The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-05 00:00:00

Ships at market, 122 Sold, 70.

CORN AVERAGES
GENERAL AVERAGE PRICES OF BRITISH CORN
For the Week ended Jan. 29, 1852, made up from the Returnsof the
Inspectors in the different Cities and Towns in England and Wales
per Imperial Quarter.
WHEAT. I BARLEY. I I
OATS. RYE. SEARS. I PEAS.
PRICE • • 1 39s 10d 28s 6d 18s 2d 1 27s 6d, 28s Ild 28s 4d

DUTIES ON FOREIGN CORN.
WHEAT. I BARLEY. I OATS. I BYE. BEANS. TEAS.
1, is Oct is Od Is Od lis Od Is Od
QUANTITIES OF GRAIN SOLD IN THE PAST WEEK.
Wheat, 111,925; Barley, 105,930; Oats, 29,900; Eye, 113; Beans,

8,374 ; Peas, 2,962 Quarters.

CRIMINAL COURT-(THIS DAY.)

OLD COURT
(Before Mr. Justice CaESSWELL.)
Two men of the names of Woolf and Lyons were placed
at the bar charged with obtaining goods under false pre-
tences. The prosecution was directea by order of Mr. Com-
missioner llolroyd.
Mr. BALLANTINE, who appeared for the prosecution, said
that the prisoners having entered into business as parasol
manufacturers without capital, had become bankrupts within
the space of thirteen months, when there appeared a de-.
ticiency of 3,0001. between their assets and liabilities. On
the inquiry at the Bankruptcy Court Mr. Commissioner Hob-
royd had been so dissatisfied with the whole appearance of:
their manner of doing businer-s, that he directed the present'
prosecution. He would give one instance of the man-
ner in which the prisoners were in the habit of ob-
taining goods. The prisoner Lyons went into Ellis
an t Everington's, in St. Paul's Churchyard, asking to`
see some patterns of silk for the purposes of his business.-
Patterns were accordingly sent to him and shortly'
afterwards an order for silks was given by the prisoners to.
the amount of 6511. 19s. 2d., which were delivered to then,,,
and shortly afterwards parted with at a considerable sacri -
fice to a Mr. Hart. The goods thus obtained were fre
quently pledged or disposed of by the prisoners at &nisi
derable sacrifices. It would be for the jury to say whetht
these were bona fide purchases for the purposes of business. ,
The Learned Counsel then proceeded to call a number 01
witnesses in support of his statement, but the case Was n°4
concluded when we went to press.

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.
On Tuesday, (James Simpson, Esq., Vice-President, in
the chair), on the renewed discussion, which occupied the
entire evening, en Mr. Jee's paper " On the Cast Iron Via-
duct erected at Manchester, forming part of the joint station
of the London and North-Western, and Manchester, Shef-
field, and Lincolnshire Railways," Mr. Hawkshaw described
a nearly similar structure which bad been erected at Sal'
ford, in 1842, forming a junction between the Liverpool and l
Manchester, the Manchester and Leeds, and Manchester and
Bolton Railways. In this structure the columns were placed(
in pairs, and, instead, of planking between the transverse
girders, flat brick arches, set in cement, were introduced-
Some interesting experiments on the strength of the girders
were given, and the ingenious steelyard lever testing machines
was described. The question then turned upon the peculiar
form of the wrought iron girder bridge over Store-street, and
on the manner in which the experiments had been made for
ascertaining its strength. From minute calculations which•
were given, it appeared that the bridge was, foot for foot, sss
strong and stiff as wrought iron, cellular-top, tubular girderel
of the ordinary form, and thought in this instance, the size'
of the cylindrical top, which was required to be large enough
to admit a man for painting the inside, and for necessary re—
pairs, might seem disproportioned to the depth of the girders
3 this would not be the case if the span and depth of thfe
girder was increased, as the cylindrical top might still re-'
main of the same size.
By some speakers, however, it was contended, that in aaPv:
plying wrought iron to girders of comparatively spiel:om d
forte
regarded really was no necessity, nor was it advisable, e"--rin.
regarded strength or convenience, to adopt the cellular
A bls
but that the girder should be of the ordinary, simple, -11 f
T section, with the bottom flange, and the middle we° f
wrought iron, and the upper flange either of wrought, 0r,,0 6
cast iron, the latter being the best suited for resisting tLt,
compressive strain to which that part of a girder was eh '4l
jected ; and it was thought that both of these forms ifhh' f
be a more economical application of material for girders 428
limited extent than cellular tops. A modification of thee
different plans was described to consist in a kind of flattente; e
triangular top, of which the base was uppermost, ftfa
plates were thickest, representing the upper flange to
ordinary girder, the two sides being merely tin plab`'"tt,e
prevent the edges of the upper flange from buckling under
compressive strains. f
Doubts were also raised as to whether painting was .'.d
best mode of protecting wrought iron from oxidation; !:jd,
it was suggested, as an improvement, that the iron shod
at
in the first instance, be thoroughly cleaned and slung oot
a low heat in common oil, and then dried. An alloy ofj,
iron, containing a small portion of tin, was also said to' r
vent effectually the injurious effects ot! oxidation.
The method of combining wrought with cast hoot
Stirling's process, was also described, and the great ten
Au"
and strength of the metal was fully admitted. tre
At the monthly ballot, the following candidates 15%,,
duly elected : Captain Claxton, R.N., Lieut. Fraser, 13,,,'„0r
Lieut. Kendall, 8.E., Captain Owen, R.E., and Ir. -
Paterson, as Associates. 'Pier
The paper announced to be read at the meeting of tioti
day, February 10th, was " The Construction and Partlos
of the Permanent Way of Railwas, and the modifica
most suitable for. Egypt, India, Seca," by Mr. W. B. Ada/1

RAILWAY TRAFFIC RETURNS of
LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN RALLIVAY._...p3tagt
Traffic for th week enin Feb. 1
Pasengere s, parcels,d mag ils, &c.: £21,854 15 7
17,088 9 11
Merchandise ... ••• 884 17 9
Cattle

... £39,823 3 3
Total ••• -7. „. ::,9,190 16 10 ,_
Corresponding week last ye_a
asp
unuabiliasnhdedsharoresherrceluusnivioen,osf
eti
.7a:
trafficuuunNxiUnion,
:no.
andt Note.—The
Prestoneh leu- luuradcezdt
duei
nrr
‘s,
ayes yel
rde ,
,01, ,
hamshire Railways, and of the proP44h'
uner agreement with the Ncg
Lion of traffic deducted
WeekA I L W A
ending Y.—
Jan.(Miles i2n5r1r8k5,22;11,1)
Staffordshire Company.
carriages,
dehl6s,Rmails ... L 4,593 18 1
minerals ... 5,893 4 8
—Return
rrGn:hs
Merchandise
efrAn:le, Trafficdsa NORTHERN
sapf , onard
Cattle ..• ... ... ~. 121 1 1
---..-----
Total "• ... L 10,608 3 10
Corresponding week, 1851 (236 miles):--
Passengers, parcels, &c. ... £3,854 13 3 1
g.
Merchandise. Cattle, &c. •••
_,
626 2 8
_—•
_---
LONDON AND Total
•••
£
7 ,481 5 11
......,t of
.....A.raoaLmw
SOUTH-WESTERN
Traffic for the week ending Feb. 1 :
Passengers
1 Goods

£26,41.9270 t 4
3
Total £8,617 7 7„L
Corresponding week last year... 8,055 2 vs _.
.-- ‘.
LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE RAILWAY. -2 4
open.)—Traffic for week ending Feb. ....£15,111 u
Corresponding week in last year (26013
202 .2 5
miles open) .. „..
NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE RAILWAY.—(MiIes opens
Return of traffic for the week ending Jan. 25 :--
Railway and canal £4,615 0
Corresponding week last year ... 4,410 0 u 0016
Note. The above is exclusive of the receipts sltsterii
under the agreement with the London and No
Railway Companythe
.
CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAILWAY.....Trafie for
week ending Feb. 1:--

•••
...
45989:7 21
8 1 0
4651 10
441
•••
£2,071 10
MOLD. 9

MAIN LUIE.

Passengers ...
Parcels, H. C. and D. ...
Goods, cattle, &c.
Mails

Total

Passengers ... ...
Parcels, H. C. and D. •••
Goods, cattle, &c. ...

Total

LITERATURE.
TILE DESERT I. 10 ME. By Captain Mayne Reid.
David Bogue.
ti A more beautiful book than this has not for a long
ate been issued from the press for the entertainment
and instruction of children. Its interest from first to
last is enthralling. It constitutes, as the author himself
frlstimates upon the tills:-page, a record of the adventures
lost family in thy, wilderness, a family worthy c,f,
‘.,641g designated " The English Family Robinson.
been Ma,yno Reid's ability as a narrator has already
rec displayed in a very agreeable manner through his
nrBt work, a woik well known as a The Rifle Rangers,"
and still better, last season, through his second work,
entitled " The, Scalp Hunters." In the volume now be-
fore us,
hcswever, the novelist has shown that he can
eirect murals more for his reader than the supply of
Mere a
aarasement. He has hero told a tale, and a very
✓rveii
`'pus tale it is too of the vicissitudes befalling
aaeaers Rolfe and ot e his 'amity in the great central desert of
avr'r, America. In recounting the adventures of Rolle
:me 7 uthor has manitestly kept before him the undying
_abaination of the masterpiece of Defoe, and has endea-
ratted, without anything at all approaching to a servile
mitation of his prototype, to invest his hero with some
?f those attractive attributes which have made us all
100 k with more than the affection of the parrot upon
"Poor Robinson Crusoe." Instead, however, of the
lovely island of Juan Fernandez we are introduced into
the bosom of a valley oasis in the wilderness of North
4taeriee. Instead of being doomed to the horrors of
protracted solitude, the principal personage in the story
'children.
.hlessed with the companionship of his wife and his
hildren. Instead of simple hearted, untutored Friday,
,be has as his attendant the skilful•handed, merry-
tempered Cudjo—to our thinking the most de-
lightful and original creation in the narrative.
Aided by his brave, fine spirited boys, Frank and Harry
good.marksmen both—and by his faithful negro, al-
✓awly mentioned, a first-rate domestic architect, and
o'oe who understands, h
'of the forest-apiary, Rolfeot er
contrives,t h i thing?, g , the mysteries
inthe
Robert
val-
ley before particularised, to establish a home replete
with comforts and—incredible as it may appear—to rea-
lise the jest of his wife by amassing a little fortune in
the very heart of a sterile and almost impenetrable wil
demean. How all this is accomplished the reader would
do well to learn by an examination of the book itself, for
it is a volume calculated to instruct and amuse " chil-
dren of a larger growth" than the occupants of the nur-
lierY or the schoolroom. Here, in his desert home, Rolfe
and his family are described to have been accidentally
discovered by some prairie merchants returning from
13ftata Fe to the Mississippi,with whose caravan the writer
represents himself as having been associated. Received
by the'hale and stalwart Englishman. who is the head
of this new " Family Robinson," the North American
Faders hear from his own lips thet account of his adven-
I!". The volume, therefore, is almost entirely
adaten, in the first person, after the manner of an auto.
biography. An incident of a startling character, and
_lna Which may be described as partly agreeable and
Cosrlly painful, dashes the otherwise tranquil narrative
with the momentary excitement of romance. We refer
ittno discovery of his daughter in little Luisa by
en-!'""night, the miner from Scotland. Previously to the
Captain
of the subject-matter of his narrative
2.,,-4.PPlin Mayne Reid endeavours to render his child-
„ipZuer familiar with the- general aspect of the scene in
Great his story is situated. His delineation of the
Jreat Desert lying in the interior of the North Ame-
ehem Continent, forming as it does the introductory
ao—aPt,_er of the volume, will be found on perusal
-•
,„ be not the least admirable portion of its
.`"ents. Conned with attention, it will familiarize the
intents_
with the marvels of that wonderful division of the
I°l3e, revealing in the American wilderness more asto-
nishing aspects of nature than are to be found in the
_esert of Sahara. Sometimes clothed with the wild sage
Or wormwood, called artemisia—sometimes strewn for
.I',nos with a thick covering of salt, sometimes clad with
12 brilliant layer of soda, sometimes laden with innu-
merable fragments of stone, originally scattered over its
ti4ire htee by the eruption of some now extinct volcano—
se extending over a space equivalent to about one
it,
and a half of square miles, or, as the writer puts
'a 11l terms more compreheasible for children, somewhere
tbttt twenty-five times as big as all England"—lies
great North-American wilderness. In this wilder-
Nls the English family lose their way, and ultimately
act as the region of their sojourn a lovely island of
verdure, sunk into the desert table land of that vast
vontinent. Quiet though the existence of the family
trail after the moment of its first settlement in the spot
ere indicated enlivened as it was only by the adven-
tures of itsmembers with the wild creatures of the lo-
ality, the record of that existence is still, from the
opening page to the • conclusion, enthralling in a very
remarkable degree, thanks to the graphic and refreshing
ltyle of the author, and to the inexhaustible charm in-
Vesting the appearances both of the animal and of
the, vegetable kingdom. Dying of thirst in the
Midst of the desert, we
observe the family of Rolfe
suddenly and
unexpectedly saved, not by a well
of thrivulet, but by the juicy or succulent marrow
globe cacti
that ne
bubbli:g surprising
cacti—an incident reminding us of
one of the fresh-water spring
and there tin the raidst of the salt waves of the ocean,
eby saving Atvares
sa described "
gifted hand of Elio
in the pages of
and his companions,
We observe by the
Eliot Warburt‘o‘nD. "Darien," by
time
with intense interest, the onslaught
made, and at last successfully, upon an unfortunate arma-
dillo. Then we follow the hunters,' Robert Rolfe, Frank,
._au.dellar_ry, breathlessly and eagerly, as the one or the
other of the three shoots a prong horned antelope, or
that aprobat of wild animals. the bighorn, or the stately
•_€l.gaigantic elk, or the terrible and tiger-like carcajou,
tla t skulking and deadly foe of the beavers, the
thr_wolverine, Again we- pursue, in their movements
to thigh the " happy valley"—most unlike of all valleys
6 valley of the good Prince Rasselas—seeing them
tlaas luxuriate in a " battue" of black-tails, or watching,
movey another sense, somewhat painfully detecting the
2.nents of the American skunk, or polecat observing,
between
With still greater attention, the deadly conflict
rween the yellowish-coloured rattlesnake and the
tuolftek-hued boa constrictor. Frank, by the way, manages
v,...1...rap and collect together a strange and beautiful
trees,
of birds, including amongst the number the wild
the red-winged starling, the orange-headed trou-
V,es the oriole, the waken, the paroquet, the grey fea- '
b;rd !°amock-bird the blue jay, the green-bird, and the
orred-
Virginia nightingale. Mary, the wife of Rolfe,
1,11 the mother by him of "little Mary," Harry, and
of is not less useful to the " settlement "by her love
botany than the last-mentioned person himself by his
tsrion for ornithology. Aided by her instructions the
wily, soon after their arrival in the valley, obtain
treaclell as well as sugar from the sugar-maple, and de-
''olls Canes from the bread-pine. Cudjo, meanwhile,
I,'
oesidea constructing almost unassisted a splendid log-
building it up from floor to roof without a single
ntul to hold it together, contrives to track the wild bees
a very simple and ingenious method to the nest
pore, in the hollow of a lofty tree, they have. deposited
the honey. The account of this latter adventure and
tho destruction in the course of it of the bear who has
clambered up the hollow trunk to devour the honey, is
ens of the most entertaining sections of the nar-
rative, as ono of the most striking in interest
to k the mention of the formation of the lake
qt the dam unexpectedly constructed by the beavers.
nese same beavers, by the way, are the source of the
wealth accumulated by ten years' industry in the bosom
of the American wilderness. From what we have here
remarked
upon the volume it must be manifest that a
delightful charm, the charm of novelty and adventure,
parka every chapter of the " Desert Home.
Zia pretentious in its character, and less ambitious in its
volume
we cannot but regard this very beautiful little
":dume as perhaps the most truly artistic in every re-
LPect of any among the works yet written by Captain
AILZIYne Reid. It confirms us in our opinion of his great
Ithilities, and will command we feel assured from all who
the
it a genuine and sincere admiration. To enhance
l'uo general attractions of the book some of its more
Picturesque passages are accompanied by appropriate
embellishments, the facile pencil of William Harvey
having contributed to its pages twelve graceful and cha-
racteristic illustrations.

AZERVYN CLITHEROE. No. 111. By Harrison
Ainsworth.

Although merely an intermediate number, so to speak,
a number without any very striking incident, but still
Materially advancing the interest or the narrative, the
present instalment of " Mervyn Clitheroe" will be found
to be
very far indeed from being unattractive. The
principal occurrence transpiring before the close is the
death of old Uncle Moberley ; and the doubt hanging
over the nature of his will renders us breathless for the
next chapter and its revelations. Pownall—rascal that he
is—has evidently drugged old Talbot, to keep him quiet
during the night, and frightened Sam Massey and
o ,
_
William Weever out of their wits by his ghost-stories,
with a view to penetrate unobserved into the chamber of
death for the purpose of purloining the inestimable
Having
Parchments kept in the escrutoire. a presen.ti-
meet of all this, wo await the next number with no
considerable anxiety, dreading jest that vagabond
_.
ao a
2
barber may be the means of consigning ,0001
Year and the farm of Nethercrofts to Malpas
Sale, the most execrable character in the book, thereby,
of course, depriving of his rights our favourite Mervyn
Clitheroe. Prior to the incident of the death of old
Moberley, we are introduced to the family of the Bride-
oakes, who are bettered in condition by the benevolence
of Dr. Foam and the munificence of good old Mrs.
Mervyn. The dinner given by the latter hospitable
dame in the mansion of the Anchorites, is admirably
described from first to last—the pencilling of the various
guests displaying consummate ability in Mr. Ainsworth.
Pr. Bray is evidently intended for Dr. Parr, and, accord-
;l3, g to all accounts preserved to us of the latter personage,
the resemblance is masterly—all, of course, except the
wig, and we may add also the general external appear-
"Tice. As a delineation of character, the sketch seems to
be surprisingly good. Colonel and Mrs. Harbottle are also
Manifestly ",from the life." The butler, Mr. Comberbach,
comes out resplendently. The only failure in the whole
description, indeed, appears to us to be the very part of
all which the novelist plainly hoped to be the most suc-
cessful—we mean the account of Cuthbert Spring.
Pleasant fellow enough he doubtless must have been
--but his anecdotes fall flatly, being in truth altogether
surpassed by the droll incidents of the fallen wig de-
posited by the butler on the bald head of Dr. Foam, and
the pie monopolised by the rest of the guests, to the de-
triment of Dr. Bray. Before closing our notice of the
number for February, we may observe, by the way, that
John Brideoake is out of danger, and the whole family
are on the eve of proceeding to Ned Culeheth's cottage,
at Marston, in Cheshire. Mrs. Brideoake, whom we
suspect to be a Wi
-"ington under a false name, almost
tdestroys the reader's interest in the family by her in-
tolerable pride. From the next few chapters we shall
pect much in the way of still greater involvements in
the plot—a plot which •delightfully in-
tricate, like most of theprorpises to be
Alaiworth. ingenious fictions of lar.