The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-14 00:00:00

BAGENALSTOWN AND WEXFORD.

It appears that this railway undertaking is to be
sold by auction on the 6th of January next, in
Dublin, by order of the Court of Bankruptcy. The
length of line completed and ready for traffic is 21
miles.

WATTON AND -THETFORD.

It is intended to apply to Parliament next session
for powers to carry out a line between these towns.

BOMBAY, BARODA, AND CENTRAL INDIA,

The traffic receipts on this company's line, 306
miles open, amounted for the week ending Aug. 5
to £3,462; ending Aug. 12, to £3,301 ; for the
week ending Aug. 19, to £2,918 ; and for the week
ending Aug. 26, to £3,061 ; together £12,772, or
£4l 15s. per Mile, against £1,220, £1,331, £1,211,
and £1,235 respectively for the corresponding weeks
of 1864, on 1851 miles open, making the total of
£5,030, or £27 3s. per mile, showing an increase, in
the aggregate, of £7,742, and of £l4 12s. per mile
of railway open for traffic ; the increase in the mile-
age being 1204 miles, as compared with the corre-
sponding period in 1864.

OTTOMAN (SMYRNA TO ADIN).
The traffic receipts on the portion of this com-
pany's line open, 481 miles in length, amounted for
the week ending Oct. 1 to £872 ; ending Oct. 15,
£698 ; and ending Oct. 22, to £766 ; total, £2,291,
against £586, £315, and £514 respectively on the
same mileage, making a total of £1,415, showing an
increase of £876 as compared with the correspond-
ing weeks of last year.

Americans in Maximilian's Service.

- '.....--., /..•-•

Our last news from Mexico informs us that among
the Americans who have accepted official positions under
Maximilian is "Senor M. P. Maury," not unknown to the
world in connection with science, who was at one time
a naval officer under the United States Government, and
who afterwards renounced his allegiance and violated his
oath to join the rebel service. A good record to an am-
bitious man is his stock-in-trade. In whatever branch of
the public service, or in whatever capacity in public life he
may have made himself conspicuous, if his record be
not genuine his character is likely to suffer. Ho may be a
hero or he may be a humbug, according as the truth of
history is made manifest.

There was a prevailing idea that Mr. Maury, formerly
lieutenant and subsequently commander in the United
States Navy, was entitled to certain credit for important
discoveries in the laws of currents, winds, and so forth.
Maury was in high official position as director of the
National Observatory in Washington, where ho had every
opportunity for obtaining information upon the subjects
whereof he treated. According to instructions issued by the
Navy Department, while Mr. Maury was at the head of the
Observatory, every naval officer and captain of a ship in the
merchant marine furnished to Mr. Maury all the observa-
tions which came within his experience of winds and tides
and currrents. ' Upon these data Mr. Maurry, lying quietly
in his seclusion in Washington for nearly eighteen years
that he was at the head of the National Observatory,
published a report and made a reputation by his theory on
winds and currents. Tho men who furnished the mate-
rials got no credit. Maury, ox-commander of the United
hisp
rese:Vt own fell. I
Santaates Navy, ex-President of the National Observatory,
foefricialof
ty well
gathered
understoodall the credit
intothat
Maury had very little to do
with the practical operation
of those discoveries
with which his name is connected and it is worth r
e'ilembering that many of the theories
which ho advanced i'l
tele-
graph and the submaricnoenn
lection with the Atlantic
and the coast of Ireland p4haveateahu between Newfoundland
erroneous. For instance,his
theory
subsequently proved
the water in the Atlantic Ocean muste that the pressure of
that the bed of the sea a graveyard, that
life, and
could be found there, was upset Ybyr ;htehat no vitality
e
Colonel Tal. P. Schaffer, of Kentucky, Whoexperiments of
a
in northern latitudes, in the region of Iceland,
and 717 a l
,g;
soundings found molluscce, with all the evid ()noes of life
He reported the fact to the British Goveanment, and they
.
sent out explorers on the same route, who found plenty
of the mollusc tribe on their sounding lines, full of life
in the highest condition known to that low class of the
animal kingdom.
So much for Maury's graveyard theory. The survey
of the great Atlantic plateau was anticipated by Com-
modore Berryman, of the United States Navy, when the
Atlantic cable was first projected, and the informatics
which he obtained by experiment he communicated to the
British Government upon his arrival in England. For
this lie was brought to task by Maury, and in like manner
all the labors of other United States officers were obsorbed
by the head of the National Observatory and placed to his
own credit. In fact, as far back as 1848 Colonel Sher-
-borne
_had announced this Atlantic plateau, and arrived at
the snare Conehisions which have since been established,
with the exception of Maury's " graveyard" notion.
We see,
therefore,
how easy it is for a man in power to
manufacture a reputation upon the industry of others.
There •
Ne're many
officers of the navy who would have
been willing Maury, to have assumed the position of Lieutenant
and fully as competent to fulfil its duties • but ho
was rho lucky one,
and he has succeeded in obtaining a
name in naval science at the expense of others—a name,
however, which his
infarny._.zrel y recent career has blotted all over witii
o °Pk Herald.