ACCOUNT OF NAVAL RECEIPT AND EXPENDITURE. For the Year ended 31st March, 1847. The excess of £185,280. 6s. 9d., shown on the Account of Naval Receipt and Expenditure for the Financial Year ended the 31st March, 1846, has been voted by Parliament, as per printed Paper, 24th February, 1847, No. 103, agreeably with the Authority of the Lords of the Treasury, as signified by Mr. Trevelyan's Letter of 26th February, 1847. ing note No. NAVY EFFECTIVE SERVICES: £ 8. d. 1 By Wages to Seamen and Marines 1,424,092 16 81,328,053 4" General Register and Record Office of Seamen .... 8,714 1 4 9,506 47,510 5 이 43,764 5 "Scientific Branch...... 7" Her Majesty's Establishments 8" Wages to Artificers, &c. em- 10 "Naval Stores, &c. for the build- 11 "New Works, Improvements, & NAVY NON-EFFECTIVE SERVICES: 482,267 4 11 491,322 263,797 18 3 191,590 58,117 1 4 102,095 551,927 5 545,587 £7,924,324 19 7 7,674,914 JOHN T. BRIGGS, Accountant-General of the Navy. Notes Referred to in the preceding Account. Vote No. 1.-This excess arises chiefly on the Vote for Sea Pay, owing to a larger number of men having been borne throughout the year than were provided for; also on account of the supplies of slop clothing for stock on hand exceeding the value of the quantities taken up by the men; the value of which, when issued, is abated from their pay. Vote No. 2.-This excess arises from increased prices of provisions, and from the extensive supplies which have been provided for Her Majesty's Fleets employed at home and abroad. Vote No. 3.-The excess under this head arises from the transfer to the Admiralty of the clerical duties connected with the Greenwich Out-pension business; from more having been paid for postage, owing to the increased correspondence arising out of the extension of the Fleet; from the alterations of offices, rendered necessary on account of the enlargement of the department of the Director of Works, and the transfer of the Steam Department to Somerset House; for attendance of clerks at night in preparing Parliamentary Accounts, and on other duties, owing to the inadequacy of the establishment to meet the increase of business; and for law charges connected with the purchase of land for the extension of Portsmouth Yard. Vote No. 5.-This excess has been caused by an unusual demand for charts, maps, chronometers, compasses, marine barometers, and magnetic and other instruments; by the expenses of the surveys of the River St. Lawrence and the Bay of Fundy, and hire of vessels, having been much under estimated; by lodging-money, on shore, of officers taken from surveying vessels, while such vessels were employed on the Irish Relief Service; by increased surveying pay to officers promoted; and continuance of surveying pay to officers returned from China and the Falkland Islands, while completing the drawings. Vote No. 6. This excess arises from the establishment of the Steam Factory at Portsmouth Yard, and of the Supervisor of Metals for the several dockyards, for which no provision had been made; and from increased expenditure on account of the travelling charges and subsistence of shipwright officers detached from their respective yards to superintend the building of vessels under contract. Vote No. 7.-This excess is caused by the increased superintendence required in connexion with the extensive repairs of steam-vessels at Malta; by arrear accounts of expenditure at Hong Kong of the preceding year being charged to this year; by the appointment of a shipwright officer to superintend the building of vessels in Canada; and by the extension of the Medical Establishment at Bermuda to secure greater efficiency in that establishment, for which no provision had been made. Vote No. 8.-The excess under this head arises from its having been found necessary to employ an increased number of workmen in the Dockyards, to proceed with dispatch in the building and repairs of ships and steamers, and in the outfit of the Fleet. Vote No. 9.-This excess arises from an increased expenditure at Malta for the repairs of steamers; from greater progress having been made in the works at Bermuda than was contemplated; and from the Votes for Labour at Canada, the Cape of Good Hope, and Trincomalee; and for extra pay to artificers, &c., of the Fleet, being less than the exigencies of the service required. Vote No. 10, The excess under this head has arisen from the purchase of two vessels, the "Undine" and "Kestral," for which there was no provision in the Estimates; and from the payments for the repairs and fittings of the NO. 4.-VOL. XVII. 2 F Steam Guard Ships performed in Merchant Yards, having been larger than were contemplated when the Estimate was prepared. Vote No. 12. This excess has been incurred in consequence of the extra cost of provisions, owing to the considerable advance of prices during the year; by an enlarged expenditure to meet the increased wants arising out of the extension of the Fleet; and also from the purchase of supplies for the service of other departments being larger than were actually required. Vote No. 13.-The excess under this head is caused by more having been paid than voted on account of distressed seamen; passages of naval officers; purchase of land for the extension of Portsmouth Yard; purchase of books, raising men for the Fleet; by an award to the owners of a French vessel; which had been run down by Her Majesty's ship Polyphemus; and a payment to Mr. Brewer, for the use of his patent for making blocks; also, from the defalcations of the late Mr. J. D. Thompson, as Naval Storekeeper and Agent Victualler at the Cape, after receiving from his sureties the amount of their bonds. Vote No. 17.-This increase of expenditure has arisen from Freight Ships having been engaged and employed for the conveyance of troops, instead of Ships of War; for increased supply of stores (bedding, &c.); and from the sum of £34,568 6s. 1d. having been authorised by the Treasury to be paid to the East India Company for troops conveyed to India, not provided for in this Estimate. Vote No. 19.-This excess has been chiefly incurred for the conveyance of Mails between Callao and Valparaiso, in consequence of the contract for that service having commenced sooner than was contemplated when the Estimates were framed. INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. Joshua Field, Esq., President, in the Chair. A paper was read by Mr. A. Mitchell, of Belfast Assoc. Inst. C.E., " On Submarine Foundations; particularly the Screw Pile and Moorings." Considering that the entire subject of the various sorts of piling, of solid stone foundations, of cofferdams, of masses of concrete, and the numerous modes adopted by ingenious men for overcoming local difficulties, would occupy too much time, and scarcely possess novelty, the author restricted himself almost entirely to the description of the works executed by him with the screw pile, as that had been chiefly employed for supporting structures on loose sand or mudbanks, wholly or partially covered by the sea, where it had been previously considered very hazardous, if not impracticable, to erect any permanent edifice; and in his narrative he scrupulously avoided all comparison with other modes of proceeding, even when they had the same object. The origin of the screw pile was the screw mooring, which was designed for the purpose of obtaining for an especial purpose a greater holding power than was possessed by either the ordinary pile or any of the usual mooring anchors or blocks, of however large dimensions. It was proved by experiment, that if a screw, with a broad spiral flange, were fixed upon a spindle, and forcibly propelled by rotary motion to a certain depth into the ground, an enormous force would be required to extract it by direct tension, and that the power employed must be sufficient to drag up a mass of earth of the form of the frustrum of a cone reversed, the base being at the surface of the ground, and the section of the apex being equal to the diameter of the screw. The extent of the resisting mass, must of course, depend upon the natural tenacity of the soil. Even in this reasoning it must be evident that a vertical force was calculated upon; but as, practically, that seldom, if ever occurred, the angle of tension and the curve of the buoy cable again gave the moorings greater power. This was found to be correct in practice, and the application of the moorings became very extensive. An arrangement was made with the port of Newcastle-on-Tyne, by which, for the sum of £2500, the right of fixing these moorings in the Tyne was given; and Mr. Brook, the engineer, showed that, last year, whilst in the neighbouring port damage was done to the shipping to the extent of nearly £30,000, no injury was sustained in the Tyne, entirely owing to the sound holding of Mitchel's screw-pile moorings. Mr. W. A. Brooks gave an account of the method of laying down the moorings at Newcastle-on-Tyne, under his directions. A heavy chain, formed of 34-inch round iron, in links of three feet long each, was stretched along the bed of the river, in the direction of the current. To this chain, beneath each tier, was attached a 24-inch studded mooring chain, fixed to the head of a screw mooring, another screw being also placed beneath each tier, and driven down between ten and twenty feet into the clay, and sometimes full a foot deep into the shale rock. The screws were four feet in diameter, and were placed in depths varying from fifteen to twenty-four feet at low water spring tides. They were screwed down to the depth of fifteen feet in one hour and a-half, and sometimes twenty-one feet in two hours. Each mooring screw was intended to have borne the strain of four heavy ships; but during the last winter, the port was so crowded, that more than double the proper number of vessels was moored upon each, and yet there were no signs of weakness, and whilst nearly £30,000 of damage was done at Sunderland, during a heavy storm, no casualties occurred at Newcastle, which Mr. Brooks stated was entirely owing to the sound holding of the screw moorings. He argued, therefore, that the small sum of £2.500 paid by the harbour commissioners of Newcastle, for the right to put down these moorings, was a very wise expenditure. Mr. T. Smith, pilot-master of the port of Shields, corroborated Mr. Brooks's statement. Capt. Washington, R.N., had in the course of his surveying duties, seen the screw moorings in almost every position, and had heard them universally eulogized as being the best and safest moorings hitherto known. He strongly recommended their employment. It naturally occurred to Mr. Mitchell, that the same means of resistance to downward pressure might be used, and he proposed to apply it for the foundations of lighthouses, beacons, and other structures, which for maritime purposes, it might be desirable to place upon sand and mud banks, where hitherto it had been considered impracticable to place any permanent edifice. In the year 1838, a plan for a structure of this nature for a lighthouse, on the Maplin Sand, at the mouth of the Thames, was laid before the corpora tion of the Trinity House, supported by the opinion of James Walker, Esq., their engineer. The nine iron piles, five inches in diameter, with screws four feet in diameter, were accordingly driven twenty-two feet deep into the mud, and with proper precaution they were allowed to stand two years before any edifice was placed upon them. The lighthouse was subsequently constructed, and, as was testified by Mr. Walker, had stood perfectly until the present time. Pending this probation, it was determined to erect a lighthouse to point out the entrance to the harbour of Fleetwood-on-Wyre, and under the advice of Capt. Denham, R.N., the screw piles were adopted. The spot fixed on was the point of a bank of loose sand, about two miles from the shore; seven iron piles, with screws of three feet diameter, were forced about sixteen feet into the bank and upon them timber supports, forty-eight feet in vertical height were fixed to carry the house and lantern. This structure was completed in six months, and was perfectly successful, never having required any repairs to the present time. A similar lighthouse was erected near Belfast, and since then several others, with a great number of beacons, have been fixed in situations heretofore deemed impracticable. Capt. Washington also examined carefully the screw pile lighthouses, and had every reason to be satisfied with them, as affording a means of placing lighthouses and beacons where they were before impracticable, and enabling floating lights to be generally superseded by fixed lights, which latter he proved, from documentary evidence, to be one-third less annual cost than the former, and certainly more useful to sailors. For in spite of all the care, attention, and even lavish expenditure of the Trinity Board to moor the light-ships securely, they did go adrift just at the time they were most required. He, therefore, advocated fixed lights in every situation where a foundation could be obtained; and he believed that, with the screw pile, there were scarcely any situations where this could not be accomplished. APPEALS TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS.—Thursday, March 9th. THE Lord Chancellor heard appeal cases to day. The peers assisting were the Earl of Stradbroke and Lord Campbell. The case heard was, the Mayor, Commonalty, and Citizens of London, appellants-the Attorney-General respondent. Civic Property in the Thames, its Banks and Soil. This case arose out of an information filed by Sir Frederick Pollock, when attorney general, showing that by Royal Prerogative the ground and soil of the coasts and shores of the sea round this kingdom, or of every port, haven, arm of the sea, creek, pool, and navigable river thereof, into which the sea ebbs and flows, and the shore lying between high and low water mark, belong of right to her Majesty; that the Thames is such an arm of the sea. and a King's highway; that the Mayor and Corporation of London, by prescription, or some Royal grant, hold the office of bailiff or conservator of the Thames from Staines Bridge to Yantlett Creek or Yenland; and their duty is to prevent all obstructions of the navigation of the river or nuisances therein, but they do not thereby acquire any estate or interest in the ground or soil of the river's bed or shores between high and low water-mark; that they have, notwithstanding, claimed to be seized of the freehold of the bed and soil of the river, in right of their conservancy and exercised ownership of it, by granting licenses to W. Cubitt, builder, Sir T. Turton, and to C. Park, to embank the strand and soil of the river at the Isle of Dogs, Rotherhithe, and at Battersea, for a consideration in money, whereby nuisance would be created, impeding the free current and navigation of the river, where in times past it has been wont to flow, against right and to the injury of the lieges and the prejudice of the Crown's title and prerogative; that remonstrances have been made on the subject in vain by the officers of the Crown denying any grant by the Crown of the property in the soil or the banks of the river; that the corporation ought to discover their title, if any exist; that the charter of Henry VI. to the City of London, nor any other charter, grants no such right, nor if the former did so grant, is it any longer in force, having been |