The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-26 00:00:00

LONDON, SATU RDA Y

NAVAL IN

PORTSMOUTH, OCT. 25.—The Retribution tto am
frigate, Captain Warden. arrived at Spithead this
morninc, cowing in through the Needles under steam.
She hit Cork on Sunda", the 13th instant, and has had
a trial cruise of eleven days. It is repotted that she
will go into harbour to have an increase of six guns to
her armament, which, from her buoyancy, she is well
able to carry, and an increase to her complement of thirty
men, previous to which she will rt quire some " cook-
ing." Her c!uise has not been so satisfactory as could he
wished, though she proved a good sea•boat and an easy
ship in some rough weather she had; but she is said to
steer very wild, both under steam and canvas. Under
steam she nveraged about 7 or,B knots; under sail
she did hotter, making about 9} to 10 knots with the wind
on the quarter, and oa a wind about 8 knots. On a
wind, however, she carried her helm a turn and hail
to two turns a weather, from having too much after
sad. With her spanker bruited up and miz—ntop,ail
furled, she steered better. Si.e ought to be bat qut-
riggel, with a light m'z .torast ; indeed, we think teat
large paddle steamers should be riKgrd as bat ques,
their square sails on the mize,mast seldntn h. int!' of any
service. We suppote the Retribution, to impr,ive her
steering, will have an a Iditional piece attached to
h. r stet npost, to throw her rudder lurther af:.. She is
stiff under her canvatz, but would steer better if she bad
more ballast on board.

C„mniinder F. J. .Leroux (1841), en the refill d
died a f-w days binee at•Yiywou,h. lle wss a licure.
nant or 1800, and served in Lord llowe's action of the
Ist of June. and atELTypt..

_ .
Tse Admiralty have ordered the launches of the Al-
bion, 90, and St. George, 120, at Devonport, to be fitted
for laying out anchors on Lieutenant S 3( ecembe's plan,
both with chain and hempen cables, Lieutenant Set:-
combo is to superintend their fitting,plan
altera
:ds
otffih eeireeestptercitails:e
-packet to the Banshee,
with emd a coating of Mr. H.
cb ,us pct. tastr,iuna
idsl
°La
mir
reiopl
ntot
joazsnerdtehceeet
ei
Hay's composition.
HERMES, STEAM-VESSEL, COMMANDER FISHROURNE.
—The barque Anna Robertson, which was in Algoa tfay,
had been arrested under a warrant of the court of Vice-
Admiralty in a suit for salvage, on behalf of Captain
Fishbourne and the officers of the Hermes. The sum
claimed is about 3,0001.
Rattlesnake, 8, Acting Commander Yules, sailed early
on Thursday morning from Devonport to Chatham, to
be paid off.
Sinhad, lighter, Follett, master, arrived at Devonport
on Thursday morning, with victualling stores from
Deptford.
Portland, 50, Captain Chads, flag-ship of Rear-Ad-
miral Moresby, C. 8., will, be taken out of Devonport
Harbour on Monday next, the 28th inst. (weather per-
mitting), after which she will be swung and her com-
passes adjusted by Mr. Thompson, the harbour-master.
Plymouth. buoy-bout, Harris, master, arrived at De-
vonport on Thursday with stores from Chatham.
'rho Banshee steam-vessel, Master-Commander
Smithett, sailed this morning for Woolwich.
The Prince Albert, New York packet, arrived this
morning from London.
This morning, as a gang of convicts were at work by
the south dock, one of them seized an iron bar, with
which he immediately commenced striking the keeper
over his legs, and at the same time struck him with his
fist in the face. The keeper, after receiving several
blows, succeeded in closing with his bloodthirsty oppo-
nent, whom he immediately threw down, and held until
police aid came, when the prisoner was removed to the
Stirling Castle hulk. The man is a confirmed bad cha-
racter, and had been frequently reported by his keeper
for his refractory behaviour, which may account for his
murderous attack.
A most interesting experiment was tried in this gar-
rison this morning by order -of the Major-General
commanding, which if adopted in the service will
greatly facilitate the loading and firing of the forces
either afloat or ashore. This was a self-priming
musket, the patented invention of Manton and Harring-
ton. In the stock along the barrel of the piece runs
thehoramrodme
the
charge. In cold weather or a cold climate such en a groove or well containing 70 percussion saps, which
by the agency of a fitting appliance in connexion with
the ramrod fall into their place over the nipple of the
gfruonmsitmheul
stock
koutsolyr
twhiet withdrawalhptuhrepoof
rammingof
im-
provement would be inestimable in its value to our
troops, as the difficulty in fingering so diminutive an
article as a cap with benumbed fingers can only be ima-
gined by those who have been so unfortunate as to be so
circumstanced. Colonel Maxwell, of the 82d Regiment,
quartered in this garrison, tested the invention this
morning on Southsea-common, and its performances
yielded the most satisfactory result. Seventy rounds
were fired with the regulation cartridge, and not one cap
failed. The self-priming machinery is quite independent
of the lock, and might be fitted to any musket at the
expense of a few shillings. The Major-General Com-
manding is highly pleated with the invention, which will
enable soldier to fire 70 rounds without stopping to
prime—no mean advantage in close firing.
WooLWICH, OCT. 25.—Rear-Admiral M. F. Fitz-
hardinge Berkeley, C. 8., one of the Lords of the Admi-
ralty, Captain Sir Baldwin Walker, K.C.8., Surveyor
of the Navy, and Mr. John Edye, Assistant-Surveyor of
the Navy, arrived at the dockyard here at ten o'clock
A.m., and immediately proceeded on board the Wasp
steam sloop, at moorings in the stre am, accompanied by
Flag-Lieutenant Gore, Lieutenant Robertson, Mr.
M-Donald, Master-A ttendaut; Mr- Lang. .Master-Ship-
aright; Mr. Humphries, Chief Engineer; Mr. Chat-
field, and Mr. Peaky assistants to the Master-Ship•
aright. Commander Peaks,
rcceived his Lordship and
the Surveyor of the Nsvy un board, and conducted them
over the vessel, suggesting several alterations which
would improve her trim, and otherwise render her
a Letter seagoing vessel. When the Admiral
went on board the draught of water of the
Wasp was 1315. 7in. forward, and left. 2in. aft,
being is considerably gra att r iremession at the
stern than was desirable, and in order to iernaly
that detect the ballast was
.oidered to be taken
out frcm the stern port of the vessel, and Lieutenant-
Colonel Golquhoun, of the carriage department at the
Royal Arsenal, was sent for to change one ef the 68-
pounder guns (r 1 87 cwt. on board at the stern, and sub-
stitutel2one a 32-pounder of 56 cwt. The armament of the
Wasp will now consist of one 68-pounder, of 87 cwt. and
911.fs'eteetrulo; and broadside guns,
e 2-
n; at her bows;
p3(2rupnedueer,doefrb c
564c3w2te.,,vatt.
and ei feet long (ash, with two 12-pounder brass
howitzers, and one 6-pounder brass gun. The taking
out of the ballast end other alterations will detain the
vessel at Woolwich until to-morrow, when she will
leave for Plymouth to take cut the November mails to the
coast of Africa. His Lordship came on shore after being
upwards of an hour on board the Wasp, and proceeded
to the basin ut the west .end of the yard to visit the
Geyser steatn-.loop, Commander Tatham, now nearly
ready to proceed to the Brazda for service against the
slavers in that quarter. The guns onboard the Geyser are
one 42. pounder of 84 cwt., on traversing platform; four
32-pounders, of 42 cwt. each, and one 10-inch gun,
of 86 cat., on traversing platform, with two 24-
pounder brass howitzers, and one light 12-pounder
howitzer. The Buzzard steam-sloop was also in-
spected; her armament consists of one 10-inch gun, of
86 cwt., aft; one 68-pounder, of 95 cwt., forward, both
on traversing platforms; four 32-pounders, with two
24-pounder brass howitzers, and two 12-pounder howit-
zsrs. Rear-Admiral Berkeley and Sir Baldwin
Walker then went round the basin to visit the Volcano
steam-sloop, fitted with a rudder and jury tiller on a
plan submitted by Captain Denham, R.N. F. R. S. , and
subsequently went on board the Rosemond steam-sloop
to witness a plan for obtaining power over the helm by
using the foot of the steersman, submitted by Lieut.
Robinson, R.N. The latter plan is similar to the break
used in stopping lilting-crates, and for the wheels of
railway carriages. His Lordship, with Sir Baldwin
Walker, left at half-past teelve o'clock on their return
to town.

THE NORTHUMBRIAN PEASANTRY.
(FROM OUR LIVN CORRESPONDENT.)

The condition of the agricultural labourers in
Northumberland, as recently witnessed by a gentle-
man connected with this journal, affords a striking
refutation, so far at least as that county is concerned,
to the melancholy statements made both in and out
of Parliament by the ultra-Protectionist party as to
the misery and privation which have resulted to the
agricultural interest from the adoption of the principle
of free trade in corn. A ride which he took in this
present autumn through a purely rural district of that
county, in the company of an intelligent and experi-
enced farmer, added to some previous knowledge of
the subject, convinced him that, whatever may be the
state of the agr:cultural population of the south-
ern counties of England, that of the kindred
class in Northumberland indicates the enjoy-
ment of as much of plenty, happiness, and

ease as the most ardent philanthropist could
wish them. Whatever may have been the trials

and vicissitudes experienced by the tenant-farmers of
this kingdom from time to time, even under, if not
consequent upon, a system of agricultural protection,
such has ever been the peculiar nature of the relation
subsisting between those in Northumberland and
their labourers, that the course if life of the latter,

humble though it be, has gone on from time imme-
morial almost wholly undisturbed by political change.
A time there was when tt:e way in which the pea-
santry in that county were housed—cribbed, cabined,
and confined with their families, as they often were,
in one single apartment—was the most striking in•
convenience incident to their lot ; but even under
that state of things, which is fast passing away, un-
favourable as it was to the proper observance of
the decencies of life, the generally good morals
and the blameless lives of the class now under

notice have ever been remarkably conspicuous.
Rarely indeed have any of them been
brought before the criminal tribunals of
the country to answer for even minor offences, and it
is a proud thing to be able to say of the population of
Northumberland, large though that county is, that
until very recently no execution for a capital offence
had taken place within the county for a period of
about a quarter of a century. The execution which
interrupted this golden age was that of a young man,
in the condition cf a farm servant, who perpetrated

the crime of parricide ; and that atrocious offence was
regarded with the more consternation in the locality
where it happened, because it was committed by a
person belonging to a class among whom crime of any
kind or degree was of such rare occurrence. The
crime of arson, to which a kindred order of men are
So much addicted in some of the southern counties of
England, is wholly unknown in Northumberland, as
is also every species of agrarian outrage. It was the
boast of O'Connell that the Irish were the finest pea-
santry in the world. Had he seen those of Northum-
berland he must in candour hav e qualified his eulogium.
The physical condition of the Northumbrian farm-
labourer is one of comparative comfort. Though the
circumstances of his position preclude the possibility
of his becoming affluent, in the ordinary sense of the
term, yet privation and want are things unknown to
him, and he is in the enjoyment of at least an average
amount of human happiness. We shall take, for ex-
ample, the case of the labourers on a farm hich we
visited belonging to the Duke of Portland, a few miles
distant from Morpeth, in the occupation of Messrs.
James and Robert Jobling. It may be premised that
the hinds, as the married agricultural labourers are
called in that county, are paid their wages almost
wholly in kind and to a very small extent in money.
Each hind on the farm referred to is allowed by his
employers annually, in payment of his wages, a cottage
to live in rent free and six bolls of wheat,
five old bolls of oats, twelve new bolls
of barley, and five new bolls of pease—one
old being equal to three new bolls. He and his
family, however large, are thus supplied with an
abundance of bread-stuff throughout the year. He
has, besides, a cow bought him by his masters on

entering their service, and he is allowed, free of
charge, as much grass and hay as it can consume, and
sufficient shelter for it during the winter. This sup-
plies him with milk and butter, and when he lives