The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-18 00:00:00

TLIE ARMY.

The first banquet of the officers of the Royal Artillery
took place last evening at the Freemasons' Tavern, under
the presidency of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cam-
bridge.

The sth and 25th Regiments, on their arrival home from
India, will disembark from their respective transports at
Spithead, the first-named corps being ordered into quarters
at Portsmouth, relieving the 2d battalion of the 11th Regi-
ment, under orders for the Cape, and the 25th Regiment
relieving the Bth King's at Gosport, the Itst-named pro-
ceeding to Aldershott.

Capt. Smyth's No. 8 battery 4th Brigade Field Artillery
at Woolwich, were yesterday ordered to exchange their guns
of the old pattern for the Armstrong 12-pounders, in pre-
paration to join their brigade at Aldershott, for which
place they will commence their Inarch (most probably) at
the end of the present week. Col. Dick and the head-
quarters of the brigade will remain at Woolwich until the
close of the drill season, when they will proceed to Alder-
shntt, and rolievo Col. Fitomayer, O.D.

The departure of Major Penn's No. 4 battery, 4th Brigade,
originally ordered to march from Aldershott on Thursday for
embarcation on board the Great Eastern for Quebec, having
been delayed, they loft the camp yesterday morning and
commenced their march for Birmingham, whence they will
proceed by rail to Liverpool. A heavy reserve of 32-
pounder guns and war stores of every description is in
course of preparation in Woolwich Arsenal, to be despatched
by transport ships for Quebec. The Great Eastern, now
ordered to sail from Liverpool on the 24th, will convey the
troops and their stores only, on account of serious additional
expense which the land transport of heavy stores from
Woolwich would necessarily entail.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

TATTERSALLS'—MONDAY.
NORTHUMBERLAND PLATE.
100 to 30 agst Underhand (taken)
Bto 1 agst Syringe (taken)
Bto 1 agst Joey Jones (taken)
ST. LEGER.
3to 1 agst Kettledrum (taken)
25 to 1 agst Big Ben (taken)
THE DERBY.
25 to 1 agst Elector (taken)
25 to 1 agst Ace of Clubs (taken)
k,5 to 1 agst Night Watch (taken)
33 to 1 apt Cellarius (taken)
40 to 1 agst Patriot (taken)
40 to 1 agst Laughing Stock (taken)
50 to 1 agst Staple Oak (taken)
60 to 1 agst Ashford (taken)

BETTING AT MANCHESTER-MONDAY.

The Great Newton Handicap and the Surrey and Middle-
sex Stakes added a little to the business of the day. For
the Newton affair, Cape Flyaway was supported at 5 to 2;
and Sutton had friends who took as low as 6 to 1 about him.
We saw nothing else supported. For the Surrey and Mid-
dlesex, the only one touched upon was the Intimidation
colt, who was backed at 2to 1. For the Northumberland
Plate, .there was some money put on Joey Jones, who
finished at 10 to 1 (taken) ; but it had no effect on Under-
hand, whose friends only asked for 4to 1. Yorkminster
was not quite so firm, 100 to 9 being offered against him.
Closing prices :

GREAT NEWTON HANDICAP.
sto 2 agst Cape Flyaway (taken)
6to 1 agst Sutton (taken and offered)
STRRET AND MIDDLESEX STAKE..
2to 1 agst Intimidation colt (taken)

NORTHUMBERLAND PLATE.
4to 1 agst Underhand (wanted)
10 to 1 agst Joey Jones (taken and offered)
100 to 9 agst Yorkminster (offered)

HAMPTON RACES.

The Innkeepers' Plate of 30 soya, added to a Sweepstakes
of 5 sous each, &c. ; the winner to be sold by auction.

£ yrs
Newstead
Cheesecake
The Hurst Plate of 40 sovs,
soya each, &c. ; the win
Newstead £ yrs4o 5
Gauntlet
Bandit
Her Majesty's Plate of 100 guineas; three-year-olds, Bst ,
four, 9st 71b ; five, lOst; six and aged, lOst 21b ; the
winner to be sold for £5OO. Two miles.

£ yrs
Naughty Girl
Vulture
added to a Sweepstakes of 5
ner to be sold by auction.
£ yrs
Marwell
The Fawn 4O 3

Eskdale yrs
5
Redpole
Loiterer
Little Drummer
Auricula ....
Audrey
Jenny Longlegs .. 4
Sharpshooter
Pitman 4
The Bushy Plate of 30 soya
soya each, &c. ; the wine
£ yra
Phoebus
El Dorada filly
Pupil 4O 2I
Cheesecake 4O 4
The Railway Plate of 50 sovs, given by the South-Western
Railway Company, added to a Sweepstakes of 5 sovs
each; the winner to be sold by auction.
X yrs 1 yrs
Girdle ............ 602 Bandit ..
Liberality .......... 50 2 Ca.lipyge
The Principal ...... 50 2 Mickleham
Ladylike .......... 60 2 Seahorse .... 3
Gauntlet ....... ... 50 3

Paleface
4
Newstead
Weatherproof
Tonio 3
Sporting Life
Lucknow
Borderer
Ipswich 4
Dorking ...... ..
added to a Sweepstakes of 5
Ler to be sold by auction.
£ yrs
Seahorse .......... 40 2
Calipyge ... ....... 40 2
Wowan in Green .. 40 2

TREBLE EVENT.—NORTIIITII BERLpD PLATE---0131-
BERLAND PLATE—LIVERPOOL.CITP.-^YOLlatt WM. Gray
l
as year selected First Lord, Master Bagot, and Moorcock
to Win these three events. 800 to 1 was obtained, and his
friends netted a fortune each. His treble event on the
above will be issued this day, and is confident that the re-
sult will be the same. The winner of the Northumberland
Plate is at 15 to I. Rembember his last two great hits—
Brown Duchess for the Oaks, and Thormanby for the
Ascot Cup.—Terms to the end of the season, LI Is. ; the
treble mut, 2e, 6d,--Addross, 15, Charing-cross, Loudon.

THE EXPERIMENTS WITH THE ARM

STRONG GUNS.

(From the Times)
To witness the experiments at Shoeburyness on Thurs-
day last, for the purpose of testing the Armstrong guns,
there were present—Lord Herbert, Secretary of State for
War; Major-General J. Bloomfield, Inspector-General of
Artillery; Major-General Sir It. J. Dacres, K.C.8., the
Commandant at Shoeburyness ; and their respective staffs,
together with a large number of Artillery, Engineer,
and other officers. The experiments were directed
against two batteries, composed respectively of 10-inch
and 8-inch iron bars. The le• inch bars were sup-
ported at the end by strong iron struts and by
four upright bars, into the slots of which some of
the horizontal bars, backed with dovetails, were shipped
and keyed by wedges, a contrivance which braced the whole
of the horizontal bars together. The screen of 8-inch bars
was backed at each end by six or eight feet of cemented
masonry and brickwork. Tho guns employed were a 100-
pounder rifled Armstrong, and a 120-pounder shunting
Armstrong, which broke the bars with almost every shot,
producing cracks in the bars both above and below, while
the whole mass was moved by every shot, the 10-inch screen
being driven back one or two feet, and the masonry which
supported the 8-inch screen being, at the points where the
screen rested, forced bodily back about three-quarters of an
inch. The remainder of the masonry was cracked through
and through from top to bottom.

(From the Morning Post.)
A second series of experiments was carried out on Friday
last at the Government practice range, Shoeburyness, with
a view to test the power of Sir W. Armstrong's heavy' guns
when opposed to the strongest combination of iron and tim-
ber. The Admiralty steam-vessel Vivid proceeded down
the river with a numerous party to witness the proceedings,
and amongst the passengers were the Duke of Somerset,
First Lord, and other members of the Admiralty; General
Sir 11. Dacres, Commandant at Woolwich; Col. Tulloh;
Brigade-Major Wilward ; Majcr Field, Deputy-Assistant-
Quartermaster. General; and other artillery officers. The
target used was, as on a former occasion, composed of a
solid wall of iron plates 10 inches thick, backed by heavy
timberwork braced with iron bars, and constructed on
Thorncroft's system of dovetailing. Instead of the former
range of 600 yards, the fortification was attacked by Arm-
strong 100 'pounders at 400 yards' range. Without detail-
ing the result of each shot it may be stated that the experi•
meats fully proved the fact that the heavy rifled ordnance of
Sir W. Armstrong is the most destructive agent known in
modern warfare, as the mass of iron and timber was re-
peatedly pierced and ultimately completely shattered.

(From the Daily 111 eve.)
During last week a series of experiments were carried otxt
at Shoeburyness, under the immediate direction and supe-
rintendence of Sir W. Armstrong, in the presence of Lord
Herbert, Secretary of State of War ; General Bloomfield,
Inspector-General of Artillery; General Sir R. 3. Dacres,
K.C.8., and a considerable number of officers. The prac •
tice commenced on the first day by firing at a battery
formed of wrought iron, 10 inches in thickness, at a range
of a quarter of a mile, the gun used being the 100-pounder
Armstrong rifled cannon, with 68 grooves in the rifling, and
the iron shot, which was of the elongated pattern, cased
with lead. At this distance the practice was something
astonishing, the shot breaking the solid bars of iron,
although the whole were dovetailed together in one mass,
and passing completely through the battery. The 120-
pounder Armstrong rifled gun was next tried at the same
object with a precisely similar range, and here the results
were equally decisive, the battery being so shaken as to be
nearly destroyed. Some experiments were next made upon
a solid oak battery, 7 feet in length by 6 in thickness, with
120-pounder, 100-pounder, and a 7-inch howitzer. Only a
very few shot and shell had been fired before the butt was
completely destroyed, scarcely a vestige of it being left
standing, notwithstanding its great thickness. By direction
of the Admiralty, the llussar has been sent from Chatham
to Shceburyness to be experimented upon with Martin's
liquid iron shells, in order to test their effects when fired
into the sides of vessels of war.

On the subject of the effect of shot from the Armstrong
gun on iron plates, the correspondent of the Times writes as
follows :—ln the Times of the 17th appears a letter signed
" W. I. C.," professing to give an account of the experi-
mental firing upon two iron plates affixed to the side of the
Sirius target-ship in Porchester Creek, on the 11th inst., and
in which he states that the gun used was a new Armstrong
200-pounder, with a range of from 200 to 400 yards, &c..,
and describes the havoc made by the projectiles from this
weapon upon the iron plates and ship's side, &c. At the
trial in question I was allowed to be present as your corres-
pondent, and forwarded you a detailed report, which was,
however, so much at variance with what is now stated by
"W. I. C.," that I must beg you to allow me to state
the facts of the trial, which took place in the presence
of several of the members of the Iron Plate Committee, in
as short a manner as possible. Not a shot was fired from
an Armstrong gun, all the practice being from a 95 cwt,
ea-pounaer smooth bore gun at 200 yards range, with a
charge of 161 b. of powder. The result of the firing proved
the small plate to be of too brittle a nature to resist the
impact of the solid 68-pounder, but the large plate, manu-
factured by Messrs. Beale, and referred to by " W. I. C.,"
gave very different results, and proved to be of a very superior
fibrous nature to any plate that had yet been experimented
upon from the solid shot 68-pounder in Porchester Creek.
Where this plate was struck fairly in its centre by the shot,the
lat ter made an indentation of two inches on the plate's surface
and then dropped off innocuous. Three shots struck the plate
and fell back from its surface, leaving three two-inch in-
dentations in a triangular form. with about 18-inch base.
The plate was afterwards struck by two other shot in the
area of the triangle, but still it was not penetrated. One
corner of the plate was carried away by successive shots
striking it in the same place, and two pieces were broken
out of its edges, tut these could only be considered in the
light of unfair blows, as those parts of the plate were with-
out the support they would receive when fixed on a ship's
side, in company with other plates, and tongued and grooved
as is the case with the Warrior's plates. The only instance
of the plate being penetrated by a single shot was in its
midship part, where it had been placed over one of the Sirius's
maindeck ports for the purpose of testing the difference in
the effects produced by the solid 68-pounder upon iron 41 .
inch plates supported upon a bed of timber, as we
are now constructing our iron-cased ships, and upon iron
plates without such support. In this instance the result was
in favour of the timber backing, the plates, as I have said
being penetrated by a single shot, which was crushed into
fragments in its passage through the plate and strewed uportn
the frigate's deck. The fracture of the plate at this
tpor proved
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_
The Sirius has been target-ship at Portsmouth for some
time, and the damage referred to by " W. I. C.," which she
has received on her port side, has been inflicted by the hun-
dreds of solid shot fired at and through various descriptions
of armour plates which have been bolted on to her sides for
that purpose. What would have been the result of all the
firing at the Sirius had there been no armour plates ?
Armour-plate experiments at Portsmouth commenced
with firing shell at them, which proved about as efficacious
as glass bottles would have done, and has ended so far with
the solid shot from the 95 cwt. gun. With this latter
weapon experiments have been made upon many 41 inch
plates, both iron and sheet, some of which it has smashed
at once, and others after a succession of blows, not neces-
sarily upon the same spot. Others have been penetrated b y
a single shot, as in the case of the chain armour, while
others again have withstood the crash of 68 in a wonderful
manner, as instanced by the Warrior's scrap-iron sample
i
plate, and the large plate referred to in the present n7tans e:
and which may be looked upon as the mosttansuccesffseiri.eldmby
stances on record at Portsmouth of the resi
II
4f -inch plates, placed in a vertical position, c'ete°the solid
cast-iron shot from the 95 cwt. gun.