The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-01 00:00:00

COVVI:'S ISLE OF WIGHT.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
COWES, AUG.
YACHT SQUADRON INTELLIGENCE. 19.
In the absence of the yachts of the squadron to Plymouth and
the Western Ports, the spirit has been kept up by the Earl of
Fitahardinge, that liberal patron of aquatics ; Gn Saturday
)4st lie gave a Silver Cup of fifty guineas value, to be sailed for
nori
by four yachts—the St. Alargaret, Jilt, Sea Flower, and Agi-
a.
On Mon After a very spirited contest it was won by the Jilt.
the three first
-ay he gave another Cup, which was sailed for by
he
cutters, and the lugger Rachael, belong-
TgivitoilLzrdoiblbmemrt, Cunningham. it was won by the Sea Flower,
Minutes. Esq., beating the Jilt by two. and-a-half
The yachts of the Royal Yacht Squadron are expected back
to-morro it is much to be lamented that the squadron does
not amount t o double its present numbers, and we have no
doubt but it would, but for objection of many to the present
Mode of election: it often happens that ten members cannot
?e brought to the Roy
ballot, without al Yacht Society House in time for the
'heel) amon great difficulty, vet should there be one black
gst them, whose crooked temper should prompt him
to throw in a black ball, the most honourable and spirited noble-
ofman in the kingdom might be prevented becoming a member
this the
club, which, instead of numberin onl b,OOO
ie.
aarat he says
th h. highly
tlyto count double that number. Rumour. ,
firm ... . respected secretary has tendered his resigna-
'"P hope this is not correct—if it is, it is the most serious
ariacirsumsta that has occurred to it for many years.
the lle at d Countess of Wilton have left Clift House for
yillase;a:hoen ;
uCkoel .
and a and d
DuchessA I r. Anson
n f Baanadu f
or t familya a
dfrothme Gothic
nonraerset from Trafalgar House, and No. 1, Castle-terrace.
Saturday Lord and Lady Dillon leave Adelaide Villa. On
Castle. Lord Fitzhardings leaves the South-parade for Berkeley
astle.
On Monday S. H. Ho hton leaves bath-buildings.
th Z/1111., HA ItVES:r.-- 'niece nver geould be more splendid wea-
for th 1 finer years there certainly has been potatoesnoth_innearit
the, eian ten of 'wheat, barley, and oats.. On 1
the entire an unfortunate blight which
. has entirely destroyed the co bre crop in many places ;
.this extends to other parts of
attio,4o.try.
*ects there-
Letters from Belgium describe it as having very
W -

Ivo ORCESTE R FESTIVAL.
festival'- f,
31'XII, FRIDAY.—Last night the final concert of the
lowlyc Was given at the College Hall. It was again nume-
noti atlcl fashionably attended, and amongst these present we
Clive d the Hon. General H.RlLygon, M.P., the Hon. R. H.
T. Foley, EN
11.13., the Bishop of Rochester and Lady Sarah Murray,
. and the Lady Emily Foley and party, Sir
il:e,tlerick Ouseley Bart., and the bulk of the county families,
thside, a numerous sprinkling of strangers. The first part of
The
coneert consisted of Mendelsshon's " Walpurgis Nicht."
Pr'
j'
neipal Druid was personated by Staudigl, but a great
renpart of the commencement was lost to the audience in conse-
ce of the utimely arrival of a large body of fashionables,
ho by their noise evidently annoyed the singer, but who
offered an atonement at the end of the piece by demanding an
core. Considering the comparatively small practice which
,e,°ald have been expended on it, this extraordinary cornposi-
"°4 was given with astonishing accuracy and force. The solo
Parts were carefully sustained by Staueigl and Miss Williams,
and the choruses were extremely effective.
.u'madame Dulcken afterwards gave the Concert Stuck, by
",..'ber ; much of the effect was lost owing to the size of
"e hail. The second part of the concert was a miscellaneous
4°llection, in which we may particularly mention Miss Rain-
' orhth,, in the scene from Der Freischutz, " Before my eyes
beeld him," and ~ Softly sighs the voice of evening;" Mr.
:4 achiu, in ‘, Let the dreadful engines ;" Herr Staudigl in
N 0 ! wie will iie, triumphiren ;" and Mr. Hobbs, in "All hail
at i!tee, brave Wellington 1" The finale, of course, was the
npnal Anthem, produced in magnificent style. This ended
the entire festival.We understand
the performances at the present
- aggregate of receipts at present amount to nearly 9001.,
but it is expected that other donations will yet come in,
tthereby the receipts for the clergy charity will be above the
9ve..rage. In 1836, the amount was 8081. 14s. ; in 1839,
thelw. Bs. 2d. ; and in 1842, 1,059/. 163. 2d. It is hoped that
ti expenses will very nearly be covered by the sale of
Leekes, which has not been the case of late years, a very
avY deioi'the This •
11,,_ e i enc }usually falling
on stewards. year,
si,T,',. ver, the number of stewards being increased, the region-
-6 uultY will be lessened and, moreover, a guarantee fund of
t)(4. has,been raised. ' ,
,There will he a grand ball to-night (Friday), at the Guild-
Itawh closes the whole proceedings.
~ is hoped that te suess of this festival under its improved
''golations will institution ot the Clergy, litidows,
and Ornh ' place
. the
.
to the • ans Charity on a firm and -stable footing with, regard
e support to be derived from these gatherings.

v A Irian named Tiller was on Friday eon eictt,d at
hliddlesex Sessions of an a-sault upon a brUer-, who was
'gen:lining to levy a distress. He was sentenced he iropri-
-1913ed for one month, and to find sureties to keep .ehe peace for
'ix months.

-----.....05awr"*....-s ..........--........
.---
NAVAL INTELLIGE7',7CE
kIiTURNS CALLED FOR By LORD iNbESTRE
AND sIR CHARLES NAIER
- The returns called for by Lord lneestreP . and •
Sir Charles
Napier, of various particulars cooneeted with the construction,
Jtomparative expense.. and capacity of various ships of war, have
ust been promulgated ; but are, strange in say, authenticated by the name of any pe.iiic efficer vi hatever.
wholly un-
Excepting, therefore, that they Contain misstatements of
the
most flagrant description, intended to account for and excuse
the gross blunders and jobbing of the Navy Office-, ice should
have been at a loss to conceive with what department they
could have originated. It will, however, be seen that whilst
they enormously understate the exp,inSe of the surveyor's
!ships, and of their repair, they as grossly exaggerate the cost of
the ships of other constructors. We believe we may safely
effirm that details more deliberately intended to mislead than
these returns have never issued from any department of the
public service. Not only are the expenses of the construction
and repair of the ships of the Surveyor of the Navy very in-
correctly stated, but remarks are introduced, designed to sle-
et:cm for the immense sums which have been squandered upon
them, which are far more applicable to the cases ofrival ships which
have been produced at an infinitely smaller cost, although the price
of materials and labour when they were built was 40 per cent.
more than they are now. As, however we propose to examine
these returns seriatim hereafter, we shall content ourselves for
the present with pointing out the following sample of the dis-
honesty of the details of which they are composed. Among
the many fine vessels of war which have been broken up at the
peahen of Sir William Symonds because they were—like
the Barham—formidable rivals to his own productions, may
be mentioned the Tremendous. This ship was surveyed in
18.43, when the expense of repairing her was estimated at
31,9871, and but for the interference of Sir George Coekburn,
Navinbevould actually have been broken up. A new survey of her
"ig been ordered, however, it was estimated that, at the cost
bi `20,000/., she might be converted into a fifty-gun frigate, but
at a cost of half that sum she has been rendered one of the
finest ships of that elan in the service. It is to be hoped that
the Admiralty will institute a rigid inquiry into the statements
of which these returns are composed, and put a stop to the
further concoction of such replies to the inquiries of the House
of Commons.
THE "BLOCK" &rtes.—Our daily contemporaries, misled
by a paragraph in an obscure weekly newspaper, have an-
nounced that it is the intention of the Admiralty to convert
isixteen line-of-battle ships, and ten frigates, into what they
labsurdly denominate " block ships," and one morning journal
tesseri goes st. far as to take credit for having advised the Board
to that which they decided u ion doing, so soon as the failure of
the experiment in the PenelOpe had bean fully ascertained, and
the " advanced ships" had been completed. 'rhe Admiralty,
at this
however, have not yet defined their plan, and it is premature
moment to say anything on the subject. But this mach
Inay be stated : the Admiralty have solicited from several engineer-
ing firms particulars respecting machinery, such as weight of
engines, the space they will occupy, and the power requisite
te propel a line-of-battle ship, and also a frigate, with given
armaments and a prescribed quantity of stores on board, at a
certain speed. On being furnished with those data, it is most
probable their On
will select, perhaps, six old line-of-
attle ships and half a dozen frigates as port guard ships, and
sillil then call for tenders for the screw machinery for them.
T e port guard ships when finished will be jury rigged, heavily
aimed, and will thoenneharveeucooamplements of o-ffic-
ers-ind men as:
signed to them.
purpose is, that they can be fittedior ctou avertingaae- foa
rotlhd l shipsess t
time
teo
than t this
st will take to build new shi'
to some useful purpose. We
s, an 1 they will be applying them
beyond asking the ii f a
itist.uc'tedrrabelieve the only other teep taken
tion of the engineers is merely
that of having
the. Surveyor of the Navy to propose
ane of the staalles.t class line-of-battle ships and one of the
tecond or third class frigates for each port.—Hera/d.
Gordon,Admiral Sir George Cockburn, Captain the Hon. William
G and the Hon. H. T. L. Corry, the Secretary, have
returned to the Admiralty, from their annual visit of inspection
to Petnbroke Dockyard.
THE RETIREMENT.— The list of captains who their desire to accept of the proposed retirement now amounts
have notified
to about 140, including four holdinoo
eight Companions of the Bath, g gd-service pensions and
THE CoSIMAND -IN- CHIEF AT PORTSMOUTH,— There is
bo longer any doubt that the declining health of the Gallant
and much-respected Admiral, Sir Charles Rowley, Bart-, will
2_eca,ion his speedy retirement from the command-in-ehief at
Portsmouth; and it is very probable that Admiral of the blue
Sir Charles Ogle Bart., will be appointed to succeed Sir'
Charles Rowley in the course of next month. The latter Gal-
lant Officer is at present residing at Brighton. He was ap-
poisited to the Portsmouth command in December, 1642. It is
generally believed that Captain Sir Richard Grant will be the
flag captain, and that the present respected Secretary, Richard
Haigh, Esq., will continue in that office on the appointment of
the new port admiral.
• TIIE NEW IRON STEAM•SLOOP MEGISRA.....The contract
for building the Megrera first class steam-slonp, of 1,297 tOns, to
have engines of 56 -horse power, and to be propelled by the
screw, Ly Messrs. Fairburn and Son, of Miilwall, has been
completed, and the vessel is to be built with the greatest
dispatch.
THE PEGASUS IRON STEAM•sLOOP.—Mes.,rs. Scott and
Sinclair's contract for building the Pegasus, second elas.s steam-
sloop, to be propelled by the screw, of 1,280 tons, to have en-
gines of 561,;.h0r5e power, has been signed.
paostrertosts AND APPoINT3IENTS.
THE HEROINE CoMMlsSlONED.—Commander Charles Ed-
monds (1841), has been appointed to command the Heroine, 6,
brig, refitted at Devonport, for further service on the coast of
w
A lieutenant oftfirst
enant
the Curacoa. twelve peers, and was promoted
Commander Joseph Martin Mottley (1843), was yesterday
appointed to the President, 50, flag-ship of Rear Admiral
'Acres.
Lieutenant Francis Philip Egerton (1836), first of the Agin-
court, 72, was appointed by Rear-Admiral Sir T. Cochrane,
the Commander-in-Chief of China and the East Indies, to the
command of the Hazard, 18, sloop, vacant by the death of
Commander Bell. The Admiralty have promoted Lieutenant
Egerton to the rank of commander, and have confirmed his
+appointment. The gallant commander of the Hazard, David
Robertson, who, as First Lieutenant, assumed the command of
the Hazard, but since promoted for his conduct in the affair at
New Zealand, will be invalided.
Lieutenants F. Marten (1844), to the President ; Macleod
Coekraft (1844), to the Excellent • ; W. H. Haswell, on pro-
%notion, to the Vernon.
Master James T. Russell (1837), to the President.
Suergeon William H. B. Jones, M.D. (1837), to the President.
14 . John Edwards, surgeon, of 1809, of the William and
Mary yacht, has been placed on the retired list, creating a
vacancy in that vessel.
Chaplain and Naval Inaosttructor, the Rev. Arthur Browne
(1841), to the Crocodile yet joined).
Paymaster and William Purser( Benge Basden (1805), from
tlae packet service at Dover, to the President.
Mates S. H. Henderson and T. B. Hannarn, to the Excel-
lent; W. 11. Connoll , r.o,rn the Comet.
Second Master W. YC. t ayne, to the President.
Assistant Surgeons, James Rae (b 1841), to the Meteor ;
3'l' W. Roberts -1835), and John Cockin (1841), to the Pre-
sident.
- Naval Cadets C. Montagu and T. Bishop, to the President..
Master'Assistants s tent, Bishop,
and Williamson, to the Prest-
Carpenter James Pink, from the Victory to the Excellent.
, and Lieutenants John M. D. Smith, first of the Penelope steam-
frirrgaivte, a Augustus C. May, first of the Larne sloop, have
Ale home invalided from the coast of Africa.
r. Peter Cullen, surgeon of 1793, on the retired list, died
St Sheerness on the 23d instant, aged 76. Mr. Cullen had a
pension of 801. per atavism as retired surgeon of convicts.