The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-02 00:00:00

SIGHT AND HEARING TESTIMONIALS.

39, ALBEMARLE-STREET, PICCADILLY. General
Browne Clayton feels desirous to express the comfort
and advantage he has derived at his advanced age of 70
years, and af►er two years' trial, from the use of Messrs.
S. and B. Solomons newly invented Spectacles. Their
valuable inventions fully merit the patronage they have
received. Address, Adlington-hall, Lancashire.
Major-General Sir Howard Elphinstone begs to say that
the Spectacles he has now had some time in use, have
fully redeemed the assurance of the Messrs. S. and B.
Saila )ns as to their excellence, and having found so
much comfort and advantage from their use, far prefer-
able to every other kind of glasses. 13, Norfolk-street,
Park lane.—The Hon. George Cavendish, to Messrs. S.
and B. Solomons, 39, Albetr.arle-stra.et, Piccadilly, op-
posite the York Hotel. Gentlemen, I approve very mu. h
of the Spectacles I purchased from you ; I have made
use of glasses for many years, and never met with any
to enable me to see equal to yours, and with less incon-
venience to my eyes. Yours obediently, a Cavendish
Leixlip Castle, Ireland.—lmproved Achromatic Teles-
copes, Opera Glasses, Microscopes, &c., of the same kind
of lenses, to surpass any ever yet invented.—The
Messrs. S. and B. Solomons' Invincible Operator Voice
Conductor, Sound Magnifiers for deaf persons, give im-
mediate relief to old standing extreme cases of deaf-
ness.—Caution. Messrs. S. and B. Solomons, Opticians
and Aurists, are not in any way connected with a person
of the same name in their immediate neighbourhood.
Nor in any part of the country. To prevent mistakes,
be cautious and observe—only to be had at 39, Albe-
marle-street, Piccadilly, opposite the York Hotel.

Ladies travelling, or temporarily subjected to any
deviation of equable temperature, will find in Rowland's
Kalydor a renovating and refreshing auxiliary, dispel-
ling the cloud of langour from the complexion, and
immediately affording the pleasing sensation attending
restored elasticity of the skin. The distressing and
unsightly varieties of cutaneous eruptions are also
promptly eradicated by the Kalydor. Spots, pimples,
freckles, discolourations, and sallowness, yield to its
specific qualities, and are succeeded by a smoothness
and transparency of the skin, giving rise to sensations
of the utmost pleasure and surprise. Being universally
preferred, its consequent great demand excites the
cupidity of unprincipled shopkeepers, who give the title
of "Genuine" Kalydor to some compounds of their own
manufacture, of the most deleterious character, con-
taining mineral astringents utterly ruinous to the
complexion, and by their repellant action endangering
health. It is, therefore, imperative on purchasers to
see that the words " Rowland's Kalydor" are on the
wrapper. All others are fraudulent counterfeits !1 I

CAPTAIN WARNER'S INVENTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—l read in your paper a statement made on the
information of some Shoreham pilots, extracted from
the Brighton Herald, which the editor of that paper
thinks to be " calculated to throw a suspicion upon the
genuine character of my experiment." A Mr. Young, " a
well known and respectable inhabitant of Shoreham," went
on board the John o'Gaunt, from which no person was
excluded, as soon as she arrived in Shoreham-roads,
and " remarked a quantity of new warp (a rope about
three inches round) lying on the deck, and wondered
what the rope could be for." This mysterious rope was
simply a coil, consisting of two new tow ropes. for the
purpose of towing the ship. Other ropes, which seem
to have perplexed these Shoreham visitors, were
merely guy ropes, for conducting the large or tow
ropes on board the steamer ; others were man ropes,
hanging over the sides' for the more convenient
escape of the crew ; and I dare say there were ropes tow-
ing overboard, both ahead and astern, as will hap-
pen in slovenly ships, and the John-o' Gaunt was
slovenly enough, I dare say ; though I pledge you my
honour I never was on board her from the time she
left Gravesend, ten days before. To remove the real
doubts of every sceptical spectator of my experiment, or
to answer the pumping questions of every insidious in-
quirer, would be either an endless or an unprofitable
task to me ; for to do so effectually would be tantamount
to explaining how the John o'Gaunt was destroyed, an
explanation which I shall not impart to Mr. Young, of
Shoreham, however respectable, nor to his four pilots,
who convert a few common tow and side ropes into a
formidable " apparatus," as Don Quixote mistook wind-
mills for giants. _ _

This visit proves one thing, at any rate—that every
one was not excluded from the John n' Gaunt, one of the
many false assertions under which I am for the present
doomed to labour.

. I perceive many of the correspondents of the public
journals suggest a variety of methods and materials by
which my experiment off Brighton might easily, " with-
out any difficulty whatever." to adopt their own phrase,
be performed. I invite these gentlemen to ".go and do
likewise."—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,
London. July 29, 1844. S. A. WARNER.

HISTORY OF CONTRIVANCES FOR KILLING
MEN.
(Fr.,tts the Liverpor I.7ournol)
They have a contrivance in China for killing woman.
Europe, with more gallantry, is content with implements
for killing men ; and, strange as it may appear, the more
perfect the implements, the fewer men are killed.
Dr. Birltbeck discovered that man was made for box-
ing, the articulation of his wrist joint demonstrated it;
but the fighting propensity, which the fact intimates, has
never been content with the " bunch of fives." Man has
sought other and more destructive weapons ; hence, in-
stead of Mr. James Ward at Waterloo, we had the Duke
of Wellington ; instead of the ring" of the "fancy,"
we had the Artillery and the Life Guards. But the
fact is, the prize-ring is not a primitive institution—it
is itself a proof of advanced civilisation. The art of
boxing is very properly considered a science, for it is
unknown everywhere, since the days of Adam, except
in England. Sir Walter Scott founded his tale of "The
Drovers" on this nice distinction between the tutored
and the untutored man. The Englishman used his fist
—the Highlander his dirk.
Originally—that is, long ago—men armed themselves
in the best way they could for war ; and victory, since
the first battle, has ever depended upon the nature of
their arms—their man-killing machinery. Science has
always triumphed over physical force, and men armed
according to more perfect art, have, however few their
numbers, ever been invincible. " The Retreat of the
Ten Thousand" is a case in point; Cortes, in Mexico, is
another and the same.

Identified with this fact is another still more instruc-
tive. The general who first adopts approved methods,
or new machinery, is certain of victory. The Greeks,
Athenians, and Spartans, defied the Persians by
means of their phalanx, and they themselves were
subsequently humbled by Espaminondes, who doubled
the ranks in the phalanx, making them sixteen
in place of eight. Philip was his pupil, and
adopted his plan ; the Athenians neglected it,
and the disposition of men in a column defeated all the
eloquence of Demosthenes—all the patriotism of Greece.
Alexander, by the same method, conquered all Asia,
save one town ; and, mark the fact, that town was
defended by a novel man-killing machine—the Greek
fire, of which more anon. The phalanx gave Persia and
Egypt three centuries of civilization under the Generals
of the " Macedonian madman."

The Roman art of war differed little from that of the
Greeks, save that their materials were better and more
abundant. Their successors at Constantinople protracted
the fall of the empire for ten centuries, by the adoption
rather than the discovery of a new man-killing implement
—the Greek fire. The Saracen brought up his fiery and
fierce thousands in vain; the mysterious fire drove them
hack, and preserved from desecration the domes of Constan-
tinople. It fell only when the enemy availed himself
of the same destructive power, and the empire had ne-
glected the new explosive—gunpowder. Had Constan-
tine Palcelogus only had half-a-dozen pieces of artillery
on his walls—which he might have had—the fate of the
world had been different.

The birth of gunpowder was the eternity of civilisa-
tion. The barbarian was from that moment impotent.
and never again could he destroy the works which
science had raised. and refinement consecrated.
War then became a thing of science, and the battle
was his who best understood the law of projectiles.
This was Napoleon's grand secret. He was a gunner,
and his artillery, under his own direction, con-
qoered, as he prorhecied. Italy in a month. He had
another secret essential to su cess—the knowledge of
concentration—he had but one line of operations from a
single bsse, and the tendency of all was to one deter-
mined spot. So fixed was this rule in his mind, that the
evening of the great battle in Russia he was heard
thinking aloud—" What, after all, is victory ? It de-
pends on the power of eoncentrating, on a given point,
a greater number of men than your Opponent."
The history of man-slaying contrivances will exhibit
the humanising and civilising influence of science when
applied to war ; in fact, superiority of war is the test of
civilisation, for it implies cultivated intellect, mechanical
skill, and scientific superiority. The Greeks were the
greatest in peace because they were the greatest in war ;
the same may be said of the Romans ; and the Western
Empire, by the Greek fire, sustained civilisation until it
found again refuge in the free municipalities of Italy.
The application of gunpowder gave dignity to Europe ;
rendered the study of sciences necessary to nations; and
capital essential to captains, for without money there
can never be war, and without trade and manufactures
there can be very little money.
When Captain Warner's destructive explosive mys-
tery was first mentioned in Parliament, the worthy
Member for Salford protested • against it as an in-
fernal machine ; and declared that the inventor de-
served execration rather than honour. He was
wrong : more men were killed in ancient than in
modern battles, and battles will cease when means
of the utmost destruction are discovered, for who would
then go to war ? Captain Warner's discovery seems to
he of this kind ; and, if available, there can be no more
battles. Men will then be compelled to submit to reason
—the majority must then rule—rule in righteousness—
in the good opinion of all.

Befo-re the-application of the Greek fire to purposes of
war, various contrivances were adopted for the purpose of
demolishing fortresses, undermining walls, &c. The ar-
tillery, so to speak, was a restrained bow, which, when
released, flung a stone some hundred yards or so, and men
approached walls, castles, &c., by concealing themselves
in covered sheds moved on wheels. Of this descrip-
tion was the Trojan horse, but in the middle ages it was
called a " sow," and the object of the men inside was to
" bore" a hole in the wall, or work the battering ram.
These were used in Ireland in the fifteenth century.
The Greek fire was an anticipation of gunpowder. The
secret of making it was known only in Byzantium for cen-
turies, yet was it borrowed in India. Alexander the Great
retired from the city of the Oxydracw. because they fired
thunder and lightning from their walls. Gibbon de-
scribes it as sweeping the Bosphorus ; but in all this
there was exaggeration, for the secret is now well
known to chemists.
The confinement of the secret of the Greek
fire so long to the Western Empire indicates
a most ignorant and unequivocal age, and yet
gunpowder, like steam, was a play-toy with
boys in ie streets two thousand years hefore its
man-destroying qualities were known. Usually the dis-
covery is ascribed to Roger Bacon ; and, like true-born
Britons, we contend against the claims set up by the Ger-
mans to the Liebiu of the I4th century—the scientific,
monk Barthola Schwartz. riot the 'rush neither are
entitled to any praise. Roger Bacon, in 1270, mentions it,
not as a discovery of his, but as a thing so well known
that boys used it in the streets in making squibs and
rockets. Long before him Magnus Gmeus describes
the mode of making it ; and, whet is not a little sin-
gular, recommends w. hat is now used in prefer, nee
charcoal of willow wood. In a treatise on Pyrotech-
nics, he describes the manner of using it at the Zoido-
gical Gardens of this day.
In the year 80, of the Christian •period, the Chinese
had ordnance which they used in war. The Arabian,
in 1312,-employed artillery ' • we n'ed them in 1346. snd.
the Venetians had them on board their vessels in 1380.
All this time, however, they were of comparatively
little use, and would have remained so, but for the rage
for mathematics in the succeeding centuries in Italy.
Military men knew nothing,: of the art eT gunnery, and the
philosophers were the first who investigated the law of
projectiles, Galileo's treatise on motion having especial
reference to the subject of artillery. It took more than
100 years before small guns were used, and then not to
be fired from the shoulders, but from rests driven into
the ground. They were fired by a slow match, and
more than another century elapsed before the wheel-
lock was discovered, and the wheel-lock was nothing
more than a notched steel, which struck fire as it re-
volved. Flints are only a very recent contrivance, and
percussion caps are of yesterday. The manufacture of
gun flints is of itself a curiosity ; and, strange enough,
the tip of the savage's arrow is the source of powder ig-
nition in the hands of civilised man. 0

It may thus be seen that knowledge progresses slowly
even where we should suppose the most active stimulant;
and, consequently, the non-adoption of a discovery is no
proof of its unfitness for the greatest purposes. Perkins'
steam-gun undoubtedly possesses the capacity to do the
work of a potent explosive powder. It discharges bullets
every day at the Adelaide Gallery—it projected a 401 b.
ball, in the presence of the Duke of Wellington, with a
velocity unknown to gunpowder ; and yet it has never
been fairly tried. It now never will, for Captain War-
ner's mystery will render its use unnecessary.
What is this mystery ? Captain Warner is ready to
reveal it for a sum which they have refused to give, but
which they will give by and by. The cold water thrown
on it by military and naval men was in perfect accord-
ance with all that has gone before. The common mind
is essentially conservative ; devoid of faith in man's ca-
pacity to progress, and ignorant of the secrets of science.

The blowing-up of the ship on Saturday is a, fine satire
on Sir Howard Douo-las's speech last session in Parlia-
ment. Captain Warner was described as something
very like an impostor, hut he had the true energy of
discoverer ; he was not to be diverted from his purpose,
and he has righted himself, not by means of Field Mar-
shals, or Admirals—not by the bounty of Government
or patronage of the Court, but by the liberality of a
British shipbui!der.
From the first moment that Captain Warner satisfied
himself of the practical importance of his discovery,
has pursued it with all that irrepressible ardour and
earnestness wherewith Providence seems to endow wi-
g flal genius for the achievement of its destined ends.
despite of every obstacle that may accrue from limited
means, public apathy, private incredulity, and the a?
palling discouragement of the world's dread laugh
that ever awtits on even partial failure in a vat
undertaking. But from the commencement, Captain
Warner found many zealous, liberal, and sanguine
friends. Among these _ was a solicitor, named ---

, .
--, whose history, if published, would make a cora•
plete romance in itself. This gentleman was second
in a duel that obtained considerable notoriety about eight
years ago. in which the younger brother of a then
recently created Peer, figure d in a manner more con-
ducive to his love of eccentricity than creditable to his
manliness or eb.eency. The attorney assisted the Captain
in raising very large sums of money for the purpose of
prosecuting his experiments. We are at a loss to know
what it is in these experiments that renders them so ex-
ceedingly costly as they are represented to be—for it
will be recollected that their expense was one ground
upon which the Government declined to embrace the
inventor's proposition for testing the value of the dis-
covery. But this we do know. that the solicitor referred
to raised many thousand pounds, which were invested in
the prosecut;on of the experiments ; and he becoming
ruinously iny4.b.ed in pecuniary and other legal liabili-
ties, the Capta4, wtH, we believe, .greatly embarrassed
through the vet.) course from which he had looked to
receive ample assistance at the usual premium only paid
for such aid.

But still, what is his mystery ? Can we not pluck out
its heart? Let us, like others, have our guess; and the
history or gunpowder encouraees us to suspect that we
may not be very far wrong. Though, truth to speak. we
are not without a bla,; for a friend of ours was once fool-
ish enough to fl-,t t« r himself that he had made—a die-
c, ,very I
It is kn.,wn to chemists that the chloride of nitrogen
possess s an explosive power greater than that of any
body hithert.• dkettvpred. For instance, a grain of it, not
larger that, the small.-s: mustard seed, if placed on s
soup plate. and tom•hed with a wet or oiled point of
fishing-rod, will instantly explode, and shatter the plate
into a thousand pi. ces. Owing to the difficulty of manage
ing it, very few chemists have made experiments on it.
Sir Jurnphrey Davy, in trying its power on phosphorus,
had nearly lost his life ; and Dulong, the French che-
mist was deprived of an eye and finger by it. Turner
gives the mode of preparation, and all subsequent che-
mists are content to repeat his process in—words.
Now. here is an explosive power sufficient to accom-
plish the destruction of a whole navy ! All that it
wanted is a sufficient quantity. and the quantity require('
is perfectly portable, and, where there is water, its ac-
tion, silent, unperceived, and inevitable. Supposing*
therefore, that Captain Warner has discovered- a safe
mode of manufacturing—say half-a-pint of it, the subse-
quent process is obvious. He has only to place it in
shell of a strength adequate to bear the force necessary to
propulsion, and in this shell let the aperture through
which the oil was poured be left open.
The account of Captain Warner's experiment show'
that the explosive power, whatever it was, operated first
on the water, and subsequently by concussion on the
vessel. If this be not the Captain's " secret," it is cer-
tainly a power which would operate exactly in the we/
his is described to have done. Still a secret would re-
main—how to manufacture the quantity required.
But Captain Warner will blow up forts as well 0,1,
ships, and in forts he could not drop his " mystery
into water. True ; but the smallest drop of oil in •
fragile glass globule, and disposed so as to burst os
striking any body, would answer the same purpose It
contact with water—would, we believe, answer,
possible, still better.

MARKET NEWS.-(YESTERDAV

RAY PfLA.ItiCRTS.
SMITHFIELD.—Coarse Meadow Hay, 31106 to 41; use-
ful ditto, 4l 4s to 4/ >is ; fine Upland ditto, 4/ lOs to 4/ 15s;
Clover Hay, 51 to 61; Oat Straw, 1/ 6s to 1/ Ss'
Wheat Straw, 1/ 8s to 11 lOs per load. Trade on the who'.
dull at the above quotations.
CUMBERLAND.-Coarso Meadow Hay 3/ 15s to 414 s ;_
ful ditto, 4/ 6q to 4/ 12s ; fine Upland ditto, 4/ 14s to 4/ ioli
Clover Hay, 4/10s to 5/ 15s ; Oat Straw, 1/ 8s to 1/ 108; Whit
Straw, 1/ lOs to 1/ 12s per load. A moderate supply and "
steady demand.
WurrEcHAPEL.—Coarse Meadow Hay, 3/ 103 to 41;
ful ditto, 4/ 4s to 4/ Es; fine Upland ditto, 4110 s to 4/ 15st
Clover Hay, 4/ 12s to 6/ 6s ; Oat Straw, 1/ 6s to 1/ PI
Wheat Straw, 1/ 8s to 11 lOs per load. Supply good, 01
trade firm.
New Meadow Hay produced from 21 10s to 3/ 12s; 1111,,
New Clover 4/ to 5/ 5s per load.

IVIZAT 7111.A.RICZTEL 11
SOUTHALL, JULY 31.—We had on sale here to-day A fae
average time-of-year supply of each kind of meat, while
demand was, throughout, heavy, at barely last wee'
quotations. Beef, from 3s 2d to 3s 10d; Mutton, 2s 4d to 491
Lamb, 4s to 4s lod ; Val, 3s 4d to 4s ; and Pork, 2s 4d t°
3s 8d per Blbs. Supply—Beasts, 41 ; Sheep and Laulbs'
3,546; Calves, 40; Pigs, 50.
lloMFoiw, JULY 31.—Prime Mutton was in demand It,
full prices. In other kinds of stock next to nothing
4
doing. Beef, from 2s 8d to 3s 8d • Mutton,
_ 2s lod to 1
''
Lamb, 4s to ss; Veal, 38 4d to 4s; and Pork, 2s
:In *I ,f;
3s 6d per 81bs. Sucking Calves, 18s to
-8 ; Quarter-41i'
Store Pigs, 16s to 20s; and Milch Cows, with their egi'`.
calf, 161 to 191 each.

LEWES, JUIX 30.—Beef, from 23 8d to 3s 10d ; 14fattolla,
2s 10d to 4s ; Lan- b,3s 10,1 to 4s 8d : Veal,3s 4d to 3s 10d ; And
Pork, 2s 6d to 3s 6d per 81bs. Supply but moderate,
trade dull.

RA-vEBEI-01D bTAR PACKETS.
VI72t,,,THER T.:EDUY:: TICT!_•I. OF FARES.
CE AND IA INEFIWCE,
I3eat Blackwall hallway included.
Lally An„,, Prem *.,(M Brunswick Wharf, Blackwall,
--""aY• i.acluded) at Ten, Eleven Twelve, Throe, Four,
Six, and Half-past seven
From the Terrace Pier, Gravesend,
'l.ll-Tast Nine, Half-past Twelve, Two,* Four, Six, Seven,
and Eight.
44_4, • On Sundays at Five instead of Two.
''re- Cabin and Seconl-class Carriage, Sixpence; Saloon and
Star` First-class Carriage, Ninepence.
Moe, Gravesend, July 10, 1844.
Ir,
,01\TD6Nand WESTMINSTER BANK.
0,7-4ThreThe DIRECTORS hereby give Notice, that a DIVIDEND
the Per Cent. uthe paid-up capital of the Company, being
and e rate of Six perken'‘. per Annum, will be PAI ABLE on
aver the 10th day of ..SEPTEMBER next, at the Bank, Lothbury,
11,",rrt deduction for T:ncome-tax, which will be paid by the Bank.
opLi tuisfer v.;111 be closed from the 19th of August to the 10th
043tenaber. By order of the Board,
Loth', JAMES WILLIAM GILBART, General Manager.
,r7Ay 26, 1844.
GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY
139 ALTERATION OF TRAINS.
•DER of the POSTMASTER-GENERAL, on and af.er
The I' MONDAY, the sth instant.
r 6inS f • m ri-tl to Bath, and at 840 from Bath,
eada" , • • a oc oc lc s
rhO from Bristol to Exeter, willo be discontinued.
r,0,77: will be a Train from Bristol to Bath at half-past 6 A.m., and
th;_, /lath at 7 15, and from Bristol at 8 o'clock to Exeter, arriving
Tea(
10 45
4,42 Goods. Train at 7 o'clock from Bristol to Tiverton-road, will
rgrry any First or Second Class Passengers.
RN. her particulars may be known by Train Bills, to be had at the
era' R
--ail
waY Stations.
Ity order of the Directors,
CHAS. A. SAUNDERS,Secretary.

August I, 1844.
UREA.t WESTERN RAILWAY.
tp,"i:otic,, is given, that the next lIALF-YEAR,LY (-4ENE,
laughant G (..f the PROPRIETORS of this COMPANY I‘,e
etl TH,,. to the Act of Parliament, in Bristol, at the Bri.ol Station,
terii the 15th August next, at Twelve o'cloe',i, for the ge-
Preet,el'r, Poses of business. The Chair will be tal,in at One o'clock
auqTwe C. REI.,SELL, Chairman.
TRANSFER BOOKS will be CLOS1:;1) on the sth August, hl„
_will not be opened until after the saht..Half-yearly General :Meet-
the 15th August.
C• A SAUNDERS, Secretary.
Term' as, Paddington, Jt7t.y. 12, 1844.