The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-15 00:00:00

French, however, that is their concern, not
ours. Rich as the country is, both in mines
and agricultural capabilities, we do not at all
grudge it to them. We can apprise them, by a
pretty large experience, of what a heavy cost it
will prove ; but we should trade with the country
under their protectorship to great advantage, and
we should by no means object to the Americans
having a southern and French Canada, to teach
them that Europe cared nothing about their Monroe
doctrine ; and to make them feel that there was
room in North America for three great Powers at
least.

Their Highnesses the Prince and the Princess
Michel Schahoffskoy have arrived at the Brunswick Hotel,
Jermyn-street, from St. Petersburg, for the season.
The Lord Chancellor has ordered, on the recom-
mendation of her Majesty's Attorney-General, Sir William
Atherton, that £4OO from a lapsed Chancery fund shall be
given to the National Lifeboat Institution, in consideration
of its great and important operations.
It is reported that the French Government is
about to erect a lighthouse on the Minquiers, one of the
Channel Islands belonging to England.

CAPTURE OF PIRATES.—HONGKONG, March 31.
—Her Majesty's gunboat Bustard has captured two pirate
lorchas off Amoy, and released a large trading junk. Her
Majesty's gunboat Cockchafer captured a pirate junk, de-
stroyed another, and recaptured a large merchant junk on
the 24th of March, off Amoy. The merchant junk and the
. .

pirate junk were taken into Amoy with 47 pirate prisoners
A third pirate junk made her escape.
THE BATTLE or PULTOWA.—The ukase of the
Emperor of Russia, abolishing all national festivals, except
the one for the victory of Pultowa, has been interpreted in
Sweden as a demonstration of hostility. At least the jour-
nals of Stockholm call upon Sweden, and the provinces de-
tached from the Crown of Sweden, to celebrate in common
the anniversary of the same battle as a day of national
mourning.
DEATH OF A VETERAN.—Lieutenant Frederick
Bedford died at his residence, Greenwich Hospital, on the
13th inst., aged 83. This gallant old officer entered Green-
wich Hospital on the 23d of June, 1802, and consequently
had nearly completed 60 years in that noble institution.
He was midshipman of the Jason, and lost an eye and sus-
tained other injuries at the capture of the French frigate
Seine in 1798. He became Senior Lieutenant of the Dasher,
and in 1801, when commanding the boats in pursuit of a
convoy, lost a leg, and had his boat sunk by a shot from
the enemy.
VISIT OF THE JAPANESE TO THE BANK OF ENG-
LAND.—On Tuesday morning, shortly before 12 o'clock, the
members of the Japanese embassy visited the Bank of Eng-
land. There were five carriages, and the visit being quite
private, but few of the public had an opportunity of seeing
the illustrious personages, the ambassadors themselves
having alighted at the front entrance of the establishment
in Threadneedle-street before the passers-by to the Royal
Exchange had intimation of the circumstance. They were
attended by their interpreter, their draughtsman, and the
other members of their suite. At the Bank they were met
by several of the directors, who took them over the build-
ing, the various departments in connection therewith being
explained to them by the interpreter, and in the whole of
which they appeared to take great interest.
THE CROPS IN SUFFOLK.—Upon the clay and
stiff-mixed soils of Suffolk the wheats are looking exceed-
ingly well, but on the light lands they are in some places
thin and weakly. The barley crop promises well, and, not-
withstanding that the past spring has been rather trying to
vegetation, appears to have sustained no injury. The later
sown portion of the crop has rapidly developed itself. Beans
and peas look well, and there is an encouraging promise of
a good mangold-wurzel plant. The clover crop does not,
however, hold out such satisfactory hopes, being thin in
some districts. During the last three or four days a good
deal of rain has fallen, and the pastures have taken a fresh
start. The annual meeting of the Suffolk Agricultural
Society is about to be held at Bury St. Edmund's, and three
days will be given on the occasion to the various systems of
steam cultivation.
MR. WINDHAM AGAIN !—You will not, I pre-
sume, be surprised to learn that, in all probability, Mr.
Windham and his affairs are likely again to be brought
under the notice of the public. It is stated in well-
informed quarters that the eccentricities and extravagancies
in which the young man has lately indulged are of such a
nature that his mother has been advised to present a peti-
tion to the Lord Chancellor praying that the inquiry into
the state of his mind may be reopened. Should the prayer
of the petitioner be acceded to, and should another jury
arrive at an opposite conclusion to the last, what a lament-
able and costly miscarriage of justice will be presented to
the world I Mrs. Windham has returned from the conti-
nent in company with Giuglini, with whom she appeared
se frequently in public in Dublin last season.—London.
Correspondent of Belfast News Letter.
Arfoxnun. Trtnr>n OVMM-sal:I gIIErrIELD_ nn

Tuesday morning it was discovered that another trade out-
rage had been perpetrated at the Union grinding whecl,
Sheffield. The wheel had been broken tutu during the pre-
ceding night, and a number of tools, consisting of laps,
glaziers, polishers, bands, and horsings, the property of a
razor-grinder, named John Green, were destroyed. The
mill in which the tools were left is occupied by Green, con-
jointly with two other grinders, and was left in perfect
safety on Monday night. On Tuesday morning it was dis-
covered that the mill had been broken into, and the articles
indicated above removed. The tools of the other grinders
close by had not been meddled with. On making a search
it was found that Green's tools, which were of the value of
£l2, had been thrown under the boiler fire and destroyed.
It appears that Green is a member of the trades' union, and
that he has had a misunderstanding with them. Green
has, however, annoyed some of his fellow-grinders by tak-
ing work he cannot do himself, but his son can. He has
been requested to desist from this course by some of the
men who work at that description of grinding which he had
been giving to his son, and was told, it is said, that if he
did not comply with their wishes, he must take the conse-
quences.
TRAGIC OCCURRENCE AT MANCHESTER.—A
few minutes before one o'clock yesterday afternoon, as an
umbrella repairer, whose name has not yet been ascer-
tained, was walking through Watkins's-court, near Bridge-
street, Manchester, with a number of umbrellas under one
arm, he was seized by a woman named Mary Reynolds,
who charged him with keeping an umbrella she had given
him to repair about 12 months ago. The man denied all
knowledge of it, when the woman seized the umbrellas and
a walking stick which the man was carrying, and com-
menced beating him about the head with them. The
man ran into a street called Dolefield, pursued by the
woman, who continued to beat him, and after a few blows
had taken effect, ho fell down. The woman ran away, and
the man was lifted up in a dying state. Before medical aid
could be obtained he expired in the street. The woman is
in custody. The affair created much excitement in the
neighbourhood. On examinatim of the man's head no
outward appearances were discovered sufficient to account
for death, and it is supposed that he was probably suffering
from disease of the heart. A surgical examination would
be made before holding an inquest.
THE GLASS DOMES, WHY OBJECTIONABLE.—

We must object in toto to the introduction of glass domes
as a feature of architecture—at least when viewed from the
exterior. Their transparency entirely deprives them of the
preponderating size which solid domes exhibit, and which
always forms a grand feature—generally the leading one—
in the public buildings of Europe so enriched. Moreover,
the form itself, however beautiful its outline may be when
of glass, is entirely cut up by the manner in which the
supporting ribs cut each other. If we judge of them from
the inside less is to be said against them ; but our praise
even here can only be negative, as without doubt they let
in a vast deal more light than is necessary, whilst they ut-
terly fail to transmit light to the tunnellike nave. We con-
fess we would much rather have seen such a dome as that
covering the reading-room of the British Museum, where
there is light enough in all conscience, notwithstanding the
massiveness of its exterior. But the truly ludicrous ap-
pearance of the dome of the Great Exhibition, as seen from
the only part the public can approach it on:the eastern side,
is fairly given in the following sketch which was made
from the Exhibition-road opposite to the eastern entrance,
and at the utmost distance the artist could get from the
object. Here it puts on the appearance of one of those
umbrellas used to protect the vegetables in Covent-garden
Market. Viewed from the Horticultural Gardens, the best
view can perhaps be had of those enormous wens upon the
ugly body of the building, but we conceive that, as the two
are brought into view from this point, the faults of the
building are thereby only doubled.—Once a Week.
AURORA BOREALIS.—This meteorological phe•
nomenon, which is of very rare occurrence in Italy and
other countries lying under the same parallels, was observed
at the Brera Observatory of Milan on the night of the 3d.
It commenced about midnight by the sudden appearance of
a subdued and diffused light towards the N.W. ; after some
time large and frequent luminous coruscations were per-
ceived, of such magnitude as often to extend to the zenith.
These appearances having subsided. a RPern of
very black cloud bee.n to rise about 40 min. past mid-
night, in the direction of the magnetic meridian. The
cloud was bordered with two concentric arcs of
pale light, and moving upwards by degrees, slowly
took an easterly direction. Seven minutes later the
larger and more elevated of the two arcs had disappeared,
but the smaller one contiguons to the dark segment became
more beautiful and better datined, extending like a curved
zone about 12 degrees in breadth, with two well defined and
circular borders. Its light, which at first was pale, sud-
denly brightened about 56 min, past q 3 idPig4t, and shone
with an intense purple light for some seconds. This mag-
nificent spectacle was enhanced by a shower of falling stars,
after which the black segment began to dissolro into
stratified clouds, and the luminous t4re gradually faded
• -
away. At 10 minutes past one every trace of the pheno-
mena had disappeared, except a very weak diffused light
which oversFread the whole risible alry,—aaignani.