The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-22 00:00:00

No. 16,929. LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING SUN, DECEMBER 22, 1846.

STOCK of GENUINE WINES, directed to be SOLD in consequence
of a Dissolution of Partnership, and to be delivered from the Cel-
lars, in the Adolph!.
TVlRbAylUAulsTcDnox.RO,tßLNßSoorniss,
iinn
Covent-garden,struetedto
ELL EDMUND
TO-MO/MOW, at Twelve,
A CELLAR OF REMARKABLY CHOICE AND GENUINE
WINES,

GUN COTTON.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.
COLUMN OF CALLS.
The following are a few of the calls advertised up to
this period for December and January, with the amount
payable on each share. The first sixteen are for Decem-
ber, the remaining thirty-eight for January, the majority
of which are called up by the old lines, who more than
divide the demand with the lines of last session:—
North Staffordshire .£2 18
East and West Yorkshire Junction
Enfield and Edmonton
Northern and Eastern, New.
Glssgow, Barrhesd, and Neilston, New
Dieppe and Fecatnp
Aberdeen
Scottish Central
Caledonian (Clydesdale Junction)
Paris and Lyons 3 0
Boulogne and Amiens
Huddersfield and Sheffield Junction
Manchester and Leeds, Huddersfield and
Sheffield Junction, 501. shares 5 0
Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne, and Manches-
ter, One-eighth shares (late N 0.3 Quarters) 2 10
Taw Vale Railway and Dock Company 1 0
Ipswich and Bury St. Edmund's
Edinburgh and Northern, 151. shares
Liverpool and Bury, 101. shares
Manchester, Bolton, and Bury, Fifths.
Manchester and Leeds, Quarter shares
Manchester and Leeds (Liverpool and Bury
101. shares) 3 16
Midland, Erewash Valley 5 0
London and Blackwall, New shares 1 0
Lynn and Ely
Northern and Eastern 5 0 .
Fleetwood, Preston, and West Riding Junction 0 10
Newcastle and Carlisle, New 1001. shares
Newcastle and Carlisle,
Newry, Warrenpoint, and Rosstrevor 5 0
Midland Six percent. shureellate-Bistol-und
Gloucester shares), 21. on the 50/. shares;
31. 14s. 6d. on the 37/. ss. shares. Ja•
nuary 5, 1847. New Quarters
Midland Extension Lines, New 401 shares 6 0
Midland Great Western of Ireland, 50/. shares 5 0
Ambergate, &c.....
South-Eastern and Dover, No. 4 1 5
Leeds, Dewsbury, and Manchester, 501. shares 5 0
Great Western, 171. shares
Great Western, Quarter shares
Bristol and Exeter, Thirds
Dutch Rhenish
Great Luxembourg
London and North Western (Grand Junc-
tion 251. shares)
Eastern Counties, 14/. 16s. shares
Eastern Counties, New 41. 16s. shares
Thames Haven Dock and Railway
Reading, Guildford, and Reigate
London, Brighton, and South Coast
South Wales
Leeds and Bradford .. 5 0
Eastern Counties (York Extension) 2 0
Northern of France
Belfast and Ballymena
Taw Vale Railway and Dock Company 1 0
Eastern Counties, New shares

Birkenhead, East Lancashire, Edinburgh and Glasgow,
London and North-Western, Taff Vale, Ulster, Ipswich
and Bury.
It is said that the reformed board of the Manchester
and Leeds intend declaring a dividend at their next half-
yearly meeting, at the rate of eight per cent.
The Scottish papers state that the English proprietors
in the Edinburgh and Glasgow, who hold about 3-4ths
of the stock, have determined that the Sunday trail,:
shall be immediately resumed.
The York and North Midland intend, with the new
year, to take in hand the formation of the railway and
works from Selby to Market Weighton, a distance t
about 16 miles ; the formation of the railway and works
from Uopmanthorpe to Tadcaster, a distance of about
seven miles ; and those on the Harrogate Branch Ex
tension, a distance of one mile. Also, the stations,
buildings, and other works on the East Riding Branch
(Leeds Extension), Selby to Market Weighton, Harro
gate Ektension, and Copmanthorpe to Tadcaster.
The South-Eastern will first commence that portion of
their North Kent line extending from Erith and the
Surrey Canal, a distance of 14 miles.
The Leeds and Thirsk are contracting for their
carriages and conveyances for general merchandise.
The Ashburton, Newton, and South Devon meet
to•day to consider the sale of their line to the South
Devon.

ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, SITTING OF DE

CEMBER 13.

Although the French Government has fulminated its
decree against the fulminating cotton, it cannot prevent
the experiments of scientific men, or the publication of
them in the sittings of the Academy. As many commu-
nications on this subject are sent in as if the Government
had declared the manufacture and sale of this substance
free. We do not, however, find an) thing in the last
papers worthy of notice except an estimate by M.
Pelouse of the coast of manufacture. According to this
gentleman, 170 kilogrammes (about 3801 b. English) will
cost, exclusive of labour, which is not an important item
considering how little of it is required, 317 fr., being less
than lfr. per French pound. It is easy to conceive, there-
fore, that if gunpowder can be advantageously replaced
by explosive cotton, and the Government were to permit
the free sale of the substitute, it would lose an important
source of revenue, as the price of gunpowder, the
manufacture and sale of which is a Government mono-
poly, is so much superior to that at which the cotton
could be sold. We are not to suppose, however, that
this consideration has had any weight with the Ministry
as regards the recent prohibition of explosive cotton.
If this new discovery would replace gunpowder, the
Government would, as a matter of course, take the
manufacture and sale into its own hands, giving an in-
demnity to the persons who may have taken out patents in
France for different modes of preparing the substance.
We have heard of only one patent having been taken out,
but it is probable that there are several. If it be declared
illegal to make and sell explosive cotton, all that can
be said is, that it is a strange inconsistency for a Go-
vernment to grant a patent right where no right can
be exercised, and we think the Minister of Commerce
would have done well if he had refused to sign the
patents for this manufacture ; but this is a point upon
which we shall not enlarge, particularly as, subsequent
to the order for the prohibition, the Moniteur published a
sort of explanation of the motives which induced it. We
learn from this explanation that the prohibition is not a
final one, and are warranted in believing that if experience
sheuld show the properties of explosive cotton to be
better than those of gunpowder, and the dangers attend-
ing the preparation to be comparatively small, the
prohibition will be withdrawn. The objections at
present are, that the preparation is dangerous, and
that the properties of the new substance are now suffi-
ciently known. On the first point we must be permitted
to observe that the danger is much smaller than with
gunpowder. It is no argument to say that some acci-
dents have taken place. If gunpowder were an inven-
tion of the present day, and as many unskilful and care-
less hands had been engaged in the preparation of it as
has been the case with the explosive cotton, the accidents
would have been much more numerous and far more
calamitous than anything that has been authenticated in
the accounts which have appeared of explosions during
the preparation of the cotton. On the second point,
however, the reason assigned by the Government for
the prohibition is good. It has not yet been proved
that the fulminating or explosive cotton is a perfect sub-
stitute for gunpowder. Many inconveniences have been
pointed out by scientific and practical men, and its ex-
plosive power is unknown. In one case several grains
have been fired in a pocket pistol, without the slightest
indication of danger to the person using the article ; in
another a quantity of cotton, equal only in weight to the
hundredth part of the ordinary charge of gunpowder,
burst a proof mortar. With such facts before it, the
Government is wise to pause.— Galignani.

presenting to the connoisseur a rare opportunity to possess wines of
the finest quality, the sale taking place under a dissolution of part-
nership of an old established concern in the Adelphi, proverbial for
the excellence of their stock. The wines comprise 11 bins, or 252
dozenskof brown, golden colour, and pale Sherries, of pure and dry
qualities, and of NI arth, az, D AWSOn Campbell's, and Sebastian Smith's
shipping ; 90 dozen, in three bins, of old crusted Port, bf Sandeman's
and Thompson and Croft's shipping ; also, 50 dozen of choice full
flavoured Burgundy Port. These wines being old in bottle, of first-
rate quality, well-matured, and in the finest condition, a most tempt-
ing opportunity is presented to private buyers to replenish their
cellars for the approaching season.
Samples may be had, with catalogues, at the Offices in Covent-
garden. ktig

RAILWAYS AND FRESH HERRlNGS.—Herrings caught
at Brighton in the morning are sold in the Midland
counties in the afternoon. This arises from the facilities
of transit by the London and Brighton and London and
North-Western Railway; and such has been the effect
in the reduction of prices, says our Birmingham cor-
respondent, " that the finest quality can now be had at
the rate of from twenty to twenty-five for a shilling,
being a reduction of nearly two hundred per cent."

SHEFFIELD AND MANCHESTER—CUTTING
FIRST SOD OF THE WIIALEY-BRIDGE
BRANCH.
On Friday afternoon the ceremony of cutting the first
sod of the Whaley-bridge Branch of the Sheffield,
Ashton-under-Lyne, and Manchester Railway, extend-
ing a distance of twelve miles from Dukinfield to Wha-
ley Bridge, took place under very auspicious circum-
stances. The day, considering the season of the year,
was fine, and that attracted many people to the scene of
the ceremony. At one o'cleck a special first-class train
left Manchester, and at half-past eleven a special train
left Sheffield, with the directors of the company, share-
holders, and well-wishers of the undertaking. The
Manchester train first reached the Dukinfield station,
but shortly after its arrival the train from Sheffield took
its place at the appointed rendezvous. Immediately
after alighting from the carriages, the company pro-
ceeded along a narrow and slippery lane, for a distance
of about two miles, to the field, on the estate of Mr.
Dukinfield Astley, in which it had been arranged that
the ceremony of cutting the first sod should take place.
At this spot there was a very numerous attendance of
gentlemen, farmers, and cottagers connected with the
neighbourhood.
The usual preliminaries having been gone through,
Mr. JOHN CHAPMAN, Chairman of the Sheffield,
Ashton, and Manchester line, said they were met that
day, as they were all aware, to commence the operative
part of the works connected with the formation of the
Whaley-bridge branch of the Sheffield, Ashton, and
Manchester Railway.—(Cheers.) As chairman of that
company, he had to express the thanks of the directors
to Mr. Dukinfield Astley, for the prominent part which
he had consented to undertake in the commencement of
that 'great work.—(Applause.) He hoped the work
would be carried forward in as auspicious a manner as
that in which it bad commenced.—(Applause.) Ile hoped
the work would progress in a satisfactory way until it
was concluded.—(Loud applause.)
Mr. Dukinfield Astley, then, amid loud cheers, cut an
immense sod in the usual manner, and wheeled it along
planks " like a regular navy." He returned along the
planks amidst great cheering, when some of the directors
and founders of the company cut sods. After this the
regular " navies" were called in, took the spade, mattock,
and wheel-barrow, and did excellent work, to the great
delight of the assembled multitude.
Mr. DUKINFIELD ASTLEY, on returning, after deliver-
ing his great sod, said he must take that opportunity of
expressing the great pleasure which he felt in assisting
at the commencement of a work which he had no doubt
would be of great advantage to those parts of the country
through which the line was to pass.--(Cheers.) He
thought nothing could be better (than to move three
cheers for the success of the work that they had just
commenced.—(Three times three, and three cheers
more.) Three cheers were then proposed for Mr. Ast-
ley, and after a short stay in the field, the meeting
broke up.
The chairman of the company (Mr. Chapman) pre-
sented to Mr. Astley a beau iful spade previous to his
cutting the first sod, and which bore the following in-
scription :—" This spade is presented to F. D. P. Astley,
Esq., by the directors of the Sheffield, Ashton-under-
Lyne, and Manchester Railway Company, in comme-
moration of his having cut the first sod of the Whaley-
bridge branch, on the 18th of December, 1846." This
inscription was surmounted by a portrait of the Queen
on the shaft (which was made of maple wood), and by
Mr. Dukinfield Astley's coat of arms. On the reverse
side of the spade were the seal and arms of the com-
pany, and a list of the directors and principal officers of
the company. On the shaft were also a number of or-
naments. The spade was manufactured by Mr. Male-
ham, irenmonger, Sheffield.
The Earl of Yarborough, chairman of the Lincolnshire
and Sheffield Railways, would have been present both at
the cutti.ig of the first sod and -at the dinner, had cir-
cumstances nit compelled him to be absent on the con-
tinent.

FORTUNES MADE BY ADVER-

TISING.

From a small pamphlet, entitled " The Art of Making
Money," an extract has been taken, and is going the
round of the provincial press, pointing out the facility of
making immense sums by the simple process of con-
tinuous advertising. Doubtless large sums have been,
are, and will be made by such a system by certain per-
sons of ability, who no doubt would make their way in
the world if called upon to play different parts on the
great stage of life ' • but to suppose that men in general
must as a matter of course acquire wealth by such means
is as absurd as to imagine that all the penniless an shoe-
less of London are capable of rising to the dignity and
wealth of an alderman or the Lord Mayor of London,
simply by reading the " Young Man's Best Com
panion." Money is not so easily made as the writer of
the article referred to would lead people to suppose ; if
it be so, few need be poor. But to our text : fortunes
made by advertising. Undoubtedly the greatest man
of the day as an advertiser is Holloway, who
expends the enormous sum of twenty thousand
pounds annually in advertisements alone ; his
name is not only to be seen in nearly every paper
and periodically published in the British isles, but as if
this country was too small for this individual's exploits,
he stretches over the whole of India, having agents ie
all the different parts of the upper, central, and lower
provinces of that immense country, publishing his medi-
caments in the Hindoo, Oordoo, Goozratee, Persian, and
other native languages, so that the Indian public can
take the pills and use his ointment, according to general
directions, as a Cockney would do within the sound of
Bow bells. We find him again at Hong Kong and Can-
ton, making his medicines known to the Celestial by
means of Chinese translation. We trace him from thence to
the Philippine Islands, where he is circulating his prepa
rations in the native languages. At Singapore he has a
large depot : his agents there supply all the islands in
the Indian seas. His advertisements are published in
most of the papers at Sydney, Hobart Town, Launceston,
Adelaide, Port Philip, and indeed in almost every town
of that vast portion of the British empire. Returning
homewards, we find his pills and ointment selling
at Valparaiso, Lima, Callao, and other ports in the
Pacific. Doubling the Horn, we track him in the
Atlantic—at Monte Video, Buenos Ayres, Santos, Rio
de Janeiro, Bahia, and Pernambuco : he is advertising
in those parts in Spanish and Portuguese. In all the
British West India Islands, as also in the Upper and
Lower Canadas, and the neighbouring provinces of Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick, his medicines are as fami-
liarly known, and sold by every druggist, as they are at
home. In the Mediterranean we find them selling at
Malta, Corfu, Athens, and Alexandria, besides at Tunis
and other portions of the Barbary states. Any one taking
the trouble to look at the " Journal" and " Courier" of
Constantinople, may find in these, as well as other
papers, that Holloway's medicines are regularly adver-
tised and selling throughout the Turkish empire ; and
even in Russia, where an almost insurmountable barrier
exists, the laws there prohibiting the entria of patent
medicines, Holloway's ingenuity has been at work, and
obviates this difficulty by forwarding supplies to his
agent at Odessa, a port situated on the Black Sea, where
they filter themselves surreptitiously by various chan-
nels, into the very heart of the empire. Africa has
not been forgotten by this indefatigable man, who
has an agent on the River Gambia ; also at Sierra
Leone, the plague spot of the world, the
inhabitants readily avail themselves of the ointment and
pills ; thus we can show our readers that Holloway has
made the complete circuit of the globe, commencing with
India, and ending, as we now do, with the Cape of Good
Hope, where his medicines are published iu the Dutch
and English languages ; and while speaking of Dutch,
we have heard that he has made large shipments to Hol-
land, and is about advertising in every paper or pet iodical
published in that kingdom ; we might also add that he
has also started his medicine in some parts of France,
in some portions of Germany, as also in some of the
Italian states. We have been at some little trouble to
collect all these facts, because we fear that the article
before alluded to, " the Art of making Money," is cal-
culated to lead people to spend their means in the hope
(as the author states) of making a hundred thousand
pounds in six years for his pains, by holding up as an
followto
il
such a man as Holloway, who
his way. Many may
means, but have they thenendknenowledg
knowledge,
eiahsabasivyl
eitreallyy he example
energy,
Napoleon
and pr'isites, a
total loss is certain. neces-
sary Failing any
to
e
body and mind. No doubt judgment,o of these
calculatedrequnmaa
undertake any enterprisein. Holloway
requiring is
immenseenergies
he has been well repaid for
a
fortune. Of course it is not to our
of making a
large
rthe public from advertising; but, as
interest to deter all his labours, and is, we should suppose, in a lair way
lighthouse upon what we consider a dan-
duty to place a- h may perhaps sooner or later pre-
gerous shoal, which guardians of their interest, we think it our incumbent
such waters.
inexperi-
enced about to navigate
dinburgh Review," in a
The Editor of the " E
stated th then con-
t three years ago,
vent shipwreck and ruin
.to the sanguine and
ber published about
sidered he was making a desirable bequest to posterity,
by handing down to them the amount of talent and abi-
lity required by the present class of large advertisers.
At that p y
set forth; anderiod Hollowa
if these rema.rks, conjointly
's mode of advertising was most
prominent)
with his, should descend to a generation to come, it
will be known to what extent the subject of this article
merits
was able to carry out his views, together with the conse-
quentof his
expenditure in making known the
Times.
preparations to nearly the whole world. wtorial

The celebration of the dinner took place in the Music
Hall of the Albion Hotel, Piccadilly. About 100 gen-
tlemen sat down to dinner about half- past four.
At the dinner, the chairman, Mr. John Chapman,
chairman of the Sheffield, Asht,,n-under Lyne, and
Manchester Railway Company, was supported right and
left by Mr. F. D. Astley, Mr. G. Gisborne, Mr. J.
Smith, Mr. E. Buckley, Mr. G. Winter, Captain Clarke,
Mr. R. Buckley, Captain R. Hollingworth, the Mayor of
Ashton-under-Lyne, the Town Clerk of Manchester, Mr.
John Cheetham; Mr. Robinson, Mr. J. Ellison, Mr. Al-
derman Bancroft, Dr. Fleming, &e., &c. The following
directors of the company were present: —Messrs. Charles
Turner, Richard Matley, William Bradby, M. M. de
Bartolome, James Wall, Richard Thorold, and F. A.
Ward. The vice•chairs were occupied by Mr. C. Randall
and Mr. T. Blake.

BURKE'S HISTORY OF THE LANDED GENTRY.—
This important work, it appears, is to be issued by Mr.
Colburn, in ten monthly parts, price ss. each, commenc-
ing with the Magazines on the Ist of January. The
Landed Gentry of England are so closely connected with
the stirring records of its eventful history, that some ac-
quaintance with them is a matter of necessity with the
legislator, the lawyer, the historical student, the specu-
lator in politics, and the curious in topographical and
antiquarian lore. This work furnishes such a mass of
authentic information in regard to all the principal
families in the kingdom as has never before been brought
together. It relates to the untitled families of rank, as
the " Peerage and Baronetage " does to the titled ; and
forms, in fact, a peerage of the untitled aristocracy. It
embraces the whole of the landed interest, and is indis-
pensable to the library of every gentleman.
METROPOLITAN hiPROVEMENTS.—Yesterday the
second portion of the houses belonging to the Mercers'
Company's estate in Long- acre were sold for the building
materials, all of them, including the extensive range of
factories occupied by Messrs. Home, the coach-makers,
coming down for the proposed improvements at the north
end of Bow-street snd Long-acre opening a direct line
of communication between Waterloo- bridge, the London
and Birmingham Railway, and all the northern districts
of the metropolis. The demolition of the east side of
Upper St. Martin's-lane, for the proposed new street, is
pryer/din ropidly.

PRICE SD.

POTATOES.
The following important information, upon the sub-
ject of the potato disease in Poland, has been received
by Government from the British Consul at Warsaw:--
arsaw, Ot. 16, 1846.
"My Lord,---In a report " onW the result of this year's
harvest in Poland, which I had the honour to forward
to your Lordship with my letter (Consular, No. 25) of
the 28th of last month, I stated that the potato disease
was totally unknown in this country. Since niaLing that
statement I have heard of cne exception to the rule,
which has occurred on a small estate, not far from War-
saw, farmed by a Mr. Kedzlie, a British subject of much
intelligence, long established in Poland. The potatoes
which have furnished this exmption, are of the kind
called the Ash-leaved English Kidney Potatoe,' and
were obtained from England two years ago ; they were
planted in the midst of Mr. Kedzlie's other potato crops,
on land of the same quality, and prepared exactly in
the same way as the rest of the ground, which has
yielded perfectly sound fruit. This circumstance would
seem to prove that the disease is not attributable to at-
mospheric influences, as is, I hear, the generally re-
ceived opinion in other countries. Here, in Poland, all
persons to whom I have spoken on the subject think
that the potatoes in the rest of Europe are tainted in
the germ by over cultivation ; and it is certainly re
markable that here, where the soil is generally light
and where less manure is used than in any other coun-
try, except Russia—and never immediately preceding
the crop of potatoes—those plants should have com-
pletely escaped the infection, which threatens their ex-
tinction in all parts where greater pains have been taken
in their cultivation. Ido not imagine that the opinion
alluded to, on the isolated fact which I have mentioned,
will decide a question which has so hopelessly occupied
the attention of first-rate scientific men in many coun-
tries ; but I hope that the notice of the circumstances
will not be deemed irrelevant, at a time when the dis-
ease in question is the cause of such dire distress in her
Majesty's dominioni, as well- as in other parti of
Europe.—l have, &c.,
(Signed) " GUST. DU PLAT."
" Viscount Palmerston, C.8.C., &c."
This document will be read with the more interest, if
it is compared with the other facts of the same nature
to which we have formerly alluded as having been ob-
served at Genoa, Oporto, Bermuda, and the Cape of
Good Hope. It proves incontestibly one of two things
—either that the potato disease was actually engendered
in 1844, or that the whole English potato crop is pre-
disposed, by some cause, to take the disease more
readily than the crops of Portugal, Italy, and Poland.—
Gardeners' Chronicle.