The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-28 00:00:00

Majority
ONE O'CLOCK

Walter
Larpent

Majority
At Half-past One Mr. Larpent reigned, when the
numbers were—
Walter 2,018
Larpent

Majority

BRISTOL AND EXETER RAILWAY.—It is with
no ordinary satisfaction we inform our readers, that the con-
tracts lately advertised, from Bridgwater to Taunton, have
been let, so as to ensure the completion of these eleven
miles within ene year. The terms are 18,0001. a mile,
including the permanent way, and every other expense.
Notice has been given to the Great Western Directors,
the lessees of the railway, that the line to Bridgewater
will be ready to be opened for traffic on Whit Monday,
the 31st of May next. Tenders for loans on debentures
are being offered every day, and, in fact, the fulfilment of
the anticipations of the Chairman, at the half.yearly meet.
hag, sanguine as they were even then in the promising
state of the Company thought to be, is so fairly in pro-
gress as to render it likely to fall short of rather than to
exceed the reality. All this is the result of having firm
and resolute directors and officers. This line would, for
years to come, have presented a chaos of incomplete work,
instead of a well-finished railroad, returning a handsou e
dividend to the proprietors, and conferring incalculable
benefits upon the surrounding country. —Devonport
Telegraph.
UNIVERSALITY OF VEGETABLE LIFE.—
Wherever circumstances are compatible with vegetable ex-
istence, there we find plants arise. It is not only on the
luxuriant soil, on which many generations have flourished
and decayed, that we find the display of their beauties.
The coral island, but recently elevated above the level of
the sea, speedily becomes clothed with verdure. From
the materials of the most sterile rock, and even from the
yet recent cinders and lava of the volcano, nature pre-
pares the way for vegetable existence. The slightest cre-
vice or inequality is sufficient to arrest the invisible germs
that are always floating in the air; and the humble plants
which spring from these soon overspread the surface, de-
riving their chief nutriment from the atmosphere. Having
completed their allotted period of existence they die
and decay; but their death is only a preparation for the
appearance of higher forms of vegetable structure. They
are followed by successive tribes of plants of gradually
increasing size and strength; until, in the course of years,
the sterile rock is converted into a natural and luxuriant
garden, of which the productions, rising from grasses to
shrubs and trees, present all the varief es of th r fertile
meadow, tt c tangled thicket, and tha widely spreading fo-
rest. No extremes of heat or cold seem to put an entire
cheek upon vegetation. Even in the desert plains of the
torrid zone, the eye of the traveller is often refreshed by
the appearance of a few hardy plants, which find sufficient
materials for their growth in these arid regions. And
wherever a spring of water moistens the soil and atmos-
phere around., a spot of luxuriant verdure is found. —Pe-
pular er:lopcedia of Natural Science.
The loss of the President, if that noble vessel be
lost, ought not to create any want of confidenca in steam
navigatien, for many of our finest ships of war, of the
largest size, and rerinmanded by the most skilful, and, in
every respect, tee most able of our naval offic.rs, have
been lost by foundering at sea. For instance, in 1807,
the Blenheim, of 80 guns, and the Java frigate, of 36
guns, both foundered .off the Isle of Madagascar, and
every soul on board perished. The Blenheim had 700
men ou board, and was commanded by the brave Sir
Thomas Trowbridge, one of Nelson's favourite cap-
tains, and who was not only an excellent seaman, of
great talent and experience, but an officer of science
and inexhaustible resources in every kind of difficulty
and danger. On board the Blenheim perished Lord Rose-
bill and Capt. Elphinstone, the son of the Chairman of
the East India Company. Not a particle of either the
Blenheim or the Java was ever found or heard of, and
the latter had about three hundred men on lerard, so that
in the two vessels a thousand lives were lost. In 1811 the
St. George, of 98 guns, and the Defence, of 74 guns,
perished rri coming only the short distance of the Baltic to
England. The two ships had about fifteen hundred men
on board, and of this immense number only eighteen were
saved. The St. George bore the flag of Rear-Admiral
Reynolds, an officer of the highest merit, and who, with
respect to seamanship, nautical science, experience, and
undaunted courageland fortitude, had not his superior in the
British navy. The details of the loss of the St. George
are truly heart-rending to peruse, even at this distacce of
time. Scarcely a plank of either of these immense ves-
sels was ever fonnd or heard of. So numerous were our
losses by foundering and wrecks, that it was calculated
that in o..ie year, 1811, five thousand of our seamen had
perish-.d. —Snnday paper.
COINS FOUND IN THE THAMES.—At a meet-
ir9:‘, of the Numismatic Society, held on Thursday evening,
3'.,1r. Charles Roach Smith, F. S. A., read a highly interesting
impels en Roman coins found in the bed of the River Thames,
patticularly as illustrative of the early history of London.
in the excavations for the approaches to new London Bridge
and the coffer dams in the river, as well as in the removal
of the piles and works of the o d bridge, and the subsequent
operations of ballast heaving for deepening the channel of
the river, several thousands of Roman;coins were discovered,
of which but little record has been kept. These were chiefly
of the large, second, and small brass, with a few silver, and
three gold medallions, two of which were found under one
of the piles of the old bridge. Of Vespatian, Domitian, and
Titus there were many hundreds, while those of Adrian, Dio-
cletian, Severus, Constantinus, Claudius, and Nero, were very
numerous. The coins, in fact, presented a history of the
Roman dynasty in Britain during nearly three centuries and a
half, embracing the reign of nearly every Emperor. 'they
were generally in a fine state of preservation, and as if but
recently turned out of the Mint, displaying also a very high
order of art. A question of considerable interest to anti-
quarians was as to how so large a mass came into the river,
extending, as the coins did, in a parallel line from the City
to the Southwark side. By some it had been consi-
dered that they had been accidentally lost at the ferry
formerly existing at this spot, whilst others bad imagined
them to have been part of the stock of a curiosity shop which
had been destroyed when the bridge was burnt. The writer,
however, gave it as his opinion that there formerly existed over
the river at this spot a bridge built by the Romans. It was
stated as singular that none of these coins were worn further
than what would be occasioned by the trituration of the gravel,
and amongst then were found no British, Greek, or Saxon
coins, except deposited by obvious accident. Near the foun-
datioa of the old bridge was also found a colossal head of

Adrian, with many beautiful bronzes, which it was evident
had been defaced and destroyed by the early Christians in their
zeal for the destruction of every symbol of idolatry, and it was
not improbable but in their hands coins might share the same
fate. The paper elicited an interesting discussion confirma-
tory of the opinion of the existence of a bridge over the
Thames at this spot in the time of the Romans.
An account of coal and iron brought down the
tramroad during the week:—
Coal
Iron
An account of coal and iron brought down the canal dur-
ing the week :
Coal
Iron
...Monmouthshire Merlin.