The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-09 00:00:00

rum SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 9, 1864.

made. Not a boat of the Harbourmaster or Mas-
ter Attendant's department has escaped, and so
many nativa boats have been destroyed that
there is great difficulty in communicating
with ships. The roads all round us are blocked
with trees and ruins of every description. No
natives can be got to work; they are absent digging
among the ruins of their houses. The river is now,
and will be for some few tides, dangerous from
sunken and floating wrecks; but I think we shall
be able to work tomorrow. The staff and super•
numeraries who lived on board the Hindostan have
been made as comfortable as circumstances will

permit.
"We have had nothing like this hurricane since
1832 ; but in fearful results—viz., destruction of
houses, stores, and shipping—nothing has equalled
it. Nearly 300 ships are reported wrecked, on shore,
or irreparably damaged.
" Through God's mercy no lives have been lost,
and only one serious accident has occurred among
us, namely—a steward blown down the hatchway
of the Hindostan.—l am, gentlemen, your obedient
servant, I. H. DE SALIS.

"The Managing Directors, Peninsular and
Oriental Steam Navigation Company, London,"
Naval and Military Intelligence.

VALETTA, Nov. 3.—Her Majesty's despatch
vessel Psyche, Lient.•Commander Robert Sterne,
left .this port on Monday morning last for Mar.

seilles to embark his Excellency Sir Henry Storks,
K.C.8., the new Governor of Malta, who is ex-
pected to leave England on the 10th inst. to assume
the Governorship of the island. Sir Gaspard Le
Marchant, with his family, left this evening in the

Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer Poonah
for Southampton, and Major-Gen. Ridley has as-
sumed thecommand pro ton. Captain Vessey, 22d
Regiment, proceeded as passenger in the Pysche for
Marseilles. The paddlewheel frigate Magicienne,
16, Capt. W. Army tage, left yesterday for the

Pirmas with stores for the Liffey, 35, Capt. George
Parker. She will thence proceed to Smyrna, Cana

dia, and Corfu. Capt, Bowden, aide-de-camp to

Major-Gen. Ridley, and Capt. Bland, Royal Engi.

neers, went in the Magicienne. The Tyrian, 2
gunboat, Lieut. T. P. Murray, left on the 29th ult

~.
for Gerbi, in the Regency of Tunis, for the protec.
tion of British interests there, in consequence of an
attack on the island by a numerous band of lawless
Arabs from the mainland, in which several lives
were lost. The Tyrian will relieve the Ricer, 11,
which has been despatched to Gerbi, on intelligence

reaching Tunis of the occurrence. In consequence
of news having been received of the English
merchant schooner Mermaid having been sunk by
a Spanish battery at Ceuta, her Majesty's frigate
Orlando, 46, Capt. G. R. Randolph, has been de-
spatched from Tunis by order of the Commander-
in-Chief Vice-Admiral Smart, to inquire into the
circumstances which led to this extraordinary act on
the part of the Spanish authorities. We learn from
Gibraltar that the Marlborough, 121, Capt. C. Fel-
lowes, arrived there on Oct. 22, and left there on
following day for England. The surveying-vessel
Firefly, 4, Lieut.-Commander Wilkinson, arrived
yesterday mornicg from the Island of Favignana,

on the southwest Boast of Sicily, which is now nn,
dergoing an accurate survey. The Chanticleer, 17
Commander Riek, came in this morning from Syra.

case. The Revenge, 73 (inaring the flag of Rear

Admiral H. It. Yelverton; C. 8.), Capt. the Hon.
F. A. Foley, leaves on Sunday or Monday next for
a cruise on the coasts of Sicily and Spain. The
Admiral Superintendent at Malta, Rear-Admiral
H. T. Austin, C. 8., is about to leave this island on
promotion, consequent on the decease of Vice-Admi-

Opening of Southwark Bridge.

Yesterday afternoon another wide and much-needed
bridge thoroughfare into the city was given to the public
by the opening of this structure toll free for a period of six
or twelve months at least, if not for perpetuity. The nego-
tiations and arrangements which have at last brought about
this most desirable result have been for some long time past
in progress. The shareholders were not reluctant to take
almost any terms for a structure which had cost them very
much, and which had paid them almost nothing at all, and
seemed unlikely in the future to be m.re remunerative than
daring the past. They accordingly offered it to the
Bridge-house Estate Committee for the small sum of
£200,000, which, considering that it cost up to the time of
its opening in 1819 £660,000, and is as good now as the day
it was first used, was a very liberal offer, especially when
we recollect that the mere approaches would, at the present
day, cost as much as the whole work did 45 years ago. But
the corporation were not unnaturally unwilling to enter on
what must in any case be a costly purchase without some
better proofs of the utility of the roadway than that which
was furnished in theory, for the practical fact that during
the greater part of the day London-bridge was virtually no
thoroughfare at all was ignored by every one as beside the
real question at issue. At last a compromise was come to,
and the directors of the bridge company agreed to let the
corporation have the public use of the bridge free of toll for
a space of six months for the sum of £1,834, or for 12
months for £2,750, the bridge company under taking all ne-
cessary repairs of roads, &c., during either the 6 months or
year. With this offer the corporation closed at once, and the
result was the public opening of the bridge on those terms
yesterday. Until now it has never been et we to either
shareholders or public, and the bridge directors have done
wisely in letting the public have the use of it toll free for a
very small sum, and trusting, like Sam Slick with the clock,

that when at the expiration of the time the article lent must
either be returned or paid for, the public will have got ac •
customed to its facilities, and be so convinced of its use, if
not necessity, that the city will have no option but to pur.
chase it. Southwark-bridge is now the oldest of our metro-
politan bridges, except Vauxhall, which was opened in 1813,
whereas Southvi ark was not finished till more than six years
later. The span of its magnificent centre arch is one of the
largest known to exist, and was for years considered an en-
gineering marvel. The ribs of all the three arches are ar-
ranged as nearly as possible to the constructive features of a
stone bridgenra new principle for a cast iron arch, but one
which time has proved very successful. The segmental por-
tions of the arches, and the struts and cross braces, are kept
secure by dovetail scckets and long iron wedges, driven in
between the jt_ ints, so that through bolts were only used in
building and till the wedgea had been driven home. How
these wedges will stand the jar of heavy city traffic, after
long repose and comparative idleness. remains to be seen,
though no doubt is entertained as to their perfect security.
The spandrils of the arches are similarly fastened, and the
roadway rests on the ribs, overlaid with iron slabs between.
When the work was finished and the centerings removed
scarcely any dt flection could be discovered, though subse-
quent experiments made to ascertain the effect of contrac••
tion and expansion showed that the centre arch rose in sum-

mer from an inch to an inch aril a half higher than in win-
ter.
The piers and abutments are of solid stone, founded
upon timber piling carried below the bed of the river, and
the masonry is tied throughout by vertical and horizontal
bond stones so as to meet the thrust in all directions. The
first stone of the bridge was laid by Admiral Lord Keith on
the 23d May, 1813, and it was opened at midnight on the 24th
March, 1819, as the clock of St. Paul's struck 12. Such is
a rough sketch of the bridge which was yesterday given to
the public, and which, we trust, will never be revoked from
their free use. Shortly before 12 the Lord Mayor in state,
accompanied by the Lady Mayoress, and attended by the
Mace and Sword bearers, drove to the entrance of the bridge
on the city side. The members of the Bridge-house Estate
Committee also attended in their carriages. Among others
present were Mr T. Webber, the chairman ; Mr Alderman
J. C.Lawrence, Mr Alderman Phillips, Mr Alderman Salo-
mons, M.P., Mr Alderman Gibbons, Mr J. Kilday, Mr W.

Tegg, Mr Brand, City Controller, iSco. They were received
by the chairman and several directors of the bridge com •
pany, including Mr F. H. Brandrunt, Mr Carter, Mr W.

Pott, &e. Upon the arrival of the Lord Mayor and the

various civic officials on the city side of the bridge, the
directors of the company advanced to meet them, and the
chairman brit fly thani-ed his lordship for his kindness in
opening the bridge. His lordship replied that it gave him
great pleasure in assisting at the ceremony, as he felt sure
that the bridge would when opened free of toll greatly faci-
litate the passage of traffic to and from the city, and so
prove of essential benefit to the public.
The temporary barrier was then removed, and the Lord
Mayor and members of the Bridge-house Committee drove
over the bridge to the Southwark side, and turned round,
The barrier having in the meantime on that side also been
removed, one of the company officials read the following

influence. When such alterations are known to have taken
place within 100 or even 60 years, scarcely any limit could
be assigned to changes that might be effected in 1,000 years
or more. Mr Crawfurd, on the other hand, defended the
opinions expressed by Mr Farrar, which he considered con-
firmed his views respecting the diversity of the human spe-
cies. The president adverted to the recent discoveries of
the works of man mingled with the bones of extinct ani-
mals, as proving that human beings must have lived on the
earth many thousands of years before the historical record,
and that it was possible in that lapse of time for all the
ohanges now observed in the races of man to have been
effected.
The meeting then adjourned.