The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-10 00:00:00

SWEDE N.

At Stockholm on the 24!h ult. a powder magazine
blew up, and caused great damage and consternation.
More than 1,000 windows were broken, 100 of which
were those of the royal palace. The total damage in
the city is estimated at 115,000 rixdollars (about
430,000 f.) It is not known how many lives were
destroyed. Only two bodies had been dug out of the
ruins of the magazine when the account left.

ITALY.

Accounts from Rome of the 31st.ult. state :

" The Austrian Government has just offered to the
Pontificial Government such great facilities for the
creation of a Roman army, that that measure
may now be considered as definitively decided on.
The effective strength of the Pontifical troops was
settled by the treaties of 1815 at 20,000 men. The
following is the plan in which this matter will
be carried out. All the existing corps will be
disbanded and remodelled; two regiments of a foreign
legion will be recruited for out or the country. Aus-
tria lends the town of Como as the centre of forma-
tion for this force ; each of these regiments will be
2,500 strong. These 5,000 men will none of them be
Italians, and as far as can be, Swiss, Austrian, and
Bavarian. Baden will also furnish its contingent. Two
Roman or Italian regiments, each cf 3,500 men,
will be formed from the remnants 6f the regiment of
Guard.; and other troops wore in course of organiza-
tion. The gendarmerie will be carried up to a strength
of 5,000 men, 4,000 of whom are already enrolled. A
battalion of foot chasseura of from 1,200 to 1,500
strong, a regiment of dragoons, and one or two bri-
gades of artillery, will complete this force of 20,000
men. This plan is certainly well conceived as to the
object which it is sought to attain. Tho 5,000 gen-
darmes, the 5,000 Swiss and Germans, and the bat-
talion of chasseurs, commanded by M. Alderon-Po-
loalbs, an officio: devoted to the Holy See, will form
an effective force, which will ensure the fidelity
of the two native regiments, and will permit the Ponti-
fical Government to protect itself with its own troops.
Unfortunately the formation and the support of this
army will entail fresh charges on the treasury. The
necessary outlay is estimated at about 2,000,000 of
piastres, which is just about the amount of the deficit of
last year. However this may be, this necessary
measure has been too long waited for to be
any longer delayed ; France has constantly
recommended it to be done, and Austria, it is said, now
lends her co-operation. Some Roman subjects who had
joined in a more or lass active manner the Roman re-
volution, but who had received permission to remain in
the Holy City, have just received orders to quit the
Roman states. Some new names have also been added
to the list of such of the inhabitants as cannot leave
their houses before sunrise, or remain out of them after
sunset."

The Giornale di Roma publishes a curious decree
in the Latin language, concerning an application for
the canonization of " the servant of God, Caspar del
Bufalo, a canon of the Basilica of St. Mark, at Rome,"
born in 1786. After recounting that the Reverend
Canon showed an extraordinary devotion from his
earliest childhood, and that his life and death were
such throughout as to impress every one with the
conviction that he was a saint, the document pro-
ceeds t o state that an application was made to the
Sacred Congregation of Apostolical Benediction, to
examine into the alleged virtues o f the said Reverend
Canon, and the miracles he was enabled by the grace
of God to perform. Whereupon, notwithstanding
ten years had not yet elapsed since the application,
Cardinal Altieri having proposed the question to the
Congregation, " whether it be meet to sign the
commission for the introduction of his case before the
Congregation ?" the question was decided in the
affirmative on the 10th ult., and the decision of the
Congregation confirmed on the 15th. This decree is
signed by Cardinal Lambruschini.
A French soldier, belonging to the 32d Regiment
of Infantry, convicted of having murdered a Roman
tavern-keeper, was sentenced to death, and shot on
the 26th, on the Piazza del Popolo.

CONDITION OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
_, We have been favoured (says the Morning Advertiser),
South a perusal of an interesting letter from Adelaide,
°ouch Australia, addressed to Mr. Bennett, of the
Piazzas,
Covent-garden. It give.; a graphic account of the
position anri
hprospects of that greet colony. That por-
tion of
i:tc h refers to the political wants of South
Australia will b
tina. e read with special interest at the pre-
sent, when the whole qneition of the government of
the colony is
Parliament. about The writer
to be brought before the British
trate in the Cele, writer is Mr. William Lang, a magis-
charge of the KoeYn,ict,ind who has hid, for some years,
to the great Burra erdiatrict, which is the town nearest
.. In the London ra mines. Mr. Lang says:—
virTimes.ms of the lath of April, I see a
long article on Sir
takeoolesworth's, motion, in which
particular notice is
feet which was not pre-
viously known here, tmaanOtdfi Lord Grey had conceded to
Canada the right to
want here, ytheir civil list. This is
just what they
ell their revenues. A,
it andha the entire control of
to
all
been conceded to
Canada, it must be allowed
the interested clique 1
when they will get rid of the other colonies,
and
not enabledt to usurp
which, in all the colonies, have
general inte-
tteefui wtoorth's views;
the Government for their own,
friends
as inde-
rests. I entirely approve or Sir W. Nioiense
the eeloniee will be infinitely more
Urge upon all our
pendent States. that no-
thing short of that will satisfy them, nor
ought
Self government is the tree principle ofh it.
and progressive improvement. We have nothing
eFty
to fear for our trade, manufactures, or commerce.
Every encouragement should be given to settlers. if
You had halt' a million of English at the Can
of Good Hope you would have no more Kafir ()Alt!.
breaks. Turn your soldiers into settlers, give from
25 to 100 acres of land to all such as are married and
have children, pay their pensions in the country where
they settle, fig them in towns of 100 families, each
from five to ten miles apart, enrol them as militia,
to turn out whenever called on fir their own or the
colonies' defence; put no trust in black fellows, one
white face is worth a dozen of them. They soon know
when they are the weaker
party, and that alone keeps
them quiet. As the districts get settled here we have
no outrages, but 200 or 300 miles away they every now
and then murder a shepherd, steal his sheep, and rob
:
his hut. Government should give every encouragement
ra ement
trillions; to emigration out here. We have room for the
more the country is explored the better it turns out to
he; everything is fast improving—men ' manners, and
moveables are all like getting more • glorious Old En-
gland. What a pretty mesa you have been in at home!
It is quite time that the voice of the people shouldbe
more powerfully exerted, and make
_both the.
ariste-
cratic factions understand the! a Government '
fur the whole, and not their particular party or
connexions. Nepotism must cease, and if Old yEn
land is still to go on and keep ahead, the base of all herg-
institutions must be widened, and scot and lot, the true
Anglo-Saxon._ principle, must have the greatest extension.
the za • Locke King I see has carried his motion, and
consequence of all the passing hubbub has been that
Lord John has premised an efficient measure of
further reform
that
now m next session. Every city and borough
returns two members, and which at
the prevent census shell not have ten thou-
sand intio.bitants
only return one inhabitants, should at the next election
forty places, and thea d • This would affect from thirty to
dropped Member should be given
to moss unrepresented
popuiation over ten pieces which have the largest
advantage of this Would thousand. Another great
compromise ne (Ale and he, that there would be no
majoritou'lld One, but the opinion
of the y w
all that ought to be looked prevail. This is
thoughtful people the p„er. for ; give steady and
end, right is sure to prevail. Na.," if not at first, in the
than that the people in the Nothing can be more just
ea in the towns, should have counties, who pay the same
and if you make a further isc right of voting;
ties, so that each part shall returnn of the cone-
you will accomelish all thit; but one Member,
to be tried for; and universal suffra Quell: at present
equal electoral districts, payment of get vote by ballot,
other of the Chartist humbugs, may bemembers, and all
sleep for the next twenty years' I , allowed to go to
nave always advo-

cated these further ehanges, and hope to see them car-
ried out.

What a miserable figuro the poor Chancellor of
the Exchequer cuts! I always considered him, and
I had opportunities of knowing him, to ha a mere
namby-pamby. Yon will never put the tax cf
the country upon a true and strong foundation until
you put a larger amount, not less five per cent. on
property, to attach to all property alike, from the
lowest to the highest, in Ireland, as well as Eng-
land. You could then take off the income-tax, say one per
cent. in 1854, one in '57, one in '6O, when the long annui-
ties will fall in. You could at once take off the duties on
soap, paper, hops, and such others as bear on the con-
sumption of the industrial classes, and render our glorious
old country, notwithstanding its heavy taxation, a
cheap country to live in. Thi', you will recollect was
always a favourite dogma of mine, and I hope to live to
see it carried out. Whether all this shall be achieved
or not, you ought not to submit to a continuance of the
income-tax, it ought to be considered as a war-tax, only
to be endured as an absolute necessity."

INFLUENCE OF FREE TRADE ON
PAUPERLS2TL

The number of adult able-bodied persons relieved
under the poor-laws, on the Ist of January, 1852, is
shown in a return made to the House of Commons on
Thursday night.
This table is the best index we have to the condition
of the labouring poor of the country. With want of em-
ployment the number of the adult able-bodied paupers
increases most rapidly, while it decreases almost as
rapidly with abundance of work, especially if food is
cheap at the same time. The annual report from the
Poor-law Board last year shows that the total decrease
per cent. on the number of adult able-bodied paupers
relieved on the Ist of January, 1850, as compared with
the Ist of January, 1849, was 15 4; Ist of January,
1851, as compared with the Ist of January, 1850, was
14.7. The return presented on Thursday night shows the
decrease per cent. to be, on the Ist of January, 1852, as
compared with the Ist of January, 1831, 11,2. Com •
paring the number of adult able-bodied persons in re-
ceipt of relief on the Ist of January, 1852, with the
number of the same class in receipt of relief on the Ist
of January, 1851, it will be seen by the annexed table
that there was an increase in three English counties, and
a decrease in 39, reckoning the Yorkshire Ridings as
seperate counties; and as regards the Welsh counties, an
increase in 5 and a decrease in 7:—

It may be well to look at
according to their rates of

DECREASE PER CENT. 1
Heretord
Leicester
21.81
Warwick

Nottingham 2O 0
Surrey
Salop
Dorset
DPrby 17.4
Middlesex
Devon,
Cumberland
Nottingham
Gloucester
Norfolk
Kent .
Lancaster
Buckingham
Wilts
Hertford 11.4
Berks
Northampton 10.5

the several counties, arranged
lecreas•

DECREASE PER CENT.
Durham 9.9
Monmouth ... 9.5
Cambridge 8.7

Stiff ilk - 8.7
Cornwall
Essex
Huntingdon
Lincoln
Sussex
Somerset
Oxford ...„
Worcester
York, W.R.
York, N.R.
Stafford ...., 2.8
Bedford ..
Northampton l.l
Westmoreland
Wales

INCREASE PER CENT.
Chester
Rutland

Total decrease 11.2
INCREASE PER CENT.
York, E.R.. 2.3

STRAND UNION CHILDREN AT
EDMONTON.

The official report of the Poor-la's Commissioners
respecting Edmonton School has just been issued,
founded on the report supplied to tb.um by their in-
spector, Mr. Hall, whom they had instructed to institute
an investigation as to the state of the school on the re-
ceipt of the reports made to the guardians of
the Strand Union by a committee. of their body
and by Mr. Clark, a surgeon, specially appointed by
the guardians to visit that establish,x,ent. It appears
from this report, which unavoidable press of matter pre-
cludes us from inserting, that Mr. Hall found in the in-
firmary, which he entered before it we.s possible for any
intimation of his arrival to be given, none of those cases
of complicated disease which made so formidable a
figure in the enumeration of the cab es contained in the
reports of the committee and the surgeon, Mr.
Clarke; that on questioning the nurse, Mary Powell,
in reference to the state of the infirm ary and of the chil-
dren in it, her answers differed materially from the evi-
dence which she is stated to have given to the committee
of guardians, and that the account given by the medical
officer to Mr. Hall is likewise at variance, in several im-
portant particulars, as regards the number and
diseases of the children in the infirmary from
the facts as reported by the committee of guardians
After inspecting the infirmary, Mr. Hall proceeded
to visit the schools, examining all the wards, and
taking especial notice of Mrs. Martin's ward, in which
are the infants and very young children. He states—
" I found every part of the house clean and well-
ventilated. In the infant's bed-room I caused every
bed to be laid open, and I did not detect a trace of any-
thing offensive in any one of them. The day-room
of the children, as well as their sleeping-room, was
perfectly clean, airy, warm, and free from smell; the in-
mates, twelve in number, looked clean in their persons
and clothing; the heads of several of them (taken by
chance) were shown to me as being free from dirt and
vermin, and the children themselves were cheerful and
happy; their feet were nearly well, and there was no
child present that was affected with any contagious erup-
tive disease."

As to the charges of impropriety of conduct on the
part of the children of opposite sexes, the Board express
their belief that they are altogether unfounded, and theydeclare their satisfaction in being able to state from the
evidence that there is no reason to believe in the exist-
ence (as stated in the report of the committee) of any
improper intercourse between the children.
The only feature in the establish.caent which they
consider in imperative want of improvement, is the staff
of officers, which they recommend to be forthwith in-
creased.

OUR DEFECTIVE ARTILLERY,
In the Austrian armies the proportion of guns to men
is about Ito 340—in the Russian service it is about Ito
400—in the Prussian Ito 270 men, aad in the French 1
to 450 men, while in the Peninsular war the average
number of guns to men in the British armies did not
exceed 1 to 800. At the Battle of Waterloo
the proportion of artillery was much greater than
it had ever previously been in our service, the
British army having 156 guns, but even then the
French outnumbered us, having 246 guns on the
field the destructive fire of which during that
memorable conflict decimated the British ranks during
the many times the troops were compelled to remain in
constrained inactivity. At horn,l our deficiency is, at
the present moment, equally observable. There are
only fifty-two guns horsed for service in the whole of
Great Britain—viz., five troop) of Horse Artillery.
and eight batteries at Woolwich and elsewhere.

INTERESTING NARRATIVE OF AN
ESCAPED CONVICT.
James Punt Berra; the notorious returned convict,
who was tried on Thursday, at the Central Criminal
Court, tinder tho name of George Parker, for returning
from transportation, pleaded guilty, and, in doing so,
caused the following remarkable narrative, in the shape
of a petition, to be handed to the Common Sergeant:—
" I have pleaded guilty, because I was unwilling to waste
the time of the court in an inquiry which, destitute as I
am of the means of protecting myself by counsel or at-
torney, or for paying witnesses' expenses, could have
only led to one result; but, my Lord, it is not my
intention to deny the charge which has been
made against me. The condition of a convict at a
penal station is too horrible to be voluntarily endured,
and they only can tell how irresistible is the
yearning for liberty who have once been deprived of
it, My object is, my Lord, with profound respect, to
make known to your Lordship the terrible penalty
which I have already paid for a sngle trans-
; gY,es'ion of the laws of my country. Dire neces-
' or crueltyatFit was
1 stioqt,hcereated by a want of employment, once goaded m©
years' tran
Property,° mission of an offence against the laws of
no•, aggravated by personal injury
or that offence I was sentenced to fifteen
Portation. I was conveyed to the most
Penal settles
horrible
eposeadi
pexpasoenni, Norfolk Island, which, from the
are there
sufferings to which all prisoners
Hell.' Here,
misery for eightYee
to' " commonly designated the ' Ocean
Lord, I endured almost incredible
riod I and eight othlerc
months. At the and of that pc-
; open boat,
a and nights we were beaten
For
eight
dericts effected our escape in an
' about at sea without charyt
staring us
with death from
exhaustion and shipwreck
length we were driven on the Cited"
a n
0:
who snipped
Islands,stlit
rei
p pfaece
whose
h:Aasletl
tclhae3ib% at without a ra,, to
only inhabitante are savages,
timen ake dw andwe
made
detainedade
our e
sues a Ipoer ti ehn
At the end of that
ham_boos the very first day, and
then endured
cover us, and with only two bamboos holding two
gallons of water each, rind 18 cocoa nuts. The heat
of the sun split the
from thirst no language cell express. In seventeen aays
we lost all our water. The mise.ry we
we arrived at Star Island, one of the New Hebrides,
Where we remained seven months. I and two of my
• rked on board a whaler,
,leaving
got to America, from
whence
our companions behind, _
i 1844 I
England, a was appre-
hended for having at the risk of my life, and by endur-
ing sufferings from which death would have been a
relief, illegally and prematurely recovered my liberty.
I was again transported to Norfolk Island, the horrors
of which I "es more endured for two years. I was
then removed to Van Diemen's Land, fromwhich place
I made my escape by being stowed away amongst the
cargo of a merchantman. In that situation I was con-
cealed sixteen day plight, being
sy in the most miserable
almost dead from suffocation and want of food. Indeed,
my Lord, for one original offence I have endured tor-
ments and privations worse itself, and I take
than death
the liberty most humbly to present this brief and im-
perfect narrative of them, -
in the hope that your Lord-
shipthem int •
will take o your humane consideration in
passing sentence upon me.
"Permit me most humbly to assure your Lordship, as
the result of no common experience, that nothing so
much humanises and awakens the better feelings of men
placed in the unhappy position in Which I now am, as
justice tempered with mercy.
4, j,eenzs PurfT /301114117." 1

Colchester
Harwich
Leigh
Maldon

63
12 80 450,
- - 5601
351 94 -
813 60 6001

oal XI.)

- 11

6 611
-52 j

;

CHELMSFORD, FEB. 6.—Prices to-day were as follow:
Wheat, white, 463 to 51s; red, 40s to 445; barley, 2is to 31s;
chevalier 30s to 355; grinding 25s to 298; malt 55. to 565;
chevalier 55s to 58s ; oats 18s to 25s ; peas, partridge, 27s
to 303 ; white, 28s to 30s ; boiling, 29s to 329 ; dun, new, 26s
to 28s ; beans, tick, 261 to 29s ; harrow ticks, 27s to 31s;
mazagan, 24s to 28s.
COLCHESTER, FEE. 7.—Wheat, white 468 to 50s ; red 42*
to 45s ; oats, 18s to 21s; beans, mazagan 28s to 28s; middle
and small 28s to 30s ; peas, white 30s to 325, grey, new 23* to
30s ; barley, 308 to 36s per qr.
KIREALDY, Fas. 7.—The following are the quotations
for grain :
Wheat. Barley. I
First 448 Od 295 Od
Second 42s Od 263 6d
Third 36s Od 243 Od
Oatmeal, per bag of 2801bs
HADDINGTON, lizs. 6.—Th,
grain at our market to-day :
Wheat.

Oat&
233 6d
213 Od
Ns Od
3 imperial,
ie followini

Beans.
- Od
—s
Od
—5 Od
303 Od to
are the

Peas.
--s Od
—3 od
--8 Od
31s Cd.
prices of

First 441 Od
Second 4os 7d

Barley. Oats.
31s Od 24s Od
29s gid 21s 6d
244 Od 18s 6d
market 60 qre.,
do. 372 qrs.,
do. 518 qrs.,
do. 189 qrs.,

Beans.
33. 6d
31e Od
29s Od
626 sold
347 sold
446 sold
179 sold

Third

Total quantity of Wheat in
Do. Barley
Do. Oats
Do. Beans

COAL 'sus& ET. -.-YESTZRDAT.
Prices of Coal per ton at the close of the market :--
Bate's West Hartley.. 13s Od Belmont ... 153 6d
Buddle's W. Hartley.. 13s Od' ietton
Carr's Hartley ..... ... 13s Odilla.swell.
Chester Main l3s 6d Reepier Grange
Dean's Primrose
Hasting's Hartley ... 13s Od Russell's Hetton
Howard's W. H. Neth. 13s Od Stewart's .. ... -..
North Percy Hartley.. 13s Od Plummer ........ ..
Newcastle Hartley.... 13s Od Shotton lss Od
t'anfield Moor ......... 123 6d Caradoc ..... .. ..
rantield Moor Butes-. 12s 3d Cass op
Wylam
Wall's End, &c. ISouth Durham l4, 6,1
Brown
/Luton
Riddell
Walker
0,