The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-29 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION.

On Monday afternoon the usual monthly general
meeting of the members of this association was held
at Willis's-rooms, for the purpose of enlarging some
of the formal rules of the society and for the trans-
action of general business. His Royal Highness
the Duke of Cambridge (president) took the chair,
and there were also present the Duke of Newcastle,
Earl De Grey and Ripon, the Earl of Tankerville,
Lord Elcho, Hon. A. Kinnaird, Viscount Enfield,
Lord Truro, Lord Radstock, Lord Colville, Lord
Verner, Sir D. Baird, Sir J. Paxton, Col. Lindsay,
Hon. H. Low, Major-General Hay, Colonels Kin-
loch, Kennedy, Bathurst, Briggs.
His ROYAL HIGHNESS, in addressing the meet-
ing, said it would be quite unnecessary for him to
detain them any details as to the objects or
benefits of the Association. With regard to the
prizes to be offered at the meeting this year the
report was most satisfactory, and the list had been
extended by several additional gifts. There was a
new cup given by his Royal Highness the Prince
of Wales, value £lOO, a member's cup of £5O, a
public schools' cup of £5O, and a cup given by the
editor of the Volunteer Gazette, value £25. Last
year the various prizes had been distributed at the
Crystal Palace, but it had been felt that much more
interest would attach to this ceremony if it took
place on the very ground on which the triumph
had been achieved. That course, therefore, would
be adopted with the distribution this year, and it
had also teen arranged (and as he thought most
judiciously) that the ceremony of distribution should
be followed by a Volunteer review of such corps as
chose to take part in it. Thus, the early part of what-
ever day was fixed upon would bo set apart for
allotting the prizes, and the remainder to the evolu-
tions of the corps on the ground. He looked on
such assemblages of the Volunteers for field days
and brigade drill as most important aids to their
improvement, but at the same time, it was abso-
lutely necessary to their success that they should
be so arranged as to insure their perfect good order
and their being carried out in the best manner.
Tie was delighted to say that the Volunteer
movement had been carried out in the colonies
in the most successful and praiseworthy
manner, and the Rifle Association established
in Canada under the presidency of Sir Alan M'Nab,
showed this year a subscription list for prizes
amounting to £1,600, actually an excess over the
subscriptions to their own Association. The Queen's
prizes were, of course, oven to all these Colo-
nial Volunteers, and the Volunteers of Nova Scotia,
Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick were
already in communication with the society.
The Duke of NEWCASTLE, in moving a formal
resolution to the effect that members of the County
Rifle Associations shall be entitled to admission to
the National Association on paying 10s. per annum,
or £5 for life membership, paid a high compliment
to the Robin Hood Nottinghamshire Regiments he
had [recently reviewed, and especially bore testi-
mony to what he had seen of the high efficiency of
Canadian Volunteers.
Earl DE GREY and RIPON moved that an entrance
fee of 10s. be required from all Volunteers contend-
ing for the prizes of the Association, except those
sent by regiments subscribing to the Association to
the extent of £1 per company. Such a step as this
he thought was absolutely necessary to keep the
funds of the association in the state in which it was
necessary they should be maintained.
This and another formal resolution was carried
nem. con., and in reply to questions,
Lord Rim° stated that those who contended
for prizes open to all corners could use whatever
rifle they chose. The public schools would use
whatever rifle they had been instructed in, but the
Queen's prizes could only be shot for with the long
Enfield.
Colonel LINDSAY then announced the intuition of
the St. George's corps to present a challenge cup,
value £l5O, to be shot for at the meeting in 1862,
the amount derived from the entrance fees for
which to go to the funds of the National Rifle Asso-
ciation.
The proceedings then terminated.

The Madrid Gazette announces that the Queen
of Spain has sent the usual notice to all the bishops of the
kingdom, mentioning that she has entered the last month
of her pregnancy, and requesting them to have prayers
And up fig ker PafQ clQuyery,

agent.
The news by this steamer is generally scanty
and unimportant. From Jamaica our dates are to
the 9th inst. The table of the public revenue for
the quarter ending 31st March bad been published.
The gross amount was £60,000, being less by
£3,000 than the December quarter, but £l,OOO in-
crease on the corresponding quarter last year.
" Though no serious difference is observed in the
import duties (says the Colonial Standard) yet it
may be readily anticipated, from the civil war in
the United States, and the great dependence our
people place upon breadstuffs and many articles of
food, that there will be in the next quarter a mate-
rial reduction, which will be felt to an alarming
extent in this island as well as in the West India
colonies generally." The island was in a very dull
and gloomy state in consequence of the bad news
from America and its probable effect upon trade
generally. Business in all departments was very
flat, and money and bill-discounting in abeyance.
Seteral shocks of earthquake had been felt in the
island. The first, which was rather severe, occurred
on the 27th ult. at about a quarter to 3 o'clock p.m.,
the undulatory motion being from north to south or
south to north. Two shocks had been felt at Mon-
tego Bay and throughout the county of Cornwall,
the first being one of the most violent that the
island has experienced for years past. It occurred
simultaneously with the one noticed in Kingston,
amid consternation in the town, the inhabitant run-
ning out of their houses, and with blanched-cheeks
portraying the universal terror that was felt. The
church clock was stopped, its heavy pendulum
vibrating contrary to the current of the shock. A
house in Church-street had one of its corners rent,
and at Content store, in Hanover, the piazza was
completely severed from the main building. In the
harbour the shock was so violent that the captain
of a vessel was thrown off his legs, and in some
districts along the seaside it caused deadly sickness
even with persons accustomed to sea voyages. A
second shock occurred, but by no means so severe
as the first, about four o'clock on the morning of
the 28th. Captain J. G. Maycock, of her Majesty's
14th Regiment, had been appointed Adjutant-
General of the island and Military Secretary to his
Excellency the Governor. The Hon. J. S. Williams,
acting Attorney-General, had received from the
Lords of the Admiralty the post of Advocate-Gene-
ral. The foundation-stone of the new steam
(aerated) bread mills was laid on the 2d inst., in
Park-street, West. The establishment is expected
to be in full operation by the end of August. The
weather had been very sultry. The public health
was good.
At Trinidad trade in general was exceedingly dull
for the season, and the metallic currency was neverso
low in circulation ; in fact, no one seemed to have
ready cash. The stoppage of a large mercantile
firm had thrown a gloom over the trading com-
munity, and prospects were far from cheerful. The
planters had been getting on briskly with sugar-
making, as the weather had become more settled
and favourable. The scarcity of tonnage and
advance in freights had checked speculation, so
that little had been done in produce since last mail.
Advices from Barbadoes are to the 10th inst. The
Militia Act would probably be withdrawn at the
next sitting of the House of Assembly, it having
met with so much public censure. An Act for con-
stituting a-corporate body in the city of Bridge-
town had been read a first time in the house, and-
ordered to be printed. The Water Company had
laid down pipes in every part of the city and
suburbs, and were erecting the public pumps, &c..
The island was perfectly healthy.
The Hon. William Walker had arrived at Deme-
rara, to assume the administration of Government
as Lieutenant. Governor, on the departure of Gover-
nor Wodehouse, who came home to England by the
present mail. His Excellency received addresses
from the bishop and clergy of the diocese of Guiana,
the Mayor and Town Council and other public
bodies, before his departure. The Court of Policy
had a sitting on the 3d inst., but transacted no busi-
ness of importance, and adjourned sine die. Three
arrivals of immigrants had occurred during the
fortuight-L-viz , the Collingwood, from Calcutta and
St. Helena, with 296; the Saldanha, from Hong
Kong, with 496 ; and the Jessie Munn, from Cal-
cutta, with 295. The rainy season had set in.
Arrivals from the South Pacific bring intelligence
from Valparaiso to the 17th of April, and from Callao to
the 29th. Commercial matters in Chili were by no means
improving. More failures to a considerable extent are re-
ported, and some of the wealthiest residents in the country
had succumbed, while but little hope was entertained of the
news being more encouraging for some time to come.
The republic of Peru remains in the same un-
settled state as at last advices. The Panama Star and
Herald of the Bth inst. says that the last accounts respect-
ing the earthquake at Mendoza are worse than those pre-
viously received, as it has been ascertained that upwards of
11,000 people perished in this dreadful catastrophe. The
details of the sufferings of the survivors are very sad, but
throughout Chili everything was being done to relieve the
distress.