The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-20 00:00:00

THE SUN. LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 20, 1853.

my head and arm be broken, and my boiy be
'sore for half a year with bruises."
But what is the remedy for all this ? Any
remedy you please. Anything better than that
the officers of justice should be almost tt the
mercy of brawney blackguards. " Cat-o'-nine-
Tails" has been recently soliciting, in the Times,
employment upon the backs of women-beaters.
Very good employment for him too. We would
suggest to him whether he would not lib to try
what he can do with those who half kill police
officers. He has so all but completely taught sol-
diers obedience to their officers that he is almost
dispensed with in the army. Perhaps civilians (if
such witnesses are worthy of the name) might
learn under his tuition that to strike a civil offi-
cer on duty was an offence not worth while for
them to repeat. In all soberness, we should urge,
as we have done before, that a policeman's defence
ought not to be his truncheon merely. His person
should be as sacred in society as that of a superior
officer in the army. It ought to be a very grave
offence to resist him ; to strike him ought to bring
on the culprit's head some of the heaviest penalties
known to our law. We need not fear rendering
our police effeminate by legal protection ; officers
in the army are not the less brave for the protec-
tion of military law. On the contrary, constables
would only be impressed with a higher sense of
the dignity of their office, and that portion of the
community over whom practically they are placed,
would very soon learn that it were better to bear
the penalty of most of their delinquencies, than
to bear the heavier one of maltreating even the
humblest representative of the majesty of law.
With a tolerably severe law on the side of police-
men, we have no doubt that blackguards of every
description would follow the policeman's touch as
quietly as in the days of duelling bellicose Mem-
bers of Parliament used to obey the gentle hint
of the Sergeant-at-Arms. Let policemen know,
and let mobs know, that if common men were
avenged sevenfold, an officer employed to protect
all the rest would be avenged seventy-and-seven
fold ; it would then be far easier to quell many a
formidable disturbance without resort to the mili-
tary. Indeed one great recommendation of
punishing violence done to policemen with un-
sparing severity is, that a smaller number armed
with such a prestige of law would be more efficient
than a larger number without it, and that the
terror of the law would oftener supersede that of
muskets and bayonets. It is a strong recommen-
dation of requiring unresisting obedience to a
policeman's demands that his number always
makes it so easy- to bring him to justice should he
exceed his powers. The truth, however, is that
no innocent man ever attempts to escape from a
constable, much less to resist him. It is, there-
fore, almost impossible to legislate unfairly for
the class in question.

IMMENSE INDIA AND AUSTRALIAN MAILS.—The mails
dispatched this morning from the General Post•office
for the Mediterranean, Egypt, Aden, India, and China,
via Southampton, were the largest that have been sent
out since the dispatch is bi-monthly ; they consisted of
130 boxes and 20 bags. The Indian and Australian
mails by the overland mail that arrived yesterday com-
prised 89 boxes and 22 bags of letters and newspapers.
The Australian mail brought home by the contract mail
steam-ship Harbinger weighed nearly 16 tons, amongst
which were about 2,000 registered letters and small
packages, most of which contained gold-dust.
ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION.—Yesterday a report of the
select committee on assurance associations was printed.
They consider the Joint Stock Companies Act of 1844
very defective, and made various suggestions. The
public are not sufficiently protected by provisional re-
gistration from deception and misrepresentation of as-
surance or pretended assurance companies.
HARVEST IN ITALY.—An important announcement
was received from Naples, indicating increased anxiety
with regard to the harvest in Italy. According to letters
dated the 12th inst., a decree was issued on the Bth per-
mitting the free importation of wheat, flour, barley, oats,
maize, and pulse into the kingdom of the Two Sicilies
until the 31st of . December. The existing duties on
wheat were almost prohibitory-- namely, 255. per quar-
ter, if imported in foreign vessels, and 168. in native
vessels.

SHIPMENTS OF SPECIE. —The shipments of specie by
the Peninsular and Oriental steamer Euxine amount to
169,7000/. of which 65,400/. is gold for Alexandria,
Ceylon, dadras, and Hong-Kong, and 104,3001. is sil-
ver for Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Penange, Singa-
pore, Hong-Kong, and Canton.
GOLD.—The gold brought by the Harbinger yester-
day, amounting to about 520,0001., has been forwarded,
by the General Screw Company from Southampton to
London with great dispatch, the whole having been de-
livered this morning at the Bank of England. Its
weight was 4 tons 7 cwt. By the Australian advices
received it appears that the following vessels had lately
sailed for England—namely, the Hoogly, with 7,078
ounces of gold ; the Orpheus, with 3,292 ounces ; the
Kent, with 26,263 ounces ; the Renown, with 355
ounces ; the James Alexander, with 20,353 ounces ; the
Vesta, with 61 ounces ; the Emigrant, with 7,230
ounces; and the Barrackpore, with 33,30 ounces. The
total value of these shipments is nearly 550,0001.
BAR SILVER.—The bar silver brought by the last West
India steamer was sold yesterday at 618 d. per ounce,
establishing a further advance of id., and was chiefly
taken for the China market, the high rate of interest in
that country in consequence of the rebelliori being stall
among the causes in operation to keep up a drain from
England. The new dollars brought by the same vessel
were sold at 601 d., being also an advance of id.
ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE. The continued
overflow attracted by the national spectacle of the
" Battle of Waterloo," with the successful drama of
" Life on the Turf," has determined Mr. William Cooke
to postpone the production of his promised classical no-
velty till Sept. 3, giving all classes an opportunity of
witnessing the present attractive entertainment previous
to their withdrawal. On the same night we are to be
presented with two stars. Miss Kate Cooke, an eques-
trian of great provincial fame, will make her first ap-
pearance in London on her splendid horse Snowdrop,
trained expressly by Mr. William Cooke.
BIRMINGHAM BOROUGH GAOL. —Lord Palmerston,

in accordance with a memorial presented by certain
inhabitants of the town, has appointed a commis-
sion—consisting of Mr. Welsby, Recorder of Chiches-
ter • the Inspector of Prisons for the Midland District,
and the Medical Inspector of Milbank—to inquire into
the truth of charges of cruelty, preferred against the
governor of the gaol and other subordinate officials.
Some extraordinary disclosures are expected. The go-
vernor, who has hitherto been supported, and his con-
duct approved by the Visiting Justices, resigned his
situation on Thursday.
THE PEACE CONGRESS is to hold its next meeting this
year at Edinburgh, on the 12th and 13th October.
ORDERS FOR NEW CLIPPER Sturs.—We understand
that the enterprising owner and builder of the famous
clipper, the Sovereign of the Seas, has received instruc-
tions to build a clipper ship for the owners of the Marco
Polo, to sail under the English flag ; and that another
house has also contracted for a clipper ship with the same
builder. Our English builders should turn their imme-
diate and earnest attention to this point, for sure we are
that John Bull has energy and pluck enough to compete
with and surpass his Transatlantic descendants, if he
will only try.—Liverpool Times.
SERIOUS MONlTlON.—lnformation having been con-
veyed last week to the Bishop of Norwich that the Rev.
A. C. Campbell, perpetual curate of Redisham, Suffolk,
was officiating in Sir W. Dunbar's chapel at Aberdeen,
his lordship has addressed a monition to him, requiring
him to return to his benefice, and stating his intention
to take such further measures as the proceedings may

seem to call for.—Church and State Gaiette.
OMNIBUS RAILWAY.—We read in the Moniteur

" The minister of Public Works has just authorised the

trial at Paris of a new system of railway destined to
receive omnibuses drawn by horses. This system,
already in use in some towns of the United States, con-
sists in placing rails of a particular form on ordinary
roads in such a manner as not to impede the circulation
of other carriages. The experiment will be tried be-
tween the Place de la Concorde and the Barriere de
Passy, by the Cours la Reine and the Quai de Billy.
The price of places in these new omnibuses will be 15
centimes inside, and 10 centimes outside."
THE COLLISION ON THE CLARENCE RAILWAY.—On
Thursday evening, the inquest, which commenced on
Saturday, was brought to a close, and resulted in a ver-
dict of manslaughter against Wm. Callendar, the driver
of the engine Durham, which on Thursday morning last
occasioned the deaths of Matthew Watson and Christo-
pher Norris, by running into the carriage in which they
were travelling to their work at Whitworth Colliery.
NARROW ESCAPE OF FIVE YOUTHS FROM DROWNING.
—Last Tuesday evening the boat Mermaid was proceed-
ing down the river Orwell,having on board Arthur Beevor
(son of Sir Thomas Beevor), John and Jeremiah Head
(sons of Jeremiah Head, Esq.), Charles Cubitt, engineer
(nephew of Sir W. Cubitt), and Charles Chevallier (a re-
lative of John Chevallier Cobbold, Esq., M.P.) when
near Hog Island the boat fell in with the Orwell steamer
returning from London ; the swell she produced was
so great that it soon filled the Mermaid, and she split
open at the stern post. Mr. Cubitt instantly
jvinped into the river and swam to the shore on the
Hog Island side. The boat now turned over, and
precipitated the others into the water; some caught
hold of the oars, and others clung to the side of the
boat, and floated down with the tide to the point.
Their cries for help were extremely painful. It hap-
pened that just at the moment, Mr. Owen Roe, carver
and gilder, was passing in a boat with a lady, within a
short distance of the sufferers who called to him for as-
sistance ; but he proceeded to the hard and landed him-
self and his friend. Edward Worrell, a boiler maker,
belonging to the Orwell Works, who was returning from
a gipsy party, being on the hard, immediately took
charge of the boat, and, with the waterman, promptly
rowed to the rescue of the youths, and arrived just in
time to save them from a watery grave. Worrell is en-
titled to all praise for his laudable exertions.—lpswich,
Express.