonies and South Ame-
rica, Central and North America, as well as with
many islands in the South Pacific, many of which
are not far distant from New South Wales or
New Zealand, especially the Fijii Islands, a most
valuable group. Our Government and our mer-
chants here are in complete ignorance not only of
the value of these islands, but of their exports,
which annually amount to man y hundreds of thou-
sands of pounds sterling, some of which exports are
pearls, pearl shell, beech le mere, sandal wood,
cocoa nut and sperm oil, tortoise-shell, arrow-root,
sugar, and a small quantity of coffee and cotton,
&c., nearly the whole of which trade has for the
last twenty years been carried on by Brother Jona-
than in a very quiet manner. I firmly believe that
small steamers will shortly be running from some
of these groups of small islands north of Sydney
and New Zealand, when the Panama route is fairly
established, and that the time is not far distant
when these islands will be to the Australasian colo-
nies what the West India Islands were to England
before the emancipation of the slaves. Why should
not Australia have its spice and sugar islands, when
its imports and exports are between 54 and 60 mil-
lions sterling annually ? With regard to the
steamers between Panama and Sydney, my opinion
is, that five should be employed. If Tahite is to
be the calling station, there is little doubt that the
French Government will allow a handsome sub-
sidy to the contractors, for not only the conveyance
of their mails there, but to New Caledonia, which
I shall presently refer to. If Tahite is not to be a
calling station I can name one or two other islands
equally good, but wherever the midway station
may be between Panama and Sydney, the sth and
a Ist class boat should be kept there in case of need.
The two steamers to be employed between Panama
and the half-way station, should be built somewhat
upon the Gravesend boat model, large enough
to carry 300 or 400 passengers, making every
allowance for ventilation for tropical passages. It
will be between Panama and the half-way station
that the great daily runs will be made from 14 to
17 miles an hour—mill-pond sailing. If proper
boats are placed here in course of a reasonable time
the passage to New Zealand may be made in 39 or
40 days, and to Sydney in 44 or 45 days. The other
two boats between Sydney and the half-way station
should be powerful boats. Believing the Peninsular
and Oriental Company are not under any penalty
or fine for the non-fulfilment of their contract for
the Australian line via Suez, I do not see why the
present contractors should be placed under heavy
penalties via Panama. In place of the Government
munificence of allowing £5O per diem for any num-
ber of days under the contract time, they might in-
crease this sum to £5OO, but in my humble opinion
penalties and fines are all humbug.
Having made a few remarks upon this route, I
will now name two ports in New Zealand most
likely to suit the contractors, viz., Mongonni and
Auckland. IViongonni is a snug little harbour,
sheltered from all winds and sea swell, with a safe
seesnho
entrance from Doubtless, or, as some call it, Loris-
ave
tonships Bay, and is about three hours' sail from the
NI orth Cape of New Zealand. In this harbour I
portat anchorof
entrya at onebe fixedan dthe
upon,samae
time.
coaling wharf will have to be made, also conve-
niences for watering (of which there
is a never-
failing supply). One objection to this port by the
New Zealand Government would be, that they
would be compelled to 1 p ace a small steamer on the
line between Auckland and Mongonni
for the con-
veyance of the mails and passengers, which would
cost from £4,000 to £5,000 a year. Any provisions
may be obtained here. Supposing this to be the
calling port, the French Government at New Cale-
donia could send he of their steamers here to be in
readiness to receive their mails from France and
Tahite via Panama, upon the mail steamer's arrival.
They could then return to New Caledonia, which
would not take them a longer time than it would
take the mail steamer to go from Mongonni to
Sydney. Such being the case, the French at New
Caledonia would have the same time to answer
their letters by the homeward and same boat as the
Sydney people, for which accommodation the
French subsidy would naturally be expected, but

should the mails be landed at Auckland, it would
only make a day and a half, or two days' difference
to the French, but give them ample time to answer
their letters. Auckland, the seat of Government,
certainly has a prior claim to Mongonni, especially
if the interest of the bulk of the population is to
be considered. Being the seat of Government it
is the head-quarters of the military forces and com-
missariat department, which province contains
about 40,000 of the native population, the latter
being very valuable to any steam company in the
coaling department. The entrance to the harbour
of Auckland is first-rate, with ample room for a
large fleet to anchor, its entrance being so very ac-
cessible ; %ere is no lighthouse at present ; no ves-
sels have been lost there since the foundation of the
colony, which says much for its harbour. About
seven or eight years ago, anticipating that the
Panama line of steamers would call there, a mer-
cantile firm went to a great expense in building a
coaling wharf, and for watering the steamers,
which I have no doubt could now be purchased or
leased at a reasonable price or rent. In fact, Auck-
land is already well prepared for the mail line,
should its steamers call there. In that case I re-
commend the contractors of the Panama line to
come to some arrangement with Messrs. Coleman
and Co., who are under contract with the
New Zealand Government to carrry our mails
to and fro between New Zealand and the
Colonies, with a subsidy of £24,000 a-
year. If an amicable arrangement could be made
the Panama boat could remain in Auckland for ten
days during the time the Colonial boat took the
mails and passengers to Sydney via Manakan,
during which time she could coal, clean, and if
necessary repair. Manakan is a fine extensive bar
harbour ; the bar is of no inconvenience to a large
steamer, there being sufficient water for a line of
battle ship. The distance of this harbour from
Auckland by land is five and a half miles ; a tram-
road is now being made between the two ports, and
telegraph wires to the heads of Manakan from
Auckland. One great advantage in the Manakan
route will be splendid and extensive coal fields
which have lately been discovered there coming
down to the edge of the Manakan waters ; there
has also been another coal field lately discovered at
Wangaree harbour, about fifty miles north of Auck-
land, both of which samples of coal have been tested
and reported upon most favourably to the govern-
ment by Dr. Ho2hstetter, who is the geographical
and scientific officer of the Austrian frigate,
Novara. If a satisfactory arrangement cannot be
made with Messrs. Coleman and Co. I recommend
Mongonni the port for landing and taking on board
the mails and passengers, as the detention there
need not be more than a few hours, and the course
from there towards Panama should be made in the
variable latitudes. Some people fancy that Welling-
ton, in Cook's Straits, would suit to call at on the
homeward voyage from Sydney, provided the
steamers did not go to Auckland on their way out,
but I consider it would not only be very unsatis-
factory to the contractors but to New South
Wales colonists, whom we may thank for being the
originators of this line, and whom the public have
to thank for its handsome subsidy, granted by their
Parliament, of £50,000 annually for 10 years. The
contractors would also lose about three days on
each voyage by going the extra distance. Another
reason for not making Wellington one of the calling
ports is that the insurances on ships and cargo are
nearly half as much more to Wellington as they
are to Auckland. Some of the daily papers have
stated that little interest appears to be taken in
this tender, but I can assure them that there never
was a mail contract tendered for by the Govern-
ment that has in a very quiet manner created such
a sensation, and in place of three I believe there
will be six tenders for it. Should Ibe able to give
any of the contracting parties any further informa-
tion, I shall be happy to do so.—l am, &e.,
WALTER BRODIE.
4, Sutherland-place, Westbourne-grove North,
Bayswater, June 2.