The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WU DNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 5, 1868.

M'Gregor, is taking on board in Portsmouth har-
bour steam navigation coals and ballast preparatory-
to making renewed trials of her speed over the mea-
sured mile in Stokes Bay, ordered to be made before
she sails on foreign service. The Danae is just now
the representative vessel of the Amazon class, and
as she so represents seven sister vessels now in com-
mission, and serving on foreign stations, two others
just completed on the building slips, and three
whose frames and timbers are cut out and ready to
be laid down on the slips, it will be as well, perhaps,
to see what these vessels really are, and under what
conditions they are being equipped and sent to sea.
The twelve vessels possess a total measurement of
15,208 tons, and a nominal engine power of 4,200
horse, the latter being capable of working up to
25,000 horse as the combined and exerted power of
all the engines. All are uuarmoured vessels, are
ship rigged, carry as armament two 7-inch, 6i ton
muzzle-loading rifles, and four 64-pounder con-
verted (Palliser) rifles, and average a speed over the
measured mile with ordinary steam coal of 12.5
knots with full boiler power, and of 10.3 knots with
half boiler power. The Danae class thus form quite
a little fleet of unarmoured, wood-built ships of
themselves on the Navy List of the Admiralty; but
it may be sail at once, and this is the understood
special complaint of the Constructive Department
at Whitehall, they do not fulfill all the conditions
upon which such uuarmoured wooden vessels should
be equipped and sent to sea. When Lord Clarence
Paget first drew the attention of the House of Com-
mons from his place as Secretary to the Admiralty
to this class of vessel, as the then Amazon class, his
lordship, no doubt, anticipated a still higher rate of
speed than even the 12.5 and 13.3 knots they have
since averaged under full and half boiler power.
Now the complaint is that the Board of Admiralty,
I or rather the Sea Lords' portion of the Boards, by
their continued interference with the Constructive
Department, so cripple the latter, that no one de-
sign for a ship submitted is ever built and equipped
for sea according to the ideas of her designers.
Clearly, if this is so, the responsibility of a ship's
success or failure must lie on the shoulders of the
Boards of Admiralty rather than upon the Control-
ler and Constructor of the Navy. A careful exa-
mination into all the particulars connected with
the design and equipment of the first-named class
of vessels, from the Amazon downwards, only
furnishes one answer. It is entirely owing to
the interference of the members of Boards of
Admiralty with the duties of the Controller's de-
partment of the navy in technical and vital matters
connected with the design or equipment of a ship,
and With regard to which a Lord of the Admiralty
could know nothing, except by some fancied and
private theory of his own. When the Amazon class
were first designed in the Controller's office the
intention was to produce exceptionally fast vessels
under steam at full speed, and economically steam-
ing vessels at slow speed, and carrying too heavy
guns as armament. With these primary objects of
rapidity of motion and concentrated offensive
power, all weights in the form of rig, boats, crew,
and stores, were cut down as much as possible. A
very light rig was designed that should only give
sufficient canvas to control the vessel, no boom boat
was allowed, and 90 hands named as the number of
the crew, all told. The Board of Admiralty no w
send the Danae class to sea with a full ship rig three
times the weight of the one designed for ; a heavy
boom boat amidships ; an addition of two 64-
pounder guns, and 180 as the number of her crew
all told. To put it, perhaps, more plainly, the
weights she carries in excess of what she was de-
signed to carry are —twice the weight of masts,
yards, sails, rigging,
and all boatswain's stores ; a
large boom-boat with its gear and fittings ; two 64-
pounder rifled guns, with their carriages and slides,
shot, shell, &c. ;
and 90 officers and men, with all
their provisions, stores, and clothing. Under these
altered conditions, the country is having added to
its navy two spoilt, uuarmoured cruisers for the sum
which ought to give three perfect and very much
swifter vessels.
Her Majesty's 2-gun steam storeship Fox, Staff-
Commander William S. Leeke, yesterday com-
menced shipping in Woolwich steam basin a cargo
of naval stores for Portsmouth, Ireland, and other
places. Her spacious hold and storeage room ren-
der her infinitely superior to any vessel of that de-
scription iu her Majesty's service, and, although
carrying double the amount of stores, the objec-
tionable deck cargoes, the subject of so much com-
pavoided,
oided'the huge boilers and
other iu t
areav y gearbeing
stowed, with the remainder
ae
of the cargo, below.
totally
The Magpie, 3, twin-screw gunvessel, 663 tons,
wood built, to be fitted with engines of a combined
nominal power of 160 horse power, will be launched
from No. 2 slip in Portsmouth dockyard on the 12th
instant.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

From the Anglo-American Times.)
PARIS, Jan. 30.

It must prove interesting to the general reader,
accustomed to regard the Emperor Charlemagne
the real founder of the monarchy of France, simply
in the light of one of the steel-clad and iron-fisted
Paladins of romance, to learn that he was the first
itosy rewarding the
ch
of her monarchs to comprehend the necessity of
public instruction ; that he not only established
schools, but exhibited the greatest personal interest
in vosairtsing who he
himself with the greatest attention to the masters,
and inviting to his Court the most distinguished
scholarsdistinguishedl andn pers
themselves—listening
savants of every country. Canonized by the Church
after his death, he has been selected as the patron
of scholars and of the Lye6es or colleges of France.
His fete has been fixed for the 28th of January in
each year, and on that day all the schools of France
honour the memory of their august founder. By
the Lycees of Paris this fete is celebrated by a
banquet; but as Charlemagne in his day recom-
pensed only the deserving, tradition has been so far
followed as to give only to those pupils who have
been either first or second in their class the right
of attending the festival in question. At this ban-
quet, usually held in one of the most ancient colleges,
the convives represent all nations, all creeds, and
all races, whilst amongst the guests of bygone days
were reckoned Moliere, Voltaire, Crebillon, and
others of the most distinguished literary names of
France. The banquet on Tuesday last, received
additional prestige from the presence of the Prince
Imperial, who has already distinguished himself in
his course of public instruction, whilst the Em-
peror, with his usual kindness of heart and fore-
thought, furnished a liberal supply of game,
together with sundry baskets of champagne. In-
deed, it is more than probable that the two days'
sport in which his Majesty has indulged at Com-
piegne, in which no less than 2,364 head of game of
different kinds were brought to book, were under-
taken principally for this reason, for the heart of
the father goes out towards the son, even in the
smallest matter, and the affectionate solicitude with
which he guides his steps from day to day in the
glorious path of peace and progress, is proverbial.
Never did scion of royal race commence the ardu-
ous education befitting royalty under more favour-
able auspices. President of one of the noblest and
most brilliant Expositions the world ever saw, win-
ning his way by merit in the grand old colleges of
the Empire open to all the world, what is there left
to hope, not only to the children of France, but to the
general philanthropist, but that the career com-
menced so brilliantly may have as brilliant a
course and a long career. The period appointed for
the " closing of the chase" is now rapidly approach-
ing, and the vast quantities of game with which Paris
has been inundated will speedily disappear. I find
that scarcely a twentieth part is furnished by
France, the principal supply coming from Germany,
Poland, and Russia by the railways ; the importers
being chiefly Jews. Wild boars, roe bucks, deer,
hares, and rabbits arrive in vast numbers from the
Grand Duchy of Baden and from \Vurtemburg,
as do also pheasants and partridges. Heilbronn
and Strasbourg supply heath fowl, Russia and
England grouse and woodcocks. The latter are rare
in France, but are very plentiful in Corsica, Sardinia,
and iu various parts of Italy, where they are taken
in nets. Thrushes and small birds come from the
Lago Maggiore and Lago da Gardo, where they