The Sun. — London, England, 1861-02-28 00:00:00

THE NA VE The Duke of Somerset, as First Lord of the Admiralty, will hold levees at the Admiralty, Whitehall, at 2.30 on the following days :—the 7th, 14th, and 21st of March, and the 11th, 18th, and 25th of April. A telegram was received at Portsmouth yesterday announcing that Rear-Admiral Sir Baldwin Walker, Bart., would, with his family, arrive at that port this day (Thursday), and embark in the Sprightly, Master Commander George Allen, who will convey the admiral to pithead to hoist his flag on board the Narcissus, 51, screw, Capt. Risk. The Flying Fish, screw, arrived at Spithead yesterday fl„nt Dcvonport. The Isis, 44, sailing frigate, which has been fitted at Chatham for the pendant, and is in daily expectation of being commissioned, is ordered to have a complement of 100 men. She will take out, in the first instance, a supply of stores for the island of Ascension, after landing which she will proceed to Sierra Leone, where she will be employed as a coal depot for the supply of the steamers at tached to the West African squadron. The Isis has been fitted up in the most complete manner for the service on which she will be employed, the whole of the interior space devoted to the stowage of her coals being lined with thick sheet iron. The vessel has been thoroughly strengthened in order that she maybe in every way fitted for the particu lar service. She has also been newly coppered. Yesterday the shipwrights at Chatham dockyard commenced laying the bilgeway beneath the screw corvette Rattlesnake, 21, which is being rapidly brought forward for launching. The following line-of-battle and other screw steamers are now under the sheds at Chatham Dockyard, building, and in various stages of pro gress, viz., the Bulwark, 91, 600-horse power ; the Royal Oak, 91, 600-horse power ; the Belvidera, 51, 600-horse power ; the Rattlesnake, 21, 400- horse power; the Menai, 21, 400-horse power; the Reindeer, 17, 400-horse power; and the Myrmidon, 4, 250-horse power. Orders were received on Monday from the India office for pensioning off and discharging with gra tuities proportioned to length of service, a large portion of the non-commissioned staff of the East India depot at Warley Barracks. The following appointments were made yester day at the Admiralty :—Francis C. Alton, chief engineer to the Doris ; John F. Channon, first-class assist-engineer to the Indus, for charge of the ma chinery of the Pantaloon ; Wm. H. Grose, second class assist.-engineer to the Indus, for charge of the machinery of the Steady; Edward E. Williams, third-class assist.-engineer, to the Fisgard, as super- numerary ; Lawrence Morton, acting third-class assist.-engineer, to the Indus, as supernumerary; John Wm. Owen, acting third-class assist.-engi neer, to the Indus, for service in the Zephyr ; George Grandidier, paymaster, to the Icarus ; John Hill, paymaster, additional, to the Royal Adelaide ; and Valentine D. J. Rickcord, assist.-paymaster, to the Victory, as secretary's clerk. GAETA. From the Tunes' Correspondent. MOLA DI GAETA, FEB. 21. Curiosity to see the condition of the town and fortress of Gaeta, and the works of the besiegers and the besieged, induced me to leave Turin for this place immediately upon the intelligence of its capi tulation reaching the Sardinian capital. A consider able amount of valuable time was lost owing to the wretchedness of the post steamboat, the Solferino, a worthless, small craft, which took 48 hours to convey us from Genoa to Naples, and the slowness of the posting between Naples and Gaeta, which caused the loss of another day. I was no sooner on the spot, however, than I perceived I was not one minute too late ; for the want of communication between the fortress and its besieging army, the natural jealousy of any officer in command of com plicated military operations, and the danger of moving about grounds exposed to the artillery on either side, rendered the part of a mere spectator and reporter extremely difficult, not to say impos sible, during the continuance of actual hostilities, or even during the short armistices ; so that a full and circumstantial account of the siege could only be attempted after its close. Waiting for the offi cial statement of General Cialdini's Staff, it may, perhaps, be interesting to the readers of the Times if I venture upon such a sketch of it as a man by no means conversant with military matters can give of what falls immediately under a first cursory ob servation. I shall endeavour, in the first place, to give my impression of the importance of Gaeta as a place of war. Nature, which intended Italy as one of the strongest no less than of the loveliest and happiest lands under the sun, stretched along the length of its peninsular region that glorious backbone of the Apennines, from the main chain of which huge ribs or ridges stretch on either side to greater or smaller lengths, but in some instances as far as the Adriatic on one side and the Tyrrenian or Me-. diteranean Sea on the other, efficiently barring the way at no very distant intervals, and constituting so many strong lines of defence, sufficient to arrest the march of hostile armies from one province into another. Such a line, for instance, closes the entrance into the Roman terri tories between the Legations and the Marches at La Cattolica, where the frontier of the Rubicon was laid in ancient Roman times ; such another is made by the gigantic mass of the Apuan hills, or Carrara mountains, separating Liguria from Tuscany ; and such a third, finally, and to come more immediately to our subject, is the line of the Garigliano, the natural barrier of the kingdom of Naples on the Mediterranean side. Though no region in the world in point of fact, perhaps, has ever offered so feeble a resistance to foreign invasion at all times as this southern country, nowhere, perhaps, could a brave race under valiant leaders make a nobler or more successful stand against any odds than might be attempted on these excellent Neapolitan frontiers. From the central mass of the Apennines, the vast, bleak, precipitous ridges come down towering loftily on the valleys of the Volturno and the Garigliano, and press so close upon the sea here at Mola di Gaeta that, as all travellers know, between the mountain and the sea scarcely room enough is left for the highroad and the straggling line of buildings which stretch to the length of more than one mile. Mola di Gaeta is the real fortress on this side, and a handful of men, with no other stronghold bat those of natures own contrivance, ought to be able to repel the attacks of any army attempting to invade the kingdom on the side of Terracina. The frontier of the Tronto, on the Ad r i a ti c s id e, supplies several no less admirable lines of d e f ence; but supposing an enemy even to force his way i n t o Apulia, he would always have to cross the Apen nines, and could be met, on his descent, in the gorges between Isernia and Teen°, on a variety of battle-fields by the side of which the famed straits of Thermopylw would be mere child's play. In this instance, however, it was not on the Tronto or on the Garigliano that Naples was called upon to de fend herself. Garibaldi took the bull by the horns ; he accomplished a mere triumphal march from Reggio to the capital, along those Calabrian lines, at every step of which the mere show of resistance would have stopped, not merely Volunteer bands, but the best disciplined and determined troops ; he travelled through the Basilicata and the Princi pality of Salerno; posted across La Cava, another gorge of almost fabulou 3 strength, and drove the taint-hearted King, with at least 50,000 of his best, or, I should say, least worthless troops, to these lines of the Volturno and Garigliano. Garibaldi was checked at the Volturno, and met with an obstacle at Capua which put the metal of his Volunteers to a decisive test, Had the contest been suffered to continue between . him . and the Xing he had driven from his . capital, it would be difficult to hazard even a . conjecture as to the pro bable result; field . ut; but the Piedmontese came into the frontier th ey -- entered unresisted through the Tronto ApeaniT ; es the o y met only the puniest obstacles on the rona, and h r il rather through the defiles of Mace• relieved the e a a' detachment . under Della Rocca and brtiourcipbhaldians. from duty on the Vol turno, main %oa t the siege of Capna to a ready close, the J . e i f . the army marched from the Volturno to th e G arigliano, when a corps of 6,000 or 7,000 men, uncideti•etr,:aennez, stormed the narrow pass of Mola di hEirdly defended by the 35,000 Bourbon troops,' who fell back in disorder, and huddled together stronghold of Gaeta. round and into their last Although Gaeta is only four miles of from M o l a , f a or chain ma and the latter is the last link to moun tain fastnesses which stretch up the Apennines, the town itself and fortressny miles to of Gaeta is no part of the natural stronghold, nor can itbe said to be in any manner the key to this magnifi cent position. It is, and was meant for, mere l y a place of refuge, From Mola the bay sweeps grace fully round, with the hills gradually declining to the sea, and at the head of the bay, separated from the last skirts of the hills by a narrow sandy isthmus, rises the peninsula formed by the Monte d'Orlando, surmounted by the tower of the same name, at the foot of which, on a smaller and lower peninsula or headland, lies the town. The mount and the town constitute the whole stronghold, which has no outworks beyond the isthm The Neapolitans, who had made so poo , a defence of Mola on the first onset, ashamed, per aps, of the manner in which they had yielded their ground before such disproportionate forces, venturneri on an attack of the Piedmontese, but were repulse i without diffi culty; they crossed the isthmus for the last time, and allowed their adversaries to take possession of the whole range of the hills facing the fortress, as well as of the Borgo, or suburb which, beginning almost immediately across the isthmus at little more than 50 or 60 metres from the town gate, stretches for more than a mile along the sea lining the bay, and also of an old Roman monument, called the Torre Adratina, somewhat in the shape of Castel St. Angelo and Cecilia Metella, a round and mouldy mass, not unlike a Dutch cheese, but still whole and solid, not to be battered by cannon. These positions, the existence of which ought to have been considered incompatible with the safety of the place, as they interfered with the free play of its artil lery, were taken by the Piedmontese at the very beginning of the siege, and never relinquished. The Bersaglieri and other light troops were stationed in the houses all along the Borgo, the very foremost of which, although greatly damaged, are still stand ing, with those very doors and windows which served as loopholes for the besiegers to a great ex tent unscathed. The siege, therefore, was from the earliest period reduced to a kind of duel between the two parties merely separated by the isthmus — the besiegers, who held the Borgo and the whole range of the hills that command it, and the be sieged, whose domains were limited to the town and the Roland's Mount, at the base of which it lies. At the very outset, however, on the side of the Monte Orlando, the town, and all its bastions were lined with batteries armed with no less than 400 cannon ; while, on the other side, the ground occu pied by the besiegers was wild aid bleak, and almost entirely impervious. The Borgo was open, and its buildings of the slenderest and most wretched de scription. At the close of the siege the piedmontese had constructed no less than '49 miles of capital roads. They had reared batteries on three successive lines on the hills; they had unmasked other bat teries at different points along shore in the Borgo ; they had mounted at least 80 rifled cannon, and had advanced their works close on the border of the sandy isthmus. The fortress, on the other hand, its bastions and batteries had been to a great extent put hors de combat ; a great many of the houses in the town were a mass of ruins, and the capitulation only anticipated by a few days the fall of the place, which would infallibly have been taken by storm, and entered through the breach. The headquarters of General Cialdini were per manently situate here at Mola di Gaeta, a distance of about 5,000 metres across the bay to Gaeta, out of range altogether of the guns of the fortress, though two of the powerful Cavalli cannon, reared at a few yards from the house where I am writing, sent their terrible projectiles into and even beyond the town. From Mola the first attempt to construct a battery was made at Monte Cristo, a hill on the right of the besiegers' line, about 190 metres above the sea level, and consequently overtopping by about 2.3 metres the summit of the Torre d'Or lando, the culminating point within the beleaguered stronghold. The battery on Monte Cristo did not seem very efficient, and more deliberate and high finished works were constructed on Monte Tortono, at a height of 148 metres—a height placed at great advantage over the highest of the town batteries, as the Batteria Regina, half way up the Monte d'Orlando, is only 80 metres high. Subsequently the Piedmontese reared a second very long line on Monte Lombone, 109 metres, and Cappuccini, 67 metres, by which they found themselves more on a level with their adversaries in the same measure as they neared them. The first parallel on Monte Tortono was placed at about 3,500 metres from the fortress. The Cappuccini-hill was hardly at half the distance. A third line was begun and partly achieved almost on the border of the isthmus, be ginning at the Roman round building called Torre Atratina, 39 metres, and descending to Arena Rossa, 24 metres, almost on a level with the sand. Some of the Cavalli guns, each of which requires at least twenty-four hours to place it in position, only opened their fire on the last day of the struggle, and the eve of the capitulation. Besides these three lines of batteries on the hills, the besiegers had laid batteries along the shore in the Borgo, at Albano, Abzano, and San Martino. It is needless to observe that if the fortress of Gaeta, which cost King Ferdinand so much money and care, had been built according to the common rules and usages of war, clearing the ground before it, so far as the range f its cannon extended, the Piedmontese could not so easily have lodged them selves in the Borgo, the Torre Atratina, and the other points on the hills, where, behind walls and buildings, and sheds of every description, they were able to work entirely unseen, and perfectly undis turbed. It was also extremely fortunate for the Piedmontese that, notwithstanding the numbers of the besieged, they never, during so long a time, ven tured on any sally, so that they never had any knowledge of their adversaries' movements and operations, and fired at random here and there with out any definite aim or object, in no instance im peding or even retarding those works which were in the end to consummate their ruin. Some of the batteries in the Borgo were constructed inside houses which were exposed to the point blank fire of the place at an insignificant distance ; yet the whole work proceeded undisturbed behind the flimsy wall which masked them, and the first hint the Bourbon troops had of it was in the shape of the heavy projectiles which shattered their marine bat teries. It has been said, and not perhaps unreasonably, that the Neapolitan gunners fired well; they could, it seems, aim correctly, and fire away with spirit, but there was no method or plan in their cannon ade ; they were at a loss to tell on what point their efforts could lead to the best, or indeed to any re sults ; their fire was vague and desultory; it was inefficient even to leven with the ground or seri ously to injury any of the houses in the Borgo, and I could see but few traces of their missiles among the batteries on the hills, hardly any on the high and distant Monte Tortono, and but little of any consequence even on the heavier and more invul nerable Monte dei Cappuccini. There is no doubt that Gaeta laboured in this contest under the great disadvantage of inferior weapons; the Piedmontese opposed by land only 150 cannon and mortars to the 400 guns which lined the batteries of the fortress, but 80 of the besiegers' guns, as I said, were rifled ; and the Neapolitans, whatever may have been said to the contrary, had hardly any of these modern contri vances within the place, and the few rifled pieces they attempted to cast, or those they received as presents from their friends, were hardly ready in time and availed them but little. The Piedmon tese were will armed and used their weapons to good purpose; but men well versed in the subject speak rather disparagingly of the Cavalli guns; their fire is, indeed. tremendous, but tle amount of iron plates by which they are blindes, or made invul nerable, has been found unwieldy, difficult to near in sight of and within reach of the enemy's fire (as it takes at least 24 hours to mount one piece), per fectly useless otherwise, and by no means safe against the casualties of heavy projectiles falling upon them. Several men serving one of those pieces were killed by the fragments of a shell exploding against the plate and forcing its way through the embrasure, All difference in the respective means of attack and defence wa s , however, of little importance if we mind the tem p side. c antsbear on in A e f r t e a r nad rid i e r i ot ofthreef th e o o r m fboan tr hours along the works of the besiegers I must say that I have been perfectly amazed at the activity and energy displayed by trio troops in so short a time and with comparatively such limited means. The besieging army at no time exceeded the num ber of about 15,000 men, and not more than one third of the number could be turned out daily in fatigue parties. With these means not only did they make more than 20 English miles of most ex cellent roads in a hilly, rocky country, and construct three long lines of batteries, earthworks, trenches, camps and magazines, and all contrivances belong. ing to such enterprises, but they found leisure to house themselves in neat and tasteful mud or stone huts, with fenced gardens, painted and glazed walls, quaint picturesque gables, and every device by which they could make themselves at home in the camp. I myself am no judge whatever of military matters, but I believe what I am told, that the Italian Engineers are more precise and particular as to the finish and solidity of their works than either the French or any other military nation. Indeed, it would seem that this fastidiousness is carried rather too far; that it wastes precious time, and gives the works rather an over-tidy, finnikin ap pearance. The result is, however, highly pleasing, and must prove most satisfactory in the long run; and I must say that all I saw here struck me as the ne plus ultra of military taste, elegance, and prac tical ingenuity. Those of your English connoisseurs who visited the Sardinian camp in the Crimea were delighted with the care bestowed by the common soldiers on their quarters, so as to procure, even to so tempo rary a dwelling as a mud cabin, all the comforts and even luxuries that circumstances would allow. The fact is these men are trained to look upon con stant employment as the main duty and the only resource of their callin g • and when at rest from their roa d or trench w ork they contrive to rid themselves of the ennui of their long day by im proving and embellishing their situation. The Italian troops, like the French, are drawn by con scription, recruited among the ranks of agricul turista TIM - SUN, LONDON, and useful artisans of every description. The conse quence is that they are skilful at every trade, and are naturally laborious and painstaking, exhibiting much cleverness, as well as good will, patience, and cheerfulness under the most unremitting toil. Truly, the campaigns of the two last years have brought into light all the best qualities of the Ita lian army, and it is impossible to deny that, with a steady discipline and a proper training the people of this country may be made to feel as much at home in a campaign as their forefathers were in the palmiest days of the old Roman Legions. Of course they have as yet met with no reverse, and I find them in the first flush of recent success. Still it is impossible to imagine a look of greater cheerfulness, good nature, good companionship, mutual trust and sympathy, between the men, more unconstrained, cordial deference towards the officers—a more per fect accord among the members of so numerous anti happy a family. From my own observation, and what I hear from all testimonies, there is no doubt but that the stronger Piedmontese nature has fully pervaded and absorbed all the other national ele ments in the army, and the newly annexed proviucs supply as good, firm, and efficient soldiers as the lon g drilled, ancient, hereditary States of the House of Savoy. This is perfectly true of the fine Lombard grenadier regiments, and it equally applies to the gentler Tuscans, whose high intelligence and keen sense of honour more than make up for any deficiency of native physical strength and hardi hood. Nay, the success of the men who have been busy at the organisation of the national armament has been so full and general, that they have no ap prehension of their inability to mould according to their own views the raw material which they intend to draw out of these later Southern acquisitions ; although the fragments of the Royal Bourbon army certainly give little hope of being controvertible to any good use. I must say that as I rode yesterday across the vast parks of artillery, or skirted the gay camps of Beesaglieri and troops of the line, remind ing one of the liveliest descriptions we had of the Crimean quarters, which they resemble even in the look and nature of the soil, I fell in with groups of such healthy, merry men, as gave me the idea that the work they have been engaged in for the last four winter months has proved more beneficial to them than a whole year of the easiest and healthiest garrison life. The commissariat seems to have been faultless throughout, and the hospitals and ambulance, which are also admirably managed, have had almost an idle time of it, I cannot bring myself to close this letter, reserv ing to myself a description of the state of the van quished town after a repetition of my first hurried visit of yesterday without dispelling from other people's minds some erroneous notions which I had brought with me from Turin. They were univer sally current there at the time of my departure, and may perhaps still prevail in the minds of some of those readers who had no opportunity to rectify them by personal experience. In the first place, there is no doubt that the defenders of Gaeta, at the time of its capitulation, were certainly not short of 11,000 men; and it is far from true, as it had been asserted, that all the native Neapolitans had fallen from their allegiance to their King, and that the men who shared his fortunes to the last were Swiss, Bavarians, and other foreign hirelings. The number of foreign troops in Gaeta was not, I am positively assured, above 350. Nor is it true that, in the lack of artillerymen, the batteries of the place had in many instances to be served by riflemen and other light troops, chiefly Swiss, who, unused to handle artillery, proved to be bat clumsy and inefficient gunners. The light troops aided in the conveyance of ammunition, but well-trained artillerymen, in more than suffi cient numbers, had the management of their pieces to the last moment. I was curious, as a matter of course, to ascertain what foundation there was in the reports which re presented King Francis 11. as lavish of his own life, performing prodigies of valour at the head of the defenders of the place, and animating the drooping spirits of his soldiers by the example of right Royal intrepidity and devotion. The deserters who came over to Mola di Gaeta, by seven or eight on an average daily, if pressed upon this point, used to say that the King "certainly used to show himself," adding, however, in the same breath, "of course when there was no firing," The evidence from that quarter is of little worth, however unanimous, but yesterday I spoke myself with an Artillery ser geant who had in his keeping the casemate which was the last abode of the Bourbon in his domains, and who, having always been in close contact with the Royal family, had contracted and exhibited warm, enthusiastic feelings in their behalf; and he assured me in an exulting tone that " whenever a cannon was fired the King's brother instantly came out of shelter and ran to the most exposed places ;" "the King also," the fellow added, in a more sub dued voice, " sometimes showed himself;" as to the Queen, " Die Heldin von Gaeta," the theme of Ger man song, after a few days' parade, was very soon persuaded to run into no unprofitable danger. There is, in short, as it strikes me, sufficient evidence that the King and his family were not by any means the most arrant cravens within the fortress, though there is perhaps a long distance between the gal lantry of the last Neapolitan Bourbon and the desperate resolution not to survive his defeat which signalised the fall of the last Palteologus. Another far more important point I was anxious to settle to my own satisfaction, and this was the amount of hindrance raised against the success of the Piedmontese by the presence of the French fleet, and by other agencies interfering in the name and by the authority of that potentate who set up and vindicated the inviolability of the non-interven tion principle. Well, the fact is, if I can rely on the testimony of unbiassed witnesses, that, had the Sardinian fleet been allowed to proclaim and enforce the blockade of the place at the moment that the troops of Sonnaz, victorious at Mole di Gaeta, in vested the place by land, the King and the garri son would have been at their enemy's discretion, almost without delay. Certainly, while the French fleet hindered all maritime operations, General Cialdini, and his chief of the Staff, Menabrea, had leisure to carry into execution those admirable earthworks which I can never eulogise in suffi ciently high terms, and which would have deter mined the fall of the stronghold, even without any co-operation from the squadron under Persatio ; but all the help in arms, ammunition, able officers, and volunteer partisans, which came to uphold the sinking fortunes of the King, the power he had to sift and choose his most efficient combatants, to re move the disaffected, the sick and wounded, and to clear the town of the incumbrance of all useless, or worse than useless, inhabitants—all this was due to the good offices of the French Emperor, and his anxiety to honour "a great misfortune nobly borne." Thanks to the presence of the French fleet, and to the freedom of the sea, the place was till lately sup plied with everything it could desire, and had only to suffer from its own vile mismanagement of the hospitals, and the little attention it paid to the com fort and health of its defenders. The French, it must be added, for truth's sake, and contrary to what had been generally asserted, limited them selves to a neutral and perfectly fair and dignified attitude. But the Spaniards, under cover of their mighty French allies, did duty as very active and meddlesome spies; they ran their man-of-war boats along shore, gathered such information as they could, and pointed out to the Neapolitan Generals the spots where their artillery could be fired with the most deadly effect. The only fresh water spring at which the Sardinian vessels could fill their casks was, thanks to the Spaniards' officious vigilance, made the butt of the most savage attacks from the fortress's fire. It was, no doubt, by such means as these that the siege of Gaeta was made to drag to its weary length, and entailed upon Southern Italy all that series of disorder, brigandage, and civil war which the capitulation of the 14th, it is to be hoped, will soon bring to a close. The greatest damage to the besieged fortress was inflicted by the successive bursting of four of its own powder magazines. Under the ruins caused by these disasters it is supposed that no less than 400 victims still lie buried. The stench of dead bodies as you walk over all that tremendous havoc is in sufferable, nor are the effluvia from the relics of mortality the most abominable of smells which make battered Gaeta a very pest-house to those who venture into it. The habits of those Bourbon soldiers, as they lived in their casemates, were not those of civilised or even of savage human beings. There remains in my mind no doubt whatever that the explosion of those powder magazines was simply owing to the deadly effect with which the Piedmontese projectiles fell among them : or it may be to accidents arising from carelessness, but scarcely from treachery among the defenders, Nothing in the world can equal the accuracy of aim or the violence of the effect of the rifled pieces which for so many days thundered against the place. I have hitherto only visited the town and sea bat teries, besides the outward bastions, through which a breach was so nearly opened, and I can bear witness that there is scarcely an embrasure that has not been hit, hardly a cannon that has not been either wholly dismounted or at least shaken out of its line by the iron hail that has been pelting against the most exposed lines. Had even walls and bul warks had the power to stand the storm any longer the Neapolitan gunners must have been more than heroes to stand to their pieces; but there is ample evidence that the uncovered batteries were forsaken for some time, and even the casemates were visibly not built to stand the brunt of the war engines modern contrivance has brought to bear against them. I have seen dire splits and rents and gaps in the vaults ; the masonry even of the casemates seemed to be not of the best, that of the upper bat teries decidedly inferior. After all, it is difficult to see in what manner THITREiDAYI EVENING, King Ferdinand 11. could be said to have spent so I much money in the improvement of his darling stronghold of Gaels. He built, it is true, a large, staring Gothic church on the summit of the town, which escaped almost unscathed from the severe ordeal of the siege; but that pious monarch reckoned too much on the protection of the holy building, if he thought it would cover the multitude of his ini quities, and screen him or his dynasty from the retribution which outraged humanity prepared to wreak upon them. General Cialdini and his officers are preparing for a general move to reduce the citadel of Messina, where old General Fergola, at the head of 4,000 men of the garrison, refuses to surrender, steady in his purpose not to resign the command of the place except into the hands or by an express order of the King, by whom he was trusted with it. King Francis wrote to Pergola, it is said, but enjoining further resistance. The strength of the citadel, however, commanded as it is by the forts on the hills, lies entirely in the power it has of laying the town of Messina in ashes. It is well known that it was by the terror with which he inspired the in habitants that Fergola has succeeded hitherto not only in warding off an attack, but in supplying himself with provisions by the " voluntary' con tributions of the city. THE YELVERTON MARRIAGE CASE. COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, DUBLIN, FEB. 26. THELWALL V. YELVERTON-FIFTH DAY. As on the previous days of the hearing of this most interesting and important case the excitement that prevailed and the anxiety to obtain admission to the court were intense. Long before the open ing of the court a considerable number of ladies and gentlemen were admitted by the private entrance to the gallery, and when the doors were thrown open a tremendous rush ensued, and the court in every part, and the approaches thereto, became speedily crowded, and not so much as standing room could be procured within earshot of the bench and bar. At half-past ten o'clock the jury having been called and answered to their names, and the Chief Justice having taken his seat on the bench, The Rev. Dr. O'Connell, P.P., Irishtown, was sworn and examined by Mr. Whiteside—l was in court yesterday when the Rev. Mr. Mooney was examined, and the marriage stated by him was a perfectly valid marriage according to the rites of the Church of Rome. Mr. Sergeant Armstrong objected to the evidence. Mr. Waldron Borroughs, J.P., examined by Mr. Whiteside—l know the Rev. Mr. Mooney. I belong to his congregation, but not particularly to his Church. I know the church at Rostrevor. I have had a conversation with the Rev. Mr. Mooney about this marriage. This was at his own house at dinner, a little preceding dinner-time, in March, 1859. I began to banter the Rev. Mr. Mooney as to the scrape he had got into about this marriage. He intimated to me, in a very signifi cant manner, that he had made them man and wife. He said he had incurred no ecclesiastical censure. To take a rise out of him, and at his particular in stance, I told him what was the law on the subject of marrying a Protestant and a Catholic. He feared that he would be transported. (Laughter.) H. H. Lancaster, Esq.—l am a member of the bar of Scotland ; have studied the law of Scotland as to marriage ; consent only is necessary ; no form is required; no ceremony; no public notice; no cohabitation; not even witnesses; perfect matri monial consent may be interchanged without the presence of any third party. Is there any particular way by the law of Scot land by which this may be proved ?—No ; it may be proved by subsequent acknowledgments, written or verbal, or by oath ; or, in fact, by any evidence that can prove the fact. If a man consents to take a woman for his wife, and that woman consents to take a man for her husband, and that is proved, is that a marriage by the law of Scotland ?—Yes ; cohabitation is not required to strengthen the consent of marriage. Is a subsequent acknowledgment of a prior con sent in Scotland an acknowledgment of the mar• riage ?—Yes, unquestionably. A course of letters or conduct avowing the relationship of husband and wife would be a presumptior, that the consent must have passed between the parties. Cross-examined by Dr. Ball—There are three modes of constituting an irregular marriage in Scotland—first; habit and repute; secondly, pro mise followed by copula ; third, acknowledgment, per verbide presenti ; consent, without a third party being present, constitutes a marriage. In reply to Dr. Ball, the witness said that he had been brought in as counsel in the case of Mrs. Yel verton in Scotland, to take the place of a learned brother who had fallen ill. He had been called to the bar about three years, Sergeant Sullivan submitted some documentary evidence in reference to Mr. Yelverton's passage on board the Great Briton steamer from Malta to Southampton, from the 24th of March to the sth of April, 1855. Sergeant Sullivan here read a translation of Father Mooney's certificate of marriage, in the chapel of Kilbroney, in the diocese of Dromore, in 1857. He also read a letter from Rev. Bernard Mooney enclosing Mrs. Yelverton's certificate of marriage, in which be congratulated her on the prospect of the birth of a child. The following is the Rev. Mr. Mooney's letter : " Rostrevor, Jan. 15, 1858. " Dear Madame,—l had great pleasure in receiv ing your long-expected letter, communicating the good news of the expected arrival of a young stranger. You exactly state ;the truth when you say I took great interest in your spiritual welfare, and I assure you I shall always do so when any opportunity may occur. I feel very great pleasure in forwarding to you the enclosed certificate of your marriage. I need not assure you that your secret is quite safe in my hands.—Faithfully yours in Jesus Christ, " BERNARD MOONEY." The case for the plaintiff having closed, Mr. Brewster, Q.C., rose to address the court and jury for the defendant. After some prefatory observations, the learned gentleman contended that the case was not as between Mr. Thelwall and Mr. Yelverton, but between Mrs. and Mr. Yelverton. Mr. Thelwall was the champion of Mrs. Yelverton, who was admitted as a witness to sustain a case in which she could not be either the plaintiff or witness in a case against her husband. He admitted that Mrs. Yelverton was a woman of great talent, perhaps the most highly gifted woman he had ever seen. These talents were highly cultivated, whether in the best schools or not he could not say, for her success would be the utter ruin of her husband, with whom she would fall as irreparably ruined. He was pre pared to prove that Major Yelverton was not the wooer in the intimacy; but that, on the contrary, he had done all in his power to avoid her. She was a woman of the strongest determination that could be conceived. He commented upon the letters of Mrs. Yelverton, and upon the description she gave of her father. He said this was enough to make one's blood curdle. That she wrote that letter at such a time was extraordinary; and he did not think any man could think that the writer of it was the wife of Major Yelverton. He was endea vouring to put before them the character of those parties. Mr. Brewster read some passages from Mrs. Yelverton's letters, and commented upon the descriptions which he said Mrs. Yelverton had given of herself. In considering the case between the parties, they should remember the views of a woman in society. This lady wrote to Major Yelverton, saying that she would go to Albania with him, and watch the sun rise for him, and give him part of her " pladdie," if he were as good as she was. All that occurred before ever a word about the marriage had been uttered by Major Yelverton. He did not deny to the fair sex the privilege of becoming the wooers if they thought fit. That alight be for good or ill, but ho thought that in this country they should stick to the old cus tom, and that the gentleman should follow the lady, and not the lady the gentleman. Major Yelverton was an officer in the army ; he could not say whether he was good-looking, but that he had some attractions there could be no doubt from the fact of his having captivated a lady like Mrs. Yel• verton. He did not deny that he used her badly, but that was no reason why she should be his wife. If she had come here in a breach of promise of mar riage case, it would be their duty to consider how far he had used her well or ill. As to the evidence of Mr. Lancaster, he did not think he had stated correctly the law of Scotland. The learned coun sel here proceeded to comment upon the facts of the case, commencing with the meeting of-Major and Mrs. Yelverton on board the steamer when starting from Boulogne, their arrival in London, the Major getting a cab, and calling upon the lady in London. Counsel said he was instructed to say the lady was mistaken in her description of her arrival in Lon• don, and that Major Yelverton got into the cab with her, drove to a house which he thought was her lodgings, and there dressed himself. He did not mean to convey to the jury that any impro priety whatever took place between them on that occasion. He contended that the lady had been writing to Major Yelverton to go to Naples to see her, and that he always found it convenient to let the steamer go without him. He could not believe that any man who had offered to take a woman to be his wife could write a line to lower her in her own estimation, or pollute her mind. Ile con ' tended that there was not a line in Mrs. Yel verton's letters to show that she intended mar riage; and he was instructed to stale that it was absolutely and entirely untrue that the word marriage was ever uttered between them at Galata. He read a letter from page 48 of FEBRUARY 28, 1881. the printed book, which referred to scandalous I stories about the lady's fair fam e , an d s h owe d th a t she did not write to Yelverton as the man to whom she had been engaged to be married. He read a passage—" Oh, if my dear sister Sarah were here, she would get Ballemy to shoot any one who should breathe a word about my reputation ;"—and another, " Could you come to Smyrna, if I would go there for the winter ?" She wrote again complaining of his silence, and that brought out a reply which could not have been received by any lady without scorn and indignation, no matter, whether she had been offered marriage or not. He did not justify the conduct of Major Yelverton in this matter. Counsel read the letter in question, in which there were these words—" Touch me not ; if you do, you go back infected." The lady explained that she did not understand that language, except in a figurative sense. If Major Yelverton were to be married, would he not have said, " You are to wait for a time ; my family would be inexorable ; we must wait for a little time and then we will be married." The question they had to determine was, were they engaged to be married or not ? What was the use of the word " infection ?" The use of that word by Yelverton and other words referred to something that was not right. He was not quite sure that she did not intend to yield to the objects of Yelverton. She had the most perfect confidence in being able to effect marriage, though that did not at the time pass through Yelverton's mind. This was what prompted her to do many acts that she thought would end innocently. He did not for a moment attempt to justify Yelverton for his viola tion of the moral law. It was for the jury to say whether such letters could have been written by parties who contemplated marriage. The only letter, he said, in which the word " marriage' occurred, was that written by Mrs. Yelverton from Bordeaux, when she began to doubt her position. Mr. Sergeant Sullivan corrected the learned gen tleman, and said that this passsage occurred in the letter:—" The only sacrifice which I could not make for you was to keep the marriage secret." Mr. Brewster resumed—He commented upon the arrival of Mrs. Yelverton in the Crimea, and her residence in the house of Mrs. Straubenzie, oppo site the hut of Major Yelverton. The visit to the Crimea ended in a scene on board the steamer at Balaklava. She gave a distinct denial as to that occurrence, but a different account of that trans action would be gives. They agreed to live together, but the terms of their connexion was to be con sidered as an element in the case. He always understood that the most delicate reserve was pie• served between persons about to be married. The language used by Mrs. Yelverton in her letters was not the language she should have used to a person whom she was to admit through the gate of matrimony to be her partner for life. The learned gentleman read the following passage from Major to Mrs. Yelverton :—" I still cannot counsel you to wait for me if an opportunity offer you may wish to embrace, for I feel my self-command when we do meet, might annoy you, as my want of it when we last met." He (Mr. Brewster) would now come to the resi dence of this young lady in Edinburgh, and refer to the marriages one after the other. Mrs. Yelver ton followed the defendant to Scotland, and her case now was that Major Yelverton married her there by what was known as a Scotch mar riage; but the case he was about to bring forward in opposition to this was, that it was simply untrue —that in point of fact no form of marriage ever took place between them in Scotland, and that circumstances occurred then and there between them which had never before occurred. The case of the defendant as to this was proved by Mrs. Yel verton's letter from Hull, after her Edinburgh trip. It was plain she was not then his wife, that she knew she was not his wife, and that she doubted if he would ever make her his wife. The letter was not the letter of a wife to a husband. It was with regret that the defendant was obliged to make the case that this Scotch marriage was a pure inven tion. If it was not, why was not Miss M'Farlane, who it was said it was agreed was to be told of it, was not present ? Why should there be no witnesses when this young lady was in the next room ? The whole story was incredulous, and the letters proved its incredulity. Was a woman likely to ask her husband to burn her letters ? Yet this young woman, who alleged she was married, in her first letter after the alleged Scotch marriage, asked him to burn her letters. The truth was, she was not married, but she had a passion for the defen dant which overwhelmed her. He loved her and she loved him, but he could not marry ber, and therefore he avoided her attractive company; but at last she followed him to Edinburgh, where, un fortunately, circumstances occurred which did make her position a dreadful one. When this occurred she proposed to the defendant, who always refused to marry her, that he should consent to have a marriage by a Roman Catholic priest so lemnised, which would ease her conscience, although she knew a legal union could not be had between them on account of the difference of their creed. The case was one of the most extra ordinary ones which ever came into a court of jus tice. In many respects it was so. It differed from all other such cases in the world in this, that they had a lady coming forward to vindicate the character of the man who injured her. The Chief Justice—The impression on my mind of what she said on this subject was, that insinua tions were put forward of improprieties on her part by the defendant's counsel, that she did not believe Major Yelverton was capable of putting forward, as they were wholly untrue. A Juror—That is exactly the meaning of what she said. She stated that she did not believe the defendant had authorised certain questions to be put to her that reflected on her character, and that were unfounded. Mr. Brewster stated that he was no doubt mis taken in this matter, having been out of court when it took place, and would not further allude to it, but at once proceed to refer to the visit of the defendant and this lady to Malahide. It would be proved that they had but one sitting - room and one bedroom, and slept together; and that in Newry also they occupied but one bedroom. While in Newry Major Yelver ton proceeded to Rostrevor, and remained there for Bor 10 days. Part of the time he was in Dublin ; but when there they occupied the one bed. If Mrs. Yelverton's case were true this would be no impu tation upon her, but her veracity would turn upon it. She swore that no intercourse ever took place until after the Newry marriage. If the Scotch marriage had taken place at all, it was inconceiv able that the defendant would not have insisted on enjoying the rights of a husband. Major Yelverton most improperly consented to enter into an invalid marriage at the lady's request; and he (Mr. Brew ster) would admit that the Newry marriage would have been a valid one if the parties were both Roman Catholics, but being solemnised between a Protes tant and a Roman Catholic it was undoubtedly illegal, and illegal by statute. God forbid that he (Mr. Brewster) should attempt to justify the con duct of Major Yelverton. The real question was, was the defendant a professing Roman Catho lic for twelve months prior to the marriage ? This all depended on the credit to be given to Mrs. Yel verton's evidence. if he had proposed for her, as she said, would she not have inquired about his re ligion ? Every one knew theAvonmores were a Pro testant family, and that Barry Yelverton got his peerage, and became Chief Baron of the Exchequer at a time when none but a Protestant could be a judge of that court. The truth was the defendant was then, and always was, a Protestant, and it would be proved that he constantly attended the Established Church up to a few days before the Irish wedding. Mr. Brewster, in conclusion, said he had now brought this melancholy case to an end, as far as ho was concerned. The result of the con nection between Major Yelverton and this lady was what might have been expected. She was about to become a mother, and he deserted her and married another woman. If the case of the plaintiff was sustained the defendant would be ruined. For him, indeed, he (Mr. Brewster) felt but little ; but he did feel for the woman he had since made his wife, and for his children, the eldest of whom was the right heir of the Avonmore peerage, and would he bastardised if the plaintiff got a verdict. No Scotch marriage ever took place, and the Irish marria g e was illegal on account cf his creed ; and, under his lordships' direction, he had no doubt they would feelconstrained to find a verdict for the defendant. At half-past 5 o'clock the court adjourned till the following day. DUBLIN, WEDNESDAY. • The evidence for the defence was commenced this morning. Major Yelverton has been under examination all day. The case is expected to be concluded to-morrow. THE GOSSIP OF THE " HALL.”—Great anxiety is manifested by the crowds who congregate in the Hall to see Major Yelverton. He has been in the Hall off aril on during the past three days, but he 7as unrecognised, and was consequently not sub jected to the attentions of the curious. 'Major William Charles Yelverton is now in his 37th year, having been born in September, 1824. He is the eldest surviving son, being of the second mar riage, of the present Viscount Avonmore with Miss Cecilia O'Keefe, daughter of the late Charles O'Keefe, one of the Registrars of the Irish Court of Chancery. Major Yelverton is, therefore, the great grandson of the noted Barry Yelverton—the firet Viscount Avonmore. The lady wi th whom it is sta o ted Major Yelverton contracted his second mar riage is said to be a constant attendant at the trial. She was the widow of the eminent Professor Forbes, of the University of Edinburgh, by whom she was bequeathed, it is asserted, a very large fortune— £so,ooo. This is the talk of the " Hall," but we are not responsible for its accuracy, We record it as one of the many statements now being in exten sive circulation in connection with this cause celebre —Freeman's Journal. THE EMPE.ROR 01 AUSTRIA IN 7IIE COURT OF CHANCERY. THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA v. MESSRS. DAY AND LOUIS KOSSUTH.-SPURIOUS HUN GARIAN NOTES. Sir Hugh Cairns and Mr. Cotton moved, before Vice Chancellor Sir J. Stuart, for an injunction to restrain the defendants, Messrs. Day and Son, lithographers, from printing or lithographing any document purporting to be the notes of the Hun garian state or nation, or impressed with the Royal arms of Hungary, and from delivering up or parting with any plates for printing such documents. The learned counsel stated that the Austrian ambassa dor, having applied to the British Government to stop the act complained of, was informed it was a civil matter, and only recently obtained authority . from Vienna. The learned counsel read the follow ing affidavit, which was nearly an echo of the bill : " I am the Ambassador to this country of his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Austria, who is the plaintiff in this cause. His Imperial Majesty is also King of Hungary, and as such he has, in right of his crown, the sole and exclusive privilege of issuing, and of authorising the issue, in Hungary of notes for payment of money intended to be cir culated in that country as money ; and also the sole and exclusive privilege of authorising to be affixed to any document intended to be published or circu lated in Hungary the Royal arms of that country. " A very large portion, and, to the best of my belief, nearly the whole f the present circulation in Hungary consists of notes of the National Bank of Austria, which are issued under the authority of his Imperial Majesty as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary; and these notes, under the authority of his Imperial Majesty, circulate in Hungary as money, and are sums of one florin and upwards each. "I have been informed, and believe, that the defendants, William Day, John Day, and Joseph Day, carry on business in London as lithographers, in partnership, under the firm of Messrs. Day and Sons. " I have been informed, and believe, that the said Messrs. Day and Sons have prepared plates for printing or lithographing documents which pur port to be notes of the Hungarian nation or State, and are designed to be circulated as money in that country ; and I have been informed, and believe, that they have done this under the direction of Louis Kossuth, who is one of the above-mentioned defendants, and that they, by his direction, are now engaged in printing or lithographing, from the plates so prepared by them, documents which pur port to be such notes as aforesaid; and which, for the sake of distinction, I hereafter refer to as spu rious notes. " On the 26th of the present month of February I obtained one of the said spurious notes which had been printed by the said Messrs. Day and Sons. The exhibit marked A, produced and shown to me at the time of my swearing this affidavit, is the spurious note so obtained by me. The body of this document is in the Hungarian language, with which I am well acquainted; and the arms, of which there is a print at the bottom, are the royal arms of that country. The body of the said note, when translated into English, is as follows :—' One florin. This monetary note will be received in every Hungarian State and public pay-office as one florin in silver—three zwanzigers being one florin ; and its whole nominal value is guaranteed by the State, in the name of thenation.—Louis KOSSUTH.' " I believe that a great number of the spurious notes which the said Messrs. Day and Son are manufacturing are for one florin each, and that the remainder are for other sums, some larger and some smaller than one florin, and that all these spurious notes are numbered, and that with the necessary variation of the number and the amount which they purport to represent, the same as the said exhibit A; and I have been informed, and believe, that the total nominal amount of the spuri ous notes which the said Messrs. Day and Sons are manufacturing will be very large, and will exceed 100,000,000 florins. " I have been informed, and believe, that the said Messrs. Day and Son have nearly completed the manufacture of the said spurious notes, and that they now have in their hands a very large number thereof, entirely or nearly completed ; and that they intend very shortly, and (as far as I can ascer tain) in the course of the present week, to deliver the same to the said Louis Kossuth ; and I believe, and, from the information which I, as such ambas sador as aforesaid, have obtained, I have no doubt that the said Louis Kossuth intends, as soon as he has received the said spurious notes, without any authority from his Imperial Majesty, to send the same to agents employed by him in Hungary ; and that he intends, by means of his said agents, to sell some of these spurious notes in Hungary to persons resident there for whatever sums he can get for the same, and by this and other means to intro• duce the same into circulation in Hungary ; and that he intends to use the remainder of the said spurious notes in Hungary, among other purposes, in violation of the rights and prerogatives of the plaintiff as King of that country; and I believe, and from the information which I have received as such ambassador as aforesaid, I have no doubt the said Louis Kossuth intends to use the same amongst other purposes to promote revolution and discord in Hungary. I, as ambassador of his Imperial Ma jesty the Emperor of Austria, know that he has never authorised the manufacture of the said notes which the said Messrs. Day and Sons are manufac turing or the use thereon of the Royal arms of Hungary, and I believe that the introduction of the said notes into Hungary will create a spurious circulation there, and by that and other means cause great detriment to the state and to the sub jects of his Imperial Majesty. I believe that the members of the firm of Messrs. Day and Sons, be fore they prepared the plates for the said spurious notes, were aware of the purpose for which the said Louis Kossuth intended to use the same, and that he was not authorised by his Imperial Majesty to prepare and issue the same, and that the said spu rious notes were a violation of the rights of the plaintiff as King of Hungary ; but I believe that they intend to deliver the said spurious notes, when completed, to the said Louis Kossuth. I first re ceived information that Messrs. Day and Sons were engaged in manufacturing the said spurious notes on the 3d of the present month of February. On receiving the information I at once applied to her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and requested that her Majesty's Govern ment would interfere and prevent the manufacture of the said spurious notes, and on the 23d of the present month, and not before, I received a reply from the said Secretary of State, to the effect that her Majesty's Government were unable to interfere, aid I thereupon at once communicated with the government at Vienna of hie Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Austria; and on the 26th of the pre sent month of February, and not before, received instructions to use the name of his Imperial Majesty in such proceedings as I might think necessary to institute with reference to the said spurious notes." His Honour said he thought the plaintiff was entitled to an injunction, the order for which ought to be served with a copy of the bill. It was not a case to require any undertaking. The King of the Belgians having paid, in July last, a visit to Ghent, was received with remarkable enthu siasm by the students of the university of that city ; and his Majesty, as a mark of satisfaction, presented to the univer sity a gold medal, to be preserved in the library. The Bel• gian journals now announce that the King has just sent a bronze copy of that medal to each of the students, who took part in the demonstration; and in so doing his Majesty calls the young men " his dear children." _ [ADVERTISEMENT.]-Out of 50,000 cures without medi cine, by Du Barry's delicious Revalenta Arabica Food, we quote a few :—Cure No. 71, of dyspepsia the Right Hon. the Lord Stuart de Decies. Cure No. 49,832.—" Fifty years indescribable agony from dyspepsia, nervousness, asthma, cough, constipation, flatulency, spasms, sickness at the stomach and vomiting, have been removed by Du Barry's excellent food.—Maria Joly, Wortham Ling, near Dies, Norfolk." Cure No. 4,208.—" Eight years dyspep sia, nervousness, debility, with cramps, spasms, nausea, for which my servant had consulted the advice of many, have been cured by Du Barry' shealth restoring food.—Rev, John W. Flavell, Ridling:ton Rectory, Norfolk." No. 32,836. Three years excessive nervousness, with pains in my neck and y lif l e eft v a e r r m y , amndisegreanbeler,al bdaebsilibtyee,nwhriacdhieraelnly- Du Barry's health restoring food.—Alex. St uart. r d e e m re o d ved m byy Avoid Pills and Medicines : they invariably aggravate and perpetuated diseases ; their annoyance, di sappo i ntment, an expense may be avoided by using Du Barry's Food which, at a few pence per day, saves 5C times its cost in other remedies, removing effectually, without purging, co nstipation, indigestion (dyspepsia) nervous, bi lious and liver complaints and all their consequences. Certificate No. 36,418. We find it the safest remedy. Andrew Ure, MD., F.R.S., Dr Harvey, Dr. Wurzer, Dr. Shorland, Dr. Campell. Let invalids avoid the fearful dangers of spu rious and injurious imitations offered under a variety of false pretences. Nevill's imitations are prohibited by the high Court of Chancery under a penalty of £5,000 against Alfred ll‘ , oper Nevill and his agents ; and the pretences that Nevill has a patent for Arabi; a, Food and that Du Barry's are connected with such patent are utterly fake. No canister is genuine without the name Barry Du Barry and Co., 77, Regent-street, in full, ontheseal and wrapp.Jr. Shopkeepers who attempt imposition in one article must expect to be distrusted in all others. Packed in tins 11b. 2s. 9d.; 21b. 4s. 6d. ; 51b. Hs.; 121 b. 225. ; 241 b. 40s. The 121 b. and 241 b. canisters are sent carriage free on receipt of Post-office order by Barry Du Barry and Co., 77, Re gent-street, London; Fortnum Mason, and Co.; Abbit., 60, Gracechurch-street ; 4, Cheapside ; 63 and 150, Ox bard-street ; 330 and 451, Strand ; 49 and 60, Bishopsgate street ; Batty, 16, Finsbury Pavement ; Phillips and Co. tea-dealers; Petty, Wood, and Co., King William-street, City; at 127 High Holborn; and all grocerea HEALTH OF LONDON DURING TILE WEEK. (From the Registrar-General's Weekly Return.) The deaths in London in the week that ended last Saturday were 1,318, the number in the pre ceding week having been 1,328. The average num ber of deaths as obtained from the returns of cor responding weeks in ten previous years 1851-60, and corrected for increase of population, is 1,414. It will be seen that the deaths registered last week were nearly a hundred less than they would have been if the average rate of mortality had ruled. The mean temperature of the air which in the previous week was 37.6 deg., was so high as 45 9 deg. last week. On Thursday, when an unusually heavy gale occurred, the mean tem perature was 48 . 6 deg. In the corresponding week of 1855 the mean temperature of the air was only 26.7 deg., and the deaths then rose to 1,604. Zymotic diseases in the aggregate were fatal last week in 283 cases, whilst the corrected average of corresponding weeks is 272. Seven very young children died from small-pox ; 20 children from measles; 36 from scarlatina; and there were also 11 deaths from diphtheria. Whooping-cough car ried off 78 children. Ten deaths, 7of which were of children, were caused by syphilitic disease; and there were 2 from intemperance, besides 2 from delirium tremens. The most fatal disease in the list is bronchitis, which was fatal in 188 cases ; the next is phthisis, fatal in 149. The mortality of the former differs little from the average; that of the latter is below it. Eleven deaths were caused by suffocation, 7 of which occurred in bed, and 3 were by the impac tion of food or other substance in the throat. Two cnildren were burnt by their clothes taking fire; two by other means; five children were fatally scalded, among whom was a boy scalded by drink ing hot water from a teapot. The deaths of two centenarians, a widow aged 100 years, and a man 102 years, were recorded in the week. It appears that both ages are well ascertained. The former died at 34, George-street, Somers-town. She was a native of Lincolnshire ; her husband died in 1798. and she had lived for more than 60 years in Lon don. The latter died at 1, Newburgh-villas, Isling ton. His relations were also remarkable for longevity. The wife of a shoemaker, aged 50 years, died on the 7th inst., at 25, Nelson-street, Bethnal-green, from "inflammation of the lungs and want of the necessaries of life ;" and a man who had been for merly a master tailor died at the age of 78 years, on the 16th inst., at 83, Milton-street, Cripplegate, from " ossification of the heart, accelerated by want of proper nourishment." Inquests were held in both cases. Last week the births of 1,035 boys and 856 girls, in all 1,891 children, were registered in London. In the ten corresponding weeks of the years 1851- 60 the average number was 1,781. ___ At the Roy - al Observatory, Greenwich, the mean height of the barometer in the week was 29.461 in. The readings fell from 29.67 in. on Sunday to 29.09 in. on Thursday. The oscillations of the surface of the mercury were continuous between 4h. and 9h. on the latter day. The mean tempera ture of the air in the week was 45.9 deg., which is 7.4 deg above the average of the same week in 43 years (as determined by Mr. Glaisher.) The mean daily temperature was much above the average throughout the week, and on Thursday the excess was equal to 10.1 deg. The thermometer in the shade attained its highest point on Sunday, viz. 50 deg. ; it fell to its lowest, 35.7 degrees on Wednes day. The range of temperature in the week was therefore 20 3 deg. The mean daily range was 124 deg. The difference between the mean dew point temperature and air temperature was 2.2 deg. The mean degree of humidity was 93, complete saturation being represented by 100, which point was attained on Saturday. The wind was in the south and south-east on the first two days; after wards it blew from the south-west. Rain fell on Thursday and Saturday to the amount of 0.55 in. There was a heavy gale on Thursday. Between 5 o'clock p.m. and 9 p.m. the pressures of the wind varied from 181bs. on the square foot to 251bs. The velocity of the air between those hours must have been about 70 miles per hour. The mean tem perature of the water of the Thames was 42.6 deg. COUNTRY MARKETS. NEWARK-FEB. 27. The trade in wheat was slow, but late rates were for the most part realised for all fine qualities. A moderate show of barley, but trade dull. Oats a steady sale, at late rates. Beans and peas very little changed. White wheat, new, 58s to ?6s Barley, grinding.. 32s to 350 Red do. sos to 70s Oats, old, .. 32s to 37d Old white 58s to 76s New do 23s to 299 Red do sos to 70s Beans. 56s to 58s Barley, malting, 38s to 44s Beans, new 38s to 43s Peas, ....40s to 500. SHEFFIELD-FEB. 26. The supply of wheat was fair in bulk. There was a mo derate attendance. Good sorts of wheat realised former prices. Good oats in demand. Flour and other articles unchanged. Red wheat, per load of 3 imperial bushels...24s Od to 28s Od White t) I) ...25s Od to 28s Od New red • 1 , 9 9 ...20s Od to 22s Od 7 7 7 New white ~ ...:KS Od to ks Od Beans ,f 7, ... 16s Od to 22s 6d Peas, per qr. 54s Od to 55s Od Grinding barley, per qr Malting ditto, ~ 3ss Od to 43s 01 Oats 2ss 6d to 34s Od Millers' prices fo r flour-2s 3d, 2s sd, and 2s 8d per 141 b. HULL—FEB. 26. A fair supply of English wheat to-day, which sold at prices rather lower than last week. Foreign sold better at fully late rates. Barley was somewhat slow. Beans and peas progressed slowly, at former quotations, Oats were neglected. Wheat.... Old white per qr. . ... 66s Od to 69s Od Old red New white „ New red .... „ Dantzic, Konb , Sm. old white 62s Od to 66s Od Dutch, Belgian, and French. 60s Od to 62s Od Baltic and Hamburg, red 6os Od to 62s Od St. Petersburg and Riga, old s2s Od. to 55s Od Barley.... English malting 4ls Od to 42s Od Grinding 34s Od to 36s Od Saal and Oderbruck Holstein and Danish 3Bs Od to 40a Od Grinding Oats English, old Archangel and Riga, per at Os 14d to 14id Friesland and Dutch osl 4 l zd to oalsd Swedish and Danish 0514d to osl4id Beans ....English, old, per qr 49s Od to 51s Od New pigeon. 448 (id to 4E; ocl New tick. 43s Od to 44s Od Egyptian .. 38s Od to 40s Od Peas Foreign breakers Grinding Tares .... Spring. —s Od to —8 Od Indian Corn Linseed, feeding crushing Linseed cakes (Hull) £lo 10 oto £lO 15 0 Foreign BlO oto 9 0 0 Rape cakes Bones 5 0 oto 6, 0 0 COAL MARE (Prices of Coal per Ton at ET—FEB. 27. the close of the market N. d. Bate's West Hartley.. 15 6 Bell's Primrose .... .. 15 6 Bower's West Hartley.l7 3 Buddle'sWest Hartley 17 0 Byass's Bebside West Hartley....l7 3 Lambert's West Hart- Walls End. s. d. Hunwick l7 0 North Hartlepool l6 6 Shincliffe 19 0 Lambton 2l 0 Whitworth 17 0 Belmont 18 9 Hartlepool.... 2l 0 Wharncliffe 18 Pittington .... lB 0 Haswell..... 21 0 Heugh Ha ll 19 3 Stewart's 21 0 Hetton .. 2l 0 South Hartlepool 20 0 Trimdon Thornley 18 0 Acorn Close ..19 3 Eden 19 3 Hedley, .... Pensher .. Durham 19 0 Carway and Du Malting 169; sold, 132. ley 17 0 Clark's West Hartley 16 3 Davison's West Hart- ley .17 3 Holyvvell 17 6 Hastings Hartley l7 3 Wylam.... Walls End. South Hetton 2l 0 Thorpe l9 6 Keiper Grange.... —2O 0 Kelloe Framwellgate l9 3 Eden Main 19 0 Braddyll's Hetton 20 0 Ships at market, BIRTHS. BIDWELL—On the 26th inst., at Dacre-terrace, Lee, Mrs. Leonard Bidwell, of a daughter. CAMPBELL—On the 23d inst., at Edinburgh, the wife of Major Campbell, of Kilmartin, of a daughter, still born. POIVIVALL.—On the 26th inst., at 15, Gower-street, Bed ford-square, the wife of F. H. Pownall, Esq., of a daughter. MARRIAGES. CHAPMAN—OMMA.NNEY.—On the 12th Jan., at St. James's Church, Anarkullee, Lahore, East Indies, by the Rev. C. Sloggett, Arthur Robert Chapman, Esq., H M.'s Ist Bengal Fusiliers, the youngest son of Hen, y Chapman, Esq., of Canterbury, and formerly Presidency Surgeon, Calcutta, to Elizabeth Ann, eldest daughter of Lieut.- Colonel Ommanney, H.M.'s Bengal Engineers. GREENAWAY—PALLETT. — On. the 27th inst., at St. Mary Abchurch, by the Rev. Robert B. Gibson, M.A., rector, Mr. D. Greenaway, of Mark-lane, to Eliza beth, second daughter of Robert Pallett, Esq., Cannon street, city- DEATHS. BASCOAIBE.—On the 23d inst., at Goodridge's Hotel, Southampton, James Bascombe, late Master R.N., aged 53. CALWELL.—On the 22d inst., at Belvidere, co. Down, Ire land, Robert Calwell, Esq. FRASER.—On the 20th inst., at Finchley-road, St. John's wood, John Fraser, Esq., aged 81. KING.—On the 19th inst., near Brent, John King, Esq., of Fowelscombe, Devon, aged 73. NEISON.—On the 22d inst., at Kensington, William H. D. Neison, aged 37. LONDON : Printed and Published by MURDO YOUNG, at No. 112, Strand, Printer, at THE Sun Office, No. 112,Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy. in the County of Thursday, February 28, 1861. I r: a~ . ~,: ,~~ ;~: ;