The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-20 00:00:00

ITALY.

We have received a letter from the Central Com-
mittee of Prevision (Comitato Centrale di Prov-
vedimento), sitting at Naples, complaining of the
tenor of a late telegraphic despatch, communicated
to the journals by the Havas-Bullier agency, accord-
ing to which General Turr had communicated to
the said committee General Garibaldi's intention
not to order any movement for the solution of the
questions of Rome and Venice, adding that those who
might not accept this resolution had best leave the
committee to act as they might think proper. This
despatch, according to our letter, is erroneous, inas-
much as General Turr had received no mission of
the kind from Garibaldi, who corresponds directly
with the committee, while, on the other hand,
a representative of the eommittee, M. Bellazzi,
was at Caprera at the same time as General Turr,
and would, therefore, have received directly any
communication General Garibaldi might have
thought proper to make; so that General Turr had
no mission whatever to the committee.

A letter from Turin, of the 16th, in the Con-
stitutionnel, says :
" The nomination of a certain number of sena-
tors is imminent, and I can give you beforehand
the names of some of them—General Della Rovera,
Minister of War ; General Gianotti, Commander
of the Ist Military Department ; the Marquis de
Torrearza, Prefect of Florence, and Baron Bol-
mida, banker of Turin. The decrees will be to-
morrow submitted to the King for signature, as
well as those for the nomination of all the Prefects
and Sub-Prefects of Italy. The visit of the King
to Naples is definitively fixed for January, and
his Majesty will remain there until the end of
February. The King will spend a fortnight in
Sicily, where the people are very desirous ofi

seeing him. Prince de Carignan will leave in a
few days for Florence, to be present at the close of
the exhibition and the distribution of prizes. He
will be accompanied by the Minister of Commerce."
Another communication from Turin says :
" Since the return of M. Ratazzi, the most perfect
accord has been re-established between him and the
President of the Council, and according to all ap-
pearance, the session will recommence without in
any way shaking the stability of the Ministry. At
the first sitting, the President of the Council will, as
is the custom in France and England, lay before the
Chamber a volume containing the documents con-
nected with all the important acts accomplished by the
Cabinet during the absence of the Chambers. Three
embassies are now being organised at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, the holders of which, charged with
provisional missions, will proceed, one to the Brazils
and the other to Belgium, to thank the Sovereigns
of those Powers for their recognition of the King-
dom of Italy, and the third to Lisbon, to congratu-
late the new King of Portugal on his accession to
the tL roue. I have already mentioned the intention
of the Government to indemnify Father Passaglia
for the persecutions of which he has been the object
on the part of the Court of Rome, by naming him
Professor of Philosophy and Catholicism at the
University of Turin. That project meets with some
difficulty on the part of M. de Sanctis, who is of
the school of Hegel, and consequently little inclined
to create a chair of Catholicism. As Baron Ricasoli,
however, is anxious for the appointment, the pro-
bability is that the nomination will take place. The
entry of M. Fould into the French Ministry has
produced a rise in the funds, and the loan has been
done at 70."

The Italie of Turin, of the 17th, says :
" From information we have obtained, it appears
that the entrance of M. Ratazzi into the Cabinet as
.Minister of the Interior would have encountered
certain difficulties, and would even have led to the
resignation of several of the Ministers. As to Baron
Ricasoli, he is not personally much opposed to
confiding to M. Ratazzi, the portfolio of Minister
of the Interior, so great in his abnegation, and so
well does he understand that in circumstances of
such importance as the present a statesman must,
in the interest of all, think little of himself.

Among the persons named as likely to be called on
to fill the office of Minister of the Interior are M.
Lanza, formerly President of the Chamber of De-
puties; M. San Martino, ex-Minister and ex-Lieu-
tenant-General at Naples ; and M. Spavanta, who
has held office in the same city."

THE MEXICAN EXPEDITION.

- - -
A despatch from Algeria, dated the 18th, an-
nounces that the Massena, bearing the flag of Rear-
Admiral Surien de Lagraviere, had sailed from
Oran for La Martinique.

Fort St. John d'Ulloa is the first point to be
attacked. This fort is the chief point of defence of
Vera Cruz.

General Prim, Commander-in-Chief of the troops
which Spain Sends to Mexico, embarks on the 22d
inst. on board the Ulloa, which will convey him to
Cuba. Most of his officers have left for the
Havannab. The squadron is expected to meet there
about the 10th December.

THE BLACK PRINCP, IRON-PLITED

STEAMSHIP.

The preliminary trial of the Black Prince at light
draught took place at Portsmouth yesterday,
under circumstances highly unfavourable for deve-
loping the ship's speed under steam, but attended
with very satisfactory results, both as regards the
working of the machinery and the speed attained,
the mean of the runs made at the mile being nearly
141 knots. The ship weighed her anchor at Spit-
head at 12 30 p.m., and steamed away for the trial
ground in Stokes Bay in charge of Captain H.
Broadhead, commanding the reserve at Portsmouth ;
Mr. A. Murray, chief engineer of her Majesty's
dockyard ; and Mr. G. Murdoch, inspector of
machinery afloat, Mr. Thomas Penn, representing
the manufacturers of the engines, and Mr. John D.
Napier the builders of the ship. One hundred
men from the Trafalgar, commanded by a lieute-
, nant of that ship, formed the crew of the Black
Prince for the day, Commander R. Stokes being in
chief command. Captain S. B. Dickson, of her
Majesty's ship Trafalgar, was also on board as a
vizitor during the trial. In proceeding towards the
measured mile from Spithead the anchor was se-
cured and the fires made up for the race. The last,
however, proved a difficult operation, owing to their
having been lit with Scotch coal, which created a
deal of clinker in the furnaces, and several turns
were taken through the bay before the ship was
fairly placed at the mile, at which four runs were
made eventually with the following results :
First run, with the tide.—Time, 3 min. 43 see.;
speed in knots, 15.859 ; pressure of steam, 1811 b.;
revolutions of engines, 55i ; Vacuum—forward,
251; aft, `5.1.

Second run, against the tide. —Time, 4 min. 38
sec. ; speed in knots, 12 950 ; pressure of steam,
19I1b. ; revolutions of engines, 56-1. Vacuum--
forward, 251, ; aft, 25.
Third run, with the tide.—Time, 3 min. 55 sec.;
speed in knots, 15.319; pressure of steam, 191 b.;
revolutions of engines, 56. Vacuum—forward, 26;
aft, 251.
Fourth run, against tide.—Time, 4 min. 36 sec.;
speed in knots, 13 043 ; pressure of steam, 191 b. ;
revolutions of engines, 55i. Vacuum—forward,
254 ; aft, 254.

The draught of water was—aft, 24ft. 2in., and
Forward, 21ft. 10in. The ship's proper trim, as
aid down by her designers, is one foot by the stern.
The propeller used yesterday was an improved
Griffiths', at its finest pitch 30ft., with a diameter of
24ft. 6in., of the same pattern as the Warrior, but
set at a very different pitch, which was one of the
many unfavourable circumstances for the ship
attending the trial. Like the Warrior, the Black
Prince is warm below, as the following means of
temperature in her engine-room and stokeholes
will show :—Engine-room, starboard side, 90 deg. ;
port side, 103 deg. ; midships, 93 deg. Passage
between engine-room and stokeholes, 75 deg. After
stokehole, after part, 95 deg. ; midships, 102 deg. ;
fore part, 100 deg. Fore stokehole, mean of the
three parts, 79. Temperature on deck, 47.
The trial can only be taken at its worth as a
purely preliminary trial, unexpectedly made, the
ship out of trim, with coal of vastly inferior
quality to that used by the Warrior on her trial,
the stokers below tired out with their journey
round to Spithead from Greenock, and all parts
below necessarily retaining a great amount of heat,
owing to the short time that had elapsed since the
steam had been previously up. The last fact will
account for much of the excessive heat in the en-
gine-room. Another point which is supposed to
have had a prejudicial effect upon the ship's speed
through the water is that since her launch some
nine months since she has lain in the tidal basin at
Greenock in comparatively still water, and her bot-
tom must of a necessity be somewhat foul. The
" immersion of the screw," as it is termed, was not
correctly ascertained, but one part of its blades
during its revolutions, owing to the ship's small
draught, must have been considerably out of the
water. In her future trial at load draught, all these
faults will be remedied, and judging by the speed
attained yesterday, there can be little doubt that the
Black Prince will prove as successful a ship in point
of speed as the Warrior. It will be remembered that
the ship's jury mainmast was carried away while
she was lying at Greenock. This has not been re-
placed, and the ship came round with only her fore
and mizen masts standing, which, no doubt, gave
her a strange appearance as she passed the different
points of view from the shore in her course round.
The ship's deck, at first sight, has a mach more
roomy lo)k than the Warrior's, but this is accounted
for, not by any actual increase in dimensions, for
each ship is, in all but one point, a counterpart of
the other, but by the absence of the hideous excre-
scence on the Warrior's deck which has been digni-
fied with the name of a " ride tower." The only dif-
ference made in the construction of the two ships is
in the form of the bow above the water line,
the Black Prince's being of rather less breadth from
the main deck upwards nearly to the fore rigging
aft. This gives the ship a much handsomer and

lighter appearance than the Warrior has, Her
armour plates are of two descriptions, those in the
line with her ports are rolled," and were manufac-
tured by Beale, of Parkgate Works, Yorkshire ; the
plates above and below the ports are hammered in
their manufacture, and are from the works of
Messrs. Rigby, of Glasgow. The Black Prince will
lie in her present position at Spithead until to-
morrow, when she will be taken into Portsmouth
harbour preparatory to going in dock.