The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-09 00:00:00

the wheat in this neigh':ourhood has been carried, is
' sp'endid cond;tion ; and should the same favourable
weather continue for a short time longer the whole of
the spring corn will be a:so secured. The pt,tatoes to
a certain extent are bad, but from the great breadth
planted, and th.? productive yield, it is considered by
many experienced growers that in this neighb.urbood
this valuable esculent fur tb, par man's :z:ble will be
found sufficient t meet the demand during ttie winter.
—Lincoln Mercury.
The weather, since our last notice, has continued
exceedingly favourable for the business of the harvest,
which is in full operation in every quarter. A great
deal of corn has been cut and a considerable quantity
housed ; but a large breadth of land yet remains to be
shorn. We fancy we have perceived some symptoms
of the besetting sin of north country farming—slug-
gishness in getting the crops off the ground, after
they are ready for leading. We should think that
there are not a hundred acres of unripe corn in this
county ; and we trust we shall next week have to
announce that there is rot so much out of doors.
The reports as to the potatoes continue satisfactory.—
_Durham Chronicle.

NEW RAILWAY BRIDGE.
PIRIUINCHAM, SEPT. B.—On Wednesday one of tho
new wrimght-iron bowstring bridges, constructed for
the Blackwall Suspension Line, under the superintend!.
ence of the engineer, Mr. Locke, M.P.. was psblicly
tested at Messrs. l' ox, Henderson, and Co.'s exteosive
establishment, the London Works, Smethwick, near
Birmingham. There were present, Captains Simmons
and Wynne, RE.; the Government Inspectors of Rail-
ways; Lieut. Galton, the Secretary to the Govern-
ment Board of Commisioners; Mr. G. F. Muntz, M.P.,
and Messrs. C. Vignoles, Fairbain, J. Whitworth, C.
B, Kerr, J. C. Stanton, C. H. Wild, Professor Cowper,
and between 70 and SO scientific gentlemen and engi-
neers.

The bridge rib had been erected ready for proof in
an open space in front of the London Works, and pre-
sented a clear span of 120 feet between the bearings.
It is constructed entirely of wrought iron, and consists
of an arch of boiler plates and angle iron tied across at
the ends by horizontal bars, and the tie bars are con-
nected with the arch by vertical standards and by a
double system of diagonals, which have the effect of
distributing over the whole curve of the arch the action
of weights placed on or passing over any point of the
bridge. The ribs are adapted for large spans, in cases
where either headway is of importance, or where suffi-
cient abutment cannot he obtained without very heavy
expense.
Bridges of this description may be employed, it is
affirmed, with perfect safety for very large spans—say
120 or 130 feet—in precisely the same manner as ordi-
nary girders are used fir small ones; but in spans of
400 feet it would be necessary to use four ribs instead of
two, and to brace all the four ribs together overhead, so
as to obtain additional transverse stiffnes%. The ribs are
supported at each end on cast-iron shoes fixed at one end
to the piers, and mounted on the other un sliding frames
and rollers. By this arrangement an -mpurtant advan-
tage is gained, as it provides not only for expansion and
contraction, but also for motion under a very heavy load.
Experiments have shown that the action of these parts Is
perfect.
The proof of the bridge rib was applied by loading it
with 240 tons of rails, bars, &c., and it produced the fol-
lowinr, satisfactory result:—The 240 tons weight pro-
duced a deflection at the centre of the arch of 3 1146
inches. The proof weight was placed at 240 as being
doub!e the greatest load which the bridge ca❑ by any
possibility be required to bear. It is scarcely necessary
to add that the trial gale great satisfaction to all parties.
The numerous company of gentlemen present were
afterwards invited to partake of the hospitality cif Messrs.
Eox, Henderson, and Co., in a large marquee on the
ground, and were additionally gratified by au inspection
of their extensive establishment, with its many iutverest-
ing scientific productions.

Bras Tor. SUGAR MARKET, SEPT. B.—About 200
hhds. West India have been disposed of this week At
steady prices, and in other descriptions of sugar the
transactions are unimportant. The refined market it
steady, but not active. Rum continues dull.—Bristol
Mercury.

OFFENSIVE CONDITION OF THE SERPENTINE.-
The above evil has now become so monstrous, as to have
caused the so-called river, and even that part of the park"
in which it is located, to have become positively deserted
by their usual bathers and promenaders. " The total
number of persons who have bathed in the Serpentine
river throughout this year (1846) exceeds 350,000, ac-
cording to the daily r, turns made by the superintendent
of the Humane Society."—(Twenty-third Annual Report
of the Humane Soc.', ty, p. 15.) So great is the falling
off, however, that the daily number of bathers has not,
throughout the present summer, on an average, exceeded
50, which, even reckoning fur the six summi r months,
is only about one thirty-fifth part of the number previ-
ously quoted. The medical men residing in the neigh-
bourhood have strictly ordered the families which they
attend to avoid this great tank of malaria. Another in-
stance of the extent of the nuisance, and of the necessity
of its speedy removal, is afforded in the case of a lady,
who, on merely passing over the bridge at the eastern
end of the river, found the stench from the river so
offensive, that she did not get rid of it fer several days,
and it gave rise to a violent attack of diarrhas. With
such startling facts as these, it is to be hoped that as
soon as Sir John Rennie (to whom the subject has
been remitted) has discovered a remedy for the evil,
that the same will be forthwith supplied. Such con
cessions, when requested not by the lawless and disat•'
cted, but by the public generally, are, on the part or
the authorities, not less expedient than they are impera-
tively called for.

On Thursday morning an old man named Prince
and his daughter were discovered murdered in their cot-
tage at Malherbes, commune of Saint Gavin, arrondisse-
ment of Blaye, in the department of the Gironde. They
were lying on the floor horribly disfigured. The old
man's son, Jean niece, was the murderer, and on being
arrested his clothes were found to be stained with
blohd, and even patches of the brains of his victims ad-
hered to them. lie had committed the crime with an
agricultural instrument called a tranche, in use in the
district.—Paris paper.
SALE OF THE LIBRARY OF THE LATE DR. COT-
Tux.—The sale of the curious library of the late Dr.
Cotton, ordinary of Newgate, was yesterday concluded
by Messrs. Stith, by and Wilkinson, the auctioneers, of
Wellington-street, Strand. None of the books, although
curious, were deservine• of a special notice, but they sold
remarkably well, especially the books upon angling, and
some manuscript sermons on condemned prisoners, &c.,
by Dr. Cotton. The latter were all purchased by mem-
bers of the family.
ROBBERY OF Two THOUSAND SOVEREIGNS.—
Another of those artfully concocted and very mysterious
robberies which are occasionally brought under the no-
tice of the public has just taken place, the plunder being
no less in amount than 2,0001. From the information
which our reporter has been enabled to gain respecting
the matter, it appears that on Tuesday afternoon last, a
strong deal box, about eight inches square, and iron
bound, containing 2,000 sovereigns, was sent from the
firm of Messrs. Praed and Co., Fleet-street, addressed to
Tweedy and Co., bankers, Truro, Cornwall; it was for-
warded in the first instance to Chaplin and Borne 's
offices, Swan-with-Two-Necks, Lad-lane, to be by them
conveyed in the usual course to PaddingtotnbatatthmenLaoinl
the next morning a box, which wa
train, directed as above, was reeievedgabsadetn
et hney
its
being
contain
opened it was found toestablish-
ment of Messrs. Tweedy and Co.,nthing more than a
quantity of melted pewter and other rubbish; it turns
out that the said box was of somewhat larger dimensions
than the one sent from Praed's, but that the address
thereon was a very good imitation of that on the ori-
ginal box, for which the other had been in so artful and
extraordinary a way substituted. A gentleman from the
Truro bank, accompanied by an officer of police, arrived
at Paddington late on Thursday night, when they Itad
an immediate interview with Mr. Sanders, the secretsr"
of the railway company. Mr. Collard, the active super-
intendent of the company's police, is, with other officers
upon the alert in order to discover, if possible, the per-
petrators of the plunder.
,Last night,
ATTEMPT IT SUICIDE AND MURDER.
as the steam-boat, the London Pride, was passing
Brook's-wharf', between Queenhithe and Paul's-wharf,
female, of middle age, was observed by one
ti
of c
sengers to take up her child, apparea,tly about
mom7nl
of ago, in a mo't hurried manner. Ihe next
into the riverr
she jumped, with the child in her
but at that moment,
the child and woman disappeared
a wsterman, shoved
astern of the paddle-box. In andifotaarnints;fterwards both
hold of the woman.
off his skitl and succeeded in gettingbet
an alarm being raised, George Brtce,
when the water.
She then bad the child in her armst, e
and the body
not since re-
covered.carried away by the stream,
was conveyed to Bow-
man laid bold of her she let go h child, and it was
The unfortunate womaen_
the v
pplication of
lane station-house, and recover.d by
h ddress, but ad-
*ed.
mitted that she was not married.
ACCIDENT HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.
restoratives. She refused to give er a
ACCIDENT AT TEE
--Yesterday morning Patrickssof Parliament, met with a Farrell, one of the glen
Houses
employed at the new Do
dreadful accident. He was at work at the top of tho
shaft for ventilating the House of Commons, and while
an immense chain used for hoisting the masonry was
being lowered by means of a crab, he extended his foot
to catch it in its descent, and direct the lower extremity
to the proper point. He had done this several times be-
fore, but on this occasion the chain was lowered with
greater rapidity than usual, and, being unprepared for
the shock, he was drawn from his footing. Assistance
at the time was impossible, and he fell to the bottom of
the shaft, a depth of 100 feet. He was picked up in an
insensible state, bleeding profusely from several parts of
the body, and was taken to the Westminster Hospital.
He lies there without the least hope of recovery.
HOP INTELLIGENCE.—The real summer weather of
the past week has had a beneficial influence on the hops,
and, while improving their brightness, has matexially
helped their growth. Some frosty nights have operated
as a slight check. On the whole, the prospects of a to-
lerable crop are much enhanced, which has obtained as
increase on the laid duty, now up to 210,000/. Picking
is to commence
partially next Monday. General sc-
counts state that
the hops have been brought out freely by
the late warm weather—that there is promise of a fair
crop, the reaping of which will be commenced in many
places next week.— Kentish Observer.
'
THE NEW SEWERS COMMISSION.—The new Com..arliament re-
cently passed, will be chosen by the Lord Chancellor
days.in
The appointments missioners of Sewers, under the Act of I
the course of a few would
been have been made before this time had the boundaries of
the jurisdiction of the Commissioners distinctively
defined. It is expected that this will be donein the
course of a few days, when the names of the COMMig•
sioncrs will be published by warrant in the Gazette.