The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-26 00:00:00

THE ARM'.

chair.

The troops belonging to the First Division,
Depot Brigade, Royal Artillery, stationed at Sheer-
ness, were engaged on Thursday afternoon in a
variety of military games and sports, which took
place under the sanction and in the presence of Col.
Nedham, commandant of the garrison. The whole
of the officers and several thousand spectators wit-
nessed the sports. All the games were ably con-
tested. At the termination of the sports the prizes
were distributed by Lieut.-Colonel Talbot, who
highly complimented the winners.
A parade of the officers and men of the Chatham
division of Royal Marine Light Infantry took place
yesterday on the occasion of the promulgation of
the sentence of a district Court-martial passed on
Private William Ringer for gross insubordination.
The prisoner, who during the time he has been in
the service has borne an exceedingly indifferent
character, was a few days since brought before Col.
Gascoigne, C. 8., for a breach of military discipline,
and, having been before reprimanded for similar
misconduct, was ordered a trifling punishment. On
this the prisoner took off some of his military ap-
pointments and threw them on the parade-ground,
before the whole of the battalion on parade, at the
§l3.lDc time ACC9lllpAnying this grog mi§oondligt

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with insubordinate language, The C ourt sentenced
the prisoner to be imprisoned in the ,1,1 ochester mili-
tary prison for 112 days, with hai :a la hour.
Notwithstanding the large nun- iber of, cavalry and
infantry troops who have lately reedy' ed their dis-
charge at Chatham, there are at ill up wards of 500
men at the St. Mary's invalid est fblisliment waiting
to be discharged from the servic a as soon as orders
to that effect have been received from the Horse
Guards. In addition to this numl )er of troops now
at the invalid depot, a notification was yesterday re-
ceived at the garrison that a large party of soldiers
from the depot battalions in Scab tnd will arrive at
St. Mary's Barracks on Monday next to be medi-
cally inspected and discharged f t om the army, the
whole of them being unfit for flu ;t her service.
By the last overland mail we learn the death of
the following officers :—Capt. 1. C. Grant, of the
2d Regiment of Queen's Drag oon Guards, who
served with the Eastern army fr am Nov., 1854, as
capt.-commandant of the Mounte i Staff Corps ; from
Oct., 1855, to the conclusion of :he war as assist.-
quartermaster-general to the cav, ary division of the
Turkish Contingent; and with the 2d Dragoon
Guards in the Indian campaign i 1 1858-59. H..,
received the medal and clasp f yr Sebastopol, the
order of the forth class of the Me; ji die, and the medal
and clasp for India. Capt. J. Ur uhart, of the 27th
Regiment, who served with the reserve of the army
of the Indus in Scinde at the :reduction of Fort
Munaro, in 1839. He debarl Led in command of a
detachment under a brisk fire at &shire ; he was
present with the expeditionary force in China
from the first capture of Cb.usan up to the attack
on the heights above Cantos ; he had received the
medal for China. Capt. R. M. B. Maurice, of the
95th Foot, who served at thb siege and fall of Sebas-
topol, from August, 1855, for which he received
the medal and clasp and the Turkish medal. In
1858 he served at the siege and capture of Kotah,
the battle of Kotah-ka-Seria, and the general action
resulting in the capture of Gwalior. He had been
mentioned in despatches,, and received the medal
and clasp.

RIFLED ORDNANCE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES•

SlR,—Permit me to claim a small space in the
Times, at your convenience, to set myself right with
the public in regard to an error of statement con-
cerning the result of competitive trials at Shoe-
buryness in which my gun took part.
It is averred, firstly, that "At the final trial
Lancaster's (oval bore), which had previously fired
about 90 rounds, stood the 57 competitive rounds
without serious wear, but every shell had to be
rammed down with a heavy metal rammer by two
or three men, and several were cracked, or broke up
in firing."
In answer to this permit me to state that the
number of rounds the gun had fired was 284, not
90 ; that the rammer was not made for me, but for
Mr. Jefferys, and was used both by Capt. Scott and
that gentleman as well as by myself. The enclosed
report specifically states that no difficulty occurred
in loading.
No shells cracked in firing ; indeed, seeing that
the shells were loaded, it follows that, had they
cracked, the bursting charge would have ignited,
and an explosion would have ensued, as really did
occur to the shells of several competitors.
The fact is that a percentage of shells fired at
Shoeburyness, from whatever ordnance, rifled or
unrifled, strikes, on grazing, the debris of other
shells, with which the sand is studded. Hence frac-
ture occurs, just as it would occur were a shell
struck with a sufficiently powerful hammer.
It is true that one unloaded shell has broken in
this gun, from not having been rammed home ; the
same result -would occur under the same circum-
stances with any piece of rifled artillery.—l have
the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant,

CHAS. W. LANCASTER,
151, Now Bond-street. Assoc. Inst. C.E.

TROP OLITAN BOARD OF WORK'S,

The ordinary meeting of the Metropolitan Board
of Works was held yesterday, at the offices of the
Board, Spring-gardens—Mr. J. Th waites in the

The financial statement was presented, which
gave the following cash balances in the hands of
the Treasurer : Current accounts, £112,164 12s. Bd.;
deposit accounts, £95,500 ; total, £207,664 12s. Bd.
Government securities—New 3 per Cent. Annuities,
£27,412 7s. 7d. ; cheques ordered, but not pre-
sented—issued, £147 13s, ; not issued, £13,093
9s. 6d. Payments were recommended to be made
this day to the amount of £41,490 18s. sd.