The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-27 00:00:00

PENINSULAR MAILS.

SOUTIIAMPToN, JUNE 24.—The Peninsular and
Oriental Steam Navigation Company's ship Madrid,
Captain John Weeks, arrived here this afternoon with
the usual Spanish and Portuguese mails, in charge of
Lieutenant Newenham, R.N., Admiralty agent. Her
dates are—Gibraltar, June 16; Cadiz, June 17; Lisbon,
June 19; off Oporto, June 20; Vigo, June 21. During
the passage home the Madrid experienced fresh head-
winds and fine weather as far as Vigo; afterwards
S.S.W. breezes, rain and cloudy. The Madrid brings
70 passengers, amongst whom are Earl Ducio, Countess
Ducie, Lord and Lady Moreton, &c.; and the following
on freight;-42 chests and 520 half-chests of oranges, 90
boxes of lemons, 41 casks of wine, 4 barrels of dates, 12
cases of eggs, 6 cases of provisions, 15 packages of sun-
dries, and 36 packages of specie, value about 11,5001.
We have letters of the 16th from our correspondent in
Lisbon; that city was perfectly tranquil. Numerous
arrests of parties formerly connected with the Oporto
Junta had taken place, and a great many more were
concealed for fear of the police. The prisoners were to
be accused of high treason upon the evidence of parties
they were said to have enlisted for an insurrectionary
movement. The truth of these accusations was greatly
doubted as regards some of the prisoners, and the legal
Proofs with respect to the whole bad been delayed be-
yond the time allowed by the Charter. The editors of
several of the Liberal journals awe amongst those seised
by order of the Government. The Cortes were going on
unsatisfactorily, and the session was likely to be brought
to a premature close for want of Members. Her Ma-
jesty's steamers Stromboli and Comet were at Lisbon.
The Pluto put into the Tagus for coals on the 9th and
left on the 12th for Madeira. Exchange on London at 30
days'sight, 521 ; and at 90 days' date 52k to 53 ; Bank
of Lisbon notes 54 per cent. discount. There had been
an arrival at Lisbon from Pernambuco with dates to the
sth of May. All was quiet there since the withdrawal
of the President, M. Choxord da Game- Exchange on
London. 26i to 27i. Sugar in bags, free on board, brown
1,450 to 1,500; white, 2,100 to 2,200. Freights for
sugar to London, and for a port between Havre and
Hamburgh, 903. At Rio Janeiro, on the 30th of April,
Exchange on London, 251 to 25k. Coffee improving, in
consequence of the appearance of American vessels—
first quality quoted 2,600 to 2,700. Her Majesty's troop-
ship Resistance, with the 79th Highlanders, under com-
mand of Lieut.-Colonel Maule, sailed from Gibraltar
for Canada on the 14th; a French sloop-of-war having
troops on board, and a Spanish steamer, were off
Algesiras. Exchange on London at Gibraltar, 90 days
date, 481 ; on Paris, 6f. 30c.; Marseilles, sf. 30c. to
sf. 32c.; OR Genoa, sf. 32c.; at eight days' sight on
Madrid, 4 discount ; Cadiz, discount ; Malaga, to
discount ; Seville, to discount ; Alicante and
Valencia, 14 discount ; Barcelona, I discount ; Spanish
pillared dollars 2 per cent. premium. On the 21st of
June the Madrid passed Her Majesty's ship Howe,
standing W.N.W., Cape Villario bearing east ; the
Madrid also spoke the Tagus and Portuguese steamer
voyage outwards from Southarap-
Falcao, Sunday, June 25.—The packet brig Brilliant,
Captain Newton, arrived here yesterday, after
thrAePeninsular and Oriental Steam
a 'fine passage of thirteen days from Madeira. She
passengers, and a cargo of wine
brought thirty-four
and measurement goods. The Brilliant was only eight
daystopeFrufonrcinhainl g.
ton
Navigation Company's ship Indus, Captain Soy, having
undergone considerable repairs, arrived here to-day from
London, to take up her station on the Gibraltar, Malta,
and Alexandria line. The Montrose, Captain Bowen,
is to take out the Spanish and Portuguese mails of the
27th, and the Sultan, Captain Brooks, will sale same
day for Constantinople and the Black Sea. The Hin-
dostan, Captain Lewis, may be expected to-morrow,
with the homeward East India and China mails. The
Canton, Captain Jameson, sailed to-day for China, vii
the Cape of Good Hope, to take up her station in carry-
ing the mails between Canton and Hong
Kong .—Times.

....,
WlLsoN's SCOTTISH .bNTERTAI!IMENT.-- This fa-
vourite and talented vocalist gave his last entertainment
on Scottish Songs for the season yesterday, at the Music
Hall, Store-street, when h. e illustratFd and sang some of
his choicest songs, including the recital of Burn's famous
poem of " Tam o' Shanter. Mr. Wilson was in excel-
lent voice, and enraptured hi? audience with his delight-
ful manner of singing Scotia s beauties. On a side table
exhibited the magnificent
silver tankard and salver lately presented to him at the
London Tavern by a few.friends,. l ti
clog
ornamented with appropriate devices antly chased, anu
-the on dit taking
We (TVexford
of the passage to the hall was
enhwerill
attached
hlerdelaanndd
ornamented with appropriate devices and an inscription
of their testimony. to his success in rendering Scotland's
songs such favourites with the public taste. The enter-
tainment was well and respectably filled,
verifyiVntastpToTsiotiolnßEtoLAND
press,. that the Queen
' this year. Immediately after the termination of the
present Parliamentary session, our good and beloved
loyal Irish subjects; and if we know. the national heart
Independent)therTHEounds QUEEN. atrh' ese
we can promise her such an affectionate and enthusiastic'
Sovereign will. throw herself among
greeting as sovereign never before experienced, and
1 which Irishmen alone can give.

CUNNINGHAM and CARTER'S NEW

SYSTEM OF RAILWAY.

An entirely new mode of communicating motion to a
:rain of carriages on an ordinary railway has recently
been perfected by Messrs. Cunningham and Carter, the
extreme simplicity of which, and its economy, and
general susceptibility of application to all the require-
ments of an extensive system of railway traffic, will
render it extremely serviceable in reducing the expen.di-
lure of railway companies, by enabling them to diminish
the costs of production in a degree the extent of which
cannot easily be anticipated, but which will readily be
perceived to be attributable to the novelty of the principle.
A little attention, indeed, to the details of the machine
will suffice to show that its projectors have succeeded in
finding a remedy for the great disadvantages of the
locomotive system, without laying it open to the new
ones which the atmospheric and rope-haulages have as,
sumed. In making the same effort Messrs. Cunningham
and Carter have constructed a working model of the
railway at the premises of the water-works, Peak-hill,
Sydenham, where two concentric circular railways, of
about fifteen feet iu the extreme diameter, and repre-
senting the up and down main lines, are traversed by
trains of carriages in opposite directions, sufficiently
large for any purpose of experiment. The smoothness
and regularity with which the miniature trains performed
thetheir
mi
mind
a
s tohe mechanical t experimental tripsee a wasni
ca i quite
practicability sufficient
of
the
t o satisfy
plan;
;.rfauaonrii dlnwgt anf3acnrse:ws,
sastacredei
mecnooltrnsidfiircntehgggelueynis. gentlemen, together with some emi-
nent engineers, have exrapemdrleevtsosietbhdeathemselves upon its per-
have undertaken.. the construction effective,
premises,
fi e
as ,
sa enedo
nthowever,whd ei
and
lu patenteesd
b oe larger
ex-
hibiting. the machine in the several situations in which a
model,o
. which is now nearly completed. This work is
140
feet in length, representing the tortuous course of a
railway as affected by curves and gradients, ,and
the applicability of the system in working branch
lines, deviations, crossings, and sidings bythe
ordinary process of turning the " switches," as-
sisted by the peculiar resources of the proposed
plan. It must be understood, in the first place, that the
patent of these gentlemen does not contemplate any
alteration in the mode of forming the roadway, or of
placing the rails upon them; but that it is in the mode of
working the trains that the new system is proposed. For
this purpose a continuous tube is fixed upon one side of
the railway, which throughout its entire length is closed
against the external atmosphere, not having any valve
or other orifice whatever. At intervals of about ten
miles it will communicate, by means of branch pipes,
with stationary steam-engines, worked sufficiently to
maintain an atmosphere of the same degree of attenua-
tion in its own section of the tube. In every mile of the
railway there will likewise be several pairs of small
pneumatic engines, deriving their motion successively
by communication with the main tube. At the
place where a pair of air-engines occurs, a
rectangular trench will be cut transversely in
the road, beneath the rails. Into this trench an iron
chest will be firmly bedded, and then receive three up-
right arbors or shafts standing, placed in a direction
theacr across
atchee incr ali lusd,
etdh eb
ectewn
et reen sthhaef t
twolaeintgr
aimn
wt ha
ye s
andiddl eof
the
he
other two about three feet beyond the exterior rails ou
either side. Each shaft carries two wheels, or pullies.
The three wheels stand above ground, on the same
horizontal plane with the nave-boxes of the carriages,
and the three lower revolve within the chest, at the
same level with ono another, carrying an endless strap,
which causes the roves of the two driving-wheels
above to be discharging in contrary directions.
The work of alternately forming and destroying the
communication between three air-engines and the ex-
hausting tube will be performed by the train itself in
the following manner:—An inverted lever of the first
kind is suspended beneath the roof of the cheat, in the
line of the three shafts, and its fulcrum placed in the
centre of that portion of the roof which is included be-
tween the two rails of each pair. Small rods are at-
tached vertically to the extremities of this lever, one of
which forms the piston of what is termed a " starting-
valve," and the other acts indirectly upon the lever of a
" reversing. valve." Above either end of the lever a
small orifice is bored in the top of the chest, and through
those pass piston-rods, terminating in little trucks or
rollers, which, protruding above the surface of the
road, are termed " tappets." The pistons of the
air-engines act by means of a crank rod and
pin on the spokes of the exterior driving-wheels.
ro the above it is only necessary now to add, that con-
tinuous rails of wood, coated on three sides with iron,
are attached to the train on either side, at the level of
the nave-boxes, and consequently, when the train stands
at a pair of engines, these rails touch the peripheries of
an exterior and the interior driving wheels. The train
being now supposed to have been brought up to a pair
of air-engines, the moment it enters the rove of a pair
of driving•wheels, the rails at its sides are grasped by
the peripheries. On the train's advancing the smallest
distance beyond the place we supposed it to occupy, an
inverted inclined plane, fixed below the foremost car-
riage, moves over the tappet near the starting-valve.
The air-engines are gradually set into rapid mo-
tion, and, by their piston-rods, the driving-wheels ;
these, by revolving forcibly in contact with the
traction-rails, urge the train through the rove
with a gradual and regular motion, because the
motion of the driving-wheels is itself gradual and regular.
The air.engine, by a simple adjustment, works so long
only as the train is occupied in passing through the
rove, and the train proceeds with the momentum thus
generated to the next pair of air-engines, where this
process is repeated until its journey is concluded.
The above is merely a brief description of the me-
chanism of this novel mode of propelling carriages, as
some peculiarities of the construction and of the work-
ing, highly interesting to a mechanical and scientific
mind, have necessarily been omitted. It may, however,
be mentioned, that the great advantage of the system
consists in its having dispensed with the use of the loco-
motive engine and the valve-tube of the atmospheric.
This will be admitted on all hands to be a great me-
chanical triumph as the destructive effects of locomo-
tives on the rail, and on their own mechanism, involve
an enormous outlay for first cost and repair. Our limits
preclude us even from adverting to the chief sources
from which economy might be expected by the adoption
of this system; and therefore, in anticipation of the forth-
coming experiments, we shall conclude this article by
stating, for the sake of comparison, that a double line of
railway on this plan might be constructed at 4,0001. per
mile, and afterwards worked at 31d. per train per mile,
adopting purposely exaggerated data.