The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-09 00:00:00

THE AUSTRALIAN MAILS.

GENERAL POST OFFICE, April 1853.—Her Majesty's
Government having terminated the contract with the
Australian Royal Steam Navigation Company, for the
conveyance of the mails to Australia, via the Cape of
Good Hope, a mail packet will no longer be dispatched
from Plymouth on the 3d of every alternate month, as
heretofore. _

Provision will be made for the conveyance of mails to
Australia early in the months of June, August, October,
and December, of the present year, respectively ; and
due notice will be given of the days appointed for the
departure of such mails.
In the alternate months of May, July, September
and November, mails for Australia will continue to be
forwarded by the route of Singapore, according to the
present arrangements, on the 4th of the month, yid.
Southampton, and on the Bth yid Marseilles, or when
those dates fall on a Sunday, on the 3d vid Southampton,
and on the 9th via Marseilles.

Postmasters will, for the present, send to London all
letters and newspapers addressed to Australia.

DEPARTURE OF THE ARGO FOR AUSTRALIA.

The General Screw Steam-packet Company's new screw
steam-ship Argo, Captain George Hyde, sailed yesterday
morning from Southampton for Port Philip and Sydney.
She is intended to touch only at St. Vincent's for coals,
and, it is fully expected, will make a quick run to
Australia, hopes being even entertained that, with
favourable weather, the Argo will arrive at her destina-
tion l eore the overland mail dispatched via Suez
and Singapore on the 4th instant. We regret to
find that the number of passengers and amount o
freight carried out by this beautiful steam-ship are
by no means commensurate with her capacity, as it
appears that the General Screw Company, in regard to
their Australian line, are suffering from the general dis-
credit into which screw steamers engaged in the Aus-
tralian trade have fallen from the repeated failures and
long passages of every steamer which has yet undertaken
the voyage. By way of rectifying the mistakes that
have hitherto been committed by other companies, the
Argo will not call at the Cape of Good Hope, St.
Helena, King George's Sound, or Adelaide, and thus
the detentions at those ports, which have destroyed
the efficiency of the previous steamers, will, it is hoped,
be avoided. The voyages of the General Screw Com-
pany's ships to the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and
India have been accomplished, on the average, with great
regularity, and have given much satisfaction. There is
no reason to doubt, therefore, but that their steamers
laid on for Australia will do equally as well. Public
confidence in Australian screw-steamers will, how-
ever, scarcely be restored till one or two speedy and
sr ccessful voyages have been accomplished. A ship
letter mail is taken out by the Argo, the Post-office
authorities having made no arrangements with the
company for either a general or special mail contract.
This, in regard to the Argo, may possibly arise from the
inconvenient date of her departure, just on the eve of
the mail for Australia by the overland and Marseilles
route, thus rendering a second mail unnecessary. The
number of passengers taken out by the Argo is 55,
among whom is Sir R. Nickle, Commander-in-Chief at
New South Wales, with his lady and aide-de-camp. The
freight-list comprises specie, value 26,0001. sterling
jewellery, value 11,5007.; and 375 tons of cargo, of the
ordinary description of valuable goods, for the Australian
markets.

FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE SOUTH COAST RAILWAY.
On Saturday night an inquest was held by Mr. W. Payne,
at Guy's Hospital, on the body of Benjamin Rance, a
porter on the South Coast Railway. From the evidence
of William Knott, a porter at the Bricklayers' Arms
Station, it appeared that on Wednesday morning the de-
ceased was crossing the line with a letter for the man-
ager, and got jammed between the buffers of two empty
trucks, in consequence of their being pushed together
by a loaded one. The loaded one was being drawn along
by a horse, but the porter that was with the horse before
he started cried out, " Look out," and the men stood
clear, but the deceased must have crossed some distance
up the line between some empty trucks, and in conse-
quence of the loaded truck being driven along they were
forced together, and he was jammed between the buffers.
He was taken to the hospital, but died on Thursday of
rupture of the Byer, Yerdwt—" Accidental death,'