The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-19 00:00:00

estrous occurrencies that had taken place in
in India, called upon the Government to supply
three regiments of 3,300 men, and it was pro-
posed, with reference to the :remainder of the
10,060, to discharge them in the course of a few
months. Since that was resolved upon, however, in-
telligence had arrived from India rendering it necessary
to send two other regiments there, and it was proposed
by the Government thetas to those regiments abOut to be
withdrawn from the country, that instead of discharging
7.000 men, the discharge should be limitnd to 5,000 men,
and orders had been given to tbat effect. In looking
to the subject of this discharge, two aspects
presented themsalve the state of the affairs
of this country at home and abroad. With respect to
the first, he thought they were satisfactory, and
as to the latter, they were such as to in-
duce the country to assume an indiffrrent course.
Now, in the second place, let them look at the colonies
and see whatclaim there was upon us. He had taken the
trouble to look into the state of the forces distributed
over the colonial empire of this c untry, and in many
portions of that empire he must say the colonies
were barely occupied ; they could scarcely be
said to be in a state of miltary defence; but, at the same
time, all Governments had endeavoured as much as pos-
sible to make the military charge of the colonies as light
as it could be made to the people of this country; but
if we were to preserve the colonies—if we were
to recognise the claims of the colonists to military pro-
tection and defence against aggressions from without.
The House must make up its mind to maintain the
force we had at present concentrated in these
colonies. (Hear, hear.) Ile did not mean to
say that in the course of time arrangemez.ta
might not be made to diminish that force, but at present
he did not think it would be safe or prudent to reduce
it.—(Hear, bear.) In Gibraltar we had the same gar-
rison as iu 1833, and he alluded to 1833, because in
that year a Committee of the House sat upon
the details of the military defence of the colonies, and
decided what forces were necessary for their protection.
—(Cries of " Hear, hear.") In Malta at that period
there were 2,458 men, at present there were 2,700. so
that in the case of that colony there had
been a slight increase. In the. lonian Islands the force
remained much &bout the same now as in 1833. In
Western Africa in 1833 the force was 403, at present
it was 602. In the Cape in 1833 the troops in that colony
consisted of 1,779; at present they numbered 4,200, with
no prospect of a reduction, In Ceylon the force re-
mained the same in the year 1833, with no prospect
of a reduction. In Canada the troops consisted
at present of 7,780 men, about the same as in
1833, but here there was a prospect of reducing
the number.—(Hear, hear.) In Bermuda, in
183, the numbers were 1,080, at present they
were 1,005. In New South Wales the numbers, in 1833,
were 2,636; at 'present they were 4,000,
but it must be remembered that since then
New Zealand had been added to the colonies. In the
Mauritius the number in 1837 were 2,000, at present
they were only 620.L-(Hear, hear.)
(LEFT SPEARING.)

INTERESTING DISCOVERIES AT
FOUNTAINS ABBEY.
When the members of the Archaeological Institute
visited Fountains Abbey, in the summer of 1846, J. R.
Walbran, Esq., of Ripon, the author of the " History of
Gainford," announced a discovery he had made, namely,
that the Abbot's house was not on the west side of
the abbey, as bad always been supposed, but that it
stood not far from the Lady Chapel, south east of
the choir, where the river Skell was arched over
for a considerable distance. The place is, or rather
was, covered with a thicket of underwood and several
tall trees; and it was not supposed that much or any
remains of it existed. However, during this winter
the present noble owner, the Right Hon. the Earl de
Grey, praiseworthily instructed the steward of the
Abbey grounds to re-construct all the broken-down
parts of the fine arches on which the Abbot's house
formerly stood, and under which the river flows. In
doing this, and on reaching a level just above the
perfect parts of the structure, the workmen came to tine
pavements of encaustic tiles, the bases of two rows of
clustered early English columns, and broken Netherdale
marble shafts similar to those now to be seen in the
choir and Lady Chapel. The relics that have been
wdis-
covered are a silver spoon, weighing about an ounce ; a
small silver ornament, with a lion's head in fine -re-
lief ; a few unimportant coins; a quantity oflead piping;
bpshels of oyster shells, and some coals. One of the
workmen took some of these coals home, and he
said, when applied to the fire, that they " blaze away'
like a tar barrel." Aye, and companions of these very
coals had, no doubt, " blazed away like a tar barrel" in
the great hall of the Lord Abbot of Fountains three'
centuries ago ! These coals were of the description
called by old people Ralley or Railaye coals, and we
are informed by Mr. Walbran that he has seen several
entries in an old compotus of the house (circa 1456) of
payments for Halley coals. Most of the objects already
enumerated were found in what bad apparently been
the common ash-hole. The remains seem to spread
over an extent not much less than the nave and
choir of the Abbey Church, and, from what has already
been uncovered, it appears that the whole ichnography
of this important building may yet be retrieved by a
careful excavation. There are remains, over the west
end of the arches, of a dais, the step being ornamented
in front with quatrefoils; and the walls fronting the'
Lady Chapel appears to have been decorated with an
arcade of early English columns. Mr. Walbran in-
forms us that the whole of the remains—excepting,
perhaps, some of the tiles—prove that the original
building had been erected at or about the time of the
three Johns, who were Abbots from A.D. 1210 to 1245,
and who built the new choir and Lady Chapel. The
fragments of "Perpendicular" work that occur are,
no doubt, the remains of Abbot Huby's "new chamber"
—A.D. 1494-1526. It was in a description of where an
homage was done to this man that Mr. Walbran first as-
certained for a certainty that tho Abbot's house was on
this site. We congratulate the noble owner that this
important and very interesting discovery has occurred
during the period he is in possession of these celebrated
ruins, because he has always evinced a great desire to
protect them from further decay; and the judicious im-
provements he has lately caused to be effected indicate an
anxious wish, on his part, to retrieve many injudicious
alterations which occurred when the Abbey first became
the property of Mr. Aislabie in the last century.—Dar-
lington and Stockton Times.

- - - -
FRANCE.
The following is the manifesto addressed by the
Committee of the Rue do Poitiers to the electors
"In consequence of the serious danger to which France
opi-
nion have united to defend society, menaced in its very
cehoxamissbtbesentecened. oeftsAchlt late
hoot
other, they
exposed,th e men of every party and
have forgotten their former
they
had been formerly arrayed
under different banners, and had long and obstinately
divisions in order to unite against anarchy; and if their
efforts were not always attended with beneficial results,
they at least often contributed to counteract:evil tenden-
cies. This spontaneous union manifested itself every-
where and at once—in the deliberations of the Con-
stituent Assembly, in the elections, in the alacrity of
the National Guards to co-operate with our brave army
in defending public order. Instead of viewing that re
conciliation as a dereliction of principles, France saw in
it a noqle disinterestedness of parties placing far abovi
their private predilections the interests of society.
France herself soon gave a similar example by uniting
almost entirely, at the election of the loth December
to choose among the candidates of the moderate party
the man whose name promised the consolidation of
order and authority. On that, as well as on preceding
that animated her.
occasions, the result completely justified the sentiment

" The danger which now menaces as, although less
apparent, is not the less serious.
religion, The
which,
faction,h i c h
which has the pretension to change all the conditions of
if it cannusldocsieutcyceeodf fora
family,
property,single day, would plunge into
misery the people whose welfare it pretends to advo-
cate, seems less disposed at this moment to employ open
force. But, it endeavours to undermine the social
edifice it despairs of subverting by violence, and it
incessantly labours to effect its purpose by the most
constant propagation of anarchical and subversive
doctrines. It flatters itself that by allowing the
country to enjoy temporary tranquillity, and lulling
its vigilence, it will succeed in surprising it
when off its guard and divided. We must accordingly
oppose to it the means that enabled us to brave the most
dreadful tempest—concord and perseverance. Let us rally
!round the present Government of the Republic, to*sup-
port and assist it, and to maintain it in the course it
!has so courageously pursued since its establishment,
The Constituent Assembly having assigned a period to
its existence, and decreed new elections, we must exert
ourselves to return a prudent, firm, and enlightened
Assembly, which will use the immense prerogatives
conferred on it by the Constitution to assist the Govern-
ment, and not to shake it; to supply by tts wisdom the
deficiency of our nstitutions; to apply itself to their
improvement by legal means, and ultimatoly extricate
France from the frightful crisis she is in at present.
"But, in order to obtain such an assembly from the
suffrage of the electors, it is necessary that the union,
which has already rendered us such important ser-
vices for the last year should continue to prevail. The
club of the Rue de Poitiers, which has set the example
of that reconciliation of all former parties for the
defence of social order' has considered it his duty to
take the initiative. It has chosen a number of its mem-
bers to join us in constituting the Electoral Committee
of Paris, and appointed, in the Assembly and out of the
epreten
o pretension io d
iso
Assenibly,men whose co-operation appeared to it necessary
to represent more completely all the shades of public
opinion.
The Central Committee, which it has thus
formed, in addressing the entire of France, has not
to the departments, justly jealous of their inde-
at,or even suggest choices
pendence. That independence is more than ever
nr to
der dictatet h
respectable and desirable, for it must teach the
promoters
if they chanced to triumph
an instant on one point of the territory, they have not
achieved the conquest of France. But we have heard a
desire everywhere expressed that a common centre be
formed, Where information, advice, and encouragement
to union could be found, and wo have laboured to
establish it. If, in any part of the country, the wise
and moderate men, the friends of order, should object
tosacrifice their differences to the pressing interest of
society, and if, through our friendly interferenc a
gcod understanding could be arrived at, we should be
happy to offer it to them, having no other pretension
than that of being useful by our example and advice to
those who might wish to recur to them. Let us not for-
get that, under the present electoral law, the minorities
may succeed by the division of the majorities. Recent and
deplorable instsnces, which it is useless to recal,
too often proved it during the last yeas..
In a great moral and enlightened society like France
perverse men are always few in number, and can only
triumph by the division of the good citizens. It is to