The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-01 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

A general regimental order, signed by Col. c.
kingharn, Deputy-Adjr.-Gen., was yesterday pro.
mulgated from the Horse Guards notifying that
the following batteries of Royal Artillery have
been placed under orders for foreign service. The
6th Brigade, Royal Artillery, having completed its
foreign service, will be relieved by the 3d brigade,
which will embark in the Himalaya, on the 6th of
August ; Nos. 1,2, 3,4, and 5 batteries for Malta,
under Colonel G. Maclean, Brevet-Colonel W. H.
Elliot, and Lieut.-Colonel R. C. Romer; Nos. 6,
7, 'and 8 batteries, for Corfu, under Brevet-
Col. C. J. Wright. The following batteries of the
10th brigade will remove from Portsmouth on the
day the 3d brigade embarks :—No. 1 battery to
Shoeburyness, and Nos. 2,3, 4, and 5 batteries to
Woolwich, under the command of Brevet-Col. A. G.
Burrowes. On the arrival of the 6th brigade in
England the head-quarters and remaining batteries
of the 10th brigade will proceed to Woolwich, and
the 6th brigade will be stationed at Portsmouth.
Major A Thu t hnot's battery of Royal Horse Artil-
lery, which has for several months been stationed
at Dorchester Barracks, left on Tuesday last enronte
for Bristol, where they were to embark for Dublin.
'lhe battery was a day or two previously inspected
by 3r-Gen. Bloomfield, Inspector-Gen. of Artil-
lery.

The new regulations
which the Secretary of State
for War hasdecidedand on carrying into effect for the
better gnidancecomei management of the military
hospitals will
of
non..netoo operation this day. Yes-
terday a party
cmiornas.eioned officers and men
of the Army Hospital
quarters, Chatham, for the Woolwich
left head-
willoolwieh Hospital, at
superseder
which establishment they
the soldier
and pensioner nurses and
incident to to attending
who have
hitherto performed the duties
Itnearal hos-
pitals sick troops. The organisation
'Statefpitals will in &tura include a gov:rt
com-
mandant, selected by the Secretary of
War, on ' account of speotal qualifications for theor
duty, a principal medical officer, an apothe,aris

These experiments, which were brought to a
sudden close by the overturning of Mr. Roberts's
target on Monday evening, were resumed as soon as
the shield was again fixed on its framing. The
first trial was made with a 100-pounder Armstrong
shunt gun, with solid shot at 800 yards' range.
Three shots were fired at the target from this, but
from the extreme smallness of the object (4 feet by
6), and the high and very variable wind blowing at
the time, all three of them missed. After this con-
siderable delay was caused by the large number of
barges and sailing craft on the river coming within
the range of practice, so that it was at last found ne-
cessary to discontinue firing altogether at 800 yards,
and continue the experiments with a 2001 b. solid
shot, fired from an Armstrong at the close range
of 200 yards. It will be remembered from our ac-
count of yesterday that it was the concussion pro-
duced by this ponderous missile that did such mis-
chief to Mr. Fairbairn's target, and before the stroke
of this it seemed almost certain the little target of
Mr. Roberts would go down at once in fragments.
The first shot struck full and fair upon the apex of
the angle of the uppermost plate. Strange to say,
tio r i
of 1
inch, and starting some of the upper
fastenings which secured the edge of the plate to
the g
however,
eat did no damage except to cause an in-
dentation
et. The second shot of the same weight
tar
struck one of the upper jott ribs between the
plates and broke it in three places, detaching one
piece ; but still the damage done was immaterial to
the plates themselves, though some of the fasten-
ings were then very loose, and the centre angle
plate had slipped, and was almost half detached.
The firing at this, therefore, was considered suffi-
cient as regarded a test of the strength of the plates
and, above all, of their backing up with timber.
The general result of the experiments has shown
that the 5-inch iron plates of Mr. Fairbairn's target
fastened to a t-inch skin were perfectly able, as
far as the plates were concerned, to withstand
for a very long time what was, in fact, a concen-
trated fire from the heaviest and most power-
ful ordnance in the world. It also showed that the
thinner plates of three inches, rolled into an angu-
lated form, and presenting at all points an inclined
face to the blow of the shot, were equally well able
to withstand a missile that under other circum-
stances would fracture a 4,1, inch plate, and this was
the object the inventor wished to demonstrate. The
backing of the target, even after all the pounding it
received, was still perfect, though only 18 inches
thick, and had this been the hull of a ship, it would
apparently, even if submerged, have remained quite
watertight. The ribs which formed the backing to
the skin insides of the plates of Mr. Fairbairn's
target were perhaps a little too weak for the enor-
mous resistance they were expected to exert. This,
however, is a very minor fault, and one which awes
only possible to ascertain from actual practice. It
will be very easy to strengthen the next one con-
structed on this principle. The weak point in Mr.
Roberts' target was the rib joint. This, though a
piece of the best wrought iron, six inches by four,
was never strong enough to resist the blow of a 100,
or even a 68-pounder. But for this fault (which
we presume Mr. Roberts will devise some expe-
dient for remedying), and but for the small size of
his target, it would doubtless have held out
much longer than even it did. The weak point
common to both targets, and to every other
description of iron armour plate that has ever been
devised is the mode of fastening, either to the target
or the ship's side. Every bolt hole in a plate is a
source of weakness, as from them all fractures take
their rise. The expedients which have been devised
to remedy this, by having tapped screws at the back
of the plate, are perhaps better for preventing frac-
tures ; but they are certainly not better adapted for
what is the ultimate object of all these fastenings
—viz., securing the plate to the ship's side. This
is the real point to which engineers should now
direct their attention. The shape, thickness, and
angle of plate best adapted for keeping out the shot
will then be very easily ascertained. On the whole,
however, the experiments at Shoeburyness against
these iron targets we have described were regarded
as about the most satisfactory which have yet taken
place there.

MINISTERIAL WHITEBAIT DINNER.

But few persons are acquainted with the origin
of this celebrated dinner. Indeed, scarcely anything
more is generally known than this, that it takes
place towards the close of each session of Parliament.
Some of our readers have heard, no doubt, of
Dagenham Breach in Essex, a lake formed by the
sudden eruption of the waters of the Ti.ames over
its banks nearly a century ago, covering the adja-
cent lands, from which they have never retired.
On the banks of Dagenham lake once stood, and may
still stand, a cottage occupied by a princely merchant
of the name of Preston, a baronet of Scotland and
Nova Scotia, and sometime M.P. for Dover. He
called it his " Fishing Cottage," and often in the
spring went thither with a friend or two to escape
the toils of parliamentary and mercantile duties.
His most frequent guest was, as he was familiarly
styled, "Old George Rose," Secretary of the Treasury
and an elder brother of the Trinity House. Sir
Robert also was an active member of that fraternity.
Many a joyous day did these two worthies pass at
Dagenham Breach, undisturbed by the storms that
r.ged in the political atmosphere of Whitehall and
and St. Stephen's Chapel.
Mr. Rose once intimated to Sir Robert that Mr.
Pitt, of whose friendship they were both justly
proud, would no doubt much delight in the comfort
of such a retreat. A day was named and the pre-
mier was accordingly invited, and received with
great cordiality at the Fishing Cottage. He was
so well pleased with his visit and the cordiality of
the baronet—they were all considered two if not
three bottle men—that on taking leave Mr. Pitt
readily accepted an invitation for the following year,
Sir Robert engaging to remind him at the proper
time.

For a few years Mr. Pitt was an annual visitor
at Dagenham Breach, and he was always accom-
panied by " Old George Rose." But the distance
great, railways had not yet started into exist-
was
Sir Robert, h
eenonce;eanniedutthegoing and. coming was somewhat in-
such jovial souolv
for the First Minister of the Crown.
ever, bad his remedy, as have all
in future diees,nand he proposed that they should
suggestedasaeonveeanre'r London. Greenwich was
Trinity
tire a manger for the three
ancients of the
Yef
tirse, for Pitt was also'a
distinguished memberged
from
august fraternity. The
tolltbilleisp
trio to a quartett,
party was now changed
permitted to bring
1 Mr. Pitt having requested
Lord Camden. Soon after
Mr.
guest was invited, Long,
migration a fifth
afterwards Lord Farn-
borough. All still were the guest f
8 oSir R. Pres-
ton ; but one by one other notables were invited,
and at last Lord Camden considerately remarked
that as they were all dining at a tavern, it was only
fair that Sir R. Preston should be released from the
expense. It was then arranged that the dinner
should be given as usual by Sir Robert Preston,
that is to say, at big invitation, and he insisted on
still contributing a buck and champagne, but the
rest of the charges of mine host were thenceforward
defrayed by the several guests, and upon this plan
the meetings continued to take place annually till
the death o Mr. Pitt.
Sir Robert was requested in the following year
to summon the usual guests, the list of whom by
this time included most of the Cabinet Ministers.
The time for meeting was usually after Trinity
Monday, shortly before the end of the session. By
degrees a meeting, which was purely gastronomic,
appears to have assumed, in consequence of the long
reign of the Tories, a political or semi-political
character.

In the year 18— Sir Robert Preston died ; but
the affair had become so consolidated by long cus-
tom that the "Fish Dinner," as it was now called,
survived; and Mr. Long (then Lord Farnborough)
undertook to summon the several guests to the
" Ministerial Fish Dinner," the private secretary
of the late Sir R. Preston furnishing to the private
secretary of Lord Farnborough the names of the
noblemen and gentlemen who had been usually
invited.

Up to the decease of the baronet the invitations
had been sent privately. They now go in Cabtnet
boxes, and the party limited to the members of the
Cabinet. Who finds the buck and charopegue now
is not known:

Perthshire, agriculturally, is like a little Scotland,
embracing every diversity of surface, from the
Alpine region of the Grampians to the flat rich
carse of Gowrie and the wide luxuriant valley of
Strathearn. In two-thirds of this large county not
in cultivation, including some of the finest lakes
and loftiest peaks in North Britain, the pasture-
farming of black-faced sheep utilises the precipitous
hills and green glens, woods clothe the magnificent
slopes, and the sportsman rejoices in an infinity of
feathered game, in the six thousand head of harts
and hinds, and in the noble salmon that pay some ten
thousand pounds rental for the Tay fisheries alone,
and are exported on a great scale by railway and in
the shipping of Perth. And the lowlands along the
shores of the Frith of Tay, and more inland along
the course of its tributary rivers, have immense
peak moors and mosses, as well as the tracts of allu-
vial and diluvial "till," where flax is the main raw
material produced, and where potatoes, turnips,
with wheat on the best lands, contend against the
difficulties of a climate too moist and a winter too
bitter and protracted in these semi--boreal latitudes.
Such a district can be only sparsely peopled ; and
1 hence the city of Perth, with its 24,000 inhabitants,
and its proximity by excursion trains to Dandee,
Stirling, and Edinburgh, can expect, after all, a
gathering of visitors to the show small in compari-
son with the numbers at former meetings. Then,
as Scotland furnishes but eight divisions for the
Society's itinerant festivals, the number of large
towns being very limited, each place has welcomed
the exhibition some half-dozen times already, and
the interest necessary to a successful anniversary
can scarcely be inspired without the introduction of
some novel feature—some spirited and attractive
incitement like that we find connected with the Bath
and West of England Society's show. As it is, we
have in this placid city the absence of any symptom
of enthusiasm, of gala-day holy-day-making, and
the influx of fashionable visitors whose presence is
always found to pay. Perhaps all this may accord
with the wish of the Society's managers ; for, judg-
ing by the strict press regulations, which prevent
our doing anything towards directing the public to
the show, it is intended to keep the company in the
yard quite select and free from crowding.
The implements—classified into 78 " sections,"
with a class of extra-machines, and another class of
"general collections," in which exhibitors declining
to compete for prizes can display whole stands of
their own manufactures—are not honoured with the
protection of shedding ; but, as at our English pro-
vincial shows, are set out in rows upon the open
sward,—with the aspect, in fact, of an extensive
farm sale by auction. This exposure of house and
farm mechanism, as well as field tools, to all
chances of the weather, this obliging both imple-
ment exhibitors and visitors either to brave the
oppressive heat or blustering wind, or to stand
through entire days upon a footing of poached mud,
under a drenching rain, and in such plight to con-
duct business and book orders, may be penny-wise,
but certainly pound-foolish, as well as unhandsome
on the part of a Society rich in funded and house
property, and enjoying a splendid income. If can-
vass-roofed booths would not stand against Scotch
storms, boarden-roofed sheds, like the comfortable
quarters provided for the cattle, most certainly
would ; exhibitors would gladly pay their 2s.
a-foot for the accommodation here as at the English
show, and what further sum might be needed could
hardly be better spent than in attracting a larger
display of agricultural mechanics.
In a hasty walk through the stands we find that
135 exhibitors contribute 850 articles ; of which 429
are in the classified sections competing for prizes,
117 are in the extra class, and 304 comprised in the
general collections. The plough is evidently the
grand fundamental implement on which the at-
tention of the Scotch faiener is fixed. No less
than 65 of different sorts are shown, Gray, of
Uddingston, near Glasgow, being a prominent
maker; while Hornsby, of Grantham, Lincoln-
shire ; Page and Co.. of Bedford ; and Messrs.
Howard, of Bedford, exhibit their first-class ploughs,
with and without special adaptations to the peculiar
requirements of Scotch husbandry, for in this coun-
try of broadcast sowing the farmer likes deep creases
between high-crested furrow-slices, that will harrow
down immediately into mould, covering the seed.
To turn such furrows—which is a process requiring
nicety in the implement as well as skill in the
ploughman—the share is hollowed underneath,
cutting an arched furrow-bottom, left highest in the
middle, and the coulter is inclined, instead of per-
pendicular, so that the exposed ridge of the turned
furrow-slice may be formed with an acute angle.
The English farmer prefers a perfectly flat and clean
furrow bottom, with a slice of rectangular section, as
securing the greatest mean depth of cut soil, and
presenting both the largest superficies to the atmos-
phere and most earth for reduction to the tilth of a
seed-bed. The chief interest of yesterday's and
to-day's field trials at South Muirton farm centred
in the competition of ploughs, on a cloverley of deep,
free-cutting loam, moist with the dripping rains.
The first trial with a number of Scotch swing and
several wheel ploughs, and the English ploughs of
Hornsby and Page, resulted in a second trial of five
implements—those of Allan of Dunkeld, Ponton of
Linlithgow, Hornsby of Granthain, G ray of Ud ding-
ston, and Martin of Balbeggie ; which again left
the first three for a final testing. The wheel ploughs
are again in the ascendant, though the picked
ploughmen of Scotland made splendid work with
their favourite swings; and whether the superb
execution of Hornsbv's plough will carry off the
prize from Allan's imidement, of somewhat lighter
draught, must be left till the judges publish their
award. Grubbers, and cultivators, and harrows
occupy a considerable space in the yard ; also drills
and broadcast sowing machines, in which our
southern firms—Reeves of Westbury, and Rich-
mond Chandler of Salford, both figure. There are
machines for pulverising and sowing guano ; the
liquid manure distributors of Reeves, and of
the trustees of W. Crosskill, of Beverley ; a
considerable number of horse-hoes, made by
Gray, Law, Kirkwood, Burns, &c. ; winnow-
ing machines, weighing machines; then the chaff-
cutters of Ashby and Co., of Stamford ; Ben-
tall, of Heybridge, Essex ; Page, of Bedford ;
and Richmond and Chandler; turnip-cutters of
various makers; Bentall's noted root-pulpers ;
crushers, and mills, and churns. There is a con-
siderable display of harvest carts and light spring
carts ; the trustees of W. Crosskill, with their
machine-made wheels and carts constructed for
lightness, strength, and durability; Mitchell, of
Peterhead, and other makers, showing farmers'
vehicles of splendid workmanship, and in every
way adapted for convenience and usefulness. Of
fencing, gates, drain-pipes, tile machines, &c., there
is a good show; and in the " extra" class we find
the haymakers and horse-rakes of Ashby and Co. ;
Chaplin's steam engine; Hornsby and Son's new
cheap washing machine; Kirkwood's rakes ; Lin-
colne's (of Glasgow) machine for suckling orphan
calves and lambs ; Page and Co.'s horse-rakes ;
Reeve's tool for destroying thistles ; Shanks and
Son's lawn mower ; Smith's (of Glasgow) dry de-
odorizing closets. In the general collection are
Bradford's washing machines ; Clayton and Shut-
Veworth's (of Lincoln) steam-power thrashing
machines ; Garrett and Sons'
et::their
(of Saxmundham)
I engines, thrashing machines, drills, and horse-hoes ;
j Howard's (of Bedford) iron ploughs, ste:imor.
1 frig machinery, harrows, horse-rakes, and a(ot-f
(clever new haymaking machines;
Liverpool) fencing, &c. ; and Morton's (of
Leeds) fencing, hurdles, &c. ; Picksley, Sims, and
Co.'s (of Manchester) portable engines, Chaffcutters,
&c. ; Frill erle's (of Edinburgh) assortment of im,
p ~
r, ,
lernenes and machines ; Williamson'B (of Kendal)
horse -works and thrashin machines ; Young's (of
Edinburgh) gates, garden chairs, cheese presses,
and so on.
__

Though the fixture thrashing-mill is so
generally
used in Scotland,it appears that our more improved
English machines are being rapidly substituted for
it, seeing that the clean thrashing saves a consider-
able percentage of grain hitherto left in the straw,
besides more thoroughly shaking out the thrashed
corn. The convenience of a portable steam engine
is also appreciated in some districts, where iinidYs

The half-yearly meeting of this company was
held yesterday at the London Coffee-house ; Mr. J.
Biddulph in the chair.
The report stated that the earnings of the com-
pany on revenue account during the half-year
ending the 30th of June amounted to £14,403,
being an increase of £1,750 over the corresponding
half of 1860 ; and the working expenses amounted
to £8,527, being an increase of £779 over those of
the corresponding period, leaving a balance of
£5,876, to which was added £304, the balance from
the previous account, making together £6,189.
From this we deducted £4,585 for interest on de-
bentures and loans, dividends on preference shares,
&c., leaving a balance of £1,595, out of which the
directors laid aside £5OO for renewal of locomo-
tives, and they recommended a dividend at the
rate of 10s. per ordinary share to be paid, leaving
a balance of 1.110. The working expanses, it ap-
peared, were increased by an outlay for new rails.
The arrangements for the put chase of shares in the
Liangelly Waggon Company had been proceeded
with, and a further sum of £6,051 had been ex-
pended on capital account during the half-year, in
taking up those shares and in the purchase of 30
additional waggons. The company's bills for new
lines to Carmarthen and Swansea only awaited the
Royal assent. The capital account showed that
£351,264 had been expended, leaving a balance
against the company of .£8,678.
the CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, adverted to the importance of the proposed
new line to Swansea and Carmarthen. They would
convert their old local line into part of a narrow
gauge trunk railway from South Wales to the
north. It was only by means of judicious exten-
sions they could hope to get a dividend on the ori-
ginal shares. They had already improved their po-
sition by extension towards the north, and it was
of vital importance that the shareholders should as-
sist the directors in raising capital for the new lines.
In reply to questions, it was stated that the cost
of the mew lines would be about £250,000, and
that a further sum of £3,450 would put :the rail-
way company in possession of the whole of the
Llanelly Company's waggons.
The report was adopted, a dividend of 10s. per
share was declered and the proceedings terminated.

OLDHAM, ASIITON, AND GUIDE-BRIDGE
JUNCTION.

The formal opening of this line took place yester-
day, and the conveyance of traffic over it will com-
mence in the course of a few days. The line forms
a second route between Manchester and Oldham,
besides connecting the latter place with Ashton-
under-Lyne and other populous localities. The
length of the line is 9,137 yards. It starts from the
Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway at
Guidebridge Station, where it also joins the London
and North Western Railway. It passes thence
through Charlestown, where there is a station ;
across the river Medlock at Park-bridge, where
there is another station ; and terminates by a junc-
tion with the London and North Western Railway
at the Mumps Station in Oldham. The chief sta-
tion, however, is in a much more central part of the
town of Oidham. The most important work on the
line is a stone viaduct at Park-bridge, about 200
yards long and 95 feet high, consisting of 11 arches,
nine of thm being 50 feet span and the others 30
feet span. The steepest gradient on the line is 1
in 90. The cost of the line would be about £140,000,
of which the Manchester and Sheffield and the
Nerth Western subscribe £50,000 each.

BELFAST AND NORTHERN COUNTIES.
The report of the directors states that the nego-
tiations for the purchase of the Ballymena and
Portrush Junction Railway, including the bridge
and junction with the Londonderry line at Cole-
raine, had been brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
The company obtained possession of the line on the
Ist of January last, since which it had been worked
as part of the railway. The purchase money con-
sisted of £160,000 in preference shares, bearing in-
terest at 4 per cent., the Belfast company assuming
the Portrush company's bonded debt of £60,000,
making together a total payment of £220,000.
But a further liability might arise for a sum of
£20,000 (in shares) contingent on the receipts
reaching a certain amount within the next four
years. The directors had concluded an agreement
with Mr. M'Cormick for a transfer of his lease of
the Loudonderry and Coleraine Railway for four
years, from the 10th of April, 1861, at a yearly
rental of £lO,OOO, and had purchased all the roll-
ing stock that was in use on the line. This com-
pany had now the sole control of the railway
between Belfast and Londonderry, and the (Erec-
tors hoped that the facilities they now possessed
for goods and passengers would tend to promote a
further development of the trade between the im-
portant towns on the line. The traffic receipts end-
ing June 30 were for eight months on the original
line, for six months on the Ballymena and Portrush
line, and from April 10 to June 30 on the London-
derry and Coleraine line, amounting together to
£56,160. The balance of revenue, after providing
for working expenses, interest on loans, dividend
on the 4 per cent. preference shares, and rent of
Londonderry and Coleraine Railway, was £22,361,
out of which the directors recommended a dividend
of 30s. per share, being at the rate of 41 per cent.
per annum for eight months, leaving £4,061 to be
carried to the credit of the reserved fund, which
would then amount to £9,049. The capital account
showed that £1,037,934 hid been expended, leav-
ing a balance against the company of £68,160.