The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-03 00:00:00

CAMBRIAN.

Yesterday a special meeting of this company was held at
Bridge-street, 'Westminster—Captain J. W. Johns in the
chair.

Tho CILIIII3IAN explaihod that tho first business was to

cairy out the powers of their Act, so far as it related to the
number of directors. Ho therefore moved that the number
of directors be reduced to six, which number had already
been elected at the half-yearly meeting. This was carried
unanimously.
The CHAIRMAN then propoacd that the powers of the
Oswestry and Newton Railway Act, 1881, be put into ope-
ration for the purpose of creating new preference shares or
stock of the company, to which no voting powers were at-
tached, and it was adopted. A resolution relating to the
powers of the Oswestry, Ellesmere, and Wkitchurch Rail-
way Act, 1861, was adopted ; and it was resolved that the
shares of the Newtown and .Machynlleth be consolidated
into stock.

The proceedings concluded with a vote of thanks to the
chairman.

Railway Traffic Returns for the Week.
Miles Opened. Receipts.
Railways.. _.......,-...._ -._.........--...,„
-.e-
-1864. 1803. 1864. 1803.
£ .6
Belfast and N, Counties 136 136 2,452 2.376
Belfast and County Down 49 49 759 678
Blyth and Tyne 2B 28 2,336 1,609
Bristol and Exeter 1215 1211 7,669 7,268
Caledonian 2625 •,-42 20,178 18.038
Cambrian
Coekermouth .1t Workington B5 85 301 :11:1
Cork and Bandon 2O 20 403 346
Cork, Blackrock, & Passage 6l 61 321 251
Cork and Youg-hal
Cornwall 65 535 2,2',7 1.834
Deeside . 17 17 311 421
Dublin & Belfast Junction . 63 63 1,6 ,3 1.521
Dublin and Drogheda 75 75 1,784 1,811
Dublin and Meath
Dub. &Wicklow and Wextd 9ll 51 8,189 2,772
Furness, &c 5O 5u 3,333 3,001
Glasgow & South-Western
Gt. Eastena,Nrik.,&E.Union 663 663 31,661 30,437
Great Northern 387 351 33,965 31,891
Great North of Scotland
Gt. Northn. & Westn. (Irel.) 715 715 518 4 7
9t.Southn. & Westn.(lrlnd.) 3875 3541 9,533 9,752
Great Western 10555 10561 69,389 65,185
Hull and Hornsea l3 - - -
Inverness & Aberdeen June 1065 1065 1,941 1,816
Inverness & Perth Junction 1195 - 2,922 -
Irish North-Western 145 145 1,818 1,747
Kent Coast 27 10 3,830 13.5
Lancashire & Yorkshire 403 395% 45,247 39,036
Limerick and Ennis... 241 245 191 153
Limerick and Foynes 26 265 328 140
Llanelly 465 465 811 833
London & North-Western
London and Blackwall 155 55 2,029 2,061
London & South-Western
Loud. Brighton, &S. Coast 2675 2504 23,732 21,601
London, Chatham, & Dover 725 725 8,001 6.813
Do. Metropolitan Extension 114 105 2,510 1,410
Man.,Sheflield,& Lincolnsh
Manch. S.Jun.& Altrincham 95 95 1,473 1,343
Maryport and Carlisle 2B 28 1,373 1.184
Metropolitan .. 35 35 2,118 1,518
Midland (incL N.-Western).. 641 641 50,444 46,553
Midland Gt.Westn. of Irind... 282 2595 4,702 4,338
Monkland 715 715 1,699 1.612
Monmouthsh. Rail. & Canal 44 44 2,852 2,731
North British, Edin., Perth
and Dundee
N-Eastern and Stock. & DarL 1095 1095 67,370 60,673
North London 9 9 3,294 3, 65
North Staffordshire 254 252 8,744 8.339
Rhymney
Scottish Central . ...
Scottish North-Eastern l3B 1325 6,450 6.124
Somerset and Dorset 66 391 935 406
South Devon 795 751 4.712 4,449
South-Eastern..... 306 308 28,376 27,500
Taff Yale ....... 57 57 5,781 5,638
Ulster
Vale of C1wyd..._....
Vale of Neath 435 431 3,009 2.334
Waterford and Kilkenny 3l 31 403 670
Waterford and Limerick 77 77 3,059 1,396
West Cornwall 271 271 1,608 902
W. Hartlepool If arbr.&RaiL
W'haven,Cleator,& Egrmnt lO 7 703 585
Whitehaven Junction l3 13 990 745
Whitehaven & Furness Jun 35 35 967 777
FOREIGN AND COLONIAL.

Austrian B2B 828 36,676 30,569
Bahia and San Francisco
Belgian Eastern Junction 2 26i 313 294
Bombay, Baroda, & Cen. India 185 1851 2,227 1,342
Buffalo and Lake Huron l6l 1611
Detroit anti Milwaukie lB5 185 5,198 3,364
Dutch Rhenish lOBl 1061 7,074 6,218
Eastern Bengal
Eastern of France. ......
East Indian
Grand Trunk of Canada 1335 1335 20,657 16,7,.4
Great Central of Belgium lBO 5,877
Great Indian Peninsula 553 495 6,766 4,882
Ghat Luxembourg 134 134 4,821 4,810
Great Southern of India
Great Western of Canada 345 315 10,573 8,058
Madras

31adrid. Sara,goss a daiicant G5O 400 18,12 a 19,557
Northern of Canada 94 91 2,035 1,141
Northern of France 697 697 61,711 59,857
Norwegian Trunk
Ottoman
... 409 368
....

Paris, Lyons, & Mediterrn 1805 1713 145,769 133,044
Paris and Orleans 1614 1494 71,823 65,943
Pernambuco .. .. 77j 77} 569 482
Royal Danish 69 69
Seinde. . lO5 105
South Austrian
Southern of France ..... 770 680 3!,051 31,347
Victorian 196 196 8,4.7 6.191

Welland
West Flanders 75 75 1,416 1,2 t 7
W. and N. W. of France. 960 960 71,611 63,933

The Fire and Loss of Life at Newington.

Mr Win. Carter, the coroner for East Surrey, yesterday
opened an inquest at the Royal Albert Tavern, East-street,
Newington, on the body of Clara Mary Ann Watkins, aged
one year and five months, who perished in the fire that took
place in the premises belonging to Mr John Watkins, a
newsvender and tobacconist, carrying on business at No.
26, is Eaat•atreet. The inquiry created a painful amount
of interest. Mr Inspector Dann attended cfficially to
watch the case.

The jury having beer; sworn, the following evidence was
taken :

James H. Weedon, an oil and colourman, said that he
resided at 29, East-street. On Wednesday morning last he
was in his shop when he heard a cry of "Fire." He at
once ran across the road and saw Mrs Watkins at the door,
who sail, " the room upstairs is on fire, and my baby is in
bed." He knew that Mrs Watkins was the occupier, and
he went upstairs to the front room and found it in one mass
of flame, in fact the bed and everything appeared on fire.
Witness entered the room but could not find the child. On
account of the heat and smoke he was forced to come out,
but he re-entered and found the child lying on the floor. lle
then ran across and procured some water, and he, with the
assistance of others, got the flames extinguished. He had
not entered the room since, and was therefore unable to tell
how the fire was caused. The child was frightfully burned
over the whole of the body. The first time he entered the
room he crawled on his hands and knees to get to the bed,
but was unable.
Mrs Mary Ann Watkins said her husband was a clerk at
Mr Bo wering's, Blackfriars-road, and also kept the house
and shop in which the fire occurred. Witness carried on the
business of a tobacconist and newsvender during her him
-
band's absence. He used to leave home at 5 o'clock in the
morning, and remained out all day. He went out at that
time on Wednesday last, leaving witness and her infant in
bed. Her sister and her husband lodged in her house. Wit-
ness got up at half-past 7, leaving her baby at the edge of
tho bed, having previously put a pillow at its side. Her
peepers were brought to the shop, and she went round with
them to serve her customers. She returned in a quarter of
an hour and folded some more papers, and whilst at the door
a neighbour came and said the place was on fire. She went
upstairs and found the door ajar as she left it. She pushed
the door open and saw the room fall of red smoke and flame.
She gave an alarm, and assistance arrived. The whole of
the furniture, bedding, and clothing have been destroyed.
No fire had been lighted in the house. There was a box of
lucifers in the room, but where she could not say. When
she last saw them they were on a high table at the foot of
the bedstead on the top of some books.
The father of the deceased said that last Wednesday
morning he left home, leaving his wife and child in bed, as
before described. His wife's brother came to him about ten
o'clock, and told him what had happened. He returned
homeimmediately, and found that the room was nearly
burnt out. He looked fcr the cause, but could not find any.
He was in the habit of smoking a pipe when he wont out of
a morning, He always lighted his pipe at the shop door
when he opened it. Tho deceased could not have get to
the box of lucifers, as it stood upon a high table. He had
no doubt but the fire began in the bedroom.
By the Coroner—Ha had no charge to make against any
ono.

Mary M'Laren, wife of a master butcher, said the mother
of the deceased was her daughter. She saw the child that
morning for the first time. Nothing had come to her
knowledge to lead her to suspect anyone with having wil-
fully sot the premises on fire.
The witness Weedon recalled—When he took up the
child it was so hot that he could not hold it, without
wrapping it in the pillow and a piece of carpet.
The mother of the child recalled—She kept a kitten, but
she did not know where it was on that morning. She
believed the child must have got possession of some lucifer
matches, and these igniting, set firs to the bedding.
The learned Coroner summed up, and remarked upon the
great mystery attached to the case as to the origin of the
fire, and

The jury, after consulting, returned a verdict " That the
deceased died from the effects of burns and suffocation,
through a fire breaking out, and which said fire was the
result of accident."
The proceedings, which lasted some hours, then termi-
nated.

A BOMBSHELL IN A MAGAZINE.—A few days
ago one of our ordinary light-draught gunboats belonging
to Admiral Lee's fleet, on the James River, was fired at
from a rebel shore battery. One V the shells struck and
entered the magazine, but did not explode. Upon a search
being made for the rebel missile, it was discovered that it
had passed through two barrels of powder and lodged in a
third, from which it was removed. At the time this kindly
shell made its grand entree into the magazine there were
about 100 souls—officers and men—on board of the gun-
boat, every ono of whom would undoubtedly have been
blown to atoms had it exploded. It should be remembered
that in constructing our light-draught gunboats it is impos-
sible to sink the magazine, machinery, and boilers below
water.-4merican Paper. . _

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SPIXIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNAL'S

- -

TIMES.---It is bat a few weeks ago that the whole
country was resounding with lamentations over the
decline of England's Mfluenee. Not only foreign
critics bat native statesmen declared ihat the moral
weight of this country in the affairs of the world
was absolutely lost, and that in turning our back
upon the Danes we had taken farewell of our
national greatness, Mr. Roebuck, however, is by
no means of that opinion, and hie estimate of the
case is all the more valuable because it comes from
a hostile witness. He, as he has told us, would
rather, for his own part, have gone to war, He
would have token up the cause of the Danes; but,
though that Gustation was decided against his views,
he thinks not only that it was decided conformably
with the general opinion of the public, but that
the decision did us no harm whatever. So far is he
from regarding our "influence" as lost that he is
overpowered with the contemplation of its present
magnitude and extent. He thinks it almost " teme-
rity" in a man to seek a seat in an Assembly so
powerful as the English House of Commons—an
Assembly which, by its political teaching and all-
pervading influence, affects the destinies of mankind
and the civilisation of the world. Looking back at
his own career, he is astonished at his presumption
in entering Parliament; and be certainly seems to
believe that Parliament was never greater, or, upon
the whole, wiser than it is now, He regards it as a
body intrusted with a deposit of inestimable price,
and therefore necessarily circumspect and even
timid in its measures ; but he claims for it the credit
of impressing the world by its principles and its
action. We may take it for granted, then, that Mr.
Roebuck is not dissatisfied with the results of our
pacific policy ; but the speeches at Sheffield on
Thursday evening did present a fresh illustration
of the feeling which that policy excited, It is
curious to see how earnestly even now people are
reasoning with themselves about the European
duties of England, and how they ask each other
whether we have not been apathetic or pusillani-
mous in declining the other day to go to war, as we
should have done in past times. Mr Roebuck him•
self remarked that as far as domestic politics went
we were all of one mind. There may be two parties,
but there is practically only one policy between
them. "We are all Liberals," says Mr Roebuck,
"every man of us." But, nevertheless, there is not
a public meeting in any part of the country at
which the Danish question or the American ques-
tion is not brought up and debated over again. It
was so at Sheffield, and it is so everywhere. Fight-
ing has been so much our habit, and seems so truly
our nature, that we cannot easily reconcile ourselves
to sitting out while the war is going on. Yet the
Americans themselves are giving us a pretty ime
pressive lesson at this moment. After three years
of the bloodiest and most costly war ever known
they are gradually resolving to do what they might
have done at the beginning se about any war at all.
They talk of ceasing to fight, and coming to terms
by negotiation and parley. That is the meaning of
the " armistice and convention," which it is now
thought even Mr Lincoln will be induced to approve.
Yet, if it would have been true wisdom in the Ame-
ricans not to go to war, was it not wisdom in us to
keep out of the quarrel ? There is really something
very singular in this popular fear that we may have
been too peaceful, and wanting in public spirit.
Why, it is but ten years since we went to war with
Russia on a purely European question. It is only
seven years since we put forth our whole strength
to preserve a great dependency more than 10,000
miles off. It is only two years since we actually
drew the sword in defence of an international right,
and only sheathed it again when that right was ac-
knowledged and respected. How often is it ex-
pected that we should go to war to keep our credit
up ? We were fighting up to the year 1861. Could
not we, without losing character, decline to fight in
1864 ? Do three years make so long and enervating
a period of peace ? It seems to us that these popular
misgivings indicate as genuine and vital a war
spirit in the country as anybody need desire. Sir
F. Crossley Approved our non-intervention, and his
own areach gave evidence of the difficulty, not to
say impossibility, of interference as far as America
is concerned. In the Danish question we had at
least this facility of action, that if we went to
war we should know on which side to fight.
Nobody desired to help the Prussians. Bat in
the American case there was a party which would
rather have helped the North than the South, and
would have struck in for the Federals if we were
to strike it at all. How was that difficulty to be
overcome? Here, at this Sheffield banquet, was one
eminent speaker ad for the North, while another
was well known to be all for the South. How could
such views have been reconciled ? As it turns out,
we have not been ruined by the loss of American
cotton, and if neither Federals nor Confederates are
exactly satisfied with our neutrality we must look
for a more favourable estimate of our conduct by
and by. At any rate we have escaped the difficulty,
and done neither ourselves nor anybody else any
harm. We do not Suppose that Mr. Roebuck's views
will pass unchallenged. Optimists ere always few
in number, and it requires, indeed, a philosophical,
if not a partial, eye to ace things es Mr. Roebuck
sees them. Not but what there is truth in his views,
only it is a truth which will not satisfy everybody.
lie has now told us that he—a known Liberal, an
old Reformer, and a politician of advanced opinions
—is so impressed, and, as it were, overborne by what
he thinks the grandeur, prosperity, power, and in.
fluence of this country, that he is almost ready to
accept inaction for the future rather than run the
risk of injuring so magnificent a fabric. The House
of Commons he looks at as commanding such respect
and exercising such power that a man who enters
it may well be awed at the responsibilities he accepts.
But how, then, could Reform improve such a state
of things as this ? Have we not, as a nation, arrived
at such a pitch of greatness and happiness that our
duty is now not so much to go on as to hold fast ;
not so much to get more as to keep what we have
got ? That is the kind of question which arises out
of Mr. Roebuck's reflections, and it is a view of
things which may be curiously contrasted with the
views of Mr. Bright. That gentleman told us can-
didly, in one of his speeches last autumn, that if he
had nothing to find fault with we should not hear
him speak at all. He is all for looking forward,
without troubling himself to look back. He thinks
not of what is done, but of what there remains to
do, and busies himself exclusively with that. Mr.
Roebuck's gaze is in the opposite direction. "Take
care of what you have got," says he; " no nation
ever had such a treasure of prosperity and gran.
deur." That is very true, and it is quite as well
that we should be now and then reminded of it.
We are always more mat/ to think of what we want
than of what we have, and Mr. Roebuck does his
countrymen good service by telling them occasion-
allp how much they have really got to lose.
DAILY NEWS.—Caution in the adoption of new
armaments was as marked a charactenstic in the
Duke of Wellington's method as a statesman as it
was in his generalship. When he filled the office
of MastereGeneral of the Ordnance he saw so much
of immature invention in the arms and appliances
of the soldier that his prejudices in favour of the
rough old weapon with whit he and his steadfast
troops won Waterloo was rather confirmed then
weakened, and we find him opposing the introduc-
tion of the rifle long after its powers were being
made available in tho French army. And yet that
old " brown Bess," generally of Brummagem ex-
traction, was well known to fire away the weight of
a man's body in bullets for every soldier killed ; so
bad an arm was it that it could not be better de-
scribed than by the name " gaspipe," which the
Yankees, in their humorous phraseology, gave to
the same useless weapon they were obliged to begin
to fight with. The duke, no doubt, carried his aver•
sion to changes too far in refusing his sanction till
1852, when the Crimean war was threatening on
the horizon ; and perhaps if the Enfield rifle had
been the sole weapon of our army then, Lord Raglan
would not have had to resort to the almost lucky
chance of getting a couple of guns to bear upon the
dense columns of Russian infantry at the Alma,
However, the French army was no better armed
than our own, although they had the advantage
of all the knowledge acquired by those officers who
had been experimenting for ten years and more. It
was the Chasseurs only who carried the combine a
tige, and this wis a rifle soon found so defective as
to be superseded by the Minie now in use. So that
this cautious acceptance of a new arm by the two
beat equipped armies of Europe was recommended
by soldiers of experience in the field; and that it was
necessary was afterwards shown when, the Enfield
rifle having been made the universal arm of the ser-
vice, it was found that on one important occasion in
India the ammunition could not be used in conse-
quence of some irregularity in the size of the cart-
ridges. This was precisely the kind of fault which
was suspected in supplanting a rude but never-
failing weapon with one so nice in all its require-
ments as the modern rifle. All practical soldiers
look with a certain amount of distrust upon the set
experiments of the practice ground, where every-
thing is arranged deliberately and with every ad.
vantage in favour of the weapon, and where the
arm is handled not by a rough soldier, but by an
expert. Now, all these facts have a bearing upon
the important change from muzzle-loading rifles to
breech-loaders, which has now been decided upon
by the War Department upon the advice of a spe-
cial committee, who have taken all the evidence to
be obtained in refere ice to the use of breech-loading
rifles in actual service, as in the American war and
in the late Dano-German campaign. It must be
remarked, however, of the evidence given by diffe-
rent officers, that it was by no means so decidedly
in favour of the breech-loader as the sole firearm of
the service as to warrant the immediate and general
adoption of the arm which Earl de Grey is said to

have deierrnired e nor Colonel Gell wey, i E.,
and C ptain Aelereon, 8,. A., specially sent to ob-
serve tlee armamezet employed in the Amer icen war,
report great difference of opinion as to the value of
the breech-loader, and that it is but scantily used in
the armies, the American officers rather recommend-
ing that it should be only partially employed by
flank companies in a regiment. The Prussian
needle-rifle, so much spoken of in connection with
the taking of Dybbol, is certainly not much eulo-
gised by those who saw it in use, though it is ad.
witted to bo lees liable to be put out of order than
the muzzle-loader; but the Austrians had tried and
discarded it. Tried in our own cavalry and in-
fantry the breech-loaders of Mr. Westley Richards,
of Mr: Sharpe, of Mr. Terry, have all been favour-
ably reported of, and in some cases commanding
officers have ventured to recommend the general
adoption of a breechloader. On the other hand, wc
have officers stating that it would be attended with
great waste of ammunition, from the facility with
which the soldier could load and fire ; and this, of
course, would mean that little execution would be
done, because aiming with the breech-loader is quite
as necessary as with the muzzle-loader. On review•
in;; the different opinions, however, we arrive at cer-
tain evident advantages which inherently belong te
the breech-loader. These are, greatly increased
rapidity of fire, easy loading without a ramrod—
which is a point of very great value, as a man might
often be in such a position that to use the ramrod
would be simply impossible—and the capability of
firing without the use of percussion caps. This last
gives another great advantage, and, although it
might not belong to every method of breech loading
yet it seems to be one which should not be lost sight
of in selecting the kind to be adopted into the sere
vice. A man may lose his supply of caps when he
has a pouch full of cartridges, and would, ofcoarse,
then be a very useless rifleman. The abolition of
the ramrod and the percussion cap not only sirrpli•
flea the use of the weapon to a most important ex.
tent but in point of economy it would be a onside•
ration, and no doubt would go far towards meeting
the cost of converting the present Enfields into
efficient breech-loaders, as proposed to the gun.
making trade in competition, and which we have
already seen can be readily accomplished by the
Mont Storm and some other methods. There can
be no question as to the necessity for a breech-loader
rifle to put our army on equal terms with others,
and the feasibility of converting the Enfields into
efficient breech loaders ; the chief difficulty hitherto
has ebeen to obtain a cartridge suitable in every
respect for military purposes. The Ordnance Select
Committee will have to exercise the closest scrutiny
upon this point. In the French service we hear the
Cent Gerdes are armed with a breech-loader using
a metallic cartridge that carries its own igniting
material, which the Emperor Napoleon, himself no
bad judge in such matters, has pronounced the
solution of the problem of a military breech-loader.
The result of Earl de Grey's invitation to the
gunmakers of England will, we have not the least
doubt, be that more than one will be found to an-
swer all the requisites. But having got our breech-
loader, the far more important question to be decided
is, whether it should be made the only arm of the
infantry ? It must not be overlooked that in adopt-
ing the breech-loader we sacrifice one great power
of the rifle—long range, which is only to be got by
the muzzle loader. That is to say, according to all
the breech-loaders made as yet; if they can be per-
fected up to the standard of the Whitworth large
bore, for example, then the defect would be sup-
plied. The value of a modern rifle is, that it can
kill at 2,000 yards or more; and with telescopic
sights, in the hands of first-rate marksmen, a single
company armed with it would be able to silence
battery of artillery. The same advantage of range
would enable troops armed with such rifles to strike
the first blow, and in a very effective manner. It
is perfectly true that the tendency of modern war.
fare is to return to the old method of close quarters
as a consequence of the use of long range weapons
but the converse of this tendency is that the range
of both artillery and small arms will be increased,
so as to give an advantage to that side which can
first commence the work of destruction. The
breech loader would undoubtedly be an admirable
weapon at close quarters, as well as at from 1,000 to
500 yards; but while a column was getting within
this distance of the enemy it might be very severely
dealt with by riflemen armed with heavy, long-
range rifles. With all submission to the profess
sional authorities, we think that, so far from dimi.
nishing the range of our rifles, we should increase
it, and arm a certain proportion of a regiment with
weapons of much greater power than the Enfield,
or any yet employed. This—with probably the
employment of small and extremely light artillery,
one-pounders or even less—would seem to be one of
the innovations we have to contemplate in addition
to breechloaders.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

LIVERPOOL—FRIDAY.
There was a fair attendance of buyers to-day, but they
acted with extreme caution, and we call wheat a shade
lower to sell than on Friday last. Flour still in fair de.
wand and prices unchanged. Oats and oatmeal steady.
Indian corn offered freely. Beans, peas, and barley not
quite so saleable.