The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-20 00:00:00

PRICE OF SUGAR.

The average price of Brown or Muscovado Sugar, computed
from the returns made in the week ending January 16,
1849. is 235. 111,14 d. per cwt.

Tun PNEUMATIC PILE• DRIVING PROCESS. A
hollow iron cylinder, 24 feet in length and 4f in
diameter, was lately sunk, for mining purposes, into dry
sand on the sea shore, at W heal Ramorth Mine, Per-
ronzabuloe, Cornwall, by Dr. Potts's pneumatic pile-
driving process. Tho sinking, on the occasion first
recorded, went on at the rate of twenty-four inches in
50 minutes; but the process was suspended to allow
scientific men to witness its further progress on the day
appointed, when the descent was continued " at the rate
of 3 inches a minute, accomplishing a descent of 2 feet
2 inches in 8 minutes, when it was feared that it would
disappear altogether, and the work was abruptly
suspended."—The Builder.
AMERICAN OFFICERS FOR THE GERMAN NAVY.—
It is rumoured that Commodore Parker and Com-
manders Dupont, Buchanan, and Barron, of the navy.
have received furloughs from the department, fur the
purpose of proceeding to Europe to organize the new
nary recently created by the Federal German Govern-
ment. Commodore Parker is to have the rank of Ad-
miral, and his colleagues, it is stated, that of Vice-
Admiral, with the corresponding pay and emoluments.
The selection of American officers to accomplish this de-
licate and important duty is a high compliment to our
gallant little navy; and we are sure the confidence thus
manifested will not be disappointed or aused. We also
learn that Captain Latimer has been ordered to the com-
mand of the frigate Savannah, now fitting out at the
Brooklyn yard. and supposed to be destined for the
Pacific, as flagship. Several other officers are men-
tioned as being ordered to report for her by the Ist
of December, but as our' information is not definite
yet, we omit a list of their names. The Savannah
goes to Norfolk first to be docked, and thence will
carry out 200 supernumeraries to the vessels in the
Pacific, whose crews, it is understood, have been
greatly diminished by desertions, in consequence of
the enormous bounty offered them to engage in the
search for gold in California.—New York Herald.
Cuaious DISCOVERY IN ROME.—The following
interesting announcement forms part of a letter dated
English College, Rome, Sept. 28, 1848:—" In a vineyard
belonging to the chapter of St. John Lateran, some curi-
ous sepulchral remains have been discovered; but the
series will not be altogether excavated before November.
One piece represents a doorway to a temple in the
forum, and even this remnant, in consequence of the
name and site being inscribed on the cornice, threatens to
disturb some portions of our Roman topography. As yet
no ono is allowed to sketch the fragments."—Builder.
GREAT FLOAT OF ICE IN THE CLYDE.—Four of

the Clyde steamers could not leave Glasgow on
Tuesday for the lower ports, being hemmed in at
the Bromiclaw by the ice. On that day the Clyde
presented au extraordinary appearance, as the whole
surface of the river, from the furthest tide-way
down to Renfrew, was covered with a dense mass
of broken ice, crushed and tossed together .in the
most confused manner, through which the steamers had
great difficulty in forcing their way. In some cases it
was only after repeated efforts that the tugs could move
onwards through the dense ice which lay jammed in a
confused mass on all sides. The ferry boats could not
ply, as there was no clear water, the small runlets opened
in the wakes of the steamers being immediately closed
up.—Edinburgh Advertiser.
FELONY BY A SURGEON.—At the Borough Court
on Saturday, James Howarth, a respectably-dressed
young man, who is a surgeon and chymist, in Oldham
road, was placed in the dock, charged with stealing
money from the house of Edward Kershaw, a railway
porter, residing in Oldham-road, with whom he had
lodged. It appears that Kershaw was in the habit of
placing his wages in a drawer, and the prisoner had
frequently seen him opening the drawer and putting
in money. On the 27th of last month Howarth told his
landlord that he was going to the infirmary, and did not
know exactly when he should return. He accordingly
lett the house, but had never returned. Kershaw, on
the next evening, went to the drawer where be kept his
money, but to his surprise be found that his savings,
which amounted to nine sovereigns, bad all been ab-
stracted. He immediately gave information to the

police, and the thief, after squandering the money in a
brothel in Liverpool, surrendered himself, and acknow-
ledged the robbery. He was committed for trial at the
sessions.—Manchester Courier.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN AMERICA.—The South
Carolinian thus records the " tarring and feathering" of
a Scot, who dared to dispute the justice of American
slavery:—" About six months ago a man by the name
of Edmunds, who called himself a Scotchman, came into
the lower part of the parish as a teacher, and succeeded
in getting up a small school. After some time, however,
it was discovered that the instruction of the rising ge-
neration was not his principal object, and that he avowed
himself publicly an abolitionist, denounced slavery, said
that it was contrary to the spirit of Christianity, &c.
Our high-minded and spirited citizens waited for nothing
more; and a few evenings afterwards a party of six or
seven entered his schoolroom, and, without ceremony,
dissolved the relations existing between the master and
pupil—led him out to a convenient thicket —and substi-
tuted for his thin apparel a coat consisting of the inside
of a pine and the outside of a goose. I will not stop
here to describe the unseemly and ludicrous figure which
he presented, as he wended his course up hill and down
dale, until he reached his place of refuge." The next
morning, it seems, the injured man applied for redress
to a neighbouring justice. While he was relating his
wrongs, "a few gentlemen, deputed by the citizens of the
neighbourhood," rushed in, and told him that if he did
not leave in five hours they would give him 39 lashes;
and if he did not leave in five hours afterwards they
would give him 39 more; and it he did not then leave
they would put him to death by hanging I
FRESH HERRINGS. FOT some weeks past there
have been large shoals of herrings along the Ayrshire
coast, betwixt Irvine Bar and Troon. Some days fifty
boats were out from different places, even as far south
as Ballantrae, and each boat has taken in from 500
to 3,000 herrings, which have been hawked through
the country for a halfpenny a piece, and a good
many were sent per steamers to England. This
is a very unusual occurrence, and it is thought the
herrings have been driven by the recent storame their
s from
their accustomed courses. They generallys omit' kßallan-
first appearance about six weeks after thi
numbers. Even then
trae, where they spawn in great
it is very blameable to take the fish; much more so at
present.—Greenock Advertiser.
THE BEGGING TRADE.--SCENE, DUBLIN.—A dis-
tressed mother of a family toquitu7"W,, w,ell,Ain'n,i, and" what
are you axin' for little Johnny the day. ns
'elan er—. n y
6d., m'm." Distressed mother—" °eh, gg wid you,
sure I'd get a cripple for 4 ..Well, then, here's a blessed
gabby in
any the small•pox for a shilin!" Och ! an be dad
bow, but I hat albs it inesel darlin 1"
. that's chape,