The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-28 00:00:00

ROMANTIC ADVENTURE.

Paris is the place for romantic adventures. One
night, some months ago, a young officer of a cavalry
regiment was returning to his barracks late at night,
when he saw on one of the bridges a young woman
of considerable beauty, but clad in the mean gar-
ments of a workwoman, preparing to plunge into the
river. He seized her, and threatened to take her
to the station-house. She supplicated, however, so
earnestly to be left alone, that the officer consented
to release her; first, however, exacting a solemn pro-
mise that she would not repeat her attempt. She
hurried away; but the young soldier deemed it right
to follow her. Luckily it was that he did so; for
no sooner did she believe herself free from observation
than the unhappy girl plunged into the river. The
officer was close upon her, and, with some difficulty, and
not without danger, succeeded in dragging her to land.
This time he insisted upon accompanying her home.
With extreme reluctance, the would-be suicide led
him to a miserable lodging in the most wretched part of
the town. Knocking at the door, an old woman ap-
peared, to whom the officer related what had happened.
" Ah, madam," she cried, "it was for that, then, you
borrowed my clothes!" and she went 'on to relate
to the young officer that the pretended unknown
was no other than the daughter of a nobleman of the
highest rank, and that she had that night come to bor-
row the dress in which she appeared, in order, as she
said, to avoid discovery in a love adventure. In proof
of the truth of the story, the old woman pointed to the
young lady's dress which she had left on assuming
her coarse attire. This naturally excited the young
man's curiosity to the highest pitch. He insisted on
accompanying the young lady to her father, to whom
he related all that had taken place. Warm thanks
were, of course, heaped upon him, and he was invited
to the house, at which he subsequently became a
constant visitor. An intimacy sprang up between
him and the young lady, which ripened into affection,
and the affection resulted in a marriage, celebrated
a few days ago. This tale is true, strange as it may
appear. It has, of course, created an immense sensation
in the higher circles of Parisian society; and at present
it is said that all young unmarried ladies are bent on
attempting to commit suicide at midnight, in the hope
of being saved by a handsome officer of hussars. It is
so romantic ; and whatever is romantic has immense
popularity in Paris.

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS.
(From Bell's Weekly Messenger.)
NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE, AUG. 13.—Harvest is rapidly
proceeding, four-fifths of the wheat having been carried
in good condition; the crops are very variable—some
very good, others indifferent. Upon the whole, we
consider it a full average as to quantity; the quality
bold and heavy, though not so white and rather rougher
in the skin than in 1844. Barley is light in the straw,
but off the wold land will be of fair malting quality; on
the strong land it is late and bad; some fields green,
others part green, part nearly ripe. Oats an average
crop. Beans wretched (one to three sacks per acre);
some fields scarcely worth reaping. Turnips are uni-
formly a full splendid crop, up to the knees in top, and
turning fast. Potatoes rapidly decaying. Wheat, the
chief dependence of the farmer, is very seriously re-
duced in price: old red of 611 b. per bushel has been sold
for 355. per qr.- how can language be found sufficiently
strong fully to describe the treachery of those men who
have brought the country into this state? It also appears
that the operatives are beginning to find in the attempts
their masters are making to reduce their wages, that
they have merely been used, as the monkey used the
cat's paw, to pull the chestnuts out of the fire. As the
loaf increases, wages fall.
EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE, Atm. 20.—We are
now in the midst of our harvest operations ; in the
southern parts of the riding, the principal part of the
wheat is secured in superb condition ; in the northern
districts it is yet for the most part in the field, although
should the weather b© favourable, ere this comes from
tke press much will have been secured. As it is, the
weather for the last few days has been unsettled and
threatening, and has caused considerable anxiety to the
farmers who have their corn yet abroad ; it has not,
however, sustained any injury from sprout as yet. We
scarcely recollect a year since the summer of 1826, when
the fields were cleared with such rapidity as in the pre-
sent year. The wheat upon almost all descriptions of
soil has cut up a very light crop, and has gone into very
little space. Oats, although much improved are short in
the straw, and a light crop ; barley is still worse, and
beans are nearly a failure altogether. The yield of the
wheat crop, upon which such great anticipations have
been formed, seems to disappoint general expectation,
and it is our firm conviction that if the East Riding
yield "stook and bushel," to use the East Riding
phrase, we are below an average. Yet from the expe-
rience of those who have thrashed, we feel.satisfied that
we are to have no such yield, and our firm conviction is,
that we are four or six bushels under an average. The
quality is superb, equal to 1844, and the accounts of the
weight are good. The potato crop is again a failure, to
all appearance worse than the last year. Doubtless,
this circumstance, taken in connexion with the deficient
yield of the wheat crop, has the tendency to cause the
present advance in the price of wheat, but the price must
be much higher to enable the farmer to pay his way
with the present crop. Turnips grow beautifully, and
the prospect for winter keep is good.
BRECONSHIRE, AUG. 18.—I travel frequently through
the greater part of South Wales, more especially
through Breconshire, and as I perceive you are favoured
by correspondents with agricultural reports from most
of the English counties, I do not sea why you should not
hear a little concerning the proceedings in this county,
as I think we can boast of farms and farmers equal
to any in England, in the Vale of Usk. More than
two-thirds of' the wheat has been housed in very good
condition, and will, I think, yield very well, although
there is a general complaint of a defficiency in the head.
The crop is much lighter than last year, with regard to
the straw, but the head heavier and finer sample. The
weather at present is very unfavourable, scarcely a
day passing by without heavy showers. It will oc-
casion serious loss to the small farmers situated
near the foot of the mountains, many of whom have
as yet scarcely any of their hay in. Several fields
have been down for the last three weeks, the weather
being so fickle. I counted very many that had not
been mown, which it would be scarcely worth
while to do so late in the season. The barley and oat
crops are rapidly falling under the stroke of the sickle,
in expectation of fine weather after this continuance of

wet. They are on the average light, in particular the oats,
scarcely repaying the husbandman for his trouble. Peas,
also, are simihr to the oats, the pods few, and not Irell
filled. Of turnips, both swedes and common, we could
scarcely have a finer show, the leaves looking healthy
and of such a luxuriant green hue, quite different from
the last year's. I have seen several of the size of a
large basin. Last year's destructive disease has again
attacked the potatoes, but in a more virulent form. We
were in expectation that we should have escaped it, but
in the midst of our hopes it came like a sudden blight,
and we have nothing to look forward to but the entire
extirpation of the root from this kingdom. The poor
labourer will suffer, as potatoes are the principal food of
his family; but if corn be cheap it will not make such a
material difference. There is also almost an entire
failure of the apple, scarcely a tree laden with fruit to
be seen anywhere, which will cause old cider to advance
in price.

ATTEMPT TO POISON.
DEATH OF ONE OF THE SUFFERERS.
A most diabolical attempt to poison the whole family
of Dr. Grattan, of Drummond House, county Kildare,
was made on the 17th inst. His eldest son, a lad of
fifteen, died in consequence; and Mrs. Grattan, the four
surviving children, and a servant maid are still in a very
precarious condition. From the circumstances brought
to light at the inquest, and from what we have learned
from other sources, it would appear that Dr. Grattan,
alarmed at the wide-spread failure of the potato crop,
and anxious to make timely provision for the wants of
his labourers likely to be deprived by this mysterious
visitation of much of their ordinary food, had a
small supply of Indian meal brought from Dublin
at his own cost for the purpose of introducing it
amongst them and familiarising them to its
use. Some prejudice against it having been ma-
nifested, Doctor Grattan, in order to remove it, if pos-
sible, determined to use it in his own family ; and upon
finding that his domestic servants refused even to prepare
it, insisted on their doing so, and stood by until his di-
rections were obeyed. Of the meal thus prepared he
and all his children partook ; in the kitchen, the ser-
vants refused to eat it, and their share was given to four
calves, all of which died shortly after. The following
morning Doctor Grattan was actually engaged in inves
tigating this extiaordinary occurrence, which had imme-
diately been spread abroad amongst the ignorant
peasantry as to the effect of the Indian corn, when
his eldest son called him to breakfast, mentioning at
the same time that they had just breakfasted on
flummery, and what was very curious, that
they were every one of them sick and vo-
miting ; and true it was. When he reached the house he
found Mrs. Grattan, the four children, and a servant
maid exhibiting all the symptoms of poisoning by
arsenic. The doctor having by his accidental absence
escaped partaking of the poisoned food, was able to give
instant assistance to the unfortunate sufferers, and had
used the ordinary antidotes and remedies hours before
medical assistance could possibly have reached them
from any other quarter. To this most providential oc-
currence it may in all human probability be attributed
that any of them are now living. In spite of every care
his eldest son died within 21 hours, and the others of the
family are not out of danger.
An inquest was held upon the body of the young and
unfortunate victim on Friday, and a verdict implicating
the cook in the transaction was found, in consequence of
which she has been committed to Naas gaol. The
matter, however, is still far from being cleared up; but
the investigation is being actively carried on by Richard
More O'Ferrall, Esq., M.P.; assisted by Wm. Foote,
Esq., J.P.; J. H. Nangle, Esq., J.P.; and J. Doffing,
Esq., stipendiary magistrate. We have every hope that
the perpetrators of this awful affair will be promptly
discovered and brought to justice.—Dublin Evening
Post.

DUTCH AND FLANDERS MAILS.
THE HAGUE, AUG. 26.—The Staats Courant of this
day publishes, in the Dutch and French languages, the
treaty of commerce and navigation between the Nether-
lands and Belgium, concluded on the 29th of July, 1846.
It fills eighteen columns of the official paper.
THE HAGUE, AUG. 25.—Accounts from Malta, of the
13th of August, announce that the squadron under the
command of his Royal Highness Prince Henry, arrived
in that harbour on the 10th inst. _ _

ZIERIKZEE, AUG. 21.—Yesterday evening aboutnine
o'clock, Franz Antoon Berwald, commanding the fish-
ing boat, the Jonge Frederick of Zierikzee arrived here
with six of the crew of the Helen, Capt. F. Orfeur, an
English schooner from Liverpool, bound to Dordrecht,
which was stranded and went to pieces yesterday morn-
ing in the Banjard. The wind was so high, that though
many boats attempted to approach the wreck, this was
the only one that succeeded in rescuing, after great
efforts, these men from the most imminent danger. Tr_eir
gratitude and joy were unbounded, and fully participated
by their brave companions.
BATAVIA, JUNE 26.—The epidemic disorder in Ka-
doria has again broken out with increased violenct,. Up
to 29th May, 588 persons had fallen victims to it, and
1,160 were still ill.
BRUSSELS, AUG. 24.—The trial of Messrs. Ridder
and Borquet will probably be concluded on Wednesday
evening. The list of witnesses for the defence was ex-
hausted to-day, and the Attorney-General commenced
his address. The witnesses examined to-day, who re-
ceived orders from De Bidder, gave evidence of his soli-
citude for the interest of the Government, as well as to
the pains he took to contract for the lowest prices possible.
M. de Dordolot stated, that in consequence of the re-
duction which De Ridder caused him to make in the
prices, the Government gained a sum of 800,000 francs.
The King and Queen, the Duke de Brabant, and the
Count de Flandre went yesterday, at ton o'clock, to Ant-
werp They went to the exhibition of paintings, where
the King desired to see several artists, with whom their
Majesties conversed with great affability. In the room
allotted to the engravings his Majesty stopped a consi-
derable time before ten splendid engravings on wood by
Mr. Henry Brown, professor in the academy. The King
desired to see him, and their Majesties complimented
him in the most flattering terms. Their Majesties re-
turned to Brussels the same evening.
It appears from the further accounts respecting the
murder of M. Londoz, that there are several errors in
the statement, and especially that there was no violent
struggle between him and the murderer, as represented.
Nothing is yet known respecting the murderer, though
the most diligent inquiries are being made.

MRS. TROLLOPE AND THE COLD-WATER CURE.—In
the new work, entitled "Travels and Travellers." just laid
before the public, from the pen of the cleverest and most
spirited of modern female writers—Mrs. Trollope—there will
be found some revelations of perhaps the greatest of modern
mysteries—those of Graffenberg. The pamphlet of Sir Ed-
ward Bulwer Lytton has already attracted public attention,
in no ordinary degree, to the physiology of the cold water
cure ; and should it prove that so acute and talented an ob-
server as Mrs. Trollope has been led, from experience, to form
similar notions upon the matter, there can be little doubt
that the medicine-men among our tribes have amply suf-
ficient cause to set their house in order.

SLAVE TRADE.—By a Parliamentary document (pro-
cured by Mr. Hume), it appears that there were in the year
1845 (the return being made up for the let of July, as an
average for the force employed for the whole of the year)
56 ships, of 886 guns, and 9,289 men, employed in the sup-
pression of the slave trade; of which 27 of the vessels, with
282 guns and 3,334 men, were employed on the west coast
of Africa station. Although the ships were furnished with
slave-trade instructions, they were only employed in cruising
against slave vessels as the other duties of the station on
which they were respectively employed would permit. By
the second branch of the document it seems that the charge
for the ships of war employed in the suppression of the slave
trade in the course of last year was 706,4541., and the deaths
of officers and men numbered 259, and others invalided to
271; making a total of deaths and invalids in one year 530.
The mortality in vessels on the west coast of Africa was
166, and the invalids 104; and the vessels not exclusively
employed on the west coast of Africa, respectively 93 and 167.
Thus it will be seen that the expense of vessels to suppress the
slave trade in one year was 706,4541., and the deaths and
invalided officers and men 530.
INTERESTING DISCOVERY AT GLOUCESTER.--A dis-
covery of a curious and interesting nature has just been made
at the Gas Works near the Quay, in this city, where the
workmen, in sinking the ground for the erection of a new
gasometer, have arrived at what was evidently an old quay
wall, consisting of large stones, three or four feet square, and
rather more than a foot thick, laid upon piles. This old quay
wall runs parallel with the present quay, but not less than 120
feet distant from it, showing that the course of the
Severn has receded very much, and that the houses,
warehouses, part of the gaol, &c., now standing along-
side the Quay, are situated on what was anciently
the bed of the river. This change was probably
the work of very many years, and caused by the current
gradually washing away the alluvial soil on the opposite
shore. The discovery is highly curious in another point of
view. This old quay wall is no less than eighteen feet below
the surface of the ground, and leads to the natural inference
that the level of the city of Gloucester at the date of the
erection of that wall, which was probably in the time of the
Romans, was eighteen feet below the present level of that
city. The spot has been visited by several of the archaeolo-
gists now in Gloucester, and by other gentlemen, and they
all, we believe, concur in the opinion that this excavation
has brought to light some of the work of the Roman occu-
pants of the old Caer-Glow.—Gloucester Journal.
MYSTERIOUS AND HORRIBLE AFFAIR.—It was only
on Saturday last that the Coroner of Rochester made a re-
presentation to the Magistrates of that city of the frequent
exposure of the dead bodies of infants within his jurisdiction,
but the case we have now to describe far exceeds in atrocity
all the acts of which he then complained. On Monday
morning, between two and three o'clock, Mr. Richardson, a
coke and lime burner, living at Chalk-pit-hill, Chatham,
was awoke by the barking of his dogs, and on looking out of
his bed-room window, saw on his premises the figure of a
woman, apparently with only a petticoat and shawl thrown
over her, but thi❑king it might be an old tramping woman
who occasionally slept about his place, he thought little of
the circumstance. The dogs still barking, he looked again,
when he saw the same woman approach the mouth of the
coke oven, and suddenly throw something into it, when a
bright flame burst forth from the same, and appeared to
scorch her, as she quickly drew back, as if to avoid being
burnt. The heat of the furnace at the time must have been
intense, as it had been burning 18 hours. Having accom-
plished her purpose, she hastily quitted the yard. He re-
lated what he had observed to his wife, who remarked that
most likely it was something the party had stolen and wanted
to get rid of, and under this impression he retired to rest. In
the morning, when he went to the oven, he was horror-
struck at beholding what appeared to him to be the remains
of a child lying in the burning mass. The bones in shape
were distinctly to be seen, but on disturbing them crumbled
into ashes. They were carefully extracted from the furnace,
and conveyed to Mr. Steddy, surgeon, of Chatham, but of
the original it does not appear that anything can be pro-
duced on which an inquest might be held. The case is in-
volved in the greatest mystery, and has produced, as may
be imagined, an extraordinary degree of horror and excite-
ment in the neighbourhood.
THE WEYMOUTH HARBOUR OF REFUGE.--We are
now on the eve of great events with regard to this port and
watering place. The sum of 30,0001. was voted last week in
the House of Commons to carry on the construction of a
breakwater at Portland. All things are now ready, and be-
fore another week we expect to be able to announce that this
great national project is begun. We are to have a large
supply of convict labour, and as Portland Roads is so safe a
place for shipping, we expect the hulks will be brought down
from Portsmouth or Chatham to be tuachyred ;hue 04' their
reception.--Shethorne Jownal.