The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-28 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

Licut.-Col. Fleming, Woolwich division Royal
Marine Light Infantry, was yestereay instructed
in garrison orders, to proceed to Plymouth, on con
mand duty at that garrison.
The ancient piece of ordnance, described in The,
Sun of the 15th inst., which was presented to Go-
vernment by Sir J. Ilirooke, the Rajah' of Sarawak,
having been carefully packed, was yesterday re-
moved from Woolwich Arsenal, for conveyance to
Windsor, in charge of Mr. Morris, master wheel-
wright, under whose design the gnn has been
mounted and fitted. Col. Tulloch will proCeed to
the Castle this morning in order to receive and
execute the Queen's instructions relative to the dis-
posal of the gun. During her Majesty's inspection
of the Arsenal in the summer of 1857 this gun,
among a number of about 40 ancient pieces of ord-
nance captured from the piratical inhabitants of
Borneo in 1851, attracted her notice, and by direc-
tion of Lord Panmure, who was present, it was im-
mediately ordered to be laid aside and mounted in
an appropriate style, to be deposited in the armoury
of Windsor Castle. The carriage, limber, and other
appurtenances are compowd of solid Spanish maho-
gany, ingeniously decorated with bronze fili,gree
work and bronze. dolphins to cowrrespon with the
ornaments on the gun. Th 9 ork hasd been pro-
nounced a perfect masterpiece of ingenuity and
I labour.

SMALL PARCELS POST.

At a meeting of the Society of Arts held on Wed-
ncsdav—T. A Nicholay, Esq., in the chair—Mr.
Peter Graham, member of the council, brought be-
fore the society for discussion the report of the
committee appointed by the council to consider the
subject of a " Small Parcels Post." The report
tended to show that the present rate of postage on
parcels amounted to a prohibition, except in very
few cases, and also that the private means of trans-
mission were so expensive and uncertain, the:cost
of porterage to and from railway stations being so
great, that great difficulty was experienced in con-
veying small parcels from onepart of the country
to another. The Post-office, however, already had
an agency established and paid for, which might
be called a general porterage for the delivery of
letters, and which would render a separate porter-
age for small parcels unnecessary over a large por-
tion of the kingdom. The committee were therefore
of opinion that at a payment of 4s. for a parcel of
a pound weight, the post might do at a profit that
which private employers could not do for a much
very
larger sum. Examples are given toshotibvattbe
one ipaatrr-t
great number of changes of conveyance m
on
cel would undergo in transmission f
of the country to another. The p
irrcels ws.re sent
this was that hardly any small actical result of
these long distances, the railwmayP
-mint of profitable
companies being
thus losers of a considerable A
traffic. Various extracts gentlemen
were quoted from evidence
given by Mr. Rowland Hill and other
s el on
the
eti before the committee of the House ofreomilme
tended e
end their
show how difficult, uncertain,
transmission means, and what aeon'e-3
3 private
nience the book-post was to the, public at large. It
appeared that some of the railway companies had.
put forward thes a
practice of carrying small parcels
by the post a
ground for demanding - •
a consider-
able rate for the conveyance of mails, and the re-
plies of the Post-office authorities to their applica-
tions seemed. to demonstrate 'that, as most of the
books and small parcels sent throughthepost would
not otherwise be sent at all, and, moreover, as the
Post office was in the habit of paying the railway
companies at a higher rate than booksellers paid for
their parcels, the companies were gainers, both by
an increase of traffic and by the higher rate of re-
muneration. Other evidence Via similar effect was
adduced in the report, which concluded by answer-
ing some of the objections to the proposed measure,
and urging this very important subject on the
attention of the public, and especially of all' those
interested' in the industry and commerce of the
country.
A discussion ensued, in which Messrs. Alderman
Mcchi, W. Haves, Laurence, Salomons, Harry
Chester, E. Chadwick, C. 8., Sir Thomas Phillip s 1
Edwards, Professor Tennant, S. W. Brooks, and
the Chairman, took part.