NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 804, 25 April 1871, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

In conferring with Count Bismarck upon the treaty of 1856, Mr Odo Kussell said that " the question was one which was of a nature in its present state to compel us, with or without allies, to go to war with Eussia." The " Standard " writer thus refers to the new English 35-ton gun : "This unmistakably magnificent naval gun passed, at the butts at Woolwich Arsenal, what is understood to be its final proof, with the utmost success the most sanguine could have expected or desired. The enormous charge of 130 pounds of powder, propelling a bolt of 700 pounds in weight, at a velocity of 1348 feet per second, was endared without the slightest symptoms whatever of a strain, or the remotest appearance of any distress, either iu tho metal or in the parts of the gun. There is no doubt at all of its being, by a long way, the most formidable weapon in the world, and no such enormous charge was ever before burnt inside a cannon. In power, the projectiles are more than equal to any duty they could be called upon to perform afloat. The water-line belt of the Hercules would be pierced by them at a thousand yards, and the Konig Wilhelm penetrated completely at very considerably more than twice that range. The new gun has now fired eight rounds of high charges, beginning with 75 pounds, and ranging up to 130 pounds ; the highest velocity, 1370 feet per second, having been attained with 110 pounds, thus clearly showing that this is the utmost quantity which can be properly consumed iu the bore, and that the firing of any higher charge would be superfluous. The velocities attained with the lower charges of 75 pounds and 100 pounds of powder, were respectively, 1160 and and 1250 feet; the penetrative power of the projectile, with even the latter charge, being so great that an armour plate of thirteen inches in thickness would only just suffice to arrest them at close quarters.

London, February 23. " World " cable. Parliament was startled to-riight by tie declaration of Lord Partington that disaffection existed in Ireland to such an alarming extent tbat it would lie necessary to appoint a Secret Committee to ascertain the causes. The Tories are exultant at the evidence of failure in the Irish policy of the Government. England is negotiating for the purchase of the Lutch settlement on the gold coast of Africa for twenty-three thousand pounds sterling. London, February 27. | In the House of Commons to-night, Otway, formerly Undersecretary of the Foreign Department, after stating the reported terms of peace between Germany and France, ashed if her Majesty's Government had made any effort to mitigate their severity. Gladstone replied that Count Von Bernstoff, Minister of North Germany, tad notified Earl Granville and himself that the preliminaries of peace were signed that morning. He added that the diplomatic representatives of the British Government in France ™ been instructed not to accompany the Germans on their entry into ™is, and refused to make any further response to the question. >