The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-23 00:00:00

FROM THE FRENCH PAPERS.

The Berlin papers mention a curious discovery of a
robbery and murder, committed 22 years ago. Two fa-
milies, Petersen and Titschowski by name, had long
lived in great harmony at Potsdam, but towards the end
of last month a violent quarrel arose in the street between
the two wives, and the woman Titschowski reproached
the other with being the wife of a man condemned to
the gibbet for murder. This coming to the ears of the
magistracy, an inquiry was entered upon, and the houses
of the two disputants searched, from which it was proved
that Petersen was a name assumed by a man called Gas-
telberg, who was condemned to death by default in 1819,
for several robberies and murders, and that Titschowski
being one of the guards over him when in prison, had
suffered him to escape, in consideration of which service
Gastelberg had of late paid him a monthly stipend of 8
thalers (28f. 80c.) out of the salary of a place on the
Berlin and Potsdam railroad, which he had obtained.
Gastelberg fled, but has been taken at Magdeburg, and
will be again sent before the criminal tribunal of Bres-
lau, as his former sentence takes him out of the pro-
scription, which will act in -favour of Titschowski, who
cannot at this distant date be tried for his offence in
letting the other escape.
Extract of a letter from Oran, 7th inst., in the Con-
stitutionnel :—" A few days after the return of our grand
expeditift (that of the 53 days) some of the regular
cavalry of Abd-el-Kader, who had been furnished by the
great tribe of Angaed, passed through the tribe of Sidi
Gazer, where several chiefs of the Tafna were assembled,
and gave them an account of the battles which had taken
place with the Christians. When they had confessed
that the regular corps to which they belonged had been
routed, and that the Emir had no more troops upon
whom he could rely, the chiefs concerted together and
fixed upon a rendezvous to concert the means of defec-
tion. The opportunity was favourable, for Abd-el-Kader
was occupied in the East, near Blidah, where General
Changarnier held him in check. The day fixed was
the great market-day of the Tafna, which is always
held at the mouth of that river, on the ground occu-
pied by our troops in 1836 and 1837. Never was
market more numerously attended, and it was there
resolved unanimously to abandon the cause of the
Emir. Some of the chiefs offered opposition, for the
question was a sudden determination to throw themselves
into the hands of the French, or to act against Abd-el-
Kader by a diversion in favour of some influential name.
Too weak to act by themselves against the organised
force of the Emir, the Shieks resolved on applying to Mus-
tapha and the Governor-General of Oran. Some agents
were therefore despatched during the night to Oran. The
tribes who have abandoned the cause of the Emir are
eight in number, and, as is always the case, their neigh-
bours are only waiting to see what becomes of them, to
join their standards to those of the Donairs and Smelts.
All the horsemen of these tribes have elected as their
chief old Ali-Yamani, who was the compet itorof Abd-el-
Kader on his accession to power. Bon-Hamedi, the
Kalifa of Tlemcen, having become acquainted with the
project of our new allies, attacked them at the ravines of
the Sasef, about six leagues from Tlemcen. After a long
combat Bon-Hamedi was put to flight by Ali-Yamani,
and pursued so vigorously that he was not able to take
refuge in the town, and the inhabitants of Tlemcen, un-
doubtedly worn out by the exactions of the officers of
the Emir, took advantage of this opportuuity to job the
victorious party. We learn that all our new allies are
encamped at Oued Sinam, where they have joined Gene-
ral Mustapha, who has now more than 3,000 cavalry un-
der his com m and."

The Journal du Nievre gives the following account of
a ferocious contest between two brothers, forest-keepers,
on the 2d inst., near Corvol PArgueilleux, where they
had been celebrating the feast of St. Eloi, at the house
of a miller, who had given them too much liquor. Re-
turning home they quarrelled, and, after fighting some
time with their hands, fell together, and continued the
struggle on the ground for three hours, when one be-
came exhausted, and the other was probably unable to
continue the fight ; at the end of which he, who may be
considered the conquerer, had had torn from him by the
teeth of his brother, the whole of his under lip, down to
the point of the chin, while the other lost half of one of
his ears in the same manner. They each had a gun, but
neither thought of using it, and the stronger carried
both away with him arriving at his home about midnight.
Having called up one of his neighbours, he sent him
first for a surgeon to dress his own wounds, and then go
for the body of his brother, which would, he said, be
found dead in the wood. Lie, however, was not dead,
and both are recovering, though frightfully mutilated
for life.

The Belgian Papers state that the English residents at
Ostend have had a grand dinner, to celebrate the birth of
the Prince of Wales, Mr. Curry, the Consul, taking the
chair. After toasts to the Queen, the Infant Prince,
Prince Albert, and the rest of the Royal Family of Eng-
land, and also the healths of the King and Queen of the
Belgians, were drunk, with every mark of respect and
feeling, the President proposed one in honour of one of
the guests, M. Frederic Saint Amour, who three days
before had plunged from the deck of the steamer Menai
into the harbour, with all his clothes on, and, at the risk
of his own life, saved that of an old man, who had fallen
in, and must otherwise have been drowned. It was drunk
with loud acclamations.
The National de r Ouest states that, a short time since,
a young man was admitted into the hospital at Bourbon-
Vendee with a swelling of the thigh, which required the
limb to be amputated. The surgeons of the establish-
ment had strictly enjoined that the patient should be
kept as free as possible from all excitement, bnt, shortly
after this operation was performed, they found' him in a
strong state of mental agitation, which endangered his
life. It appeared that the patient, who was a Protes-
tant, had been worked on by the chaplain and Sceurs de
Charite of the establishment, who had endeavoured to
convert him to the Catholic faith, and had even induced
him to'reeeive the communion, aecording to the Roman
ritual, only a few minutes. after the surgeons had left
him. The medical men of the establishment have drawn
up a remonstrance, this Journal states, and transmitted
it to the Prefect of the Department.
letter from Dusscldorff mentions the arrest of two
post-office clerks at that place, on an accusation of hav-
ing abstracted 40,000 thalers in Treasury bonds, sent by
the Royal Administration of the town to the Treasury
of Berlin. They would have got off to America 'had
a they not been denounced by an accomplice. In the desk
of one of them was found the packet of bonds, which
h_ - not been broken open. This has caused the greater
sensat,
it
rre, at Dusseldorff, as the delinquents have hitherto
borne
reachable characters, and are both men of in-
dependent moans.letter from ans.
Metz states that M. Appert has organ-
ised a colony at Re
A.
,elfing, for the reception and employ-
merit of liberated conC:icts, with the benevolent view of
proventing their
.being coi;1. pelled, by the impossibility of

'finding honest employment, to resume their evil courses.
A society, which already includes the names of some of
the first persons in France, has been formed in aid of
this important experiment, and several of the criminals
confined in the central prisons have requested to be
allowed to subscribe a portion of their savings towards
the establishment. There are already fourteen liberated
convicts at Remelfing, and four others are to join in a
few days. Eighteen liberated convicts from the Bagnes
are to be selected for the colony by the Naval Commis-
sioners.

AN HOSPITABLE COUNTRY.--" Yesterday," says the
Brussels Independent of the 18th inst., " took place the
expulsion of H. Hagenberg, a Prussian by origin, who
was conducted to the French frontier. On the same day
was effected the extradition of C. Buisson, who had
been claimed by the Procureur-General of the Seine."
The same Journal says that the number of foreigners
who have been either sent out of Belgium, or refused
leave to enter it, during the first eleven months of the
current year, is 1,359.
The Journal de la Vendee says—" In the night of the
26th ult., at La Cocuere, in the commune of Caille sons
les Ormeaux, near Bourbon Vendee, a fountain on the
slope of a hill suddenly dried up, and to the extent of
several hundred yards the soil in which it was placed sunk
down to the bare rock. A short distance thence, in a
swampy meadow, the same phenomenon occurred at the
same time. The soil was entirely stripped from it, and
the trees growing upon it were transported to a distance
of one hundred yards. The day was rainy, but without
any wind. Last year, at the same period, a similar oc-
currence took place at La Proutiere, in the commune of
St. Florent des Bois."

An old farmer, named Tarroux, died lately at Cro-
silles, in the Aveyron, aged 107. He was in the enjoy-
ment of his faculties to the last, and the week before his
death dug in his garden, and sowed a considerable quan-
tity of rye.
In some excavations recently made near the Porte de
Bievre, on the Fontainebleau road, at Melun, several
Roman baths have been discovered in good preservation.
The public library, at St. Chamond, in the Loire, has
lately suffered from fire. A case, containing a valuable
collection of 150 rare works, was destroyed, but the rest
of the valuable contents were saved.