The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-30 00:00:00

MARLI3RO'.STREET-(THIS DAY

John 2lPPherson, a young man of respectable appearance,
evidently in a very delicate state of health, who was described
on the charge sheet as residing at No. 14, New Millman-
street, Brunswick-square, Louse-painter and decorator, was
placed at the bar, having been taken into custody under the
following circumstances :
Between eleven and twelve o'clock last night the prisoner
was partaking of some refreshment in the parlour of the
Carpenters' Arms public-house, in John-street, Tottenham-
court-road, when he suddenly drew from his pocket a small
steel-barrelled percussion pistol, and clenching it in his hand
and placing himself in the attitude of discharging it, said,
I'm resolved to do it this night, although I lose my lifeby it."
lie them called for more liquor, which Mr. Read, the landlord,
who had heard what had passed, refused to let him have.
Presently afertwards he left the house, evidently in a very ex-
cited state, and was followed by two tradesmen who
knew something of and had been drinking with
him. Mr. Read directly gave information of what
had transpired to police-constable John Bruce, No. 84 of the
E division, who went after the prisoner, and came up with
hint at the end of John-street. He then had the pistol in his
hand, and repeated the threat several times, that he would
do it that night if he lost his life through it. The pistol
was wrested from him, and the police took him in charge.
The pistol was not loaded. At the station-house he repeated
the threat several times, and on the inspector on duty asking
him whom he meant to shoot, he replied, " My brother;"
and added, " If I'm imprisoned, when I'm liberated I'll do
it before I sleep." No powder or ball was found in his pos-
session, at which he himself manifested some surprise. The
constable has since succeeded in tracing out that he pur-
chased the pistol yesterday afternoon at a sale-shop in Tot-
tenham-court-road, and that yesterday morning only he was
discharged from one of the metropolitan hospitals.
Mr. HARDWICK asked the prisoner what account he wished
to give of himself? Prisoner (whose manner was very cool
and collected)-.The statements the witnesses have made aro
very correct.

Mr. HARDWICK—But what do you mean by having this
pistol about you? Prisoner (with great composure)—l
meant to shoot my brother.
Mr. HARDWICK-Why did you mean to shoot him? Pri-
soner—There was some difference between us.
Wilks, the gaoler, asked the prisoner if he still intended to
shoot his brother? Prisoner (after some hesitation)-oh,
don't know.
Mr. HARDWICK, having elicited from him that his brother
was residing at Mary-street, Hampstead-road, ordered a
constable to procure his attendance as soon as possible.
The prisoner is detained for the present.

IRELAND.
DISTRESS OF THE PEOPLE.
DUBLIN, APRIL 28.—There is no part of Ireland where
distress is more severely felt than in the county of Clare.
In the assize town, Ennis, disturbances are apprehended,-
The Clare Journal says—" We understand that a party
of Dragoons have been applied for by the High Sheriff to
preserve the peace of the town, a large concourse of people
from the surrounding neighbourhood being expected to
march into the town during the day."
The same journal contains the following :—" Kilmurry,
Ibrickane, April 24.—Memorials from about two hundred
poor housekeepers, averaging about one thousand souls, have
been forwarded, one to the relief cummisioners, and another
to the Lord-Lieutenant, praying for relief. Memorialists, who
are cottiers, on the Ploughlands of Clennagarnane, and Clo-
hannes, in the parish of Kilard, and barony of Ibrickane, state,
' That in consequence of the mysterious affliction of an All-
wise Providence of the potato crop, memorialists (from
the swampy nature of the soil of these localities) have, by the
potato rot, been deprived of all means of subsistence for
themselves and families, and are at present the most miser-
able beings on the face of the earth.' Corroboration hal
been given to the statements of the memorialists by the
foilowing gentlemen :—Burton Macnamara, J.P. ; Francis G.
Morony, J.P.; Thomas H. Morony, J.P. ; Thomas Morony,
sen., J.P."
The Marquis of Conyngham and Mr. Westby have sub-
sctibed very liberally towards the relief of the destitute people
iriKilkee and other parts of Clare.
The reports from the other distressed districts, received this
day, are of the usual heartrending descriptions. Some cenn-
ties have comparatively escaped the potato disease, for in-
stance Wexford and Kerry, and in both the distress is not et
all so severe as in other districts.
The Commissioners of Public Works, acting under the
Drainage Act of the present session, have issued a notifica-
tion that they are ready to receive loans for the execution of
drainage and other works. The amount required for the pre-
sent year will probably be 200,000/. The sum at present re-
quired for the works in Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Cavan,
Tipperary, and other counties, is 92,0001. The maximum
rate of interest is 5 per cent. The security is a first charge
on the lands to be drained or improved.
The Evening Post says, " We have great gratification in
announcing that Lord Cloncurry has received a letter from
Mr. Peel, dated Calcutta, March 7, intimating that an addi-
tional sum of 2,0004 has been transmitted to the Bank of
Ireland, for the relief of the distressed Irish, from the Bengal
Presidency, with an intimation that more money may be ex-
pected from the same benevolent source."

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.
LIBEL CASE—THE QUEEN Ir. CHARLES GAVAN DUFFY.
The Attorney-General was heard in demurrer against
plea of justification put in by the defendant against an in-
dictment charging him with the publication of a seditious
libel in the Nation newspaper, in the month of November
last.

Mr. Barry and Mr. Holmes replied to the Attorney-Gene-
ral, alleging that the defendant had published the article
complained of in reply to some articles which were published
in the Herald and Standard newspapers, in London, in which
it was urged that the agitating of the repeal of the union
ought to be deemed high treason, and showing the great
facility which railways afforded for the transmission of troops
to Ireland.
The Court were unanimous in allowing the demurrer for the
Crown.

The Ireton steamer, that left Ostend at three yester-
day morning, passed Blackwell at one in the afternoon, hayloft
several passengers of distinction en board.
THE " STAGS" IN DERBY.—DERBY, APRIL
Within the last few days (says our correspondent) shoals of writs
have been served on parties in this town who had shares allotted to
them in some of the new railway schemes; and, remarkable as the
fact may appear, all are paying forthwith. The tradesmen in this
town have been dreadfully bitten.
PIGEON FLYING.—On Wednesday, in a match for SL,
between two pigeons, the winning bird, belonging to Keely, of the
Kent-road, flew from Dover to London in one hour and twenty-four
minutes.
SUPPLIES OF FOREIGN MEAT.—The State of the
home market in the supply of the staple article of food for our navf
and mercantile marine has lately been such as to cause not only
much enterprise amongst speculators, but anxiety amongst the Lords
of the Admiralty. One of the most Important facts connected with
the former is the deficiency in quantity as well as quality of the
Irish meats, owing to the rapid means of transit afforded by means
of steam communication making it more to the interest of Irish
farmers to transmit their cattle alive to this country than to let their
capital lie dormant in curing the meat. So great has been the fate
deficiency in qua.ity that the Lords of the Admiralty were com-
pelled a few weeks ago to issue orders to the Admiralty of the diffe-
rent stations to purchase supplies of fresh meat to compensate for the
deficiency which this has caused in the rations. At tile same tinle
the Lords of the Admiralty have not been inattentive to the means
of obtaining an adequate supply from foreign sources, and for this
purpose have given a fair and extended trial to the process of curing
by pneumatic pressure, by transmitting samples to the four quartets
ineof7pssreseiirving
of the globe, which being returned, were opened a few days since It!
the Victualling-office at Deptford; but the results were not found
now under course of
sufficiently satisfactory to sanction the general adoption of tb° a t ted
purpose
state for foreign countries, which is equally applicable to fruit and
fish, and, if successful, must meat in afresh
tpir-ti.ndc,ipwlehichAisn'efworlythep
produce some very important results to
this country. In all experiments, however, connected with the al"
tfration of food for the naval and mercantile marine, the greatest
care is required, from the fact of ally innovation
upon their esta-
blished mode of life and habits proving very injurious to the health
of the seamen. At the same time, the introduction of meat from
foreign sources is most important in a commercial point of view ; and
at a recent meeting of many Members of Parliament and friends e'
free trade, held in Monument-yard, where specimens of ail the de-
scriptions of foreign food which are now admitted duty free by the
new tariff were exhibited, Dr. Bowring very pertinently asitell
" Why should there be so many millions who do not taste anilm,l
food, or taste it as a luxury, when it can be obtained within 15 daY',
sail of Great Britain ? The millions who 'rejoice in potatoes
would be stimulated in their' rejoicings' if they could obtain anint food to eat with them." The recent importation of preserved
nt"t
from Australia is only one instance of the enterprise ready for has
mediate operation as soon as the Legislature has decided upon subject of commercial restrictions, the unsettled state of widen 0:
present causes so much commet cial embarrassment and stagna tie.%
Every cargo of salt meat from America and other places, it maY
added, is readily bought up on its arrival here, for the use- of sit;
ping, as it is a matter of notoriety that many vessels would not be a
to leave the ports if dependent alone upon the home supply.
IC RAILWAY ROBBERIES. A novel proceeding W -
place last week before Mr. Ray, Master of the Court of comtmi,"!
Pleas, with reference to a Charles Gregory Maynard, who was tr,
victed with Garrett _respecting the railway robbery last Novenle—
BY a recent Act of Lord Demnan, the evidence of convicts is tlo 0,
allowed in courts of law, and actionsihavlng been brought ag"-sas,
Messrs. Prance, Colard, and Nash, in connexion with those cages;
the defendant Nash obtained leave from the Secretary of State
examine the eonvicts prior to their leaving England. This examine'
tion of Maynard occupied two days, an 1 was attended by comi'„tal.
Mr. Hogging for the defendants, and Mr. Hawkins for the Pim",pa
Mr. evoke, short-hand writer, took notes for the Government.
result will not be disclosed until the trial, but we understandportant disclosures were made. Garratt had been examined in
manner before being sent to the colonies. - - WAY TIIE RIVALS.—On Monday week there was ano
at St. Stephen's. There have been so many holidays lately, tbst her
we
really think Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Barry, the architect, „
pending as Os who will persevere longest in making no How'
Punch.
„ wag
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—The anniversary meeting
held yesterday in the theatre of the Royal Institution, Aith: ~„co
street, the Earl of Derby, president, in the chair. The t"rjr ef
was very numerous, and amongst the company were the tajor;
Auckland, Lord Braybrooke, and Sir J. P. Boileau, Bart., t",.,tbe
General Briggs, Colonel Sykes, Dr. Henderson, and several
eading members.
and
DAMASCUS.—The Mecca caravan, 80 numerous
that CRY
brilliant on its departure from Damascus, has returned to
disco' cis
in a wretched state ; decimated by cold, hunger, and s ~,ed
supply of provisions forwarded toy it in December, wasol„,.f
entirely pillaged by the Arabs, who also took ssession t__A.,"„aall
terns of water placed on the route. Of this fine caravan
remain'
consisting of twelve thousand pilgrims, but three thousa_o nosobos
that is, a thousand Persians and two thousand Turks. T °
and 1,500 camels have also perished of fatigue and
hi
route
Damascus
greatest disorder reigns in this part of Syria. The entire
to Mecca is infested by Arabs, who rob roldPT,,'
their way. On the day after the return of the caravan, to.
pean Consuls met to address a note to their several Anwaß,.

LITERATURE.

THE FOREIGN QUARTERLY REVIEW.
No. LXXIIL
M. de Lamartine, some days since, in the French Cham-
ber of Deputies, took occasion to advert to the conquests
lately made by the English, and enumerated among
them the isle of Borneo. This is a fact not known to
Englishmen, for the only result of the. late war against
the pirates is understoed to be the cession of the small
island of Labuan to the British by the Sultan of Borneo.
Re or some other chiefs still rule over the whole of the
large island, with the exception of James Brooke, who
happens to be Rajah of Sarawak. It was to the posi-
tion and authority of this singular individual, and not to
the occupation of Labuan, probably, that the French-
man alluded to, and he therefore could not have paid a
higher compliment to the system of colonisation
adopted by the English, and the admirable working of
the system in almost every part of the globe. One
Englishman, first of all, by his enterprising spirit,
humane views, and perhaps romantic turn of mind, gets
a footing on a small spot in Borneo, reconciles the na-
tives to his person and authority; and the conquest of
the whole island, therefore, M. de Lamartine seems to
think must follow as a matter of course. In the pre-
sent number of the Foreign Quarterly we have a very
graphic account of this James Brooke, and some of his
adventures up to the period of his settlement in that
country. Speaking of him, the reviewer says, "It is
customary to set up romance as a sort of standard of
comparision, but romance has nothing of the kind to
show. Mr. Brooke is a hero much greater than a
writer of fiction would have dared to invent. It would,
in fact, scarcely have been safe, because it would have
outraged probability to endow an imaginary character
with half the great and good qualities which evidently
belong to this man." His history certainly is remark-
able, and the following sketch, drawn by an old intimate
and friend, will enable the reader to form an idea of the
grand and philanthropic plans of this Rajah of
Sarawak :-
4, Mr. Brooke was the second, and is now the only sur-
viving son of the late Thomas Brooke, Esq., of the civil
service of the Eart India Company; was born on the 29th
of April, 1803 ; went out to India as a cadet, where he held
advantageous situations, and distinguished himself by his
gallantry in the Burmese war. He was shot through the
body in an action with the Burmese, received the thanks of
the Government, ;and returned to England for the recovery
of his prostrated strenth. He resumed his station, but
shortly afterwards relinquished the service, and in search of
health and amusement, left Calcutta for China in 1830. In
this voyage, while going up the China seas, he saw for the
first time the islands of the AsiatioArchipelago—islands of
vast importance and unparalleled beauty—lying neglected
and almost unknown. He inquired and read, and became
convinced that Borneo and the Eastern Isles afforded an
open field for enterprise and research. To carry to the
Malay races, so long the terror of the European merchant
vessel, the blessing of civilisation, to suppress piracy, and
extirpate the slave-trade, became his humane and generous
objects; and from that hour the energies of his powerful
mind were devoted to this one pursuit. Often foiled— often
disappointed, with a perseverance and enthusiasm which
defied all obstacles, he was not until 1838 enabled to set sail
from England on his darling project. The intervening years
bad been devoted to preparation and inquiry—a year spent
in the Mediterranean had tested his vessel, the Royalist,
:and his crew—and so completely had he studied his object,
and calculated on contingencies, that the least sanguine of
his friends felt as he left the shore, hazardous and unusual
as the enterprise appeared to be, that he had omitted no-
thing to insure a successful issue. ' I go,' said he, to
awake the spirit of a slumbering philanthropy with regard
to these islands ; to carry Sir Stamford Raffles' views in
Java over the whole archipelago. Fortune and life I give
freely; and if I fail in the attempt, I shall not have lived
wholly in vain.'
" In the admiration I feel for him, I may further be per-
mitted to add, that if ever any man possessed in himself the
resources and means by which such noble designs were to
'be achieved, that man was James Brooke ! Of the most
enlarged views, truthful and generous, quick to acquire and
appreciate ; excelling in every manly sport and exercise ;
elegant and accomplished ; ever accessible ; and, above all,
prompt and determined to redress injury and relieve mis-
fortune, he was of all others the best qualified to impress
the native mind with the highest opinion of English cha-
racter."
lie has succeeded far beyond what any imagination but
his own anticipated. In 1838 he set out on his expedi-
tion, and after numerous adventures, now enjoys almost
complete sovereignty over Sarawak, a country of consi-
derable extent, and rich in mineral and vegetable produc-
tions. His exertions, guided by discretion, and deep in-
sight into human nature, have given him dominion over
men of different nations and creeds, and placed him in a
situation in which he may at the same time soften the
asperities of the savage character, and open up im-
portant commercial relations with his own countrymen.
The occupation of Labuan will be of service in that
respect, as it bids fair to become a mostimpertant station
amidst the countless islands that lie between Borneo and
New Guinea, and Canton, and the coast of Australia.
The island abounds with inexhaustible mines of the best
coal, said, with the exception of those of New Holland
and India, to be the only coal mines in that part- of the
world, and it may therefore be regarded as an acquisition
—though not so great as that imagined by M. de Lamar-
tine—destined to be of important service in the event of
war, and of immediate use for commercial shipping.
There are several other articles in the Number, that may
be read with advantage. That on the " Progresistas and
Moderados in Splin," will enable the reader to form a
tolerably correct idea of the state of parties in that coun-
try, of the conduct of Narvaez and the Queen
and Mother,
, some other of the statesmen, all unequal to the task,
who have successively been placed at the head of affairs.
t: The influence of Narvaez at Court, the writer
seemed to think remained undiminished, and
, his appointment of Generalissimo gave him more
power than ever. This was written after the downfall
of the Rosas Ministry ; and the writer, perhaps to
show that he was right as to the influence of Narvaez,
announces, in a postscript, that the next Cabinet, that of
Milaflores, had been broken up by the arbitrary will
and pleasure of General Narvaez, who had also suspended
the Cortes and abolished the liberty of the press. He
` ought really to have given a second postscript, announc-
ing that Narvaez himself bad been dethroned and ba-
nished from Spain. The article on the war in the Pun-
jaub is written in a very unfair spirit, and with a degree
of malevolence and misrepresentation unbecoming a re-
, spectable journal. Acoording to the writer's views, Sir
Henry Hardinge is an imbecile, and " has proved him-
self to be a political Don Quixote, who erected immense
windmills, that he might encounter the labour of
overthrowing them." His Quixotism " has studded the
whole land with widows and orphans," and his
great. his unpardonable crime is, that he had not an army
of 50,000 men posted on the banks of the Sutlej. It is
of no use to reason with a man who can maintain such
an absurd proposition. The only information in the
article is contained in a postscript, giving a view of the
casualties in the modern battles of India as compared
with those of Waterloo. We seleet a few :—At Water-
loo the loss was 1 in 6 ; at Assaye, 1 in 3 ; Meanee, 1 in
11 ; and at Ferozeshah and Moodkee, 1 in 6. The
writer, with characteristic unfairness, does not give the
proportion at the battle at Sabraon (it was not 1 in 10),
nor even mentions that decisive action.

- BELLS AND POMEGRANATES. N
and Last. By Robert Browning.
o.
-FM.
Paracelsus was, alas! delusive; naturally, we are dis-
inclined to believe so ; we looked towards Bober;
„Browning as one destined to interrupt the general
;,.utilitarianism of the present age with gleams of genuine
and lasting poetry. Our expectations have been woe-
fully deceived, and, as we say this emphatically though
unwillingly, our opinion is a positive one. "Sordello"
afforded us an inkling that the chief excellencies of
"Paracelsus" were promises never likely to be fulfilled,
and this feeling has been confirmed by the successive
numbers of that serial mélange which the author, in a
beautiful spirit of eccentricity, christened "Bells and
Pomegranates," and of which the present part is the
conclusion. It would be preposterous as well as
unjust to attach such a comprehensive meaning
to our words of condemnation as would embrace the
entire structure of these works : it would be prepos-
terous, since a man with so much imagination and spon-
taneous delicacy of thought as Robert Browning could
not possibly produce fifty lines of blank verse without
something choice, and new, and worthy of applause: it
would be unjust, since criticism should forego all
tendency to acerbity, and as readily admit the success-
fulness, as it condemns the ambitious failure. There
are adroit turnings of phrase, and a certain musical
intonation of the rhythm that charm the ear; there are
fragmentary indications of character and subtle turns
of thought exquisitely conceived of themselves. But
what we especially note as a deficiency is that grasp
over the entirety of his subject, that eye to a poetical
oneness which can alone ensure the permanent excellence
of a poem. In this particular—so utterly essential for a
drinker of the hippocrene—Mr. Browning is deficient.
The gold is there—rich, pure, and plentiful—but, to
...iruotfl aptly the word inaptly applied to Shakspere by
13 . Johnson, that gold is " clouded with incrustations,
debased by impurities,
. and mingled with a mass of
meaner minerals ;"—besides which, as we have already
intimated, it lackscan alone stamp itth at symmetry of application which
with posterity.
such a signet as will enable it
wi
to pass current ;
wposterity. Mr. Browning may re-
deem his position
el
are fain to think and hope so ;
and we turn anxious
towards the future for a con-
firmation of the idea, Infinitely better for him to have
lapsed into a bewildering silence, like the Greatest of
, our Young Poets, Alfred Tenn Tennyson than to have pub-.
dished •`Sordello," andmhiaserncent succession of poems.
see may, however, by maturing,
obtaining such a
mastery of his fancy as that tig
oywhich we have alluded,
produce works more worthy of“alijudicious enthusiasm—
" things of beauty" that shall
yearn, and we do so
live for ever."
do nothing but anticipate and We can
earnestly, because in Robert Browning; we
r recognise an
es, but the
intellect lavish and exuberant in its riches,
wealth of which is rendered null and profitless by some-
thing approaching either to precipitation or carelessness.
a
Hence do we hie him forward on less devious path
among the plenteous vegetation of Parnassus. Upon
for-
fly-leaf of the present number our authorne
Upon a
ward an apologia for his quaint heading,
Pomegranates"—a title, says he "meant" Bells and
only to indi-
cate an enleavour towards something like an alternation,
or mixture of music with discoursing, sound with
pastry with thought, which looks too ambitious thussenese'
pressed, so the symbol was preferred." This explanation
must undoubtedly be accepted as sufficient, though we
Must aeknowledge it somewhat more vague even than
the "symbol" itself. "I wish he nould explain his ex-
planation," said Byron, in allusion to the metaphysics of
Coleridge; we might apply the same expression to Mr.
Browning, when he actually infers a distinction between
poetry and thought. "Luria," in five acts, and "A Soul's
:and final in two parts, form the contents of this eighth
final number. Without any question the former
has the advantage. in merit ; the spirit of it is a rapid
train of resolves ever tending towards action, but seldom
rising into anything but
t argument. " Braccio" is a
imagined character happily and no less happily defined.
Tire language in which the dialogues are couched is
occiceionally sloveu yl, but
sometimes (if we might so