The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-25 00:00:00

Ills case, he reminds us again, is briefly this :

"In 1852, the then Board of Admiralty-nominated Vice-
Admiral the Hon. Sir M. Stopford, Rear-Admiral
George R. Mundy, and the late Admiral C. Hope ; the

Master Attendants of her Majesty's Dockyards at Sheer-
ness and Portsmouth, viz. :—J. Aylen and J. Tonkim,
Esqrs., R.N. ; also W. S. Lindsay, Esq., M.P., Duncan
Dunbar, Esq., Chairman of the General Shipowners'
Society, Anthony Ridley, Esq., Deputy Chairman of the
Mercantile Marine Board ; and the following members of
'Lloyds' Committee, William Drew, Esq., and William
Phillips, Esq., and George Marshall, Esq., as a Committee
or Arbitrators, to determine the relative merits of different

descriptions of anchors.' "
And what were the results of this trial ? Here is
the committee's own report :--
"ART. 29.—The Committee here beg to recapitulate the

order in which they consider anchors to stand, together

with tfieir relative per cantage of inferiority or superiority
to the Admiralty anchor, the value of which (18-17) this
being taken as the standard or unit.

Trotmau 1.28 or 28 per cent.
Rodgers 1.26 or 26 „
Mitcheson
Lenox 1.13 or 13 „
Porters 1.09 or 9 „
Aylen .. 1.09 or 9 „
Admiralty .... 1. =the standard."

Superior to
Admiralty
Anchor.

But for like dilatoriness at the Admiralty, first
in adopting steam in the navy, then in adopting
screws in place of paddles, then in adopt-
ing iron, the nation would hardly credit

,he statement, after this report, that nine years

have passed away, and TROTMAN'S anchor is no

yet employed in the navy. The above experiment
cost Mr. TROTMAN £4OO ; yet he has never had an

order from the Admiralty.
We must subjoin another statement, on which
we need make no comments. It shows how we are

sacrificed to old routine contracts, and is one amongst
the thousand illustrations of :low the money goes a t

the Admiralty :
" The subjoined list shows the prices of anchors from the
first makers of the day, comparatively with the official scale
_ _

of prices paid by the Admiralty under contract, dated 1811.
(Specification, proofs, and test precisely the same.)
ADMIRALTY ANCHORS.
PRICE PER TON UNDER.
ADMIRALTY CONTRACT
ENTERED INTO 1841.
Cwt. s. s.
20 at 4t 10 a ton.. 44 10
40 —56 0 ..112 0
60 —65 0 ..195 0
80 —73 0 —..292 0
100 —73 0..365 0

PRICE PER TON AS PER
PRICE LISTS FROM FIRST
MAKERS OF THE DAY.
eWt. £ s. £ s.
20 at 20 10 a ton.. 20 10
40 -- 24 0 .. 48 0
60 -- 28 0 •-- 84 0
80 -- 30 0 -- ..120 0
100 -- 30 0 -- ..150 0

Present market price .422 101 Admiralty priee....1,008 10
"Thus the market price of the above five Admiralty an-
chors, from 1 ton, increasing to 5 tons weight, is shown to
be £122 10s. as against £l,OOB Us. paid by the Admiralty
under a contract dated 1841. This excessive overcharge
may, in a measure, be accounted for by the fact, that an-
chor contracts have not been subjected to the test of public
competition for at least a quarter of a century, or since the
introduction of Nasymth's steam hammer, by which in-
vention the cost of manufacture is reduced one-half at
least.

I have vouchers, viz., an official letter from the Store-
keeper-General of the Navy, giving the above list of prices,
as paid to the Admiralty contractor for anchors ; also the
price lists of the following eminent anchor makars :—Messrs,
Hawks, Crawshay, and Sons ; John Abbot and Co. ;
Henry Wood and Co."

The Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and the
Ladies Scott have arrived at their mansion in Be!grave-
rime, from Dalkeith Fttlace, seotland, for the scum