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

RAILWAY T.RAFFIO RETURNS.

'LONDON AND SOUTH-EASTERN RAlLWAL—Traffic re-
turn for the week ending March 19, 1853 E10,921 711
Corresponding week last year 10,516 8 7

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

£404 19 4

Increase in 1853

£450 18 0

BORDEAUX AND CETTE RAlLWAY.—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 chait 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
REO 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 5i millions of francs khould 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 soon afterwards went to bed
a little excited from drink, but without betraying any
strangeness of manner. Upon his wife awaking, about
eight o'clock, she was horrified at finding him apparently
quite dead, and immedLtely 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.

Madame Jenny Lind Goldschmidt has -signified her JENNY LIND.—It is stated from a credible source that
de-
termination to pay another professional visit to this
country. She will sing at various places in Germany
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.
pl cities,
ork remaining here probably two or three years.
ew Y Paper.
NORTH BRITISH RAILWAY.—The results of the meet-
ing of the North British Railway, just held
at Edin-
burgh, have inflicted another check upon the attempted
repudiation of the preference shares. Upon the divi-
dend on these shares being proposed, a poll d
manded, but out of the shareholders
present, o was
only threee-
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-
siderable majority for sustaining the rights of the pre-
ference holders, the minority was sufficiently large. t°
cause regret among all parties interested in the statbl6l9l.
of railway property, the numbers being 875 against
Many persons are in the habit of parting
t'maturely
proxies upon mere general solicitations, without ;
Put and it
considering the uses to which they
may be
the unsatis
is to be hoped that it is to this reason -
compared with
factory amount of the proxy majority, their
case to be attributed.
the personal one, is in the p
N Preseuntrarliamentary return
OCCUPIERS (IRELAND).-By m.p., it appears that
obtained by Sir Robert Ferguson,
the total number of occupier
in all the electoral divisions in Ireland, is 564,144. Dis-
tributed in provinces till;2 u,7oi ;
in Munster, 149,803 ;
aiued at 6/. and under,
•
and in trlster, 179,0".

2,-arrative 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
exertions 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 revolved 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 they deter-
mined, after mature consideration, to carry it out. Two
objects—one principal, but necessarily kept somewhat
in the backgroundthe abolition of the slave trade ; one
subsidiary and yet important in itself—the promotion of
commerce by way of the 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 way 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 commencing the 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.
Dornae 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 coaskt 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 Ha:11.

The mottoes of this work are, " L'etude des lon-
gues cst la, premiere et la plus indispensable Ile toutes
les etudes, and " Les mgthodes sout les maitres
(les maitres." The author has endeavoured to
impress these ideas on the mind of the reader, and
has rightly entitled his work, a " Manuall
thinks
i considersnthk es
teacher and learner of languages." He
this study the most instructive of any, find
that the modern languages should precede in
otfhespepoeNciThe'rs of' reeding,
should
diaoknhe-s
&c , andi es. a close
education Latin and Greek.
ifanoniga. ,Ityhisd ow
rf acquisitiontithiengp,aratonsfd in what order
cultivated. There is one book on " The Three
Great Agents of Education"—parents, teachers,
and method. The duties and qualifications of the
former are set forth, and the importance of their
po
social position enforced on the
attention. The
author has entered fully and
treats; it in acomplete-
and skilful manner. The
volumes are likely '
students of a foreign to be of great service to all
assis-
tance to teachers, in showing them
into the subject,
consequence it is that they should be well fitted for
tongue, and an
their position. The introductory
edu-
cation in chapter on cleaercilyualof 11-hat
general is interesting and instructive.

METROPOLITAN COMMISSION OF SEWERS.—A special
Court of Sewers was held yesterday at the Court-house,
Greek-street, Soho ; Mr. Jebb in the chair. The other
Commissioners present were Mr. G. Baker, Major Daw-
son, 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 on
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 w.:s an exception has devel3ped into a positive
rule, have become a public grievance of the most objec-
tionable, because of the most easily avoidable, kind.
preliminaries The
itnehoeeuatlivrdneogi beenrsuetgrhic;ot
nst,hs
ioeddfierslerpe
desoo,sln.e9idmo of,They
hn
;ed they3a 3t
ioionln‘.o,sorfdloovirftei
datthrhyeae
generalSs mr
rf racntodhmeKent, 121. for the Counter's Creek, 1,3361.
for the Ranelagh, 951. 10s. for the eastern division of
Westminster sewers, 1771. 10s. for the Spitalfields, Sze.,
level, 8901. for the Regent-street distriet,l,2so,ol.9f9olr.
forthe
western division of Westminsteekr sewers, and 9
the Finsbury division. The recommendations were ap-
ut
sewer,en effte. exception—of
p2tfito. nB o i n
3,2621. for ai'l4
5,180 sanctioned,feeoftwith b
brick
along the Hornsey-road (on contribution of three-fourths
of such expense)
--and in this
case
the
proposition was
postponed, but not negatived.