The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-30 00:00:00

ACCIDENT ON THE GREAT

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WESTERN RAILWAY.
READING, TUESDAY EVENING.—The reasons, imper-
fectly given in a morning journal, assigned by the Jury
for their verdict, must, from the local feeling evinced by
and the narrow application of them, afford anything but
satisfaction to the public. The grounds upon which the
verdict was given were—" That more watchmen should
have been employed to watch the cutting, and the dan-
ger of placing the passengers next the engine," with
a recommendation " that a portion of the spoil bank be
removed from the sides of the road." You will perceive
that the astounding fact proved before the jury, and in-
deed admitted by the servants of the Company, that the
line is not watched from about ten o'clock at night till
six or seven o'clock in the morning, appears to have
been altogether overlooked, or merged in the local cir-
cumstances connected with the frightful accident on the
Sonning-hill cutting.
Several of the dead have been buried to-day in Sonning
Ch urchyard--viz. :
John Pooke, a native of Stoke Canon, near Exeter,
and who was residing at No. 10, Panton-street, Hay-
market. The body of this unfortunate person has been
fully identified. Charles Sweetland, of Gloucester ;
George Mabbott, of the same place ; William Thomas,
of Leonards Stanley, near Stroud.
The following have been claimed by their friends.
They are now lying in coffins at the station, and will go
away by the mail train to-night:—Richard Ralph, of
Harwell, Berks ; Jabez Clee, of Cheltenham; Joseph
Hand, same place.
I have hitherto forgotten to mention, that the whole
of the expenses which the relatives of the deceased incur,
travelling to and from this place, are paid by the Com-
pany.
The man who is lying at the hospital with a compound
fracture of the skull is not in so favourable a state as he
was yesterday. Very faint hopes are now entertained of
his recovery.

DEATH OF MR. WEST, M.P. FOR

DUBLIN.

Durtux, DEC. 27.—A general sensation was caused
this morning throughout the city by the intelligence of
the death of John Beatty West, Esq., Queen's Counsel,
and one of the representatives for Dublin. The melan-
choly event took place at five o'clock this morning, at
Mount Anvilla, near this city, the residence of Judge
Burton, the father-in-law of Mr. West. Since the last
general election in July when Mr. WeAt, with Mr. Gro-
gan, was returned for this city, after one of the most
formidable contests on record, the deceased gentleman
never fully recovered from the effects of the fatigue and
exhaustion he had suffered on that occasion. The pals-
ing over of the paramount claims of Mr. West, when Mr.
Warren obtained the vacant Sergeantcy, might also have
had considerable effect upon a constitution debilitated by
illness,

In all the relations of private life Mr. West was beloved
for his kindness, amiability, and generosity of disposition;
and many an elector voted against him with reluctance,
and not a few abstained from voting on account of his
private virtues as a neighbour and a citizen. Mr. West
went with his party as a Tory, but he never degraded
himself by the disgusting intolerance which so generally
characterises the ruling faction in this country.
Mr. West had acquired considerable landed property,
and he also succeeded in forming a very splendid collec-
tion of paintings. But his immense expenditure at con-
tested elections must, no doubt, have considerably dimi-
nished his fortune.

The general topic in political circles to-day relates to
the candidates at the election to fill the vacancy caused
by the death of Mr. West. The Tories speak of start-
ing Sir Edward Borough, or Mr. Smith, Q.C. But the
I)rmer is the new Sheriff of this city, and he should re-
sign, in case he consented to come forward.
A very strong feeling prevails amongst the Reformers
of all shades, that Lord Morpeth (now in the United
States) should be put forward. I believe there is no
doubt whatever that his Lordship would be returned by
a large majority.

EXTRAORDINARY RUN WITH
THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH'S HOUNDS
ACROSS THE BORDERS.

A few days since the Duke of Buccleuch's hounds
met at Kelso Bridge, the morning exceedingly favour-
able, the wind, albeit not southerly, yet soft and balmy,
more like a day of April than one of Dark December.
Everything looked well for sport, and the freshness and
beauty of the moss seemed to impart an elasticity to
the body, and buoyancy to the spirit of the large and
well-mounted field, and which all were satisfied must
be the forerunner of sport beyond common. Among
the many sportsmen present were Lord Dunmore,
Campbell of Jura, Sir Hugh Campbell, Sir David
Baird, on his famous horse Pioneer, the winner of the
light weight Eglinton Steeple Chase, Mr. Spottiswoode,
Mr. Tod of Drygrange, Mr. Grey of Millfield Hill, on
his well-known mare Grace Darling, Mr. Meiklain, on
a dashing brown horse, Mr. Balfour on his neat grey
nag, Captain Low, Major Dickenson, &c.
Williamson, after waiting a few minutes to allow the
fiekl to collect, drew Wooden Dean blank, and then
trotted on to Hadden Rig, (the property of Sir William
Elliot, Bart., of Stobbs, and uo celebrated in song by
Mr. Campbell, of Saddell), where a few speculators
had waited trusting to his coming there. After draw-
ing two or three small places, a fox broke from a piece
of gorse, and putting all the rules of heading at defi-
ance, ran right through the whole body of horsemen
and disappeared in the large wood. It was now evident
that if the fox should prove a good one, the prog-
nostics of good sport would be verified—for the hounds
settled to their fox as they never do except when the
scent is first rate. They dashed down the wood as fast
as if they had been running at a view. This immedi-
ately had the effect of scattering the field, and fifty
red coats, who were a minute before altogether,
were, e'er the hounds had cleared the first field beyond
the wood, in at least twenty different parties and places.
Ttie line was from the wood nearly north, at a slapping
pace, to the bottom of the Shidlaw ground. The lead-
ing men at this time were, Mr. Spottiswoode, Sir H.
Campbell, Mr. Grey, Williamson, and Balfour. The
hounds now took a sharp turn south, and crossed Sir
David Baird, who was riding a little to the right, who
of course took the lead, and held it by at least half a
field over those beautiful large enclosures from this
point for about three miles by `Nark-common, Lempit-
law, and Pressen Mill, until a few seconds of hesitation
at the Hoselaw Main plantations allowed about
fifteen men to get on terms with the hounds.
Up to this point the pace was desperate, and
the country very deep, and even the few seconds of
doubt was a matter of great moment to the steaming
and heaving flanks of the horses. In less than a
minute the hounds cleared the plantations, and were
again streaming over the open fields towards the
Wideopen covert. Here the field divided, or rather
the leaders of the field, Mr. Grey, Mr. Tod,
and Williamson, keeping the direct line of the
hounds through a heavy turnip-field, the others taking a
line to the west, which was directly upon the Wideopen
covert. This looked a little like speculating—bowever,
they were cheated, for instead of turning for the Cherry-
trees country, the fox still pressed forward, and crossed
the Beaumont, about a mile above the Mindrum-hill.
The river caused a slight cheek, not to the hounds, 'but
among the leading men. The banks were steep—a
good deal of fresh in the stream, and it looked ugly ;
however, it was of no use hesitating, the longer you
looked the worse you
liked it, and Williamson was the
first to be seen up to the buttons of his unmentionables
swattering through. This was the signal for a general
plunge ; and as the river varied much in depth the cool-
ing received was not exactly equal—some were only belly

deep, to their agreeable surprise—others got their boots
filled, Jura we observed deliberately swimming down
the stream to seek a landing place. All at length got
out, and at the right side ; and if the riders were un-
comfortable, the horses were decidedly refreshed by
their bath. The resoluta varmint seemed now de-
termined to try the metal of all the hounds, men, and
horses, charging straight up Paxton-hill. Mr. Grey
and Mr. Mciklam were first into the Yethelm-road,
Williamson and Sir D. Baird next. Mr. Grey took
the fence into the field above—one of those places
which try a horse severely when a little blown—a
rough steep scramble up a bank, with a hedge on
the top, and a bank still rising on the other side.
The others kept the road to the gate. On getting to
the top of the hill, the hounds were stringing down to-
wards Kabala Haugh ; and a great body of the field, by
keeping the flat, now got in and joined the hounds,
when they crossed the Beaumont again at Longhorn
Bridge. They ran their fox up one of Mr. Hunter's
fie! ds, in the direction of Flodden, but came to a check,
and at this moment Mr. Spottiswoodc and Mr. Grey
viewed the fox down to the banks of the river. William-
son immediately threw them forward, and again the
pace became terrific via Kilharn and Longknow Whin,
right over the beautiful but bursting hills to Heathpool.
One hour and five minutes to this point. The first flight
was composed of Williamson and Tod on the right,
George Grey and Jura on the left—the two former .
having a little advantage, the body of the field taking the
flat round to Newton. The hounds were now evidently
much blown, and straying like a flack of wild geese—
the rren wet and uncomfortable—the horses crying
" bellows to mend." Still the fox, one of the true
Cheviot breed, held on his way, and with undaunted
courage faced the tremendous and all but perpendicular
side of Newton Tor. This seemed to bring despair to
the desperate, and all, by one consent, flew off ; and,
after watching the hounds climb the steep ascent on the
respective roads, Williamson and one other only made a
resolute push to reach the pack, and when they got to
the summit they were without companions. The fear-
ful bill accomplished, Williamson and the man who
had followed him, found easy riding over the table-
land, and over by Wooler Common ; and after, per-
haps, the severest run on record, ran into their fox near
Middleton Hall, Williamson got the hounds as far
as Lees, where he and his pets were welcomed to supper
and repose.

SUPPLY OF THE CHINESE MAR
KET WITH WOOLLENS:

The following is an extract of a letter from London,
to a mercantile house in Leeds, written in the month of
March last, and serves to account in some degree fo►
the falling off in the demand for woollen cloth to sup•
ply the China market. We have substituted the numbers
1,2, and 3, in this letter, to avoid the mention of
names, but the authenticity of the document is UP
doubted :

I am sorry to say, that since I came to London,
have discovered that considerable quantities of Belgiav
or German-made striped lists (striped lists are the clod
shipped to the China market) have come there for
shipment, and are greatly cheaper than can be made
in this country. I was told the same three months
ago, by No. 1, the packers, who have had more to do
with the China trade than any other packers in London.
They bad then a lot in bond, intended for shipment,
which they assured me were fully equal to the best York-
shire ones, and very much cheaper, but I did not see them.
Last week I was at No. 2, another packer, who told
me the same thing, and showed me the patterns of a
large quantity they had shipped during the past year.
I compared them with Yorkshire patterns, and they
were decidedly better goods, made of better wool, and
finer spun ; and No. 2 assured me they cost full 15
percent. less than Yorkshire prices. One of the largest
Yorkshire (No. 3) manufacturers had seen them,
and was astonished at the price, which he acknow-
ledged must supersede his, and that he could not com-
pete with them. No. 2 said they had shipped a great
many of them last year, and they are allowed to land
and finish them again upon giving bond for re-shipment.
Some allowances ought probably to be made for do
usual style in which persons are apt to speak when
extolling one class of manufactures at the ex-
pense of another class ; but of the leading
facts, viz., lower prices, finer wool, and skill dis-
played in the making, there can be no doubt ; it is also
probable that the goods mentioned might not have been
re-finished, but merely re-pressed under bond. The
amount of the trade in these striped lists for China is
very great. A few years ago they were made eaten•
sively in the west of England; they were introduced
into Yorkshire on the opening of the China trade, and
a close struggle was for some time carried on between
the Yorkshire and West of England manufacturers ,
but, in the end, Yorkshire triumphed. Within a very
recent period one mercantile house in Leeds has had
orders for 3,000 or 4,000 pieces at a time of these
goods, each piece being worth, on an average, from
4/. to 41. 10s. What the aggregate amount of pieces
may have been we cannot pretend to say, but we
should not be surprised if it bad reached 20,000 pieces
per annum from Yorkshire alone. What it is likely
to be in future, under the disadvantages beneath which
the Yorkshire manufacturers labour, from the high
price of food, as compared with the manufacturers of
Belgium, we shall leave our readers to conjecture...—
Leeds Mercury.

MADAME FREZZOLINI.- THE
NEW PRIMA DONNA.
..... .

The interest and applause which this young and ta-
lented female has gained in the vocal circles of the
Continent has been almost unprecedented, and certainly
has not been equalled since the early career of Cat a-
lani. As it is generally supposed that she is to be the
new prima donna for the ensuing season, the follow-
ing brief sketch of the principal events of her life may
prove interesting to our numerous musical readers :
Eminia Frezzolini was born at Ovieto, in the Papal
States, in 1819 ; her father is still one of the best
bass voices in Italy, and an excellent musician, and
under his instruction his daughter at a very early age
became a talented pianist, and she studied counter-
point with more strictness than is usual with females,
under Neucini, the celebrated professor of the Ly-
ceum at Florence. In singing, her first master was
the elder Ronconi, the father of one of the most
talented artistes that Italy possesses of the present
day. The late Madame Malibran having heard
the young Eminia sing, took a deep interest in her mu-
sical education, and declared she would one day become
one of the glories of the lyrical art of her country,
and it was at Malibran's especial desire that her
brother, Manuel Garcia, afforded the young and inter-
esting eleve the advantage of his instructions. She
was afterwards confided to Tacchinardi, with whom she
studied in 1836-7 ; at the same time she was studying
declamation under the celebrated masters Morrocchesi
and Martolini of Florence. In the carnival of 1838
she made her debut at the Theatre Cocomero, at
Florence, in Beatrice di Tenda, and shortly afterwards
in Mario Visconti, which was written specially for her.
Her success was immediate and immense ; the oldest
and most experienced dilettanti adopted the young
debutante as their future hope, and followed with soli-
citude each of her performances. Besides the fine and
rare qualities of her voice, it was remarked she pos-
sessed a certain method of intonation and an enlarged
style ; her acting was at once pronounced superior to
any cantatrice then on the Italian stage. From Flo-
rence she went to Sienna, and all the managers were
outvieing each other in offering her engagements. In
less than three years she sang at Ferrara, Pisa, Reggio,
Bologna, Brescia, Turin, and Milan. At Vienna she
received two engagements at the Royal Theatre,
whore she appeared in sixteen or eighteen different
operas, of which jive were written expressly for her.
The works in which she more particularly shines are
said to be Beatrice di Tenda, Ines de Castro, Lucia di
Lammermoor, Lucrezia Borgia, and Elena da Feltre.
Frezzolini possesses a superior soprano voice, finely
developed, of great purity, strikingly brilliant, and full
of eclat in certain tones. The strength of her organ
is not of an extraordinary power, but it is certainly
above the middle range, even when heard in so vast a
theatre as La Scala, at Milan, which, with the San
Carlo, at Naples, is the largest theatre in Italy, nay,
in the world. At present she is singing at Modena.
In March last Frezzolini was married in Milan to
Antonio Poggi, a tenor singer of high reputation, and
in every way worthy of associating his name with that
of the celebrated cantratice. Poggi and his wife form
a duo the most remarkable of the present day
on the
Italian boards. They are both under engagements,
for two years to come, to sing at Milan. Trieste,
Naples, &e., but the temptinm and liberal offers made
from Paris and London
will cause them to break off
with a portion of their engagements. ents,

PRICES OF FOOD AT HOME AND

ABROAD.
Many thousands of the industrious inhabitants of our
metropolis are now prevented, by the artificial enhance-
ment of the price of food, from partaking in the festivi-
ties of Christmas. When, to gratify the selfish,and short-
sighted policy of the wealthiest class of the community,
every poor man is made to pay 81d. for a loaf that
ought not to cost him more than 4d. ; when, for the
same purpose, every poor man is
made to pay
Bd. for a pound of beef, which, if the importa-
tion of foreign cattle were not prohibited, would not
cost more than 40. ; when, in short, every article of
general consumption is extravagantly taxed, while pro-
perty Is allowed to escape taxation altogether, or nearly
so, it is not matter for wonder that famine and disease
should be the inmates of thousands and thousands of
humble dwellings where festivity would now have been
presiding at the board, had the councils of this country
been guided by wiser and less partial maxims.
Not only the two most necessary articles of food,
bread and meat, are thus extravagantly taxed, to swell
the revenues, not of the state, but of a class, but every
article that may be counted among the luxuries of the
poor is dealt with in a similar manner. Tea, coffee,
sugar, wine, and tobacco are all of them articles of
which the prime cost is comparatively trifling, and from
which even the humblest of our mechanics would not be

MORNING SUN

obliged to abstain, if the cost were not so extravagant)
enhanced enhanced by exorbitant duties. •
Ordinary hyson tea, in bond, may be honght at less
than 2s. a pound, and the best bohea at i5.,./8iL.,11
pound ; but before they can be offered for sale to
the consumer, a duty of 2s. Id, a pound must be
paid on them, making a charge of 125 per cent.
upon the one description, and 104 per cent. upon
the other. To the poor consumer, however, the
charge is, in reality, much greater ; for the dealer
must have an extra profit to indemnify him for the
advance of his capital. On the finer descrip-
tions of tea the duty is the same ; the finest
young hyson, which costs ss. 3d. a pound, being only
liable to the same duty as the commonest bohea. The
working of this system, however, is attended by great
injustice to the poor man, who pays a duty of 125 per
cent, on the tea which he consumes, while the rich man
pays a duty of only 39 per cent. on the superior article.
*The best Java coffee may be bought, in bond, at
58s per cwt. The duty upon this is 84s. per cwt., nr
144 per cent. Tile best S!. Domingo coffee may be
bought in bond at 42s per cwt. Upon this the duty
is 140 s per cat. or 333 per cent. These enormous
duties are charged with a view to the protection of
our own colonies ; but without stopping to discuss
the propriety of such a protection, may we not ask
whether the duty of 56s per cwt. upon the coffee
grown in Englisn colonies is not already a
most extravagant tax upon the British consumer ? At
all events, the manner of imposing the duty operates in
the same unfair manner as with respect to tea, for while
the duty on ordinary Jamaica coffee amounts to more
than 100 per cent., the superior descriptions, which
run up to 1445. per cwt., are liable only to a duty of 38
per cent.

A hundred gallons of good Teneriffe wine may be
bought in the London Docks for 141. or 151. Upon
this the duty amounts to 271. 10s., or 183 per cent.
Teneriffe wine, if subject to a duty of only 25 per cent.,
might be retailed in London at twelve-pence a bottle,
but it is true, if our workmen were to accustom them-
selves to drink wine, as workmen do in most other
countries, there would be a great falling off in the con-
sumption of gin, from which so large a revenue is now
derived.

Of tobaceo, there are few descriptions that cost more
in the London Docks than 6d. a pound. The 'duty is
31., or 600 per cent. on the cost of the article, added to
the expense of conveying it to this country.—Chronicle.