The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THCASDAY, _DE

which had devolved upon him, that labour had been
lightened by 012 Compiny placing it i❑ the hands of
such admirable contrac!orA.

The company then sang " God save the Queen,"
after which, the ladies proceeded to the Pavilion, and
the gentlemen walked in procession round the viaduct,
after which they also proceeded to the Pavilion, where a
cold collation was provided by the contractors.
The pavilion in which the dinner was given was part
of the temporary earriage•house, which was partitioned
off, and tastefully fitted up, with lining of red cloth and
a roof of white calico. Behind the Chairman was a
large banner, on which was painted the Queen's arms,
quartered with those of Prince Albert. Opposite the
Chairman, and immediately over the entrance, was a
gilt crown. There were also several union jacks, and
the whole had a very pleasing appearance. The colla-
tion did great credit to Messrs. Tomkinson, Holme, and
Co., the contractors, at whose expense it was given, and
to the caterer, Mr. Wood, of the George Inn. About
130 persons, including all the Directors who had taken
part in the proceedings of the morning, and a good many
ladies partook of the repast. Mr. Samuel Holme, one
of the contractors, occupied the chair. When dinner
was over, and the health of " The Queen," " The Prin-
cess Royal," and " Prince Albert, and the rest of the
Royal Family," had been drunk—
The CHAIRMAN said, in proposing the health of an
excellent individual on his right hand (Mr. Thomas
Ashton), lie thought it no disgrace, in this commercial
country, to say that he had been the architect of his
own fortune. He would not say more, but simply give
them " The health of Thcmas Ashton, E,q., the Chair-
man of Directors."—(The toast was &tank with the
usual cheers.

Mr. ASHTON briefly acknowledged the compliment.
The CHAIRMAN next proposed, " Tue health of the
Members for Stockport," which w,:is drank with three
times three. _ .

HENRY MARSLAND, Eq., M.P., acknowledged the
toast on behalf of himself and colleague, and said, he
wished to assure them of the gratitude they felt on the
occasion of the opening of the first part of this line, a
portion of it so important to that ter,vn and neighbour-
hood. If they might judge from what they had that
day seen, they might take it for granted that it would
not be long before the wuole line would be completed.
They had given their assistance, as far as they could, in
procuring the Act of Parliament, which enabled them
to make it. He would express their earnest hope, that
the further progress of that line might be as free from
human casualty as works of this magnitude generally
were, and that, ultimately, it would be a source of pro-
fit to those who had advanced their money for it, as
well as to the advantage of the great community by
which they were surrounded.
The CHAIRMAN then proposed the health of Mr.
Buck, their engineer.

The toast having been drunk, with three times three,
Mr. BUCK, in responding to it, observed that in ad-
dition to what he had before said, he would now add—
to show the very great perfection with which the work
had been carried on—that in bridge building they al-
ways had a test, an unerring test, of the honesty and
fidelity of the workmanship, in observing, on removing
the centre work, the extent of subsidence which then
took place. A work might have a very fine exterior,
and a brid,ge might have a very fair outside, but unless
it was honestly executed, the removal of the centre
would at once detect the imposition. In this case there
was not one arch which had subsided more than half an
inch.—(Applause.) Now practical men, who were ac-
quainted with the subject, would perhaps doubt that
statement ; and he should scarcely have credited it.
It amounted to not one-:.housandth part of an inch in
each joint ; and in his opinion it was almost impossible
to conceive a piece of brickwork, composed of so many
joints as this, that should have gone down in so minute
a degree.

The CHAIRMAN said, before proposing the next toast,
he must entreat their forbearance for five minutes while
he drew their attention to the state of travelling half a
century, a century, or two centuries ago. When he
compared the travelling of the present day with what it
was in the reign of Charles 11. it absolutely seemed as if
he was going to read to them something untrue. And,
quite sure he was, that, if their excellent Chairman of
Directors had appended his name to such documents as
had appeared in the newspapers during the last few
months, and had lived in the reign of Charles 11. he would
have been accounted a lunatic. In a Birmingham news-
paper published on the 12th April, 1742, was an adver-
tisement which stated that the Lichfield stage-coach leaves
the Hen and Chickens on Wednesday, and goes the same
afternoon to Lichfield. It returns to Birmingham on
Thursday afternoon, and so will continue regularly with
a good coach and able horses.—( Laughter.) So late
as 1782, when Prince George of Denmark went from
London to a town at a distance of 40 miles, the jour-
ney occupied 14 hours, the last seven miles taking six
hours. The person who related this journey said,
with great quaintness, that the long time was the more
surprising, as, except when overturned or stopped by
the rain, his Royal Highness made no stay.—(Laugh•
ter.) In 1754 there was but one stage-coach between
Glasgow and London ; and, in the Edinburgh C'uurant
of that time, it was stated that a new coach with two
II class windows and the carriage on steel springs, would
or twelve in winter.—(Laughter.) This, it must be
borne in mind, was only six years before the accession
of George 111. Again another was advertised "to set
out first Tuesday in March, and continue from John So-
merville's every other Tuesday, and meet at Borough-
bridge (in Yorkshire) every Saturday night, and set
out from thence on Monday noon. Performed, if God
permit, by Obadiah Eastgate." Now, he could have
told Obadiah Eastgate, that he went from Liverpool at
two o'clock in the afternoon, came to Stockport to look
after the work, was in London the next morning at five,
went to bed for five hours, then went down to the
Houses of Parliament, had time to dine comfortably,
get into the railway train the same night, and get home
the next morning before his family or servants were out
of bed. This he thought would have been a matter
that would have astonished Obadiah Eastgate. How
had this been accomplished ? By the skill of our en-
gineers, and the enterprise of our capitalists. Ha would
now propose to them one of those great Companies which
had been the means of enabling this to be accomplished,
—" The Manchester and Birmingham Railway,"—and
he would connect this toast with an individual whom the
longer he had known, the more he had respected,—he
meant Mr. Sharp.—(The toast was drunk with three
times three.)
Mr. R. C. SHARP, in iiefni-nifig• tildtiKi data,thil
measure, it was well known, had Met with great diffi-
cultiea. U nfortunately, the town of Manehester vas
divided against itsetf i htkt Olt*. b3lieative wisdom of the
House 0( chitons put them together, and the Mao-
eht...ler and Birmingham Railway Company was formed.
But they had still dify;coltiet t overcoina: Very
shortly, their engitogi. tql6il it Wa; Untie-
celorr tls* tfi Otplain, left them. They applied to the
gentleman who was now their etigitvebr; and skhO
then their resident enT.,,in`der t Mirk 115 look the
office, he ;',eliekoa4 ht had not a document beyond the
Pao.l4ttleiltary plans ; but in the short time that had
elapsed, he had produced, not only what they now saw,
in the opening of the line from Manchester to Stock-
port, and the completion of that viaduct, but he had
revised the whole of the line from Manchester to Crewe;
and he (Mr. sharp) hoped to congratulate them all, in
leas than fifteen months, on the opening of the line from
Manchester to Crewe, and, consequently, from Man.
cheater to London.

A number of other toasts were then given, and suit-
ably acknowledged ; and the meeting separated about
four o'clock, after which the workmen were regaled in
the pavilion.—Manchester Gua?

FRANCE,

(From the Paris Journals of Tuesday.)
On Sunday c. ening their Maljesties received the Papal
Internuncio, the Prussian, Danish, and Greek Ministers,
Prince Beauveati, and Baron !Alec:bin,
The Duchess de Nemours, who was at the Opera the
evening before last, appeared in mourning, for her great
aunt, the Princess of Reuss Koestritz, recently deceased.
M. Cremieux has returned to Paris from Alexandria, by
Constantinople and Vienna.
The Message,- publishes a brief despatch from Marshal
Vales, confirming the intelligence of the tranquillity of all
the provinces in Africa under his command. The same
journal publishes the report of General de Lamoriciere,
concerning his last razia from Oran on the 28th and 29th
ult. The results would have been much more decisive had
not the difficulties of the ground, which was unknown to 1
the French troops, impeded the rapid advance of the co-
lumn. The booty obtained is stated by the General to
have been 700 oxen, cows, and calves, 1,000 sheep and
goats, 15 horses, 31 camels, 10 mules, 200 asses, and 2C,0
tents burnt or carried off.
It is stared That the trial of Darmes before the Court of
' Peers will commence on January is.
" We learn from Tulle," says the Gazette de Tribunauz-,
that it is not the intention of the Procureur- General to
renew the prosecution against Madame Laffarge for the
imputed robbery of the diamonds, because, by the sen-
tence of the Court of Assizes, she is dead in law, and,
therefore, incapable of undergoing any further penalty.
The Leotaud family, it is said, intend to take civil pro.
reedings wains, the heirs of Madame Laffarge for the re-
covery of the diamonth."
urderstand that the French Government has been
informed by the Ambassadors of Russia, Austria, and
Prussia, that their Courts join that of St. James's in ad-
l:ering to the arrangement made by Commodore Napier
with Mehemet Ali. —Galignani.

The CorNmerce gives the following explanation of the
statement of the Presse that M. Thiers Janhert hail
inscribed their names among the members of the Re-union
Barrot:—'‘ The Deputies of the Centre Gauche sent to
the last meeting of the members of the Gauche a deputa-
tion, of which Thiers and M. Jaubcrt formed part, and
thus it was that these two Deputies figured among the po-
litical friends of M. Barrot, but they did not inscribe their

pames."

The Progres of Arrtts states that orders have been issued
to diiarin the Fort Rouge, one of the farts conn,eted with
Calais, which had recent:), liven put in a state of defence.
Extract of a letter frog► Zurich, 14th inst., in the Con-
stitutionnel —" A note iseaid to have been received by the
Federal Government from the British Cabinet, which puts
at rest the question of our neutrality in me of a war be-
tween Franco and the other Powers of Europe. The s mrne
assurance was pre7iously given by the Court of Austria.
From the Ist of February the scat of the Swiss Govern-
ment will be removed to Berne. The diplomatic depart-
meet, comp.-,sed of seven members, including time Avower
as President, will constitute the power in which the direc-
tion of the affairs of the C:mferleration will be vested. The
Vorort has transmitted to the Cantons the respective num-
bers of soldiers they are each to contribute towards the
maintenance of an armed neutrality."
A letter from Berlin, in the Cologne Gazette, states
that the representatives of the Four Powers who signed
the Treaty of July 15 have addressed a note from London
to the French Government, inviting it to join the other
Powers in an alliance for the maintenance of the balance
of power in Europe, and to quit the isolated pasit:orm in
which it has been placed by toe Cabinet of M. Thiers It
is added, that no doubt is entertained of the adhesion of
the French Government to this proposition. A letter from
Vienna, of the same date, contradicts the reports which
have appeared of the march of the Austrian troops fur
Mentz. and states that no new armaments will be resorted
to whilst the notes recently transmitted to Paris by the
Austrian and Prussian Governments are;under considera-
tion. _

The Grand Duchess Helena and her daughters arrived
at Warsaw on the 9th instant, alighting at the Palace of
the Belvidere. The city was illuminated on that and the
following evenings. On the 10th their Impt.rial High-
nesses in,pcted the citadel, and dined with the Governor,
the General. and all the high functionaries.
The Carlsruhe Gazette, under the held of Trieste,
states that the insurrectionary attempt of the Greek officer
Valanzs. in Thessaly, has completely failed.
We learn from Belgrade," says the Nuremberg Cor-
re. Tonclent, " that the Pacha of Hcrzegovine has bad up-
wards of 100 beads of the inhabitants of some revolted dis-
tricts taken off and hung on the walls of his residence in
to rrorem. _ _

A battalion of the 59th Regiment of the line arrived
at Troyes on the 19th instant from Besancon, on its way
to Paris to assist in the fortifications. It had been pre-
ceded by a battalion of the 1 ith from Dijon, with the
same destination. A detachment of 900 men of the 20th
Regiment is en route for Par's at Orleans, also destined
to work at the fortifications.
The works of excavation for the fortifications of Paris
have been resumed at various points round the capital.

CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.—SITTING OF Dvx. 21.
On the conclusion of a long speech from M. de Beau-
mont on the Factory Bill, which was alluded to in our
yesterday's impression, the President consulted with the
Chamber, when it was decided that a special committee
should be appointed to examine the supplementary credits
of 1841. The committee will accordingly meet on Wed-
nesday in the bureaux for that purpose.