The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-13 00:00:00

THE SUN,

VANCOUVER'S ISLAND-THE GI-

GANT 10 JOB.
We'rejoice to perceive that the Manchester Chamber
of Commerce have uplifted their voice against one of the
most stupendous jobs ever perpetrated by a + orrupt Ad-
ministration. We allude, of course, to the proposed
cession of Vancouver's Island to the Hudson s
Bay Company. The iniquity has not yet
been consummated, though the audacity that could
plan the wholesale public pillage is, doubt-
less, sufficiently brazen to go through with it.
The " family party" who have got hold of the reins
of government are really making a nice thing
of it. My Lord Grey, in his capacity of Colo-
nial Minister, makes a present to his uncle, Mr.
Edward Ellice, and his fur-trading company, of an
island—one of the most valuable of British posses-
sions, and for which we were within an ace of
going to war with America—with as perfect sang
froid as the Premier installed his brother into the
Sergeantship at Arms. Truly Earl Grey is turning
his patronage to most able account. The word to
his private circle is no longer simply, " Who wants a
colonial governorship ?" " Who wants a colony ?"
his Lordship now asks. " I," says uncle Edward,
" I want a colony ;" and it's all settled. Van-
couver's Island ceases to belong to Great Britain, and
becomes the private property of a monopolists corn•
pa.ny of furriers, lucky enough to have a colonial
Minister's uncle for a co-partner.
_

The apology put forward by the Colonial-office
for this infa•nous transaction, when the withering
exposure of Mr. Gladstone, towards the close of
last session, brought officials to bay, is almost as
bad as the projected robbery itsel. It was, for-
sooth, Lord Grey's ardent zeal to promote the
interests of colonization that alone prompted him
to make a gift of Vancouver's Island to an anti-
colonizing company. Think of that, Master Ford !
The Secretary for the Colonies could devise no other
method of peopling a British possession, except deli-
vering it up to a corporation whose direct interest
it is to keep it a wilderness. The plough does not
often follow the trail of the trapper ; and whenever
it does we may be quite sure it is not with the
trapper's good will. " A secret and grasping
company,"—as the Manchester Chamber of Com-
merce justly designate the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany—who have, for centuries, preserved in waste
a tract of territory larger than Europe, are
not likely to turn over a new leaf in their adminis-
tration of Vancouver's island. Their character, too,
is not greatly calculated to induce settlers to trust
themselves to their sway. At this moment the
protest against oppression of the entire inhabitants
of the only settlement they ever founded—that of
the Red River—is under the consideration of
Government. Yet before the Company are cleared
of the serious charges of malversation that lie
against them, Lord Grey threatens, with indecent
haste, to make them absolute lords of a territory
whose importance to British interests it is impossible
to over-estimate. A clause in the deed of gift, how-
ever, entitles Great Britain to purchase back the island
at the end of eleven years. The upshot of the busi-
ness will be, that we shall have to do so, at a price
that will sorely burden the British tax-payer, but
afford a famous dividend to Mr. Edward Ellice and
the other members of the Hudson's Bay Company.—
_Liverpool Mercury.

In London there are 12,000 children regularly
under training to crime, 30,000 thieves, 6,000 receivers
of stolen goods, 23,000 picked up in a state of drunken-
ness, 50,000 habitual gin drinkers, and 150,000 persons
of both sexes leading an abandoned life.
SHARP PRACTICE.—SCENE AT CHAMBERS.—A
client of mine had his declaration on a bill of exchange
demurred to, because, instead of the words " in the year
of our Lord 1834," he had written " A.D. 1834." I at-
tended the late Mr. Justice Littledale at chambers, to
endeavour to get the demurrer set aside as frivolous, or
leave to amend on payment of a shilling; but that punc-
tilious, though very able and learned judge, refused to
do either. " Your client, sir," said he, " has committed
a blunder, air, which can be set right only on the usual
terms, sir. A.D.,' sir, is neither English nar Latin, sir.
It may mean anything or nothing, sir. It is plain, sir,
that here is a material and traversable fact, and no date
to it, sir." Whereupon he dismissed our poor summons
with costs! The demurrer had been spun out by a
pleader to an inconceivable length in ringing the changes
on that one objection; and my client had positively to
pay, out of his own pocket, between seven and eight
pounds.— Warren's Practice of the Law.
ROMAN URNs.--In digging for gravel and pre-
paring the ground for planting at West-lodge, opposite
St. Mary's-terrace, Lex ton-road, upwards of 20 cinerary
urns have been exhumed, nearly all of which were filled
with incinerated bones and earth. With one exception
they are of dark baken :earth, and of various sizes, from
the capacity of a quart to that of two gallons. Some of
them were broken so much as to render all attempts to
restore them ineffectual, others are only partially in-
jured, and six or seven are perfect. The solitary ex-
ception in' colour among the urns is one of peculiar
shape also, with handles of a light red ware. Over one
of the black urns was a flat cover of light red ware, and
the bones thus protected were perfectly dry and clean.
Another urn was covered with a shallow vessel of the
same material. Close by one small urn were found two
bottles of different size, shape, and colour. The con-
tents of several of the urns have been examined, but
eight or ten remain as found. In addition to these a
small tomb, consisting of four large thick tiles or bricks,
set on edge, was found ; its contents were bone ashes
and some fragments of thick glass ; near this was a flue
of one brick, the exterior ornamented with scroll. work ;
also a small drinking cup ; and at another part of the
ground the remains of a lamp• stand, of lead. They
are intended for the Colchester Museum, and will form
an interesting addition to its local antiquities.—Essex
Standard.

STETTIN.—Sour KITCHEN FOR CHOLERA. El..
TIENTS.—The Jewish Community of this town have es-
tablished a soup-kitchen for the relief of the poor and
the refreshing of the sick, which is now particularly op-
portune during the prevalence of the cholera. The es-
tablishment is in the centre of the quarter where cholera
is mostly raging. Not only strengthening soup, but
' likewise good meat, is distributed to the applicants. To
facilitate the distribution, a number of tickets are given
to the surgeons and physicians, who may give them
away where they are needed without any previous ap-
plication. The medical men have to report in the even-
ing the number of tickets distributed by them during the
day, so that the soup and meat, which is fresh every
day, may be ready for the number of applicants on the
following day. This is the proper mode of doing charity.
To give it—to give it before it is asked for—and to give
it liberally.--Jewish Chronicle.
THE COGGESTIALL GANG.—Yesterday there was a
further examination of the parties connected Is ith the
Coggeshall gang, the charges principally arising out of
the statements of Wade, the convicted accomplice in the
case. Another of the gang, William Everitt, a dealer
in fish, was apprehended on Saturday, and was charged
with the others with further burglaries in the neighbour-
hood of Coggeshall. The examination took place at the
county gaol, Springfield, the Rev. Sir J. P. Wood, Bart,
attending for the purpose; Mr. Corder was present, as
usual, to take the depositions and discharge the duties of
magistrates' clerk, which, from the number of cases in
which the gang are implicated, required much tact and
judgment.—Chelmsford Chronicle.
LUBECK.—PROGRESS OF TOLERATION —Even this
" free" city, which has kept up the partition wall be-
tween Jews and Christians longer than any other town
in Germany, and where no Jew is permitted to reside,
is giving signs of toleration. The partition is decaying,
and will soon give way. The Jews of Moislingen
few miles from Lubeck) are already permitted to resume
their family names. Sworn registrars are introduced,
and hopes are held out to some of them to settle in the
adjacent city of Lubeck. A draft for the formal estab-
lishment of a synagogue and congregation is also under
consideration.—Jewish Chronicle.

THE WEATHER.—The winter has fairly commenced
in this neighbourhood. On Thursday morning people
were surprised on arising from their slumbers, to find the
dying beauties of autumn enveloped in a winding sheet
of snow. The scene became beautiful during the pro-
gress of the day; the snow glowed in the sunshine which
thawed it, and the drops sparkled like diamonds as they
fell. Sharp frost followed, and the icy atmosphere which
drives the world shuddering to the fireside. The snow on
the hills and in the forest, we understand, has been two or
three inches deep, and, of course, much deeper in the
drifts, much to the satisfaction of the Lamers, to whom
snow, when it comes in due season, is a very useful friend.
The weather is now exceedingly fine; by day we have a
bracing air, a bright sun, and but for the thaw which the
sunshine produces, it would be perfection ; at night the
frost-hardened road echo the footsteps and rattling
wheels, while " moonlight sleeps sweetly on the untrod-
den snow."—Gloucester Journal.
THE LADIES AND THEIR VEILS.---The origin of a
fashion which sprung up among the ladies some months
ageal isn raenv eal
article
d in
nn a recent
Frolics number
of
Fashion." of e 1 r er s '
Whens Jour-
the
Queen," says the writer, " was on the Clyde last year,
finding her face visited too roughly by the air of our
Scottish hills, she tied her veil under her chin. The
action was natural, and the effect, no doubwt,fainrrli:ied w
the. cir-
cumstances,
-
The R onynadl ccihneeellnsi
chuemalsthta,nfleuessheb womanlyingdeewemith.
fanned by the welcoming breezes of the
nyoretehnl:oked
and
almost as beautiful, we dare say, as a moss rose, 'How.
ever that may be, before the day was out, there were
hundreds of other cheeks in the same predicament. The
rage of imitation spread. In the shadiest walk—in the
closest streets of the town—in the calmest and hottest
days of the season—the veil was fashionably tied under
the chin. The fashion, however, was in reality made a
fashion only through misapprehension; for the Queen
had merely adopted a temporary expedient to servo a
temporary end; and when the emergency was over, she,
no doubt, unloosed the knot and gave her veil to the
winds as usual."
POLITICAL GENL—Reader, did it ever:occur to you
that when the glorious dawn of the millennium shall
burst forth upon your astonished vision; when the pillars
of the earth shall be upheaved and creation shall rock
upon its broad basis; when the stars shall " shoot madly
from their spheres," and when yon orb of day, as he rolls
on in his meridian splendour, shall involve the nations of
the earth in one general conflagration—we say, did it
ever occur to you that, amid this " wreck of matter and
this crash of worlds"—when Heaven's last thunder shall

;hake this sublunary sphere—that-you can smile un-
dismayed o'er the ruins, consoled by the pleasing re-
flection that you once ♦oted for Cass and Butler?--Mis-
sissipi Paper.
The saddlers of Bristol have come to the determi-
nation to close their shops at seveno'clock in the evening.