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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 883, 3 December 1870, Page 2

The North Chiua farmers are rejoicing exceedingly at what they suppose to be the beneficial meteorological effects of the murder of the Roman Catholic priests at Tientsin. The spring and early summer, as with us, were marked by a long and continuous drought, notwithstanding that on several occasions the Emperor had prayed in state for rain. This misfortune, —and the natives say that since the signing of the treaties there has been a constant recurrence of similar droughts—was very generally put down to the presence of foreigners among theiqi and notably to tr.e spires of the .Roman Catholic church ut Pekiu, which tower above the imperial palace, and by so doing, is believed to iiave destroyed the geomantic influences, of the neighborhood, r £he expression of these beliefs had been cjinmon among the people lor some months, and in their eyes, received confirmation when, on the U#Y after the massacre, the heavens became " with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain." The fulfilment of tug popular superstition was unfortunate, and will make many in China exclaim, with the writer of a letter from Pekiu whp narrates the circumstance, " God help us. in the next year of drought." Perhaps, all things considered, it would be better If, for a time, the missionaries abstained from enlarging in the presence of mixed crowds on that chapter in the JBook of Kings winch contains the account of the massacre of the priests of Baal and i(g consequences,—Loudon Grlobe,

THE LOST IRON-CLAD. JWJSW YORK TJMES.] One of the largest and most powerfully armed ships of the British navy has just gone down with all her complement of 500 men. Apart from any other explanation, we are entitled to suppose that the Captain has sunk off Finisterre because of .certain defects in her construction, which competent judges pronounced fatal—defects which have lately formed the subject of an acrimonious newspaper .controversy between her builders, Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead, and the Chief Constructor of the British Navy, E. S. Eeed. Captain Coles, the designer of this and of the other British warships constructed on the turret principle, has gone down along with the latest and most unfortunate evidence of his skill. The history of the Captain is briefly •this: In April, 1866, " the Admiralty decided to give Captain Coles the opportunity of reducing to practice his own views of what a sea-going turret cruiser should be." The conditions uuder which she was to be designed and built were these; That provision should be made for the protection of the vital parts of the ship from heavy shot. For the health and comfort of a crew sufficient in number not only to work the guns, but .to work the ship with ease, and to keep her in the order required for an efficient sbip-of-war. That she should have sufficient speed, and that she should possess the sea-going .qualities of a good cruiser. The result was a vessel regarding whom her builders furnish the following figures; Tonnage, 4,272 ; displacement, tons, 7,630; area of midship sections, feet, 1,185; nominal horse-power, 5,989; speed, knots, 14 239. She was fully plated, her armor being, on the important parts, eight inches thick. She carried in her turrets four 25-ton guns, capable of throwing 600-pound shot. JFor bow and stem fire she carried single 7-inch guns forward and aft. She was heavily masted, in addition to her great engine power and her power of screws. and it was claimed that while on her trial .cruise she could tack " under sail on a round a supposed antagonist" as handily as one of the old style of wooden frigates. The same observer described her mode of attack as follows :—♦ She covers her battery of guns and clears her enemy's decks at the sune time by the .continuous lire from the breech-loaders of her small arm men, who are snugly sheltered behind the hammock breastworks surrounding the upper deck above the turrets and in the tops. In every part of this treble sided arrangement of men in turrets, men on the upper deck as sail trimmers, and men on the upper deck and in the tops as small arm men, there is no .confusion." Yet, with all the favorable reports of friendly critics, the Captain was pronounced a failure by the chief practical authority of the British navy. The most conclusive facts against her were that she had been made 800 or 900 tons too heavy, and that thus she floated two feet deeper than was intended. The Messrs. i.aird did not attempt to deny the miscalculation jof weight —gross as it may appear to any jone conversant with naval but attempted to shield themselves under the actual results she had achieved in point of speed and They adduced the testimony of an Admiral to the following effect ;-^' 4 The Captain is a most formidable ship, and could, I believe, by her superior armament destroy all the the broadside ships of this squadron in detail. * * SJi« is very easy in a seaway, and can use her guus in any sea in which an action is likely to be fought. * * She can be cleared for action in five minutes. * * The arrangements for battle is, very good, * * There is much comfort and accommodation on board ; the officers and ship's company are well berthed." Mr Reed brings the report of another Admiral in rebuttal, and, in view of the Captain's actual fate, it. reads very much like a prophesy ;-*-" The weak point in tpe Captain seems to be the absence of direct fore and aft fire, particularly ahead. A vessel armed as the Captain cannot ad vauce ead.-on in line abreast with other ships, and fire shot in advance without danger of collision. The lowness of freeboard exposes her to plunging fire through the decks, at the base of the turrets, from ahead, astern, diagonally and abeam. The

machinery of the turrets is thus, in my opinion, endangered. The masting is much overdone, beyond the strength of her complement (500), and interferes very much with her steaming head to wind. The spare spars are preparations for a bonfire; studding sails and their gear a great incumbrance and unnecessary. The wrecks of such large masts falling might be fatal by stopping the turrets or masking their fire. The mi;?zenmast is a standing menace to two screws, and should at once be removed. On a wind, under sail only, the ship can do little or nothing to windward. . The hurricane deck and boats seem to me in much danger of destruction by fire in action.'* Such has been the ominous controversy that has been waged over the ill-fated Captain, and it is to be feared that her loss will more than justify the severest reflections that have been cast upon her designer and builders. That ev#y soul on board seems to have perished with her is a melancholy commentary on the construction of such floating engines of havoc and slaughter that prove as fatal to their inmates as to the objects of their attack. During the war we had more than one instance of how certain death was to the crew of a sunk monitor, and with all her preposterous combination of the monitor, the Captain could scarcely fail to be equally infallible in the drowning of the men under her armor-plated decks. We have supped so full of hurrors during the last few weeks- that five hundred men seems but a slender tale of slaughter ; but a peaceful tragedy like this has in it something more terrible than the ravages of actual war. And more especially is this so when we read the accusati >u against her builders, penned a fortnight ago: '* The ship's capabilities are impaired by this miscalculation ; her stability is compromised, and her guns brought so near the water that it was found desirable, the first time she went down the channel, to turn her turrets in a particular position in order to enable the gunners to load without being deluged by the sea."