The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-05 00:00:00

THE EVENING LECTURESHIP.

There were three candidates for the appointment of
evening lecturer to the parish church, rendered vacant
by the resignation of the Rev. Mr. Seobell.

At one o'clock the balloting papers were given to the
scrutineers, who announced that Mr. Everard was the
successful candidate.

The election of Mr. Everard was then formally sanc-
tioned by the Chairman, who communicated the result
to the Rev. Gentleman, by whom a suitable acknowledg-
ment of the honour conferred upon him was returned.
The remainder of the business was without interest to
the public generally.

NUMEROUS FIRES. —Yesterday morning, at a
quarter-past three o'clock, a very destructive fire broke
out upon the premises numbered 18, North-place, Kings-
land-road, belonging to Mr. Charles Truste, coffee-
house-keeper. The flames originated in the teller, and
rapidly extended up the staircase to the first and se-
cond floors. The engines promptly attended, but the
fire by that period had broken through the roof; and for
some time the destruction of the adjoining buildings
appeared certain. The fames were subdued by five
o'clock ; but not before considerable damage was done.
Fortunately Mr. Truste was insured in the Sun Fire-
office. A spark from a lighted candle it is supposed
was the cause of the disaster.—The same morning,
about one o'clock, a fire broke out in the workshops of
Mr. R. Martein, millwright and engineer, situate in
Fox lane, Shadwell. Owing to the timely assistance
afford, d the fire was soon extinguished.—A third fire
broke out at half-past three o'clock yesterday afternoon,
upon the premises in the occupation of Mr. Jacket, oil
and colourman, No. 25, James-street, Covent-garden.
The engines of the London Brigade attended, when the
firemen found a large beam in the back parlour had be-
come ignited from a defect in the chimney, and the
flames were pouring out with such fury that if a few
minutes longer had elapsed before the discovery was
made, the entire building must have been destroyed.
DEATH OP AN IRISH PATRIARCH ON THE GAMBIA.
—The following very curious intelligence appears in the
Limerick Chronicle :—" Captain Edward Llyod, of
Beechmount, near Limerick, died on the 17th of
March last, having resided on the west of Africa
during the incredible period of forty-two years, having
gone to that couuntry in 1805, along with the celebrated
African traveller, Mungo Park. He lived at the Gambia
since 1816, where his then wigwam formed the nucleus
of the present beautiful settlement of splendid stone
and brick houses, now inhabited by a population of
3,000 souls. The town can boast of a spacious school-
house, fine streets, a noble square, barracks, a church,
and Wesleyan chapel, hospital, and Government
house, which last cost about 20,000 Z He was rec-
koned the venerable patriarch of the locality, living
respected and dying regretted, not only by his nu-
merous children and grand-children, colonists, native
Chiefs and kings, but by the natives generally on the
banks of the Gambia, far into the interior of that
extensive continent. His word had so much influence
among them, that it stayed many a sanguinary war, or
shortened its duration. In the Egyptian expedition, in
1810, he was a captain in Abercromby's army. The Rev.
Mr. Rankin, colonial chaplain, died in April last of an
attack of periodical illness to which he was subject,
having suffered. much from the country fever. The
chaplaincy of 450/. a year is again vacant to any church
aspirant who may feel disposed to risk himself in that
extraordinary country. It is to be regretted that church-
men, of all other professions, are found to be rather
chary of the coast, as their hopes are fed on livings at
home.
GENERAL POST•OFFICE.—The following steam-
vessels have been appointed to convey the ship-letter
mails, viz.:—The Vassetei Tidjaret, Captain Ratsey, for
Malta, Smyrna, and Constantinople, to sail from Liver-
pool on the 14th inst. The Camilla, Captain Brown-
less, to sail from St. Katherine's Wharf on the 7th inst.
for Copenhagen and St. Petersburgb. The Bombay, for
the Cape of Good Hope and Bombay, to sail from Liver-
pool to-day; and the Antelope, Captain O'Brien, for Rio
de Janeiro, to sail from Liverpool on the Bth inst.
BRISTOL SUGAR MARKET, JULY 2:—Our sugar
market has been heavy this week, and prices have again
rather given way. The refined market is also dull.
DUTCH BEER.— Some packages of beer have ar-
rived by the steamer from Rotterdam, en route to South-
ampton, for shipment to Lisbon, for her Majesty the
Queen Qf Pintugal.

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL
ENGINEERS, JUNE 29.
(Sir John Rennie, President, in the chair.)
This was the last meeting of the session, and several
apparently excellent papers were obliged to be read in
abstract because there was not time for giving them in
extenso.
The first was "On the advantages and economy of
maintaining a high degree of cle inliness in roads and
streets; with an account of the construction and opera-
tion of the street .sweeping machine," by J. Whitworth,
Assoc. Inst. C.E.
It treated of the general advantages of street clean-
liness; the comfort of the pedestrian, the avoidance of
impurity to the air from the decomposition of dirt on
the pavement ; less dirt and dust being carried into the
houses; a saving in the cost of maintenance of roadways;
and a diminution of the draught of carriages.
The annoyances of the common method of cleansing
were then detailed, with the importance of employing
plenty of water in the cleansing of streets, to liquify the
mud, to cause the dirt to swell and rise from between the
stones, to cool and purify the air during hot weather, and
to prevent the dust from being driven into the dwellings.
It then showed how much economy there resulted from
having force enough to cleanse the streets thoroughly
and simultaneously in wet weather, particularly by
Whitworth's sweeping machine—which is a cart drawn
by one horse, and managed by one man. It has on one
of the wheels a toothed wheel working into a pinion,
which gives motion to a drum, over and around which
passes two endless chains, passing also around another
drum, at the lower extremity of a light frame suspended
at the tail of the machine, over an inclined plane
depending from the drum frame ; these endless chains
carry a series of broad brushes, formed of an In-
dian rush of peculiarly elastic and durable nature ; they
travel at a velocity depending upon the speed of the
horse, and, impinging upon the ground with a force
which is regulated by a coiled spiral spring, carries the
dirt up the inclined plane into the cart, whence
emptied when the receptacle is full.
Great economy necessarily prevails from this method
of street-sweeping, and the greater the degree of clean-
liness, and the more constant the attention, the greater
is the actual cost.
The impolicy as well as cruelty of employing casual
paupers as street-sweepers was fully shown and proved.
The saving of the roadway by constant sweeping and
and the diminished draught of carriages upon well
cleansed roads was clearly proved.
A general summary of the advantages of the system
closed the paper, and with an appendix containing the
actual result of long employment of the machines in
some of the principal towns of England, showed that in
every point of view the system proposed was the most
economical in point of cost, and possessed collateral ad-
vantages which, in these enlightened days, could not fail
to be appreciated, both by those who only looked to their
own comforts, and by the liberal minded who interested
themselves in the improvement of the sanatory condition
of the cities and towns of England, whose proverbial
cleanliness might, by the use of these simple machines,
be rendered still more remarkable as compared to the
state of continental cities.
The next paper read was "An account of the sea de-
fences of Romney Marsh, commonly known by the name
of Dymchurch Wall, and the probable origin of the
marsh itself, or the manner in which it was reclaimed
from the sea," by James Elliot, jun., the resident engi-
neer.

Romney Marsh, properly so called, forms a triangle, the
base of which would be a line drawn from Romney to Ap-
pledore and the apex at Hythe, and comprises about 24,000
acres. It is probable that this marsh was caused in the
first instance by the formation of a natural barrier of
shingle, nearly where DS inchurch Wall now stands, by
which the sea was excluded, and that the first artificial
works were executed by the Romans, when they held
possession of the country. They consisted of the erec-
tion of cross walls running from the natural barrier (" the
Full") to the hills, at the base of which the ancient river
Limene ran; the chief of these (the Rhee Wall) ran
nearly in a straight line from Ramsay to Appledore,
and it was at that spot where probably the main work
was performed.
Upon the supply of shingle from the west being
cut off by the extraordinary accumulation at Dun-
geness Point, the natural barrier at Dymchurch
gradually became weakened, and it was necessary to
take some steps to prevent its total destruction. The
first measure adopted was the erection of an inland wall
at some little distance at the back of the " Full," and
afterwards the construction of large stone groins on the
front, or sea-side, at right angles to the line of coast, in
order to increase the deposit of shingle. However, as
the supply of shingle gradually decreased, on account of
the constant movement to the eastward, and as all that
escaped in that direction was permanently lost, these
means were found insufficient, and a system of
" arming" with brushwood and timber piling was adopted.
This was found to answer the purpose for a considerable
period, but it also in the course of time gradually
became insufficient, and it was found necessary, at
length, after numerous experiments, to adopt a stone
facing with an average slope of about 8 to 1, up to the
high-water mark, gradually increasing in steepness from
that point, and terminating with a curve of 7 feet radius.
The stones, which were laid in a bed of concrete, where
they were most affected by the waves, were of different
sizes, averaging from 18 to 6 inches in depth, the largest
of them being in the middle, where the greatest wear
and tear took place, and at which point rows of sheet
piling were also driven for additional security.
This plan was adopted by the author after mature de-
liberation on the reports of Mr. Rennie and Mr. Walker,
and a very careful examination of the locality. Part of
the wall has now been standing for ten years, and has
required a very trifling amount of repair ; while the an-
nual expense has been reduced from 10,000/. to 4,0004,
with every prospect of a still further reduction being
effected, as upwards of two•thirds of the work is now
permanently completed.
The last paper was "On Ocean steam Navigation,"
by Captain Henderson, Assoc. Inst. C.E., calling atten-
tion to the fact, that in this great maritime nation naval
architecture was neglected as a science, as was proved
by the experimental squadrons, and some of the ordinary
steam vessels lately built.
That neither the public or science had derived any
advantage from these costly
.experiments, owing to the
absence of any information in a systematic form, that
correctly described the relative size, capacity, resist-
ance, power, or speed of existing steamships, the pre-
sent tonnage and nominal horse power, for all purposes
of analogy, being quite fallacious.
To obviate this difficulty, the author proposed the adop-
tion of a tabular forna which should exhibit at one view, the
relative dimensions of different vessels, and the ratio of
length and depth to breadth, the displacement and weight
of the hull and the stores, showing the actual capacity for
weight, deducting the engines and fuel, giving the capa-
city for armament or cargo. An approximate estimate
of the relative resistance was shown by the area of
the midship section and other elements of resistance,
and comparing the ratio of the displacement to the
resistance.
The power of the engines and the ratio of the ton-
nage, displacement, and area of midship section to the
horse-power, together with the average speed at sea,
were given to enable a fair comparison to be made
of how far each ship approached the form of least
resistance.
The difficulty of ascertaining these might be overcome
by the test of a dynamometer like that fitted to her Ma-
jesty's ship Rattler, the experiments upon which gave
the resistance at 151 b. the square foot, at 61 knots, and
301bs. at 9f knots.
Some observations of the proportion of power to
tonnage, and on the relative advantages of paddles and
screws for long voyages were given, showing that with
paddle-vessels, designed for a voyage of 3,000 miles,
a proportion of three tons to one horse power had been
the average. He considered that for a distance of
4,500 miles a screw vessel, with a proportion of four
tons and a half to one horse power, would be the best
for steam communication by the Cape to Australia. He
urged the advantages of having records of what had
been done, and invited builders and engineers to place
in the archives of the Institution of Civil Engineers
the information sought for, an a tabular form, as a
means of advancing steam navigation, upon which the
welfare and prosperity of Great Britain so much de-
pended.
Several other papers were announced, which had been
sent in at too late a period of the session to enable them
to be read.
At the monthly ballot the following candidates were
elected Messrs. T. Cini, J. S. Russell, F. Swanwick,
members:—W. Brown, 0. C. D. Ross, A. Williams, and
Captain D. O'Brien, associates ; and the meeting was
adjourned until the second Tuesday in January, 1848.

THE QUARTER'S REVENUE.
The accounts of the Quarter's Revenue will be
made up this evening, before which time it will
be of course impossible to ascertain the several
items of receipts with literal exactness. We believe,
however, that even now we can congratulate our
readers on the continued buoyancy of the public re-
sources of the country. In spite of the large drain
for food, and the depressing circumstances to which
the trade and commerce of the country have been ne-
cessarily subjected—notwithstanding that we have
passed through a season of unexampled difficulty—
the establishment of sound commercial principles
have triumphed over all, and the resources of the
country continue to be unimpaired.
There will be an increase on the Revenue of the
Quarter, as compared with the corresponding Quarter
of last year. The amounts received on account of
Excise Duties,
received from these
come-tax exceed the amounts
Sumps, Post-office, Taxes, and In-
come-tax
sources in the Quarter ending July 5, 1846. The
Customs Revenue, when made up to the sth inst.,
will probably be not much over or under the amount
received from that item in the corresponding quarter
of last year. In Miscellaneous Receipts there will be
a large falling off, compared with the July quarter of
last year, in consequence of the sums received in
1846 from China, which amounted to about half a
million in that quarter, and of which nothing has
been received in the quarter now just ending. This
will greatly reduce the increase in the other branches,
if it do not wholly swamp it.
It is most satisfactory, however, to find that those
sources of revenue upon which we rely for a regular
support, and which are also the best indications of the
activity of trade, and of the enjoyment of comforts
by the mass of the people, continue to be steadily and
permanently productive.—Observer.

Baron de Ziegeser left town yesterday for the Con-
inent.

Dispatches were sent off on Saturday evening from the
Colonial Office for the Governor General of Canada,
and also for the Governors of the other North Ameri-
can rrOYinCel.

THE WEATHER in the HIGHLANDS.
The sun shines.out delightfully, _araLhas deue-s.O for.,
sonic days back, so that there is ever• reason to cherish -
the expectation that a track of the most favourable'
weather has set in. The progress which the crops have
made since last week is surprising—one can almost
suppose that he sees them growing. On Tuesday a
field of wheat at Kessock, and several others in this
neighbourhood, were in ear, and the winter wheats are
now, in almost every case, in ear. The heads are
beautiful and large. We have had sent to us, as a
specimen, from Erchless Castle, A score or so stalks of
Siberian oats, all with the ear finely developed. The
seeds were sown on the Mains of Erchless, on the
19th March last; and the whole field is now in ear. It
was this oat (weighing 461b3. per bushel) which gained
a prize at the agricultural seed competition at Inverness,
in 1845 6. At Kessock there is also a field of barley in
ear; and at Abertarff a field of the same kind of grain
was in ear on Thursday. Hay-eutting commenced yes-
terday, in this vicinity, on a fine field (a first-rate crop
at Millburn, belonging to Mr. Chisholm, whose barley
is in the shot blade. Other hay fields will be cut next
week. The potato still continues healthy. In a garden
at Fortrose an affection, similar to that at Nairn (men-
tioned last week), has been observed in one instance.
From the Black Isle, vt e learn that the crops are very
beautiful. The small crofters have, in general, a fine
promise of oats ; and we understand that that grain was
sown to a greater extent than usual. On Mr. Gair's
farm (Tullich) workmen are employed trenching, drain-
ing, and reclaiming waste land. About 15 acres have
been taken in ; and 10,000 yards of drain cut. On the
farm of Wester Suddie (Mr. Campbell's farm) thorough
draining is also going on. At Mains of Avoch (Mr.
Ross's farm) wheat was in ear on Wednesday.
Our Skye correspondent writes—The weather having
proved very favourable for the last fortnight in this
quarter, the crops and the potatoes have made great
,s Iprogress, and things now look very promising, upon the
whole, throughout the island. The oats and the grass
in particular have assumed quite another appearance, and
the comparatively few potatoes planted are as yet keep-
ing healthy-like, and growing vigorously. The little
barley sown this year is not doing quite so well, but
this may arise either from its not being the proper kind
for the soil that has been sown, or because the
people, not having been in the habit of sowing this
kind of seed for some time past, may have so
far forgotten the particular method of treating it. In
reference to other matters, we are now in a kind of
transition state—the people being called upon for some
specific work, in return for the meal distributed by the
local committees of relief—and so far as I have had
an opportunity of observing, the people are very ready
and willing to do such work as is pointed out to
them, and had they constant employment, with
suitable remuneration, there would be no scarcity
among them, nor need of external aid. It is, how-
ever, not at all easy to provide for them at home,
and hence the necessity of so many of them going south
in summer to obtain the moans of subsistence. For su•,b
as remain, the local committees are endeavouring to find
work suited to their sex and age—at roads and other out-
side improvements, as will benefit the community gene-
rally, for the men and lads, and stout boys; and at spin-
ning and knitting stocking, for the females—so that, 1:03'
tween the different members of families, something like
a subsistence may be earned, when matters are farther
advanced and arrangements completed. In the Duirinish
or Dunvegan local committee, Macleod of Macleod, who
presides, is most indefatigable in carrying out arrange-
ments for this purpose ; and two months ago he pre-.
cured a considerable quantity of wool for the females to
spin—of which his lady takes charge—a good deal of
which is made into yarn. Yarn has also been procured
by him for the making of nets by old men, who can do
nothing else of a heavier description of work. What.,
then, with the great number of men and even females,
who have gone south, and the employment of so many
various occupations at home, if the next harvest turn
out as well as appearances promise, matters here shall
have then recovered themselves considerably, although
the comparatively small quantity of potatoes planted
will be a serious drawback.—lnverness Courier.