The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,
_TI3IJIIgDA'i EVENING, JUNE 25, 1868.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

coußr OF BANKRUPTCY.
(Before Mr. Commissioner Winslow.)
IN RE E. P. BAUMGARTEN.

This bankrupt was described as of the Marshalls,
Romford, late captain in the 7th Hussars, and to-
day was appointed for the last examination and
order of discharge. He owes £6,720, and he attri-
butes his failure to losses, and the high rate of in-
terest he has been compelled to pay for advances.
No regular accounts having been filed, the case was
again adjourned.

CITY OF LONDON COURT.
(Before Mr. R. M. Kerr and a Jury.)
WRIGHT V. MILLER.

This was an action to rec9ver £G 3. for wine,
beer, cigars, tobacco, and pipes, supplied to'ithe de-
fendant, secretary to the Provincial Union Assur-
ance Co., by the proprietor of Cogers' Hall, Bride-
lane. The evidence went to show that on Feb. 2Gth
a message was brought round to Cogers' Hall that
some wine, beer, and other things should be sent to
the offices of the company, of which defendant was
the secretary. Plaintiff was called, and he said
that in the first instance he received the order
through a Mr. Reed, who said he came from Mr.
Miller. Mr. Buchaikm, who appeared for defen-
dant, produced an invoice fur the goods:made out to
Mr. Reed, but the plaintiff said this was a mistake,
and the books contained an entry against defendant.
Mr. Reed said that there was a meeting of the
shareholders on the day in question, and he re-
ceived orders from Mr. Miller to provide a supper
and get some wine, beer, cigars, tobacco, and pipes.
Cross-examined—l heard Mr. Miller say he would
send round the money. Ido not know that Capt.
Handley ordered Mr. Miller to get the supper.
I have only received £2 from defendant on ac-
count of the supper as yet. Mr. Buchanan—
Is Captain Handley here ? Captain Handley—
Yes, am I here. Mr. Buchanan—Then I will call
the captain as my witness. Captain Handley—l
was one of the directors of the Provincial Union
Assurance Company (Limited), now in course of

liquidation. I did not give any order for this sup-
per. His Honour —This appears to be an unde-
fended action.

The jury then found for the plaintiff. Verdict
or the plaintiff, with costs.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.-THIS DAY.

MARLBOROUG-11-STREET.
A HARD CASE.—A cabman, badge 7,853, applied
to Mr. Knox for his advice.

The applicant said that two gentlemen during
his temporary absence drove his Hansom cab from
the Windham Club to Cremorne Gardens, where
they left it in charge of a man some time afterwards.
As it had been a great loss to him he went to the
club to make inquiries respecting the gentlemen,
with the view of getting some compensation, but
although the persons at the Club did not deny
knowing who the gentlemen were they refused to
give him their names.
Mr. Knox advised the applicant to make another
attempt to get the names of the gentlemen, and if
not successful to again attend the court.
The cabman thanked the magistrate for his
advice.

THE EFFECT OF A " DROP TOO MUCH."—Mr.
James Judd Osborne, licensed victualler, of White
Linn-street, Chelsea, was charged before Mr. Knox
with being drunk while driving a horse and phmton
in Park-lane.

Police-constable Pittman, 230 C, while in Park-
lane shortly before one that morning, heard a crash,
and afterwards found that the prisoner, who was
drunk, had run into a cab, and damaged it, and as
he found the prisoner to be incapable of taking care
of bis horse and pheaton he took him into custody.
Fred. Bason, cab-driver, badge 17,648, proved
that the prisoner, who was driving at a fast pace,
ran into his cab and damaged it to the amount
of 12s.

The prisoner admitted having had a glass too
much, and said he did not think there was any
occasion for the constable to have interfered.

Mr. Knox said the constable had only done his
duty, and that if the prisoner had not had a glass
too much it would not have occurred. The pri-
soner would pay 10s. fine, and settle the damage
with the cab owner.

E XPERIMENTS AT SHOEBURYNESS.

The great experiments at Shoeburyness on iron
and defences entered on a new phase on Tuesday.

The public interest has in a great measure subsided
_ _ _

with the discontinuance of the trials of the Ply-
mouth shield and the destruction of the great

15-inch plates ; but to those who watch these in-

vestigations with a desire to study fully their bear-
ing on the general mechanical question there are

still many facts to be carefully observed and many
important results to be recorded.
The objects remaining for attack at the com-
mencement of this week's practice were the " expe-
rimental casemate " (two simple walls faced with
iron) and the Millwall shield. The latter is the

most interesting, as it is a structure avowedly com-

petitive with others already tried ; but from the

situation in which it has been erected—consider-

ably to the west of the other targets, and facing an-
other part of the ground—it cannot be fired at till
the guns have been moved. This, with such an

enormous battery, is a troublesome operation, and
as it is desirable, therefore, to finish what they have
to do in their present position, the experimental

casetnate has been selected as the next obj.:ct of
attack. At the same time, tha postponement of the

Milwall shield is to be regretted, as competitive
tria7s ought naturally to be as close as possible to-

gether, particularly when they are likely to have
any influence on the public mind.
During the practice at the Plymouth target thEt
spectators have observed, standing immediately ad-
joining it on the right hand, a black iron wall,
larger and more imposing-looking even than its
formidable neighbour, and which, from its port-hole
in the centre, is at once identified as representing
generally a similar object—namely, the front wall

of a casemated battery. But the resemblance is
only general and superficial. It is no massive iron
building, like the adjoining one ; it consists only of
concrete piers and walls, covered with what is com-
paratively a thin facing of iron. This is what is
called the "experimental 'casemate," and its object'
is to exemplify and test various forms and -arrange-
ments of defensive works formed by compounding
the two materials together. The iron work is light—
very light, indeed, as compared with the Plymouth
shield ; but its weakness has been assumed to be in
some measure compensated by the massiveness of

the concrete work behind. It represents nothing
that has yet been either built or designed ; it is
merely the embodiment of a series of mechanical

ideas that have sprung up from time to time for
some years past, and have been thought worthy
of a trial. And inasmuch as during the time these
ideas of defence -have been slowly in cogitation
the practice of attack has been rapidly in ad-
vance, it will not be surprising that, now they
come to be pitted against each other, the guns
should win. The experimental casemate differs
essentially from the Plymouth fort in that the main
piers supporting the roof come to the front, and
are therefore exposed to fire. The target may
generally be described as consisting of two of
these piers, having a space between them for
the gun, protected by a shield, and roofed over
with brick arches covered with concrete. The
fronts of the piers, the front of the shield, and the

front of the arched work over the opening all
form one vertical wall, which is protected by a
facing of ironwork, and this ironwork is arranged
in various ways over the several parts of the area
of the wall in order to test, by actual firing, the re-

spective merits of the different forms of construe
• -

tion. It is altogether a very complicated structure,
and very difficult to make intelligible without
figures.
The main piers measure 12ft. across, Bft. from
front to back, and 7ft. 9in. in height. They are
formed of brickwortk to a height of 3ft. 9in. from
the floor level, and above that of Portland cement
concrete, all being enclosed on the sides and rear by
a casing of plate iron.
The part which we have called the shield, filling
up the space bet Ween the piers, and forming the
defence immediately in front of the gun, is 12ft.
wide and 9ft. high, with an embrasure in the
middle. It is (excluding the front iron armour,
which we shall speak of presently) 14in. thick, of a
sort of cellular structure, formed of thin iron
flanched ribs, filled in with cement concrete, and
backed with an iron skin plate three-quarters
of an inch thick on the rear side. The em-
brasure is strengthened with a massive iron
frame ; over this shield the roof arch is turned.

The most important part is the iron armour-facing
applied to protect the front wall. This wall is 28ft.
wide and 12ft. high, and is in the first place
dts except at the port-hole, by an outer
k two inches thick, composed of
g horizontally. In front of this
lscaorivneere of
plates,
iron
e ly,
running
skin are fixed six different varieties of external pro-
tecting armour, arranged in vertical divisions, each
division running the whole height of the wall and
occupying a certain portion of its width. We shall
call these Nos. 1 to 6 respectively, beginning from
the left hand of the spectator, or what is called the
proper right" of the target.
Armour No. 1 is 4ft. Bin. wide, and consists of a
single 8-inch plate immediately in contact with the
2-inch skin, and bolted through the whole struc-
ture. This solid plate may be considered the stan-
dard as to weight for the whole of the varieties,
which are made up so as to contain equal weights of
iron for a given area.
Armour No. 2,4 ft. Bin. wide, is compound, con-
sisting first of ribs of what is technically called
" channel iron," set vertically against the 2-inch
skin, and faced with a plate 4iin. thick ; the spaces
between the ribs are filled up with bitumen.
Armour No. 3 is something like the last ; but in-
stead of the channel iron rib, there is used a pecu-
liar " hollow iron stringer" of the form of Mr.
Brunel's well-known bridge-rail used on the Great
Western Railway,
but much larger. 'This is a
contrivance proposed by Mr. Hughes, of the
Millwall Ironworks, and we shall have again to
mention it when we come to the Millwall
The stringers are covered with 6-inch plates in
front. The armour division occupies a length of
10ft. 4in., part of it covering the main pier, and the
remainder extending over the cellular shield in front
of the gun.
Armour No. 4,3 ft. Sin. wide, is composed like
No. 2, but with the channel iron ribs closer to-
gether, and faced with a 4-inch plate ; this division
partly covers the cellular shield, and partly the roof
arching over it.
Armour No. 5 is a narrow strip like No. 4, but
with a 4k-inch facing ; and No. 6, extending to the
right-hand edge of the casemate and covering the
pier, is simply a -inch plate backed by a filling
of 7in. of concrete between it and the 2-inch skin.
All :these armour facings are substantially bolted
through the work. and at the rear in many places
there are false casings of thin iron for the purpose
and generally catching
sopflicnotverersi.ng up the nuts,
The order of firing against this casemate, as ori-
ginallyn with the 12-inch gun
etotobetighien
500 and 200 yards, going
on to the smaller guns successively; but before the
withnhas
re
gttel
sedr,epwraessetnotibneggi
day of trial this order was reversed, and the pro-
grammegoing
onwith the smaller guns,
larger. The practice ac-
cordingly commenced with a series of shell from the
smallest gun of the battery, the 7-inch, at 200
yards' distance, and with the full charge of 221 b. of
was
afterwards mad
powder ; these were aimed low, and were intended
to hit successively the various divisions of the
armour, beginning with that on the left hand,
which we have called No. 1. These were followed
by a second series from the 9-inch gun, aimed a
little higher; and these by a third from the 10-inch
gun, higher still.

The Journal des Debuts says that, rumours hav-
ing gone abroad that the ex-Empress Charlotte in-
tended to return to Mexico at the call of a power-
ful party, it made inquiry on the subject of her
health, and ascertained from the most reliable
source that, " though her condition is improved, her
reason is still profoundly affected."
MISSING SHIPS.—The Pharamond, which sailed
from Alexandria for Falmouth on the 9th of January ; the
Vesper, from London for Caen on the 13th of April ; the
Trial, from Newport for Wadebridge, from Ilfracombe on
the 21st of March ; and the Marion, from Jiavaunah for
New York, which was spoken oil Charleston on the 17th
of March, have not OLIO been heard of.

EDITIOII

SUN OFFICE, 7 o'CLocx.