The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-24 00:00:00

BUSHIRE.

The following interesting letter is from Bushire, dated
the 2d of February. After describing the anxiety with
which he looks for the mail from Bagdad, the writer
says—

"I am going out to a small cottage I have built about
fourteen miles from this, inland; it cost me about 601.
At first the King of Persia interdicted my building it,
as he feared we should do as we did in India, fortify
these small demesnes, and so get on by degrees. They
had a most absurd report that we intended to cut a canal
to where these buildings are, and that I should then
bring the ships to them. I believe it was referred to
Lord Aberdeen, who, through our envoy, convinced the
Shah that it was simply a habitation of the smallest de-
scription to avoid the extreme heat of the sea coast in
the hot season ; the plan o❑ which it is erected having
the singular property of being very cool during the night
and morning, and the wind blowing across the heated
sands during the day, becomes so exceedingly dry and
rarified, that by means of tattys, a sort of grass from
India, called cuskuss, fitted in frames to the doors (the
same being kept constantly wet), it is made artificially
extremely cool and pleasant, so that the harder and
hotter it blows the quicker the evaporation, and conse-
quently the cooler the inside of the mansion. I have not
yet seen my dwelling, but I understand from others,
that it is a very nice one, larger than the resident's. I
have had stained glass windows made for it, and have
already secured a purchaser in my successor when I
quit the command. I have a garden to it. for I believe a
sailor would not give much for a house without one. I
have bad !ots of seeds put in. I go out for the first
time this week, and intend passing a week or ten days
there, for change of air, and hope to get a little sport-
ing, as there are wild hog and antelope, and wild duck
and teal, and the boburrah, a very game bird, between
the bustard and florican, about half as large again as a
pheasant. I have been purchasing a few more carpets
in addition to those I have got in use, and I dare say you
will be able to complete your drawing-room with these,
as I have had an eye to its size, but it must be by side
and end carpets ; this is the fashion of the country, and
I do not think it looks ill.

" I must now tell you that the winter here has been
attended with much loss to the native craft or ship-
ping, many large boats having been lost from the
severity of the weather, it blowing very hard from
different quarters, and the sudden shifts of wind in
a confined sea being very dangerous ; as vessels, to
escape from the danger of one wind, anchor so that
when the wind shifts, which generally takes place in
the night, they are thrown on the island or point of
land from which with the other wind they had obtained
shelter. I have just despatched the Elphinstone, one
of the sloops of my squadron, to the- assistance of the
Deriah Dowlet, a Bnglah (large boat) of some 400
tons, which report announced to have been wrecked
about eight miles from this on a dangerous point of
a shoal, whither she had run in the night for shelter,
and before morning a sudden shift of wind to the
northwest drove her on it, and it is reported that all
but seven men are lost. She had, crew and passengers,
180 odd on board; but I do not listen to any reports
until J get a letter from Captain Lowe, of the
Elpiin-
stone. There is about 30,0001. of property in her,
part of it treasure. I sent a diver in the Elphinstone, in
the event of the money or cargo being recoverable ; a
number of other boats have been lost ; this ought to
prevent the merchants of this place from trusting their
money in the native boats, our ships occasionally going
down take a small quantity of treasure, rarely realising
more than 1001. to the captain, of which an eighth
comes of right to me. Should the Elphinstone
recover the property from the wreck of the
Deriah Dowlet, a very large salvage would be awarded
of which a sixteenth would come to me. but
I am not over sanguine, and would a deal rather have
saved a few of her crew or passengers. I have been
reading a memoir of Major Rawlinson's on the Cuni-
form or arrow-headed character ; I think it one of the
most curious works of modern times ; you must get
it ; I have no doubt Richardson can procure it for you.
Her Majesty has desired that it may be dedicated to
herself, and offered the author knighthood, which he
has, I understand, refused ; he has nearly mastered the
language, and given a translation first in Latin and
afterwards in English, of a long inscription cut on the
face of a rock in Behistan, in Persia, by the order of
Darius, of the principal events of his reign, couched
in very beautiful and scriptural-like style, and with all
the brevity of the ancients; this has been a dead lan-
guage to the world these 2,000 years; the whole credit
is not Major Rawlinson's, as many orientalists on the
continent have busied themselves since the commence-
ment of this century, but the Major, who is a resident of
Bagdad, has succeeded more pre-eminently than
others from his knowledge of Sanscrit and other
eastern languages, the same inscription being cut
in two languages—the Medean and Cumform. I had a
letter from him the other day, in which he mentioned
that he had made every preparation for receiving me at
Kerman shah, about halfway between Bagdad and Ispa-
han, and had stationed horses and men to assist me, a
most liberal and kind arrangement for my comfort,
had I gone down from thence to [this via Bagdad.
I believe he is princely in his hospitality, and I
almost feel vexed that I should have put him to so
much trouble for nothing. I have yet a hankering
after paintings. and have ordered four to be :painted by
a Persian artist at Shiraz. I have already two, one
by the artist (whom I have desired to paint me two
more) exquisitely finished. I have furnished him
with two sheets of copper, to paint another subject,
flowers, fruit, and birds. These paintings I have not
yet had heart to part with on a chance voyage, and so
think of keeping them with me until I go myself to
old England. My two horses here, that carried me up-
wards of 800 miles, up to Ispahan and back, without
being sick or sorry one day on the journey, came down
to the coast in excellent condition, are a good proof of
the blood and bottom of the Arabian. I have had them
now nearly two years, and shall most probably sell them
to advantage in Bombay, as a great many horses have
perished this season by shipwreck ; in the Deriah Dow-
let eighty horses were lost ; in another boat eighty-
three horses were drowned ; in another some sixty were
lost ; so Bombay must be in a bad way for horseflesh,
and the supply annually is not very great; I dare say
my half-breds would fetch a high price, and win every.'
thing on the course ; that, however, might or might
not happen, don't alarm yourself, I am not going
to try. My companions in my projected trip into
the country, are very busily • getting themselves
ready for sport; they are the young officers of the
Euphrates, a ten-gun brig; you may depend upon
it they are right merry at the thought; I am to
have them three at a time, one set on at a
time. My man Abbass has informed me he shall
require twelve donkies to carry the necessaries.
I have three Persian servants, a cook, (Portuguese
cbristian), and horsekeeper; they all require a donkey
each, and one for my horse's clothes mal necessaries.
The Persian donkeys are famous, go at a good pace
without trouble, and are a good size. I expect also
two or three visitors. My butler, par excellence, Mr.
Abbas; a clever young Persian, makes capital marma-
lade of an orange grown at Kassaroon just like the
Seville orange, 50 for a shilling: the middies eat im-
mensities ; it is made with sugar candy."

THE THREE COUSINS, A NOVEL, BY MRS. TROL-
LOPE.—" The Three Cousins" is equal to any of Mrs.
Trollope's former productions. The personages are well
discriminated. The Bishop of Solway, whose virtues
are all of the negative character—the proud, crafty, ty-
rannical, selfish, yet intellectual, Sir Jonah Lexington—
the' handsome roué, Mr. Edward, his nephew—the
pretty, heartless, coquettish, Mrs. Cobhurst—the gay,
mischievous, Lord Brittington—the meek Bishop's lady
—the subdued, broken-spirited Frederic, brought up as
the natural son of Sir Jonah—and the lovely, natural,
unpretending Laura, the only child of Mr. Edward Lex-
ington, and the heiress of Sir Jonah, make up a must
,ffective corps of characters, and are managed with a
great deal of constructive skill.—Britannia.
WAKEFIELD CORN MARKET, MAY 21.—The ar-
rivals of wheat continue small, but so great a portion of
the demand for flour is now met by barrels from Liver-
pool, that millers buy extremely sparingly, and the im-
provement of 2s. per quarter which was established on
Tuesday is lost to•clay, and barely last week's rates ob-
tained. Barley slow, at rather less money. Oats and
shelling also each a shade lower, and beans slow without
alteration in value. The high prices of grain seem now
to check the demand for all articles.

DEEP-SEA FISHING.
KEEP THE GOLD IN THE COUNTRY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sia,—How can it be wondered at that thearilount of
gold once in his country has of late years so rapidly left
it? And now that the reason is justly understood, why
not immediately commence and prevent a further re-
currence of the evil? The great number of the inhabi-
tants of this country that have of late years been fed
not only upon foreign grain, but also upon foreign beef,
pork, butter, cheese, &c., has unquestionably been the
cause of the drain of gold—as foreigners knowing that
these are necessaries of life, that hungry people will buy
whatever they should barter in return, when they bring
their provisions to our markets, and find that money is
of more value to them than to exchange for our own
merchandise—so they take away our gold. It must be
quite evident to any one, that on islands like Great
Britain and Ireland, where the population is so rapidly
increasing (and they cannot cut away into the back-
woods as in America, and forage for themselves), unless
the food natural to this country is increased in the same
ratio with the growing population, we must depend
upon foreigners (who have a surplus) for provi-
sions ; and if it so be that those foreigners who sup-
ply us with food have improved their machinery and
manufactures in articles they hitherto required from us
(in considerable quantities) to such an extent, that now
they will not require so much of our goods in proportion-
able exchange for their commodities, which is here daily
increasing in demand, the balance of exchange in trade,
by bartering merchandise, will be lost to this country,
and the foreigners take away our gold for their provi-
sions. Where, then, will be the great wonder if, in the
course of time, every coin will be drained from our own
coffers, unless some urgent measures are speedily
adopted to draw forth the food natural to the country
for the increasing population. If labour is to be consi.
dered wealth, how many thousands and tens of thou-
sands of men might be all successfully employed in pro-
secuting the deep-sea fisheries ? Thus would they not
only be coining wealth fur themselves, but also increasing
food for the inhabitants, both in this and other countries,
where they are fond of fish. An increased supply of fish
here would keep down the price of butcher meat and
poultry—lessen the demand for foreign salted pork, beef,
cheese, and butter, with all the other et ceteras—and
beep the gold in the country.—l am, &c.

Edinburgh, May 18. 1847.

H. DEMPSTER.

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE

AMENDMENT OF THE LAWS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Court of Bankruptcy, London,
May 22, 1847.
Slli,—The Lord Chancellor has proposed to the
House of Lords a Bill to consolidate and amend the
Bankrupt Law. Lord Brougham has also a Bill on
the same subject. Neither of them attempts to abo-
lish the power of the individual creditor to seize pro-
perty for his own sole and exclusive use. Yet the
existence of this power is the greatest evil of the ex-
isting law. It is the instrument by means of which
every fraudulent debtor cheats his creditors.
In 1844 I printed a short outline of a plan for
amending the law of Debtor and Creditor, containing
ten
,propositions, of which the sixth was in these
words :

Abolish execution against property at the suit of
individual creditors, and substitute seizure, as in bank-
ruptcy, and thus have only one seizure and one expense.
"If a debtor, adjudged to pay a debt, does not pay it,
the strong presumption is, that it is because he cannot.
If so, he is an insolvent ; for if he cannot pay one creditor,
a fortiore, he cannot pay all. If he is insolvent there is
no reason why his property should be seized by one fur
his exclusive benefit, to the prejudice of the rest ; that
one being always either a fictitious creditor in league
with the debtor, or if a real creditor, either a favoured
one, or the most harsh, exacting, and selfish. Execution
against property, to au honest creditor, is generally not
only useless but ruinous ; for, after the creditor has
seized, a claimant to the property starts up, and it is im-
possible i❑ the nature of things for the creditor to know
whether the claim is good or not ; he either withdraws
after having incurred considerable expense, or enters
into the contest, and is defeated by a fraudulent bill of
sale, which he has no possible means of proving to be
fraudulent."

In 1846, I submitted to the Society for the Amend-
men of the Law (21, Regent-street), a paper on the
same subject, which I enclose. I sent both papers to
all the law Lords, but seemingly to no purpose.
If the paper makes the impression on your mind
which I cannot but anticipate that it must make upon
any mind not blinded by law prejudices, I hope you
will advocate the reform I wish to promote.
The common law has always sanctioned the doctrine
of preferences amongst creditors ; Chancery and
Bankruptcy havelsanctioned equality of payment. Both
doctrines cannot be right. Surely we need not hesi-
tate between them. The common law doctrine may
give all to a knave in league with a debtor, under
the Chancery and Bankruptcy doctrine the honest
creditor must get something.
Your obedient servant.
S. M. FANE.