The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-01 00:00:00

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l.rs
side, but there is no strict rule laid down. W
raw the light on board the Sea Nymph, she ro:
about half a mile off If she had continued her o
when the light -was first seen, and we had pursu NIISAta!i
the collision would have been avoided, and they
have paseed each other on the larboard side. When the
collision took place, I jumped on board the Sea Nymph,
and was taken to the pier, and aftewards I took a boat,
and was taken back to our own vessel.
By Mr. Duncan—After we were struck I saw the
captain of the Sea Nymph on the gangway, and said to
him, " For God's sake keep by us, for fear we go
down ;" and he told me to get out of the way.
By Mr. Harden—l called out " port," lest the other
steamer should alter her course. Our captain ordered
the engines to be stopped about half a minute before the
collision, which was done, but there was not time to re-
verse them. If I wanted to make a quiek paassage to
aoSnrl idng
north
rnat
hgarseihtnuosrrt
ne
ipiflgr floodsd
hti inodgue
eld, urshouldt
were
af
ie knoeoodvpezoieeith ,
vessels
etpheinCheshire;waythe
middle of the river. Myself, two of the crew, and two of the
passengers, got on board the Sea Nymph. The captain of
the Sea Nymph did not wait to know whether any assist-
ance was required by the Rambler after the collision took
place. We ported our helm to give room to the Sea
Nymph to pass, and we going close on shore. The bow-
sprit of the Sea Nymph did not go over the stern of the
Rambler to my knowledge, and she did not return to her
so far as I saw. I was very much confused. Never
heard Captain Tompson hail the Rambler, and offer
assistance ; he might have done so. The captain of the
Rambler was perfectly sober. Cannot say whether the
captain of the Sea Nymph was sober or not when I went
on board her, although I spoke to him ; but he appeared
vary much confused. Ido not mean to say that he was
drunk.
The case was adjourned at four o'clock till half-past
nine on Monday morning.

THE GAUGE DEPUTATION TO
THE BOARD OF TRADE.

By yesterday'slliorningP ostrtwill be seen that a depute.-
tion on the subject of the broad gauge had an interview with
Sir George Clerk yesterday at the offices of the Board of
Trade. This deputation included eleven Peers, twenty-eight
M.lterines
sP.sti;snd,
easeaa
sn daan directorsdconsiderable
rhteaehi
oql
luodefesgrtse ni
intnl
oe
variousfm e
gauge
m o ribser
eoosarsdle
aui nlgl y-e
a public question,' and must be decided onpublic grounds.
The trading, the manufacturing, the mining, the agricul-
tural interests, the interests of small
shopkeepersand
as well as
of great merchants, of second-class, aye, and of third-class
passengers, have to be considered. After the very full, fair,
open, and complete investigations which this subject has
already undergone, it would certainly be rather curious to
discover that the mob of well-dressed gentlemen who crowded
up the trade offices yesterday could throw any new light on the
subject. After three decisions by different bodies, the last
being the Board of Trade, the House of Commons declared
itself incompetent to treat the subject, and unanimously
voted an address for a Royal Commission to inquire into the
whole subject. Every one praised, every one seemed to ap-
prove the Commissioners selected. Men of high character,
men of practical experience—Sir Frederick Smith, a colonel
of engineers and ex-inspector of railways, Mr. Barlow, Pro-
fessor of Mathematics at Woolwich, an ex-commissioner on
Irish railways, and Professor Airey, the Astronomer Royal—
they entered on their investigation, they made the inquiry
perfectly open, they examined every engineer and every
engine-builder of any eminence—the railway managers,
secretaries, superintendents, and officers of almost all the
lines in the - kingdom ; all the principal carriers,
all the miscellaneous people who chose to present
themselves, including coal and iron miners, copper
refiners, railway road contractors, and amateur engine
builders, and, though last, not least, General Fox, inspector-
general of fortifications, an ex-Irish railway commissioner,
and General Sir Willoughby Gordon, quartermaster-general
—in all forty-eight witnesses, great and small.' The investi-
gation lasted nearly six months; the evidence was taken
down in writing, and after an ample period had elapsed for
deliberation, the Commissioners made their report. It was
in favour of national uniformity of gauge, and modestly
hinted at the propriety of granting a million sterling for the
purpose of reducing the broad gauge to that gauge which
stands in the proportion of eight miles to one of the broad.
They gave a trifling advantage to the broad gauge for speed
beyond fifty miles au hour. They considered both gauges to
be equally safe, but, for the general requirements of the whol-
kingdom, they decided that the narrow gauge was most uses
ful and economical.
Now all this may be quite wrong, and the Commissioners
may have been most egregiously bamboozled by the advo-
cates of the narrow gauge and national uniformity; but, at
any rate, they decided on the evidence. Out of forty-eight
witnesses, only four could be found to support the broad
gauge. Upwards of forty, including the two military men,
declared for national uniformity, upwards of thirty declared
in favour of the four feet eight-and-a-half inches gauge, on
which are constructed 1,200 miles in England, all the rail-
ways in France, in Belgium, in Prussia, in Austria, in Sax-
ony, in Bavaria, in the United States, and in Sardinia.
where Mr. Brunel himself has lately laid down a narrow
gauge line.
Another question naturally presents itself. To what tri-
bunal do the broad gauge and break of gauge advocates
wish to appeal? Four times defeated, they still claim a fur-
ther argument and further trial; where is the investigation
to end? The great mass of engineers and railway proprietors
of the old and new world, the men of scientific experience
like Stephenson, Nicholas Wood, and Braithwaite, and the
dozens of English and foreign engineers who follow their
gauge and the men of finance, like the Railway Bing, and his
Quaker Prime Minister, John Ellis, may be the miserable
victims of a delusion and a prejudice, but we must have
some final verdict, and where is a fuller or fairer arbitration
to be had than the last.
Perhaps the friends of the beaten gauge only want delay
like Prior's prisoner, who—
" Now looked at the halter, now traversed the cart—
And often took leave, but seemed loth to depart."
Be that as it may, these attempts to overawe a Govern-
ment department, by parties having a private interest in
settling in one particular way, a public question, are highly
objectionable. The day seemed chosen for effect—
" Big with the fate of Peelers and the Bill."
Every one knows how these deputations are got up. First,
the Noble and M.P. Chairmen, directors, and shareholders
are assembled ; then the attorneys retained whip their noble
and gentle clients; then constituents press upon representa-
tives; and if the cause have the good luck to have enlisted
under its banners a few noble ladies of fascinating manners
with a genius for electioneering, the attendance of a round
dozen of dandies and diners-out may be counted on with ab-
solute certainty.
If this sort of mobbing is persisted in we may expect a de-
putation to wait on the Lord Chancellor whenever his Vices
displease people of influence and acquaintance with M.P.'s
and Peers, to state their case !—Post of Saturday.

CIDER.—This beverage, so extensively used in this
county, is likely, partly from the increased consumption by
' the workmen on the South Devon Railway, and partly from
' the comparatively small quantity that will be made this
year, to be considerably increased in price.—Plymouth
Journal.
THE CHOLERA.—We have already stated that the
cholera had made its appearance in some of the provinces of
Persia, carrying death into the principal towns. It has
spread from Bokhara to Herat and Meshio, and has now
taken the direction from the Caspian Sea to Teheran and
Ispahan. Late accounts from Odessa state that it had crossed
the Russian territory and appeared suddenly at Tiflis, taking
a northerly direction between the Caspian and the Black
Seas. On the other side the cholera broke out unexpectedly
at Orenbourg, in the mines of the Ural mountains ; it
crossed the Volga, and set its foot in Europe, at Casan, only
2,000 kilometres from St. Petersburgh. If the accounts we
have received are exact, it has taken a most irregular direc-
tion. It has advanced from west to north, and does not seem
to have followed the banks of the river as in 1828 and 1832.
The cholera which devastated France in 1831 and 1832 had
been raging in Persia for seven years, 1823 to 1830. It first
appeared in 1823 at Orenbourg, and shed death around that
town for five years. It re-appeared at Orenbourg, in 1829,
and one-tenth of the population fell victims. It broke out
at St. Petersburgh in July, 1831, and in France in the Oc-
tober of the same year.
THE BOOK OF COSTUME ; or, ANNALS OF FASHION,
with numerous Illustrations. In its notice of this attractive
a
volume, the Weekly Chronicle observes :—" This is happy
boeks as a species of elegant furnit
idea, very happily realised: elegancande
urfe_or_tihnotesrese wthfoorcoguncsihaaser
The work takes a very
look upon a taste in dress as one of the
female,hnediesngseint not femaletiaulssefotilnofnlessy
foryo
pretty nearly the whole of the sex.
r
ornament; which is equivalent to ex
extended view of the toilette, male and
the present, but for all time, and has this advantage, that, in
as much as physiognomy and figure have most to do with
the matter, the reader is here enabled to form a better es-
timate of how the design would look reduced to actual wear,
by the spirit and animation of the numberless designs scat-
tered over every page. In relation indeed to the prevalent
fashion of fancy-dress balls the book seems to us to be not
only invaluable, but absolutely indispensable ; since, although
most diffuse in relation to English costume from the Saxon to
the current time, it is sufficiently and pie turesquely
Europe,descrip-
usgreatmi
dr r
es&
übna
ndlcei
(lei
varied
information
reandedss
ptmieocnoi
ad andlelr
empiresyn of
daG hiuegees
uce
Eeemaa
sea
nnt
fort.d fßrtWohomm: ei
have
s
tive of the rest of the British isles, the whole of continental
purposest
aMvpedc eae a nva
ne ddd-
tcrilecone
dicated, with a wider interest inseparable from a subject
confessedly popular, and very ably treated, and most artis-
tically illustrated."

DREADFUL FIRE, CAMBRIDGE. About two hours
after midnight (Friday) an awful fire suddenly burst forth
near the village of Bottisham; which for hours threw a lurid
glare over the surrounding country, and was not extinguished
till an immense quantity of buildings and valuable property
were destroyed. The scene of destruction was at the eaten-
sive homestead of the Trinity College, rented by Mr. New-
man, one of the oldest and most respectable inhabitants in
lodge and piggeries which abut upon the
of a cow
These were soon in a blaze, and
that part of the country. The fire commenced at the corner
turnpike-road.
communicated to a
the
andes large barn,
speedilysteek of clover close by. The fire
of eighty feet in length and forty in
upwards
breadth,
next attacked the stables, and some other buildings, wherein
were six fat calves, twenty store hogs, and a brace of grey-
hounds, all of which perished in the flames. The conflagra-
tion then crossed the farmyard, consuming several small
buildings, and eventually reached five cottages situated in
the road, which were likewise consumed, also their contents.
Luckily its career was here stopped, but the havoc it had
done was frightful. Not a doubt exists but that the calamity
is the work of an incendiary.
SUICIDE AT LORD MARCUS HILL'S.—On Friday an
inquiry was gone into at the Lowndes Arms, Lyall-place,
Eaton-square, as to the death of Thomas Froggett, aged 44,
butler in the service of Lord Marcus Hill, No. 2, Chesham-
street, who committed suicide. Lord Marcus Hill accom-
panied the coroner and jury to view the body, which was
lying in the pantry of his Lordship's house. Robert Sawyer,
footman of Lord Marcus Hill, said that at eleven o'clock on
Thursday night he had a glass of beer with the deceased,
who appeared unusually desponding; at eight o'clock yes-
terday morning he went to call the deceased, but received
no answer ; he went away, and returned in a few minutes.
He then opened the door, and found him with his throat cut
and quite dead. Lord Marcus Hill asked if he had been
speculating in the races?—The witness replied it was only to
a trifling extent. Lord Marcus Hill was examined, and de-
posed that he was alarmed in the morning by his footman
telling him that the deceased had cut his head off. He had
observed nothing in his manner to call for notice, and he
was a good and honest servant. Verdict—" Temporary in-
sanity."

BRISTOL SUGAR-MARKET, MAY 29.—We have had $
quiet week in sugar, the trade showing no inclination to put,
chase beyond the requirements to supply immediate wants
and the sales since our last do not exceed 300 hhds., at from
tid. to is. per cwt. decline on previous transactions. For rum
there is a good demand, but importers are not free sellers at
the present currency.--Brista Mercury.