As regards the bombardment itself, it may be said that the Egyptian batteries were served steadily and rapidly; and their aim was good. The officers appear to have set a good example to their men, appearing often upon the parapet, to watch the effect of their shot. All the batteries facing the sea were destroyed by the heavy guns opposed to them, and their guns dismounted. An explosion of a magazine, in one fort, is said to have killed all of the garrison. The faces of the batteries were pulverized, and large holes were made in the masonry of the lighthouse, and the large stone fort adjoining was reduced to ruin, and all its guns dismounted. The loss of life in the garrisons of these forts must have been frightful. The harem palace was damaged extensively by shell and by fire. The Arab quarter behind Fort Pharos caught all the shell which missed the batteries; and here all was chaos and destruction. Of the English ships, the Penelope was struck five times, and had eight men wounded, and one gun disabled. The Invincible was struck many times, and six shots penetrated. She had six wounded, and some spars shot away. The Monarch, which kept under way, was not hit. The Superb had her funnel injured, and plates damaged. The Alexandra suffered slight damage in her hull. The Sultan had her main-mast and funnel shot through, and her hull pierced several times in the unarmored part. Two of the 18-ton guns of the Alexandra were disabled by shot, which passed in at the port-holes. [Illustration: THE ALEXANDRA. 1877. (Ironclad, English Navy. Her appearance after being launched.)] THE WAR BETWEEN CHINA AND JAPAN. THE OPENING OF JAPAN TO FOREIGN NATIONS. We may well be proud of the fact that our country was the first to open the empire of Japan to the free intercourse which, in common with the rest of the world, we now enjoy with that formerly mysterious country. In former years the Dutch, Portuguese, English, and others had a limited intercourse with the Japanese, but were cut off from that, and, with the exception of the Dutch, entirely expelled from the country two centuries and a half ago. The Dutch alone, of all Christian nations, were allowed to remain for the purposes of traffic, “and they purchased the privilege at the price of national humiliation and personal imprisonment, for which all the profits of gainful barter offer but an inadequate compensation.”