The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-20 00:00:00

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.I INDIA, CHINA, AND AUSTRALIAN
MALLS.

SPAIN.

PROGRAMME OF THE NEW MINISTRY.
MADRID, JAN. 19, EVENING.

The new Ministry announced to the Congress
to-day that their programme will be to continue
the policy of maintaining the union of all the
fractions of the Liberal party, and of also endea-
vouring to bring about the union of all men of
constitutional principles. The Ministry will also
maintain the existing good relations of Spain with
foreign Powers, and will observe neutrality in all
questions which do not affect the honour of the
country.

In the same sitting of the Congress Marshal
O'Donnell, in reply to a question from Senor Gon-
zales Bravo, declared that the Ministry would follow
the same policy as had hitherto been adopted.
Respecting Mexico, Marshal O'Donnell said that
as that question had already been judged by the
Chambers, the Ministry would only occupy itself
with those incidents which might arise in connexion
with it.

Senor Bustillos has refused the portfolio of
Minister of Marine.

It is asserted that Senor rosado Herrera will
proceed as the new Spanish Minister to Paris.
The members of the Opposition, in a meeting
held at the house of Senor Rios Rosas, resolved
upon supporting the new Ministry.

INDIA AND CHINA MAILS.

MARSEILLES, JAN, 20.

The Messageries Imperiales steamer Labourdon-
nais left Marseilles yesterday, with 60 passengers
and 854 cases of silver (value £340,000), and with
the above mails.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's -st9am-
ship Delta, Capt. J.Weeks, arrived at Southampton
at 2 30 p.m. on Saturday, with the heavy portion
of these mails, and also 108 boxes of mails saved
from the Colombo, in charge of Mr. B. Perkins, of
the General Post-office. She brought 52 passengers,
among whom were Admiral Sir J. Hope and secre-
tary, Colonel and Mrs. Butt and family, from Cal-
cutta; Mr. and Mrs. Tooth and child, Capt. Sir M.
M'Gregor, R.N., from Sydney; Mr. A. C. Barkly,
from Melbourne; Captain and Mrs. de Butts and
family, from Ceylon, &e. On freight she had
£425 2s. Bd. in specie, four packages of valuables,
1,261 bales and 217 boxes of silk, 190 chests of
oranges, and 152 packages of general merchandise.

The Delta left Alexandria on the 4th inst., Malta
on the 7th, and Gibraltar on the 12th. From Alex-
andria to Malta she had fine weather ; thence to
Gibraltar strong westerly winds and heavy sea; to
Cape Finisterre light variable winds, with fine
weather; through the Bay of Biscay strong N.E,
winds and heavy sea; and from Ushant to the
Needles strong easterly winds and fine weather.
On the 6th inst., at 4.30 p.m., the Delta ex-
changed colours with the Peninsular and Oriental
Company's steamer Ellora, standing to the south-
ward and eastward ; on the 12th, off Tarifa, her
Majesty's ship Meeanee and the British ship
Triumpho, steaming up the Gut of Gibraltar; and
off Lisbon she passed the steamship Lisbon, steering
to the north.

Her Majesty's ship Trident, and the French

transports Seine and Perdrix, were at Alexandria
when the Delta left ; and also the merchant steamers
Cairo, Albanian, Egyptian, Falcon, Cztr, Winder-
mere, and Lloyd's.
The British vessels of war at Malta on the 7th
were the Hibernia, Marlborough, Magicienne,
Phoebe, Psyche, Firefly, and gunboat Alacrity;
and the Firebrand and gunboat Procris were at
Gibraltar on the 12th. The steam line-of-battle
ship London left Gibraltar on the 7th inst. for the
westward; the transport Meg mra on the same day
for the eastward; and the steam-ram Defence
during the night of the 9th.
The Prussian steam corvette Gazale and the
French troopship Horatio were at Gibraltar on the
12th inst. The Chronicle of the 9th has the fol-

lowing relative to the object of the Gazelle's visit :
" His Prussian Majesty's steam corvette Gazelle
has been for some days anchored in our port, and it
may interest some of our readers to know the ob-

ject of her visit to Gibraltar. The Gazelle is on her
way to Japan, and has touched at Gibraltar in order
to land and place over the grave of a Prussian naval
officer and three seamen a monument which the
officers of the Prussian navy determined to erect to
the memory of their comrades who fell under the fol-
lowing circumstances :—On the 7th of August,

1855, the Prussia steam corvette Danzig, com-
manded by his Highness Prince William of Hesse,
and having on board his Royal Highness Prince
Adalbert of Prussia, was off Cape Tres Forcas, on
the coast of Riff, and the Prince, with some of the
officers and men, imprudently landed. The moun-
taineers of Riff, who have a strong natural love of

fighting, soon swarmed on every rock and eminence
commanding the shore, and the Prussians who had
landed, after sustaining for some time an unequal
contest against overwhelming numbers, got back to
their ship with the loss of Lieutenant Niesemann
and three seamen killed, and several wounded. The
former were interred in the cemetery at the North
Front, and the latter were cured of their wounds in
the Civil Hospital at Gibraltar. The monument to
the memory of the deceased officer and seamen is a
cast-iron column, surmounted by the national
emblem, an eagle with outspread wings. The
monument and the space containing the four
graves are surrounded by an iron railing. Yes-
terday the short but very impressive ceremony of

dedicating the monument took place. Captain
Heldt, and the officers, marines, and seamen of
the Gazelle, landed at the stone jetty on the
North Front at 11 o'clock, and, accompanied by
the Prussian Consul, proceeded to the cemetery.
Here the party formed a circle round the monu-
ment, and Capt. Heldt made an appropriate ad-
dress, recounting the circumstances under which
the deceased met their death. The ceremony con-
cluded with a prayer, after which the party re-
embarked."

The Chronicle announces that the British Go-
vernment has forwarded to M. Cros, surgeon of the
transport Charente, a marine telescope, as an ac-
knowledgment of the services rendered by him to
three seamen of the English vessel Woodman. It
has also awarded a gold medal to M. Maze, mer-
chant captain, second in command of the Charente,

who commanded the boat sent to the assistance o

the men on board the shipwrecked Woodman, and
silver medals to the six sailors who accompanied
him.

Latest quotations of exchange at Gibraltar were
as follows :—London, 90 days' date, 50 5-168 ;

Paris, ditto, sf. 28c. ; Marseilles, ditto, Of. 20c. ,
Genoa, ditto, sf. 29c. ; Brussels, ditto, sf. 29c.
Madrid, eight days' sight, per.. ; Cadiz, ditto, -7,-
dis. ; Seville, ditto, 7-, dis. ; Malaga, ditto, par ;
Barcelonia, ditto, t. pm.; Almeria, ditto, par ;
Valencia, ditto, 4 pm. Premium on five-franc
pieces, -14-; per cent.
The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam
ship Pera, Capt. T. Jamieson, from Southampton
on the 4th inst., with the India and Chica mails,
arrived in the Bay on the night of the 9th, and
anchored on the Algesiras side on account of the
threatening state of the weather, crossing over
to Gibraltar at daylight on the morning of the
10th, when she exchanged mails, &c., and proceeded
up the Mediterranean. She had a heavy gale in

the Channel after leaving Southampton.
The British merchant steamer Cadiz., Capt. J.
Russell, 10 days from London, arrived at Gibraltar
on the 7th; and the Milan, Captain W. Bain, seven
and a half days from Liverpool, on the 9th. The
schooner Shearwater, Captain J. Askam, from
Newcastle ; the schooner Nancy, Captain A.
Ambroscn, from Newcastle ; the brig John
Sanchy, Captain L. Nelson, from Swansea.

FEDERAL SEARCH FOR THE ALABAMA.—DEAL,
Jan. 18.--The William Mitchell, from Whampoa, arrived
in the Downs, reports having been boarded en the Ist inst.,
when in lat. 35 30 N., long. 30 45 W., by a Federal steamer
of war in search of the Confederate steamer Alabama. She
also reports having experienced severe northerly gales, veer-
ing from north-north. west to north-east, since passing the
Western Isles.

HE IRISH AT FREDERICKSBURG.—A Canadian
journal (the Sherbrooke Leader) publishes a letter
from the captain of a company of the 88th (Irish regiment),
a young man who resigned a situation of 1,300 dots. a year
in the Custom-house and raised a company. The letter was
written after the battle of Fredericksburg. He writes :
" Dear Father,—Thank God for His great mercy. I came
out of the most terrible battle to• day of this war without a
scratch. My brother Edmund is also unhurt. I can hardly
realise the fact that I am so blessed. Oh I it was a terrible
day. The destruction of life has been fearful, and nothing
gained. The battle opened about 10 o'clock yesterday
morning with a terrible fire of artillery. As we were drawn
up in line of battle on the front of the city, General
Meagher addressed us in words of inspiration and
eloquence I never heard equalled, after which he ordered
every one of the brigade to place a bunch of grcen boxwood
in his cap, himself showing the example. Every man
appeared fired with determined zeal and a firm resolution,
which the result proves to have been carried out in a man •
nor scarcely paralleled in the annals of war. The 88th
Regiment this morning nun, bers 10 officers and 41 men; the
69th, 7 officers and 59 men ; the 63d, 6 officers and 64 men;
the 116th, 13 officers and 57 men. Tne 28th Massachusetts
also suffered heavily, but I have not the returns. Irish
blood and Irish bones cover that terrible field to-
day, for Irish regiments were placed foremost, as the
reports and returns will prove. Lieutenant O'Brien
of my company of brave men is I believe mortally wounded.
All I can find of my once fine company is two sergeants and
three men. That noble, brave Major Horgan was one of
the first to fall, shot through the head. Every field officer
of the brigade in action was killed or wounded, except Col.
Kelley, and he had a very narrow escape. Lieut. Granger
was struck by a piece of shell, tearing hrough all his clothes
and the fleeh over his bowels ; one inch closer and he would
have licen killed. A piece of shell struck my haversack,
tearing it off me and ►hrowing me over. I do not know what
disposition will be made of us now in our shattered condi-
tion. Col. Kelly is in command of tire remnant of the bri-
gade, which does not number half a regiment. I have got
cold in my limbs, and have felt very sick all morning, but
it is nothing more than the results of exposure and want of
09d3 which A couple 9f dap' net will remcdYs"

THE TOTNES ELECTION.

TOTN ES, Monday.

The nomination of candidates to fill the seat ren-
dered vacant by the death of Earl Gifford took place
this morning on hustings erected in front of the
Seven Stars Hotel. The candidates were John
D‘:nt, Esq. (Conservative), and Alfred Seymour,
Esq. (Liberal). The former was accompanied to
the hustings by Capt. King, Capt. Dent, R.N., Mr.
J. F. P. Phillips, J.P., Mr. W. H. Mitchell, and a
large number of other friends.
Mr. J. F. P. Phillips, J.P., proposed, and Mr.
Seaman seconded the nomination of John Dent, Esq.
Mr. Seymour was proposed by Mr. Boardman,
and seconded by Mr. Huxham.
JOHN DENT, Esq., who was received with
loud cheering, said—Mr. Mayor and gentlemen,
in presenting myself before you a second time
as a candidate for your suffrages, it may pos-
sibly be expected that I should explain to you
and justify my abrupt retirement on the last occa-
sion. This, gentlemen, I should be perfectly ready
' and willing to do, if I could possibly do so without
entering into personalities and recrimination which
would only servo to embitter still further the pre-
sent contest. (Hear.) I will therefore say no more
on the subject than this—that so far from having
betrayed the Conservative cause on that occasion I
was complimented and thanked by ..he executive
chiefs of our great party in London for my prudence
and forbearance. I was complimented for having
mystified myself and my own feelings rather than
prejudice the great constitutional cause in which
I feel so deeply interested. With respect to my
political views, gentlemen, I have really very little
more to say to you on the present occasion than I
had on the last. I have taken pains to lay them
before you broadly, openly, and honestly, fully
aware that my creed is what is called an old-
fashioned one in the present dap; though why it
should be called so I am at a !oss to understand.

(Hear.) For what is my creed ? I accept our con-
stitution as it is. lam satisfied with it as it stands.

(Cheers.) I would not undo any one single act
which has served to give it its present specific shape
and form, but I certainly would not hand over that
sacred " ark of our liberties," that treasury of all

hat we love and venerate, to be pulled to pieces

to-day and put together again to-morrow by rash
and irreverent hands. (Loud applause.) I cleave,
gentlemen, to those ancient landmarks which have
made Old England what it is—the envy of the
world, the sanctuary and resting place of liberty.
(Cheers.) If this is an old-fashioned creed I avow

it, I am proud of it, and I will cling to it, and if
you send me to Parliament, understand me clearly,
I will vote dead against all elementary or organic
change. (Cheers.) At the same time, gentlemen,
I avow myself an earnest administrative reformer.
(Hear.) I know of no institution, whether in,
Church or State, that can be held as exempt from
the necessity of periodical repair and amendment.
(Hear.) Abuses will creep in. The inroads of
time will make themselves felt in all human arrange-
ments, and all such abuses and all such inroads I
would as earnestly correct as my hon. opponent, or
any other man. (Cheers and laughter.) Need I
say, gentlemen, that I have been all my life a Free-
trader ? (Hear.) I was a Free-trader in principle
at a time when it was not the popular creed ; and I
myself, and the house to which I belong, were in
bye-gone years amongst the earliest and foremost
advocates for breaking down two of the most per-
nicious monopolies in the world at that day—that
of the old East India Company, in conjunction with
the ancient Co-Hong of China. (Hear, hear.) I
can boast of this, gentlemen, as practical service
in a bye-gone day to a then unpopular cause—
(cheers)—though I cannot, like my honourable
opponent, boast of having shaken the hand of
M. Michael Chevalier, or of having drawn an in-
spiration from its contact. (Cheers and laughter.)
And now, gentlemen, I have but one word more to
say to you. My canvass has exceeded my most
sanguine expectations. (Cheers.) Let our watch-
word be union. (Hear.) Rush to the poll to-morrow
with one united effort, and we shall rescue this fine
old borough for ever from the thraldom which has
for the last dozen years so lamentably distinguished
it. (Cheers.)

Mr. ALFRED SEYMOUR then came forward, and

was received with cheers from his friends and all
kinds of uproar from the crowd. He expressed him-
self in favour of the progressive policy of the
Liberal party, referred to the principal measures
passed through their aid—the Catholic Eman-
cipation Act, the Reform Bill, Free Trade, and
all those measures of finance which had se-
cured for this coantry so high a position in the
eyes of the world; and after referring to the
peaceable manner in which the operatives in
Lancashire bare their distress as a proof that it
was no fault of the Legislature, said he was in fa-
vour of further extension of the franchise and mea-
sures of progress generally, and not like his oppo-
❑ent, who wished to see things remain as they were.
(Several of the crowd having interrupted him in the
course of his remarks, he delivered to them some
severe remarks.)
The Mayor then called for a show of hands, when
fully two-thirds were held up for Mr. Dent, where-
upon his worship declared the show to be in that
gentleman's favour. The announcement was re-
ceived with loud cheers.
A poll was demanded for Mr. Seymour, and the
mayor fixed it to begin at eight to morrow morning.

LISBUItN ELECTION.—Mr. Biteson, the Censer-
vative candidate, has retired, his canvass disappointed him.
The Liberal candidate, Mr. Barbour, is receiving very
wide support. No successor to Mr. Bateson has yet been
found.

THE VOLUNTEERS.—Yesterday the important
contest for the honour of holding, for the first year,
the Challenge Cup, of the value of 60 guineas, presented
by Lord Fermoy and Harvey Lewis, Esq., the members for
Marylebone, fur competition between the Rifle Volunteer
Corps representing that borough, came off at 'Wormwood
Scrubs, and excited deep interest. The corps between whoa'
the competition rested were the West Middlesex (Maryle-
bone), the North Middlesex (St. Pancras), the 36th Middle,-
sex (Paddington), and the 20th Middlesex. Lieut,-Col.
Whitehead, 29th North Middlesex, Lieut.-Col. Bigge, 20th
Middlesex, and Lieut,- Col. Wood, Paddington, and a large
number of officers of each regiment were present. The
terms of competition were of an extraordinary character,
the highest points of excellence to be decided by the average
number of marks made by the representatives of each corps,
in the ratio one for every 50 enumerated as the strength Of
the corps in the adjutant's last returns to the War Office.
Capt. Williams, of the 19th Middlesex, acted as umpire,
and the ranges were 200, 500, and 600 yards, five shots
each. A perfect gale of wind blew from the right front
throughout the contest, and rendered anything like steady
shooting out of the question. Under these unfavourable
auspices the contest commenced and proceeded to the close,
when the state of the score stood thus :—West Middlesex,
10 men, 287 marks; average, 26.70. 36th Middlesex (Pad-
dington), 5 men, 130 marks ; average, 26-00. 29th North
Middlesex, 11 men (1 short), 270 marks; average, 24-54.
20th Middlesex, 19 men, 435 marks; average, 22-88, The
West Middlesex are therefore the winners of the Borough
Cup for the present year.---2d City of London.—On Sa-
turday evening the above corps marched from headquarters,
East Harding-street, headed by their two bands, to Somer.
set House, and were put through a series of battalion move •
ments by Major Spottiswoode, their commandant. After
an hour's drill they marched through the Strand, St•
James's Park, Hyde Park, and Oxford .street, back to their
head-quarters.
TERRIBLE DEATH.—CIa. Sunday evening, at
about ten o'clock, a man named John Willan, living
in Salter-street, Preston, and employed at the gasworks in
that town as foreman of the firemen, and night attendant
to the ammonia still, met his death under the following cir-
cumstances :—lt was his duty to supply the still, when
n
which is largely used in the mann-
faeccteUary
rseo; withammonia, alud which he had to pour into the
still from large carboys holding about 10 gallons each. In
order to do this he had to ascend a platform raised about
seven feet above the ground, and on a level with the mouth
of the retort. It is conjectured that he went to the top of
the platform about ten o'clock for the purpose of filling the.
retort, and then while holding the carboy, which was halt
full of vitriol, he stepped back incautiously and slipped eh
the platform, which was not railed round or defended in any
way. In his fall he must have dragged the carboy with
,;
him, and the burning liquid poured down upon his face and
the front of his body. About half-past ten o'clock a person
going past the gasworks heard some one moaning inside*
Assistance was procured, and the still room was entered,
when the unfortunate man was found lying on the ground
just under the platform in a pool of vitriol, which was grn,
dually consuming his body and clothing, the glass vessel
that had held the vitriol being close to him, smashed iht°,,
pieces by its fall. Medical aid was speedily procured, hu"
it was of no avail, for the unfortunate creature, who nevert
spoke from the time he was found up to his death, expired
at four o'clock yesterday morning, in the greatest ag°llY.
die had employed apt the gas werlie P3coay yore,