The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-06 00:00:00

£l7B 1 6

Total ...

STEAM-BOATS.

Passengers ... ... ... £lO9 16 5
Parcels, H. C. and D. ... ... 15 12 4

Total ... £125 8 9
LONDON AND BLACK WALL RAILWAY.—Amount of revenue
for the week ending Dec. 1:
Passengers £716 11 5
Goods ... 28 0 0

Total ... X 744 11 5
Corresponding week last year ... 5 7 8
SHROPSHIRE UNION RAILWAY.—(Open E 0 miles.) —Traffic
for the week ending Dec. 1 :
Passengers, parcels, &c. £2lB 17 5
Goods and live stock .. ... 199 1 2

Total £417 18 7
Corresponding week last year ... 359 8 Ili
SOUTH WALES RAILWAY. - Return of traffic for the week
ending Dec. 1 :
Passengers £524 5 5
Parcels ... ... 33 19 7
G00d5...........114 10 2

Total (exclusive of mails)... 672 15 2
CALEDONIAN RAILWAY.-- (160 miles opened.)_ Return of
traffic for the week ending Nov. 24: -
Passengers, &c £2,0a7 1 t
Goods, &c. ... 3,764 15 4

Total .. ... ... £5.802 6 10? J
Corresponding week last year ... 6,053 19 3

SIEGE OPERATIONS at CILIA THAM.
General Radowitz, of the Prussian service, at presew
on a visit to this country, having expressed a desire to
witness the mode in which the British forces are in-
structed in siege operations at Chatham, every prepara-
tion was made under the direction of Colonel Sir Fre-
derick Smith, K commanding officer of Royal En-
gineers at that station, to show the principle ou which
they are conducted, and Wednesday fixed for their taking
place. On the previous day, Tuesday. Sir Frederick
Smith received information that General Radowitz would
be unavoidably absent at the time originally named, but
the gallant Colonel Commandant of the Royal En-
gineers evinced a desire that the public should not be
disappointed.
Accordingly at the early hour of half-past six
o'clock A.m., the whole of the Royal Sappers and
Miners in the barracks at Brompton, with a number
of the Sappers and Miners of the Hon. East India
Company's service, assembled in the barrack-square,
and 100 men were told off to convey the pon-
toons and their stores with the India-rubber pontoons,
an American invention, and extensively used in the
American service; 12 men to take down the tools fur the
Royal Sappers and Miners; 60 men for the destruction
of a 4-gun battery; 30 men to lay out escalading lad-
ders for a 'party of Marines. The remainder of the
corps were detached on other duties under tbelr respec-
tive officers, and were engaged in opening up the ground
for the erection of field-works. A select( d party of
Royal Sappers and Miners were also employed in forming
saps—one on General Paisley's principle, one on the
French principle, one on Sir Frederick Smith's principle,
and one on Sergeant-Major Allen's, of the Royal Sap-
pers and Miners, principle. The French sap is made
by four men of the Royal Sappers and Miners working
at the same time; No. 1 cuts the surface and digs 1
foot 7 inches deep, throaing the earth outside, and
works on one knee to keep himself below the fire of the
enemy; No. 2 also works on one knee, and deepens the
cutting made by No.l, 7inchee, and widens it to the same
number of inches; No. 3 makes the depth and breadth
2 feet 9 inches, and No. 4 completes the depth to 3 feet
3 inches. Sergeant-Major Allen's sap is worked by
three men; No. I digging to the depth of 3 feet by 1
foot 8 inches wide, No. 2 widens it 1 foot 8 inches, and
the requisite depth, and No. 3 1 foot 8 inches addi-
tional, making a total width of 4 feet 6 inches, affording
the men ample room to lie well down in it. After these
processes had been shown to the visitors Colonel Sir
Frederick Smith proceeded to the shore of a branch of
the Medway, the pontoons were sent afloat by a detach-
ment of the Royal Sappers and Miners, under the com-
mand of Captain Ross, Royal Engineers, and in a very
short time is bridge was thrown nearly across the
stream, which would have been capable of allowing a
large army to pass over a considerable river. The
India-rubber pontoons were then brought forward.
They are formed of a very strongly-prepared material,
made waterproof, and when inflated, which they were
in five minutes by six small bellows, each worked by one
of the Royal Sappers and Miners, they had the appear-
ance of three canoes lsshed together. One of the India-
rubber pontoons on being floated had a great buoyancy,
and supported several men, while six men, three on each
side, rowed it in any required direction with pieces of
wood similar to the paddles of Indians. The other two
India-rubber pontoons had a platform put over them,
and could carry with ease a great number of men, or a
field battery gun, and were rowed with oars, the men
sitting on the platform. A pier of seven large casks was
formed by the Sappers and Miners of the Hon. East
India Company, to show how soon it could be made, and
floated when necessary.
A strong stockade of oak timbers, about 15 inches
square and 18 feet long, including the portion sunk in
the ground, was then blown up by placing 100 lb. weight
of gunpowder alongside of it in six bags, the slow match
being lighted by Sergeant-Major Allen. The explosion
was grand, the timbers being rent into hundreds of large
fragments, and some of the pieces falling at a distance
of 300 yards in the river. The destruction of the 4-gun
battery was next attempted, and the sides of two of the
embrasures demolished and levelled with the ground
but the charges of the others did not explode in conse-
quence of,the heavy rain which fell at the time wetting
the slow matches. There were 13 charges under the
batteries—two of 301 b., five of 281 b. each, two of 201 b.,
and four of 151 b. each.
The afternoon became fine, and the whole of the Royal
Marines in the garrison oil duty (about 1,200 men)
marched to the east end of the Chatham lines, and a de-
tacbmcnt remained inside as defenders, while a large
body marched out at St. Mary's-gate, headed by their
band, and followed by a detachment of Sappers, with 14
scaling ladders in addition to ten previously on the
ground. The defenders were aided by a field-battery of
the Royal Artillery, under Lieutenant-Colonel Locke,
and the besieging party advanced at double-quick time,
headed by Captain Moody, Royal Engineers, with the
Royal Sappers and Miners with the scaling-ladders. The
whole was completed at half-past three o'clock, and
numerous spectators had an opportunity of witnessing
the attack and defence of the fortifications.

The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England had
general meeting yesterday at their office in White-
hall-plwee.
.. • .