The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-11 00:00:00

PENNY POSTAGE.

To the Honourable the Commons of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Parlia-

ment assembled.
The Petition of the undersigned Wives, Mothers,
Sisters, and Daughters of Seamen sailing from the port
of Great Yarmouth, in the County of Norfolk—
MOST HUMBLY SHOWETH,

That your Petitioners have long felt the present rate
of postage a great grievance, it frequently occurring
that when their husbands, children, or fathers, after a
long absence, have written from a distant port in the
United Kingdom, to acquaint their families with their
safety, wd relieve them from a painful anxiety, the
amount for postage of their letters have been so high
that they have been unable to pay it, and your Petiti-
oners have consequently been deprived of the gratifying
information they so fondly expected, and ardently
desired. _ _ _

That, confiding in the sympathy of the Members of
your Honourable House, your Petitioners humbly
pray that the proposition submitted to your Honour-
able House, by Mr. Rowland Hill, for a uniform Penny
Postage may be adopted.
And when the peculiar hardships of many of your
Petitioners shall be considered, and the feelings of
wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters adverted to by
Members of your Honourable House individually,
your Petitioners feel encouraged and emboldened to
anticipate (what they most earnestly, but with hu-
mility and becoming deference, thus entreat and sup-
plicate) the candid attention of your Honourable
House, to the object of their Petition.
And your Petitioners will ever pray, &c. &c.
(Signed.)
*,* Besides this petition there are two others from
the same persons, one to the Queen, and the other to
the Lords. Already there are many hundred signatures
affixed to them.

STEAM NAVIGATION.—Captain Robinson has
just published a valuable little work, entitled " The Nau-
tical Steam Engine Described, and its Powers and Capa-
bilities Explained; for the use of Naval Officers and
others interested in the important results of Steam Navi-
gation." Captain Robinson's is, we believe, the only work
specifically devoted to this subject, and he has succeeded
admirably in divesting it of technical obscurity. Most per-
sons who travel in steam vessels are desirous of knowing
the principles and power of the steam engine, and they
will learn more from the perusal of this work than they
could possibly gain by the casual inquiry of inspection. To
officers of the navy especially this work must prove in-
valuable.

LORD STASILEY.—The advocate of coercion
in Ireland, of coercion in Canada, became of a sudden the
opponent of a coercive policy, when a despicable oligarchy
of petty tyrants were to be curbed and deprived of their
mischievous power. Lnrd Stanley warned the House to
beware of rousing a spirit of insubordination in a single
colony ; but he discovered no such wise caation when the
peace of whole provinces was at stake. He would coerce
the millions of Ireland, but affects a constitutional horror
at applying a stringent measure to the forty-four legislators
of Jamaica! He affected to be anxious that the negroes
should have the whole of their civil rights as freemen,
while opposing a Bill intended to prepare the way for
their being put into possession of them. But a slip of the
tongue betrayed the spirit of the speaker. Ministers were
acting thus tyrannically, Lord Stanley said, both to the
negroes and to the whites, who were their masters and
owners. Cheers from the Ministerial benches induced the
Noble Lord to recal the untoward expression " not
owners, but employers." A delicate phrase for the Jamaica
overseers. —Patriot.

CHEAP POSTAGE.—The Presbytery of Loch-
carron at a late meeting petitioned both Houses of Par-
liament in favour of Mr. Hill's plan fir a low and uniform
rate of postage. This is the first instance in which a
Church Court has come forward as petitioners on the sub-
ject. The example, however, was very speedily followed,
for the Synod of Ross, at their annual meeting shortly
afterwards, resolved also to petition for the same measure.
The subject is one which the clergy ought to have much
at heart, for it nearly concerns the interests and happiness
of their poor parishioners. Every wise and humane per-
son should join in the advocacy of that mighty reform in
which poor as well as rich are deeply interested ; and
which in its results, would be to the people of this kingdom
an inestimable boon.—lnverness Courier.

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES.—At the ordinary
meeting held on Thursday evening, Mr. Hallam, Vice-
PresiLnt, in the Chair, a letter was read from Sir W.
Beetham, Ulster King-at-Arms, on an ancient bronze arm
which is in his possession, and an illustration of which will
be found in the " Vetusta Monumenta." It was described
as a religious relic of the ancient Irish, of about the 7th or
Bth century, but the inscriptions were very difficult to
decipher. The author remarked on the paucity of classic
Irish scholars, the vernacular or spoken Irish becoming
every day more corrupt, and losing all the purity and
chasteness of the ancient tongue. Sir William Beetham
also gave a description of a stone in the wall of a Church
two miles distant from Brecknock, in South Wales, which
had on it the rude figure of a man with several inscriptions
in Irish. The stone, to which from this circumstance
considerable interest was attached, was a funeral monument
to some ancient British Christian, about the 2d or 3d
century, and when under the domination of the Romans.
A continuation was read of an interesting paper by Mr.
Bond on the introduction of the Italian money-lenders into
England in the reigns of Edward 1., IL, and 111.

QUEEN ELIZABETH S STATUE.—Yesterday
morning the preliminary works having been completed,
the recently discovered statue of Queen Elizabeth, was
erected in St. Dunstan's Church avenue. The pedestal
is fixed over a Gothic portico on the eastern side of the
Church, which has been erected for the purpose. Under-
neath is block of black stone, on which is engraved the fol-
lowing inscription :—" This statue of Queen Elizabeth for-
merly stood on the west side of Ludgate, and was presented
by the City to Sir Fras. Gosling, Knt., Alderman of the
Ward, who caused it to be placed here."
A very fine trout has been observed for some
time La the river Stour, between King's-bridge and the
Friars, within the walls of this city. It attracted the at-
tention of many persons, and various attempts were made
to ensnare, and even to shoot it, without success. On
Tuesday a person named Lamberton, stationed in a garden
at the back of All Saint's-lane, succeeded in taking it with
a rod and line, using a common ground bait. This king
of the stream was a remarkably handsome fish of the true
trout species ; it weighed 0f lb. It measured two feet two
inches in length, and twenty inches in girth. So large a
trout has not been taken in this stream for upwards of
thirty years.—Kentish Gazette.
DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.—It is with extreme re-
gret that we announce that a most distructive ire, which
there is every reason to believe was the act of an incendiary,
took place on Thursday at Steeple Ashton. It happened at
about 11 o'clock, on the premises of Mr. Miles, nea r the
church. Pive wheat ricks • three barns, in which were
about 100 sacks of what; three wagon sheds; a stable, and
cottages were totally consumed—Mr. Miles lately dis-
charged all his labourers for having attended a Chartist
meeting. The fire was distinctly visible from Devizes.—
Wiltshire Independent.