The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-10 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER. 10; 1856.

M.Z. H. DRUMMOND ON " 401VDON
POETBR."

At. the anraval mceting of the Surrey A;-:!reilltura)
!d -yesterday at Epsom, Mr. Drlinninucl

S ~._ :,

"GeTol,lmeu,-,I• fiat K:V in a Ger

man paper, when I was in Germany lately, that
in England had gone holiday-tuaking,, and I fir.::
pretty much the same sentiment re .echoed in the
English newspapers. It seems to have been the
ge•ieral rule that' all agricultural meetings lately
held politics should be banished,; or nearly so. Now,
I have taken the liberty more than once, in speak-
ing to you, to beg and pray of you to have meetings
at which your members should talk to you about poli.
tics,- so if you have not heard already anything I have to
tell you, it is your fault, and not mine. I might very
welneave the discussion of politics upon the present
,occasion, but I am the less inclined to do so because
have lately seen some extraordinary recommendations
from certain gentlemen who are going to reform the
Administration, and to effect wonders in the House of
Commons; and, among the rest, they are going to make
every one of us 600 unfortunate gentlemen give our opi-
nions every night on every possible subject submitted to
us.- We live to see strange things, indeed 1 Now, gen-
ilemen, with regard to agricultural statistics, I am of
opinion that there is a vast deal of humbug in the
matter. (Cheers and laughter.) I don't believe it is
worth your while either to oppose them or adopt them:
'lf anybody wants to know how many acres of wheat, or
of turnips, or potatoes, I grow, I'll tell him ; bat as to,
its being of the smallest use_to any living man, I don't
believe one word of it. People go mad, And nations are
going mad, after these'statistics • and if. you don't fur-
u ish them, I'll tell you what will be the consequence'.' You
wiliehave fellows Setif itincfid the country to take them,
.
and then you will have to pay for them pretty smartly,'
That is the point about this agitation which I diilike. I
think the odds are that the gentlemen who will be sent,
roiled will be the barrister of seven years' standing, and
this is a.sort of gentleman Who, I thief., is .etting a vast
deal too' much employthent already. I think"it is perfectly
absurd to suppose that these agricultural statistics will
be 'of the smallest use. You cannot give the requisite
information directly after the crop is out of the ground,'
for I defy any body in the world, and no farmer is fool
enough to suppose that he can `tell how his crops will
turn out until they are thrashed. It is, therefore, no-
thing but nonsense to pretend that any advantage what-
ever can arise to the farmer from the collection of agri
cultural statistics. Now, my hon. friend in the chair
alluded to the tax upon ale. I believe I have advocated
more than any one in the house its removal. lam not
only fond of ale myself, but I positively believe it to be
a national institution. I don't like the nasty, beastly
black compound which goes under the name of London
porter. (Cheers and laughter.) And yet, although I
am so fond of ale, I know, I believe, but one single
house in the whole county of Surrey where good'ale is to
be bad. (Laughter.) A little while ago we had a song
about the golden days when there was ale in the cottage
and ale in the hall, but I candidly confess that I have
never seen ale in the cottage since I was a child. (Hear;
hear.) I must, however, do Mr. Disraeli the justice to
say that he was willing to take off half the malt tax.
(Mar, hear.) But 6y whom was he prevented ? Why,,
by the same gentlemen who cry out, " Oh, dear me)
don't tax the poor man in the articles of his consumption ;
no, no, tax realised property." They were great advo-t,
catee for taxing realised property. "Well, then," thought
Mr. Disraeli, " what is so much realised property as a
house ? I'll put a tax upon houses." But what way
the consequence ? All London got up in arms. Every
large provincial town get up in arms, and declared host
shameful they were served. By what ?—by his putting a
tax upon what ? Why upon realised property. And there
are people who say, " Don't drink beer." Beer, forl
south 1 why there's hardly any one in the country who
knows what beer is now. If we were to shut up all the
brewers in London in a room, and give them nothing
but malt and hops, I don't suppose that all the malt
and hops in the world would enable them to turn out
that nasty black stuff they call porter. I recently got
nut of a friend of mine how much malt was used to a
hogshead 'of liquor in the great London porter breweries.
I dare say most of you—at all events sometof you—re-
member the time when it was thought a point of honour
never to send the great barley-rake into a field to clean
it until after the labourer had been there to glean, so as
to get enough to brew himself a little beer. Some of
that beer I have tasted, and certainly it was not'very
strong. The proportion of malt, put into a hogslead—

I don't mean to say the labourer brewed a hogshead, or
anything like it—but the proportion of malt he put in
was six bushels ; the farmer brewed eight, and the gentle-
man 10 or 12. But what do you think the proportion
of malt put in the London porter is ? Two bushels.
(Loud laughter.) Now, 1 was telling this to a friend of
mine in the House of Commons who is a capital trawer
himself, and I wanted to pump out of him how much he
put in his. (Laughter.) He wouldn't tell me that, but
he said, I'll send you a dozan as a present And he did
send a dozen, and very good it was. " But," said I,
"doesn't it appear to be very strong?" " Well," he replied
"I'm a good deal accustomed to go out deer stalking,
shooting, and sporting in the Highlands; I always drink
it, and I never find it affect me." (Laughter.) I fear that
we shall never get the malt tax off for the bandit of the
farmers unless there is a very strong effort made. (Cheers,
and a cry of " Bravo !") Now, what's the use of crying
" Bravo, bravo I" unless you come up with petitions and
remonstrances and back me in the house ? Gentlemen, I
believe this question of beer presses as much upon the
morals as the comforts of the people; and if by the means
of removing the malt tax you cao give them plenty of
really good beer, you will do more to reform their morals
than by all the trumpery schemes that are now being so
strongly advocated. (Cheers and laughter.)

ottated to,call-attention to the servees of Mr. Cramp
ton, and told that he had great pleaiura in &it:lkt%;
with them the toast.
. Mr. CRAmProN returned timuhq,
toal-s•
.I'ollo-wed,
a!tei eer-ci-n

I it

ztte.l

DUBLIN, THURSDAY MORNING.

THE NEW COURT OF ,APPEAL•

Although November term is now close at hand

there is no official,'or, indeed; anycertain announce=
ment of the appointment of the new judge. • This
delay will undoubtedly lead to considerable incon4
venience and confusion both to the profession and
the public, as the 'rules and regulations of the new
court, which have to be drawn up in conjunction
with the Chancellor and the Master of the Rolls,
should by this time have been in the hands of all
parties interested. An evening
paper '(the Mail)
hints that a judge of the common law courts (Mr.
Justice Ball) is the chosen man, and that the un-
doubted claims of ex-Chancellor',Blackburne have
been set aside for the sake of patronage,' inasthuch
as Mr. Ball's promotion. would Create a ,vacancy in
the Comnion Pleas—a very poor consideration, it
must be confessed, when opposed to the fact that
the country would be a gainer to the amount of
3,0001. a-year by the saving of the pension ,now
enjoyed by Mr: Blackburno.

TIIE BOLG.T4D• DIFF GVLTY.

f

. _
The Debats of yesterday presents p
the follewifig 11,eq-11-
now: peeling betw.ion

as tbey
The
a, teli ti
ofs f-
totorl n
es;,
had for their .ferttl.t! point theprotocol signed at Vienna
on the Ist of February.
With respect .to the rectification of the Bessarabian
frontier, that protocol,declared as Wows : "This fron-
tier,-thus rectified in a manner conformable to the general
interests, shall start from the environs of Chotym,
follow the line of mountains which stretch in a south-
easterly direction, and shall terminate at Lake Salsyk.
The boundary fine shall be definitely determined by the
treaty of peace, and the'conceded territory shall return
to the Principalities, arid to the suzerainty of the Porte."
The Congress was occupied with the regulation of the
frontiers during its sitting on the Bth of March. A por-
tion of the sitting on the 10th of March was also devoted
thereto, and the protocols contain a detailed account of
what was said and done during these two sittings. The
Russian plenipotentiaries, denying the possibility of es-
tablishing a direct line between the two extreme points
indicated in the preliminaries of peace, pf.posel a line
of frontier conceived on another system,-and as their
project excited strong objectibus on -the p.irt of the
French, English, and Austrian plenipitentiaries, they
ended by declaring "that they had no other object than
to establish an agreement conformable to the topography
of the country,and the, interest of its inhabitants, and
that they were ready, consequently, to discuss any other
proposition which might be enibutitted to them." The
chief French plenipotefitiary 'propciuttded, on his side, a
proposition founded ,en a compensation, and calculated
to lead to an ngieement. "After a discussion of this
amendment (we qttote from the protocol respecting the
sitting of March 8), in. which- all the plenipotentiaries
took part, it.was proposed to the Russian plenipoten-
tiaries to, establish the frontier by means of a line which,
setting out from the Pruth; between Sticiva' and gush,
should pass to the north of Lake Salsyk, and termi-
nate beyond Lake Albedies. The Russian plenipoten-
tiaries, necessitated, as they said, to assure themselves
concerning the position under this arrangement of the
Bulgarian and •Russian' colonies established in that
part of Bessarabia, requested that the diicatssion
might be adjourned to the next sitting, -which was
agreed to." In the sitting of the 10th of March
the Russian plenipotentiaries required a modifi-
cation of the boundary line which had been pro-
posed. According to the protocol—" This proposition
became the subject of an examination, participated in
by all the plenipotentiaries, whe at last agreed that
the frontier line should set out from the Black Sea to the
east of the Lake Bourria-Solti, rejoin perpendicularly the
route of Akerman, follow the same as .the Trajan Val-
ley, pass to the south of Bolgrad, reascend the river
Yalpuck as far as the heights of Saratzlci, and thence
terminate at Katamon, on the Proth." Ilk decision is
reproduced verbatim in the 20th article of the treaty of
March 30th, the Nat paragraph of which runs thus :
" Delegates of the contracting powers shall fix the de-
tails of the new frontier line."

The delegates of the powers have accordingly gone to
work. On the greater portion of the frontier line they
have found themselves free from much dispute, but at
Bolgrad they have setriously differed. Bolgrad is a small
town situated at the head of Lake Yalpuck, at a point
where the river of that name discharges itself into
the lake. It is a town of itself of no importance, but

its possession is not without its interest fe-r Bu:sia,
cause it is the chief town of those Bulgarian and Rust
sian settlements established in that part of Bessarabia,
the condition of which occupied the attention of the
Russian plenipotentiaries during the sitting of March 8,
and caused them to ask for an adjournment of the pro-
ceedings. Bolgrad is the commercial centre of those
settlements, and a school and a church have been built
there by the Russian Government, One may readily
conceive that the Russian plenipotentiaries insisted that
Bolgrad might be conserved to Russia, and that the
other powers consented. But the Bolgrad of to-day,
situated on the borders of Lake Yalpuck, is not exactly
the same as the Bolgrad of a former date, situated at a
short diganca from the lake. The ancient Bolgrad has
lost its name. It is now called Taback, or Tainack. It
is but little inhabited. The life and stir of the place have
concentrated themselves at the New Bolgrad, which, by
means of the Lake Yalpuck, is not absolutely deprived
of all communication with the Danube. Some of the
delegates contend that the new frontier should not pass
to the south, but to the north of the modern
Bolgrad, and to the south of the ancient Bolgrad
only. These delegates, said to be those of Turkey
and England, maintain that a line which should pass to
the south of the new Bolgrad would be irreconcilable
with the well-known intention of the contracting Powers;
so much so, indeed, that if the Congress adopted it, this
could only be through some misunderstanding, or through
a material error, to which power of revocation is always
permitted ; that the paramount object was to separate
Russia from the Danube, and that this will not be ob-
tained if its frontier touches the Lake Yalpuck.

There has been much debate on this matter, much
written and spoken on alriudeg, without coming to an
agreement. Now, as the. Congress is summoned to in-
terpret its work, and to declare whether its intention
has been faithfully expressed or not, in the 20th article
of the treaty, we see that it is highly expedient that this
question should be submitted to its consideration.

In all the discussions which have already taken place,
there has been revealed a singular matter, which, though
not without significance, is not referred to in the pro-
tocols. When the Russian Plenipotentiaries, in the
sitting of the Congress on Match Bth, criticised the pro-
ject for rectifying the frontier a.linitted at Vienna on the
proposition of Austria, and inscribed in the preliminaries
of peace, they produced maps drawn up by their designers
which gave their remarks a show of plausibility. These
maps, according to th:. Russian Plenipotentiaries, exactly
tallied with the districts represented, and an inspection
of the earns was sufficient to show the error which was
allowed to find entrance at Vienna. When the discus-
sion was resumed at the next sitting, other maps, it is
said, were produced from the archives of the French
Minister of War. It appears that they came very near
to the Russian maps, and were not without influence on
the deliberations. We are informed that the Russian
Plenipotentiaries now fall back on this circumstance,
and defend the frontier-line adopted by the Congress,
reminding us that this line, suggested by the French
documents, was unanimously proposed to them by the
other Powers representck at the Congress ; and that at
this moment the correctness of the French maps has not

been contested by any oue.
But Turkey and England, without denying the fact of
the production of the French maps, do nut assign to
them the authority which is sought to be allotted to
them, but reject them from any weight in determining
the point under dispute. They cannot be taken into ac-
count, say they, unless at the time when iney were pro-
duced they were marked with the initials of the members
of the Congress present. This was not done, and there-
fore they maintain that these maps have not found a
place in the preceding discussions in the character of
official documents, but only as simple referencas to which
no one is committed.

THE FATAL ACCIDENT AT THE BRYN
MALLY MINE.

WREXHAM, WEDNESDAY EVENING.
Since the fatal occurrence of Wednesday last the great-
est efforts have been made to pump out the water from
the mine; but at first those exertions produced little, if
any, effect. There was a slight diminution on Thursday
and Friday, but on Saturday the water had increased in
depth two. yards above the amount ascertained by ganging
at the pit's mouth immediately afterthe accident. The usual
means of lifting were, of course, insufficient, and the cage,'
or largo iron box used in raising the coal and in lowering
and raising the men, was brought into requisition at the
earliest possible moment. By this additional power, accord.
ing to information we 'obtained on the spot, they are now
pumping nut 120 tons of water par hour, and it is confi-
dently believed that, should this be 'continued as it has
been, night and day, and no accident occur to the machinery
either to-morrow or next day at the latest persons will be
able to descend to the upper workings, and ascertain the.
fate of the missing men. The fact of a miner in this neigh-
bourhood, now aged 70, having under similar circumstances
some years ago, remained underground for more. than a
fortnight with on:y horse flesh to subsist upon, and that a
number of horseS were in tbis'mine last Wednesday, gives
faint—though very faint—hopes of some ono or two of the
uufoitunate 13 victims being yet rescued from a frightful
death. • Eight married men having large families, four
single men, and a boy, are unaccounted for, and the cir-
cumstance that they were working, at the time of the in-
undation, in a level beyond the spot from which the four 1
persons who last emerged escaped in so prec irious a manner,
by means of crawling on their bellies more than a mile up
the air shaft, raises the strong presumption that they were
overtaken by the advancing volume ere they could seize
even the small chance of safety which such an outlet pre-
sented. At the time of the accident, nearly the whole of
the 230 miners employed were engaged in the ordinary oc-
cupations underground, and the escape of such a large ma-
jority under circumstances perilous in the extreme is en
tirely attributable to the presence of mind and the real
heroism of a boy named Edwards. He was the first to dis-
cover the bursting in of the w.,tmr, and to spend the alarm
through the workings. The men hastened to the pit's
eye, and Edwards, not findina his father among them,
set off in another direction with the praiseworthy desire
of saving his parent's life. In this he happily succeeded.
When retreat was rendered impossible by the a Ivaco
ing water, he bethought him of an air shaft known
neither to his father nor to his father's two mates ; he
conducted them to it, and in the manner above described
the four reached an upper working, whence they were
dragged to the surface iu an exhausted condition. The
inundation was in no way owing to late rains, but to an
accumulation of water in an adjoining mine, known as
Sparrow's mine, which had not been worked for more than
50 years. The Bryn Melly mine belongs to Messrs. Clay-
ton and Dail ng, a well-known firm in connection with the
coal trade of Lancashire, and is ono of the largest in North
Wales. This sad event, though occasioning less sensation
in a mining district, where less of life seems ever to be
contemplated as a continseacyineeparable from the nature
of the occupation, has created. unusual regret, and that
regret is painted in the faces of groups of men, wistfully
regarding every lift of the enormous ' cage," and express.
ing by their looks in a manner not to be mistaken anxious
speculations upon the probable fate of comrades whose
accustomed voices they will never hear again. It is surely
acrying defect of law that when an unused mine is known,
as this Sparrow's mine was known, to be fully charged
with water, no steps aro or can be taken to preclude the
possibility of casualties such as wo have here to record.