The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-24 00:00:00

TBE ARMY.

Capt. Gordon, C. 13., Principal Military Store-
keeper, of Woolwich Arsenal, yesterday received
instructions from the War Department to prepare
a large number of 100 and 80-pounder Armstrong
guns for transport to the Mediterranean fleet.
A code of rules, prepared with the concur-
rence of the Duke of Cambridge and the Lords
of the Admiralty, laying down certain definite
and very necessary regulations for the prevention
of accidents by the firing of cast-iron guns, has been
received at Chatham garrison. The rules, which
are directed to be carried out in a very stringent
manner, require a return to be rendered by the
commanding officers of artillery at home and on
foreign stations of the condition of all iron guns at
the respective military stations. This return is to
be drawn up in a prescribed form, and to be made
to the Secretary of State for War on the Ist of June
in each year. Similar reports are to be made by
the officers commanding vessels of war. At stations
where there is an inspector of warlike stores, all
new guns are to be examined by him after every
hundred rounds have been fired with either shot or
shell :and guns that have been revented are to be
examined after every 50 rounds. Officers command-
ing vessels of war are, whenever the exigencies of
the service permit, to call upon the military store-
keepers, who will make requisitions on the inspec-
tor of warlike stores to perform this duty. At
stations where there are no inspectors of warlike
stores or master-searchers the duty is to be per-
formed under the direction of the officer command-
ing artillery in the district, who will depute a
competent person for the purpose. Whenever guns
are either issued out of or returned to store the
receipt and delivery vouchers are to show the num-
ber of rounds fired by each. As no accurate register
has hitherto been kept of the number of rounds
fired, all guns are to be assumed to have fired a
number corresponding to the size of the vent.
Should the gun have been revented such will in
future always be noted, and in these cases it is to
be assumed to have fired 500 rounds, in addition to
the number which the size of the vent indicates.
The assumed number in all returns, &c., is to be
' inserted in red ink. By a careful attention to the
above code of rules on the part of the officers com-
manding it is confidently anticipated that no more
deplorable accidents will occur from the over-firing
of cast iron guns.
Considerable progress has been made by Mr.
Stump, the Government contractor at Chatham, in
the erection of the handsome range of buildings
for the Soldiers' Institute at that garrison. The
building will contain reading-room, two coffee-
rooms, class-rooms, and a lecture-room and
theatre capable of holding 800 men. It is also
intended to add a gymnasium, school of arms,
shooting-gallery, and a covered skittle alley, all of
which will be for the exclusive use of the soldiers
of the garrison. Miss Florence Nightingale, who
has always taken the most lively interest in every
movement for the welfare of the troops, heads the
list of subscribers with a donation of £25.
A royal warrant regulating the number of black
male servants, for the hire and maintenance of whom
officers in certain stations within the tropics are
entitled to allowances, has just been issued. The
following is a summary :—General Garrison and
Departmental Staff : General, and officers ranking
as such, 7 ; lieutenant-general, 6 ; major-general,
; brigadier-general, 4 ; colonel, 4 ; lieutenant-
colonel, 2 ; major, 2 ; captain, 2; lieutenant, 1 ; en-
sign, 1. Regimental Officers : Field officer, 2 ; cap-
tain, 1 ; subaltern, 1 ; instructor of musketry, 2 ;
paymaster, 1 ; adjutant, 2 ; sergeant-major or sur-
geon, 2 ; assist.-surgeon, 1 ; quartermaster, 2. The
rate of allowance for each black male servant in the
Windward and Leeward Island command, in
Jamaica, and at Honduras, will be ls. 6d., and at
the stations on the Western Coast of Africa, ls. a
day. The object of this allowance being to prevent
the employment of European soldiers in hot climates
upon any duties not strictly military, officers
commanding corps will be held responsible that
European soldiers be not employed in any way as
servants; and every officer drawing the said
allowance for personal servants and no grooms
will sign a declaration in support of his claim.
Rations of provisions are not to be issued from
the public stores to the black male servants of
officers unless their masters be employed in the
against an enemy ; and while rations are so issued
the value thereof, as fixed by the officer commanding
on the station, shall be deducted from; the allow-
ance granted by this regulation. The allowance
will not be granted to officers of corps composed
wholly of black soldiers, or partly of black soldiers
and partly of Europeans, whether the officers be
employed on the staff or not, provided any black
soldiers of their corps be present on the same sta-
tion ; and no officer in a corps composed wholly or
in part of black soldiers will be permitted to employ
an European soldier as a servant.

AN AERIAL INVASION OF SOUTH CAROLINA.—
A descent has been made upon South Carolina. Professor
T. S. C. Lowe, aeronaut, conducted the expedition, or
rather, was unwillingly conducted by it. He is represented
as stating that he ascended from Cincinnati on the 20th
ult., and, after traversing the Cumberland mountains in
the upper air, and a corner of Virginia, was carried by un-
controllable currents to the northern border of South
Carolina, where his appearance excited the utmost con-
sternation. Some took him for the devil, some for old
Abe himself, while the more superstitious made sure of the
judgment day. The more courageous brought a field-
piece to bear on him, while he grappled a tree, the balloon
swaying about in the manner peculiar to that contrivance
when it is held and wants to go. Although he
effected a parley by dint of vociferation, the story that
he left Cincinnati nine hours before was by no
means believed; he was not allowed to land, and hostilities
were waived only on condition that he should take himself
aloft. So he let go, and, slowly rising, threw out a sand-
bag, which the bystanders captured, firmly believing it to
be his " baggage." As he went up and was wafted along
various musket shots were fired at him, but without prick-
ing his silk. When he descended again, it was upon a
comparatively unpopulated region—at least he was informed
by " a stalwart-looking young woman, six feet high and
well proportioned," that nearly all the men had gone to
the war. This slender damsel was the only person who
dared to approach and help him, as, on his grappling a
scrub oak, the entire force on the plantation, consisting of
"two boys, three old ladies, and three negroes," took
to their heels and extemporised an immediate pray( r
meeting in a log hut near by, under an unchangc-
able impression that the apparition was nothing
less than the destroying angel. Lowe, however,
with the assistance of his buxom ally, let out his gas,
coaxed the frightened group out of the log house, and was
getting hinge into compact shape, when a band of armed
men rushed up, who had been following him for several
miles, and popping at his balloon as they went. These
valiant fellows took him prisoner, and conducted him to
the nearest jail ; but the jailer frantically refused to allow
Lowe or his machine to come near the walls. A hotel was
reached, however, where the publican was less scrupulous,
and some persons of intelligence hearing of the matter, the
aeronaut found bail. At Columbia, the capital of South
Carolina, he was stopped again, and searched for de-
spatches, which it was shrewdly suspected he was con-
veying to somebody somewhere. But a sanhedrim of the
literati, convoked at his request, were convinced of the
harmles:ness of his errand, and a passport was finally fur •
nished him. The story is a very good one—for the times;
and if Professor Lowe was not a sort of Barnum in his
way, and if we were not indebted to him for these par-
ticulars, we might believe as much of it as pleased us,—
,Are Zyrk TrOTO. I