The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-03 00:00:00

TFIR ''StiN,IVLONDON, TUESDAY' HVENING, JUNE 8, 1882.

or going abroad, and rarely enters into the usual
transactions of commerce or of every-day life.
Paper money, inconvertible into gold except at a
premium, has made things so pleasant for the Go-
vernment that a proposition for the further issue of
no less than 600,000,000 dais, or £120,000,000 ster-
ling, in legal tender Treasury notes of 1 dol. and
upwards, fundable in 20 years, and bearing interest
at 4 per cent., is seriously entertained. But those
who deprecate the madness of the South, and pre-
dhiacvteitnsntruainwfoorrdistsnuisnagy
asogast
minanythis "shin-plasters,"
proposal, and
stubbornly maintain that the resources of the Union
aro so boundless, and the credit of the Government
BO solid, that a national debt as large as that of
Great Britain will be easily endured, and the inte-
rest regularly provided for. The world will know
better what to think upon this subject when the
new Tax Bill shall have been in operation for a
twelvemonth. But the bill remains a bill, and no-
body knows if it will ever beeome a luw, or, if it do,
whether it will be possible to work it.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

SEVENOAK S.

Yesterday morning this company's railway wa
opened for public traffi. The first train left the
Pimlico station at an early hour. The line com-
mences by a junction with the London, Chatham,
and Dover Railway near the old London and Maid-
stone turnpike-road, thence passing in a south-
easterly direction under the range of hills near
Farningham by a tunnel 820 yards in length,
crosses the valley of the Darent at an altitude of
75 feet above the river by a viaduct of nine arches,
each of 30 feet span. The whole length of the line
is eight miles.

MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, AND LIN-

COLNSHIRE.

The total expenses of this company's railways,
including rents, tolls, duty, &c., from January 1 to
May 2.5, 1862, amounted to £122,552, as against
£131,956 for the corresponding period of 1861. The
proportion of the South Junction receipts accruing
to this company from January 1 to May 25
amounted to £11,635, as against £12,453 for the
corresponding period of 1861, and the expenses to
£5,422, as against £5,832.

THE MIDDLE LEVEL DEL

UGE.

LYNN, MONDAY NIGHT.

Cases of individual suffering and distress are be-
coming known, and excite public sympathy, which
does not resolve itself into help, because it is con-
tended that the duty devolves upon the Middle
Level Commissioners to afford that relief which may
be required. A specimen of hundreds of cases which
might be quoted was met with to-day on the banks
of the cut near the dam. An intelligent man, who
looked hardly well-dressed enough to pass for a
well-to-do farmer, and yet superior to a common
labourer, had a spade on his shoulder, and asked
whether it was likely he could get work, for, he
remarked, he had not got a foot of land nor a
penny in his pocket. His story was that he
had had nine acres of land and a house near
the Middle Drove Station ; they were his own
property, and he got a living out of that nine acres
for himself, wife, and five children. On Monday,
the 12th ult., just as they were about retiring to
bed, they saw the water rushing over a neighbour-
ing bank, and it was rapidly approaching his little
farmstead. He had only just time enough to get
his horse and cart, put in a few articles of clothing,
&c., his wife and children, fasten the door, and get
away, before the place was flooded, and his domestic
animals all drowned. His whole reliance for a live-
lihood for himself and family were the crops on his
nine acres, and these being all destroyed, he said
mournfully, that if he could not get employment he
must resort to the union workhouse. It is supposed
that some two or three hundred families are thrown
out of home by this devastating flood. No means
of carrying off the back waters that are constantly
coming down from the high lands having been pro-
vided, it is almost a matter of certainty that the
water on the Fens will be greatly accumulated, and
it is feared that the remedy will (for a time at least,
until the necessary machinery can be provided) be
worse than the cause of it. The Middle Level Com-
missioners are busily engaged in trying to divert a
portion of the drainage, but it is impossible to get
it by any extensive means by another course. The
hole at the east bank has been only partially filled
up, the back waters from the breech in the west
bank washing away the loose earth as fast as it was
put in. Clunch and earth in sacks are now resorted
to, with apparently more success. Notwithstand-
ing the insecure state of the banks for miles, though
their attention has been called to the matter by Mr.
A. Saunders, C E., the necessary work of puddling
had not been resorted to, and a heavy rush of back
waters would most probably burst this bank, and
lay 10,000 more acres of fertile land under water.
Several steam pile-driving engines have at last found
their way to the works, but nothing has at present
been found for them to do. lam sorry that I can-
not write quite so hopefully as I did yesterday of
the progress of the coffer-dam. When I was down
yesterday the men were at dinner, and I was in-
formed that the panels were being dropped into
their places ; but to-day I find that a delay has
occurred, and up to the time of my leaving for the
parpose of making up my parcel, no panels had been
driven in since Saturday afternoon. Unless the
greatest promptitude is manifested, the next spring
tides will not find the barrier complete.
The repairs to the Marshland and Marshland
Smeeth Outfall sluices are progressing favourably.

LETTER FR.OIII A POLISH EXILE TO
SIBERIA.

The fallowing letter was written by a Polish gen,
tleman sent to Siberia by the Russian government
" Siberia—Kurgan, sth (17th) March, 1862.

"My dear Friends,—We have arrived at last
at the town of Kurgan, on the river Tobol, 500
versts south of Tobolsk. I wrote to you before
leaving Tobolsk, and now I write from my present
quarters in Siberia. I arrived here the day before
yesterday, in the evening, in the company of two
gendarmes, worn out with my journey, and perish-
ing with cold, for of late we have had as much as
35 degrees of frost, to say nothing of a fearful
snowstorm. There was not even a place to pass the
night in, for we travelled through the steppes, where
the only inhabitants are Tartars, who live in poor
and dirty hovels; no stoves, only badly built chim-
neys, where they keep up a firildify and night. They
use no beds or furniture of any kind, but sleep all
together on a board raised half a foot from the

ground, covered with u dirty fur. On this board

they lie, sit, eat—in a Nord, pass their lives; filth
and- uncleanness are visible everywhere. It is
strange that in so cold a climate, where there is
sometimes as much as 40 degrees of frost, and the
winter and snows last for more than nine months in
the year—it even snows sometimes in the summer—
this people should wear so little clothing. The wo-
men have for their only covering a dirty brown
shirt, which they do not take off by day or night—
worse than our gipsies.
" They are a neglected people, with scarcely any
idea of religion, with very moderate wants, and
dragging on their wretched life from day to day,
neither knowing nor desiring anything better. But
even the life of the Siberian Christians is quite dif-
ferent from ours. How difficult will it be to become
accustomed to it, if I have to remain here long ! It
is fortunate for me that I shall not be alcne in this
place of exile, for a month ago the Rev. M. was sent
here from Grodno, and to-night came the Rev, N.
We three are now seeking a common lodging, and
perhaps we shall manage. Our greatest trouble
will be the food, which is here prepared in such a
manner that it is impossible for us to eat it. How
sorry I am that I did not learn cookery, for now I
shall have not only to cook for myself, but also to
build a stove, for here everything is cooked in a
stove after the fire is put out, as our bread is made,
and no other stove is here known. Yesterday I
tried to cook some pieces of meat, which I got at
Tobolsk, and will make some more attempts ; but
here comes another difficulty, for there are no con-
diments but pepper and salt—no butter, no eggs;
the potatoes are frozen ; the flour, of the com-
monest kind ; and the bread so bad, that it is more
like clay. In a word, everything tor the table is
bad. In Tobolsk we did not find this, because we
were invited nearly every day to dinner to the many
worthy Polish and Ruthenian resident families ;
but in this Siberian Italy, where scarcely anything
grows, Ido not know how we shall manage. A
cookery book would be very useful to me ; but where
to get it l There is not a book shop for thousands
of versts round. For Heaven's sake send us some
newspapers as soon as you can, for we know no-
thing of what is going on among you, and the idle-
ness to which I am here condemned doubles my
anxieties. But Providence in assigning this resi-
dence for us has not done so without an object. I
am now endeavouring to discover it, and busy my-
self with some useful work.

" As yet my almost ceaseless travel has not al-
lowed me to consider my sad situation, exiled so
far from my dear fatherland and relations; but what
will be our further fate in these wild steppes, in the
midstof people so different from us in customs and
ideas, I cannot conceive. There is no Roman Ca-
tholic church here ; we cannot, therefore, even have
the religious consolation of celebrating mass. We
however, request the Archbishop of Mohilew, at St.
Petersburg, to give us the necessary permission to
establish a chapel at home. But when will this be
done ? The correspondence in the matter will oc-
cupy some months. With what impatience do I
await the smallest scrap of news from you. What
are you doing? D 3 pray write to me, as this will
be my only consolation. To the Revs. N. and R. I
beg to be remembered most kindly; ask Mr, 0. and
others to send us a line now and then, as well as the
French journals. Tell Mr. B. to sell my little
carriage for what it will fetch, or have it raffled, as
I want money very much, no allowance being given
us either for food or lodging, and the price of pro-
visions is most exorbitant. I left ready some tickets
prepared for the raffle, and if you apply to Mr. C.,
he will help you, for he is an excellent man.
" You need not be anxious about my health. The
climate here is milder than in the north—even my
eyes are not so bad as when I was in the citadel.
IV hen I am settled and become familiar with all
around me I will write to you again, for nothing
can be more soothing or agreeable to my feelings.
But the thought when you shall receive, if at all,
my communication written from another part of the
globe distresses me beyond measure. Oh ! how sad
and dreary is the life of an exile—at least like could

be cheered by the state of his own native land ;
but alas ! you are equally oppressed by an intoler-
able despotism, and God only knows when it shall
cease, May He have you and all our dear friends
in His safe keeping, is the constant prayer of your
loving brother."