The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-18 00:00:00

THE AUSTRALIAN MAILS.

SOUTHAMPTON, Oct. 15.—The expected mails
from the Australian ports via Singapore and Suez,
the absence of which is causing such great incon-
venience and anxiety to the commercial world, can-
not, it is now supposed, reach Southampton till the
4th of November, by the steam-Ship Euxine, due
with the India and China mails at that date. They
will consequently come to hand nearly a month
overdue. No reason can be yet assigned for the
delay, inasmuch as when the homeward packet left
Singapore the Chusan, with the contract mails from
Sydney, Port Philip, Adelaide, King George's
Sound, and Batavia, had not arrived, although
nearly ten days past due. The agent of the Penin-
sular and Oriental Company, writing from Singa-
pore, under date the 31st of August, with reference
to the non-arrival of the missing steamer, states
that the bark Eliza, just come in from Melbourne,
reported that two steam-ships were observed enter-
ing Port Philip harbour on the 20th of July, one
of which it is assumed was, without doubt, the
screw-steamer Chusan with the outward mails.
This vessel would, therefore, have to proceed to
Sydney and return by the regular route, calling at
the various ports. It is therefore deemed certain
that the next overland express will bring accounts
of her arrival at Singapore with the full quota of
mails. One cause that may have operated in pro-
ducing the failure of this mail by the present oppor-
tunity is, that during the south-west monsoon the
China steamers are dispatched from Hong Kong
five days earlier than at other seasons. It
appears that the monsoon had abated earlier than
usual, and the steam-ship Ganges, not having
the ordinary bad weather to contend against,
arrived at Singapore four or five days earlier, and
also left that port four or five days earlier than would
have been the case under other circumstances ;
in
fact, she reached Point de Galle, Ceylon, six days
before the steamer from Calcutta. This arrange-
may appear to be a defective one, and probably it
will be found that the Chusan may have got up to
Singapore in time to transfer the Australian mails
—supposing the packet to have been kept till the
ordinary date—but the agents of the company at
intermediate ports have no power to detain the
vessels. The Ripon, due at Southampton on Wed-
nesday, may possibly bring some letters from Aus-
tralia, conveyed to Singapore by the Eliza. The
voyage out to Port Philip, performed by the
General Screw Steam Company's ship Argo, must
be considered as the most successful one ever ac-
complished in connexion with Australian steam
navigation. It occupied only 65 days, four days
of which were consumed in coaling at St. Vincent's,
giving 61 days as the total period under steam and
canvas. The overland route has thus been com-
pletely beaten by the Argo, inasmuch as the
Australian mails dispatched from Southampton by
way of Suez and Singapore, on the 4th of May,
had not arrived at Port Philip up to our last ac-
counts (the 20th of July), when they wera 77 days
out, while the Argo, which left Southampton on
the Bth of May, reached her destination ou the
14th of July. As the Argo will come home by
way of Cape Horn, her arrival at Southampton
may now be daily looked for ; and it is not at all un-
likely she will again anticipate the overland route
with Australian intelligence. It is a singular co-
incidence connected with the news just received,
that the dates from Sydney and Melbourne brought
in the one case by sailing vessel and steamer, rid
Panama, and in the other by sailing vessel and
steamers by way of Singapore, are precisely iden-
tical—viz., the 20th of July, and reached London
the same day.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE AT SYDENHAM.—The works of
the gigantic building at Sydenham appear to progress
rapidly, and the shell of the building is so far advanced
towards completion, that the contractors, Messrs. Fox
and Henderson, have undertaken to surrender it to the
company in a finished state at Christmas. If they can
effect this—and there is no reason to doubt the power
or resources of men who have already accomplished so
much—a whole army of decorators and embellishers will
be thrown into the interior, and the varied and compre-
hensive designs of the undertakers will be rapidly carried
out during the early months of the next year. Under
these circumstances there can be little doubt that the
building will be so far advanced as to warrant its being
thrown open to the public, as has already been an-
nounced, on the Ist of May next.
CARLTON-TERRACE.—From the esplanade, which abuts
on the Mall, in St. James's Park, and is in the rear of
the mansions of Chevalier Bunsen (the Prussian ambas-
sador), Lord Londesborough, Lady Somerset, the Mar-
quis of Clanricarde, and the Duke of Leinster, having
become excessively damp and covered with moss, from
the exhalations ascending from the lower buildings, the
gravel has been covered with orsi and armanis metallic
lava, by order of the superintendent of the Crown
estates. The esplanade, from its dimensions and situa-
tion, has long been a favourite promenade of the noble
residents of Carlton-terrace, but has latterly been ren-
dered useless by the dampness, to remedy which the
lava has been laid down.