The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-15 00:00:00

UNSINKABLE AND INCOMBUSTIBLE

SHIPS.

The Briton, new screw steamer, destined for the
Cape mail service, and now lying in the river off
Deptford, is the first specimen of a novel system of
shipbuilding which promises to inaugurate a new
era in the science. We gave some account of her on
the occasion of her launch in July last, but as she
was at that time but little more than the hull, or
outside shell of a ship, the description was necessarily
imperfect. She is now complete, ready for sea, and
will, in a few days, start to make a trial trip from
Southampton, and to have her speed tested by the
measured mile at Stokes Bay. In the meanwhile
her builder, Mr. Charles Lungley, invites those who
take an interest in such subjects to inspect her, and,
to a large extent, the invitation has been accepted
and acted on by merchant shipowners and officers
connected with the navy and the merchant service.
Mr. Lungley claims for his invention—which it
is hardly necessary to say is patented—two great
advantages, viz., safety from destruction by water,
and to a great extent security against fire. The
means by which these all important objects are
achieved are at once simple and effectual. Each
deck of the vessel is distinct from the others, having
no communication with them, but having its sepa-
rate hatchway or entrance from the upper deck ;
and the result of this arrangement is, that what-
ever injury may be incurred to either one or even
to two of these decks or stories, the other er others
will float. Thus, for instance, should the lower
or keel deck be knocked away the two upper decks
will float the ship ; or should, either from a colli-
sion, the starting of a plate under the water line,
or from a shot or a broadside penetrating the
sheathing, one of the intermediate decks let in
the water even to the extent of filling the com-
partment from stem to stern, the buoyant power
would still remain, and the vessel would not only
float, but be perfectly manageable, the water merely
rising up the trunk hatchway of that particular deck
to the level of the water-line outside, allowing full
opportunity for • a diver to descend, find out the
place and extent of the injury, and repair it if cap-
able of repair, after which the water might be
pumped out and the ship freed. The same sub-
division of decks which affords the security against
entire submersion ensures protection against total
destruction by fire. In the event of a fire being
discovered on either deck the hatchway of that
deck would be fastened down, and the supply of
air being thus cut off the fire would die out of
itself, or if the fire bad got too much hold upon the
ship to allow of this, then the entire deck in
which the conflagration was raging might be
filled with water without risk of other inconve-
nience than that of having to pump it out again.
Another great advantage of this mode of shipbuild-
ing is the perfect ventilation it ensures to all parts
of the vessel. At present the general practice is to
have one main hatchway, which communicates
from the upper deck to all the several floors of the
ship, and which forms the ventilating shaft from
each. It is easy to imagine in cases when fever
breaks out on board how much the danger is likely
to be increased by such an arrangement, or when
large numbers of troops or emigrants are berthed
below how mneh the risk of disease is increased by
such imperfect ventilation. By Mr. Lungley's plan
each deck has its own ventilating shaft or shafts—for
there may be one, two, or more—in the hatchways,
which are its means of communication from above.

These separate shafts likewise afford facilities for
loading and unloading, which will be appreciated
in merchant ships. The practice of dividing iron
ships into water-tight compartments with the view
of preventing their sinking has been followed for
many years, but the division walls have in all, cases
been transverse ; that is, each deck has been divided
by watertight iron bulk heads into three, four, or
more separate rooms or apartments—the impression
being that should one or two become by leakage
filled with water, there would be buoyancy enough
in the others to keep the ship afloat. Experience
has unfortunately, however—and the case of the
Connaught is a prominent instance among many—
proved the unsoundness of this theory. The fact is,
that when any one of the compartments becomes
filled with water, or ships water in any considerable
quantity, the vessel is unduly depressed in that
particular part, and no longer sails with an even
keel. To remedy this it would be necessary to let
in a corresponding weight of water in the oppo-
site compartments, which in all probability, even if
practicable, would bring the ship down so low in
the water that with anything like a sea on she
would sink, or the wash from side to side would
lay her over upon her broadside; whereas if she
were left with her keel out of the level, she would,
as the water gained upon her, go down head or
stern foremost, as the case might be. By making
the decks themselves the watertight divisions, the
weight of water in case of leakage is equalised over
the whole surface of the ship, and the even keel,
which is the main element of safety, is preserved,
while all danger is localised, and thus proportion-
ately reduced. One thing which strikes the atten-
tion of the visitor on board the Briton is the perfect
isolation of the engine-room. Not only is it pro-
tected by the watertight deck division, but longitu-
dinal bulkheads or iron walls running fore and aft
some feet within the outer shell or sides of the
vessel protect it from the chance of injury from
without. Thus a fracture in the outside plates occa,
sinned by collision, stranding, or shot, although it
might admit the water into the ship, would not
affect the engines or the fires. The immense im-
portance of this arrangement of longitudinal inside
walls for the protection of the machinery, especially
in ships of war, where it may be carried throughout
the vessel, for adding to the stability of the entire
structure, seems beyond question. It is difficult to
conceive a nearer approach to the idea of invulner-
able ships, and it is hardly to be supposed that Mr.
Lungley's principle will not speedily find its way
into the royal navy in combination with the present
system of building—the more especially as the prin-
ciple is adaptable at a comparatively light expense
to existing ships, whether built of wood or of iron.

THE VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES TO THE
DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.—Great preparations are being
made at Clumber-park, the seat of the Duke of Newcastle,
Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, for the reception of
his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, who is expected
to arrive on Wednesday next. The inhabitants of both
Retford and Worksop are preparing to give his royal high-
ness a most cordial reception. The prince, as already
announced, will reach the East Retford Station of the Great
Northern Railway by the 5.55 p.m. train, which arrives at
York from Edinburgh about 4 o'clock, at Doncaster at 6.20
p.m. The rifle corps of "the ancient borough," and aeorn •
pany from Worksop, will be in attendance at the railway
station, as also the Clumber troop of Yeomanry Cavalry,
who will form the guard of honour. Mr. Alderman Fisher,
the Mayor, and the corporation of Retford will assemble at
the station to meet the royal cortege. The nobility and
several of the leading families resident in the district are
invited to meet his royal highness, who will receive from
the inhabitants of North Notts as hearty a welcome as the
most loyal could desire. The extensive alterations and
improvements that are now all but completed at Clumber
have been carried out, agreeably to the Duke of Newcastle's
wishes, by his steward and agent, Mr. Henry Herring.
STIPENDS OF THE SCOTCH EPISCOPAL CLERGY.
Major Scott, of Gala, an earnest Scotch Episcopalian, who
is endeavouring to raise an endowment fund for the sup-
port of the Scotch Episcopal clergy, gives as samples of the
miserable stipends doled out to the clergy of that Church'
the following :—At Fort William, a clergyman, with seven
children, is allowed by a rich congregation to starve upon
£45 a-year. There is the case of Cumines-town, where
another clergyman vegetates upon £lB. Then there has
come lately to my knowledge the case of another clergy-
man at Peebles, where there is a wealthy congregatirn,who
pay their clergyman £7O per year.—Edinburgh Witness.
CRYSTAL PALACE.— One Shilling Day, Mon-
day, Oct. 14.—Admissions on payment, 2,343; ditto by
season tickets, 667; total visitors, 3,010,

FACTS FRO 1i THE CENSUS OF
ANERICA.

As the exact and official returns of the Census are being
made public, we behold more clearly the precise march snd
direction of the population which has been filling up, during
the last ten years, the unoccupied territory of the Union.
Its grand and main course is westward, with some currents
to the north-west and some to the south-west. The flood of
population over some of our new States in the far West has
probably never been equalled in the history of emigration,
both in the character of the emigrants and in the numbor
placed upon new soil, where before were the animals of the
prairie and the forest and the roving Indian. Minnesota,
for instance, increases front 6,077 inhabitants in 1850 to
162,022 in 1860, or at a rate of increase of over 2,500 per
cent. ; Oregon, from 13,294 to 52,464, or at the rate of 294
per cent. ; lowa, from 192,214 to 674,948, or at 251.22 per
cent. ; Texas, from 212,692 to 602,432, or 183.37 per cent.;
Wisconsin, from 305,391 to 775,873, or 154.06 per cent. Ar-
kansas increases 107 per cent., and Illinois over 100 per cent.
The average rate of the growth of population in all the
States the last decade is 35.02 per cent. There are 19 States
below this average, the lowest in order being Vermont,
032 per cent. ; then New Hampshire, 2.55 per cent. ; and
next South Carolina, 5.28 ; Maine following with 7.73, and
Tennessee with 11.68, and once powerful Virginia with only
12'27, while North Carolina shows only 14.23. There are
11 States counting 19,528,555 inhabitants, or an average of
more than one million and a half each—namely, Illinois, In-
diana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, Ten-
nessee, Missouri, Virginia, Kentucky, and Georgia. In
territories the greatest advance is, of course, in Utah, or
254'07 per cent. In New Mexico it reaches 51.98. Tho
black current must always be the important one to the
statistician of this continent. The Census reveals
a steady stream of negroes from the seaboard towards
the south-west. Virginia retains her old pre--eminence as
the breeder of slaves for market, in which noble occupation,
she is apparently closely followed by South Carolina, while
the States whither this disgusting traffic tends are Arkansas,
Mississippi, and especially Texas. The average increase of
the slaves is moderately large, or 2342 per cent. There is a
loss in but two States, Delaware (of 21.48 per cent.) and
Maryland (3.52). The increase in Virginia is only 3.88 per
cent., and in South Carolina s.2B—this small advance evi-
dently resulting from exportation. Kentucky, too, shows
an increase of but 4.87 per cent, the last decade, which
gives a most gratifying prospect of the destiny of the system
in Kentucky, as it is believed no very important numbers
have been exported during the last ten years from that

State. North Carolina only exhibits an advance of 14.74,
and Tennessee of 15.17 per cent. Missouri presents a larger
increase than was expected—namely, 31.51. The great in-
crease is in Texas, where it reaches over 210 per cent.
(210.66) ; in Arkansas it is 135.89, and in Florida, 57 09 ;
in Mississippi, 40.93. In two States only are the slaves

more numerous than the whites—in South Carolina, where
they number 402,541, against 291,623 of the white inhabi-

tants, and in the Mississippi, being 436,696 to 353,960 whites.
Their largest number in any one State is in Virginia
(490,887), and the next in Georgia (462,232). In the ter-
ritories there are 10 sbkves enumerated in Nebraska, 24 in
New Mexico, and 29 in Utah. The district of Columbia
shows a loss of slaves of 1312 per cent. Among the free
coloured population the increase is very small through the
Union—only 10.68 per cent. Their largest numbers are to
be found, as usual, in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsyl-
vania. Little valuable in a statistical point of view is to be
extracted from the tables of this population, as the diminu-
tion from banishment or emigration cannot be distinguished
from that arising from natural and regular causes. The
theory sustained recently by an able statistician in
Washington (Mr. Weston), that the free negro inevitably
diminishes on this continent, is not yet sufficiently con-
firmed by facts to be admitted as a satisfactory scientific
hypothesis. The race undoubtedly dies out in climatesnot
adapted to it—as, for instance in the Northern States ;
but whether it decays in freedom in the middle or
southern latitudes does not yet fully appear. In many
of the Southern and Western States there are laws
expelling the free negroes, and their decrease
observed in those States during the last decade may be due
to these extraneous causes. Their largest increase in a Slave
State is in Georgia (18.01 per cent.) ; in Alabama, 16.11; in
Maryland, 12.04; the greatest decrease in Arkansas, 77.47.
Greatest increase in a Free State, in Minnesota, 487.18 per
cent. ;in New York they lose 2.18 per cent. It will pro-
bably be many decades before we shall show such a rapid
growth of numbers as in the last. The next census will no
doubt reveal new currents and new directions in our popu-
lation. Instead of streams from east to west, we may then
have many from north to south, and new results to chronicle
in regard to the movements or decrease of the black popula-
tion.—New York Times.

Prince Napoleon and the Princess Clotilde have
arrived in Paris from their American excursion.

The report that the Hanover-square Rooms are
about to be pulled down has, we believe, no foundation in
fact. The rooms are simply to be renovated and used for
the same purpose to which they have been so long applied.
In addition to the names which we published
last week of the noblemen and gentlemen composing the
suite of the Earl of Clarendon at the coronation of the King
of Prussia, we have now to add that of the Earl of Dudley,
who will be present in the same official capacity.
A Neapolitan paper informs us that two theolo-
gians attached to the Faculty of Naples, namely, the Pro-
fessor of Ecclesiastical Law and the Professor of Ecclesias-
tical History, have returned affirmative answers to the
famous questions propounded by the Minister of Public
lhlstruction respecting the temporal power of the Pope.
These authorities declare that such power is neither neces-
sary nor useful to the Catholic Church.

FATAL SIIIPWRECK.—DIINGARVAN, Oct. 10.—
About half-past three o'clock this afternoon a smack, from
Waterford, coming in apparently for Dungarvan Harbour,
was struck by twoheavy seas, about two miles distant, near
Helvick Head. She instantly went down with all hands.
The Dungarvan lifeboat of the National Lifeboat Institu-
tion immediately put off to their help, but all was over before
her arrival, for there was not a trace then of the poor men.
to be seen.

With reference to recant statements and rumours
as to the further increase of the military force now in New
Zealand, we believe we may state that no such augmenta-
tion is likely to be made. We understand that the Duke
of Newcastle looks forward with hope to the effect likely to
be created among the natives by the arrival of Sir Georgo
Grey, whose personal popularity, coupled with the fact that
he comes unfettered by any previous complications, and in
the light of an arbitrator, as it were, will hardly fail to
bring to an end this most disagreeable conflict.—. Army and
11 avy Gazette.

THE WESTERN FISHERIES.—At St. Ive's the boats
on the mackeral drift fishery have been taking from 1,000
down to 100 per night, which found a ready sale at 26s per
hundred of six score. The coasting vessels from Wales
report having passed a great quantity of pilchards. Those
lately taken by the seines and shored have been sold at
£3 12s per hogshead. The small drift boats in the past
week have brought ashore from 3,000 down to 800 pilchards
per boat per d-ty.
SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.—During the week
ending October 12 the visitors have been as follows :—On
Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday, free days, 6,287 ; on
Monday and Tuesday, free evenings, 4,906 ; on the three
students' days (admission to the public 6d), 1,363 ; one stu-
dent's evening, Wednesday, 192; total, 12,748. From the
opening of the Museum, 2,297,212.

DEATH OF SIR J. H. WILLIAMS.—We regret to
announce the death of Sir James Hamlyn Williams, Bart.,
for some years M.P. for Carmarthenshire, which took place
at his residence, Clovelly Court, Bideford, on the 10th inst.
The deceased baronet, who was born in 1790, married, in
1823, Lady Mary, daughter of the first Earl of Fortescue,
and was therefore brother-in-law of the late and uncle of
the present earl. The first baronet was James Hammett,
Esq., who assumed the name of Hamlyn, and the second
baronet took the additional surname of Williams. The de-
ceased was the third baronet. He is succeeded in the title
and estates by his brother, Rear-Admiral Charles Hamlyn,
who was married in 1833 to the youngest daughter of Sir
Nelsonlßycroft, Bart.

The Committee of the Stock Exchange have fixed
Friday next as special settling day in the bonds and scrip
of the new Italian loan. No bonds are to be bought in.
without an order from .the Committee.
About £B,OOO in Russian gold coin was purchased
by the Bank yesterday.

The Lincolnshire has arrived from Melbourne
with £207,000 in gold, which was delivered in London yes-
terday. The destination of this supply is as yet uncertain.
Tho Atrato, from the West Indies, has brought £185,500,
of which £149,000 is silver and £36,500 gold.
The statement that M. Fould is likely again to
become Finance Minister in France, and to inaugurate his
return to that post by contracting a new loan, was assigned
as one reason for the further fall in Consols yesterday, but
as the debt of France has been increased at the rate of about
£12,000,000 sterling during every year of the reign of the
Emperor Napoleon, every one must have been aware that
the time was drawing near for a now operation of the kind,
and in any case it is difficult to understand why it should,
under existing circumstances, affect the English funds.
ELECTION OF LORD MAYOR.—No less than 79
summonses have been issued against Alderman Sir Henry
Muggeridge, in respect of expenses incurred during the late
contest. The hearing has Ifeen fixed for Monday, Nov. 4,
at the Sheriffs' Court, Guildhall •buildings. It is but justice
ecdhathiramt 'all parties having
of Sir Henry's
to a add
committee,tha has publicly
any claim will send in their accounts, in order that they
may be examined, and, if correct, immediately discharged.
ornag requested
CAPTURE OF AN AMERICAN EAGLE.—As the
Montreal Ocean Steam Ship Company's screw steamer
lo Saxon which arrived here on Tuesday, was pro-
ceeding
down the St. Lawrence, an eagle flew off the land
and perched upon ono of the upper spars of the vessel.
Here it soon fell asleep, and one of the sailors going aloft
to the point at which the bird was seated, made capture of
it. It turned out to be a young ono and in fine condition,
and " Jack" brought his prize with him in triumph to
Liverpool.—Liverpool Albion.

The remittances of specie to New York by
'Wednesday's packet Will probably reach £50,000.

EMI