The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-09 00:00:00

a gentleman whose ability, discretion, and integrity
would not be questioned by any assemblage.—(Cheers.)
Mr. Alderman WOOD said it was with great pleasure
that he recorded his sense of the conduct of the Sheriffs
'inring the late election. There was one point to which he
wished to allude. He wished to do an act of iustice to the
gentlemen connected with Mr. Alderman Carroll's
committee. There was a letter signed by Mr. An-
derton, produced in the other room and I am bound to
say that Ithink and believe firmly tile committee had no
knowledge whatever of that letter, and also he should
say he believed that upon no occasion had the com-
mittee acted otherwise than straightforward and fair in
their opposition. He had great pleasure in moving that
the thanks of the Hall be given to the Sheriff's for their
conduct during the election.—(Cheers.)
Mr. BENNOCH seconded the motion. He had found
from his connexion with the Common Hall, and the pro-
minent position he took in the present election, the very
great facility with which the actions of men might be
misrepresented and villified. He was not in the habit
of defending the delinquencies of any man, but he
called upon those who made charges against
others to come forward and state their proofs,
and then leave the Livery to judge. His sole
object had been, and was, to show, in the course
he had pursued, that some alteration ought to be made
in the Court of Aldermen, that it ought to be radically
changed.—(Cries of " And so it will.") There were many
in the Court of Aldermen far more black than Ah4er-
man Wood.—(Cheers.) To this it was said, two blacks
did not make a white, and to that he answered, don't
have any blacks at all.—(Cheers.) By adapting the
Court of Aldermen to the times in which they lived, by
making the election of its members periodically, they
would secure the best results.—(Cheers.) If the Livery
had placed Mr. Alderman Wood at the head of the poll,
the Court of Aldermen would then not have had the op-
portunity they had now of sheltering themselves behind
their acts. It had been admitted in the papers of that
day that what he had stated with respect to Alderman
wood was true—everything with respect to bins had
been cleared up, and it was now the business of
the Livery to see that he got a proper committee to in-
quire into his case, which the Court of Aldermen had
refused to give him.
The motion was then put, and declared to be carried
unanimously.
•
The SHERIFFS returned thanks.
Thanks were then voted to the Lord Mayor, who
returned thanks, and the Hall was then dissolved.

ATROCITIES of the SLAVE TRADE.
In November last the barque Pons, of Philadelphia,
commanded by Captain James Berry, was at anchor in
the port of Cabinda (Africa), for some time,before taking
in the slaves, during which time she was watched by her
Britannic Majesty's brig Cygnet, Captain Layton, com-
mander. The slaver had come from Rio, and a person
named Gallano, an Italian, who embarked in her as a
passenger, had entered into an arrangement by which
she was to be given up to him on their arrival at the
coast. On the morning of the 27th, the Cygnet, being
ordered to leave the coast, was got under weigh, and
stood out to sea, and the captain of the slaver taking
advantage of this circumstance, immediately commenced
getting on board the slaves, with the water, provisions,
&c.; so expeditious were they in their movements, that
at eight o'clock the same evening the vessel had left
Cabinda, having embarked 903 slaves. She did not
stand out to sea immediately, but kept along the coast
during the night, and at daylight, being off Kacongo,
twenty-five miles north of Cabinda, they discovered the
Cygnet in the offing. Under these circumstances, they
drifted near the shore, se that a number of negroes
lined the beach, in the expectation of her going
aground and becoming a wreck. Towards noon,
however, the Cygnet drew off from the land, and the
crew of the slaver, finding that they had not been ob-
served, set all sail and cleared the shore. About this
time the United States ship Yorktown, under the com-
mand of Captain Bell, having observed her motions, and
judging that she was engaged in the traffic of slavery,
gave chase, and, after a run of two days, succeeded in
capturing her, in lat. 3 deg. south. When first observed,
ebb hoisted merican colours, under the impression that
the vessel in chase was a British cruiser, but, discovering
her mistake, raised the Portuguese flag. Owing, how-
ever, to Captain Bell first showing one colour and then
another, the captain of the slaver became confused, and,
during the fright, threw all his papers overboard, which
he admitted on being captured. When the slaves became
acquainted with the fact of their re-capture, they were
so overcome with joy, that they gave a shout which
might have been heard at the distance of a mile. The crew
consisted of Spaniards, Portuguese, Brazilians, and sea-
men from other nations. On examination it was found
that she had shipped upwards of 900 slaves between the
ages of eight and thirty, embracing forty-seven girls;
and that about twenty had died, although the vessel had
been out only three days. The slave ship was then
placed under the command of Lieutenant Cogdell, who
proceeded with the victims to Liberia, where he arrived
on the 15th December, and landed all that remained
alive, amounting to 756, upwards of 180 having died on
the passage. About 30, who were in a dying condition,
survived only a short time after their arrival. The
vessel had no sle.ve deck, and upwards of 850 of the
wretched human beings (males) were piled almost in a
bulk on the water tasks below, while 40 or 50 females
occupied one-half of the round-house cabin on the deck.
She was bound to Rio Janeiro, and being a
vessel of only about 350 tons, it seemed impossible that
one-half of the slaves could have lived to cross the
Atlantic). The captain said he had intended to ship
400 or 500 more, had he not been prevented by -
the proximity of an English cruiser. The suffer-
ings- of the poor wretches can scarcely be imagined, as
the stench from below was so great, that it was impos-
sible to stand more than a few moments near the hatch-
ways, and several of the ship's crew who went below,
from curiosity, were brought up sick in a few minutes.
The victims of the traffic were taken in charge by Dr.
Lugenbeel, the secretary of the American Colonization
Society at Monrovia (Liberia), and afterwards placed
under the care of responsible persons in the colony, a
guarantee being required that they should be humanely
treated. The Rev. W. B. Hoyt, missionary from the
Episcopal Society at Monrovia, visited the Pons on her
arrival at Liberia, and describes the scene which was
then presented as of the most appalling character, the
living and the dying being crowded together with less
care than would have been bestowed on the brute crea-
tion. Some of them were so emaciated, that their bones
almost protruded through the flesh, while others had
upon their bodies large sores produced by lying on
the planks of the vessel, the ulcers being covered with
swarms of flies, who were feeding as upon a dead carcass.
The thermometer in the hold would, it was supposed,
range between 110 to 120 degrees. Several of the suf-
ferers had jumped overboard during the passage, anti
others would, no doubt, have done so if an opportunity
had been afforded them. The prize-master stated that
as soon as a slave became helpless through debility or
sickness, those around would strangle him in order that
his body might be removed, and more room thus afforded
to his companions. The Italian captain was brought to
Liberia in the Yorktown, as a prisoner, but on his ar-
rival he was released by the officer in command : and
such was the excitement amongst the inhabitants of the
colony against him, owing to the lawless and ferocious
brutality he exhibited, that it was deemed unsafe for him
to remain on the beach. Ile stayed only a few days, and
then sailed for South America. It appeared he had been
engaged in the slave trade upwards of 20 years, during
which period he had been six times captured by English
cruisers, but had, n,gverthekss, made many successful
voyages. The whole affair was no doubt arrange !
between him and Berry before the ship sailed from Rio,
but it is thought the parties cannot be brought to justic,
by the present laws of the United States The slaver
was ultimately taken into the river Delaware, and ex
amined near the Navy-yard. The part of the round
house in which 47 of the female slaves were confined.
was found to be 11 feet 4 inches by 9 feet 6 inches,
and six feet in height. On each side were two tiers
(three in a tier) of spaces, probably intended as berths,
each about half the length of the room, two feet wide,
and the two upper ones in each tier two feet three inches
high. The berths on the level of the floor were only 18
inches in height. The hold measured 100 feet in length
by 21 feet 8 inches in the widest part. Several casks
were there, which had been covered with bags of
farina (the food of the slaves), upon which was
spread old coarse matting, forming a sort of platform,
on which the male slaves were stowed. When the bags
and mats were there, the height of the hold occu-
pied by the inmates could not be more than six feet.
The area of the platform was found by computation not
to exceed 1,720 feet, and as 850 slaves were stowed there,
each slave must have had only two square feet of room,
or a square space of 17 inches in the side. If they had
lain side by side, and each occupied 15 inches in ',slab,
and fire feet in length, 286 of them would have filled up
the whole space, but that was only about one third o'
their actual number, and same idea may consequently
be formed of the suffering they must have endured. If
was found that when the hatches were closed they would
breathe all the air in the hold twice over within the hour.
There were but two apertures for the admission of fresh
air—one near the middle of the deck, six feet nine by
seven feet ; the other, three feet nine by three feet six,
with a step-ladder occupying a small part of it. The
area of the two openings would be about sixty square
feet, and those furnished the only means of ventilatin:4
this pestilential receptacle for 850 human beings, during
the period which might be occupied in a voyage acrosa
the Atlantic.

ATROCIOUS AIULIDER.—A murder under the most
dreadful circumstances has just been committed in the
electora'e of Broach. A gang of bigoted ruffians having
lost several head of cattle from disease, attributed their
misfortune to the males oculus, or evil eye, of a poor
woman, who, with her husband and family, lived in the
jungles. The men proceeded in a body to the house of
these inoffensive people, and, in spite of supplications for
mercy, and attempts at resistance, succeeded in effecting
the horrid purpose for which they had gone. The
husband and other relatives who tried to defend the sus-
pected evil-eyed women were cruelly ill-treated, and she
was tied to a stake and burnt to death. The poor hus-
band has laid his case before the authorities of the Zillah
to which he belongs, and, doubtless, the most stringent
measures will be taken to punish the inhuman Perpe-
trators of this act, most of whom are fortunately known.
The authorities are not in the least to blame, as the deed
was committed in a place which is quite isolated, and
inhabited by a semi-barbarous people. Such is the state
of some part of India in 1846. What would railroads
not effect in helping to destroy the last relics of barba-
rism and disseminating civilivation among such a be-
nighted set?— Benibay Gentleman's Gazette.
FOREIGN POTATOES.---It is now some time since
we had occasion to notice an importation of potatoes
from abroad. A vessel arrived at Bristol from Jersey,
in addition to a variety of other articles, had 100 cwt. of
this Esteemed and muchspoken-of article on board; and
the steam-ship, Ocean, arrived on Monday, from Rotter-
dam, had three hampers of potatoes on board, the growth
of Holland, and the first arrival of the kind from that
country for several months past.