The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-05 00:00:00

D. WHITTLE HARVEY, ESQ., M.P.

A resolution proposed by Mr. S. Knighton, and se-
conded by Mr. Pitkeithley, proposing to receive the of-
fered legal services of the above named gentleman for
the use of the Convention, was carried, after a pro-
tracted discussion.

After disposing of three or four other motions relative
to the most effective means of consolidating the different
Radical Associations of London into one body, the
meeting broke up.

CARRIER PIGEONS.—Some of these aerial
messengers have recently found their way from Amsterdam
to Frankfort in thirty-eight hour!, the distance between
the two cities being one hundred and eight leagues. Out
of six pigeons started at Amsterdam on the 14th, at seven
in the morning, two reached Frankfort at nine in the morn.
ing on the 16th.

TIIE STORMING OT CONSTANTINA.—The
ravines at the foot of the rock were filled with the bodies
of those who rolled from above ; heaps were seen of the
dead, the dying, the wounded, and the mutilated. Men,
women, and children lay in masses, perishing miserably
and in agonies; for all others were too occupied to assist
them. Thu sight of men who have been killed fighting is
one which does not inspire any sensibilities, for it is nothing
more than you are prepared to see ; but when women and
children are included among the killed, such is not the
case ; and few can gaze upon them in this state unmoved.
In the town I was witness to a little scene which con-
siderably affected me. Entering a house whose passage
was paved with the numerous bodies of the valiant defen-
ders, we found a door which was locked ; the soldiers
burst it open, and found that it had been still further se-
cured by the inmates with boxes and trunks placed against
it. A woman bad locked herself in with two children ;
one of them at the breast. She thought herself secure,
but we found all three killed, a shell having entered by the
ceiling, and burst in the room. The mother and the little
boy appeared to have been, when struck, at different extre-
mities of the room. We found them in the centre, em-
bracing each other with the grasp of death, and the train of
blood showed that they had dragged themselves there from
opposite corners. The door was strewed with toys and
playthings, many dabbled in blood. Although these are
events which unfortunately often occur in besieged towns,
still you cannot avoid starting with horror and pain when
they present themselves to view.— United Service Journal.
JUNCTION OF THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC
OCEANS.—The Congress of the United States have taken
up this long-mooted project, and are likely to bring about
its accomplishment. On the 2d ult. a resolution, accom-
panied by a report and voluminous appendix, interspersed
with sundry maps and diagrams, was presented to the House
of Representatives from the Committee on Roads and Ca-
nals. The resolution was adopted :—" Resolved, that the
President of the United States be requested to consider
the expediency of opening or continuing negotiations
with the governments of other nations, and particularly with
those the territorial jurisdiction of which comprehends the
isthmus that connects North and South America, and to
which the United States have accredited ministers or agents,
for the purpose of ascertaining the practicability of open-
ing a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans by the construction of a ship canal across the Isth-
mus ; and of securing for ever, by suitable treaty stipula-
tions, the free arid equal right of navigating such canal to
all nations, on the payment of reasonable tolls."
SINGULAR ACCIDENT A T GREENIVICII FAIR.
—Between eight and nine on Wednesday morning a me-
chanic, named James Finch, was drinking at a public housa
in Greenwich, and, while in the act of putting a pipe into
his mouth, one of his companions, who was "larking," as it
is termed, pushed against his arm, and forced the stem
through the root of his tongue, into the back part of his
neck, to the depth of between three and four inches. He
was conveyed, in a state of great agony, to St. Thomas's
Hospital, where, after much diticulty, Mr. Green, the
principal surgeon of the establishment, succeeded in ex-
tracting the piece of pipe. The patient, however, is not
considered to be out of danger. Two similar accidents
have occurred within the last eighteen months, and both of
them terminated fatally.
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.—The officers of the
Animals' Friend Society, in Brighton, last week caused
Samuel Boore and James Baker, to be fined 31. and costs,
each, by Mr. Seymour and Bench, for cruelty and furious
driving ; Daniel Preston, G. Johnson, and Burrough
(donkey riders at Greenwich fair), to be fined in costs, by
Mr. Smith, for cruelty to their donkeys ; and at Lambeth-
street, James Evans; Nichols, and drover 50, to bo
committed fur fourteen days for cruelty to oxen ; also at
Birmingham; three men to be fined for cruelty to horses,
making eleven convietions'hy this necessary Society.
The sympathy of the people of Hungary for
M. Ko.4sutii ie such, that a subscription has been opened
fer hint, which already amounts to 730,000 francs
(30.0000, and a great number of the members of the
Diet have resolved to petition the Emperor and Kin,' for a ;
full pardon.

PROFESSOR RIGAUD.

It was our painful office to announce in our last
Number the death of the Savilian Professor of As-
tronomy. Professor Rigaud was matriculated of
Exeter College at the early age of sixteen, and had
never been absent from Oxford so much as a single
year during the period which has since elapsed, little
short of half a century. The character, conse-
quently,
of few persons could be better known, and
certainly none could better bear a close and search-
ing inspection ; for he was constantly applying to
his own moral improvement the accuracy of obser-
vation and correctness of judgment which qualified
him for mathematical pursuits, and enabled him to
recover and ascertain so many particulars respecting
Bradley, Harriot, Hadley, and other eminent sci-
entific men, the biography of whom had been pre-
viously neglected. No one could be more desirous
of fulfilling all the duties of life, and nine, we can
confidently affirm, for we speak from personal know-
ledge, ever surpassed him as a son or as a parent.
Twelve years ago he had the misfortune to lose his
wife, a bereavement which he felt most acutely,
though he endeavoured to conceal the extent of his
feelings from others, and from that time devoted
himself with all the energy and ardour of his cha-
racter to the education and care of his children.
Henceforward this was the object for which he
lived, yet even this attachment was not suffered to
absorb his thoughts and to interfere with his pro-
fessional duties as a lecturer and an observer ; and
he was ever forward to promote the cause of
science, either in London or in Oxford, where he
was one of the originators of the Ashmolean So-
ciety, and a frequent contributor to it of papers,
most of which have been published. The
simplicity and innocence of mind which has,
in many instances, characterised men of dis-
tinguished science he possessed in a peculiar de-
gree. He was no less remarkable for integrity, for
the strictest veracity, and for genuine humility ;
and these valuable qualities were combined with
great forbearance in judging others, with the warmest
and most zealot's affection to his friends, and with
the most devoted and grateful loyalty to the four
Sovereigns whom he had, in succession, the honour
of serving. His illness, which was sudden and
unexpected, he bore with resignation and Christian
fortitude. His sufferings were most severe, but
happily they were of short duration, yet long enough
to show that his virtues were the fruits of faith, and
could stand the trial of a dying hour, proving that
he rested his hopes of salvation wholly and un-
reservedly on the only true foundation—the me-
ritorious death and sacrifice of our Redeemer.

" Mr. Rigaud, in 1831, printed the miscellane-
works and correspondence of Dr. Bradley, to which,
in 1833, he added a supplement, including an ac-
count of Harriot's papers. In 1838 he published
some Tal u a ble notices on the first publication of
Newton's Principia. These were all printed at the
University press ; and at the time of his death he
was diligently employed in editing a very valuable
collection of original letters from men of eminence
in the scientific world, from the originals among the
papers of Mr. Jones, father of Sir Wm. Jones, now
preserved in the library of the Earl of Macclesfield.
Mr. Rigaud was a frequent contributor to the scien-
tific Journals of his day—to the Transactions of the
Royal Society, to Brewster's Journal, and to the
Nautical Magazine. In the Transactions of the
Ashmolcan Society will be found, by him, remarks
on the proportionate quantities of rain at different
seasons in Oxford ; a paper on the Arenarius of
Archimedes ; and an account of some early propo-
sals for steam navigation ; and at the commence-
ment of the present term he read before the same
Society an interesting paper on Captain Savery and
his steam engine, which we hope and believe will
appear in the next volume of their Transactions."—
ayard Herald.

DEATH OF A GENTLEMAN FROM DRINKING
BRANDY.-Wednesday morning an inquest was held at the
Shard Arms Tavern, Camberwell, on the body of Mi.
Edward Venner, a gentleman of fortune, aged 10 years,
who reskled at the house of his cousin, Mr. Rouse, of
No. 3, Canal-place, Old Kent road. The deceased kad
for some time past been in the habit of getting in a
dreadful state of intoxication. On Saturday morning last
ho went out about half past seven o'clock, and returned
in about two hours with a pint and a half of brandy. He
retired to his room, and was found quite dead in bed the
same night, about six o'clock, by the servant, with the
bottle empty. A surgeon promptly attended, but pro-
nounced him to have been dead several hours. On a
post mortem examination of the body, near a pint and a
half of blown fluid was found in the stomach. Verdict—
" That the deceased died in consequence of having taken
an immoderate use of raw brandy in a short time."
LINNEAN SOCIETY.—At the ordinary meeting
on Tuesday evening, the Bishop of 'Norwich, President,
in the chair, Mr. Ingpen exhibited fcr distribution a
quantity of the root of the crocus vernix, the original
English variety, which is not found in any part of the
country with the exception of the Nottingham meadows ;
and a flowering specimen of scilla :precops. Mr. Owen
read a long paper on a new species of lepidosiren found
by M. Natterer in the Brazils, which was an amphibious
animal, having many analogies with the eel. The most
curious articles in the room were some specimens of
photogenis etching from Mr. Willmore. The glass being
first covered with varnish, is etched out by a graver, the
same as with copperplates, and this is exposed to light
with the prepared photogenic 'paper behind, where the
effects of a very beautiful etching are immediately produced.

M. Kossuth, Advocate of Pest, in Hungary,
was, on March 10, convicted of publishing a manuscript
journal, of Liberal politics, and condemned to imprisonment
for three years in a fortress. A law of the Press in that
country expressly allows any Hungarian Nobleman (come
of age) the right of publishing whatever he pleases, with-
out incurring any personal responsibility, providing he
does not publish anything against the person of the King
or the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. M. Kossu:h belongs
to a noble family of the highest rank, and had distributed
only a few copies of the paper in question among his
friends, who entertain the same political opinions. The
article, which was written in a very moderate tone, simply
expressed a desire for some material improvements. It
was contended by the public prosecutor that the law did
not apply to manuscript notes, and as the defendant had
published a journal, the object of which was to create wants
among the people which they did not feel ; and as they
might thereby be rendered discontented with the present
ate.• of things, the accused ought to be ranked with the
disturbers of the public peace, and condemned to the pu-
nishment which the law inflicts on such delinquents.

A SOLDILPC3 NOTION OF TILE OPPOSITION.
—Two soldiers were the other day talking together; the
more ingenuous one said, " I hear Right and Left of the
Government and Opposition, of the Opposition and Go-
vernment, what do they mean by that?" " I'll explain
it," replied the other ; " For example, there's Marshal
Soult; you know Marshal Soult ?" " Yes." " Well;
when he is in the Opposition he has won the battle of
Toulouse, and when be is in the Government, he has lost
t —that's all. "—French Paper.

COUNTESS PASKEWITSCII'B GRAND BALL.
—Before we had recovered from our fatigues, we were
invited by the Countess Paskewitsch to a grand ball and
supper at the palace, where we saw the whole of the Royal
Family of Georgia seated together 'upon sofas, at one
side of the room ; the Countess and Khosrou Mirza occu-
pied a couch at its head, and Paskewitsch, Prince of Eri-
van, appeared among his numerous staff one blaze of dia-
monds ; the very etrings to the scabbard of his sword, and
the scabbard itself, being entirely studded. The Persian
order of the Lion and the Sun, which he wore on his right
breast, equalled the full moon in size, and the Countess
displayed the greatest number of large pearls Mrs. M. Lad
ever witnessed on one individual ; they were the size of a
big pea. A double row was tacked round the top of the
body of her dress, but on the shoulders they were left in
several loops three inches long ; on the left shoulder to the
front, the miniature of the Empress was suspended ; a
little further back, on the same shoulder, that of the Em-
peror, both set in brilliants. The same costly pearls, in
two long rows, were hung around her neck, and a tiara of
diamonds graced her head. Her countenance was very
pleasing, though her features were large, her complexton
most excellent, and her dark eye had great depth of ex-
pression. I should judge her to be a gifted and sensible
woman. Indeed she received the attentions of the com-
pany with that ladylike and graceful familiarity which
would have made a pupil of the Almack school of
tours" ready to faint.--Capt. Miynan's Journey to Koor-
distaste.

The Rev. Francis Thornburgh has been ap-
pointed by a majority of the electors to the living of Kings.
wood. There were 24 candidates. The benefice is in the
gift of the Minister's rate-payers.

The commercial crisis becomes every day more
felt, and the Tribunal of Commerce at Paris is, in conse-
quence, quite encumbered with new business. For a
month not a week hai passed without about 2,000 causes
being placed on the paper. The number of failures has
increased in proportion. —French Paper.
INCENDIARY FlRES.—Between eight and nine
o'clock on Sunday evening last, a fire was discovered on
the farm premises of Mr. Burrows, of Hcadington, near
this city, and although an alarm was instantly given, yet
before any effective assistance could arrive, the fire had ob-
tained such an ascendency that a very capacious barn, in
which were about twenty quarters of corn, a new waggon,
a winnowing machine, and other farming implements, were
destroyed, together with two straw ricks in the yard, where
the firo first broke out. A large wheat rick in the yard
escaped, owing to the wind carrying- the flames in an
opposite direction. The peculiar manner in which the
fire broke out, from a heap of straw which communi-
cated with the roof of the barn, together with other cir-
cumstances, leave no doubt but that it was the act of some
villanous incendiary. A vindictive feeling, it appears, has
manifested itself on the part of some few labourers toward
Mr. Burrows, jun., which can be traced to only one source,
and that is, the circumstance of Mr. Burrows being active,
(and with the best intentions) in promoting the objects of
the Poor-law Bill..—Reading Mercury.