The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-11 00:00:00

POLAND.

KALISCIT, DEC. 29.—Travellers who quitted War-
saw on the 24th state that on that day several cannons
were placed before the theatre, and that all the troops
were preparing to resist an expected insurrection.—
Posen Gazette.

FROM TIIE BANKS OF THE VISTULA, DEC. 28.—
In the Governments of Wiatka Masan, Simbirsk,
and Pensa, bands of armed peasants from 5,000 to
6,000 in number, are going about pillaging, burning,
assassinating, and have even set fire to several houses
in Masan, a town containing 60,000 souls. If this in-
telligence is confirmed we may regard it as symp-
toms of an insurrection in the kingdom of Kasan, if
not in a yet more extensive circle.—Frankfort Ga-
zette des Pontes.

The Wiener Zeitung of the sth does not contain
the official army bulletin; the rumour of the sur-
render of Pesth is, therefore, most probably without
foundation.

SHORT ROUTE TO THE PACIFIC.
A project long contemplated as a vast improvement
in commercial geography is at length on the point of
being realised. An American company is to run
steamers from New York to the Isthmus of Darien,
whence goods and passengers will be conveyed across
to Panama ; from Panama a second line of steamers is
to ply to Oregon and the new El Dorado of Cali-
fornia ; and a third from Panama along the coast of
South America to Guayaquil, Callao, and as far as
Valparaiso. A branch line is also proposed from
California to the Sandwich Isles and China.
The enterprise will, it is said, commence in
the present month. The road from Chagres to
Panama across the Isthmus is to be re-
paired and improved by the Government of New
Grenada, from funds supplied by the American Com-
pany; and, in order to encourage trade, this Go-
vernment has exempted vessels frequenting the ports
of the Isthmus from tonnage dues, and has reduced
the duty on imports to one per cent. on assorted car-
goes. This establishment of a regular communica-
tion across the Isthmus of Panama, will do for the
New World what a similar communication across the
Isthmus of Suez has done for the old ; it will consti-
tute an era in the history of commerce, and by
bringing the ends of the earth into juxtaposition,
will have a powerful influence on the progress of

The voyage from New York to San Francisco
in California, round Cape Horn, is 17,000 English
miles, and occupies a sailing vessel about five months.
The two voyages from New York to Chagres, and
from Panama to San Francisco, have an aggregate
length of 6,400 miles, and will be performed by
steamers in about 30 days, or in 36 days, allowing
time for the journey across the isthmus (about 60
miles, over land about 300 feet in height), and for un-
shipping and reshipping. The new line of communi-
cation will be of great advantage to the trade of our
own country. It will reduce the length of the
journey from Britain to Lima and Guayaquil one-
half, and the time two-thirds. And it will benefit the
world by accelerating the settlement and growth of a
great-civilized population on the western shores of
North America. New California, lying betwixt the
parallels of 32 and 42, with a fertile soil, and with the
Pacific on its western side to temper the extremes of
heat and cold, ought to be one of the most desirable
countries in the world.

1111111•11
It is said that Mr. Pierce Butler, despairing of
sucvess in his suit against bis wife, has made a proposi-
tion for a compromise. The terms are understood to be,
that the parties are to live apart; Mr. Butler provide
his wife a suitable allowance, and allow at least one of the
children to live with her.—Boston Evening Transcript.
Business appears to be on the increase in the
French seapor ts. On Friday last business to the amount
of 2,000,000 t. was done at Havre, principally in cotton
and sugar.—Galignani. J • ,

I.rt TRURO ELECTION..
The nomination of ,a successor to the late Edmund
Turnef, Esq., as ayrepresentativez of Truro in Parlia-
ment, took place on Tuesday, at the Market House, in
that town. At ten o'clock,' Humphrey Willyams,
,F4q.,.wittt.his friends, Appeared at the northern en•
trance, and Montague Edward. Smith, Esq., at the
southern,. accompanied by. their several friends, with
banners, flags, and bands of music.•
• 3:he .1.1.4y0u requested the usual forms to be gone
through, and subsequently addressing the electors,
said that in' consequence of the death of their late
Member, and from a precept received from the sheriff,
which had, been read, the electors were required to
elect a fit and proper person to represent their borough
in the Commons House of Parliament. He trusted
they would, and required them to conduct the election
with good temper, order, and in strict conformity
with the law.

G. SIMMONS, Esq., said he had the honour to pro.
pose to them Humphrey Willyams, Esq., as a fit and
proper person to represent the borough in Parliament.
He was a townsman, and had spent his whole life
with the electors—their local interests affected him in
common; he was a magistrate, a banker, and a miner,
arid, in short, combined in himself all those qualifica-
tions which should be possessed by their representa-
tive. The Hon. Gentleman who was to be named in
opposition was a gentleman, a rising man in his pro-
fession, and was clever; but these did not make of
themselves a fit representative ; further, he was a
stranger to them.—(Cheers.)
.Mr. E. MITCHELL seconded the nomination.

Dr. CARLYON rose from a sense of duty to propose
an opponent to his friend Mr. Willyams, in the per-
son of Mr. M. E. Smith. The candidate he supported
could scarcely be called a stranger—he was a
brother of a worthy fellow-townsman, and was one
of the ornaments of the Western Circuit, and chiefly
he was a warm and able advocate of Conservative
principle:, and well fitted to represent the borough in
Parliament.
Mr. BURROWS seconded the nomination.

HUMPHREY WILLIAMS, Esq., addressed the elec.
tors. lie said—lt has often been my lot on similar
occasions to the present to appear before you to solicit
your suffrages on behalf of other candidates ; but on
the present occasion I appear in my own proper per-
ton soliciting 3. our interest on my own behalf. It is
much easier to advocate the cause of others than one's
own, and though I ,feel great embarrassment, yet I
have this consolation, I am not a stranger to one of
you; I have always lived among you, and hope to
die in your locality. My manner of life and pro-
fessions are my good advocates, and my principles
of attachment to the constitution, and yet
liberal tendencies, have been for thirty years
unchanged. The honourable candidate, in con-
tinuation, regretted to allude to the influence
exercised at this electionoby- clergymen of the
Church of England, who came in from their curacies
and told the silly tale that it would be dangerous to
trust him (Mr. Willyams) with power. By doing so,
they said the Church would be in danger. Why, the
Church was in danger from her worst enemies—her
own ministers, who upheld Popish rites, and ceremo-
nies, and dogmas, which were alike destructive in
their tendency to the Crown and the Church. By
one voter he had been told that he could not be sup-
ported because he was a bad employer. He replied
that he did get a coat from London ; the voter said,
" Then you are no friend to your country." He
would say to the constituency that if they got a
representative from London, instead of from them-
selves, they were no friends to their town.

M. E. SMITH, Esq., said his title to their support
depended on his professions of adherence to constitu-
tional principles. The business of the day W 123 not a
personal question, but one of constitutional principle.
He was opposed to free trade. Proper economy and
retrenchment he fully approved of—not the cutting
up wholesale, but the exercising a proper and rigid
economy in administration. He was a sincere ad-
vocate of the question of education, and for the
adoption of measures to promote the better recreation
of the working classes. Now, whilst we were en-
joying the blessings of peace, was the time to con-
sider such questions.

On a show of hands being taken,
The MAYOR declared the majority to be for Mr.
Humphrey W'illyams. A poll was demanded for
Mr. Smith. A very sharp contest is expected.
" TRURO, EDNESDAY.—The polling commenced
this morning at eight o'clock. The numbers stood
thus :—At nine o'clock, for Willyams, 86 ; for
Smith, 103. At ten o'clock, for Willyams, 158 ;
for Smith, 173."

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL
ENGINEERS.

JAN. 9.—Joshua Field, Esq., President, in the chair.
The first meeting of the session is generally devoted
to routine business, prefatory to the annual general
meeting, which immediately succeeds it, and will be
held on Tuesday, Jaaaary 16, when the ballot for
the election of the president and council will take
place.
The paper read was " A Description of the
improved Forms of Water-Wheels," by Mr. William
Fairbairn,2:M. Inst. C.E. After noticing the
opportunity for improvement afforded by the
substitution of cast and wrought iron for timber
in the construction of hydraulic machines, the author
pointed out the disadvantages and loss of po‘Ner
attending the principle and the form of the
old water - wheels. He quoted Dr Robinson's
" Mechanical Philosophy," for the numerous dis-
advantages of the old form of bucket, and the difficul-
ties arising from the attempts of the old millwrights
to design a shape which should retain the water for a
greater length of time in it, and thus give out more
power. The chief difficulty was the opposition of
the air to the entrance of, the water; and numerous
contrivances, such as boring holes in the starts, making
the spout much narrower than the face of the bucket,
&c., were tried ; but still the difficulties existed, and
induced Mr. Fairbairn to adopt the construction de-
scribed in the paper, and which he termed " The
ventilating water-wheel." The general object of
these modifications was to prevent the condensation
of the air, and to permit its escape during the
filling of the bucket with water, as also its re-
admission during the discharge of the water
into the lower mill-race. The paper then de-
scribed minutely the principles and the construction
of the large wheels erected for the Catrine and
Deanston Works; for Mr. Brown, of Linwood, near
Paisley; for Mr. Duckworth, of Ilandforth ; for Mr.
Ainsworth, of Cleator ; and for others ; and showed,
that, in all cases, the system had proved eminently,
successful. These wheels were all on the
suspension principle, with wrought-iron arms,
radiating from cast-iron centres to the periphery,
and so placed that the whole structure was in
tension, the motion being communicated from
internal toothed wheels, fixed to the shrouding.
The various modifications of the forms best
adapted for different heights of fall were described ;
but it will suffice to give that for breast-wheels for
high falls, as it appeared the most complete. These
wheels were described to possess many advantages
beyond the overshot, the undershot, or the common
breast-wheels, and were best adapted for falls not
exceeding 18 or 20 feet, and where at times there
was a considerable depth of back water ; and such
was the improvement caused by this system, that the
wheel at Mr. Ainsworth's mill was frequently plunged
from five to six feet in the back water, without its
uniforM speed being impeded. The wheel had a
close sole, the tail ends of the buckets were turned
up at a distance of two inches from the back of
the sole plate, and running parallel with it, termi-
nated within about two inches of the bend of the
bucket, immediately above it. The water in entering
the bucket drove the air out by the aperture into the
space behind, and thence into the bucket above, and
so in succession. .The converse occurred' when the
buckets were emptied, as the air was enabled to flow
in as fast as the wheel arrived at such a position as to
permit the water to escape. It appeared to be
allowed that this system had been very generally
Successful, and that the results obtained had ap-
proached, very recently, to the stated duty of the
Turbine, whose powers had, however, been much
exaggerated, and had been allowed, recently, by M.
Fourneyron, not to have obtained more than about
seventy-two per cent. as a mean duty.
The business of the next meeting, of Tuesday,
January 16, was announced to be the reception
of
the annual report, and the election of the preside
nt
and council for the ensuing year.