The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-04 00:00:00

WESTERN MAILS.

" Difference in favour of Devonport... 8.
" It is obvious that if the steamer reaches Falmouth at
or after the hour of 7 p.m., one post is lost; and it is
equally obvious that had she gone direct to Devonport,
after allowing for the extra sea voyage, an arrival there so
late as 8 the following morning would have saved the same
post.

" The following practical instances have occurred in the
present year ;
" On the 11th of January last, the Tagus arrived at Fal-
mouth on a Friday morning, and after dropping the dis-
patches, which were necessarily delayed for 48 hours in
Falmouth, she arrived at Devonport before the London
mail of Friday had started.
" On the 9th of February the despatches by the Tagus
wire again delayed 24 hours; and, subsequently, the des-
patches by the Iberia, Londonderry, Liverpool, and Bra-
ganza, have severally been delayed 24 hours.
" Thus in a period of two months, out of nine packets,
there have been six cases of detention.
" D. leyi in the embarcation of despatches are also
ceused by their transmission to Falmouth.
" The mail with the foreign bags arrives at Falmouth at
8 a.m. ; and during eight months in the year the embarca-
tion may be made at 10 a.m. ; but during the winter
months, owing to delays on the roads, seldom before noo
" The Devonport mail, with the London letters, arr,ves
at 4 p.m., and the latest mail with the northern bags at
half-oast 10 p.m. For eight months in the year embarca.
tion might be made before midnight, and in the winter
months certainly at day-break the following morning,
allowing for the extra sea voyage; therefore the summer
months would give six hours', and the winter months two
hours', saving in favour of Devonport.
"'The means of communication afforded to passengers
arc likewise much more limited from Falmouth than from
Dc won pert.
" All the coaches leave the first place either at night or
early in the morning. The daily coaches at seven p.m.,
tro and six, a.m. ; and two coaches, three days per week,
at six and seven a.m.

" The Devonport mails leave at half-past nine a.m.,
and at half-past five p.m., by which means are afforded of
forwarding despatches to all parts of the kingdom. The
daily coaches leave at nine, half-past ten a.m., and half-
p st twelve at noon ; and another every day but Sunday,
at half-past eleven a.m."

Due weight cannot fail to be given to such facts and rea-
soning- as have been quoted on this subject ; but as the
ceasing to be a packet station must inflict a great and po-
sitive evil on the town of Falmouth, there should be an
effort made by the Government and Post.office for
their share in the business, and by the town of Fal-
mouth for itself, to remedy the evil inflicted, and so
. prevent, if possible, the adoption of so decided a course.
If the harbour is no fit shelter for steam-vessels, and
if the people are unable to refit or repair them, or
to supply them with stores—if enterprise is nowhere
to be found equal to the dispatch of a mail-cart when ne-
cessary to overtake the regular mail at Exeter, and if the
whole clumsy system of the inland mails from that place
is to be persevered in after the repeated warnings given,
then the result sought for is inevitable. All that it may be
possible to do to meet the complaints made by the mer-
chants, may be insufficient to overcome the natural defects
of the port of Falmouth, and save it from the threatened
danger; but without a speedy effort, and that a very ener-
getic one, even that chance must be taken away. The
inhabitants, homver they may suffer from the change,
would be divested in that case of all reasonable ground of
complaint.

It is fully understood that if this matter is pressed by
the merohants, accompanied with proof that these inconve-
niences exist, and cannot, or will not be remedied, the Go-
vernment must yield the point at issue, and adopt Plymouth
ae the packet station.

USE OF GEOLOGY TO FARMERS.—One of
the most obvious sources of advantage to the farmer from
an acquaintance with the distribution of mineral masses,
is the facility with which, in many instances, the injurious
effect of small springs coming to the surface may be
obviated. The theory of the earth's internal drainage
is so simple, that every man of common sense would bo
able to drain his lands, upon sure principles, or else to
know precisely why it cannot be drained, if he were to
become so much of a geologist as to learn what rocks
existed under his land, at what depth, and in what
positions. Springs never issue from stratified masses,
except from reservoirs somehow produced in jointed rocks,
and at the level of the overflow of these subterraneous
cavities. Faults in the strata very frequently limit these
reservoirs, and determine the points of efflux of the water.
Let those faults be ascertained, or the edge of the jointed
rock be found, the cure of the evil is immediate. But
some geological information is needed here; and landed
proprietors, who think it less troublesome to employ an
agent than to direct such a simple operation, may at
least profit by this hint, and choose au agent who knows
sc.mething of the rocks be is to drain. * * *
Another thing, probably of importance to agriculturists,
is the discovery of substances at small depths, which, if
brought to the surface, would enrich, by a suitable mix-
ture, the soil of their fields. This is very strongly in-
sisted on by Sir H. Davy in his Essays, and considering
how easy a thing it is for a landowner to ascertain posi-
tively the series of strata on his estate, it is somewhat mar-
vellous that so few cases can be quoted, except that of Sir
Jehn Johnson, Bart., of Hackness, near Sea-borough, in
which this easy work has been performed. Finally, in ex-
periment for the introduction of new systems and mode of
management, with respect to cattle and crops, it will be of
gnat consequence to take notice of the qualities of soil,
substrata, and water, for these undoubtedly exercise a real
and perhaps decisive influence over the r,:sult.—Lardner's
Cyclopozdia.

PUBLIC understand by public
opinion the sense and sentiment of the community, eeces-
sarily irresistible, showing its sovereign power everywhere.
It is this public opinion which gives sense to the letter
and lie to the law; without it the written law is a mere
husk. It is the aggregate opinion of the members of the
State, as it has been formed by practical life; it is the
common sense of the community, including public know-
ledge, and necessarily influeneed by the taste and genius
of the community. How is it formed ? It is formed as
the opinion of any society is formed, which must always
consist of leaders, superior men, men cf talents, or
well informed men, who had an opportunity to see or
inform themselves, and less gifted men, or less informed
persons, the acquiescing or trusting ones. Not that the
leaders prescribe with absolute power; they only either
pronounce clearly what has been indistinctly felt by many,
or they start a new idea, which, in being received by the
acquiescing ones, has to accommodate and tinodify itself to
the existing circumstances. The leaders themselves are
under the strongest influence of that sense and sentiment
of the community, for from early childhood they live
in the same relations with the others. Public opinion
i, not only an opinion pronounced upon some sub-
ject, hut it is likewise that which daily and hourly
interpret laws, carries them along, or stops their opera-
tron, which makes it possible to have any written laws, and
winotabseut which any the wisest law might be made to mean
It is that which makes it possible to prescribe
and "e'
observe forms, without theiAecoming a daily hind-
rance of the
most necessary procedures and actions ; it is
that mighty power which abrogates the most positive laws,
and gives vast extent
to the apparently narrow limits of
ae
tvrihich, a monarch ever so absolute in
theory cannot divitfagisthrorand things, and according to
which a limited
may dare a thousand things ;
which renders innocent ::heat
ewri measures, as obnoxious, and makes, at
times, useless the best-intend
times even crime.—Lieber's Politicalpicrostecting some-

MVONPORT, OR FALMOUTH?
(Eons the Trimes.)
The late vexatious delays in the transmission of the
letters front India, after they had reached England, have
revived the question, often before agitated, of the relative
merits and conveniences of Falmouth and Plymouth as
ports of arrival for the foreign mails, and late occurrences
certainllsjustify the conclusion', that had Plymouth, or
rather Devonport, been the port first made by the packets
conveying the Indian mail, instead of Falmouth, the ar-
rangements for the inland mail remaining the same as they
now are, a saving of 24 hours would have taken place in
the transmission of the letters to London or to their des-
tination in other parts of the kingdom. This is so
great an evil to commercial men, deeply suffering
Already in the case of Inch, from the anticipations
brought about through other means, that a strenuous
effort is making to induce the Government to change
the port of arrival, and transfer the foreign mails from
Falmouth to Devonport. A memorial to this effect is in
circulation, addressed to the Lords of the Treasury, to
which signatures are invited, but they have not reached
such a number, nor included mercantile firms of such a
rank, as to justify the expectation that the suggestions
therein =Ade will be acted upon. It is affirmed by the
parties putting forward this memorial, that these delays
and various other inconveniences are caused by the oblis.7a.
Con imposed on the vessels which carry the mails to land
• and embark the bags at Falmouth exclusively; that the
aaahorage at Falmouth is bad and unfit for steam-ships,
to which class of vessels the conveyance of the mails
most shortly be exclusively transferred; that complete
security for such vessels can be obtained in Plymouth
harbour, and that the distance thence to London
is 31 miles less than from Falmouth, that the distance from
Cape Finisterro to Falmouth can be accomplished in four
hours less than that to Plymouth, but that hours is
saved on t:ie land journey ; and that the steam.vessels,
even after landing the mails at Falmouth, are compelled to
praceed to Plymouth, as at the former place they cannot
procure stores or fuel, or undergo the neces7ary repairs
after the svoyag,e.
So much for the mere facilities and advantages possessed
by one port over the other. In regard to the practical
operation of the land conveyance, the following remarks
are submitted :

" Whether the mails are landed or embarked at Fal-
molth or Devonport, they must necessarily pa=s through
the city of Exeter to and from the metropolis and all parts
of the kingdom.
" The distance from Cape Finisterre to Exeter via Fal-
mouth is 562 miles--464 miles by sea and 98 by land.
The distance via Devor,port is 539 miles-495 by sea and
44 by land. The voyage by sea on the first route will be
made on an average in four hours less thin by the latter;
but the journey by land takes 71- hours extra, in addition
to which the baps are detained in Exeter 5 hours, until the
arrival of the Devonport
" The balance of time in favour of the Devonport route,
therefore, will be found as follows :
" The mail with the foreign bags leaves Fal-
mouth at 7 in the evening, and arrives in
12 hours at Exeter, at which place the
bags are detained 5 hours more, till the
Devonport mail arrives, making the time
of transit from Falmouth
" The Devonport mail leaves at half-past 9in
the morning, arid reaches Exeter in 41
hours; but to this time is to be added the
extra sea voyage, 4 hours, making the vir-
l-tual time of transit .. B-