THE SEA EORTs AT SPITIIEAD.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 110, 8 May 1872, Page 2

THE SEA EORTs AT SPITIIEAD.

The new forts provided in accordance with the great fortification scheme initiated during Lord Palmerston's Government, are approaching completion. la a Times description we read that (: in a short time there will arrive at Portsmouth, consigned from Manchester, and delivered by rail, one of the most astonishing fabrics ever produced by human hands." Let the reader imagine, if he can, a building aa big as the Royal Albert Hall, composed entirely of iron plates fifteen inches thick. Some of these plates will be twenty-six feet long, and worth — to anticipate another part of the subject — nearly £200 a-piece. Twenty years ago cue such piece of irou would have been a marvel in itself, and now we have them turned 'out in any quantity, like housebricks from a yard. Yet the workmanship is actually as surprising as the material. Nune but Whitworth's tools could have sufficed to achieve it. Every pUte, every edge, every rivet-hole, is as true to model and measure aa the finest watchwork; and so it had need be. All these For remainder of neios see fourth page.

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plates, piers, and bars will have to be set up and put together on arriving at their destination, so as to form at once a complete fabric without flaw or crack. Then ■will be seen an object without any parallel in the history of the world, though, indeed, it has been anticipated in the creation of romance. The adventurous Sultan, in one of the first stories of the Arabian Nights comes suddenly upon a magnificent palace, or rather a very strong castle, covered with fine steel as smooth as a looking-glass." That description would do exactly for our new forts at Spithead. Fifteen years ago we decided on protecting the approaches to Portsmouth by fixed forts, in preference to floating and movable batteries, and out of that decision has arisen the present phenomenon. It excels the marvels of the Eastern tale in this way, that it had to be built without ground to build upon. . The problem was given to erect an impregnable fort upon the sand which should be as safe as if founded on a rock; and so the rock had to be erected first. On this artificial foundation an iron castle will, so to speak, be dropped, already made, some 700 feet high. Then will be seen the very latest form of fortification, and it is curious to observe that, except in materials, it will be simply a return to the very earliest form. If stone could have resisted artillery, a. Norman castle would still be the perfection of a stronghold, but wheD that material was found to be no longer impregnable, the whole system of fortifications was chauged. Instead of opposing a bare blank wall to the enemy, engineers hit upon the device of exposing no wall af, all. The brickwork of a fort was sunk in a ditch, so that, until approaches had been srif-ntifically and painfully accomplished, there was nothing visible to fire at. Now-a-days iron is to cannon balls what stone was to bows and arrows ; and go the strong high wall rises once more, confronting an enemy, and daring him to do his worst. No known gun would make any impression on the Spithead Fort, even if it could be brought near enough for the experiment. But the fact is the cannon of the fort itself, seconded by that of its consort, would sweep any floating thing from the face' of the waters. An esteemed correspondent asked incautiously the other day what we had got for our money which we had not got in 1851. Here is an answer for him. We have got a fort unmatched in the world for strength and quality. We trust it may prove to be also moneys worth, though the account already shows some alarming figures. Each of these ready-made castles will cost £450,000 for the shell alone. To this the as yet unknown expenses of armament must be added. After all, the expense is not so much above that of an ironclad, Ships used to be reckoned as costing £1,000 a gun ; so that a 40-gun frigate would be worth £40,000. They now cost, as nearly as possible, £100,000 a gun ; so that a 4-gun turret ship stands for £400,000.

A Rebuke. — Mr. T. L. Shepherd, the member for Dunstan, has forcibly reminded lis of his reputation for impudence and vain-glorious impertinence. The other day.hedidus the favor of supplying us witn ia telegram to the effect that he had addressed his constituents, spoken over two hours, and received a vote of thanks ; but he omitted to pay the three shillings, cost of the message. As Greville's agent obliged us with a similar message upon the same subject we had to pay rather dearly for the gratification of learning that the brazen member for the Dunstan had, like another historical personage — spoken. — Wellington Independent. -. :" Playboy," in his " Sporting Notes " for the Melbourne Weekly Times, says : *-*"Now that Rand wick is over and full reports have come to hand, we know all about it. Favorites generally had a bad time of it> and consequently the ring must have come off best. However, there are some large winners, a well-known sporting Esculapius having landed a good stake over The Prophet in the Cup, and a high functionary from New Zealand who has bad a particularly good time of it since he came to Melbourne, having done ditto over both Leger and Cup. If this gentleman is 1 as 'cute in political financing as he is in betting, then the New Zealanders will do well to keep him at the head of their Treasury, for, not content with pulling off several 'Hamlets and Prophets,' and backing both' separately , he actually backed the three crack three-year-olda each to get places In the Cup, and as two cff them did bo, he : was rewarded for, his pluck." 11 TJeie present very warna and unseasonable weather," says the Paris correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette^ February 21, Apropos of ihe; August comet, 5 "is ! regarded witb! mysterious apprehension by those credulous' persons who dread the coming comet. If they were to turn tb their favorite astronomer Arago, they would

find that a long course, of delicate thermometrical observations has proved the fallacy of the earth's temperature being modified by the vicinity of a comet., as the calorific or luminous rays emitted by those erratic bodies are less intense than those which reach us from the moon. The heat of the weather should, therefore, not add to Ihe alarm at present felt. As far as the chances of a comet striking the earth are concerned, Arago says that on the discovery of one of those nebulous globes the chances aro 281,000,000 to 1 that it will not come into collisiou with us. The savant adds that if the earth were dashed agaiust and its motion in space destroyed, the consequences would be roost deplorable, as everything not adhering to its surface, such as animals, water, &c, would Bet off from it at a velocity of twenty miles per second. Arago was opposed to the theory that the moon is an old comet which has moulted and which became a satellite of the earth by venturing within our attaction, but he thought it possible that an immense comet may some day pass between us and the sun and carry us off to act the part of a moon, when, instead of completing our revolution in 365 days, we should, if caught by such a comet as that of 1680, take 575 years travelling. over an ellipsis of startling maguitude."