The Sun.
London, England, 1823-05-24 00:00:00

SKELETONS DISCOVERED.

Yesterday morning a number of persons.assem.
I bled on St. Margaret's hill, in the Borough, directly in front of
the Town Hall, to witness a very unusual sight. Some workmen
' employed to excavate a piece of ground for the putposeof sink-
ing a well, when about six feet front the surface, came to a com-
plete layer or strata of human skulls, nearly, two feet in depth ;
they are mostly in a perfect state, and the jaws well furnished
with sound white teeth. It is supposed they must have lalu there
between 3 and 400 years, as there was formerly a church, dedi-
cated to St. Margaret, on the spot, now the site of the Town. hall, which, having gone to decay, was pulled down, and the
parish united with St. Mary Overbury, now St. Saviour, in the
reign of Henry VIII. The sides Of the cavity present a most
iongularappearance, the earth below the strata being literally
sprinkled or inlaid with teeth and sections of the skulls cut
through by the spade of the workmen. The discovery of this
(Jolgotha may aflbrd matter of speculation. • -
It being the determination of the Park Directors, to have the
Canal in St. James's Park thoroughly cleared out, several na-
vigators were on Thursday last set to work to undermine the
ground, in 'order to afford a passage from the Canal to the river
Thames, that the water may flow thereto until the immense
quantities of rubbish which it must necessarily contain is cleared
away, when it will be replenished with the water. The men corn.
menced their operations upon the ground early in the, morn-
ing, near Whitehall, at the back of Lord.Carnngton4. house ;
and alter digging considerably below the surface of the earth,
one of them discovered the form of a human skull, and on fur•
ther examination he found the ribs, leg, and arms ofitskeleton,
whose dimensions were immoderately large. On endeavouring
to take it out of the hole, the head separated from the shoulders,
land the limbs also separated when touched. The various parts,
however were collected, and at the request of Lord Carrington
conveyed' to his house for inspection. The jaw, bones of the
skeleton were very large, and the teeth all white,. and in the must
perfect state. The thigh bones were of immoderate size, and
judging front them. the individual was supposed to have been
upwards of seven feet in height. The navigators 'comMenced
work again, and on digging further into the earth they disco..
vered another skeleton off equal dimensions, and the teeth per-
fact In the same way as the other.
Yesterday morning they again commenced work ; and they
had not dug many feet, when a third skeleton of equally large
dimensions was tound, but none of them appeared to have had
coffins. They were ordered to be carried too, neighbouring Sur-
geon's, where they were deposited. They must have been under the ground for a considerable period. So much interest was
excited by the circumstance, that crowds of persons assembled
round the spot ; and what adds to the peculiarity of the dis-
covery is, that about three weeks ago, four skeletons of a si-
milar description were found near the same spot. Many con-
jectures were afloat, as to the original cause of their being -de-
posited there.

- _ _ - .... __ - •
ANTICIPATIONS.--M C. COLDEN, of New York,
in a recent speech in the House of Representa-
tives oil the Bill for occupying the mouth of Co-
lombia, made the following remarks :—" Sir, 1
do verily believe, that in twenty years, and if
,not in twenty, in fifty years, a person sejting Out
from London to go to India, will find New York,
Albany, and Sandusky post towns on his route.
By pursuing, continually, nearly a west course,
he will cross the Atlantic, reach Albany—follow-
the York canal—embark on Lake Erie—puss
through the Ohio canal—and pursue the Ohio,
Mississippi, and Missouri, to the foot of the
rocky mountains, over which' he will traverse a
turnpike of only seventy-five miles, which will
bring him to the waters of the Colombia ; upon
these4le will reach the, Pacific, and from thence
he will cross a ferry to the Asiatic continent ;
a ferry of, some two, or three thousand miles, I
admit, but one which, in reference to stearn-licai
navigation, for which those seas are particularly
adapted, would be no more -than so many hut -
dred miles would have been some few years
since. By pursuing this course, the traveller
will have about 120 degrees of longitude to trii-„
verse. t Whereas, if he proceeded east from Lon-
don, he could not reach the eastern coast of Asia
without traversing 240 degrees of longitude ;.,and
if he' pursued the usual route, by doubling
either of the capes, to the difference of longitude,
must, be added the degrees of latitude he
must
necessarily twice pass over. Is it not reasonable
then to suppose, that at some period;not very re-
mote, the eastern trade may be pursued in the
course I' have designated ? And will not the
measure which is contemplated by the Bill acce-
lerate 1116 arrival of that period ? Sir, .1 am aware
that hy many these will be considered as extra-
vagant cud visionary ideas. But, let MC ask, are
they more extravagant than it would have been,
only ten years ago, to have predicted that the
waters of the great lakes would be emptied. hitt)

is Atlantic at New York ; that the 'course Oaf•

the Hudson would be turned, and part of her
'waters sent to seek the Ocean through the Cull
of St. Lawrence; that by artificial weans this
great continent would be divided into islandc,,

le borders of which are more extensive than ail

the shores of Europe, and these islands infinitely
better adapted to navigation and commerce than
ir they were surrounded by oceans?"—(Baltiraore
Puiria.)

a
THE LONDON' JOURNALS.

DAILY
Extracti from the Morning Papers, May 24.

EBICITISII PittSS.]
•
The French Papers.of Wednesday and Thurs-
day reached us by express last night. The Mo-
nileurt from the state of public feeling and the
reports so prevalent in Paris, had been at length
obliged to break its silence of some days, and give
something like a statement of the situation of the
French armies in Spain. The official paper of
the French Government accordingly gives in its
number of Thursday the telegraphic dispatch
and detail of the movements of the troops. ,--(See
another column of the SuN.) One deduction may
be clearly drawn from all the French aceounts,-
and that is, that their armies are making no
progress in Spain.; if we except the ground they
have marched over to Madrid. In Catalonia
they have not gained an inch. Mina has
coniplvtely out-manoeuvred;. Moncey, and
keeps the French in continual terror ; and
when Augouleme is in-Madrid, all Spain will be.
before him, hostile and unsubdued. Accounts.
from Seville to the 6th May state, that the Govern,
ment bad addressed a circular to all•the military
commanders of the 9th and. 10th districts, to
hasten, the execution of all the measures' of arm.;
ing and' equipping the 'levies.- In-the sitting
of the Cortes of the 3d, mention was made of tho
negociations for the loan with the house of Ber-
nales and Co. in this city, and three proposals
were made in lieu of this loan---one to alienate
forty millions of rentes, as a security for a new
loan with any houses who may accept- it. M.
Calatrava had accepted the situation of-Minister
of the Interior.

[MORNING CIIRONICI.E.I
The kind disposition of the higher orders, o
this country towards their poor fellow subjects,
has often been the theme of praise. We have a
striking instance of this kindness in the recent
attempt of Mr. Martin to prevent dog-fighting,
cock-fighting, bull-baiting, and other amusements
of the same kind, in which low people oceasion-
ally indulge- Neither Mr. Martin nor any other
Patrician has, as far as we know, ever yet at-
tempted to prevent fox hunting, shooting, or any
of the other cruel amusements in which the higher
orders indulge, to the great deterioration of their
character. This exceeding care of others and
utter disregard of themselves, so conspicuous in
the higher ranks of our days, certainly deserves
the highest praise, and will, we have no doubt,
be properly appreciated. Ilad they been actu-
ated by any think like selfish motives, they
would have attended to their own moral im-
provement, and. 'neglected that of the poor
people, whereas We find them carefully watch-
ing over the pew and neglecting themselves.—
No matter how brutalising some of their own
amusements are, they do not take the pains to
exclude themselves from any one of them; no
matter, on the other hand, how little de-
moralising some of the amusements of the
poor are, they carefully put a stop to all
of them. The progress in improvement under
this system of the classes so hikhly favoured
must be very rapid.. A line of circumvallation
is drawn round them, which vice cannot possi-
bly break through. Without doors or within,
it, matters not, they are constantly beset by the
care of the Legislature. Fairs are put down for
the sake of the poor.—Dancing is put down—
fiddling in the streets is put 'down—and to con-
, summate this glorious .systern, the very dogs
must keep the peace for their sake. If we
could recommend a fUrther improvement of the
system, it would.be to lay hold of every poor
man the moment he is seen out of 'doors idling
away his titne in any manner whatever.

Ll4lOlOll N P 0 ST.]
t appears probable, from the advanced position
of the Duke of Angouieme's head-quarters, and
the falling back of Abisbal's detachments on
Madrid, that the French will be allowed,to enter
that Capital without opposition. As it lost all
its importance wheeit e ceased to be the seat of
the King anti Cortes, its occupation will yield no
real advantage to the enemy, nor do any injury
to the Constitutionalists. The Prince Generak
issimo will no doubt be gratified at sitting
on a Throne which he may perhaps consider
as his future property; but the moment of his
becoming Regent of Spain, if, as it is reported,
he should assume that title, will give the death-
blow to the little popularity which the French
may have obtained amongst the Royalists in
Spain, and will lead to that union of "parties,
which, however delayed IL may, have been, will
ultimately take place to root out the invaders
from the Peninsula. With the exception of the
change of position announced in the telegraphic
dispatch, all the intelligence from the Duke of
Angouleme's army is the repetition of a " twice
told tale." We are again told,amongst other things,
that Bessieres had taken a few prisoners and
cannon from Ballesteros; who continued to retire
towards Valencia. Surely when so trifling an ad-
vantage gaiiied not by the French themselves, but
by a Spanish Guerilla, is thought worthy to
figure twice in an official Report, without any
additional details to justify the iteration, it is
but just to infer, that there must have been a,
most woful dearth of. atchievements on the:
part of the Generalissimo's army, to occupy
the recording pen.—The intelligence from
Moncey's army is not of a more impor-
tant or 44 decisive" nature. The enemy
seems engaged in collecting the corps which
had been scattered in all directions in the vain
hope of intercepting Mina, whose pursuit has
dwindled into a mere endeavour " by a few
chosen men to trace his march." So that up to
the 15th instant the real course of that skilful
Commander had not been discovered ! and yet
he had passed behind a powerful army, and had
all its Generals and divisions marching and coun-
termarching for two weeks around him. It was
reported, however, that he was retiring upon
Barcelona by Montserraty so that nothing could