The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-03 00:00:00

1848.

[PRICE SD.

that question. He did not think that London should be
dealt with in a different manner from other places. He
wished to be set right on this subject, as there was a charge
of " jobbing" against them. Mr. Pearson stated that the
City had been surveyed at an expense of 3001, and that
it would be absurd to go to such an expense. One gen-
tleman in the House of Commons (Mr. Wyld) said that
the proposed survey would take 200,0001., and he knew
better than any one ells, where no one knew anything.
—(Laughter.) Ile (Mr. Hume) wished not for any
share of influence in this matter; but what he did wish
was, that they should stand fair and straight before the
public. He had thoughts of submitting a motion to the
House, that there should be a survey made of all the
towns in the United Kingdom, not forgetting Dublin.
Ile wished to know what distinction could be made be-
tween sanitary purposes and other purposes. He con-
sidered himself implicated in this business, and was
anxious to have it explained.
The CHAIRMAN said that the last charge that could be
brought against the Hon. Member for Montrose was
want of diligence. He apprehended that the separate
expenses of the Ordnance Survey in the different towns of
the kingdom had never come before the public, because
the survey had been taken as a whole. When in Dublin
with his father, he took particular interest in this subject,
and the levels were laid down of the whole surface of the
country. The map of Dublin was the most complete
thing that could be—every lamppost, every landmark,
every tree, was taken notice of ; but he doubted very
much whether the separate estimate of every district had
been made. There could be no doubt that several towns
in Lancashire enjoyed the benefit of maps containing
particular local circumstances, such as the Hon. Member
wished to be informed about.
Mr. LESLIE apprehended that the information which
Mr. Hume required to know was, who paid for those
surveys. Mr. Leslie then communicated to the Court,
that he understood, with respect to the beautiful and
exquisitely wrought map of Dublin, that the man who
engraved it was a sapper and miner, and that he was
paid only Is. 10d. a-day. The map was the most beau-
tiful he had ever seen.

Mr. HUME intimated that it was his intention to move
for returns in the House of Commons of what the surveys
of various towns cost, and for what purposes those sur-
veys were made.
The Court then adjourned to the 13th of April.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE
BRADFORD REFORM ASSOCIATION.
Sir,—On Wednesday, 29th March, Sir Henry
Halford moved for a Committee on the case
of the frame-knitters. This was so nearly the
same as that of our hand-loom weavers, that
it was impossible for me not to feel great
interest in it. Mr. Hume and Dr. Bowring
maintained the impolicy of holding out expectations
of assistance which could never be realised ; in which
they were supported by the President of the Board
of Trade. Mr. Slaney (Shrewsbury) and Mr. Gard-
ner (Leicester), on the other side, affirmed that there
were matters of dispute in the conduct of the trade,
which both masters and men would he glad to see
brought under the investigation of a Committee.
Nobody doubts that the ultimate object of the Pro-
tectionist party in supporting the Committee, is to
try the chance of maintaining this class of operatives
at the expense of some other class of operatives,
through the intervention of some kind of monopoly,
or some legislative restriction; as for instance a tax
on machinery. Upon which all that can be said is,
that this must be stopped when we come to it. To
my own knowledge the hand-loom weavers are too
intelligent and too well-informed to cherish expecta-
tions from these quarters ; at all events nobody will
be misled into expecting my vote towards such a
plan. But this seems to present no reason for voting
against any inquiry which may be gratifying to
them, and from which they may form any reasonable
hopes. I was consequently found in the minority of
51 against $5, which voted for the Committee.
On Thursday, after a little routine business, the
House adjourned at five o'clock.
On Friday the principal debate was in the Com-
mittee of Supply. On which I can only repeat, that
the quarrel is not so much with any glaring dispro-
portion between the atm asked for and the uses-to
which it may be put,4owith the evidence of a per-
manent refusal to let the country have a shilling be-
fotehand, and the determination to keep it everlast-
ingly at what may be called a rack taxation. And
the dlfience of the Ministry is.not happy ; thoigh
they have the air of fielding t little undea,the
pressure which is applied to them. Thus Ighen
the Minister in an earlier part of the 'lcon-
test, with Homeric grandeur assumed the posi-
tion of " thy Hector," end trusted that when Eng-
land should cease to occupy barren rocks wh,7.re 100/.
can be laid out with a half per cent. return, " he
might not he there to see," there was a di position in
the economical side of the House to liken him to the
gentleman, who should sigh to his responsive wife,
and pathetically hope there might be "at his head a
turf and at his heels a stone," before his cheques
were dishonoured by his banker ; the dishonouring
of the said cheques being all the while a thing de-
pendent on the conduct of the parties in not prevent-
ing such a consummation.
That it will come and before very long, unless
there is a charge, is as clear as most things which
are not here already. Meanwhile it would be mira-
culous if MM. Ledru Rollin and associates did not
in some manner act upon the information so perse-
veringly trumpeted by the Ministry, that England is
in shoal water, and is in fact at touch and go. It
may not be possible on the instant to alter the main
fact; but it would he very possible to prevent the
noise that is made about it. There is no necessity,
for running the ship by way of demonstration, pre-
cisely on those crags and reefs which will produce
ale terrible grinding through the bottom, so distress-
ing to the ears of all on board, and so encouraging to
those who may happen to have a wager on the failure
of the voyage.
In the course of the debate the Minister took oc-
casion to make a distinct declaration of the entire
nullity of any reason for England's being drawn into
a share in the struggles going on in Europe. On
this point it is clear a debt is owing to the Ministry ;
and there must, as far as at present appears, be a
portion either of misinformation or of in the
intimations of a contrary disposition given out from
ime to time by portions of the Liberal press.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. PERRONET THOMPS ON.
Blackheath, London, April 3, 1848.

HARWICH ELECTION.

CLOSE OF THE POLL.
SATURDAY EVENING.
Hobhouse

Sutton
Majority for llobhouse

COWES, ISLE OF WIGHT.
METEOROLOGY.
One of those meteorological phenomena, the frequent
spectacle of Arctic climes, but a rarity in our latitude,
was observed here on Wednesday last (29th instant),
and continued to the sight for nearly two hours, causing
wonder and admiration to all who witnessed it. In a
less enlightened age it would have been regarded as a
portentous omen of the times. We shall describe it as
it appeared to the untutored astronomer, leaving it to
those more versed in the science, should it have
been observed by them, for a more detailed account.
About thirty-five minutes past noon, the atmosphere
being clear, of a bright celeste colour, interspersed with
a few fleecy clouds, radiating from the northward and
eastward; wind light, from the southward; barome-
ter 29.55; thermometer 57 deg , there appeared a large
white circle, parallel with the horizon of about 70 to 80
degrees in diameter, passing through the sun, and
extending itself to the northward. The sun was
enveloped in a mist or halo, round which, about
fifteen degrees in diamenter, there was a beautiful
ring, tinged with varied colours. The eastern edge of the
ring was more particularly tinged with all the colours of
the rainbow. Another ring, of an elliptical shape, was
here formed, and exhibited a luminous parhelion. At
the parts where the larger horizontal circle intersected
the other rings there were parhelia beautifully tinged
with purple. To the W.N.W. of the sun, at some dis-
tance off, there appeared a segment of another circle, with
the tints of the rainbow, intersecting a range of nur er an enrn e
streaked fleecy clouds, mere like faint white with 514. t
N.W. to
blue lines than anything else, extending from
N.E., where they converged, and, to use thea obpsnerrevaaltiiso.n„
of a bystander, were " like an Aurornaite
quarter.
Another segment was observed in the opp
- o'clock, when
The whole lasted till about half-Past
the pheaomena gradually disappeared. On referring to
several works for an explanati,o, n, we find it related in
toe
d havefrom occurredsun ri s
eii
that a similar "
Milner's Gallery of Nature.,
pheno-
menon is related by
n
England in the year 1233,.
Matthe.wwhitcharl'asstt
noon:—" At the same time, on the Bth of April, about one
ll
o'eliik,in the borders of Herefordshire andW orcestersh i re,
besides the true sun there appeared in the bky four mock
suns of a red colour, also a certain large circle of the
colour of chrystal about two feet broad, which et:com-
p:ism-
,cl all England as it were. There went out semi-
circles from the side of it, at whose intersections the
four mock suns were situated, the true sun being in the
east, and the air very clear." An engraving appears in
the same work from a drawing by Captain Parry, as the
4, gorgeous" phenomenon which appeared to him during
his winter sojourn at Melville Island, and which in al-
most every respect bears a resemblance to the appear-
ance of the phenomenon of Wednesday. A still more
remarkable white cloud was observed at the same time
of very large dimensions, having the resemblance of a
hand, with the fingers and thumb extended, in an up-
right position. We merely refer to this as a fact which
occurred during the phenomenon,