The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-24 00:00:00

W. Smith, printer, tittoxeter—first div. of 3s. 6d. in
the pound, on any day, excepting Tuesday and Saturday,
until Aug. 12, at the office of Mr. Valpy, Birmingham.
H. C. Howells, jun., share broker, Bristol—first div.
of 10d. in the p. 'Lind, on any Wednesday, at the office
of Mr. Miller, Bristol.
DIVIDENDS.
At the Court of Bankruptcy, Basinghall• street.
C. Paddon, clothes salesman, Milner-place, Lower-
marsh, Lambeth. Aug. 13, at eleven—J. Barwise, watch
maker, St. Martin's-lane, Aug. 13, at two. —A. Quarter-
man, glover, Oxford, Aug. 14, at eleven—H. S. Brazier,
tailor, Oxford, Aug.....14,5at twelve.

MEETING OF MIDDLESEX MA-

GISTRATES.
A meeting of magistrates of Middlesex took place on
Thursday, at the Sessions-house, Clerkenwell, for the
transaction of county business. There was a numerous
attendance of justices.
Mr. Pownall, after being relected chairman for the en-
suing year, took the chair.
The minutes of the last court were read and confirmed.

THE BRITANNIA. BRIDGE.
A NEW WONDER OF THE WORLD.
The following description of this stupendous work is
given by a correspondent of the Manchester Examiner :
The Menai Strait is an arm of the sea, separating
the island county of Anglesea from Carnarvonshire on
the mainland of Wales. It is fourteen miles long, vary-
ing from 200 yards to two miles in width. An impetu-
ous tide sweeps through it, which, at one time, with
the mid water and under water rocks, rendered its na-
vigation exceedingly dangerous. The worst of the
rocky dangers have been removed, and vessels of the
largest size may now pass Carnarvon Bay, on the south.
of Anglesea, to Bangor Bay, on the north, without sail-
ing round Anglesea, should the stormy weather or con-
trary winds at Holyhead render the passage of the Menai
Strait preferable.
The necessity of a passage across the Strait was, ori-
ginally, to connect the island and the mainland; and
while that was all, the passage was by ferry boats upon
the water. Ultimately the harbour of Holyhead, on the
extreme west of Angleeisa, the nearest point to Ireland,
was decided upon as the English landing place. Roads
were made from England through Wales, and a bridge,
unequalled in beauty and magnificence, suspended by
ponderous chains, on lofty piers, was thrown across the
Strait, at a narrow point about two miles from Bangor.
In process of time it was deemed expedient to super-
sede the turnpike roads leading to Holyhead by a rail-
way. At first it was proposed to use the suspension
bridge for the railway trains, by having stations at each
end, at which the locomotive engines would be detached,
and between which a stationary engine would draw the
trains. The bridge was declared capable of sustaining
a weight of 2,600 tons, of which 1,094 tons were its
own weight; thus giving a surplus strenth of 150 tons.
If the bridge was covered with loaded railway carriages
over all its length, and on each of its roadways (it is
divided into two, with a spacious pathway between),
the weight of the carriages would have been 265 tons.
leaving still surplus strength of 621 tons. But other
objections to its use for railway trains arose, chief of
which was its undulatory motion.
One would suppose that the wind would cause it it to
swing to and fro, rather than to heave up and down in
undulations. But it has hardly any sideway or swing-
ing motion. Nor had it now as much of the undulatory
motion cs it once bad. Mr. Fisher, the resident engi-
neer, told me that he had known it heave six feet above
and deflect six feet below the level in gales of wind. It
has been improved by adding weight to the roadway,
and tension rods between the chains, so as to prevent
that extreme motion which in gales of wind ran along it
like a heaving wave from end to end, tearing up the
flooring which formed the paths and waggon tracks.
Still, it is undulatory. I stood on it in a gale, and felt it
heaving beneath me as a ship heaves when a billow
passes underneath. This being a characteristic insepa-
rable from its construction, it was resolved that a new
bridge should be erected for the use of the railway on a
new principle. The inventive genius of Robert Stephen-
son declared that this new bridge should be two iron
tubes, or railway tunnnels made of iron plates, laid
parallel to each other, on piers built on the rocks be-
neath.
If we suppose ourselves stationed in a boat in the
middle of the Menai Strait, a few hundred yards distant
from the new bridge on the south side, and suppose it
finished, we shall see a wonder of the world of this kind;
first, there is the middle pier rising out of the water
founded on the Britannia rock, from which the bridge
takes its name. This rock can be seen at low water.
The breadth of this pier is 62 feet by 53 feet and a quar-
ter of an inch. The blocks of stone are seven and eight
feet long by three and four feet in breadth and deepness,
and they rise, stone upon stone, until the pier is two
hundred and thirty feet high.
At the distance of four hundred and sixty feet on each
side of this centre pier there rise, near to the water's
edge, two other piers of the same gigantic breadth and
height; while on each side of these two piers, at this dis-
tance of two hundred and fifty feet, there rise two walls.
Continuing outwards, the wall on our right hand, on the
Carnarvon shore, does not extend its ponderous bulk far
back, for the land is high and bold, and the railway
comes along its elevated brow and at once lays hold of
the bridge. But on our left hand, which is the Anglesea
shore, the wall is the forehead and end of a mighty em-
bankment, on which the railway is raised to the level of
the bridge.
There, then, are the four spaces before us, across
which, in the iron tubes the railway is laid, namely, two
spaces on each side of the centre pier of 460 feet each—
(let the reader measure 460 feet on a street or on a
road, and he will wonder at the vastness of this struc-
ture); aed two more spaces of 250 feet respectively, at
each end. The tubes are eight in number, each of them
30 feet on the exterior side, and 27 feet high in the in-
terior. Each is 14 feet wide, and they are laid in couples
parallel to each other. Taking ourselves in our boat
underneath the bridge, and looking up, glancing from
the Carnarvon side of the Strait, we see two tubes, ra-
ther, we should say, masses of iron, for they do not
seem to be tubes, lying side by side from the wall al-
ready named across the space of 250 feet. They have
each a hold upon the stone work, several feet at each
end, and they rest upon moveable rollers and balls made
of gun metal, the hardest known; those rollers and balls
resting on beds of metal, and moving outwards or in-
wards as the massive tubes or iron expand with heat or
contract with cold.
Next we see two others of the same height and width,
viz., thirty feet high and fourteen feet wide, lying side
by side across the next space of 460 feet, and resting on
the masonry as the others. Thirdly, we see two more
Vida side by side acruaa a space of 460 feet; and lastly,
two crossing the space of 250 feet. In the whole, with
the breadth of the piers and the landward buildings, the
length of the bridge is one-third of a mile.
In height the three piers are as already said, 230 feet.
But they are seventy feet higher than the tubes. These
are so masssive that their actual elevation above the
water seems less than it really is; and so dead and in-
elegant to the eye that it was necessary to raise the
piers seventy feet above them, to give a show of ele
gance to the structure. Measuring trom low water mark
to the bottom of the tubes, the height is 130 feet, the
tubes being thirty feet on the side, and the piers seventy
feet above their upper surface. As ornaments to the
two walls which rise upon each shore, are four lions,
two at each end of the bridge. The lions contain about
8.000 cubic feet of stone. They lie couched, and yet
the height of each is twelve feet; the greatest breadth
across the body is nine feet; the length twenty-five feet;
the breadth of each paw two feet four inches.
As we are now so high as to see the lions in detail,
we may look into the interior of the iron tubes. They
are made of plates of iron of various thicknesses,
rivetted together. The iron increases in thickness as
we proceed towards the centre. We now see that the
roofs of the tubes are formed of cells, and also the floors.
Those cells are formed of iron plates set on edge, the
cells of the roof being within a fraction of one foot nine
inches square, and those of the floor being one foot nine
inches wide, and two feet three inches deep. The rails
on which the trains run are laid on those cells of the
floor. The flat bottom, the two upright sides, and the
flat roof of each tube are formed of plates, the thinnest of
which is a quarter of an inch, and the thickest twelve-
sixteenths of an inch, but the number of them laid to-
gether and the internal joining cannot be yet explained.
The weight of each of the four long tubes will be about
1,300 tons ; the weight of each of the four short ones
sbout 600 tons. In the whole there will be at least
7,600 tons of iron used. No contracting estimate of the
expense of the iron part of the work has been made, as
the work may cost more or less, according to circum-
stances. The masonry was contracted for by B. J.
Nowell and Co. at 130,000/. ; but, from alterations in the
plans, it will cost (suppose no farther alterations be
made) 200,0001. They expect to finish the masonry by
August, 1848. It will contain one million and a half of
cubic feet of stone.

The report of the Committee of visiting justices of the
House of Correction was brought up. The number of
prisoners was 1,165 of whom 888 were males, 277 fe-
males, and 18 children. The rules and discipline of the
gaol had been duly observed. The average number of
prisoners is 1,000, but there have been no deaths for
some months past. The report was received.
The report of the visiting justices of the House of
Correction was read. The number of prisoners was
778, of whom 575 were males. There were 203 children
under instruction. Of these there were 31 ignorant of
their alphabet on admission, who were discharged able
to read and write.

In the Country.
T. Bourne, corn factor, Liverpool, Aug. 13, at twelve,
at the Liverpool District Court—T. Bointon, money
scrivener, Pickering, Aug. 19, at twelve, at the Leeds
District Court.

CERTIFICATES to be granted, unless cause be shown
to the contrary, on the day herein mentioned.
J. Shea, woollen • warehouseman, Aldermanbury,
Aug. 14—W. S. Brown, the elder, and W. S. Brown,
the younger, ship chandlers, Broad-street, Ratcliff,
August 13—G. Burbidge, auctioneer, Moorgate-
street, City, August 14—H. Morant, fishmonger,
Connaught-terrace, Edgeware-road, Aug. 13—C. Vyse,
draper, Ludgate-street, Aug. 13—J. and J. Collins,
jewellers, Bath, Aug. 17—T. Herbert, grocer, Llanelly,
Breconshire, Aug. 13—J. Burrell, surgeon, Wakefield,
Aug. 17—J. Harland, banker, Merrick, Yorkshire,
Aug. 17—G. F. Howe, merchant, Chester-place, Ken-
nington, Aug. 15—J. Parker, corn chandler, Clapham,
Aug. 13—W. H. Noyes, registrar of births and deaths,
Longparish, Southampton, Aug. 13—E. Jones, jun.,
Paper manufacturer, Watling street, Aug. 13—P. Black-
inore, saddler, Little James-street, Bedford-row, Aug. 14
—W. Bainbridge, grocer, Corrie-place, Old Kent-road,
Aug. 18—A. Norval', painter, Liverpool, Aug. 13—R.
Wilkin, quarryman, Beddgelert, Merionethshire, Aug. 13
—C. H. Perry, baker, Liverpool, Aug. 13—J. Spray,
framesmith, Gelding, Nottinghamshire, Aug. 13—T.
Shipman, jun, W. Birks, and B. Shipman, lace manu-
facturers, Nottingham, Aug. 13—J. Lee, cabinet case
maker, Four Oaks, Warwickshire, Aug. 14—J. H.
Mackay, merchant, St. Helen's-plaee, Bishopsgate- street,
Aug 13—J. L. Wilke, tailor, Worcester, Aug. 13—H.
H. Facey, builder, Exeter, Aug. 13—W. Shuker,
licensed victualler, Salisbury, Aug. 13—W. Thomas,
grocer, Treforest, Glamorgaushire, Aug. 13—J. Green,
lodginghouse keeper, Greenwich, Aug. 13—J. Tyler,
hop merchant, Worcester, Aug, 13—T. Barraclough,
woollen cloth manufacturer, Halifax, Aug. 13.

When I was there in May fifty vessels, of sixty or
seventy tons each, were employed in conveying the
stones to the works; the red sandstone, of which the
mein-
side courses are built, from Runcorn—the blue limestone,
of which the outside courses are built, from the sea sea
shores of Anglesea. The quarries en the Anglesea
shores opened for this work extended over twenty miles.
In the whole there were 1,300 men employed,6ooof
them at the bridge, the fortnightly wages of the latter
amounted to 1,3001. 3,000 cubic feet of timber had been
used at that time for stages and scaffolding. Two steam
engines were at work on each shore, and a third was
being erected on the Britannia Rock, in the centre of the
Strait, to hoist the stones, grind -mortar, saw timber, and
perform other heavy work. On each shore there was a
limekiln, the chips of the limestone falling from the
irons of the hewers being burned into lime; and the
chips of the red sandstone being ground to powder to
make mortar with the lime. There were seventeen
gauntries with travelling crabs on each for moving the
blocks of stone. Railways diverged and converged, on
which trucks run along; and every heavy weight in the
building of this wonderful structure was moved as if men
were gods, who only willed that huge blocks should take
motion, and they took it.
The building of the iron tubes had not then begun ;
but the stages upon which they are to be built are
erected, extending along the Carnarvon shore *built a
quarter of a mile. The plates of iron are in prepara-
tion at different places in England and Scotland, and
they will be conveyed separately to Wales, and put to-
gether on these stages. The tubes will then be con-
veyed from the shore and elevated to their places in this
L-
ing for ?
way. We shall imagine ourselves present while the
mighty thing is in process of being done ; each of then'
requiring only about six or eight hours to be removed
on tte hilt Dearly
from the stage upon the shore. and raised to its lofty
elevatiop,
imagine then, the day.is it not a scene *orth lit-
ttert4s the Hold tide no* flowingt, to the high shores of
Anglesea, A mile below, on the wooded slope, is the
'We are on the shore Of Carnarvon, looking
beautiful residence of the Marquis of Anglesea ; and
does
,i
woz of this great day, is the colunin Mated to eom-
hietiorate the Marquis and Waterloo, the column hay-
dpposite to us, overlooking the great
!mit the Whitler mune of " Lord Anglesea's Leg," he
hating got this column
lest e. 1 h i; of Belgium. Stephenson
g o the /Lams
aehleve a triumph in aft this day, as undovbted as was
on the Anglesey hills because he
day
triumph of war of Wellington and Anglesey on that
ay 1 How glorious for him and for England if he
nothing here ; he has fecitmd everything to certainty.
put why say 6re He will triumph. He risks
The tide is now favourable. A line of barges lying
side by side have been placed beneath the stage on which
5'116 dr the tfeat thasses of iron has been built. The stage
is remove.) and the tube of 1,800 tons rests upon the
barges. They are towed out upon the water with their
monster freight, are brought round, and drawn forward
until they and it occupy the space between two of the
piers.
side width of the tube being fourteen feet, there is a
They are moored and made fast there. The out-
groove in each of the piers wider than that ; and at the
bottom of the piers stones have been left out to admit
the ends of the tubes into the grooves. Those groves
extend upwards as high as the iron is to-be elevated,
namely, one hundred and thirty feet. At a height con-
iidersbly above that, within an archway which is in

,THE SUN, LONDON, SATUR DA Y EVENING-, JULY 24, 1847;1

each pier, an hydraulic press of great power is stationed.
A chain of remarkable construction, which we cannot
now stop to examine and talk about, extends downward
from the hydraulic press, and is fastened to the end
of the tube. The press is put to work, and it has the
power of lifting the mass of iron six feet. This we
see, looking only at one pier and at one end of the
tube. But a second press and chain are employed
simultaneously with this at the other end. When
they have raised the large thing six feet, iron
girders of great strength are placed underneath it,
across the groove, the ends of the girders rest-
ing on the stone work of the pier which
abuts on each side of the groves. These being placed,
the press stops and allows its iron burthen to rest on
them, and the chains are slackened. While slackened, a
line, or section of each chain, measuring six feet, is
removed. Each is again fastened to its load; the presses
are again at work, and the tube is raised six feet higher.
Again girders (or bearers) are laid across the grooves;
again the gigantic wonder of the world rests in its
upwards progress; and again the chains are shortened
by six feet each; and again and again the press goes to
work.

And now this ariel tunnel is high enough—its bottom
being 130 feet above the water. The iron beareg, which
is never to be removed, and which has upon its upper
surface the rollers and balls of metal already named, is
placed underneath each end ; the press allows the
obedient monster to sink into its place; and there it is
more solidly at rest than any one will be in his bed to-
night who has been witness to this day's mighty enter-
prise.
To• morrow and the next to-morrow, and the next
again, and so forth, the others will be raised, and laid in
their places, never to be shaken by gales of wind or
deflected by railway burthen. Their own preponderous
weight will keep them immoveable ; the augmentation
of burthen will only strengthen them—at least we are
told so.

PAWNING LINEN.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—Your well known readiness at all times to ad-
vocate the cause of the industrious poor induces me to
draw your attention to a practice, so fraught with moral
evil to the employed, as well as certain risk to em-
ployers, that, should you incline to notice it in your
journal, and comment upon it in your usual able manner.
I think much good might accrue from it.
I allude to the case of laundresses, and the system of
raising money on the linen entrusted to them, induced,
it is alleged, from the want of certainty with which they
receive payment from persons employing them.
This fact was brought under my knowledge in the
following manner:—
Having for some time been dissatisfied with the irre-
gularity with which our linen was returned from the
person who undertakes my family's washing, and an-
noyed by the detention of various articles (not untie-
quently for several weeks together), the cause was more
thoroughly investigated, and on application being made
at a pawnbroker's in the vicinity of the washerwoman
the lost linen was found there amongst numerous other
articles of table linen, sheets, gentlemen's fine shirts,
silk handkerchiefs, &c., many of which were recognised
as belonging to other parties known to the person making
the inquiry, and marked with the owner's names in full.
A remark of the pawnbroker's, on some surprise being
expressed was, " This is no single case, for not one
washerwoman only, but hundreds adopt the same plan;"
and from what has since come to my knowledge it ap-
pears that it really is a frequent practice with laun-
dresses though I believe more particularly in the
neighbourhood of London. In the case in question I
fully believe nothing dishonest was intended, the washer-
woman did not attempt to deny the fact, though ex-
pressing regret at being obliged to have recourse to the
plan ; still she appeared surprised at any impropriety
being attached to it, having learned the system from
her former mistress ; other laundresses in the neigh-
bourhood did the same, and she was in her turn teach-
ing it to her own assistants. But when the poor woman
assured me that many of the ladies for whom she washed
often only paid their bills monthly or quarterly (very few
weekly or regularly), and put the question, how was it
possible for her, without capital, to provide herself even
with the necesary articles for carrying on her business,
and support a little family entirely dependent upon her
earnings, without some such loan? I could but feel she
had been placed in difficulty, and that such cases should
be made public, as well as brought before individuals
who may also be thus inconsiderately placing in diffi-
culty and temptation those whose dependence for sub-
sistence is on the labour of their hands.

I am respectfully yours,
THE MISTRESS OF A FAMILY.

STRIKE AT THE COTTON MILLS.
The larger portion of the works of the Hull Flax and
Cotton Company are stopped, and have been so since
Monday week, owing to a strike of the hands. The fol
lowing is a copy of the placard distributed by the fac
tory people on Wednesday :—" Strike of the Strippers,
Grinders, and Scutching men of the Hull Cotton Mills.
Apppeal to the Public.—The above strike took place on
Monday last, July sth, 1847, on account of our wages
being reduced from I Is. a week to 10s. Id. which, from
the great price of provisions, &c., it is impossible to
exist upon, we are therefore compelled to appeal to a ge
nerous public to assist us in endeavouring to repress op
pression and maintain our rights.—Hull, July 6tn,
1847." This strike is the first which has taken place
since the opening of these works, and is attributable to
the following circumstances:—On Thursday, the Ist
instant, th• insp.totoir or Caotoriou in this district caused
to be delivered to the manager of the company's mills a
copy of the new Act of Parliament for regulating the
hours of labour in factories, prohibiting the employment
of the operatives more than eleven hours per day. Ac
companying the Act was a circular calling the attention
of the priprietors and managers of the mills to its pro
visions. Notice was immediately given to all the a ork
people, who were at the same time inform, d that a re
duction would be made in the wages of those working
by time, proportioned to the decreased period of labour
Their answer was that they would require the same
wages as before, to which the manager replied that
would not be given ; and that they might take a week
to consider the subject. The whole of the time hands
stood out ; and their absence from' the works compelled
the cessation from lab iur of some others whose opera-
tions depended upon those of the time-hands. The
total number of unemployed were thus about 1,500. In
some other departments of labour in which the parties
are paid by piece, the operations are being continued as
before. In Hull the reduction is in exact proportion to
the reduction of time, viz., one in 12, or per cent.
The Hull Flax and Cotton Mill Company have informed
their operatives that they have resolved to bear part of
the loss with them, that is to say—the loss of interest,
consequent upon the unemployment of their capital dur-
ing one twelfth part of the time which it has hitherto
been worked, or equal to one month in every year.—
Hull Advertiser.

PRECURSORS OF OUR MODERN " GIGANTIC ENGI-
NEERS "—ln 1802, says Mr. Samuel Angell, in Ihe
Builder, Mr. Ge,irge Dance submitted to a Select Com-
mittee of the House of Commons a design of great mag
niticence and practical utility ; it consists of a double
bridge, in the place of old London-bridge, to admit
of the passage of ships by the alternate ele-
vation of a drawbridge on either of the two
bridges, whilst an uninterrupted way over the
other would be afforded at all times for carriages and foot
passengers, without impeding the navigation, and with-
out the necessity of such elevated arches as the height
of ships' masts require. The plan embraced the embank-
ment of the river both above and below bridge, the erec-
tion of quays and a line of warehouses extending from the
Tower to the bridges,with dock entrances,and terraces on
arches, the Custom House being placed in the centre.
Besides these manifestly advantageous alterations, he
proposed to throw open to the river the noble monument
erected by the genius of Wren, making it the focus of
an extensive amphitheatrical area on the north side of
the Thames, and to erect a naval trophy in the centre of
a similar space on the Southwark side. The bridges
were to be perfectly level, consisting each of six
arches of great span, independent of the centre or
drawbridge. Its very magnificence and the necessary
sacrifice of valuable ground were the principal reasons
of its non-adoption. A failure in this account, however,
was not confined to the city architect, for among many
bold and ingenious designs submitted to the House of
Commons at that period, I find one by Messrs. Telford
and Douglas, to replace old London-bridge by one of
cast-iron of a single arch, 600 feet span, and 65 feet in
height I Mr. Dance appears to have been consulted on
the subject of the approaches to this pons triumpluilis.
THE CONDEMNED YOUTH WILLSMORE, FOR TUB
MURDER NEAR ROCLIPORD.—CHELMSFORD, THURSDAY.
—The wretched youth, James Willsmore, who was left
for execution by Baron Parke for the murder of John
Terry, near Rochford, will, in all probability, have his
life soared. It will be remembered that the convict
struck the unforttinate man on the head with a hoe,
which, fracturing his skull, terminated in death, and,
although that violence was used in order that he might
more successfully carry out his intention of robbery; yet
there is every reason to suppose that he did not meditate
the awful tionsequentes that ensued. That inference it
appears has been bottle out bj, Many circumstances, and
the inhabitants for miles rotilid of all grades of society,
entertaining that presumption, are eletting themselves
to their utmost to save him from the scaffold. testarday
a very large meeting Was held at the Shire Hall, fur the
purpose of themutialising het Majesty to spare' his life,
urging his youth, the Slitehdd of malice prepense, and the
sparing of the feelings of the townspeople, which Would
naturally be considerably shocked by a public execution,
The memorial has been signed by several of the county
magistrates, and even, it is said, by the very justices who
Committed him, The jury strongly recommended him
to the clemency of the Crown, and it is believed that
after all the extenuating circumstances have been laid
before the Secretary of State, the Learned Baron who
presided at the trial will not stand in the way of mercy,
and that Sir G. Grey will be induced to advise the Crown
to reprieve him. The unhappy youth, who is confined in
the convict's gaol at Springfield, is said to conduct him-
self in a manner befitting the awful position in which he
is placed. He does not deny striking his unfortunate
victim over the head with the hoe, but positively declares
that he had no intention of taking away his life. The
convict, as before stated, is quite a boy, being only in his
sixteenth year. He is daily visited by the chaplain of
the prison, whose exhortations are listened to with
much attention by the doomed youth.
A Deputation from the Hibernian Fisheries Asso-
ciation,had an interview at the Home-office yesterday with
Sir William Somerville, Secretary of State for Ireland.
Sir William expressed his cordial approbation of the
objects, and his determination to assist in advancing the
views of the association to its fullest extent.
SUICIDE IN JERSEY.—On Friday morning, about
ten o'clock, Captain Thomas Calder, of the Royal Navy,
who resided in the parish of St. Lawrence, blew out his
brains with a pistol._.. An inquest was held on his body ,
in the evening, and a verdict returned, " Died by his I
own hand, whilst is &IWO Of tteD3POrgq deringemento"