The Sun. — 1865-09-07 (London, England)

PREPARATIONS OF STRYCHNINE.=-Mr. C. J. Carttar, coroner for West Kent, hold an inquest yesterday on the body of Frances Symonds, aged 68, a married woman, who committed suicide by swallowing a quantity Of prepared powder usually sold for killing rats, and known as " Battle's Vermin Killing Powder," the ingredients of which contain a large portion of strychnine. The evidence showed that the deceased, who was addicted to habits of intemperance, left home on Sunday morning last and purchased a 3d. packet of the above powder at a neighbouring chemist's, and on returning home mixed it in some liquid and drank it. The chemist at whose shop the poison was supposed to have been purchased said it was generally sold to persons who asked for it without any questions being put, and Dr. Cogan, who had been called to the deceased, said that a 3d. packet of the poison would contain a grain and a half of strychnine, and that the deceased must have suffered excruciating agony. The Coroner said it could never have been the intention of the Legislature that such a compound should not come within the Sale of Poisons Act. Verdict, . " That the deceased committed suicide while labouring under temporary derangement."  DOCK'YARDS OF THREE NATlONS.—England has • nine dockyards—Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Pembroke, and, in time of war, Deal and Yarmouth. France has six—Cherbourg, Toulon, Brest, L'orient, Rochefort, and Indret. America  has eight. Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has au.area of 63 acres, but nearly five acres must be filled in before the land can be used. The yard is situate on an island, and has a water front of about I,oooft. ; it has one floating dry-dock and three building slips. Charlestown, near Boston, covers 80 acres of ground, but 16 acres of this are marsh, and must be filled in. The water frontage that is of any value is only about 600 ft. The yard has one stone dry dock and two building slips. Brooklyn covers a surface of 80 acres of available ground and 40 acres of marsh that can be filled in-120 acmes in all. There is at presenl an available water frontage of 1,200 feet, one stone dry dock, and two building slips Philadelphia yard has only 15 acres' surface, and one acre of this must be filled in to be available. The yard has one floating dry dock, two building slips, and a water front of ftrwoon taaacrees of o9foowfheeicthwaitrhe tmaworsbhu.ildTinhgerselipiss.aTukseef3ul,arwdaht,essr about 600 feet. Washington yard has an area of 42 acres, no dry dock. Norfolk and Pensacola yards were destroyed by the rebels, and at present no work of tiny importance is done at either of them ; and Mare Island, on the Pacific, is yet unfinished, and is used only as a place of temporary repair. The British dockyards above enumerated contain 1,000 acres of ground, 50 building slips, and 34 dry docks; the French Imperial yards cover 1,129 acres, and comprises 75 building slips and 26 dry docks; the five navy yards of the United States now in use contain only 218 acres, 12 building slips, and four dry docks. It is easy to refer to the " brilliant record" of the war just past, and to thousands of miles of coast guarded by a navy created in six weeks; but it must be remembered that it consisted almost entirely of merchan, built craft, unsuited to naval service ; and had our enemy been a naval Power they would have been almost worthless. . . . Without the aid of private establishments our navy would have made a very poor show in our late war. But England and France also, in addition to their immense public works, have the vast resources of their private shipyards, which in one case are as great as our own, and in the other case much greater, to draw upon. The French Government are empowered by law to seize private establishments in time of war, and either work them by their own employes, or else have Government work done by private owners. England, it has been calculated, could turn out war vessels at the rate of one a day, indefinitely, of all sizes docks, isn the proper proportions for a navy. Hard presseda week.we have been, we have not turned out one in never built one. yards. They are for the most part badly planned. The extent,pt f o rd the smallest of 3wBitalicreps We want also are-arrangement of all our nav Eyokl We want a yard and works for the coconstructionof iron vessels, of which our Government has rboui.l yn-yard, with 120 acres all told, has one dry dock, two ding slips one of thom double, so as to centain two five building slips, aud 1,700 ft. of wharf. Beships at once, and 1,200 ft. of ißvhriatrifshfryosnit.d. wChoiicnhp,aiw.eitt sides these, it has a wet basin covering more than an acre. The want of our yards is not more has two dry space (except at Philadelphia), so much as it is better arrangement, and that they should have at once. . • . England and France are both in trouble about their principal dockyards— Plymouth, and Cherbourg. gngland has planned and begun fortifications for the defence of Plymouth which aro to cost $20,000,000. But the yard is situated so near the channel that our Monitor Dictator, or any of the other Monitors for that matter, Could steam under the shore batteries, calmly receive their shot, and plant her le-inch theh shell in the docks, shiphouses, and machineshops The pard. Cherbourg is in precisely the same predicament. harbour is an artificial one, formed by the construction of a breakwater, and is one of the finest pieces of engineering skill in the world. So very fine, in fact, that it cost $40,000,000 to construct all the works at the station. But acknowledged to the officers of the yard franklyour emissary Navy Department that a few ironclads could easily destroy the whole place. The French, as a consequence, no longer a 9 ddt the works of Cherbourg. They bend their efforts to perfecting Brest, Toulon, and Indret. But the work away at Plymouth English with John Bull obstinacy, all the while, confessing that when it is done itwill be unsafe in war.—New York Times.