The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-08 00:00:00

GRAND TRUNK OF CANADA.

The London directors have issued a copy of the accounts
as they have just been received from Canada for the half-
year ending the 30th of June last. The total revenue
amounts to £382,993, and the total expenses to £319,556,
being at the rate of 83i per cent, of the receipts, leaving a
balance of £63,437. The profit upon the half-year, added
to that of the previous six months, makes the profit for the
year ending the 30th of June last £169,144. Mr. Watkin,
at the request of the board, and at considerable inconve-
nience to himself, sailed for Canada on the 26d nit., and on
his return to England, which will be, it is hoped, in the
course of October, a further report upon the negotiations as
to the postal arbitration, and upon the measures taken in
obedience to the resolutions of the proprietors at the meet-
ing held on the Bth ult. for the reorganisation of the board
and management, will be issued. By the reports received
from Mr. Brydges, the new managing director, great hopes
are held out of important reductions in the present rate of
working expenses, which he states are quite exceptional
and capable of being greatly reduced. The capital ac-
count shows that £11,982,868 had been expended, and
£12,245,671 received, leaving a balance of £262,803.

THE MINISTRY:—Lord Palmerston arrived at his
residence, Cambridge-house, Piccadilly, on Friday evening,
from Northampton. Earl Russell is the minister in attend-
ance on the Queen in Germany. Sir George Grey returned
on Saturday to London from attending the funeral of his
mother-in-law, Mrs. Ryder. Lord Granville is staying in
the metropolis. The Duke of Newcastle has left for his
Duke
of
country seat, Clumber-park, Notts. Mr. Milner Gibson,
who arrived in town several days ago on matters connected
with his department, the Board hasofTrade,The
againquitted
London, and is cruising in his yacht.
So-
merset and the other members of the cabinet remain out of
town.—Observer.
Sir Alexander Cockburn has left Hertford-street
on a tour in Germany.
M. Faivre Pisani, one of the officers who accom-
panied Prince Napoleon in his voyage to America, is bring-
ing out, in the form of letters, the narrative of the -adven-
tures of the Prince.
The well-known astronomer Carlini has just died

at Brescia.
The Emperor of Austria has confirmed a sentence
of 16 years' imprisonment in irons against a Garibaldian
emissary named Viola, who had been arrested at Pesth, and
tried by court martial.
Lieutenant Somerset Saunderson, 11th Hussars,
is appointed extra aide-de-camp to General Sir George
Brown, commanding the forces in Ireland.—Army and
.Navy Gazette.
Two good service pensions are vacant by the ap-
pointment of Major-Generals J. Napper Jackson and Sir
John Michel to regimental colonelcies.—Army and Navy
Gazette.

Rear-Admiral R. S. Robinson, the Controller of
the Navy, left London on Thursday on six weeks' leave of
absence.—Army and Navy Gazette.
Captain the Hon. R. Monck, Coldstream Guards,
is acting as Brigade-Major to the Brigade of Guards,
during the absence in Canada of Captain Gordon, Scots
Fusilier Guards.
STRIKE OF THE WIGAN COLLIERS.-00 Friday
afternoon, a meeting of the colliers of Wigan and district
were held in the Boy's Well Fields, Wigan, to decide upon
a course of action with regard to the proposed reduction of
10 per cent. in their wages. There was a very large at-
tendance, probably 4,000 persons being present. The chair
was taken by James Greenwood, and speeches were delivered
by John M'Donald, Joseph Emerson, Thomas Greenall,
Adam Chadwick, and William Pickard. The last-named
speaker moved a resolution to the effect—" That the colliers
of Wigan and district assembled together under circum-
stances most painful to themselves, felt they ought firmly
to oppose the third reduction of 10 per cent. then pro-
posed, and they, as a body, pledged themselves not to sub-
mit to such an uncalled-for and unjust reduction, but, as
their notices expired, would leave work and stand to a
man till the reduction was withdrawn." The speaker
said he hoped the masters would withdraw their
notice, and allow them to work on the old terms, when
they saw how determined the men were. The present
rate cf wages was very low. He did not believe, if
an average was taken of the sum received by the colliers in
the district, that it would be found to amount to more than
2s. 6d. per man per day; and when the necessary deduc-
tions were made from this it would be found scarce sufficient
to live upon. A score of seconders at once appeared, and
the resolution was passed unanimously, amidst loud ap-
plause, The vast concourse then quietly dispersed, the
Hindley and Pemberton colliers leaving the ground as they
had arrived—in procession, accompanied each by a band.
The notices have expired at seven collieries in the district,
and 2,000 men struck work on Friday morning. Notices,
to expire on the 17th, have been issued to the men employed
at several other pits.
THE MARRIAGE LAWS.—The injustice of the pre-
sent marriage laws was proved in a remarkable manner in
a case heard before the County Court judge at Boston, on
Thursday. A man named Mark Gibbs, tea hawker, some
few weeks since filed a petition of bankruptcy, and the
officers of the Bankruptcy Court took possession of his
gaods, and were proceeding to sell them for the benefit of
his creditors, but the man's wife claimed them as her own
property, alleging that though she was married to the
bankrupt she was not legally his wife, being the widow of
his deceased brother, to whom the goods had originally be-
longed, and that they were therefore his property by right

of inheritance. At the public investigation in the court on
Thursday, this wife of the brother's attended, and proved
that she was the widow of George Gibbs, brother of the
bankrupt, and that though she had since married Mark
Gibbs, and lived with him as his wife and bore him chil-
dren, she was in the eye of the law only his mistress. She
said the goods seized were formerly the property of her first
husband, and that she had not since his death sold or dis-
posed of them to Mark Gibbs, although they had continued
to use them since the marriage. The judge said that a
more remarkable case had never come under his notice,
andt
t 0
There was no doubt that the claimant, though twice mar•
ried, was in the eye of the law a widow, and that her
first
and
children
n y goods.time,
e The secondh
they
had
nothusband,h
in fact, acquired no rights by his marriage, and he might
second marriage being illegal in no way invalidated her
leaverg h his
t t her
wife
slightest claim upon him. This was the law, and he was
bound to administer the law as he found it. The woman
having sworn that the goods were left to her by her former
husband, and there being no evidence to the centrary, it
was his duty to declare the goods were her property, and
the creditors of her present husband (who legally was not
her husband), had no claim on them. The goods must be
restored to the woman.—Leeds Mercury.
FRENCH AND ENGLISH FISHERMEN.—The naval
authorities
sures to put an end to the encroachments of large French
fishing luggers within the limits of our English herring
fishing grounds. The destruction done to the nets of our
north country fishermen by the encroachments made by
the French fishermen with their large luggers upon the
English ground has been serious. On Friday two French
luggers were brought into the Tyne by the gunboat Lively
Lieut. Kerby ; and on Saturday the masters of these craft,
Lejeune Henry, of Le Nord, No, 460, and Ridel Victor, of
the Victorine Louise, No. 106, were brought before the
North Shields magistrates, charged with fishing within the
limits on Friday morning last. Henry, who had offended
previously, was fined £lO and costs, Victor £5 and costs.
SINGULAR PHENOMENON.—A somewhat unusual
incident occurred on Wednesday in the neighbourhood of
Croy Station, on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. A
number of workmen were engaged boring for minerals, and
when they reached the coal seam a stream of gas issued
from the bore, which, on being lighted, burned to a height
of nearly nine feet. The supply of gas was so abundant
that it continued burning throughout the day.—Edinburgh
Courant.

SPECULATION IN WOOL—Messrs. John L. Bowes
Brothers, of Liverpool, in their wool circular for the River
Plate mail of the 9th inst., state, in reference to the pre-
sent speculation in wools, that the market has recently Ile-
come more active, and some branches are excited by specu-
lation. Prices are id. to lfd. per lb. higher than a month
ago, and have an upward tendency, particularly for com-
mon and medium kixds, which have advanced more per lb.
than the finer classes—the two former, when quite clean,

the value of American cotton, while the cost of the majo-
costing at present currency Only One-third to two-thirds of
rity of fine wools in a clean state equals or exceeds that of
this description of cotton. Stocks of most wools are below
an average, and consumption is increasing,
it seems as if the partial substitution of wool for cotton, so
long deferred, was in progress. so that at length
We Ormy ffnd Navy GazettGazette)pnderptand that
Major•Cieneral Sir John
lqiohei and two officers of the
Ordnance Corps are about to leave for Copenhagen, and will
act as the military representatives of England at the forth-
ponaiDg Lnal:lool,lXl'63 Of the Dania], arIDY.