The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-04 00:00:00

A board of survey, ordered by the Lords Commis-
sioners of the Admiralty, have commenced their
operations in Woolwich dockyard for the purpose of
rendering an account of the expenditure necessary
for completing the whole of the ships at present
under construction in that yard without delay.
They are to lay before their lordships a detailed
statement of the stock of timber, and other mate-
rials, now in hand, and to give in a specification of
the progress of the 91 gun ship Repulse, together
with a return of the additional sum required in the
event of the Government deciding on an alteration
of her build by cutting down her upper deck and
lengthening her to a 52 gun frigate, which plan is
also proposed for the sister ship Caledonia. The
Duke of Wellington, 131, is likewise to undergo
the same process to a 91 gun frigate.
The floating battery Trusty, fitting with Captain
Coles's patent battery shield, has entered on its pre-
liminary experiments at Shoeburyness, and (as re-
ported yesterday at Woolwich) with admirable suc-
cess. A second course of experiments, according
to present arrangements, will take place to-day.
Lieut.-Gen.Viscount Melville proceeded on Satur-
day from Hamoaze into Plymouth Sound, in the
gunboat Redwing, accompanied by various officers,
to witness the practice in the gunboat from Arm-
strong 100 pounders and 68 pounders, at various
ranges up to 2,400 yards. They afterwards landed
and witnessed firing from the Staddon Fort Battery,
and the Staddon heights, 182 ft, and 310 ft. above the
level of the sea, at fixed targets, thrown overboard
at random outside the Breakwater, at distances
found by an instrument of simple construction, in-
vented by Capt. Jerningham, to be 1,270 and 1,740
yards, and at a target towed astern of the Redwing,
at a range of 1,700 and 1,800 yards from the upper
battery. The practice at sea, and from the lower
battery, 182 feet high, was with 68 pounders,
smooth bore, and from the upper battery, 310 feet
high, with six 32 pounders. It was decisive, both in
the gunboat and from the batteries, of the excellence
and certainty of the new weapons. On Monday,
at an early hour, Lord Melville proceeded to the
Cambridge, and witnessed the disembarcation of the
crew, who were then thrown into mixed companies,
to represent casualties likely to arise on service
when landing troops covered by seamen-skirmishers.
They took up skirmishing order, under cover, as
they landed, irrespective of their respective com-
panies, being told off in companies under fire, after
which they were put through light infantry and
other movements, with bayonet and cutlass exercise.
The arms having been piled, a field battery of six
guns, four 12-pounder howitzers and two 12-pounder
,Armstrongs, was turned out and put through
several evolutions, the guns being dragged over the
rocks along the shore, and the front frequently
changed. The men then embarked, and after din-
ner went to general quarters on board, firing at
targets 1,000 yards off, the ship rolling heavily all
the while. Lord Melville spoke in strong terms of
satisfaction of all he witnessed, and expressed to
the officers and ship's company when on shore his
high opinion of their proficiency.

The gunboat Redpole, from Gibraltar, having
been relieved by the Cuckoo, arrived on Monday
night at Plymouth. She was alongside the hulk
Lavinia in Plymouth Sound receiving coal yester-
day, and was expecting orders to leave for an
eastern port.

The screw steamship St. Jeait d'Acre, 99, Com-
mander John D. M'Crea, just returned from the
Mediterranean, left Plymouth Sound yesterday af-
ternoon, and went into Hamoaze to be dismantled.
The Medea, 6, paddle, steamed out of Portsmouth
harbour yesterday, in charge of the officials of the
Reserve, to test her machinery. Every part worked
-in a very satisfactory manner. On her return into
harbour she shipped her paddlebox boats alongside
the dockyard. She is ordered for commission to-
day. The Pelican, 17, screw, also at Portsmouth,
will like qise be commissioned to-day. Both ships
are rigged And stored. They are said to be destined
to reinforce the squadron, under Sir David Milne,
)n the North America and West India station.
A letter to our correspondent at Plymouth, dated
Singapore, July 16, says that the screw steam cor-
vette Charybdis, 21, Captain the Hon. George D.
Keane, was appointed to leave the next day, with
the newly-appointed Governor of Borneo, for La-
buan. She would be back to Singapore in about a
fortnight, and was to touch at Sarawak when re-
turning. It is probable the corvette will not go to
the China Seas until November. The intention of
the Government to reduce the mail communication
to once a month is much regretted at Singapore.
The latest intelligence from the screw steam cor-
vette Pearl, 21, Captain John Borlase, C. 8., was
that she had been to Hongkong, and had left again,
her destination being unknown.

Admiralty orders have been received at Chatham
fog• the large floating shears to be removed from
that harbour to Pinope-reach, some distance down
the Medway, for the purpose of masting the iron-
plated frigate Defence, 22, on her arrival from the
Tyne, it being considered inexpedient to run the
risk of performing the operation in the harbour,
where it is feared she might take the ground. The
lower masts are being manufactured at the Victoria
Ironworks. The topmasts and other portions of
her gear are being prepared at Chatham dockyard.

The Lords of the Admiralty have decided on hav-
ing the Defence fitted with Cunningham's self-reef-

ing topsails, which are, it is understood, to be ex-
tensively adopted in the navy.
The Orestes, 21, 400 horse-power, which was
commissioned at Sheerness on Saturday, is ordered
to•be furnished with the following armament from
Chatham, viz.-20 8-inch guns, each of 60 cwt., on
her main deck, and one 100. pounder Armstrong
pivot gun. Before she proceeds to sea, however,
several Armstrong guns will be substituted for her
other guns.

The follo wing appointments were made yesterday
at the Admiralty :—Capt. John Ormsby Johnson
to the Malacca; Commander Philip Brock to the
Pelican ; Lieut. Edward M. Collier to the Orestes.

Edward W. Willmott and Mountjoy Squire have
been nominated to naval cadetships.

THE ARMY.

Yesterday the first portion of the Armstrong guns
intended to be used at the Royal Marines' Ships
(inn Battery, at Chatham, arrived from the Ord-
nance Wharf, and were fixed in the battery.

Yesterday Col. H. Jervis, commanding the Ist
battalion of Infantry at Chatham, assumed the tem-
porary command of that garrison during the absence
of Major-Gen. H. Eyre, on a special mission to
Prussia.

The 26th Company of Royal Engineers now at
Bermuda, has been placed under orders to embark
for England, and will be relieved by the 34th (Capt.
Gordon's) company, now at Shorncliffe, which latter
is relieved by the 23d Company, under the com-
mand of Lieut.-Col. Graham, V.C., having recently
arrived at Chatham from India and China.

CALUMNIES AGAINST ARTISTES.—It is an extra-
ordinary thing, but no less extraordinary than true, that
the public seems inclined to lend a willing ear to any
calumny that maybe circulated to the prejudice of persons
on the stage. Let bat some malicious individual originate
the report that Mr. Topnotes, the favourite tenor, is ad-
dicted to dissipation, and presto I the story flies from one end
of the land to the other, though it is just possible that poor
Mr. Topnotes never drank more than a harmless glass of
sherry in his life. Just set it going that Mr. Dexter, the
comedian, beats or neglects his wife, or has committed some
other flagrant act of cruelty, a portion of the public eagerly
swadow the scandal, and henceforth the hapless Dexter is
looked upon as a social miscreant, though, poor man, he
may be at the same moment the most indulgent and
kindest of husbands. The truth is, there exist unscrupulous
persons who do not hesitate to blacken the characters of
artistes, well knowing how easy the calumny is set going.
if the public would be actuated by a kinder, better spirit
towards the professors of ,the stage, these cruel fabricators
would then be driven to propagate their wanton scandals
in another quarter. As an old author (Fuller) justly says:
—" A slanderous per:;ecutor who rakes up and invents
calumnies to injure
his fellow man, should have his ears
nailed to a post, and
be pelted by those he has injured."
Without going so far as to indorse this rather summary
mode of dealing with slanders, we must say before people
give credence to unmanly reports affecting artistes, it
would :be at least charitable to give them the benefit of
the doubt, and it might be discovered in the end that these
calumnies were nothing me TO nor less than a mean formsf
revenge emanating from persons as cruel and tuascrnpulo%
as they are base.—Howara! .Paul.