The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-31 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

arose on the cross-examination, and surely if he showed
there was no plaintiff the cruse must fall.
The Learned SECONDARY said the question was whe-
ther he ought to have admitted the evidence in cross
examination on the plea.
Mr. THOMAS said ►here was a second plea, which he
did net promise, and he would be entitled to show in
evidence that the plaintiff had no title ; and, conse-
quently, there could be no promise on the bill.
The SECONDARY said there was only ono plea end
one issue, non-acceptance. He would take a note of the
objection, but as the plea stcod he was decidedly against
the Learned Counsel.
Mr. THOMAS then addressed the jury, and said that,
according to his instructions, he should be able distinctly
to prove that the acceptance was not in the handwriting
of defendant. _ _

The defendant's brother swore positively it was not,
and other witnesses spoke very confidently to the same
point.
The jury, however, almost immediately gave a verdict
for the amount claimed.

Mr. THOMAS applied for the writ to be retained, on
the ground that the plaintiff had no title in the bill.
The SECONDARY repeated that he thought he ought
not to have allowed the evidence on that point to have
been elicited when there was ,no plea that he had taken
a note of the objection.

CRIMINAL COURT.-(THIS DAY.)

OLD COURT.

Mr. Baron ALDERSON took his seat on the bench at
ten o'clock.

THE LATE ACCIDFET ON THE SOUTH-WESTERN.—
Samuel Bealey, an engine driver, and William Wilkins, a
stoker, surrendered to take their trial for the alleged
manslaughter of a man named Perry, a ballast man, also
in the employment of the company.
It appeared from the statement of Mr. BODKIN that
the prisoners were in charge of the " Vulture" ballast
engine, and that on the evening of the 17th of Novem-
ber they left the Old Richmond station, for the purpose
of going to London for coke. The Datchet Express was
due at that time, about six o'clock, but was five mi-
nutes late. Notwithstanding the rules which forbade
such conduct, the prisoners moved their engine from the
station. On reaching the junction of the Datchet line
with the Richmond, the Express came up, drawn by the
" Hornet," and a violent collision took place. The vio-
lance of the shock threw the deceased on the engine, on
which he and some other labourers were being conveyed
to town, by which the back of his skull was fractured,
and he died on the spot. Some of the others were most,
severely injured. The prisoners jumped off, and escaped
without any sericus injury.
Mr. Goueh, superintendent of the locomotive depart-
ment, produced the rules, with a copy of which each of
the drivers and stokers were presented, their signature
being taken on its receipt, and stated that the prsoners
had been guilty of a gross neglect of duty, inasmuch as
the rules directed them not to proceed when a train was
due, or for a short period after its time.
Some of the persons who were on the engine detailed
the circumstance. The prisoners, they deposed, were
perfectly sober, and that when they heard the express
coming they shut off the steam and applied the breaks,
calling out at the same time for the men to jump off.
The engine was going at the rate of four or five miles an
hour when the break was applied:- Healey was heard
to say that it was time to start, as the express had passed.
Mr. Ballantine appeared for the prisoners.
The case is likely to last the greater part of the day.

MR. RIGBY WA SUN'S FIGURES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Stu,—With your kind permission I beg to correct
an egregious mistake in Mr. Wason's " Budget for
the Million," published in your paper of Thursday
last. The error referred to occurs in his numera-
tion. The following figures, expressing, as he says,
the value of realised property, he reads erroneously :-
4,400,000,0001. This sum Mr. W. calls four bil-
lions four hundred and forty millions, which is pal-
pably wrong. It should be read four thousand four
hundred millions, which is enormously less than the
sum he reads. The difference between the two is as
follows, viz. :

The amount as read by Mr. W. £4,000,440,000,000
The real amount

Difference .... £3,996,040,000,000
Which difference would be more than sufficient to
pay off the national debt 4,995 times over, taking the
debt at 800,000,0001.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
J. H. ROBEY.

Newcastle-under-Lyme, Jan. 30, 1849.
[The error to which our correspondent alludes was
one of words, and not of figures. Mr. WASON
calculates the amount "correctly," but called it erro-
neously. It should, as our correspendent states, be
read four thousand four hundred millions. A billion
was stated by Mr. WASON to mean a milllion of mil-
lions ; it was therefore manifest that the mistake oc-
curred in the hurry of the moment—was one of form,
and not of substance. The figures he wrote down
were 4,400,000,0001., and surely every one of our
readers could readily comprehend their signification
and amount.=ED. Sun.]

cleansing, as adopted by the National Philanthropic As-
sociation, which at.sociation have given constant employ-
ment to 36 poor seen as " street orderlies." A vote of
thanks having been passed to The Sun, and other news-
papers, for its advocacy of the cause of the poor, the
meeting, which was well attended, separated. .

We learn that a house in Liverpool has received a
large consignment of English copper money from the
United States, the coin, taken out by emigrants, having
accumulated there throughout many years till it became
of sufficient bulk to be worth sending; home.
EMIGRATION FROM PETMOUTII.—JAN. 29.—There
are 550 emigrant?, in the de pot, waiting for the arrival of
the- tollowing ships :—The Amagrenice, Susannah, Age.
noria, and British Empire. The depot is quite lull with
this number, and preparations are being made for the
enlargement of the establishment, so as to accommodate
1,200 persons. The Pemberton, Captain Richardson,
sailed to-day, with 355 Irish females for Port Philip,
under the care of Dr. Sullivan, a gentleman who is well
known in the emigration department. The William
Hyde sailed to-day for Port Adelaide and Port Philip.
She is a private ship, and belongs to Messrs. Marshall
and Edridge. The Stebonheath is expected to sail to-
morrow for Port Philip, with 300 emigrants on board.
The next ship to sail is the Inconstant, Capt. Collinton,
with 206 emigrants for Port Philip. Mr. Parker, the
late Poor-law Commissioner, whose name was recently
mentioned in connexion with the Andover union, em-
barked in the William Hyde for Port Philip.
A RoGun DETECTED.—An impudent Cornish
beggar lately blackened his face and hands, and success-
fully appealed to the sympathies of several householders
of St. Austell as a distressed and deserving negro; but,
unluckily for himself, he forgot he had a hole in his
trowsers. A gentleman, whose eyes were keener than
those of his neighbours, at last noticed that the beggar's
legs differed in colour from his face; and the consequence
was that he was apprehended, and afterwards committed
to Bodmin gaol for three months.
We are informed that the French Post office have
definitively made the arrangement with the Boulogne
and Amiens Company which we mentioned on the 231
instant, for the conveyance of the quick mail between
London and Paris, via Boulogne, even although Calais
is for a time to be the packet port. It also appears that
the plan for our steamers to run between Dover and
Calais is to extend only over four months of the year
—namely, from the 15th of November to the 15th of
March, and that during the remaining tight months
the existing route is to be resumed. So that the
change, which is to come into operation on Thursday,
will not continue in the present instance more than six
weeks.

CLEANLINESS AND VENTILATION versus CIIOLERA
OR OTHER PESTILENCE.—History informs us that pesti-
lence, the scourge of society, has prevailed frequently
and virulently in ages, countries, and even special dis-
tricts, in which cleanliness and the proper ventilation of
houses lave been little considered. Without entering
on the various theories respecting the exciting causes of
pestilential disease, a little research will afford sufficient
proof that want of cleanliness has been a principal cause
of their aggravation and rapid diffusion. It we read the
account of our own metropolis during the last calamitous
visitation of the plague in 1665, and compare it with its
present state, we may convince ourselves that our pre-
sent exemption from the-recurrence of such an evil is
secured to us on better grounds than those of precau-
tionary laws of quarantine. At that period, in the
history of that vast city, the streets were narrow, the
houses projected in the upper story, stud the spaces be-
tween them crowded with large signs hung across, thus
checking the free circulation of air, essentially neces-
sary for the health of the inhabitants. To the miasma
constantly c ngendered and rising from open drains and
neglected sewers, were added those caused by the fer-
mentation of heaps of rubbish ejected from every house,
and which the indolent inhabitants could scarcely be
compelled to remove. Nature has provided means of
care) ing off impure air, and replacing it with such as is
suited to animal respiration ; but here its intentions
were defeated both by the construction of the buildings
and the habits of the people. Drainage as well as ven-
tilation of the buildings was at one time totally disre-
garded, and the result was a perpetual recurrence of
fevers.—The Builder.

LUXURIES IN PRISON.—On Saturday an inquest
was held at the Milbank prison, on the body of Sylvanus
linden, aged 17, a framework knitter, of Nottingham.
The deceased, it appeared, was received into the above
prison on the Ist of February, 1848, having been con-
victed at Nottingham of stealing a piece of linen, and
sentenced to seven years' transportation. He had been
in prison eight times previously. His death took place
in the infirmary on the 25th instant, the cause being
pulmonary consumption. In reply to a question from a
juror, it was stated by 1)r. Baly, the physician, that the
deceased during his illness had everything that be wished
tor. Amongst other things he had wine, brandy, tea,
oysters, oranges, isinglass, jelly, puddings, mackerel, and
eggs. Verdict—" Natural death."

FOREIGN CORN.—A cargo of new foreign wheat
having recently been imported into one of the outports,
which was found, on being landed and housed in bond, to
be rapidly deteriorating in condition and quality, so much
so as to render it probable it would become useless as an
article of food, the owner purchased a cargo of dry wheat,
and requested the privilege of mixing it, after landing it
from the vessel and delivering it into granary, with the
raw wheat, so as to preserve it from decay. Application
having therefore been made to the authorities in London
to be allowed to mix in bond the two cargoes of wheat,
one being raw and fast deteriorating, and the other kiln-
dried, they have, in order to save the destruction of so
large a quantity of food, allowed them to be so mixed, on
condition that all claim for all owance for waste; be
abandoned. •
MORE TROOPS FOR INDIA.—The East India Com-
pany have, it is understood, applied to the Government
for three regiments in addition to those which have just
embarked for India.. Should their request• be acceded
to, a force, amounting to 6,000 rank and file, will embark
for India during this year, the entire cost of maintaining
which will be borne by the company.
THE MONUMENT TO PICTON. The ridiculous
monument erected at Carmarthen to the memory of
Picton is at last completed. It is a clumsy, dispropor-
tioned pyramid, manifesting by the rapid tapering of the
shaft that the cash of the managers was exhausted, or
that the builder was tired of his job. At 'the base run
out four promontories, from each of which a large can-
non, with feeble carriage, frowns on passengers as they
approach—what they may mistake fur the chimney of a
manufactory. It is to be hoped that this monument of
the bad management of the projectors will be a beacon
to warn persons against altering what they are not
quite sure of mending.—Cambrian.

THEATRE-ROYAL, Noawica.—The performances
at this place of amusement on Thursday last were under
the patronage of the officers of the 16th Lancers. The
Merchant of Venice was performed, with other enter-
tainments, and went off well. There was some excellent
music performed by the band of the regiment. The
house was crowded.

EDINBURGH THRATRE..—Mr. R. L. Shiel's cele-
brated play of I,vadne, which has not been performed
here since the days of Miss O'Neill, was produced on
Thursday. Miss Faucit's representation of Evadne was
replete with exquisite tenderness and lively expression
of love and sorrow, and evoked the sympathies of all
who witnessed it. At the conclusion of the play Miss
Faucit was called for, and received the reward her per-
formances so well merited.

SUDDEN DEATH OF A MEMBER OF THE UNI-
VERSITY —Yesterday morning, at nine o'clock, an in-
quest was held by Mr. Cooper, coroner for the borough,
at the Little Rose, Trumpington-street, on the body of
Mr. William Gasson, of Christ's College, who was found
dead in bed on Monday morning. The deceased gentle-
man was twenty-nine years of age, and had just taken
an mgrotat degree on Saturday last. It appeared from
the evidence of Mr. Johnson, surgeon who made a post
mo7tem examination, that the cause of death was en-
largement of the heart, producing an obstruction in the
valves in the left ventricle. It seems that the deceased,
who lodged at Mrs. Rudd's, near Addenbrooke's Hos-
pital, had been in precarious health, and was occasion-
ally attended by Mr. Johnson, during the whole of his
University course. He had likewise consulted some of
the metropolitan members of the medical profession.
On Sunday, however, he was able to attend church, and
at half past ten o'clock on Sunday night he retired to
rest in much his usual state. On Monday morning one
of the members of Mrs. Rudd's family rapped at his
door, and receiving no answer, entered and found that
the deceased had been dead some hours. This event,
though so awfully sadden, was not unexpected by Mr.
Johnson, who, however, thinks that it may have been
accelerated in some measure by the natural excitement
consequent on taking his degree. The Rev. James
Carmel', fellow and tutor of Christ's College, attended
the inquest. The jury returned a
,verdict of "Natural
death."—Cambridge Advertiser.
WHAT WAS A POUND IN A.D. 1.000 ?—ln Alsace,
at the end of the tenth century, the common money for
current purposes was the pfennig. It was of copper,
and sixty of them weighed exactly ono mare, or half a
pound avoirdupois, or 120 of them were a pound weight.
The price of a sheffel or bushel of wheat, weighing
sixty pounds, or the same nearly as our English bushel,
was seven of these pfennigs. Copper, probably, bore a
higher value in proportion to silver than it does in the
present day ; or the bushel of wheat was sold for less
than a penny farthing. About two hundred and fifty
years later, in the same country, the same measure of
wheat was sold at twenty-fourptennigs, or about three-
pence farthing. It appears by the accounts preserved in
the cathedral of Strasburg that the wages paid to the
masons employed in the erection of that edifice was
from oue and a half to two of these pfennigs. At the
building of the great bridge at Dresden, in the thirteenth
century, the labourers were paid two pfennigs daily ;
and, according to some fragment of mining accounts of
Tillot and Chateau Lambert, the operative miners re-
ceived no more than two pfennigs.—Jacob on the Pre-
cious Metals.

EVILS OF SHORT LEASES.—In consequence of
the good title of all building land in France, and every
other country I know but England, house property,
being freehold, ranks first in the list of securities for
capital. It is quite the reverse in London. Look at
the many mouldering carcases, fit for nothing but to
pull down, standing on the Crown and City lands, New
Oxford-street, Holborn, &c. &c., taxrd with a ground-
rent of ruinous extent, and a lease so short that no
honest or calculating man would have anything to do
with them.—Correspondent of The Builder.
The Hon, Francis Scott, M.P., and Mr. Logan, of
New South Wales, had an interview yesterday with Sir
Charles Trevelyan, at the Treasury.
VIENNA.—The Austrian army, which now consists
of 500,000 men, is composed as follows: 358,122 in-
fantry, 64,524 cavalry, 31,815 artillery, 40,000 baggage
men, and 5,539 marine troops. This poweriul army is
to be increased to 700,000 men in March next. Italy
and Hungary ore to contribute an important quota.
An ipotheelt;: at Salem has written over his door,
" All kinds of tliny stuffs sold here."