The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-30 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 20, 1852.

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TO MANUFACTURERS of MATS, RUGS,
and MATTING.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, That the existing CONTRACT
for the Labour of a portion of the Prisoners confined in the Middle-
sex House of Correction at Coldbath-fields, in manufacturing the
above-named articles, will TERMINATE on the 14th of February
next, and that the Visiting Justices are desirous of RECEIVING
PROPOSALS from persons willing to enter into an agreement for a
period of five years from that day, for teaching, instructing, and
employing in such manufacture not less than 60 prisoners.
Provided by the county, in the workroom set apart for the pur-
pose, are 12 looms, with mat frames, wheels, and requisite appara-
tus, of which the Contractor will have the use, together with a store-
room for depositing the goods when manufactured.
The form of Proposal, with a blank schedule of prices to be filled
in, may be obtained upon application to me. The Tenders or Pro-
posals must be sealed, and delivered at the Sessions House, Clerken-
welt, on or before Thursday, the 6th of January next, and they will
be opened and examined by the Visiting Justices at 3 o'clock on the
follo,ing d-y, at the said House of Correction.—Dated this 23d day
of December, 1852.

CHARLES WRIGHT,
Clerk to the Visiting Justices

UNITED STATES EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.

At a recent meeting of the New York Geographical
and Statistical Society, the Hon. George Bancroft in the
chair, Lieutenant (late Dr.) Kane, U.S.N., read a highly
interesting paper on " Access to a North Polar Sea,
viewed in connexion with the Search after Sir John
Franklin."
" Down to the present time," said the speaker, "the
North Pole has been regarded with mysterious awe. All
investigation seems shut out, and all curiosity repressed
by a a barrier of eternal ice." Dr. Kane then proceeded
to an interesting critical examination of the theories
of ancient' and modern navigators respecting the Polar
Sea, referring frequently to maps of his own construction,
a number of which were affixed to the walls. "To make
the north-west passage has been the favourite dream of
navigators, but to this day the attempt has always been
attended with failure. Parry, a late navigator, with a
daring unequalled, attempted to cross the ice on sledges,
but his attempt was wholly unsuccessful. Recent disco-
veries render it beyond a doubt certain that Sir John
Franklin. wintered at the mouth of Wellington Chan-
nel. This has been ascertained by recent discoverers,
and, among others, by Captain Penny, an enterprising
whaler ; but, alas ! here all trace of him is lost, and
nothing remains but the lonely graves of his companions.
The squadron of Sir Edward Belcher, which is on a
voyage of discovery, may do much, but I confess that I
am not sanguine as to the result. The Hon. Henry
Grinnell, the president of this society, has done me the
honour of appointing me to the command of one of his
vessels, the Advance, and I have in contemplation a new
expedition. My plan of travel is based upon the exten-
sion of Greenland to the far north, and, though this
hypothesis is not sustained by all geographers. yet recent
discoveries all tend to confirm it. Believing in this ex-
tension, and feeling that the approximation of the meri-
dians would make access to a great Polar Sea far more
easy, I propose this as my plan of search :—My party
will consist of 30 picked men. Our provision will be
composed of pemmican, a preparation of dried deer's flesh.
The brig furnished by Mr. Grinnell is admirably fitted
for our purpose, and peculiarly adapted for the exigen-
cies of our expedition. On our route we take in some
Esquimaux dogs, together with sledges, and a few natives
to manage them."
This is not merely a voyage of search. The vast
advantages which will accrue to the cause of science
from this expedition cannot be too highly estimated.
Dr. Kane concluded the reading of his paper with a
complimentary allusion to the course pursued by the
Secretary of the Navy with reference to his contem-
plated expedition.
The Rev. Dr. HAWKS then rose and made a brief
but pertinent address.—" Every one," said he, "must
feel an interest in this expedition. Lieutenant
Kane is to embark upon no holyday voyage ; he is to
venture upon an unknown sea, encompassed on
every side with difficulty, danger, and death,
and I know that there is not an American heart which
will not join in the prayer—God speed ! I feel proud
of my countryman; he has proved his claim to the respect
of his country by his labours in the great cause of
humanity." Dr. Hawks then read the following resolu-
tion :—" That the society regards with grateful interest
the exertions of the Secretary of the Navy in advancing
the knowledge of physical geography, and that they
especially tender their thanks for the liberality with which
he has lent his aid to the expedition destined for the
Arctic Seas. That the society appoint a committee of
five for the promotion of the interests of the expedition,
and that they be instructed to confer with the Secretary
of the Navy and the Smithsonian Institute." The above
resolution being seconded and adopted, the society ad-
journed, after a vote of thanks to Dr. Kane for his able
and interesting paper.

MELANCHOLY GUN ACCIDENT.—A young lady, named
Pring, daughter of a respectable farmer, living near
Honiton, Devonshire, was accidentally shot .by her
cousin, oh Christmas-day. The deceased was standing
in the porchway of her father's house, being about to
visit her grandfather, to spend the Christmas-day in
company with her relations and Mends, when a young
man—her cousin—discharged a gun (which he had been
examining) from the kitchen, the contents of which en-
tered the young lady's head, causing instant death.
There were two ladies standing by her side, who received
slight injuries. The young man did not know the gun
was loaded ; and, as might be imagined, was over-
whelmed with grief at the fatal and distressing accident,
of which he was the unwitting instrument.
ANOTHER LAMENTABLE GUN ACCIDENT.—We take
the following from the Madras U. S. Gazette of Nov.
26 :—" In our last we announced the death of the young
Marquis of Lisboa, a midshipman of her Majesty's ship
Hastings, from the effects of an accident when out
shooting with a brother midshipman, Prince Ernest of
Saxe Leiningen. The jury brought in a verdict at the
adjourned inquest on Wednesday, that the deceased
met his death "of homicide by misadventure." Wit-
nesses proved that the unfortunate young gentleman,
before they entered the house, after their sport, dis-
charged both barrels of one of the guns which they had
been using, and brought it in, and that Prince Ernest,
when he took a gun up afterwards, supposed that it was
the one which he knew to have been discharged. Un-
happily it was the other, which had been placed in a
corner of the room in its loaded state. After death the
injury sustained was found to be so extensive as to have
precluded all chance of recovery, the bones forming the
socket of the right eye being fractured by the shot, and
points of bone driven inwards, whereby the brain itself
had become extensively inflamed and disorganised, and
there were two dots of effused blood pressing on the
brain."
DEATH OF KOSSUTH'S MOTHER.—The above highly
respected lady departed this life about nine o'clock on
Tuesday morning in her temporary residence in Brussels.
She had been seriously ill for some weeks but yesterday
some strong hopes of her recovery were entertained by
her medical attendants, one of whom was Dr. Perkins, a
long-established English resident, and who is distinguished
by his kind attentions to the various exiles in this city.
Some unpleasant rumours are afloat respecting the refu-
sal of the Belgian government to allow of her son's
coming over to this country, unless he consented to be
constantly accompanied during his stay in Belgium by
a police officer. It is understood that the venerable lady
herself urged her illustrious son not to submit to so de-
grading a condition. For the sake of the Belgian go-
vernment, and for the honour of Belgium itself, it is to
be hoped that those rumours are exaggerated.

OVERLAND MAIL.

The following is the letter of the. Times corre-
spondent at Bombay, dated Dec. 3 :

Our latest accounts from Burmah extend to the
18th November. Everything remained in statu
quo. " The General-in-Chief was still at Rangoon,
and Sir John Cheape was commanding at Promo,
lying on his oars, and forbidden to move a step."
There was no other sign of life in the campaign than
the constant arrival at Rangoon of fresh troops
from India, and the dispatch of reinforcements
thence to Prome, where there was no enemy to en-
counter. Nearly six weeks after the occupation
of Prome, and four " after the Burmese General had
surrendered himself to us, and reported that the
Burmese army near that town consisted of a rabble
of 4,000 or 5,000 men, who were only waiting for
the excuse of a few shot from our guns to decamp,
everything continued in the same state of lethargic
abeyance." About 1,100 men, with two heavy guns,
had been. dispatched on board the Bentinck, Ner-
budda, Damooda, and Mahanuddy, to occupy
Pegu. One of these steamers had been sent pre-
viously to reconnoitre, and had returned with four war
boats without finding it necessary to fire a shot. No
resistance couldtherefore be anticipated, but General
Godwin had accompanied the detachment for the
purpose of chronicling its achievments in his usual
style. Everything was quiet at Prome and Ran-
goon. The garrison of the former town has expe-
rienced noikolestationdaising the month they have
now occupied Ab- tliZiigit there *ere
rumours of an enemy hovering round Rangoon,"
they were believed to arise from exaggerated re-
ports of the bodies of dacoits who were roaming
over the.country. On the first of November three
natives were killed at Rangoon by the accidental
explosion of a small magazine in the great Pagoda.
A spirited affair has taken place near Henzada,
a large town situate on the right bank of the Irra-
waddy, near the apex of its delta. A Burmese
force (said to be 3,000 strong) had encamped against
it, and threatened to attack and burn it. The in-
habitants applied for protection to one of the de-
tachments proceeding up the river from Rangoon
to Promo. The officer applied to (Captain Becher)
had under his command his company (No. 7) cf
the 40th Bengal Native Infantry, which he imme-
diately landed on his own responsibility, and
marched towards the spot where the Burmese
were encamped. The moment, however, that the
enemy caught sight of the red-coats they fled,
with the men of the 40th after them. The
ground was, however, most difficult, the Burmese
taking a course through high fields of dhan, and
at last reaching the jungles, into which Captain
Becher very wisely forbore to follow them. He,
however, bivouacked his men in the vicinity of
the town, and had the satisfaction of learning the
next morning that the Burmese had decamped.
Much uncertainty and difference of opinion pre-
vails regarding the future prospects of the campaign
and the extent to which annexation will be carried.
Annexation to some extent seems admitted to be
inevitable, and, if territory be annexed at all, it
should clearly include the shortest line between the
Aeng Pass and the Irrawaddy. Captain Phayre,
the Commissioner of Arracan, has been specially
summoned to Calcutta by the Governor-General,
and of course the quidnuncs are already speculating
as to the exact date upon which he will appear in
the Gazette as Commissioner of Pegu. Lieutenant
Ardagh, Assistant to the Commissioner of Moul-
mein, has already arrived in Rangoon to assume
civil charge of the city, and everything appears to
indicate that the final measure is at hand. The
Englishman and Citizen mention a report that the
Governor-General is about to visit our frontier
provinces of Assam and Sylheet, to observe the
working- of the non-regulation system, which is
said to have received adevelopment in these dis-
tricts which would serve as a model for the ad;
ministration of the • conquered and ' cognate pro-
vinces of the Burmese Empire. As regards the
future prospects of the campaign, the Friend of
India states, that' " having wasted the rainy season
we have now lost all chance of striking a blow at
the capital for the next eight months—that is, till
next rains." This is not exactly the case.
It is certainly much to be regretted that the sea-
son should have been wasted during which an ad-
vance on Ava might have been made exclusively
by water and with the support of powerful steam-
ers ; but that is now done, and the Governor-
General seems to have no intention of remaining
for eight months inactive, waiting till the river
should rise, as General Godwin ' waited' till it
should fall. Extensive preparations are being made
for a combined advance by land and water. I men-
tioned in my last that 250 elephants had been des-
patched from Calcutta to Prome, via the Aeng
Pass, furnished with cradles for carrying the guns
and stores of three batteries, and it is now reported
that a second detachment of elephants is being col-
lected at Moulmein for similar purposes. The flo-
tilla of native river boats is being rapidly augmented
and three additional river steamers had been or-
dered from the Hooghly to the Irrawaddy. Those
that have suffered most from previous service have
been sent to Calcutta for repair, and are to take
back with them a number of flat-bottomed troop'
and store boats.
As soon as these preparations are complete an ad-
vance will take place with a land and a water column,
as in the last war. It is true that the flotilla will be
proportionately much stronger than it was on the
former occasion—it will, probably, include eight
or nine . small steamers instead of one, but the
rate of progress will of course be ruled by that
of the land column. Nautical men are, how-
ever, of opinion that, with a more energetic com-
mander it would be still practicable to send by
water as large a force as is required for the coer-
cion of Ava. Four small river steamers are at pre-
sent taking about 1,200 men up the little river
leading to Pegu, and these same steamers, together
with the three in orders for the Hooghly, and the
Nemesis and the Phlegethon, might with equal
ease take double that number to Ava, without
reckoning their capabilities for towing one or two
troop boats a-piece.
It is not expected that the King of Ava will make
any bon4 fide overtures for peace until our forces
are at least as near to his capital as they were at
the conclusion of the last war. An Eastern prince
or chief, even though he should meditate no active
resistance, usually considers it a point of honour not
to give in until his enemy is close to his gates. A
chief in Rajpootana or Oude will often refuse to
pay his tribute, and will hold out till a regular
force has its guns in Position against his strong-
hold ; he will then " come in" and apologise for the
trouble he has given by saying that he never dreamt
"the Sircar,"
of opposingbut that he would have
been irretrievably disgraced in the eyes of his equals
if he had given in a moment sooner than his pre-
decessors had done under similar circumstances.
Lord Falkland has returned to Bombay from the
Mahableshwur Hills after his usual eight months'
annual absence from the seat of Government. It
is understood that an early opportunity will be
taken in the new Parliament of bringing the Ba-
roda scandals again under discussion.
Letters from Baroda state that the Guicowar
having failed to crush Colonel Outran] has had re-
course to " enchantments," which he hopes will re-
sult in the death of the gallant officer. He has
already advanced 10,000 rupees to some Brahmins
from the north-west, and has promised them 20,000
rupees more if they succeed in effecting the desired
object. The Brahmins, it is said, perform their in-
cantations dressed in robes dipped in buffalo's
blood, and will, probably, protract so profitable an
amusement as long as possible. Our new Com-
mander-in-Chief has arrived at Bombay, also Ge-
neral Somerset, from the Cape.
The article on the conduce of the Burmese war,
which appeared in the Times of the sth of October,
completely embodies the opinions universally enter-
tained on the subject in India.
The Friend of India says regarding it :—" If the
article had been written at the seat of war instead
of in England, the writer could not more truthfully
have described the contemptible spectacle which
the expedition presents, and the great and glaring
errors which have been committed. He appears to
possess a kind of clairvoyant faculty of discerning
the real state of affairs at a distance of many thou-
sand miles, and he exhibits an intuitive insight into
the motives and the causes which have led to our
disappointment. There can be no doubt that the
article will exercise a very powerful influence on
public opinion at home, and it ought therefore to
exert a corresponding influence on public councils
in India."
The Calcutta Englishman says :—" Opinions
here agree with those of the Times as to the need-
less delays and waste of time and money which
have already taken place, and which are not likely
to terminate 'even now, unless a change occurs in
the command of the forces. Reports to that effect
have been in circulation, but voluntary relinquish-
ment of so good an appointment is not to be ex-
pected, and there may be difficulties in the way of
a compulsory supersession."
The reports alluded to by the Englishman that
General Godwin has been written to in such terms

as would compel his resignation, and that his recall
was actually on its way to him, have been confi-
dently repeated by the Bombay Times and other
Indian papers. I cannot, however, discover that
they have any stronger foundation than the uni-
versal wish that they were true, and the general
belief that no real progress can be made in the
campaign until some such step is taken. " Some-
thing, however, must be done," says the Friend of
India, and " That speedily, not so much to con-
quer Burmah, which is already at our feet, as to
regain the reputation which our Government has
lost." "If ever there was a clear and brilliant
prospect of bringing a war in India to a speedy
and successful issue, it was in this case of the se-
cond Burmese war, in which we are now engaged."
. . "We have now reached Prome, four
months after we ought to have been there, and we
are as idle at that town as we were at Rangoon, for
five months, and we have lost the chance of strik-
ing a blow at the capital for the next eight months,
and simply because the military and naval autho-
rities could not, or would not, co-operate, and the
former wished that a steamer had never been seen
on the Irrawaddy."
The circumstance of General Godwin having
deemed it necessary or even expedient that a force
of nearly 4,000 British troops should for weeks
await reinforcements before venturing to attack a
scarcely larger number of any enemy (and that
enemy the Burmese), posted within two hours'
march of their lines, is certainly most injurious to
the votige of our armi,ia, th,9_,lrast„„ alyl
has
naturally excited a feeling of intense dissatak-'
tion throughout the Indian army. By the latest
accounts the Burmese force before Prome had been
so encouraged by General Godwin's diffidence that
they actually meditated taking the initiative them-
selves and attacking a British force, now reinforced
so considerably above their own number. Our
spies report that the Governor of Menyday had
written to the commander of the Burmese forces
before Prome, " What are you doing ? if you don't
intend to fight, you had better fall back upon me."
His answer was, " I'll fight;" and a day was fixed
for the attack, but the priests suggested that the
attack should be deferred to a more propitious day,
which they were themselves to determine. In con-
sequence of this intelligence our regiments are kept
in constant preparation day and night, waiting to
be attacked by a force which Sir Archibald Camp-
bell would not have hesitated to march upon and
disperse with a single company of Queen's troops.
Our force at Prome is now twice as strong as that
with which General Godwin's " late lamented
Commander-in-Chief " • won his last battle (and
that against tenfold odds) almost under the walls
of Ava.