ENGLAND.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 207, 6 September 1860, Page 3

ENGLAND.

At the Geographical Society on Monday night, the Victoria gold medal was presented to Lady Franklin and Sir.F. L. McClintock. Sir R. yV/urchison attended on Lady Franklin's behalf, and urged that a national monument should be erected, so that Franklin’s claim to the discovery of the North-west pas* sage should be distinctly recognised. Drilling is to be introduced into Rugby School. . ....

It is said that on the Derby . Mr. James Merry wins on bets and stake nearly £ 100,00, and that his “commissioner.” gets J£lo,ooo, and his trainer £400(1 The Storm or Whit-Monday.— Tt is understood tiiat the insurance , losses from, the recent storms fall pn t .*q, a iiy U p ol , the northcountry clubs, and that the um^,>-.»■* i n London are very small. 7’he estimate is, that gether about 300 vessels have gone, ashore; involving the sacrifice of seyeralhundred lives. After the recent evidence respecting the quality of the chain cables used for anchors in the merchant service, few will doubt that a large majority of these disasters are to be attributed solely to the indifference of shipowners to that point. If there'were.no facilities for effecting insurances, regard, for their own pockets would soon prompt a degree -of care on the part of these persons,.which, considerat.on for human life and national prosperity,, seem, wholly inadequate to inspire. , • On .Tuesday the Rev. Dr. CuiUjuing, of London, delivered a lecture on the fulfilment of prophecy, in the schoolroom of Christchurch, Claughton.- He had been, he said, taunted in the columns, of Punch, with having, notwith standing his belief that the world was coming to an end in 1867, recently renewed..the lease of a cottage for fi:ty years. The. accusation, he said, although not literally, was generally true ; but bis answer to it was, that a belief in prophecy should not override common sense. —Liverpool Mercury. A series of experiments were on Wednesday completed at Chatham for testing a valuable improvement in revolving ami repeating firearms, by means of which the inventor, Sergeant G. Nturmck, has succeeded'in. doubling the number of shots fired from a revolver, making it, in fact, a revolver of fourteen or sixteen, consecutive shots, without any necessity for reloading. (he new weapon, although double barrcdled, has but one cylinder, one trigger, and but one lock and hammer. The invention has been patented. Mr. /Tilliam Day’s horses were, put up to auction on the 16th May, on Bath racecourse, hut only two yearlings were sold. 2600 guineas were bill for Promised Land, whose reserve price was 3000 guineas. The Rev. Charles Kingsley, it is stated, has been appointed to the chair of Modern History at Cambridge, vacant by the death of Sir James Stephen. Payment of Volunteers.— lf Government really desires efficient volunteers, it must, we suspect, recompense them for some portion, of their/'time spent in acquiring;such, efficiency. Suppose,, for example, that field days were instituted monthly during what may, by a stretch of imagination, be called the eight summer mouths,, from .-.March to October inclusive, ami that- each voiuuteer out on these days for an afternoon’s exercise should be entitled to. half-a? crown in' recompense for working time, so devoted to the national service. Even if 100,000. men so turned out during these, days, and each claimed his halfcrown a day, what, would, be, the <£loo,ooo so spent as-an additional item, to our annual seventeen millions of naval. an.d military expenditure ?—Home paper. The. Hon. and, Rev. S. Waldegraye has been appointed bishop of Carlisle. His views are those of a sound churchman, without leaning' to The Tractarian party.. Experiments were tried, on. the. Nore on Saturday with. .Whitworth’s 80-pouiider upon wrought iron plates 4-|; inches thick. The first shot went clean through, and passed about eleven inches into the oak, and..then glanced against.a massive bolt wnich. turned it up. at a right angle To its former' course,- where it remained buried in, the, framing between the plates in the inside of the ship. ,' The second : shot not only went through the irori* but passed through the wooden side of the ribs, of the ship, tearing off and, smashing the iron knee, aiul covering the main deck with splinters of wood and iron/ fh c shot when found was so 1

l ijotThat no ope, could;., touclp.it. ,-|t.acarcel> ■ showed-aiiy sigin of datuage beycmd-hamg-com- ■ pressed ■jabout ’.an 'inch -shorter, and consequently'increased in/its diameter at-Ihe head by about half an,,inch. Three other shots produced similar effects. It was noticed that at-the. instant of concussion- between one of the shots and the vessel’s a broad sheet ; of intensely white -flame was - emitted, almost r as if a-gun had been fired from the Trusty in reply. The Duke of Somerset expressed himself completely satisfied with the result of the experiments, which certainly were conclusive so fur as the Trusty is. concerned. The experi meats- ifc&e made, at. 200 yard’s range.— Times.

Great North Atlantic Telegraph Company.— -In. the end of May an influential deputation hail ah interview with Lord Palmerston respecting the projected liije, of telegraph to America via the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland, -'.7’he-steamship; Bulldog lias been granted for the purpose oL male * ing a complete survey, and soundings of. the proposed route, and. .Sir.. Leopold .McClintock. Inis been appointed commander.. ,

The Suez" Canal Scheme.— -71he , Paris correspondent of -the Globe says:—-“The French joint-stack undertaking of- Suez canal have assembled to hear Lessep’s report, which is a flourishing historical essay, but rather barren of figures. ,fhe only: intcdl gible fact being that £345,000 have been,sunk (including the Jason brig, off" Sardinia), but .as to proceeds, they are as , un discoverable as the Puliiiiger investments. - The shareholders applauded sundry hits at Albion.”

The. San Juan affair was as far from being settled as ever. . ..

On June 19 two Maorie,s, Wirerou Toetoe, from RangaWhia, and Hemara Eeroliau, from Mokau, were presented to the Queen, being introduced; by Dr. Hoebstetter. Dining the month preceding the 22nd Juno the'following persons had' diedi-~Mr. //Ibuifc, /Smith, of Egyptian Hall notoriety; Mr. S. G. Goodrich, of Connecticut, better knqwu as Peter Parley ; General Sir Wm. Chalmers, of Glen Ericlit, Perthshire ;. Rev.. Baden Powell, Savilian ; Professor, of Geometry in Oxford• University Mr. G. P. R. Janies, the celebrated novelist ;■ General John Mackenzie, in .flit, " vear of. nis age. the oldest officer in, the British ara^..:;; e> "'