The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-08 00:00:00

to command ; but it is the duty of individuals to rend •
themselve capable of aiding the army by personal addrcst.
and skill in the use of arms.
The object of this communication is to direct gent-
ral attention to the thorough helplessness of the mass of
the middle classes in every thing that relat s to the very
elements of military life ; nothing but the inducement
brought about by the near approach of danger will tempt
our merchants or our lawyers to withdraw themselves
from their counting-houses, or their offices, to acquire
the rudiments of organisation in masses ; but I would
strenuously recommend that the utmost encouragement
should be given to the acquirement of some degree of
familiarity in the use of fire-arms ; an accomplishment
in which, as a people, we are lamentably deficient. How
many individuals, it may be asked, in a hundred, could
hit a haystack at the distance of 150 yards ? Not
many. In order to overcome this disadvantage, I would
recommend the general formation of Rifle Clubs; the
members of which should frequently meet for practice,
and at stated intervals to contend for prizes. By such
meetings we should insensibly become familiar with the
use of fire-arms, and particularly of a weapon which may
serve our country in the hour of need ; and I believe
that the skill obtained in this exercise would yield a
higher reward than that which is acquired in practising
with bows and arrows."

PENINSULAR AND ' ' ORIENTAL
STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY.
(THIS DAY.)
The Annual General Meeting of this Company was
advertised to be held this morning at the Company's
Offices in St. Mary Axe. Our reporter attended, but
was refused admittance, on the ground that the Board
had not been petitioned to allow him to be present.

and he should not be satisfied if Bury St . Edmund's
did not partake, iu an equal degree of the benefits which
railway had conferred o❑ other parts of the country.
The following toasts were then drank before the
separation of the company at a late hour :—" The
directors of the Ely and New market," " Mr. Locke, the
consulting engineer," "Mr. Bruff, the acting engineer,"
and " Mr. Few, the solicitor."

A meeting was held at one o'clock this day, when it
was fully expected, that the amalgamation of this line
with the Eastern Union would be agreed to,

DEATH of SIR CHARLES MORGAN,
BART.

We regret to announce the demise of the above vener-
able baronet, who, after a brief illness, expired on Sa-
turday last, at two o'clock, ..si., at Tredegar House, the
family seat in Monmoutshire. We understand that
shortly after the deceased baronet returned to Tredegar
from participating in the nuptial festivities at Llanover
Court, the seat of Sir Benjamin and Lady Hall, he was
attacked by influenza, which, at the moment did not oc •
casion the least alarm, but more serious symptoms inter-
vened, and in a few days the condition of Sir Charles
became hopeless. He expired at the above hour, with-
out pain, surrounded by Lady Rodney and his sons. Sir
Charles M. R. Morgan, M.P., his eldest son, was unable
to attend the death-bed of his venerable father, owing
to severe indisposition. The deceased Baronet was
eldest son of Sir Charles Gould Morgan, Bart.,
formerly Mr. Charles Gould, D.C.L., an eminent
civilian, who married Jane, eldest daughter of
Mr. Thomas Morgan, of Ruppera, county of Glamorgan,
and brother of Sir Charles Morgan, K. 8., of Tredegar.
He was Judge-Advocate General, Judge Marshal of the
Forces, and a Privy Councillor; in 1779 he received the
honour of knighthood, and in 1782 was created a baronet.
In conformity with the testamentary injunction of his
brother-in-law, John Morgan, he assumed, and, by the
royal permission, took the surname of " Morgan," and
the arms of that family. He died in 1806, shortly after
he had retired from the representation of the county of
Brecon in the House of Commons. On his demise, Sir
Charles Morgan succeeded to the baronetcy, which he
has enjoyed just forty years. The late baronet was
born the 4th of February, 1760, and had consequently
nearly attained the eighty-sixth year of his age. He
married Mary Margaret, daughter of Captain George
Storey, R.N., by whom, who died in 1807, he had a
family of four sons and three daughters, namely, Charles
Morgan Robinson Morgan, M.P. (now Sir Charles), born
in 1792, married in 1827 to Miss Mundy, only daughter
of General G. B. and the Hon. Mrs. Mundy; Mr.
George Morgan, recently deceased; the Rev. Augustus
Morgan; Mr. Octavius Morgan, M.P.; Maria Margaret,
married to Colonel F. M. Millman; and Angelina Cecilia,
married to Mr. Hugh Owen, eldest son of Sir John ( ►wen,
Bart.; and Charlotte, married to the late Lord R dney.
The late Baronet was a most liberal landlord, and had
for a long series of years expended large capital in the
improvement of his extensive property in Wales. There
was not in the principality such a munificent promoter of
the welfare of the agricultural classes, and it may be
said, that no man living has done so much to introduce a
more improved system of agriculture, and achieved such
extended benefits to the occupiers of land, as the
deceased. The inducements he held out to breeders of
live stock are weil*nowe; for his annual cattle show at
Tredegar appointed for the present week),
has for the last .ifighbi'of- a century maintained a high
character in Wales,, the .respected deceased giving prizes
annually to nearly 56t5/. in the shape of silver cups and
premiums. Last winter the nobility and gentry and
the yeomarry of the counties of Brecon and Monmouth
caused a subscription to be raised to present the worthy
Baronet with a testimonial, and we believe a sum little
short of 3,0001. was subscribed. The late Baronet is
succeeded in his estates and family honours by his eldest
son, M.P. for Brecon, above-mentioned. The present
Baronet has represented Brecon in the House of Com-
mons since 1818, excepting the sessions from 1832 to
1835.

We hope that not only will rifle clubs supersede
archery clubs, but that the Government will encou-
rage the formation of them in every district by giv-
ing to the members of them certain privileges and
exemptions, in the same manner as they have so pro-
perly encouraged the formation of yacht clubs. It
is a subject deserving very serious attention.

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 8, 1846.

LORD stiREWsBURY AN!) MR_
O'CONNELL.

The following very interesting communication, from
the Earl of Shrewsbury, has bee❑ forwarded to us by
Dr. John Shiel, of Ballyshannon, to whom it is ad-
dressed :

" Alton Towers, Nov. 30, 1846

"My dear Sir,—l am sorry to learn, by your favour
of the 25th, that there can be any party in Ireland so
base and so ungrateful, as to be endeavouring to preju-
dice the people against O'Connell, under the plea that
he has sold his services to the Government for an equi-
valent in patronage.
"In whatever difficulties he may be placed, I have
sufficient confidence in his honesty and integrity, to be
convinced that he will never barter his independence for
anything short of justice to his country—and that he
may live to see the triumph of that cause which he has
so long, so ably, and so energetically advocated, as a re-
ward for his unrivalled activity and devotion to a great
principle, is what we must all sincerely desire—though
we may differ, and differ widely, in opinion, on the de-
; tails of those arrangements by which that principle is to
I be carried out. _ .

" Did we require a proof of the honesty and sincerity
of his estimation of the means which he called forth
for the accomplishment of his end, we certainly now
have it in the honest indignation with which he has
rejected an appeal to physical, as long as even
the most distant hope existed that moral force could
be brought to bear upon the question ; and as far
as I can form a judgment, O'Connell's character and
reputation never stood so high before the public in Eng-
land as it does now ; not only from his just conceptions
of his duty as a loyal subject, but from his unwearied
and unromitted exertions in thecause of humanity during
the appalling visitation with ,s hich it has pleased Provi-
dence to affisct his unfortunate country. It is, therefore,
doubly surprising to us, that amongst those whom he
has so long been, and still is, endeavouring to benefit
and befriend, there should be found any so devoid of
feeling and gratitude as to malign and calumniate him
—the more especially in a moment in which his exer-
tions seem the most likely to be crowned with success,
and thrt a kind and merciful Providence may at length
look down with complacency, or with pity, on his suf-
fering countrymen, and, through his instrumentality,
raise them from the state of degradation which has so
long lowered them, in spite of the splendid qualities of
their nature, in the scale of social beings, is still, and
again, the earnest prayer, dear sir, of your most obe-
dient humble servant, " S REW SBURY.
" You also inform me that a pension of 1001. a year
was offered to good Father Mathew. There is no price
at which the services of that extraordinary man could be
repaid ; bnt, surely, a much larger sum would be well
spent in enabling him (and that I am sure is all that he
desires) to carry out a scheme which has done, and will,
d,ubtl,ss, continue to do, more towards er [(beating-
crime and bettering the social and physical condition of
the people than any that could be devised ; and we must
still hope that Government will not neglect to avail itself
of so easy a means of attaining so great an end.—
Dublin Evening Post.

THE LATE MARQUIS of AILSA,