Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1879-01-04 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

THE NEW STEEL-CLAD MAN.OF-WAR. The new steel. clad man-of-war which the First Lord promised at the end of last Session is to be called the Conqueror, we are told, and its construction has now been commenced at Chatham Yard. Bearing in mind the costliness of its armour, the Admiralty has declined the responsibility of building a large ship, and the Conqueror will carry but one turret, with a gross tonnage not much more than half that of the Thunderer, now doing duty in the Mediterranean. Its guns again will be no heavier than those of the Tbunderer—lS tons—and it will carry but two midi heavy weapons instead of four. Thus it will be but a pigmy compared to the monster turret-ships we halve recently been fitting for sea in the shape of the Dreadnought and Inflexible, and its armament in comparison to the eighty-ton guns of the latter ship will be insignificant. On the other hand, instead of being protected with iron, the 'Conqueror is to be dad completely in steel armour, which will offer insuperable difficulties to the projectiles now in use in 'oar ovm and foreign navies. The only &MIA in the minds of naval men is about the capability of steel armour being able to keep out steel shot. The latter, like the steel plates, are exceedingly costly ; but the matter of expense is not likely to stand in the' way of the production of these ' modern cannon-balls if they should really turn out of value. Judging by what the Whitworth steel shot have already done on the Essex sands, at the School of Gunnery, there appears every Prospect of their gaining a Vietbry over steel armour in the 'end. The possibility of piercing steel plates by steel shot has, indeed, been proved already, and the question only remains whether more highly tempered plates can be manufactured. To such a pitch of perfection and solidity are steel shot sowscloys manufactured, that they canto sent not ones, but repeatedly, through a twelve-inch iron target without suffering the least injury. Still, a steelclad will always be more capable of resisting shot than an ironclad, and if we'are•to have arinoured ships, by al/ means let us have the strange,st we can get. The Conqueror will be the first of its race, but as the Inflexible, it is mid, will have its turrets also protected by an outside casing of steel, the latter will be representative of a transition peiiod in the history of the British navy.  REIEEASE 'OS'A YORKSHIRE lIIIIRDERESS.—EnmedisteIy following the lamented death of the late Princess Alice, and, in fact, within the past week, her Majesty's clemency', says the Newcastle Daily Chronicle, has been gracefully extended to a woman named Alice who, for the last fourteen years, has been consn.tl in York Castle fpr murder. Wilson's case was tried at the York Assizes in December, 1864, when she was charged with murdering her , infant, nine months old. She was , then twentyfive, Mid had been married three years, and for a couple, of years . had been deserted .by her husband, At the, time of the murder she had just left the Beverley Wbrkhouse, and, with the infant in 4p/est:ion , and =wither older in her possession, . was seen on her way home at Booth, near Bowden. 1 When she .reached home the infant was missing, and • her ,mother on inquiry after it said, "Surely, Alice,. ou IsnWe tldnb ' away with the ckild to which the daughtnr..pp.plied, 'Well, I might as, veil tellyou the truth; it is laid in Sarah Leng s pigstye; at the same tinie Klink her mother to say nothing about if. The matter, 139wrer, being reported to the police, the dead body of the child Was found in the pigstye in question, and death Ws ,found to have been caused by Buffo, cation. The jury who tried the prisoner found her guilty, but recommended her to Mercy"; and the judge (Keating), lifter passing senti4nee of death, wound up with the words: "And may the Lord have mercy on your soul?' a prayer to which, such had been , the painfulness of the case, arising from the misfortune of the prisoner, ninny persons in the court audibly uttared; ",./pnen:' The penal sOlikesSalvirs afterwards respited, and the prisoner ordered to be kept in the ..zastleCw•during her Majesty& pleasuie." • On. being ' discharged from prison the poor woman was received, ' into the custody of her parents, .11 • •