The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-17 00:00:00

CANAD A•

Our accounts from Montreal and Quebec are to the
latest dates, but there is not any news of importance to
communicate. The weather at Quebec, up to November
21, was mild. One of the papers of that city mentions
that a diabolical attempt to fire a powder magazine at
St Pierre, Newfoundland, with the intention of destroy-
ing every house in the place. From 30 to 40 houses are
said to have been blown up, and two lives lost. The
villain who attempted the diabolical deed fell a victim to
his infernal designs.
A slight fall of snow had taken place in Quebec on
the 23d Nov. At that date there were between twenty
and thirty vessels in port ; the total number of arrivals
till the same time was 1,439. A meeting of the Friends
of Ireland, as they termed themselves, was held in the
Royal Standard Hotel, Quebec, for the purpose of peti-
tioning Parliament for a repeal of the Union. Several
speakers addressed the meeting, after which a petition
was read, and unanimously adopted. This will comfort
the declining years of the Liberator. We suppose they
accompany their attachments to the repeal.cause by con-
tributing to its sinking funds, and helping it to be " just
before it is generous."
The commercial advices from Montreal are not im-
nortant, little business appeared to be doing, although
heavy arrivals are taking place daily. From the 20th
to the 24th November, 45,000 barrels of flour, and 70,000
bushels of wheat had arrived at Montreal.

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.—Arrangements are
now in progress for the extension of• the electric tele
graph on the Great Western Railway. The communi-
cation at present is only available as far as Slough, a
distance of 181 miles, but when the necessary measures
are completed, it is intended to extend it in the first
place to Bristol. When the communication b
between the
metropolis, Bath, and Bristol is completed, it is intended,
if the sanction of Government can b. e obtained, to extend
the telegraph to Exeter, on the Bristol and Exeter Rail-
way, onwards to Plymouth, on the South Devon Atmo-
spheric line, and thence across the Hamoaze to Falmouth,
when the Cornwall Railway comes into operation.
THE LATE EARL OF YAnnortouGH.---The suscrip-
tions received for the purpose of erecting a monument,
or sea-mark, to the memory of this deceased nobleman,
now amounts to upwards. of 6001. The committee have
determined upon erecting the monument in the Isle of
Wight, and
operations will commence early in the spring.
The Marquis of Donegal is to succeed the late Earl of
Yarborough as Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron.
A. BURGLARS ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF.— At the
Belfast quarter sessions, last week, John Sloan, Frede-
rick M'Cann, Peter Trainor, and Patrick Magee, were
indicted for having, on the 30th of August last, broken
into the house of Catherine M'Culloch, at Belfast, and
stolen therefrom and carried away a large amount of
property, consisting of silver spoons, gold rings, brooches,
silver pickle-forks, a pistol, dagger, and other articles.
The case having been satisfactorily proved, the prisoners
were found
and the Court sentenced Sloan to 12
months' imprisonment in the House of Correction, and
each of the others to be transported for a term of 15 ,
years, the heaviest punishment the Court had in its ,
power to award. The prisoner Magee then asked per-
mission to address the Court. This man (Sloan), he
said, had been with him four times in gaol for robberies.
Sloan was not his proper name ; his right name was
Hugh Boyle. His brother had been at the bar before,
and had been in the borough gaol in Liverpool. He
(Magee) had come from America, and had taken up with
I another pickpocket. Sloan had taken him away with
him when he was in America, where he had been trying
to earn an honest living, and wanted to give up his old
associates, and had induced him to begin to thieve again.
Sloan said to him, " What is the use of labouring as
you do, when you can make more by robbing ?" At
the Maze Course Sloan said to him, about another pal,
" that man is a good thief." Sloan and he (Magee) had
robbed together 50 or 60 houses this year or two, and
that man was the captain of the gang. He had now
reigned 15 years—he had been that long in the sEsameschool. He was a Liverpool man, and served his time
with Charles Lawrence, the Mayor, from whom he could
get a recommendation. His name was not Magee, but
was known. "I am Nottingham Charlie ; that is my
name." " I know," he continued, " that lam a thief
and a notorious robber—l acknowledge all my robberies;
but Sloan was with me 40 or 50 times in offices in Liver-
pool, and carried a double-barrelled pistol in Liverpool,
to shoot any one who would hinder him. Ay, and Sloan
is wanted now for a robbery in North John-street.
There was another robbery in Belfast, but it is not worth
talking about. It was Sloan dial that ; and there was
another, too, that has not come to light. lam trans-
ported now at last, and I have a poor old mother who
has been broken-hearted by my infamous life ; but it
was that man Sloan that took me from my honest em-
ployment, and made me stand here. I escaped the police
in England for many years, and I am caught at last and
sent away, and all by that Sloan." He continued for
some time to talk in this incoherent strain, admitting a
course of crime having scarcely a parallel. The pri-
soners were then removed, Sloan, by order of the Court,
remaining in the dock, as it was pretty evident, from
Magee's feelings, that violence would have been used had ,
an opportunity offered,