The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-26 00:00:00

THE NEW POOR-LAW.

We should think that no idle schoolboy, no over-
worked factory girl, ever watched the clock ready to
strike the hour of liberation with such intense desire as
the three Commissioners now long for the speedy arrival
of two o'clock next Friday. Parliament once fairly
prorogued, they, will, the first time for'this twelvemonth,
be able to breathe freely. Day after day brings a nea
enemy upon them. Yesterday Mr. Hume, indefatigable
and relentless, devoted himself to their immolation. A
firm believer in the New Poor•law, he burns with just
indignation against the officers whose laxity has brought
it into discredit. One or other, the law or the officers.
all parties agree, must be sacrificed. Mr. Hume is only
hindered by the close of the session from choosing the
living victim, happy if by this means he could clear the
law. We respect his consistency and zeal, but beg
to suggest one little practical difficulty which even
Mr. Hume will appreciate. When we have vic-
timised the Commissioners, whom shall we get
to carry on the law in their place? Who know so
much about it? Who can suddenly acquire the ne-
cessary accumulation of official experience? Who can
take up a thousand pending questions, or renew commu-
nication with a thousand boards of guardians? Had we
three mortal enemies, we should desire nothing better for
them than the seats vacated by these three unfortunate
gentlemen. Suppose them qualified in knowledge and
talents, how will - they get that particular combination
of moral qualities necessary to make their administra-
tion of the law mild and considerate, yet sufficiently
rigorous and exact? There exists not the man of such
balanced affections. No. The post is certain ruin. A
seat in the Poor-law Commission is like that chair of
torture, which looked comfortable and digaified enough,
but which immediately closed upon its unwary occupant,
bleeding to death in its murderous gripe. Who will
brave the sword of Damocles hanging over the throne of
Somerset House? Rash must be the man who shall

think to escape the fatality of the office. Will Mr.
Hume himself reconcile that impossibility, a mild and
considerate administration of the poor-law which shall
yet be true to its spirit? If he succeeds, he will then be
qualified to pronounce his censure on the Commissioners.
—Times.

THE ACCIDENT on the HASTINGS

RAILWAY.

The following are the latest particulars relative to the
accident on the above line:—

It appears that the half-past 12 o'clock train from
Brighton to Hastings, on arriving at the gate-house near
the Pevensey sluice, ran into a.train of ballast-waggons,
owing to the circumstances which we proceed to explain.
A short time prior to tke Brighton train reaching the
spot, the driver of the ballast-engine, with a number of
earth waggons, accompanied by Mr. Perry (the con-
tractor) and the fireman, arrived near the gate-house,
and took up their position on the sidings las usual (the
line having at present only a single lime of rail), in order
to await the passing of the train. It is supposed that
the " points," which wore held back for the passage of
the ballast train into the siding, and which were self
acting points, became obstructed, and instead of spring-
ing back to complete the regular line of rails, remained
in the position for running into the siding. Soon
afterwards the passenger train came down at its usual
pace, and on arriving at the points glided off into
the siding, and the next instant ran violently into
the stationary ballast-train. The fireman of the former
train, perceiving that the points were wrong, just before
the passenger train came up to them, called out to that
effect to the driver, who immediately reversed the engine
and jumped off. By the concussion the ballast-engine
and tender, and the train-engine and tender were thrown
off the rails, across the siding, the wheels were torn off,
and the massive iron aides of the tenders were actually
bent up and dashed to pieces in various places, and the
buffer beams were split into a thousand pieces. The
fireman put the break on to its utmost force, and he
was still holding on, when he was thrown dawn by
the collision and stunned, and as soon as some parties
rushed to the spot, he was found with his clothes on
fire, at the mouth of the furnace, and the hot water
running over him. He was at once removed to Pevensey
and put to bed, and, we are happy to add, is
going on well. When the collision took place, Mr.
Perry, the contractor, was standing on the stationary
engine. Ile was thrown violently to the ground, but
beyond bruises, sustained no damage. The driver of the
train-engine, the Coniston, who jumped off, as before-
mentioned, as soon as he had reversed the engine, fell
violently to the ground, and was severely injured in the
body. The driver and fireman of the ballast-engine
were on the tender, and as the train was running on
them, seeing the impending danger, leaped to the
ground, and escaped injury. One of the passengers,
said to be a clergyman, had his leg broken ; another
first-class passenger found himself ejected through the
window, by which he was stunned, and several others
lost their teeth, and received some damage of a minor
kind. When the next down-train arrived the road was
cleared of obstructions, and the passengers were taken
on to Hastings. Mr. fountain, the Chief Superintendent
of traffic at the Brighton terminus, on hearing of the
accident, proceeded immediately to the spot, but could
not from his preliminary investigation ascertain the
precise cause of the train running off, the "points" re-
maining uninjured.

ABOLITION OF THE PUNISHMENT OF DEATIL—O❑
Friday next, at twelve for one o'clock, a meeting is to take
place at the Guildhall Coffee-house, at which Alderman Sid-
ney is to preside, to consider the propriety of abolishing
punishment of death. The case of Smith, who is now under
sentence for the murder committed in the Guildhall Coffee-
house, will be then taken into consideration, and efforts will

be made to obtain a commutation of the sentence to trans-
portation for life.
ITALv.—MAuniAGE or ROSSINI.—On the 16th inst.
this celebrated composer led to the hymeneal altar, at
Bologna, Afademoiselle Olympe Pelissier, very well known
in Paris. This lady, after a rather gay life, was introduced
to the thou' Maestro about sixteen years ago. She was
pretty, clever, and accomplished, became much attached to
Rossini, and has never left him since. She herself an-
nounced her marriage to one of her friends in the follow-
ing terms :—" I am almost afraid that God has allowed
me to become Rossini's wife. I have just left the church,
and am in such a state of emotion that I can scarcely hold
my pen,"

MILITARY REFORM.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sru,—l am no man of war, but I think there are sub-
jects in connexion with the army on which a civilian
may exercise his common sense without impertinence.
Whether, in the present state of the army, corporal
punishment can be safely dispensed with, is a point on
which professional opinions ought to have due weight,
kit whether that state be a creditable one to the profes-
' sion, and to the country, is a question to be referred to a
more impartial and less technical tribunal.
We hear a great deal of the bad materials from which
the rank and file of our army are recruited ; but we
never hear a word of the incompetency of our "soldier
officers" as a body, though, I believe, there is no fact
more notorious to the rest of the world. I believe if a
military foreigner were called upon to name those points
which distinguish our army for good, he would not lay his
finger en the epaulettes. I believe that the military re-
putation of the British soldier is higher than that of his
officer. I believe that the success of our arms is far
more owing to the indomitable pluck and endurance of
the ranks, than to the strategic abilitic s of their leaders,
whose mistakes have been often retrieved by the mere
courage of their followers, and converted into glorious
triumphs.
Then again, how do the British officer and soldier
compare in what we may call their civil life—in their
habits and manners, as far as we see of there at home ?
It is pleaded by those who, as Ben Jonson says,
" Flay men alive
Before they kill them"
that our British soldiers are the c:ff-scourings of the
labouring classes. It may be so, but may I ask in what
relation do their officers, as a body, stand to the middle
and higher classes ? Taking into consideration the dif-
ference of rank and education, are the morals and con-
versation of the mess-room much more exalted than
those of the canteen ? Are not country quarters a pro •
verb of insipidity and excess ? It is all very well to
complain of such wholesale strictures upon " an honour-
able profession," "a gallant body of men," and so forth.
No doubt there are distinguished exceptions, but what
are they amongst so many ? How many of our officers
of the line know anything of the art of war, beyond the
mere details of the parade ground, of engineering, of for-
tification, of tactics on a large scale? And yet in an
army like ours, distributed over every part of the world,
and liable to every kind of warfare, the officers ought to
be eminently practical men, full of resources, and a
knowledge of every branch of their profession. I hap-
pened a short time ago to be in a colony which has been,
and is not unlikely again to be the seat of war, and of all
the persons I met with, those to whom the defence of the
province was intrusted seemed to me the most ignorant
of the history of the past, and the prospects of future
campaigns. _ _

IC may be that the pay and pensions of British sol-
diers are inadequate, but we shall never have better
men till we have better officers, and we never shall have
better offiers until we select them on a more rational
and less exclusive system, and require other qualifica-
tions than those of birth and fortune. Why should the
army be the only profession in which advancement de-
pends not on industry and talent, but on a purse of gold
or descent? Why should not privates be eligible for
commissions when they have passed through the lower
grades of the service with credit, and displayed, as many
of them would if the opportunity were given, extra-
ordinary abilities? The cavalier was no match for the
yeoman, and the marshals of Bonaparte did not spring
from the patrician race. Depend upon it, the profession
of arms, like every other, will be none the worse for a
little infusion of plebeian blood.
When such a reform is effected, the army will cease
to be the last refuge of poverty and crime. It will
supply the ordinary incentives to good conduct, the
ordinary rewards of superior abilities; the officers will
no longer be coxcombs, nor tho men ruffians; and there
will be an end to these barbarous and intolerable
punishments, which are a disgrace to our country, our
age, and our religion.—l remain, Sir, your obedient
servant, CIVIS.

THE LATE EARTHQUAKE AT

LEGHORN.

By a letter from Leghorn of the 17th of August we
have accounts of a dreadful earthquake in that town and
the volcanic district of Maremmes. The account was
brought over to Marseilles by the Sardinian steamer
under the orders of Capt. Scribenis :—" This town has ex-
perienced an earthquake, which has thrown the inha-
bitants into the greatest state of alarm. On the 14th
inst., at 50 minutes p.m., the first shock was felt, hav-
ing been preceded by a subterranean noise. The shock
lasted from seven to eight seconds. The oscillations
were c.t first perpendicular, and as if produced by a rising
.ip of the earth taken from the south-east to the north-
east, and repeated five or six times. Household furni-
ture was displaced and thrown down, the church helix
v

olently agitated. The noise produced by the cracking
beams and the walls which opeoed, gave warning of
an impending catastrophe. The inhabitants, terrified,
threw themselves into the stre,.t, evincing the greatest
fear and despair; women throwing themselves down on
their knees, imploring the Madonna de Montenero, the
patroness of the town; the meo making the sign of the
cross, and hastening to the residence of their families to
give them succour. During the night several other
,hocks were felt; the earth seemed to be in a continued
convulsion. The sky was free from clouds, but there was
thick mist in the air which produced a melancholy on
the mind. The palace occupied by M. de la Rochefou-
cault, the French Minister, has ban much damaged. A
stone from the ceiling fell on the chair Madame de la

11,Qehefoucault had left a few minutes before the earth-
quake. The home of M. Brenier, Consul-general, has
also suffered; at an angle it sunk, and all the inside
ails are full of crevices and shaken. No Frenchman
established at Leghorn has been personally injured,
or his property damaged. The villa established by
M. Moreau, the son of the• cashier of the Bank of
France, has been seriously damaged. M. Moreau passed
the night in a carriage in his garden. The earthquake
was more violent and did more damage in the country
round, and great disasters have occurred, especially in the
Maremmes, a volcanic country, which still bears the
signs of a subterranean influence. Whole villages have
been thrown down in the Saulia, Lorenzana, Osciano,
and Casciano, the centre of the oscillating motion, and
at about five leagues from Leghorn. At Voltera, a
government prison fell, burying several prisoners.
The number of persons killed are stated to be, in
all the districts, 38, and 140 wounded, of which 58
seriously. The effects of the shock extended to Pisa.
The vaulted roof of the old Church of St. Michael
fell at the first shock. The congregation had just
left the building after divine service. The houses of the
town were shaken, but the shock being less than at Leg-
horn did not cause so much damage. Several natural
phenomena occurred. Spouts of muddy and boiling water
sprung out of the earth. A lake has been formed in a
sunken space of land. All the villas in the neigh-
bourhood of Pisa have been considerably damaged.
The farms and peasants' dwellings have more or
less suffered on the whole line of the shock.
The inhabitants are in the greatest state of alarm,
which is increased by the recitals of the disasters
caused by former earthquakes in this quarter. The
inhabitants have a full recollection of the earthquakes
in the years 1798 and 1816. It is not forgotten that in
1798 the town of Sienna was threatened with total
destruction by shocks which lasted nine days. The last ,
shock in particular caused many victims. During the
last four dayslthe earth has not ceased to shake at in-
tervals. Looking to the state of the houses at Leghorn,
a smart shock would evidently complete the ruin of the
town. A portion of the inhabitants have left the town,
many are bivouacing under tents in the public places,
many are on board the boats. The Government has lost
no time in sending into the rural districts engineers,
medical men, medicine, and provisions. It is stated that
on the 10th of August a slight shock of an earthquake
was felt in the city of Naples, but fortunately without
any injury being done."