The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-25 00:00:00

Ecd on the

tion ofspinners and others. The collection comprises
specimens of cotton grown in the various districts
of Italy, and affords an illustration of what that
country is able to produce. These samples may be
seen at the room of the association, and the inspec-
tion of them is earnestly invited. An opportunity
is thus afforded for forming a judgment of the qua..
lity of Italian grown cotton. The Royal Commission
has determined to hold a second cotton exhibition
in 1865, which will he opened in Naples in April
next, and continued for a period of two mouths. To

it all manufacturers of gins and agricultural imple4
meats are invited to send their machinery. Yarns
and goods made solely of Italian cotton will be exr
hibited, whether manufactured in Italy or else-
where. Prizes and medals will be conferred at the
close of the exhibition.

The Sheffield Inundation Subscription,

A case of great interest to all who joined in the
national subscription for the relief of the distress at
Sheffield was decided in the Court of the Inundation
Commission in Sheffield yesterday. Our readers
will recollect that in the course of a few weeks after
the disaster a subscription amounting to £50,000
was raised in the county, and that sum was placed
at the control of a committee, of whom the Mayor
of Sheffield was chairman, and the sufferers were
relieved by eleven district committees, who disbursed
many thousands of pounds in relieving the distress
arising from the inundation. At that time the lia-
bility of the Water Company, under the famous
Holmfirth clause in their Act of 1853, to make good
all damage caused by the giving way of their works
was fully admitted, but their ability to meet the
enormous demand was not so clear. The Relief
Committee, therefore, took promissory notes from
some of the sufferers for the amounts they advanced,
and in large numbers of other cases they got per-
sons to sign deeds, assigning the whole of their in-
terest as against the Water Company to the Mayor,
in consideration of these advances. When the com-
pany got their Act a question arose as to whether
they were liable to pay to these sufferers the
amounts which they had received from the Relief
C .mmittee, and the case was argued at great length
before the Commissioners by Mr. Maniety, Q.C.,
for the Mayor, end Mr. Pickering, Q C., for the
Water Company. Mr. Manis!y, on the part of the
Mayor, who sought to recover the amounts he had
advanced to the sufferers, argued that the Commis-
sioners had nothing to do with the Relief Com-
mittee, and that their judgment as to compensation
must go entirely irrespective of tte obligations into
which the claimants had entered with the Relief
Committee. On the other hand, Mr Pickering sought
to show that the company and the public were
in the respective positions of assurer and assured;
that the contract between them was a contract of
indemnity, and that if the assured had once been
recouped, no matter if by the hand of charity or
otherwise, they could not claim against the com-
pany ; and he quoted the case of Mr Pitt's debts,
where Goaernment stepped in after his death and
paid his debts, and the Courts thereupon held that
creditors who had insured his life for the satisfac-
tion of their debts could not recover from the in.
suranco offices.. It was stated that the Mayor had
abandoned all claim in cases where the amounts
allowed were below £lO. The case excited great in-
terest, as it was understood that in the event of the
Mayor recovering the sums advanced they would
be added to the ample surplus in hand, and re-
turned pro rata to the subscribers, if the latter
desire it. We ought to state here that id the
course of bar Manisty's argument it was shown that
the question of the liability of the company bad
been raised in Leeds and other towns, when sub-
scriptions were asked, and the public wereexplicitly
informed that promissory notes and other securities
were being taken from the recipients of the fund in
order to keep alive the claim against the Water Com-
puny. Upon the faith of that assurance large nums
bars subscribed. A crowded court assembled yester-
day to hear the judgment, which was delivered by
Mr W. Overend, Q.C., chief commissioner. He said.
—We are of opinion that in all cases the persons
with whom the Commissioners have to deal are the
sufferers by the inundation, They are the only claims
ants whom we can recognise, and no arrangement
between them and third parties can dispense with
the necessity of their appearing as the only claimants
for compensation. The Mayor, therefore, not being
a sufferer, has no locus itandi before us, except
that he has sent in a claim as agent for and in behalf
of some sufferers. The sufferer, however, even is
the latter case, will be the person in whose favour
our order will be made. With reference to the
question whether the claimants' title to compensas
Lion is extinguished or diminished by reason of their
having received money either by way of gift or loan
from the Relief Committee, we are of opinion that
any payment or loan by such committee to such burs
ferers does not affect their right to ask for full come
pensation from us to the same extent as if no such
gift or loan had been made. It is no part of our pro-
vince to decide whether the money awarded by us to
the claimants is after wards wholly or in part, accord-
ing to circumstances, to be paid over to the Mayor.
We purposely therefore avoid pronouncing our opi-
nion on that question, although it is quite apparent
that in the event of the deed or promissory notes
which have been executed by some sufferers being
valid securities, the parties who have given such
securities may, on recovering compensation from
the Water Company, be liable for the amounts
contained in those securities to the Mayor. We
wish at the same time to state that, by abstaining
notfro be mgiivnifnegrraednythsaut we
eddeceissieiront,o throw
ehao the thastliigthwteisltl
doubt upon their validity. The Court then ed•
journed for a fortnight, and will then meet again
to hear the arguments in the great trade cases, in
which questions of consequential damage are ine
volved. We may add that while the company's
witnesses in Parliament estimated the total damage
at £350,000, the claims sent in amount to £455,000.
The claims for propeity amount to £378,166; for
loss of life, £46,221 (238 persons were druvmtd);
and for bodily injury, £21,776.

The Russian Government have completed the
public line of telegraph throughout European Russia and
Siberia in Asiatic Russia to Kiakhta, the frontier town of
China. Kiakhta lies to the north-west of Pekin, and is
distant about 750 miles from that city. It is, therefore,
possible to send a communication from Landon to the capital
of China in about four days. The line from St. Petersburg
to Kiakhta extends over a distance of some seven or eight
thousand miles, and its completion so far is an event of
great importance, not only to European merchants. but also
to the different Governments whose Ministers reside in the
Celestial City.

widely circulated them among tianpnitru.ternAk_
cotton he will forward the informationAiLielanayE
be obtained, The report from the island of lien
Vista, CapeVerd, states that only in that island is
any cotton grown, and there merely in small quan-
tities for local consumption. The population being
very scanty and poor, although the island has a
large surface of land capable of producing cotton,
there is but little probability that the cultivation
. will extead without the aid of foreign capital and
enterprise. The irregularity of the rains is a great
drawback. A sample of the cotton grown at Boa
Vista has been forwarded. A despatch from Smyrna
reports that the injury done to the cotton crop in
that district and also in that of Adana by the late
continual heavy rains, which only cc
27th of October, has been very extensive, and owing
to the cold Weather the pod are in a very back-
ward state; it is calculated that not more than
60,000 to 60,000 bake can be, expected from the dia•
trio of Smyrna, and about 40,P00 bales from Adana.
de:Tateh forwarded by the Colonial cffice, wa9
received from the Governer of Gmbia, etowit g
that the cultivation election hss largely it:era...sec/
in that colony during the last two years, and ex,,
pressing a strong conviction that this branch of in-
dustry will be still further developed. The upper
river is represented to be capable of producing a
large quantity of cotton, and the use of Egyptian
seed is recommended in order to secure an im-
proved quality. A considerable quantity of nn-
ginnedcottons,ame of cotton received it is said,harsbeed from eievneaportedto
Germany. ANatal
grown from Egyptian seed. A large number of
samples of cotton grown this year throughout Italy
forwarded by the President of :the iloylittAliaUir
OOMmission, engaged the special attention of the,
committee, and well deserve the careful examinta-