this plan had been most satisfactorily proved, and the value of some of its improvements established. The next experiments were made upon a target invented by Mr. Roberts. This was the very reverse in principle from Mr. Fairbairn's, inasmuch as the thickness of the iron plates was diminished while the timber backing was increased. Mr. Fairbairn's showed how shot-proof frigates might with advantage be made of iron only, while Mr. Roberts' was designed to prove that wooden ships could be as easily rendered shot-proof as if especially built for the purpose. The back of this target was formed of wrought iron three-eighths of an inch thick. To this were fastened iron T plates, which on a frigate would run along the vessel's side fore and aft. Between these were fitted oak beams nine inches square, which being all tight caulked, hold the plates firmly in their position, so as to prevent lateral bend, and enable them to resist the maximum pressure due to their strength. Over this again comes another layer of beams and T plates, placed vertically, fitted in the same way and bolted firmly in to the ship's side. Over all this come the armor plates. Each of these latter are three inches thick and two feet wide, and made in an angular form, something like a wide-shaped letter V. All the joints are planed so as to insure accuracy of fit, and thus when a ship's side was covered with these plates, the alternate angular projections and recesses would resemble in shape, on a small scale, the ordinary ridge and furrow roofing used in glass buildings. Where the longitudinal joints occur a recess is cut in the plates, into which is fitted an iron rib six inches wide and four and onehalf deep, the outside face of the rib being also angular. These joint ribs are fastened through with one and one-half inch bolts, while the V shaped armor plates are secured by nine-inch bolts, eighteen inches apart. Each armor plate rises from the side of the ship to an angle, of about one foot in height the face of each angle being also a foot in depth. On this system Mr. Roberts contends a ship may be built of the same strength, costing only one-fifth of the money required for a ship constructed wholly of iron, and being only one-third of the latter's weight. The target experimented on at Shoeburyness was built entirely on the prin 1 ciple we have here mentioned, and was on the whole an exceedingly fine piece of workmanship. Mr. Roberts and Mr. Burn, C.E. (who is associated with Mr. Roberts in his invention), had, however, committed the serious fault of having their target made too small. It was only six feet by four, and consequently, as all the shots were aimed low, they struck almost on the same spots, which wanted the surrounding support a larger target would have naturally afforded. So far the test of strength was taken at a disadvantage to the invention. The first shot fired at it with a 1lb flat-headed steel ball to test the iron struck upon the angular face of one of the armor plates. Yet, in spite of this, it apparently made as deep a dent as a similar projectile had made in the flat upright plates of Mr. Fairbairn's target. Two 40lb shells, filled with sand, were then fired from an Armstrong at one hundred yards, but did no perceptible damage. A flat-headed fortypounder which was next fired struck one of the rib joint pieces we have spoken of between the angles, and broke it. It, however, still remained firm in its place, and a one hundred-pounder Armstrong shell, at two hundred yards, did no apparent damage. Not so, however, with a solid shot at the same range, which came full upon the edge of the angle of the centre plate, inflicting a deep dent, and slightly fracturing through the plate itself. The next a solid sixty-eight pounder, hit full upon the same joint rib which had been struck and broken before with a tremendous blow. It split the rib joint at its outer rivet hole, breaking off the end of it entirely. Still, however, the target was quite firm apparently. The next sixty-eight pounder fired struck full upon the extreme lower edge of the mark with such force as to shatter the wooden frame which supported it, and turn the target completely over on its face. On Wednesday the experiments were resumed, and the general result has shown that the five-inch iron plates of Mr. Fairbairn's target, fastened to a three-fourth inch skin, were perfectly able, as far as the plates were concerned, to withstand for a very long time what was, in fact, a concentrated fire from the heaviest and most powerful ordnance in the world. It also showed that the thinner plates of three inches, rolled into an angulated form, and presenting at all points eight pounder. But for this fault (which we presume Mr. Roberts will devise some expedient for remedying), and but for the small size of his target, it would doubtless have held out much longer than even it did. The weak point common to both targets, and to every other description of iron armor plate that has ever been devised, is the mode of fastening, either to the target or the ship's side. Every bolt hole in a plate is a source of weakness, as from them all fractures take their rise. The expedients which have been an inclined face to the blow of the shot, were equally well able to withstand a missile that under other circumstances would fracture a four and one-half inch plate, and this was the object the inventor wished to demonstrate. The backing of the target, even after all the pounding it received, was still perfect, though only eighteen inches thick, and had this been the hull of a ship, it would apparently, even if submerged, have remained quite watertight. The ribs which formed the backing to the skin inside the plates of Mr. Fairbairn's target were, per-devised to remedy this, by having tapped haps, a little too weak for the enormous resistance they were expected to exert. This, however, is a very minor fault, and one which it was only possible to ascertain from actual practice. It will be very easy to strengthen the next one constructed on this principle. The weak point in Mr. Roberts' target was the rib joint. This, though a piece of the best wrought iron, six inches by four, was never strong enough to resist the blow of a one hundred or even a sixty- | taken place there. screws at the back of the plate, are perhaps better for preventing fractures; but they are certainly not better adapted for what is the ultimate object of all these fastenings; viz., securing the plate to the ship's side. This is the real point to which engineers should now direct their attention. On the whole, however, the experiments at Shoeburyness against these iron targets were regarded as about the most satisfactory which have yet JOHN KNOX'S DEATH-BED.-Step into this | valley, and their swords struck fire in the shadow room where the greatest Scotsman lies dying, and see an example more striking, warning, alarming still. From the iron grasp of kings and princes Knox had wrung the rights of Scotland. Ready to contend even unto death, he had bearded proud nobles and prouder churchmen; he had stood under the fire of battle; he had been chained to the galley's oar: he had occupied the pulpit with a carbine levelled at his fearless head; and to plant God's truth, and that tree of civil and religious liberty which has struck its roots so deep in our soil, and under whose shadow we are this day sitting, he had fought many a hard battle; but his hardest was fought in the solitude of the night, and amid the quietness of a dying chamber. One morning his friends enter his apartment. They find him faint and pallid, wearing the look of one who had passed a troubled night. So he had; he had been fighting, not sleeping; wrestling, not resting; and it required all God's grace to bring him off conqueror. Till daybreak Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Covenant; and that long night Knox had passed wrestling with the prince of darkness. Like Bunyan's pilgrim, he met Apollyon in the of death. The lion is said to be boldest in the storm. His roar is never so loud as in the pauses of the thunder; and when the lightning flashes, brightest are the flashes of his cruel eye; and so he who, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour, often seizes the hour of nature's distress to assault us with his fiercest temptations. Satan tempted Job when he was bowed down with grief. Satan tempted Jesus when he was faint with hunger. Satan tempted Peter when he was weary with watching, and heart-broken with sorrow: reserving, perhaps, his grand assault on us for times that offer him a great advantage, it was when Knox was worn out, left alone, his head laid low on a dying pillow, that Satan, like a roaring lion, leaped upon his bed. Into the room the enemy had come; he stands by his bed; he reminds him that he had been a standard-bearer of the truth-a reformer—a bold confessor—a distinguished sufferer-the very foremost man of his time and country; he attempts to persuade him that surely such rare merits deserve the crown. The Christian conquered-but hard put to it— only conquered through him that loved him.Dr. Guthrie's "Gospel in Ezekiel." THE SWEET LITTLE MAN. DEDICATED TO THE STAY-AT-HOME RANGERS. Now, while our soldiers are fighting our battles, All the brave boys under canvas are sleeping, What are you waiting for, sweet little man? You with the terrible warlike moustaches, Fit for a colonel or chief of a clan, You with the waist made for sword-belts and sashes, Where are your shoulder-straps, sweet little man ? Bring him the buttonless garment of woman! mon, That is the corps for the sweet little man! Give him for escort a file of young misses, Each of them armed with a deadly rattan ; They shall defend him from laughter and hisses, Aimed by low boys at the sweet little man. All the fair maidens about him shall cluster, Pluck the white feathers from bonnet and fan, Make him a plume like a turkey-wing duster,— That is the crest for the sweet little man! O, but the Apron-string Guards are the fellows! Drilling each day since our troubles began,66 Shoulder "Handle your walking-sticks!" umbrellas!" That is the style for the sweet little man. Have we a nation to save? In the first place Saving ourselves is the sensible plan,Surely, the spot where there's shooting 's the worst place Where I can stand, says the sweet little man. Catch me confiding my person with strangers! Think how the cowardly Bull-Runners ran! In the brigade of the Stay-at-home Rangers Marches my corps, says the sweet little man. Such was the stuff of the Malakoff-takers, Such were the soldiers that scaled the Redan; Truculent housemaids and bloodthirsty Quakers Brave not the wrath of the sweet little man ! Yield him the sidewalk, ye nursery maidens ! Sauve qui peut! Bridget, and right about! Ann, Fierce as a shark in a school of menhadens, See him advancing, the sweet little man! When the red flails of the battle-field threshers Beat out the continent's wheat from its bran, While the wind scatters the chaffy seceshers, What will become of our sweet little man? When the brown soldiers come back from the BY PHOEBE CARY. "Man proposes, God disposes." MEN silenced on his faithful lips Words of resistless truth and power;Those words, re-echoing now, have made The gathering war-cry of the hour. They thought to darken down in blood Were lit in that expiring blaze. God came, and led him safely on, By ways they could not understand. They knew not, when from his old eyes They shut the world for evermore, The ladder by which angels come Rests firmly on the dungeon's floor. They deemed no vision bright could cheer POETRY.-Bunker Hill Day in Virginia, 98. Kentucky, 98. The Sabbath, 98. Latest War News, 116. Cast Down, but not Destroyed, 116. Prayer for the Absent, 116. Workman of God, 116. Thy Will be Done, 144. Gen. Scott and the Veteran, 144. SHORT ARTICLES.-Vindication of Du Chaillu, 115. Birth of Napoleon II., 115. Effect of Music on the Sick, 135. Substitute for Silver, 141. Bottom of the Ocean, 143. A Spring Opened by a Shell, 143. NEW BOOKS. Edwin of Deira. By Alexander Smith. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. CORRESPONDENCE. 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