The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-04 00:00:00

NEW ROUTE TO AUSTRALIA.

A contrast has just been signed between the
Tehuantepec Railroad Company and Messrs. James
Sykes and Co., of England, for the construction of
a plankroad and a railway across the isthmus of
Tehuantepec. The former begins at Suchil, the
head of navigation on the Coatzacoalcos River, and
terminates at Ventosa Bay, on the Pacific—a dis-.
tame of 96 miles—and is to be completed in Nov.
of next year. The railway is to begin at Minatilla,
only 20 miles from the mouth of the Coatzacoalcos,
and terminates also at Ventosa Bay. It is to be
completed within four years, and will be 166 miles
in length. This information will deeply interest
British capitalists, and particularly all British sub-
jects who have any relations with Australia. The
discovery of gold has transformed the penal islands
of Great Britain into some of the most valuable ap-
pendages of her empire. Adventurers of fortune
are now crowding the same ships aboard which,
but a short time ago, home-sentenced criminals
were driven into exile. It looks now as though
she would soon abandon the old pathway Vasco di
Gama opened for her around the Cape of Good
Hope, for she has opened a shorter one across the
Isthmus of Suez, and another still shorter is now
being cut for her towards the occident. Nobody
doubts that we shall soon see steamers cross from
the western coasts of the British islands to Ha-
lifax in less than a week. The Grand Trunk
Railway from that city to Detroit on Lake Mi-
chigan-1,100 miles —is under contract with
Jackson, Peto, Brassey and Betts, of European
renown, and the 11,000,0001. cash capital under
British management insure the vigorous prosecu-
tion and early completion of this stupendous work.
This road connects the north and south shores of
the river St. Lawrence, at Montreal, by a tubular
bridge upwards of two miles in length, which is
under the superintendence of Mr. Robert Stephen-
son, who has done so much to enrich and consoli-
date the British empire. From Detroit—the ter-
minus of the Grand Trunk Railway through Canada
—the present railroad line to the Gulf of Mexico
will be shortly completed, much of it being already
made. It will, therefore, be but a short time be-
fore the English traveller will find himself on the
Pacific side of the Tehuantepec Isthmus, steaming
towards Australia, in 12 days from England, having
traversed the Atlantic, the British American pro-
vinces, the heart of the American continent through
the Mississippi Valley, the Gulf of Mexico, and the
Tehuantepec Isthmus, where he looks on the Pacific
Ocean, and has passed the last obstacle which sepa-
rated him from a vast and golden hemisphere which
his country owns on the other side of the globe.
This sounds like fiction, and seems like a Utopian
dream ; but within five years it will have grown as
familiar to us as the nursery tales of good King
Alfred, and not half so romantic. It is confidently
alleged by the most experienced English and Ame-
rican engineers, that the transit from England by
the inland railway route from Halifax to the Gulf
of Mexico, and thence by steam to the isthmus, and
across it by railroad, can never be exceeded or
equalled by any other route, owing to the confor-
mation of seas and continents.

A LADY DocTon.—The Italian Countess Belgiojoso,
in one of her entertaining letters from a town in Asia
Minor to the N.Y. Tribune, says that she is regarded
there as a doctor of never-failing skill. The infirmity
she has been oftenest and most ardently entreated to
cure is sterility, not only in young subjects, but in old
and decrepit ones. " A woman more than fifty, who
had been blessed with fourteen children, came to me in
a sort of despair, because the last five years had elapsed
without bringing any addition to her family. I expos-
tulated in vain. In vain did I tell her that God's will
ought to submitted to ; she would not be refused ; nor
did she consent to depart without a potion and a hope."
HUNTING SEASON AT LEAMINGTON.—The prospects of
the hunting season in Warwickshire are highly encourag-
ing, not only to residents but to visitors. The demand
for spacious mansions at Leamington has, we are as-
sured, never been more general or continuous at this
period of the year ; and no house capable of affording
the requisite accommodation to gentlemen with large
studs of horses will remain long unoccupied. The South
Warwickshire, under the mastership of Lord Willoughby
de Broke, have received some draughts from the cele-
brated kennels of Lord Henry Bentinck, and are in all
respects a better pack than has hunted the country for
some winters past. The stud consists of several fine
horses. There are in all the coverts an abundance of
foxes ; and the huntsmen and whip, who are fresh men
(having been previous connected with Oxfordshire), are
well up to their work. On Thursday. last the hounds
killed a cub on Hampton-wood in excellent style. The
North Warwickshire, of which Mr. Selby Lowndes has
undertaken the management, met at Wainbody-wood,
near Stoneleigh, on Tuesday last, where they found
three brace and a half of cubs, and some good sport en-
sued. It is generally considered that a finer pack than
the North Warwickshire, especially of young hounds,
could not have been selected. Mr. Selby Lowndes will
take up his residence at Leamington in the course of a
few days.—Leamington, Courier.
TIEN-TELI, THE CHINESE USURPER.—In his habits he
is silent and reserved ; he lives in close retirement, only
showing himself occasionally to his immediate followers,
and then only to issue his commands. His expression,
though far from prepossessing, denotes mildness, com-
bined with great decision, and a degree of firmness verg-
ing upon obstinacy. His complexion is sallow, with a
decided saffron tinge. In stature he is above the middle
height ; and, though of about the same age, is taller and
less strongly' built than Hiend-foung the Emperor,
whose deposition he seems resolved, at all hazards, to
effect. He travels in a palanquin enclosed with curtains
of amber-coloured silk, borne on the shoulders of 16
officers of distinction ; his preceptor, or privy-councillor,
or adviser, carried by eight coolies, follows immediately
in his wake :and then come Tien-teh's thirty devoted
wives, for all of whom he is said to possess the sincerest
affection. They are arrayed in costly apparel, and fol-
low each other in single file, not, as they might on the
shores of the placid Serpentine, in clarences orbroughams,
but in commodious armchairs, picked out with vermillion
and gold. A long retinue of servants and a vast array
of soldiers bring up the rear of the procession, which is
said, upon the whole, strongly to resemble those gorge-
ous affairs occasionally exhibited on the boards of the
Lyceum.—New Quarterly Review for October.
A POLITICAL " ASIDE."—Many of our readers, per-
haps, have witnessed the ceremony of bringing up bills
from the House of Commons to the House of Lords.
The Commons advance with a succession of bows, the
Lord Chancellor meets them bowing his wig to his
knees, the clerks of the House and the Masters in Chan-
cery bow more gravely than mandarins, and as fre-
quently. Upon the occasion to which we now allude,
the Times of the morning had announced that the Chan-
cellor's wife had presented him with a daughter, and it
was notorious that he would have preferred a male
heir. The renowned Billy Holmes represented the
Commons, and he brought up a bill to enable some
country squire to grant leases of his settled estates. Ad-
vancing with three ceremonial bows, the great " whipper
in" presented the bill, sayingo in a loud tone, "My
Lord, a bill to enable— ;" then dropping his voice to a
whisper —"you to have only male children." The Lord
Chancellor took the bill, bowed with imposing dignity,
and replied, " You be d—." About five persons heard
the " asides ;" the rest of the spectators were much
edified by the grave ceremonial.—Aew Quarterly Review
for October.

A SAILOR SHOT BY HIS CAPTAlN.—Captain Nattrass,
of the ship Matanzas, was charged on Saturday before
the Liverpool magistrates with this crime. The circum-
stances were these :—At Bahia, on the 26th of June,
two of the crew refused to work. The captain called
the men forward, and asked them to heave the anchor.
They said they could not, as the ship was short-handed.
One of the seamen, George Wake, acted as spokesman
for the men, and though he said the men would work
when the ship got out to sea, he, on their behalf, refused
to heave the anchor, and said they would rather die first.
Tle captain urged them to comply for his sake. Wake
said they could not. The captain then drew a pistol,
and exclaiming, "Take that, then !" fired at Wake.
wounding him on the shoulder. Wake was removed to
a hospital, where he was left in a dangerous condition.
The British consul was informed of the affray, and he
despatched the captain home in the Viscount Sandon.
Nattrass was committed for trial at the next assizes; the
magistrates miming to take bail.