The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-16 00:00:00

rAYS.

The Pasha of Egypt and the Peninsular and
Oriental Company,

The following report has been forwarded to us
for publication :

" Cairo, Feb. 20.

" Gentlemen,—l have the honour to report to ycu that
your deputation, consisting of myself and Messrs. Allan
and Olding, reached Alexandria in the Euxine on the 11th
inst.

" Immediately upon ow arrival we instructed Mr, Be-
thune (the Company's Superintendent) to communicate to
the Government of his Highness the Viceroy the object of
our visit, and to ascertain the pleasure of his Highness
with regard to our reception.
" The answer received from Cairo was to the effect that
after our arrival at that place a day would be fixed for the
interview, and we were at the same time required to state
whether we sought an official or a private one. To this we
replied by explaining the nature of our visit, leaving it to
his Highness to deciie whether he would receive us at his
palace or at the citadel.

" Before leaving Alexandria we paid our respects to Mr.
Colquhoun, her Majesty's Consul-General, and requested
him to present us, but were informed by him that, though
nothing would have afforded him greater pleasure than to
do so, an engagement at Alexandria, which he could
not defer, would prevent him from accompanying our
party. He undertook, however, to mention our arrival,
and the object of our visit, to his Highness, and recom-
mended that as he had already presented Mr. Bethune to
him he would be a fitting person to undertake that duty for
us. We accordingly proceeded with him to Cairo on the
12th inst., his highness having done us the honour to send
one of his State carriages for our conveyance.
" Upon reaching Cairo we were informed that his high-
ness had decided (no doubt as a mark of honour to your
body) to give us a public reception at the citadel, and that
the day which he had fixed upon was Saturday, the 14th
inst. At 1 o'clock on that day we accordingly waited upon
his highness at the place appointed, and were received by
him in a most gracious, I might almost say cordial,
manner.

" After we had paid him the usual salutations, I read to
him your address in English, and then handed it to Nubar
Bey, his interpreter, who repeated it in Turkish. Ile lis-
tened to it with much apparent interest, at its close rtply.
ing in a very lively manner ac iUllows:—
" 'That be was fully sensible of the MID tOnlig, motives
which had influenced the board et directors in sending out
a deputation to to nvey to hint the address of congratula-
tion just read. He more highly appreciated the course
which they had thus thought tit to adopt, because he was
perfectly aware that they had taken the initiative in making
Egypt the highway for the passenger and cargo traffic to
the East, and that to them the country was in a great mea-
sure indebted for ha general commercial relations with
Europe and Asia. These relations, created and extended by
the Peninsular and Oriental Company, have largely contri-
buted to the development of the resources of the country
which he had been called upon to govern, and to the pros-
perity of which he was resolved to devote all his efforts and
energy. That in extending to the company assistance and
protection he felt he should be best studying the interests
of Egypt, and they might rely upon his assurance that the
Government over which he presided would make it a duty
to grant them every facility, which they might also depend
upon receiving from himself personally. That the railway
was not yet in the state of perfection which he could wish,
but that the gentlemen of the deputation would, no doubt,
concur with him in attributing this to the newness of the
undertaking, and understand that at the commencement
of such operations complete satisfaction in all the working
details could hardly be expected. He was determined, how-
ever, to give his attention to that important enterprise, and
to do all in his power to promote the comfort and rapidity
of the transit. In conclusion, he begged to repeat that the
company might always rely upon his support, and requested
the gentlemen of the deputation to convey his best thanks
to the Court of Directors for this mark of their attention.'

" The above were, as nearly as we could recollect, the
exact terms in which his highness expressed himself, and I
can only add, with reference to his mode of doing so, that
it expressed even more eloquently than his words the good
feeling which he entertains towards the company.—l am, &c.,
" P. D. HADOW, Deputy Chairman.
"To the Board of Directors of the Peninsular and

Oriental Steam Navigation Company, London."

HOW TO MAKE A BONFIRE.

The bonfire at Aldershot on Tuesday last, which, in all
probability, was the largest in England, deserves more than
a passing notice. During the preceding week a strong party
of the Military Train had been constantly employed in con-
veying to the brow of Caesar's Camp waggon loads of furze,
fir branches, old refuse, and wood of every description,
which, under the alternate direction of Col. Clifford and
Major Hammersley, Adjutant Quartermaster Generals;
Lieut.-C,:l. Lennox and Captain Ross, Deputy Adjutant
Quartermaster Generals, and Captain Hale, 26th Regiment,
were built up in the form of a cone, having a base whose
circumference was 180 ft. and a height of 50ft. The plan,
which was, we believe, suggested by a near relative of Ma-
jor Hammersley, was, as the result proved, so perfect that
it may not be out of place to give a description of it. First,
a very stout fir tree, 35k. long, was reared on end, sft. be-
ing let into the ground, and surmounted by four struts.
Around this was stacked the stow er timbers and materials
to a height of about 10ft, and to these succeeded fir branches,
raising the whole to 15ft. Five lull tar barrels were now
secured round the pole with wire, and the stocking (.1
fir and furze bavins was continued to a total height of
above 25ft., the whole being pinned vertically with stakes.
Four more full tar barre!s were here secured round the pole,
and the top of the pile covered with a layer of hurdles pinned
with stakes, forming a sort of staging !rem which to take
a fresh departure. A topmast of 27ft. in length was now
hoisted, and 7ft. of its length secured by wire to the lower
pole. Again was the stocking continued, the material being
passed up a series of stages erected all round the pile, and
occasionally tar barrels were hoisted to the top by means of
a purchase secured to the topmast. These were emptied,
and their contents allowed to trickle through the inter;er ;
300 gallons were used for this purpose. When the pile had
reached a total height of about 45 feet it was carried in, at ter
the manner of a top of a sugar loaf, an empty tar barrel was
placed on the topmasthead, and a topgallantmast, with a
Royal standard nailed to it, was fixed to the topmasthead,
the flag waving proudly at a height of 70 feet from the
ground below, and at a total height above the sea of 670 feet.
Seventy stout fir trees, about 35ft. long, were placed all
round the cone, forming, as it were, an outer casing to the
bonfire ; these were secured in their places by wires passing
all round the pile, each pole being secured to the wires by
holdfasts. The bonfire was completed by Monday evening,
and was visited on Tuesday by thousands of the inhabitants
of the country around, who took advantage of the occasion
to examine the construction of a pile the like of which will
not in all probability be again seen by the present genera-.
tion, and which is calculated to have contained upwards of
42,000 cubic feet of material. A number of men armed with
portfires were stationed at intervals around the pile at a few
moments before the appointed time for lighting up, and pre-
cisely at 8 o'clock they plunged their portfires into the mass,
which was instantly alight, and the flames rapidly running
up the outside, the whole pile was in a sheet of flame in less
time than it has taken us to describe the event. The scene
at this moment was grand in the extreme. In the centre
the flames, rearing their many forked heads to a height of
about 70ft. or 80ft., were, owing to a fresh southerly wind,
carried clear of the flag, which, brilliantly illuminated, ap-
peared to look down disdainfully upon the gigantic efforts
for its destruction which were being made below. On the
plateau forming the top of Csasar's Camp the eye rested on
the bright scarlet unforms of some thousands of the troops,
who had come up to do honour to the occasion, but on the
other hand the steep, receding sides of the camp left a dark-
ness beyond, which appeared the more intense from the
contrast to the now white heat of the blazing mass. For
some time it was a matter of doubt whether the flag would
be consumed, but gradually, as the lighter materials com-
posing the bonfire were burnt and the pile sank, it became
obvious that the burning of the pole would be the only thing
that would bring it down. Now was seen the advantage of
the outer casing of fir-poles---they retained the mass in
shape. There were no masses of fire tumbling off the top,
nor did the cone get out of shape in any way, but it burnt
fairly and regularly throughout. One by one the spectators
dropped off as the night wore on, leaving only a few who
anxiously watched the downfall of the central pole, is the
hope of being able to secure even a fragment of the flag
which had so gallantly held its own, but even that hope
seemed doomed to disappointment, for at 12 o'clock the pile
was still blazing nearly as fiercely as ever, and the pole,
though out of the perpendicular, seemed likely to hold on
to the last, but about 2 o'clock even its great thickness was
not proof against the intense heat, and it tell, amid the
cheers of the few spectators, who immediately commenced
a general scramble for the bunting, each anxious to possess
a relic of so auspieous an occasion. The remaining embers
were now allowed to slumber undisturbed, and were not
thial'y extinguished until about n oon on Wednesday, havin g
been alight 28 hours. The weather during the afternoon
of Tuesday became very clear, and it was confidently anti-
cipeted that had it continued the bonfire would have been
seen over the greater part of Hampshire, Surrey, and Berk-
shire, including an area of about 2,000 square miles, but
towards 7 o'clock a haze came on which completely obscured
obj(cte a few miles off, and rendered other bonfires within
a short distance almost invisible,

CURIOUS CASE.—We read in a Dublin letter:—

"The widow of Mr. Thomas Bradley, who latel),
died possessed of enormous wealth, followed her husband,
after a few weeks' illress, yesterday, Her history was
curious. She had a lover, whom she stipulated to marry,
though his wife was then living, when they should be both
freed from legal impediments by the death of their respec-
tive partners, and in default thereof Mrs. Bradley was to
forfeit some thousands of her husband's money, for which
she gave a bond. The gentleman, after Mr. Bradley's
death, commenced legal proceedings to enforce this bond,
the wealthy widow having consented to give her hand and
fortune to the son of a peer, the lion. Mr. B. Both the
rival suitors are deprived of the magnificent prize by the
death of the lady, whose relations will now be likely to
share the vast savings of Mr. Uradley."