The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY VE IN(, 00 POBER 16, 1862.

stance of the EMPRESS, is a matter of com-
paratively but very small importance indeed.
At whose soever instance he is doing it—he is
doing it. He is declaring by this decision that he
will accept his Ministers collective resignation,
and forthwith appoint their successors—he is declar-
ing by this autocratic decision of his against the
Unification of Italy, and for a policy of reaction
in the Roman Peninsula ! Whether he can blow
cold now, as readily as he blew hot when he led his
army into Lombardy—France, Italy, Europe will
soon enough demonstrate. In any case, the
course the French EMPEROR is now adopting must
by an almost unavoidable necessity lead to war.
Whatever may be done in this matter by the
Italian Government, with RATTAZZI as Minister, it
is hardly probable that the Italian People will
quietly submit to be parcelled out anew at the
whim and pleasure of a Gallic Autocrat.

The terrible accident at Edinburgh was due to
wo things—the use of a single line for the traffic
both ways (under the circumstances of repairing the
line unavoidable) and the depth and Binding of the
cutting being such, as to prevent the engineer of
either train from seeing at a distance the train
approaching his own, and slackening his speed or
reversing the engine. This was at least the essen-
tial cause of the accident; special care had been
taken, however, to prevent this double cause from
giving occasion to a collision. The means adopted
are thus described by the Scotsman :—"A points-
man had been stationed at the western extremity of
the curve for the purpose of making signals to trains
approaching Winchburgh from the west, as to
whether the rails were clear for the safe passage of
trains along the single line. A pilot-engine has also
been permanently stationed there for the purpose of
following each train to the point where:the working
of the double line of rails is resumed . It would ap.
pear that last night a ballast train, composed of en-
gine, tender, and truck, passed westwards as usual
a little after six o'clock, conveying a portion of the
men who at that hour ceased their work on that
part of the down line which is being relaid. The
pointsman at the west end of the single line, whose
name is George Newton, seems to have mistaken
this short ballast train for the pilot-engine follow-
ing the six p.m. train from Edinburgh for the
North ; and it would appear that, when the train
which left Glasgow at five p.m. reached his station,
he—under the impression that the passage of the
pilot-engine ( for which he had mistaken the ballast
train) had denoted that the single line to Winch-
burgh was clear—allowed the Glasgow train to
pass on and meet the Edinburgh train, with the
fatal result of which our readers are now aware."
There does not appear, therefore, to have been
any neglect on the part of any one; and if it shall
turn out, on further inquiry, that the pointsman

really mistook one engine for another, he cannot
even be brought before a jury. It is said, indeed,
that he had been placed at his post but half an
hour before, and this oversight—though it would
hardly be such if the pointsman, though new to
that spot, had been in long practice on railways
before—seems at present to be the only blame-
worthy aet in connection with this fearful cala-
mity. It seems not unlikely that the line being of
such a peculiar character, the forthcoming verdict
must be that it was due to the pointsman's mistak-
ing a ballast engine for a pilot engine.
What is wanted is some infallible indicator in
all such cases. It should be one if possible of a

purely mechanical kind, so as not to depend on the
possibly wearied, or deceived, or wandering senses
of a human agent at all. We want some means by
which a train entering a length of single rail should

itself, whether pointsmen are asleep or awake, sig.
nalise its presence on it till it has left it for its own

side on a double line. Failing this, which, perhaps,
we may have long to wait for, 'we cannot conceive

of a simpler expedient than one adopted on the
London and North-Western Railway between Mar-
ket Harboro' and Rugby for working a single-
line railway, which might be adopted in every
case, whether temporary or permanent, where
trains running in opposite directions use the

rails. It is also in use on a part of the North
British line. It is thus described in a letter
to the Scotsman :—" The plan is a very simple
one, and consists in a piece of wood, not unlike

a gentleman's baton, being handed to the guard
at the beginning of the single line, and which is de-
livered up by him at the end of the single line. As
he dare not enter upon the single line part of the

ourney without the baton, it is impossible for a

rain to come in the opposite direction till his

arrival at the other end, and the delivery of the
baton enables the opposite train to proceed on its

ournev."

This certainly appears like one of those simple
arrangements which come as near to mechanical
certainty, as anything worked by the hands of
human beings Can do. Had this plan been in opera-
tion at the Clayton Tunnel, on the Brighton line,
it hardly seems possible that that accident could
have occurred ; there cculd be no doubt whether a
train had passed through the tunnel if it had
delivered up its baton when it had reached the
other side, and none, whether or not one might
enter when the last train in the tunnel had left its
signal that it was safely through.
The collision has been of a kind, we believe,
almost unexampled in the history of railways—the
ordinary case is one of a stationary train being run
into by another in motion. Here we had the two
trains both nearly at full speed doubling the usual
violence of the shock. It is indeed terrific to con-
ceive of the force of impact from the combined
power of two steam engines, and the momentum
of two heavy trains moving at high velocities.
Witnesses seem to labour in the attempt to describe
what they saw when all was over. The smashing
of all the parts of carriages susceptible of breakage,
and strewing their fragments like rubbish_the
piling up of the monster wheels and huge frames
upon one another; heavy cars iages, raised high in
the air, having mounted upon others; but, amidst
all this wild confusion, there was proof that the
brave fellows in charge of the engines had done
their part—but moments had been allowed them—
yet in those moments the breaks had been brought
hard up, and the hand of one held with a death
clutch the reversing-rod handle of his engine.
Their widows and orphans, if they leave
any, pre-eminently deserve the reward due
to their husbands' and fathers' presence of
mind in such a dreadful moment. A full inquiry
will of course be made ; but what seems unaccount-
able is, that such inquiries iu Scotland are secret.
This will hardly satisfy the public in a case like
the present one, and some steps will, we trust, be
taken by which the whole kingdom will be satisfied
acciden iarrirOlvi
is hudndgledl7upli,vaensdanthdaat
men concerned are all equally tm least
an a _
gers and
dealt with,

The sentence pronounced at last upon, the
deserters from the Italian army to the Garib aldian
insurgents is something frightful. Death could
hardly be otherwise—in the instance of many..
than preferable. The sentence being, as the tele-
gram
onmofvntth morning
lis
In the history of the three menthe' power exei-

cised over France during the March, April, and
May of 1818, by the Provisional Government estab-
lished at Paris after the February Revolution, there
is recorded one act which will secure to that short-
lived Government an honourable, and grateful, and
admiring remembrance. Can anyone doubt for an
instant as to what that act was ? Is it not yet held
in vivid recollection throughout not merely all
France, but all Christendom ? The act passed at
one famous sitting of the Provisional Government
in the Hotel de Ville, with the veteran DUPONT
DE L'EURE presiding in the chair, but with the
poet LAMARTINE at his elbow, as the real Presiding
Genius of the conclave—the act immediately after-
wards read by LAMARTINE to the multitude out-
side, in the midst of their ringing acclamations
—the immortal act declaring the abolition
thenceforth in France of the Punishment of
Death for Political Offences !
But it may be argued by the sticklers for the in-
tegrity of the policy of Signor RATTAZZI, backed
up by the military rigour insisted upon by General
CIALDINI, that the punishment now inflicted upon
these "deserters" from the Royal Army of King Vic-
TOR EMMANUEL to the insurgent bands of General
GARIBALDI, is a punishment inflicted in the name
of the maintenance of military discipline. Let
Europe answer whether it really is so. Let any
dispassionate observer of recent events—those
events beginning at Corleone and ending at Aspro-
monte, starting from Eastern Sicily and ending in
Southern Calabria—let any dispassionate observer,
we say, cast a momentary glance of retrospect upon
these recent and sufficiently well-known occurrences,
and say whether the fault, the crime if yob will, for
which these unfortunate soldiers are doomed to
undergo the awful punishment of perpetual impri-
sonment was not flagrantly and essentially more of
a political than of a military offence. Why the
banner borne aloft by GARIBALDI and his followers
was the banner not of a revolutionary mob, but of
the foremost soldiers of the SOVEREIGN ! And of
that SOVEREIGN—in what capacity ? Not as King
of SARDINIA, not as King of the PIEDMONTESE, but as
—King of ITALY. The cryraised in Sicily and carried
across the Straits of Messina, and echoed among the
hill tops of Calabria—was, it is true, that of " Rome
or Death." But those words were mingled with
Evvivas for " VICTOR EMMANUEL," for the " King
of ITALY," for the Re Galantuomo! Let any one call
them treasonous—but the KING himself! Let any
one pronounce GARIBALDI and his men to be
traitors, insurgents, revolutionists—any one, saving
and excepting only the very Sovereign who is now
meting out upon their military companions in the
enterprise this cruel and appalling punishment.
Why, the fact is that the so-called deserters from
the Royal army, so far from being traitors to the
KlNG—loved him and his interests (in the name
and in the cause certainly of Italian Unity) " not
wisely," as events have proved, but—" too well!"
The KING and his Ministers—for what reasons the
French EMPEROR can best tell—were in reality the
traitors : traitors, that is, to the cause that GARI-
BALDI and his men consistently maintained to the
last at the point of their swords—maintained until
the Hero was infamously shot down by Italian
bullets at Aspromonte ! And when encountered—
what was the one reiterated command of the General
in the midst of the deadly fusillade of the Bersag-
lieri ? "Don't fire !" It was his one entreaty
from the first moment of the approach towards
him of the Bersaglieri under PALLAVICINO ! It
was sounded upon every trumpet of the Garibaldian
Band while the firing of the Royal troops con-
tinued. The offence we maintain, so far as it could
be regarded as an offence to the KING and his
Majesty's Government, was essentially a political
offence, and as such ought assuredly not to be
punished many weeks afterwards in cold blood by
so horrible a penalty as perpetual imprisonment
The soldiers who are pronounced deserters were
never arrayed in arms against the KING—Who has,
nevertheless, now doomed them to life-long incar-
ceration. So far from that they were ready, in
order to complete the KING'S title to the Sovereignty
of Italy, one and indivisible, they were perfectly
prepared to this end to rush upon what everybody,
but themselves and their impassioned associates in
the enterprise, looked upon as certain, as absolutely
inevitable destruction. Tremendous as the odds
were that (in their own view) were arrayed against
them, they were yet prepared " to do or die" upon
the bare chance of achieving, under the leadership
of GARIBALDI, the Unification of Italy in name of
King VICTOR EMMANUEL. Call them madmen, if
you will—but not traitors to VICTOR EM-
MANUEL or to his Government! To do
so would be nothing less than an absurdity—an
outrageous and flagrant contradiction of terms. And
yet these are actually the men who —havitig been
inhumanely sentenced to death by the military tri-
bunals before whom they were arrai.,ned—we now
learn have had that sentence mercifully commuted(!)
to perpetual imprisonment, The decree thus com-
muting the sentence, we learn, has been signed by
the KlNG—evidently quite as an act of grace ! hen
on the contrary it is an outrage to public feeling
throughout all Christendom. Why, in the presence
of the diplomatic circular addressed by the Italian
Minister for Foreign Affairs, General DURAND°,
(since Aspromonte!) to the KING'S representatives
at all the Courts of Europe—it is a monstrous ini-
quity to subject these men to any punishment what-
ever. For the programme sketched out
with diplomatic circumlocution by General Du-
RAND° is identically the same (in design)
as the programme blurted out with soldierly blunt-
ness, and without any circumlocution, by Gene-
ral GARIBALDI. Besides—punish the sot-disant
deserters in any way whatever, and how are the
officers, who threw down their swords rather than
carry them bared against the Hero of their Country
in Sicily—how are those officers of the Royal army
to be dealt with ? It is a notorious fact that
thirty or forty officers did positively act in that
way before Catania. And to allow them to pass
scatheless (beyond the fact of their having been
cashiered)—to raise not one finger against them—
whileamrao
raenhdedealingd h iinln twhe a
so
hehtnrarshlywith the daring fellows who
hi ne
fell
lin the
mountainand p
clustereda s s a
t
Aspromonte, will be (if persistedlyith
tihne)
mtoostacgtlamrionsgt
cruelly, most inhumanly,
and
and insolent injustice. Signor
RATTAZZI
almost seem to be bent upon doing
possibly can contrive to do of late to drag everything
the
n amhee,
fame, the prestige of his SOVE
the REIGN through
the mire. He did so in the instance of the no-
s::)rious Proclamation blackening the great name of
would
GARIBALDI with a charge of Treason. He hat
done so now in this instance, if that can be, still
more gratuitously, and, therefore, still most mains.
tifiably, by causing the royal signature to be
rt!imprisonment.
unfortunate
ent .
m
affited to so cruel a commutation. The recent
am-
nestysoldiers is
aasr nothing,are d d to perpetualn
oome so lo
GARIBALDI can now hardly do otherwise than in-
sist that the prison doors
g as
these
i
and unconditionally.
should be flung open at once of these poor fellows

r We confess we begin to hope that there is more
' in the proclamation than we had thought when we
see the fury it creates in the South, and how it is
denounced by the pro-slavery organs of this country.
We almost hope that all the wrath is real, not
feigned, and that the South may find that even this
timid and procrastinating document is full of just
terrors to the guilty buyers and sellers of men—to
the.beings—human beings we can hardly call them,
who deny that a black man has any rights which
a white man is bound to respect. One thing is
certain. These furious slaveholders have an easy
method of saving themselves from massacre—they
can emancipate their slaves themselves. They will
not pretend that it is not in their power
by this simple act of justice to secure
the attachment of the negroes, to retain them as
labourers at wages, to lose nothing by it, for free
labour would be the cheapest for them, and then,
indeed, they might, with the assent and recogni-
tion of all Europe, defy the North for ever. If
they would take this easy, profitable, and righteous
step, England must recognise them at once, and
would hear no longer of a war of subjugation.

THE PRINCE CONSORT MEMORIAL.—The com-
mittee of the Memorial Fund metyesterday at the Mansion-
house. It appears that the amount already invested is
£47,235 158., and the balance in the hands of the bankers
is £3,315 6s. 5d., of which sum the committee directed
£3,000 to be invested. The total amount paid and promised
up to yesterday amounted to £53,089 9s. 10d.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cam-
bridge and the Princess Mary have left Cambridge Cottage,
Kew, for Brighton.
Sir Henry Bulwer, English ambassador to the
Sultan, has arrived at Vienna, and Baron de Prokesch is
expected there. It is reported that the baron is resolved
not return to Constantinople, and even intends withdraw-
ing entirely from political life.
His Excellency the Ambassador of France and
Madlle. Elphinstone de Flahault come to town to-day, from
Tulliallan Castle, Perthshire, The Countess de Flahault
returns to town on Saturday.
The Duke of 'Wellington is passing the season at
his seat in Norfolk. The duchess is staying at Dufferin
Lodge, Highgate, on a visit to her brother, the Earl of
Gifford.
The Duchess (Dowager) of Beaufort and Lady
Edith Somerset have returned to Dupplin Castle, Perth-
shire, from a visit to Floors Castle, Kelso.
The Marchioness Conyngham has left town on a
visit to her ladyship's sister, the Duchess (Dowager) of
Richmond, at Higholiffe, Haws.
Tile Earl and Countess of Craven left their resi-
dence in Charles-street, yesterday, for their seat, Ashdown
Park, Berks.

two £lOO, two £50,0f
ROBBERY OP £3OO IN A PUBLIC-HOUSE.—Yester-
day morning information was forwarded to the different
metropolitan police-stations that Mr. Isaac Worthinaton,
of Norwich, who had been to visit the International Exhi-
biittTihohnte,hheßiardisbbhosoetpn plundered in a public-house in the City of
wthey have beeons:
to 136 near him
and £25 in gold and silver. The thieves got clear away
ani)durfihvaerna Bank England notes,
Stopped,
pTpheed nanumdbaerlsa or
large
et the
wnaortde s
isa
offeredr eknowfno
r;
as Y more than Mr. GLADSTONE'S, that of the the aPPrellensi" of the robbers, who can be identified.
Another Minister has given US his opinion—not
Cabinete—but, simply the opinion of Sir G. C.
allow reporters
LEAVxs
white hedelivered his pri
ou facts which lie as much before the whole mary tation charge the
church of St, Mary-le-Bow,'
world 45
they do before Cabinet Alinietero, So 1)41413r12. rwefnsed, on Tuesday, t.o.

' the Secretary of War wishes us distinctly to un-
derstand. There is a distinct shade of difference
between him and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The latter says that Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS has
made the South a nation. Sir GEORGE seems
to say, " not just yet." The South is, he
' says, a " belligerent," though we have been
much blamed by the North for admitting
so much ; but it) is not correct to say that
the question on which the war was begun
has been answered yet. The South has justified
us in acknowledging it as a belligerent, for it has
been so for a year and a half, and " when we look
at the firmness and consistency with which they
have combined for the purpose of carrying on the
war—when we look at the numbers of armed men
they have brought into the field, and the ability of
the generals by whom those armies have been com-
manded—the pertinacity with which the contest on
their part has been waged—the extent to which
they have threatened even the capital of their
enemy—when these things are looked at it surely
cannot be denied that they deserve the name of
belligerents, and that they have carried on a war
against the Northern States. .1 confess it seems to
me that an unfounded charge is made against the
Government of this country when it is said that
they have departed from a strict neutrality by re-
cognising the belligerency of the Southern States."
But Sir GEORGE argumentatively rejects our
right to recognise the South at present. He can
not of course deny that according to international
law we may do so at any time ; but he thinks it
would not be fair yet. We may have our opinion
as to what will be the result of the contest—the
prevalent opinion is that the South will succeed—
he will not say that he dissents from that opinion,
but he denies that it has yet succeeded. The
state of the war must be acknowledged, he thinks,
to prove that the South has not yet succeeded in
achieving its complete independence, The North
has not been induced to recognise it. Until the
North has done this, or until it has become so ex-
hausted as to give up the conflict, the South cannot
be said to have gained a de facto independence.
With so strong an opinion against recognition in
one of the members of the Cabinet, certainly
among the most competent to judge, it is, wesuppose,
useless to expect anything of the kind from our
Government for some time to come.
It is singular that we hear nothing from Sir
GEORGE on the subject of the proclamation. This
is doubtless intentional. The last American advices

nform us that it is beginning to arouse the wrath
of the South, and there is plenty of what the Ame-
ricans term " tall talk" in the Congress at Rich-
mond about it. Of course, it is represented as an
incitement to massacre and pillage, and all that
kind of thing, and dreadful alarm is professed.
Now, we have two remarks to make to the
Southerners and their pro-slavery friends here, on
this kind of rant, for we believe it to be rant, and
those who use it to be aware that it is so. First,
we say—if you are afraid of a massacre, then you
have told us most shameless falsehoods hitherto on
your own good usage of the negroes, and on their
attachment to you and to slavery, if the relations
between you and your negroes are what you
have described them to be, they would, scorn
the offer of freed; m, and beg to remain with their
beneficent masters, who gave twelve hundred or
even two thousand dollars a piece for them, and of
course use such treasures most tenderly. If all you
Southerners have told us be true, it will never
occur to the negroes that they can be worth two
thousand dollars each to themselves, and they will
laugh at the bribe of liberty, work, and wages.
Secondly, we say, if you do not believe the negroes
will massacre you, you have not a shadow of com-
plaint against Mr. LINCOLN. He has done only
what is perfectly fair in war. You went to war with
him because you said his policy of excluding slavery
from the yet free soil would abolish slavery—for
slavery, therefore, you have broken up the Union
and shed torrents of white men's blood—you wanted
independence to propagate slavery—you have
used your slaves, too, to support you in
war, as well as made them the occasion
of the war. Most just is it, therefore, that Mr.
LINCOLN should, after giving you three months for
repentance, tell you that after that time he will to
the extent of his power abolish slavery. This is
taking the slaveholders' own ground ; we do not see
how they can deny that Mr. LINCOLN if 3 quite
right.

THE ATTEMPTED MURDER AT HULL.—On
Tuesday John Wilkinson, the ex-policeman, who stands
charged with attempting to murder a married woman
named Emma Barker, was brought up at the Hull Police-
court. The prosecutrix, who appeared to be in a very
weak state, gave evidence against the prisoner. She said
that he had frequently threatened to " do" for her, and
that he would some day " swing" for her. On the 4th
inst. she left his house, but during the afternoon he dis-
covered her whereabouts and went to her to ask her to re-
turn to him, but, as she refused, he stabbed her twice with
a large pocket knife. Several witnesses deposed to seeing the
prisoner strike the prosecutris on the night in question,
and also that he had a knife or some sharp instrument in
his hand. Mr. J. Brownridge, the police surgeon, stated
that about 10 o'clock on the evening of Saturday, the 4th
inst. he was called to attend the prosecutrix, who was then
lying at the station-house. He found her suffering from
two wounds, one on the back of the neck and the other
just under the left breast ; both were an inch in length,
and had been caused by a sharp instrument. The blow on
the back had struck the spinal column with such violence
as to break the point off the blade. The one on the side
had penetrated the prosecutrix's stay-bone, and struck on
one of the ribs. Had it not been for the stay-bone it roust
inevitably have entered the heart. The wound on the
spine had caused the loss of much blood, it having divided
an important artery, and it was only the prompt measures
which had been used that had rievented the most serious
symptoms from setting in. Police-constable Connell, who
apprehended the prisoner, produced the knife, which was
stained with blood, also a pair of stays and chemise very
much saturated with blood. On charging the prisoner
with stabbing the woman, he said, " I did; I don't deny
it," and that if it had not been for the prosecutrix he
should have been in the police force yet. On being cau-
tioned in the usual manner he said he should reserve his
defence. He was committed to the York Assizes.
PREDICTED INUNDATIONS IN EUROPE.—M.
Mathieu (de la Drome) writes to the Siecle to communicate
a note which he has addressed to the Acadern7 of Sciences,
and according to which all the watercourses in the sou, la-
east of France, and in the whole south of Europe, will ex-
perience a very great augmentation from the 28th inst. to
the Bth of November. He predicts great inundations in
Italy, and still greater ones in countries to the east of Italy.
In France only a few departments will be visited by this
scourge. The 17th degree of longitude is the region where
it will be most severely felt. The overflow of rivers will
take place, according to M. Mathieu, throughout a zone of
more than 600 leagues, parallel to a line drawn from Cette
or Marseiles to a point beyond the Black Sea, grazing the
south of the Crimea. The neighbourhood of seas will, it
is said, be chiefly affected, and advice is given to the popu-
lation of the districts indicated to take such precautions as
may be in their power before the 28th inst.
A WORD ON THE TOAD.—The beautiful eye of
the toad is proverbial, redeeming the ungainliness of its
general aspect, and having in all probability given rise to
the fabled jewel within the head. Bright and richly coloured
as is the eye, with its round, bold, fiery chesnut hue, it is
without the least vestige of expression, and retains its full
brilliancy long after the animal is dead. As to the venem-
ous powers of the toad, they are not to be found in the
mouth, as is popularly imagined, but in two rather large
glands on the sides of the head, which project boldly and
are plainly visible. If one of these protuberances be squeezed
between the fingers, a whitish, creamy-looking liquid will
be ejected, and perhaps to some little distance. While per-
forming this operation, it will be as well to hold the toad I
in such a manner that the secretion may not be shot into I
the eyes, as in that case it would cause severe pain, and
might probably produce violent inflammation. Still, it will
not be ejected without the employment of considerable
force, and is never injurious to human beings. Briefly to
sum up the character of the toad ; it is not pretty, is en-
tirely harmless, extremely useful, easily tamed, and worthy
of being cherished by those who prefer deeds to outward
seeming ;itis a creature curious and interesting habits,
and affords a rich field to any one with time and opportu-
nity, for clearing up several important but disputed points
in physiology.—Once a Week.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR'S LAND TRANSFER ACT.
--Yesterday the new registry offices in Lincoln's-inn-fields,
which have been prepared for the transaction of business
in connection with Lord Westbury's Land Transfer Act of
last session, was thrown open for business, a considerable
amount of which was very soon effected in a highly satis-
factory manner. The act was fixed to come into operation
on the Ist of October, but the opening of the new registry
offices wee necessarily postponed ter a few days, in conse-
quence of the difficulties attendant upon the first establish-
ment of an important public department, and the necessity
of communication with other branches of the public service.
The offices, which are occupied by the persons who have
been engaged to carry out the provisions of the new act,
are those of the old Insolvent Deb;or's Court, adapted for
purpose. The rules of the office, which have been drawn
up by Mr. Follett, Q.C., and which ars conspicuously
placed, are 51 in number, and are of a simple and practical
,
character. The fees are collected by stamps. en very
warrant for attendance before the Registrar a fee of as.is
charged; for filing every affidavit, 2s. 6d.; and, for. every
oath administered, ls. 6d. For every caveat beiore regis-
tration a fee of £1 is charged. Judging from the amount
of business transacted at the new offices yesterday, Lord
Wegbiirrfi filefelge pr91:14i40 t() be largely
4°4
41411.

MORE COTTON FROM INDlA.—Three other vessels
of the homeward-bound cotton fleet have arriv'ed at Liver-
pool— the Broughton Hall (Rennie), with 8,042 bales; the
Ann Buckle (Pendleton), with 4,089 bales ; and the Toboah
(Morrison), with 5,363 bales.
Negotiations for the conclusion of a treaty of
commerce between France and Holland have been for some
going on. The friendly relations which exist between the
two Governments allow no doubt that those negotiations
will be promptly terminated.
About 60,000 hectolitres of foreign corn have
been landed at Marseilles within the last few days. These
new arrivals,which have increased a stock before very con-
siderable, has led to a fall which reacts on the markets of
all the Southern departments.
The General Assembly of Shareholders of the
Gaming Establishment of Homburg has decided, by 605
votes to 9, that in future, whether in winter or summer,
peasants, workmen, commercial clerks, and apprentices,
shall be excluded from the rooms of the company.
PROPOSED VISIT OF MR. GLADSTONE TO NORTH
WALES.—Wednesday next, the 22d inst., has been fixed
for what is called " cutting the first sod" of the Wrexham,
Mold, and Connah's Quay Railway, which task Mrs. Glad-
stone, wife of the Chancellor, has undertaken to perform.
In the afternoon of the same day the Chancellor of the
Exchequer will preside at a cold collation at the Wynn-
stay Arms Hotel, in Wrexham, where a large party is
expected to assemble. On the morning of the 22d the
corporation of Wrexham will present him with an ad-
dress. The day will be observed as a general holiday in
the town.
EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE.—The 16th annual
conference of the British Organisation of the Evangelical
Alliance was opened by a soil ee and meeting held on Tues-
day evening at the Freemasons' Hall, the Hon. A. Kinnaird
presiding. There were also prevent the Hon. and Rev.
Leland Noel, M. Naville (Geneva), Mr. Henderson (Glas-
gow), Dr. Kalopothakes (Athens), Dr. Barclay (Jerusa-
lem), and many ministers of several denominations. The
chairman, in welcoming the visitors, said that, looking
back upon the history of the Alliance, he thanked God for
the blessing which had attended its operations. Its princi.
pies had been extended in this country, on the Continent,
in America, and in other parts of the world. The Rev. Dr.
Urwick (of Dublin), the Rev. George Smith (Poplar), M.
Neville (of Geneva), the Rev. C. Hebert, the Rev. J. H,
Hinton (Baptist), and the Rev. F. Grooves (Wesleyan),
having briefly addressed the meeting, the proceedings ter-
minated.
THE GALWAY LINE—The following is a para-
graph, which we find quoted in the New York .Herald
" The St. John (N. 8.) Courier says that it has learned from
a reliable source that the Imperial Government have signi-
ed to the Government of Canada their willingness to allow
the Galway line to ply between Galway and Quebec
during the summer and Galway and Portland during the
winter, till the completion of the intercolonial railway, pay-
ing a subsidy of £BO,OOO, the Canadian Government paying
£20,000; and that when the railroad is completed the Im-
perial Government will pay the whole subsidy, £100,000."
THUNDERSTORM.—A rather severe thunderstorm
raged over the western part of Worcestershire yesterday
(Wednesday). It commenced about 8 a.m., and continued
with some violence for two hours. The discharges of elec-
tricity were very frequent, but appeared to be at a consider.
able altitude above the earth. Rain fell occasionally in
torrents. The atmosphere had been extremely close and
hot for the season for two days previously, but became sen •
eibly cooler after the storm, which was a very unusual one
at this season of the year.
STEAMBOAT COLLISION AND Loss OF LIFE.—
Ycsterday intelligence was received at Lloyd's of a fearfu►
collision off the Sunk Light, between a large screw steamer
and the Elizabeth, Captain Robertson, on her passage from
Shields to London, The steamer struck the Elizabeth on
her port bow, cutting her down below the water line. Capt.
Robertson got on board the steamer, and had barely done
PO when his vessel went down, the crew, five in number,
perishing with her. The mate was picked up by a Dutch
galliot, which put him ashore at Gravesend.
LIFEBOAT SERVICES.—During the past two years
the lifeboats of the National Lifeboat Institution have saved
740 shipwrecked persons on the coasts of the United King-
dom. This valuable society is now earnestly appealing to
the public for additional support to meet the very heavy
and continued charges on its 123 lifeboat establishments.
PRESENTATION--SOUTH-EASTERN RAILWAY.—
The chief officers of this railway have, we hear, presented
Mr. R. A. Duncan with a handsome silver tankard, on the
occasion of his retiring from the service of the company to
undertake the management of a branch bank and of landed
estates in the north of Ireland. The cup bears an inscrip-
tion, "To Mr. Duncan, from his brother officers, in testi-
mony of their regard and esteem." An address, expressing
their cordial wishes for his welfare, accompanied the gift,
which is intended to serve as a souvenir of the happy and
pleasant intercourse with him which existed for many
years.