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    jfe: 508* - Pec 17> 185 9 ^ THE LEADER. ...

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    IRELAND. The Irish papers announce the d...

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    NAVAL, AND MILITARY. The new screw steam...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    At Horsham On Wednesday, Mr. Seymouu Fit...

    England with two divisions of 50 , 000 men each . Lord Palmerston had said not a man would go back alive , but there was an experienced general present who would tell them that without organisation they would against such a force be as butter against steel . Such an invading force would march in two lines against London , and nothing could prevent them . Their arsenals were all ill defended . Mr . Ferguson , one of the Commissioners , had told him so , and therefore he ( Mr . Rose ) told them again that the nation was in imminent peril . They might as well compare the ton of iron in the ore to the

    wondrous powers of the steam-engine as to endeavour to cone with disciplined troops solely by the aid of the undisciplined valour of the country . The bounty had produced no seamen , while , thanks to the conscription , in fourteen days there were ten thousand men in to aid the French ships . Let them not trust to Louis Napoleon . On the 1 st December , 1852 , Charra ? , Lamoriciere , and Cavaignac were sleeping quietly in their beds , and on the 2 nd they were all in prison , and France was an empire . Louis Napoleon did it all , and did they doubt the probability of his attempting a similar coup-de-main with regard to this country ?

    At a Volunteers' dinner at the London Tavern , Mr . Eoupell , M . P ., referred to the approaching campaign of Parliament , which he believed would be as keenly contested as that lately concluded on the plains of Lombardy . In regard to measures , he hoped that in the name of Reform we should not only haven change but a measure of true and beneficial reform . In relation to our foreign politics , he wished that ICngland had no foreign policy . We had entered a European Congress now at the wish of one man , but he hoped that our representatives would even yet withdraw from it before they in any way implicated the interests of the country . We wished to be conciliatory , but not to truckle to any man . In voting the estimates it should be our desire not to give way to undue , parsimony , but to endeavour to unite economy with efficient means of national defence , and to check every symptom of extravagance and waste . The people did not wish such parsimony , they wished to maintain the defence of the country .

    Jfe: 508* - Pec 17> 185 9 ^ The Leader. ...

    jfe : 508 * - 17 > 185 9 ^ THE LEADER . 1361

    Ireland. The Irish Papers Announce The D...

    IRELAND . The Irish papers announce the death of Mr . Terence Dolan , Clerk of the Crown for Tyrone , which took place suddenly on Monday . ' The vacant post is said to he \ vorlh . ui >\' . ' . irds uf jC 7 U 0 per ii : uiu ; n . The public will romember the memorial of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics of Ireland relative to the educational question , in which a demand was made for a separate grant , on account of unfairness as respects tlie school teaching . Nor will it be forgotten that f . ilse rumours were published as to the unowit of the Government , transmitted through Mr . Curd-. veil . Tlio Government finds itself , indeed , placed in a great difficulty by this memorial , as much will depend upon their answer when a party division has to tuxc pluco in the House of Commons . There is a iijw rumour on the subject . It is that Mr . Curdwcll states that the pivscnt system of education in Ireland must bo maintained , but that Government will " entertain any suggestions for its move efficient application to thu circumstances of the country . " If that bo so , we may well take it that the Roman clergy will regard the answer as eyasi ve .

    Naval, And Military. The New Screw Steam...

    NAVAL , AND MILITARY . The new screw steamship Hood , of » 0 guns and 600 horse-power ( nominal ) , at Sheernosa , now in the fitting basin , has had her masts and bowsprits stepped , and the seamen riggers of the yard , with the supernumeraries from the stodm orchnury and steam reserve , arc busily engaged rigging her , to got her ready for immediate service Tlie first division of the stimm despatch vessols and gunboats , « , t Slieoriioaa are fully equipped ni » U ready lor immediate ) service . Tlie new screw steam frigate Ariadne , 2 ( 5 guns , of 800 hovao-nowor , nominal , Captain Vansittnrt ( now at moorings off Folly Point , in the river Medwuy ) , is orilwrou to got her armament , ammunition , find sou-going storos on board with all possible despatch ; her compasses will be adjusted at fonoornoss , and alie ia forthwith to procood on a trail trip when fully oquippod for son . The Friend of India of Nov . 8 , remarks that a month previously her Majesty ' s 07 th were- at Singapore on their way to Hung Kong . Volunteers tor the war have boon askod from Madras , JJombay , anil Kumwhuo , but tho results , though not yet known , cannot bo doubtful . Tlio " details , " promised < l . without delay " In a General Ordor eighteen days ngo , havu notyot boon publlnluiri . Tho forty-two volunteers from tho Aluwick CuHtle , at Kodgoroo , wore returned after having been put on board fllun to bo brought buuk to Calcutta . Tl » oy were found to bo n bud sot . of whom tl » e honiewurd-bouua

    court , which means punishment without evidence of guilt and the forms of layir . Flogging in the navy is thus a good deal relaxed , but by no means to such an extent as to justify the abandonment of any agitation that may be contemplated relative to the system . - The 6 crew line-of-battle ship Donegal , 101 , got up steam at Portland on Tuesday morning , and left the harbour , steering to the eastward . The Royal Albert , 131 , is expected to leave Portland in a few days for one of the dockyards to effect repairs . The other vessels in port are—the Algiers , 91 ; the Aboukir , 91 ; the Trafalgar , 91 ; the Mars , 80 ; tlie Blenheim , 60 ; the Mersey ,. 40 -, the Diadem , 3 . 2 ; the Fawn , 17 ; the Partridge , 6 ; and the Biter gunboat .

    The launch took place at Portsmouth on Tuesday , of the Duncan , 101 guns on two decks . This vessel was laid down On the 27 th of April , 1857 , and has been built from designs furnished from the office of the Surveyor of the Navy , Admiral Sir B . W . Walker , K . C . B ., under the superintendence of Mr . Abethell , the master-builder of Portsmouth yard , and , like the Victoria three-decker , launched from the shed adjoin ing on the 12 th ult ., liasbcenbui . from her original designs as a steam line-of-battle ship . On the platform from which the ceremony of christening the ship was performed , were the Surveyor of the Navy , Sir B . W . Walker , K . C . B . ; Admiral W . Bowles , C . B ., Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane , Captain the Hon . Joseph Den man , Messrs . R .

    Harris , C . F . Hillyar , G . Hancock , & c , . with , the officers of the Prussian men-of-war in the harbour . Mrs . Farquhar , the wife of the gallant flag captain of the Commander-in-Chief , performed the ceremony of naming the Duncan , and the shipwrights immediately commenced splitting away the blocks , the last of which was no sooner released than the noble ship , without any recourse being had to " screw " or hydraulic , " which had been placed in position for service , if required , started on her way , and , amid the plaudits of the assembled crowds , glided nobly and grandly without check of any kind into the water . Her port bower , as soon as she was ) clear of the shed , stopped her further progress astern , and the launch was complete .

    The Globe says that Sir Henry Somerset has completed his period of service as Commander-ln-Chief of the troops in the Bombay Presidency , and Generals Beresford and Craigie are about resigning their divisional commands in the Madras Presidency for asimilar renson . It is alsosettlerl that Sir Hugh Rose ' succeeds Lord Clyde in the chief command , and that Sir William Mansfield becomes Commander-in-Chief . at Bombay , in the room , of Sir Henry Somerset , the office of chief of the staff being abolished . It is also probable that Major-General Maoolin , C . B ., and Major-General " Spencer , C . B ., will succeed Major-Generals Beresford and Craigie in the Madras commands , and that Major-General Cunyiighai . , C . B ., will proceed to the Bombay command , now held by Sir Hugh Rose . The screw steamship Edgar , 91 , Captain James A . Kuton , will Lc out of thu hands of \ lie dockyard artisans at Devonport about the 17 th inat . Siie took on board her powder on Tuesday . A correspondent of the Times says : — " The Medwuy is fast filling up , and ut no very distant , period Chatham will be almost Avorthless as a dockyard ; tlie banks are being washul away in many places at the rate of from G ft . to 12 ft . per annum , and the bed of the river is becoming so shallow , that , on the 9 th of November last year , it was f . iund impossible for the Crossy ( an 80-gun -ship ) to proceed up the river to Chatham ; This process is steadily going on every year , while tlio Government arts laying out vast sums of money in new stuum-basms and docks , soon to becomo utterly useless . It is eight yours since this danger was pointed out to tho Admiralty ; scarcely anything lias been done , mid every year makes the remedy more expensive The m-eatest possible activity is visible in nil parts of Portsmouth Dockyard . The two linu-or-biittla ships nearly complete for luunolilng—tbo Prmoo ot Wales 131 , three-decker , and the Royal i ' roduriolc , 91 two-decker--have every available hand employe . ! upon them to complete them within tho Mipuluten time ; the tanner vessel will bo launched the latter end of nc / xt . month . A numbor of workmen are already engaged In laying down the keel of the- Koyal Alfred , 91 , two-decker , in the shod under which U > o Victoria was built , und an improved M gun frigate ( the Dryad ) will bo commenced ut onou in tho shod from which the Duncan , 101 , was launched on Tuesday last . Tho Sutlej , In No . I ) dock , converthit ; from a sailing to ' a steam frigate , is nearly complete in hop outside planking . Tho Uinaldo , 17 sciw , building in tho easternmost dock , id ' fust uuprouohhig completion , and has a lurtco number of hands employed upon her . Ilio Glasgow , 51 , screw , has also u largo number of hands working upon lior , and , having only been laid tfiwn since the launch of the Dacohanto tYlgato , has made wonderful progress in thut short time , lho

    officers were only too glad to be rid . Few in England can understand the intense crave for home which has seized every soldier in India , local and line alike . The men with whom we have spoken , from the intelligent and well educated non-commissioned officer to the most boorish lout of a raw recruit , describe life here as intense misery . Action would attract them . Volunteering for the campaign merely would have secured half the force at least now on its way home . But to ask men in a careless way to re-enlist for ten years , with all past service and all past services ignored , and for £ 5 bounty , with no manifestation of tact , no alluring appeal , no encouraging words , is to court a refusal in any circumstances . In her Majesty ' s regiments alone , now that the order prohibiting the purchase of discharge is withdrawn , forty-six men of all classes up to the sergeant-major , and off all terms of service , have lately paid sums ranging from £ 5 to . £ 30 , and amounting in all to . £ 800 , for their discharge .

    A letter from St . Petersburg of the 3 rd instant , mentions that Count Mourawieff-Aniorski , Governor-General of Siberia , has paid a visit to Jeddo , the capital of Japan , with a squadron composed of twelve vessels of the Russian Imperial navy . —viz ., the frigate Askold , bearing the Governor ' s flag ; the corvettes llinda , Gridene , Waiewada , Nowik , Baiarine ; clippers Plastonne , Djignitte , Opzitchnik ; transports Yaponez , Wostok , and the steam corvette Amerika . It is added , that so large a foreign fleet was never before seen at the capital of Japan , and that it produced a profound sensation there .

    A slaver , without name or colour , captured a short time back by her Majesty ' s ship Spitfire , Capt . Chapman , at Jacknel , in the neighbourhood of Lagos , has arrived in Sierra Leone , in charge of a prize crew ; at the time of her seizure she had on board 469 slaves , the whole of whom had been shipped on board the evening previous in the short space of one hour and a half . Her entire length is 11 . 0 feet ; breadth , 26 feet 6 inches . Her hold was large and capacious ; the slaves , consequently , had far more room than is usually the case in vessels of this description . The passage up to Sierra Leone occupied thirty-five days , during which time she lost seven of them , landing 462 . _ ¦ . _

    A correspondent of a contemporary writes of the struggle going on in Africa : —" The superiority of the Spanish infantry over the Moors is considered by those officers I have spoken with to be most satisfactorily establiitfaed . The advance of a body of the former is the siirn : ilfi » r the immediate retreat of their swarthy foes . Yesterday two but talions advanced , against a mass of Moors , advantageously posted , but tho sight of the bayonets was enough , and their thrust was not waited for . If the question could be lain

    brought to the arbitrament of a battle in th > 3 p , and with sufficient Spanish cavalry to make head against the Moorish horsemen , whom the Ceutuns describe as exceedingly numerous , brave , and daring , General O'Donnell might hope to gain a great and decisive victory ; but here , among the mountain * , the ' warfare is as yet desultory , and the Moors , although they have once or twice shown themselves forward enough in attack , have their retreat pretty secure when they d « em themselves in danger , or consider that thev have sufficiently harassed their

    enemv . ,,. .. Sir" Charles Shaw writes of a new destructive instrument of warinPrussiu : —• 'M is information as to this engine is still very vngue . Its powers arc said to be so great and so terrible that tlie l «> yuj Prussian Commission recommended that H should not be brought into use . This of course is humbug if war breaks out . It is called a Turbine , said to have the range and correctness of the Armstrong , und when it has attained tho objec aimed at , then _ . ^^ i ^^ ac \ tc fnrrihln nowor . I haVO HO doilbt its terrible power . I havo no uoudc

    commences that there is such , an instrument . I see m one Dictionary that Turbine is u sort of pulpit , from which wo kuow much good or evil may bo spread far und wide . " He adds with respect to the Vounteers " The great object of the British Kino volunteers ' is to become good shots . They must attempt to bo personally active , and have their bodies so supple that they can easily fall into tlie position from which their rilles will havo most effect . Let them npt iorget Unit the long range has made u revolution in tho art of war , and that" tho best shot is the best soldier . " "L ' armo do precision

    ost la nroteetrioe des nutionulitod . An AUmirulty order has been issued respecting corporal punishment , suggested by tho recent ordor of the Commandor-ln-Chk ' f about Hogging in tho army Tlio objoot is the same , to relax tlio Hogging eystom in tho sister , service . For tho future seumen and marines aro to bo divldod into an upper imd lower class , according to diameter , the lower , ranu to be Bunpllod from those in tlio higher who misbehave themselves . In clus * first , none shall bo subioot to corporal punishment , oxoopt by sentence ot court-martial ; nor in the second , except lor aggravated oftaioui Vlilou are named . Yet in tho second class mca may bo Hogged without tho judgment of a

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 17, 1859, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17121859/page/5/