The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-18 00:00:00

A VL.IT Ti) NICABAG64.

+` S
c. ..iri

EXTEASIVE SEIZURE OF FLOUR AT

TVAKEYZ6LD.

The Court-house, Wakefield, was crowded on Wed-
nesday last by persons anxious to hear the proceedings
relative to the late extensive seizure of flour from Mem&
I Jackson and Son, corn dealers, Wakefield. Eighty-
s-ven sacks had been seized by Joseph Johnson, the
sanitary inspector of the borough, in February last,
from two shops of the defendants, in Westgate and
Wrengate, under the impression that they were unfit for
etini,.n to d. Owing to the result of the analysis of
Professor Taylor, of London, 82i ef these sacks were
ordered by the bench of magistrates to be returned to
A;essrs. Jackson. The cases before the bench on Wed-
nesday related to the 44 sacks still retained by the in-
spector. The presiding magistrate on the Occasion was
11r. Joseph Holdsworth, Mr. W. Shaw appeared for
toe prosecution, and Mr. Digby Seymour, M.P., was
specially retained for the defendant, assisted by Mr.
Micklethwai•e. The first charge preferred against
Messrs. Jackson was for having flour for sale in their
shop at Westgate-common on the 26th of Feb. last, the
same being unfit for human food, contrary to the eta
tute. Mr. Seymour took objection that the prisoner had
no authority from the local board to proceed with the
case to recover penalties, as required by the 18th and
19th of Victor cap. 121, sec. 5. The bench considered
the infOrmation bad as regarded the penalties, but good
as regarded the seizure. The information fell through ;
and tbo next case taken was for having flour on their
premises in Wrengate on the 25th of February -tinfit for
food, which the inspectof prayed might be destroyed.
, who, having
The principal witness called for the prosecution was
eDxra.minLeetd a
h euysp,eoefimtehne
oLfonthdeon fluor, llos
declared Hospital
it, .in hisl
opinion, • to be unfit for human food, owing to the
gluten of the flAir being in a state of decomposition.
The Rev. W.. R. Bowditch, Mr. Slatter, surgeon, and
Mr.) s of
Me ime
' surgeon to the convict department of the
House Correction, all gave it as their opieion
that the flour was unfit for human food. Mr. Sey-
mour made a -long and able address for the defence,
and he then called a number of cora-factors; including
Mr. Thomas Smith, of the firm of Sanders and Smith.
Liverpool and Manchester ; Mr. W. Nelstrop, late
Mayor of Stockport; Mr. .Efarbridge, biscuit contractor,
Liverpool ; and Mr. Thomoson, Witkfield,—all of whom
gave it as their opinion that the flour was fit for human
to id. Mr. Ifuggori, -chemical lecturer, Leeds ; Dr. ,
Atkinson, physician to the dispensary, Wakefield ; Dr.
Craven, of Rothwell ; and Professor John T. Way,
consulting chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society,
ha I all examined portions of the flour, and they declared,
it to be fit for human food. There was no trace of adul-
teration in the flour, and a slight taint which it obtained
might have been caused by the improper stowing of it
during the six- weeks since the seizure. The case was
dismissed after having occupied the Court eight hours.
The decision was received with a round of applause by
the assembled audience. The case has excited the ut-
most interest among the corn-dealers in Yorkshire and,
Lancashire.

I- LORD DALHOUSIL—Our Malta correspondent states:
that Lord Dalhousie, late Governcr-General of India,
arrived at that port on the 104 h inst. in the Caradoc.
1 The Caradoc was to sail for Marseilles as soon as some
1 damage she sustained in a gale on the 9th had been re.
1
,
.paired. Hie lordship had derived great benefit from the
' Tome,

The following letter, from the pen of a Connecticut
farmer, who gives a description of a visit of observation to
Nicarag,ua, has been published at New Yorle:---
New York, March 14, 1856. * *
" We arrived at last at the city of Granada, and met
sentinel of Walker's army, who told us to hurry up or we
would get into the guard house. Having letters of intro-
duction to the American consul, I proceeded tohis residence,
and, without stopping to present them, I asked him if he
knee where we could procure lodgings. He very kindly
sent a servant with us, and after an hour's search we were
offered the privilege of swinging a hammock in the court of
one of the houses. Having no hammocks, our next effort
was to secure them, and after a long search we succeecled.in
buying a couple at $2 each. We returned, tied them up,
got into them, and passed the remainder of the night in
gazing at the stars and fighting mosquitoes. We learned
the next morning that we were fortunate in riecuriog as
good accommo rations as we did, as many of our companions
had slept in the government barracks, and some on benches
about the Plaza. Mr. Squires, a carpenter, ene of the pas-
eengers who had gone on with his family, succeeded in get-
ting a house, and during the remainder of my stay there
myself and Mr. Squires' friend, a Mr, Jackson, of Sharon,
Connecticut, a farmer' remained with them, and we were
supplied with the best living which the country afforded.
We still continued, however, to seep in hammocks, which
we hung high to avoid the lizards which abound there.
My next two weeks were occupied in looking about the
country in the vicinity. My opportunities for observes
tion were abundant, and I will now proceed to state
succinctly the facts of importance which I desire to com-
municate. First, I propose to show the induceatents for
farmers to emigrate to the land which has been called'
the garden of the world.' The offer of from 250 to 300,
acres of land as a free gift is held out to the worthy far-
mer ; and on he Northern Light going out I found eight'
farmers on beard who ha I been lured from their homed
ih the United States by the golden premises held out by
Nis tragus,. Mr. Jackson, who with myself boarded with
Mr. Squires, had sold his farm in Connecticut to emigrate,
got discouraged, was taken sick, and died in three days.
Four of the others went out from Granada, with other par-
Ves, to examine the country, and were gone over three
days. They hirezi mules, and went to Messiah. Two of
the number were taken sick with the fever before their-
return and died. The other two returned to Granada,
where one died with the fever three days after. The remain-
ing three left determined to get out of the country as soon
as possible. Another party of farmers, some from Cali.
fornia, went down to examine a region of country, said to '
be very fertile, situated between Rivas and Virgin Bay.
Two of the parties were taken sick. with the fever while
absent, and the or hers returned to Granada, and filed their
claims to the land tarry had staked out ; after which they
returned to the land to commence operations. But while
at Virgin Bay, on my way home, I saw one of these
gentlemen and talked with him. He was very low with
the fever himself, and beyond the hopes of recovery.
He told me that soon after returning to commence work-
inn their claims they were taken down with the fever,
and when he left his location, four of the number were
lying there too sick to be removed. I learned from a Go-
vernment officer that these claims were the first which had
been filed for farms, since Walker's government had been
established, and that up to that time not a spade had been
struck into the ground, on Government land, by an Ame-
rican. As regards the fertility of the soil some parts of
the state are very fruitful; but I do not think an Ameri-
can can make a living on any amouut of land. From all
that I can judge the Government land for agricultural par-
poses is worthless. I believe that the labour required to
clear up sufficient land of the underbrush to enable a per-
son to live from it (if he could live from any amount of
land), if the labour were applied to five acres of land in'
rendering it fertile, and devoting it to gardening purposes ;•
and fruit near here, it would make a man independent. I
think a person is far better off it ho is working on a farm at
50 cents a day and his board than he would be at Nicaragua, •
with 1,000 acres of land. After they have got the land,,;
iu their possession, if they live long enough to build a
house, they will find that the labour of clearing land •
enough to raise an acre of corn will be more than they can
endure. The landis covered with an almost impenetrable
u"der-brush, which forms the retreat of countless snakes
and ecorpi,,ns. Numbers of farmers who have gone oat for •
the purpose of .taking up land were in Granada when I left,
some dying, some sick, and others without the means of get-
ting away, discouraged and disheal tened. I took much pains
to test all the tropical fruits of the country, and would not
give our apple and peach for the whole catalogue. The in-
ducements to mechanics are but little better, if any. Mr.
Squires, the carpenter, who went out inthe Northern Light,
who had a good cheat of tools, and was an excellent work-
man,
was making from $3 to $5 per day; but he told me'
this could not last more than a few weeks, as there was
nothing in his line to do except repairing windows, small
jobbing, and making an occasional store-counter. A young
than, also a carpenter, who went out with his brother,
was employed by the Government in making coffins, which
its the most lucrative employment in the place. He was
taken sick at six o'clock in the evening, and at four the
next morning he was dead, and that day was buried in a •
coffin which he had made himself. He was perfectly tem- •
perate in his habits and in excellent health up to the mo-
Ment when he w.c taken sick. His brother came home in
the Northern Light a few days since, sick with the fever'
and it was only by careful nursing on the voyage that he
was enabled to reach his home alive. Mr. R. T. Starr, for
many years cutter and foreman in the tailoring establish-
ment of William T. Jennings and Co., of Broadway, is the
only man iu Granada who is making money at his trade, he
having the patronage of the Government as well as nearly
611 the private citizens Many mechanics, unable to find •
employment, get out of money, have no means of living, and.
Are thus forced to leave the country. There is still anothat
class of emigrants who are fired with military enthusiasm; •
and to them I have but little to say. Generally, they have •
no honest employment here, and do not want any. At
least six of this class, who left New York on the 24th
January, died the next day after their arrival, while on
their way from Granada to Leon, where they had been
ordered to march, musket in hand, under a scorching sun.
I did not learn how many more cited before reaching Leon,
but was informed that the captain of the company, mounted
on a mule, went on to Leon for a physician. The filibuster
leaves New York in high spirits, nut when he gets into Ge.
natal Walker's power he will be as tame and submissive as
a sick lamb. In walking around among the troops I have
seen them in tears over their desolate situation, it being
impossible for thew to leave the army. Walker lets off no
man, howevt.r urgent the, necessity may be. I have seen
6 very worthy young man plead the sickness of his mother
and her destitution, as a reason for his return, and the only
answer he got was a peremptory order to go back to his com-
pany. There are very worthyyoung men in the army, but
among them all there is 4 general dissatisfaction and dis-
appointment. Their food is very poor, and their pay is
barely enough for their washing expenses. The captains
receive only six dollars per week, and sickness prevails in
the army town alarming extent. For labouring men to
emigrate the inducemen tsare quite asfew. One man, who left •
Granada on the day I did, to return, was seized with the
fever on the way down the lake. At Virgin Bay he was
treated by a physician, who thought that he might venture
to start for home. He did so, and on the second day out
from San Juan he died, and his body was thrown over.
board. I understood that he was formerly a policeman in
New York. Two Irishmen, brothers, went out in the
Northern Light, but one became discouraged on arriving
at San Juan and returned. His brother, however, went
on with me to Granada. He got employment, at a dollar
and a half per day, at driving the government cart. He
was a healthy anti strictly sober man, but, one week after
his arrival, was seized with the fever and died. It is ims
possible for as Aultzican to work in that climate, particu-
larly those from the northern states. They become debilis
tated and weak, and those who are in the habit of drink-
iug sufficiently to irritate the stomach almost invariably
die. Granada is the great deadhouse of the country. Three •
miles from the city is a pond, which, in the dry sea-
son, becomes putrid, and the wind, which almost
always blows from that direction, sends a miasma,
over the city;' and this, with rum and lift, is the cause, of
the unhealthiness of the place. When I left there were
about 400 Americans in the place, and they were dying at
the ante of 5 per day on an average. It is said that Leon,
a place 10J miles above. Granada, and reached by mules, is , •
much more healthy. Virgin Bay, Caatillo, and San Carlos
are comparatively healthy.—l am. respectfully years,
" WILLIAM D. SNYDIEIL"