The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-03 00:00:00

lONIAN ISLA NDS

A supplement of the C.rfa Gazette of the 22d ult
has a notification from the LORD HIGH COMMIS
siopizu, containing a decree of her Britannic Ms•
JEST; by which the lonian Parliament is dissolved.

INTENDED MARRIAGE OF LOUIS
NAPOLEON.

The Breslaw Gazette has the following from Vienna,
27th ult. :—" M. de Persigny is expected here from
Berlin, and he is to proceed to St. Petersburgh, to
explain the intentions of the President of the French
Republic with respect to his home and foreign policy,
and to endeavour to secure the support of the northern
powers. At the same time he will demand the hand
of the wealthy Princess Wasa for Prince Napoleon.
The Princess is nearly the same age as the Presi-
dent, and no doubt is entertained here that she will
consent. In that case, her illustrious brother will
give up his grade of colonel in the Austrian army, and
will be appointed to elevated functions in France.

LITERATURE OF THE RAlL.—Yesterday the South-
Eastern Railway Company commenced, for the first time, the
entirely new system of transmitting newspapers and periodi-
cals by rail on a plan similar to that enjoined by the Post-
office for their transmission through their own medium.
The plan, it is thought, will no doubt be generally adopted
by other railways, as it will place readers in the country in
rapid receipt of their papers and periodicals, and so super-
sede their tardy transmission by the ordinary post delivery
of the next day. 'the tariff, involving as it does the econo-
mical transmission of the most useful media for information
and amusement, cannot probably be too widely known. The
charges for conveyance of newspapers and unbound periodi-
cals is, for a single newspaper, from any station to any sta-
tion, Id., half-a-dozen 4d., and so on in proportion, including
the booking, but not the delivery.

SOUTH-EASTERN RAILWAY.--Yesterday this com•
pany's extension line between Tunbridge Wells and Hastings
was opened to the town of Battle, and the remainder of it to
Hastings and St. Leonard's, now nearly complete, will, it is
expected, be opened daring the month.
COAL TRAFFIC OF THE DOCKS JUNCTION RAILWAY.
—The East and West India Docks Junction Railway Com-
pany have formed a spacious Collier Dock at Blackwell,
where vessels are discharged of cargoes of coal in a sur-
prisingly brief period. By the Blackwell branch the trains are
taken on to what may be called the main line; and at
hackney, Iliglibury, and other stations, large timber via-
dna sidings have recently been formed for the accommoda-
tion of trucks, and to establish coal depUts of no small extent.
Already the traffic in this department is very considerable.
GENERAL POST-OFFICE, DEC., 1851.--Hencefor-
ward the British Contract Mail Packets to North America
will sail from Liverpool on every Saturday morning through-
out the year, after the arrival at Liverpool of the mail from
London of the previous evening. The packets will proceed
alternately to the Ports of New York and Boston, calling, on
the voyage to the latter port, at Halifax, Nova
Scotia.
A WOMAN SUFFOCATED IN MUD.—Yesterday
afternoon as an old woman, well known among the coal
wharfs between Blackfriars-bridge and Scotland-yard, was
going along one of the barges, she lost her balance and fell
into the mud. It appears that' " the old lady," as she is
called, goes by the name of Betsey Comfort, from the trade
she carries on among the coalheavers, in selling a kind of
cordial for coughs, colds, and other diseases incident to a
waterside life, and about three o'clock in the afternoon she
was answering the hail of some of the men unloading a
barge, and whilst hurrying along the narrow gunwale, as it
is called, she nil,sed her looting and tumbled overboard into
the thin mud, sinking head and shoulders out of sight in-
stantly. Assistance was immediately procured, and she was
got out with some difficulty, arparently dead. The police-
man on duty, 124 I', conveyed her to Charing-cross Hospital,
'iNliere Mr. Dalton, the house surgeon, has been unremitting
in his attention to her, but up to nine o'clock in the evening
with very little result, as therehas been an attack of apoplexy,
a recurrence of which, it is feared, will carry her off.
WINCHESTER.—WiIIiam Plampin has received
through the Home-office a mitigation of his sentence, from
that of ten years' transportation, to two years' imprisonment.
The prisoner, it Hill be remembered, was convicted at the
last assizes of stealing a box of gold dust from the South ,
Western Railway, near this city.
SOUTHAMPTON, JAN. 2.—The new steam-ship
Amazon, belonging to the R9yal Mal Company, commanded
by Captain Symons, with the West India and Mexican mails,
left this afternooon. She took out a very large and valuable
general cargo, 500 bottles of quicksilver, specie to the fiamnt
of 20,25211 and Abotit 50 paoengers.