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

MORE PERSECUTIONS AT FLORENCE.

By a letter dated Florence, Sept. 20, we learn that
the sister of Miss Cunninghame and the Rev. Mr. Gor-
don, having received a warning from some friend that
they were about to be arrested and thrown into prison,
managed to effect their escape, and repaired to Leghorn,
where they took refuge on board the Modeste, under
the flag of Lord W. Crompton. They were charged
with the crime of reading the Scriptures with some
Italian friends.
Miss Cunninghame, we learn, has been removed to
one of the condemned cells. She has been permitted
to hire her bed—a deal board being the only substitute
which the cell affords. She has also been allowed the
use of a bath. She is permitted to see her mother, but
only for half an hour in the course of the day.
The police boast that they have the names of about
50 persons enaged in the work of proselytism, and
among the number are three or four English ladies,
whose letters are opened at the post-office, without even
the shadow of a disguise.
The Grand Duke is said to have declared that he
considers the discovery of Miss Cunninghame's guilt (!)
as a special interposition of Divine Providcance, which
has afforded him the means of executing s gnal chas-
tisement on English missionaries. His ministers have
in vain suggested a more prudent course—their in-
fluence is counterpoised by that of the confessor. In
the meantime the decision of the English Government is
awaited by Tuscans as well as English with breathless
interest. Above all, the Tuscans are asking each other,
can this really be an Englishwoman who is treated with
such foul indignity ? Will England bear it tamely, that
one of her daughters shall be doomed for ten years to a
felon's cell for doing that which the v;rtuous and good
among all classes of her countrymen must justify and
applaud llf so—if she has so degenerated from the
spirit of Elizabeth and Oliver— then has she become a
" geographical expression," and nothing more.
The Tuscan reactionary policy is but part of one great
conspiracy against civil and religious liberty. The
agents of that policy seek to strike terror into their own
subjects, by showing them that England is now power-
less and despised, unable or unwilling to protect her
own subjects, far less to stretch out a helping hand to
the suffering in other lands.

BANK OF ENGLAND.—The following return was issued
from the Bank yesterday. It is to be presumed that the
acceptance of new stock thus shown to have taken place
must have come from persons at some distant part of the
globe, who were unacquainted at the time with any un-
favourable changes in the money market :

BANK OF ENGLAND.
AMOUNTS OF NEW STOCKS ACCEPTED THIS DAY.
Three-and-a-Half per Cents £5,000
Two-and-a. Half per Cents Nil.
Exchequer Bonds Nil.
DIVIDEND DAY AT THE BANK OF ENGLAND AND
SOUTH SEA HOUSE.—Notice was issued yesterday at
the Bank of England and South Sea House that the
October dividends will be in course of payment to the
public on Thursday, the 13th inst., and that the transfer
for the undermentioned annuities, due the 10th inst.,
will be reopened as follows, viz. :—Bank Stock on Wed-
nesday, the 19th inst. ; Long Annuities and annuities
for terms of years, on 'Wednesday, the 19th inst. ; 31. ss.
per Cent. Annuities, on Thursday, the 20th inst. ; and
Reduced 31. per Cent. Annuities, on Friday, the 21st.
The former mode of weighing gold in the bullion-office
of the Bank of England by pounds, ounces, penny-
weights, and grains is discontinued, and the only weights
now in use in that office are of denomination of the Troy
ounce and its decimal parts. South Sea House.—The
transfer books for South Sea Annuities will also be re-
opened on Wednesday, the 19th inst.
THE MIDDLESEX REGISTRATION.—Yesterday, Mr.
Shadwell, the barrister appointed to revise the list of
voters for the county of Middlesex, opened his court at
the White Horse, Uxbridge, and proceeded with the
districts of Cowley, Harefield, Hayes, Hillingdon,
Ickenham, Norwood, Ruislip, Uxbridge, and West
Drayton. The objections on both sides amount to
upwards of a thousand, and there are numerous claims
urged by both the great political parties ; but a new
feature in these proceedings has arisen from the opera-
tion of the act passed in the last session of Parliament,
which was introduced by the noble lord the member for
the county, which limits the term of polling to one day.
The Registration of Voters Act, the 6th and 7th of
Viet., o. 18 sec. 36, enabled voters not resident in the
county to poll, upon application to the barrister, at any
booth which might be most convenient to themselves ;
and it also enabled voters resident in the county to poll
at the booths more immediately adjacent to their own
residences, irrespectively of the situation of the property
for which they vote. The privilege has not hitherto
been exercised to any great extent ; but now that the
new act for limiting the polling to one day comes into
force it will be found to be an extremely important and
salutary provision, and hence it is that there were yes-
day a great number of these new claims to be allowed
to vote at the most convenient and proximate polling
places. Mr. T. A. Jones appeared for the Conserva-
tives ; Mr. W. H. James, as hitherto, represented the
Middlesex Registration Office ; and Messrs. Le Breton
and Davies represented a new registration society, sup-
ported by a section of the Liberal party in the country.
SYDNEY RAILWAY.—The last Australian papers de-
scribe the progress of the works of the Sydney Railway,
the first line attempted in the colony, and also give an
outline of its history. Its length is to be 40 miles, from
Sydney to Goulburn, through Paramatta ; but, although
the company obtained its act of incorporation in 1849,
little progress was made until very recently, owing to
the total want of competent persons to undertake a
work of the kind. The gold discoveries, however, gave
it an impulse, and, under a guarantee of 5 per cent.
of
from the provincial Government, the first 100,0001.
capital was raised, the shares for which nowre
commandthat the
a premium of 10 per cent. It also a
of 150,0001., on condition of naming one
are employed,
Government have agreed to make a dirpeEsheabisfcroifpttiohne
board of directors. At present 200 menave
completed, wooden rails being y
down.been
and the first two miles of thelraotbea
The rate paid to the common
femploying 500. It is-
omderhers is 6s. ner day,
hoped that the line may
and the first inland town) in about
miles from Sydney,
and the company are desirous o e
be finished ptooraPrialyarallrmaeiaaddtta (16-
upon the most reliable au-
icLtreoThumoeußrirterrhp —We have been assured,
uthrpeopsersovoifsipoanrsi
iaomf
etnhtearNy erwerrßoseefoic: I,
will be annexed to the borough of
a yearTHz aNndzwa hital
Bill,
the Leamington
ft. •
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