The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-22 00:00:00

MISCELLA NEOI7S

135 Australian Agricult.
4 Australsn.Pcific. Mail
5 Australn. Royal Mail
333 Brit. American Land
32 Canada
5- Crystal Palace

100
5
4
20

2 (Crystal Pal. of France
1 Eastern Steam ,

10
20
50
50
100
25

1 Electric Toleg. of Ir.
14 Gon. Steam Navigat.
50 General Screw Steam
2i Irish Beetroot Sugar
all Nat. Pat. Steam Fuel
2 Netherlands Land....
24 Nrth. of Euro peStea
all Peninsular & Oriental
25 Do. Do.
60 Royal Mail Steam ...
25 South Austral.Lan
1 Submar. Telegraph..
2 Univeral Emigration

, . .-- ...

and Colonization...
28 Diemen's land

E -:: 54

iii =- 24'i

1024

64 5,i 9 7

53 A 2i

24 i Ef

RAILWAY TRAFFIC RETURNS.

Busines.
this day.

LONDON AND SOUTII-EASTERN RAILWAY.—Traffio re-
turn for the week ending March 19, 1853 E10,921 711
Corresponding week last year 10,516 8 7

Increase in 1853

£404 19 4

GLASGOW AND SOUTH-WESTERN RAlLWAY.—Traffic re-
turn for the -week ending March 19, 1853 £4,227 16 5
Corresponding week last year 3,776 18 5

Increase in 1853,

£450 18 0

BORDEAUX AND CETTE BAlLWAT.—Yesterday a meet-
ing of the committee in respect to the Bordeaux and Cette
line took place at the London Tavern, at which were pre-
sent Mr. Ald. Salomons, Mr. Oliveira, M.P., Mr. R. W.
Kennard, and Mr. B. B. Williams. The chair was
taken by Mr. Ald. Salomons, who gave an account of the
Visit of the committee to Paris, which had ended in
no satisfactory result as to the caution-money, although
they had the greatest expectation that the Emperor would
see justice done to the shareholders. After a statement
from Mr. Kennard, various resolutions were submitted
and adopted, the chief of which was to the effect that
the caution money of 10,000,000 f. had been in suspense
since 1846, and that the interest on it at four per
cent. would amount to three millions more. They,
therefore, conceived that it could never be contem-
plated that the sum of 5f millions of francs should be a
payment in full for this caution money, unless the five
millions deducted from the new company be added
thereto. Several other resolutions were passed, and a
vote of thanks was given to the committee.
DETERMINED SUICIDE. —A. SUICIDAL NEIGHBOUR-
HOOD.—Between one and two o'clock on Sunday morn-
ing, William Thomas Tucker, aged 47, a married man
with a large family, residing at 39, Wells-street, Oxford-
street, returned home, and 80011 afterwards went to bed
a

le excited from drink, but without betraying any
strangeness •f manner. Upon his wife awaking, about
eight o'clock, she was horrified at finding him apparently
quite dead, and immediately gave the alarm, when a
medical man attended and pronounced life extinct some
time. Near the bed was found a laudanum phial
recently emptied, the contents of which deceased had
swallowed. No doubt poverty led the unfortunate man
to drink, and that induced him to seek a remedy for his
troubles in suicide. Mr. Tebbutts, the summoning
officer, forwarded information of the melancholy occur-
rence to the coroner. Singular to say, in the same street,
within a brief period, several persons have committed
suicide.

ad
ad
ad
ad

JENNY LlND.—Lind ds
ItisGstaoltedafmiromdtahascredisigblneifisoedurcheerthdaet.
Madame Jenny
payll
singan at variousother pacprofessionalles
in
visitGetnnotahnisy
eteorumntinryat.ionatoe
iw
during the present year, and the following season will
appear in opera at London. Afterwards, she will come
to the United States, and give operas in all the princi-
pal cities, remaining here probably two or three years.
—New York Paper.
NORTH BRITISH RAILWAY.—The results of the meet-
ing of the North British Railway, just held at Edi
burgh, have inflicted another check upon the attempted
repudiation of the preference shares. Upon the div-
dend on these shares being proposed, a poll was de-
manded, but out of the shareholders present, only three
could be found to support the resistance, while 122 were
in favour of the payment. As regards proxies, the re-
sult was less creditable, since, although there was a con-
sidtrable majority for sustaining the rights of the pre-
ference holders, the minority was sufficiently
large to
cause regret among all parties interested in the stability
of railway property, the numbers being 875 against 697.
Many persons are in the habit of parting with their
proxies upon mere general solicitations, with maturely
tisit
considering the uses to which they may be put ;and is to be hoped that it is to this reason that thearnisNavith
factory amount of the proxy majority, as the personal one, is in the present case to
OCCUPIERS aRELAND).—BY Years that
obtained by Sir Robert Ferguson, M.P7 161. the total number of occupiers valuedd
in all the electoral divisions in Irelanar,e_
a Parliamentary
papnd under,
at
564,144. Dis.
n:tebnmaetac.ttrirebuttuedm.
il
tributed in rovinces the numbers ine°llll97lohP;
92,612 • in- Leiiister, 142,701; m Munster,
VA is trlstor, lliVaih

LITERATURE.

The _History of the _Holy, Military, Sovereign Order
of St. John of Jerusalem, or Knights Rospi-
taliers, Knights Templars, Knights of Rhodes,
Knights of Malta. By John Taafe, Knight Com-
mander of the Order, and author of " Adelais."
Vols. 111. and IV. Hope and Co.
The two first volumes of this series appeared some
months ago—these complete it. Much interesting
and important knowledge is here met with concern-
ing that mighty fellowship of arms, which sustained
for so many years the glory of chivalry, and whose
memory is ever held in veneration by all lovers of
ancient honour and renown. One of these volumes
is devoted to the knights when at Rhodes, the other
dessribes their fortunes at Malta. Their sufferings
and calamities were very great at Rhodes. Solyman
the Magnificent (as he was termed) completely
destroyed the island, as it is recorded
1 " The renowned, splendid, beautiful island of Rhodes,
and its ancient and must noble capital. which th:: order
had acquired with so much genero,itv 'and boldness, and
! maintained their state there for 213 years, with mar-
; vellous vigour, liberality, and gentleness, and mighty
expenses of gold, and defended with an infinitude of
blood, had now passed away beneath the Paynim's
harsh rod. ' Oh, my unfortunate country ! Oh, left to
what perfidious despotism ! ' exclaims Po:itainez. L'l'le
Adam, the Grand Master, refused to yield to the insult-
ing terms proposed byhis conqueror, and his go,d faith and courage drew down theapplause of his ha,ugity
opponent, . who, to do honour to devoted constancy,
raised the imperial diadem a little from his head, a
ceremony the Ottoman sovereign uses with none of earthly
kings, nor in truth, with any but in -naming God
or Mahomet ;"
And he afterwards suffered him and his knights
to depart free of injury.. Their troubles
were only suspended to be completed at Malta.
There the horrors of their fate were beyond bounds.
Valetta was the Grand Master at that time, and
afterwards had a city built, and " named with his
namv," in honour of his heroic exploits. Solyman,
their old enemy, sent two pashas to overthrow the
island, but they were repulsed after repeated
attacks, and the loss they sustained was that of
thirty thousand men. Solyman letting fall the
dispatch containing the awful news, exclaimed,
"It is only in my own hand that my sword is
invincible." The knights and their followers,
with Valetta himself, fixed his head-quarters at
Boyo, and sent Colonel Ulas to defend St.
Elmo, at a little distance from him, but the Turks
cut off all communication between the places, and,
finally, they gained a brief victory at St. Elmo ;
thus the high-spirited Valetta was compelled to see
his followers perish in his sight, he not being strop
enough to make a sally in their behalf. But theirg loss was gloriously avenged in a few days.
In the following manner he exerted himself in
emergencies :
" The GrandMa.ster went to the infirmary where, sum-
moning into the hall o arms all the wounded who could
leave their beds, salo- 1 Although I too am severely
wounded, yet contrive to continue my duty.
Other valiant knights and soldiers do the same,
though they are almost all wounded men, and
none, but are fatigued in the extreme, and
deprived of the greater part of their bodily strength,
has nevertheless stood unconquered in mind and full of
vigour. Too plainly do they see that things are at a
crisis, when it is better to end life valiant by fighting
with arms in their hands, than basely wait to be mas-
sacred in hospitals or houses, or undergo torments from
most cruel barbarians, firmly resolved not to spare a
single soul of them - and enough were these few words
which penetrated like sharp darts into every one, and
drawing power from their very weakness, none remained
in the hospital except those already in the final agony."
The subsequent evil genius that attended the
order is traced through succeeding generations, till
we reach our own times, and then we leave it in
its retirement to dwell on the memory of its past
history which belongs to everyhistory of the world.

Narrative of a Missionto Central Africa, performed
in the years 1850-51, under the orders and at the
expense of her Majesty's Government. By the
late James Richardson, author of " Travels in the
Great Desert of Sahara." 2 vols. Chapman and
Hall.

It is greatly to be regretted that the author, who
has so ably compiled these accounts of wanderings,
and given to us the benefit of his travelled experi-
ence' should have been snatched away in the
midst of his labours. The principal object of his
expedition being to endeavour to substitute legiti-
mate commerce for slave traffic, unfortunately is
not yet realised, but it is to be trusted that the
eiertions of the departed will not have been thrown
away, but that some of the many who admire his
actions " will go and do likewise." We are in-
formed in his own words of his motives for his
travels :

" Since my return from a first tour of exploration in
the great Sahara, I had carefully revolve 1 in my mind
the possibility of a much greater undertaking—namely,
a political and commercial expedition to some of the most
important kingdoms of Central Africa. The plan
appeared to me feasible, and when I laid it in all its
details before her Majesty's Government t:rey. deter-
mined, after mature consideration, to carry it out. ,s
objects—one principal, but necessarily kept 80', ewhat
in the background—the abolition of the slave rade ; one
subsidiary and yet important in itself—the promotion of
commerce by way of time Great Desert, appeared to me,
and to the distinguished persons who promoted the
undertaking, of sufficient magnitude to justify consider-
able sacrifices. Much preliminary discussion took place,
but the impediments and difficulties were gradually over-
come, and in the summer of 1849 it was generally known
that I was about to proceed by w. y of Tripoli, the
Sahara, and the hitherto unexplored kingdom of Akees,
to endeavour to open_ .commercial relations, and con-
clude treaties with any native power so disposed,
but especially with the Sultan of Bornou. It
was not thought necessary, however, to surround my
mission with any circumstances of diplomatic splendour,
and it was still in the character of Yakot—a name already
known throughout the greater portion of the route in-
tended to be traversed—that I proposed to resume my
intercourse with the Moors, the Fezznees, the Tibboes,
the Tuaricks, and other tribes and peoples of the
desert and the countries beyond.
"Before commencingthe narrative of my journey, it
may be as well to introduce a few observations on the
commerce at present carried on with the interior by way
of Tripoli. There are now four general routes followed
by the trading caravans from the Barbary Coast, leading
to four different points of that great belt of populous
country that stretches across Central Africa—viz., to
Wadai, Bornou, Soudan, and Timbuctoo.
" Wadai sends to the coast at Beugagi a biennial cara-
van, accompanied by a large number of slaves. The
chief articles are elephants' teeth and ostrich feathers.
Bornae sends to the coast, by way of Tezzan, I am sorry
to say, chiefly slaves ; but a quantity of ivory is now
likewise forwarded by this route. Soudan exports
slaves, senna, ivory, wax, indigo, skins, &c., &c.
Nearly half of the commerce with this important coun-
try consists of legitimate objects of trade and barter.
Wax began to be sent seventeen years ago, elephants'
teeth fifteen, and indigo only four years ago.
" Timbuctoo now forwards scarcely anything but gold
to the coast of Tripoli, together with wax and ivory, but
no slaves. The gold is brought by the merchants in
diminutive roughly-made rings, which they often carry
in little bags concealed in the breasts of their gowns."

Language. By C. Marcel, Knt., Leg. Hon., French
Consul. 2 vols. Chapman and Hall.
The mottoes of this work are, " L'eticdc des lan-
gues est la premiere et la plus indispensable de toutes
les etudes, and " Les methodes sout les maitres
des maitres." The author has endeavoured to
impress these ideas on the mind of the reader, and
has rightly entitled his work, a " Manual of the
teacher and learner of languages." He considers
this study the most instructive of any, and thinks
sueda
that the modern languages should precede m
'
education Latin and Greek. He gives a close
analysis of the parts of speech, &C., and directions fin, andorth writing,eacquisiti and in what order they on of the powersofreadi n
g Bgh,opl
cultivated. There is one book on " The Thrkbeee-
-par.ents, teachers,
Great Agents of Education"_
and method.. The duties
and the importance of their
sfooromialerpaziosent
efnfortote,
ed on the attention. of
The
author has entered fully into
treats it in a complete and The
skilful. manner. volumes are likely to be the subject, and
students of a for •
eign
ton ue and an equal
of great service
their position. The intreoyducotory
assis-
tance to teachers, in %b. S the learly of what
consequence it is that trmsgh tiler bac well fitted for
t o all
chapter
cation. in general is
ISt .. interesting and instructiovn edu-
cation

2TROPOLITAN COMMISSION OF SEWEIS.—A special
Court of Sewers was heldesterday at the Court-house,
J
Greek-street, Soho ; Mr. ebb in the chair. The other
Commissioners present were Mr. G. Baker, Major Daw-
-8°11) Mr. G. S. Smith, Sir C. Fellowes, Mr. J. Hawk-
shaw, and Mr. T. F. Gibson. The court was summoned
for eleven o'clock, from which time till ten minutes to
twelve, when it commenced, 'every' person attending ol
business had to wait, or suffer the consequence of non-
attendance. The great inconveniences and annoyance
arising from the habitual unpunctuality of the commis-
sioners have long been a subject of well-grounded and
general complaint, and now that what it was charitably
hoped was an exception has devolved into a positive
rule, have become a public grievance of the most objec-
tionable, because of the most easily avoidable, kind.
The summonses having been disposeth9teeldriemoarnesloes;p7:l7:3t:a2h3tee:soiedonLoiens.vvooli.drfslldfoosiv:ior,f3ednrnst3attiaeo.fe.,
fssg preliminaries
oueurmnSurrey
tre her yfaeo l
i9R
aran
ontsldt
ehn. committee
eefrKiovagsrega gone
various
s9lssßwere2lell..through,g7ife7oodistricts,nl
r:Jt:
Regent-street
isttothhroseeoer.
ef
Crtfteoohd
ic3rueo,
considered.stnln
and 9,099/. for
were ap-
proved division of Westminster sewers, lwWeevateesCi
Oft: by 2ft. Sin.,
the Finsbury division. The recommendations
s,sannoctifoe:ted,
of wbirithckbsuetw oner
of three-fourths
3iiiro2n6vg2eldt.hfeaonHrdornsey-road (on contribution.e'
in this case
of such expense)—and
postponed, but not negatived. the proposition wa,s