The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-06 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY' OCCURRENCE.

_
Yesterday information was received through a.,
private communication from Bruges, Belgium, of
a very extraordinary occurrence, the result of a
mischievous freak, which took place on the Grand
Place last Sunday, jeopardising the lives of 2, bot;
persons, and it seems somewhat marvellous indeett,
how one half that number escaped from a fearful
death. It appears that lately an English equestrian,
company has arrived in Bruges, and they 113'
pitched their circus, which was covered 1)1,5,11
extensive marque, on the Grand Place. 1-ue
performance was proceeding as usual on sandal
evening last, until all at once the tent, whit h was,
thickly covered with snow at the time, fell flat
upon the spectators, performers, and all, toiling
them beneath its folds in one confined,isnd 86 h nre
mass. At the time it was compute"
were 2,500 spectators present, that
t ere
and others connected with the circus Must hav_ e
made the number present nearly 3,000, so that tare
confusion and uproar that ensued upon the
than
the perform 0
pauling descending is more readily conceived.
depicted. There were, as on all such occ,slonsihe
,earsndm. betihneg
number of the military scattered throughout
immediately drawing
enclosure, and the soldiers,
their swords, hacked away at thee
assisted by the other unfortunat
dilemma with knives, the marque!,
_was quickly
cap:jtaaks
contusions, and no doubt in
reduced to shreds, and thereby enabled all to escape
after receiving sundry . 9
many instances more
.serious injuries, but fortu-
nately no life was sacrificed. However, had it not
been for the promptness with which the poor crea-
tures were released, several, if not the whole as"
semblage, would have been suffocated. The cause
of the tent collapsing was some miscreant severing
the outside cords by which it was attached to the
poles.

MR. COBDEN ON FOREIGN AFFAIR

In repil_iynpgtaorihasi,lBetter from sTme local committee at Brad'
Tforreda,tycaoll
I Cobden writes :
matrt.ention to the non-execution a the
me to this -ad"dGrel
at a loss to see how I can interfere i
yssn, Garth, near Bangor, Nov. 30, 1856.
" Sir,—ln reply to your favour which has followed
e legitimate
session,
o'r
has no
of 80l d
went bgraand the Serpents Island. Unless l'arlia.
bnotuernideretorecsopnefoetsisogthtahte Isoaarni
pap
omr
te
umnbi
teyr
o off the
bringingll ous House of fd
tics of litioos•
the Ministry the state of our foreign ask s
r
This can only be done by, in the first place, asking for
information ; for the normal state of the public) wind 11
this country is in ignorance the most profound of A,.
the proceedings of our Foreign-office. At this motoeo;
we are without any official information respeetivg „°13,,
present relations with Russia, and it would be so 'T.'
warrantable intrusion if, upon the assumed authenticii
1312trell2nues•
of all we read in the public journals, a member of F,te;
liament were to tender his censure or advice to '''
Foreign Minister. f the •
" I do not presume to know the precise objects o . 8 ,
' Bradford Committee for Investigating State A g alr ; ,
but, if its attention be chiefly directed to Our fore.ig_,
relations, I would venture to suggest that, instead
wasting its efforts in the vain attempt to 1301re:101ply
thread of our foreign policy, it would wore sviiriblie 'and
itself to the task of laying down an inte"-g- n this
honest principle on which the intergonlie carriedbatwe.e
on.
country and other nations ought to be
conviction
There seem to me to be signs of a growing
aod
that some restraint on our diplomacy ie neeessarYjnon
I do not think it would be difficult to find a c0....-ibr lb
ground on which a large amount of argurnent for
reform of our foreign policy might be secured anti;
men of every shade of opinion on domestic politics. the
least I submit that even an attempt to delln,tinns
functions of our Government in its foreign re. ter.
would be a more promising occupation than the liob.
u
minable and fruitless task of ' investigating' acts wto
are generally shrouded in mystery, and which are 0 of
often referable to no higher principles or rdotiv? ..
action than the caprices of practically irresponsible '-
dividuals.—l am, sir, your obedient servant, t.
" RIMARD C 03-

“ Joseph E. Jenkinson, Secretary,& c.”
—.....--........------e
A MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR.—The P/0101/t/b-' .
tawts,r.me!
soaysconfidently rumoured that by a recent dec:ed
ofnthe Court of Chancery, a suit which has been carried
for upwards of a century has been brought to a cc:,
elusion, and that a young man, a native of this eounkil
and at the present time filling the humble situatioawe;
servant in a gentleman's family in Plymouth, bas be° it
entitled to an almost incredible sum of money--reP°
says hundreds of thousands.
SOUTHAMPTON, Friclay.—The Spanish steamer 1314 tr;
celona arrived this afternoon from Hamburg, en routete
Santander, Corunna, Cadiz, Malaga, Valencia, AlicA.a,.o;
and Barcelona, and, after taking in French and 13r",1i,
cargo, will proceed on Sunday at daylight to her det`:
nation. The Barcelona left Hamburg on the 30tb
and was detained two days in getting down t rin);
Elbe on account of the ice in the stream and tee 27
closing navigation, since which the weather hag foto
thick and hazy. The Hamburg, the second ship e1..,,t.
line, is expected here from Spain about the 12th I"ext
The Royal mail steamship Avon leaves on TueeduaYiriaer
with the outward mails for the Brazils and tl.„riaing
Plate., Messrs. Mslver, of Liverpool, t eegouth-
managers of the Cunard' Company, have beep's ju
__at
ampton within the last few days to wake arm
1 h thP
establishing
an agency hers in connection w . flll
European and Australian Royal Mail Steana NownrgesanY
Company, with which association the Cunard '-',,ce'tually
has recently coalesced, for the purpose of It, it ev
carrying out the Australian mail contracjo s
petted great extension of trade will folio': whose or
ton from the fact of the Cunard Cort'aivn:: Liverpool, having
rations have hitherto been confined
° (lithe sPteara Va.&
determined to devote their attaation t to addit4°l3ll
of this place, particularly in reference
.nd the Mediterra•
communication with India, Chin —7 tio to orrr
nean, which we understand is their inten
ut. outhntar