The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LON.OuN, FRIDAY EVENING KEPTEAIBER 19, 1850.

tleman in No. 9 wanted change fora 60/. note. Not
loving that amount in the house, she sent the prisoner
to Mr. Wood to ask him to oblige her with the change.
He returned and proceeded up stairs, s.nd she heard him
count ten sovereigns on the table. About five o'clock on
the evening of the same day the prisoner quitted his
situation without the slightest notice, and never re.
turned.

Sergeant Thomas said on the evening of the 4th Sep-
tember I apprehended the prisoner in King-street,
Norwich. I told him I was a police-constable, and he
must consider himself in my custody for stealing 401.,
the property of his master. The prisoner said, " I did
do it, but a gentleman owing me money at the hotel had
promised to pay me on that day. I had been twics for
the money but could not succeed in getting it. I took
too much drink, and I did not know what I was about."
I searched him, and finding no money upon him, I
asked him what he had done with it, and he informed
me he had purchased a suit of clothes, a silver watch,
and that he bad left 81. with his master, who resided at
Norwich, to pay his journey back to London on the
following Monday.
The prisoner declined making any defence, and was
fully committed for trial.

IRISLAND.

DUBLIN, THURSDAY MORNING.
TIILEGRAPEI COMMUNICATION WITH AMERICA.
The people of Galway have taken alarm at the
start obtained by their southern rivals, and the se-
' lection of Vac' port of Valentia for communication
by telegraph with America is more than likely to
revive the movement in favour of a western packci
station. A local paper (the Vindicator) says :
" It is rather odd that Valentia should have been se.
lected. as the fittest spot for communication with Ame-
rica by electric telegraph, while so important a city as
Gal.way has been overlooked. We suppose the lord of
Valentin had sufficient interest to bring about such a re-
s ult, and exercised it in a proper quarter, while the mer•
chants and authorities of Galway slept carelessly on
their posts. However that may be it is quite certain that
the working of the electric telegraph between Great
Britain and the States must cause an entire revolution in
tke state of things now existing. Our present postal
arrangements will be totally unsuited to the velocity of
communication which the telegraph will have rendered
so desirable. Letters that now take nine or ten days to
reach their destination must, in great measure, cease
when a message can be flashed iu a few minutes across
the Atlantic, and the prices of corn or provisions, or of
ti;e funds be received as quick as the lightning can make
response.
" The time has really arrived when our public boards,
gentry, merchants, and traders should bestir themselves.
The electric telegraph will have rendered Liverpool ob-
' solete as an American packet station, and the long and
dangerous channel navigation must be scouted by the
whole country. Postal communication with the United
States can only be maintained by a fleet line of steamers
which shall be able to run across from Galway in three or
four days. The necessiV of the case, the exigencies of the
times, and the telegraph will at last bring round that
consurnmatiou 80, desirable, and Galway, by the force of
circumstances' must be the Transatlantic Packet Station
for Britain."

AisT AMERICAN WHALER IN CORK HARBOUR.
The Cork Examiner of yesterday has the follow.
ing paragraph :

"Among the numerous arrivals to our harbour from
all parts of the world it is seldom that the flag of an
American whale•ship floats opposite Queenstown. A
whale-fishing brig, called the W. F. Safford, 172 tons,
belonging to New York, arrived in Queenstown on Fri-
day last, from Nova Zembla. On her voyage, which
was merely an experimental trip, she captured throe
whales, from which nearly eight tuns of oil have been
obtained. A new system has been introduced, by which
it would seem that this valuable animal is more surely,
safely, and speedily destroyed than by the old means,
and we understand that the credit of introducing the
present mode belongs to the captain of the W. F. Saf-
ford. Instead of being harpooned as formerly—a course
that was dangerous to life and uncertain in the result—
the fish are now shot, and after the ball enters the flesh
it explodes in the body on much the same principle as a
shell. The effect of the explosion is generally to shatter
that portion of the fish where it has entered, and it sel-
dom fails to reach a vital part. Capt. Roys, the master
of the whaler, is at present in Birmingham, where he is
having some guns of a peculiarconstruction made, which
be expects will be highly effective in the capture of
those fish. As we stated, Capt. Roys is at present
merely engaged in an experimental trip, and his ship is
at present in Cork harbour for the purpose of enabling
him to judge of its suitability as a place of despatch for
the fishing-grounds. It is hiftintention in the summer
months to fish in the North Seas, and in the winter to
visit the coast of Patagonia, and he is anxious to ascer-
tain whether this harbour would suit him as an inter-
mediate port at which be might refit and replenish his
stores. We believe it is the intention of Capt. Roys to
apply for patents for invention to the English and Ame-
rican Governments."

ELECTION OF A BOMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP.
The election of a successor to the late Bishop
Murray of Ferns took place on Monday, wh©n the
Rev. Dr. Furlong, one of the Maynooth professors,
Archdeacon Bardn, and the Rev. Patrick Keat-
inge were nominated for presentation to the Holy
See. According to the recent policy of the Court
of Rome it no longer follows as a ;matter of course
that any of the three so chosen by,the Irish priest-
hood will meet with the approbation of the Sove-
reign pontiff,. Since the importation of Dr. Culen
from Italy to Ireland domestic election—one of the
best features in the government of the Rornish
Church—has become little better than solemn
farce.

FREOA OF THE BRIG GAZELLE ANA
HORRIBLE MASSA CRE.

On the 21st of August last year the brig Gazelle, Cap-
tain W. T. Parkin, sailed from Sydney, bound to Wood-
lark Islaud, having on board a quantity of stores for the
missionary station there, and, as a passenger, the Rev.
Mr. Murraconi, an Italian clergyman, whose intention
it was to assist in the objects of the mission at that
island. Considerably anxiety having been manifested as
to Uri, safety of the brig and those on board, and several
letters having appeared referring to the subject, in April
last the schooner Favourite was chartered for the pur-
pose of going in search of the missing vessel. The Fa-
vourite has returned to Sydney, having discovered that
the-Gazelle was a total wreck on the Woodlark Island,
and that every soul on board had been murdered by the
natives. Is will be seen by the sequel that the intelli-
gence gleaned from some of the boys belonging to the
island is in several cases contradictory, but this may be
accounted for in some measure by the difficulty which
it is natural to suppose musk have existed in either party
making himself clearly understood. On the 4th of
May last, at noon, in latitude 9 degrees 14 minutes
south, and longitude 153 degrees 27 minutes east, Cap-
tain Barrack, of the Favourite, discovered a wreck,
apparently a brig, lying on her starboard beam ends,
on Woodlark Island, lowermasts and bowsprit stand-
ing, lower rigging swinging about, and bearing W.N.
W., distant five miles. At two p.m. the schooner got
abreast of and within two miles of her, and found her to
be a brig with the stern knooked away, the planks In
her bottom gone, and in every respect a total wreck.
At 4.30 p.m. Captain Barrack stood in for the harbour,
and shortly afterwards hove to for a canoe, which came
alongside of her with six native boys. The information
obtained from them, and subsequently from other of the
natives, was noted at length in the Favourite's log-book,
from which the following extracts are taken :—" One of
the boys in the canoe came on board, and on being ques-
tioned by Mr. Ramondi (a missionary acquainted with
the language of some of the South Sea Islands) delivered
cards to him, having on one side the name Mr. W. T.
Parkin,' and on the other ' Gazelle,' written in pencil.
The boys' answers to Mr. Ramondi were for the most
part vague'and unsatisfactory, so we thought it advisable
not to go up the harbour that night, but brought to'
near the entrance, set a double anchor-watch, and loaded
our guns and mulcts. The night passed quietly afloat,
but large fires were burning on shore, which the native
boy said indicated that the natives•were alarmed 'est we
were going to destroy the village for plundering the brig.
Mr. Ramondi's interpretation of this boy's story is, in
substance, as follows :—The brig got on the reef some
time in last September. The crew did not land there,
but afterwards went away in boats to Cape lleaais ;
that two white men had been killed at an island called
Madden, ail he believed the rest were murdered at the
island of Javonsee. This story excited our suspicions,
and we kept the boy on board. The next morning, at
;clock, a canoe came alongside, having in it four
boys, most of whom had been to Sydney, with the
missionaries, and whose versions of the loss of the brig
and murder of those on board, agreeing as they d.d, in
all the material points, with each other, appear to be as
near the real facts of the case as can be obtained. The
old men of the village told the boys to ask the captain
if he was angry, and that they wished to trade with
him, as they had plenty of yams and figs, and wished us
to come near the village with the schooner.' Being
under the impression that this was a scheme to entice us
amongst them, as no other canoe and no old men (as is
generally the case) came off, we dec:ined to do so. The
boy we have brought to Sydney confirmed these suspi-
cions, a', when I mentioned my intention to visit the
wreck, and explained that I could discover if the crew
were murdered, he, under the influence of a reward,
stated that the brig was close to the reef, missed stays,
and went ashore ; that shortly afterwards, by a plan
devi-ied by a chief, eight canoes went off, six men in each,
without spears, but the tomahawks concealed, their in-
tention being to murder the whole crew. The natives
pretended to be very friendly, and a number of them
went on board the brig; in a few minutes one of the
natives tomahawked Mr. Mtn raconi, another immediately
afterwards murdered the captain, and killed every soul
on board with their tomahawks ; they then plundered
the vessel of everything that excited their cupidity,
leaving the dead bodies on board. The boys belonging
to the mission (but who bad no part in this horrible act)
went on board and threw the corpses into the water.
These statements were corroborated by other natives
questioned by Mr. Ramondi. Under these circum-
stances I did not send a boat from the schooner to the
wreck, not thinking it would be safe to leave so few
hands on board. I then shaped my course off the
island."

THE WESTMINSTER CLOCK BELL—WEST HARTLE.
rooL, Wednesday, Sept. 17.—After the unfortunate
mishap which occurred in connexion with the shipping
of this monster bell on Saturday last, an examination
was made to ascertain whether the bell had sustained
any damage by the fall. The result of the examination
was perfectly satisfactory, not the least injury could be
perceived. Two timbers had been placed at the bottom
of the schooner's hold, for the mouth of the bell to rest
upon. At the time of the accident the bell was sus-
pended at about a height of 12 feet from the hold, and
inclining over towards the larboard side of the vessel,
owing to the shears not being swung far enough over the
deck. This caused the bell, when it descended, to fall
with one side of the mouth upon the keelson, and the
other upon one of the timbers laid for its bed, at the
same time striking the side of the vessel, and starting
her timbers. The vessel was surveyed by Lloyd's agent
on Monday, when it was found that the damage to the
bull was only of a trifling nature, and it was determined
to allow the bell to remain in the vessel, which, after
undergoing the necessary repairs, would be able to carry
her freight. She was brought out of the basin yesterday,
after being temporarily caulked, and placed in the
Swainson Dock, from which she will proceed to-morrow
into Mr. Pile's graving dock, to be thoroughly repaired
and fitted with new mast, &c. In order to do this the
bell will have to be removed frem her. It is expected
that she will be able to proceed )n her voyage in about
a fortnight from thin date.

_HIGH PRICE OF CORN.

(From the Times )
The relations of the corn and money markets
are as perplexing as any celestial phenomena.
Perhaps.the more general rule is that of contraries.
A wet summer or a war which sends corn up
sends the funds down, and when funds go down
shares of course follow with still more violent
oscillations. This is a very intelligible state of
things. In the Dutch barometer, at the approach
of fine weather, the lady in the silk shawl comes
out, and her companion in the cloth cloak goes in ;
and vice versa when it threatens rain. But the two
markets are not always the Castor and Pollux of ;
the firmament, for sometimes they are both elated I
to Heaven, or both hurled below in reluctant corn-
panionship. It has been so lately. For about two , '
months wheat and Three per Cents., nobody
could say why, have been coming down together,
and the other day both presented to their respec-
tive admirers a very lugubrious aspect. Within a
few days they have almost simultaneously, yet
neither with very good reason, taken to rise ; and
the recovery in both cases has been considerable—
Consols 1, and wheat ss. a quarter, or more.
These are no very great fluctuations, indeed, but
the wisest,heads are puzzled to find out a satisfac-
tory reason. Reasons, of course, can be easily as-
signed, but it is not so easy to say why a reason
should operate at one time and not at another.
Nobody could deny a month ago, or a fortnight
ago, that trade was fairly prosperous ; that there
was a fair prospect of abundance ; that we seemed
to be in good train for the settlement of our vari-
ous differences ; that the railway returns were
more favourable than ever ; that there was money
enough coining from the gold fields ; and in the
Bank of England there was no such diminution of
bullion as to cause any disquietude. In spite of
all this,' funds and shares dropped and dropped
day after day. Some said these were speculative
sales, and true enough, as bad been predicted, the,
settlement-day was the date of the reaction. Not
a reason was given that had not operated, or been
fully expected to operate, months and months be-
fore. Even the demand for money abroad, which
constituted the immediate drain on the market,
had been distinctly foreseen as the necessary re-
sult even of reviving enterprise, and of that general
squaring of accounts that would arise at the termi-
nation of a war. The drain of silver to the East
admits of ai ready explanation, as was yesterday
pointod out in another part of our columns. It
merely arose from our having to buy in China the
raw silk we could not obtain in France and from
our usual exchanges with India being disturbed by
the payment of railway calls.
True, there was another cause, which for a time
more directly affected the shares of all, mercantile
associations, and that was the failure of the Royal
British Bank. The disappearance of 150,0001.,
or even twice that sum, in imprudent advances,
seems itself a very slight affair. Many a private
failure discloses a much larger deficiency. This.was
merely the common case of half-a-dozen acting
partners, under the specious name a directors,
" playing ducks and drakes" with the money of
their sleeping and very simple copartners. To say
that they helped themselves and their friends from
the till, till the till was found to be empty, would
be an unfair way of stating the fact; though the
result was much the same, and will generally fol-
low, when .directors are not men of the highest
stamp. There are, however, dozens of such banks,
as well as assurance and other companies, the
shareholders of which would be puzzled to say
what they know of their directors, what reason
they have to trust to this or that man, and whether
they would think a 1,0001. note perfectly safe in his
hands or not. There are known principles of
human nature very applicable to these cases. There
,ia no real' security against fraud, or commercial
practices leading to the same result, except charac-
ter. In the long run character is the only
dependence, and of course it is a point .on which
people have to judge for themselves. The common
error is to think cleverness, sharpness, a touch of
roguery, and even a slight share in some question-
able but successful transactions, better than a dull
compound of scrupulous honour and plain common
sense. It is rather remarkable, however—we speak
without the slightest reference to the recent failure
—how often the men who have suddenly surprised
the world by frightful defalcations have never had
a character for exact and delicate honour, and have
even avowed a different code of morality. They
who trust such men deserve to lose their money.
What is more, when there is no certain knowledge
of the men whom you are absolutely trusting with
your money, it becomes, to say the least, mere
gambling ; for, there is no real difference between
an ivory cube, which when thrown up into the air
may fall on tills side or that, it is impossible to say
which, and a man concerning whom you cannot
say whether he will spend your 1,00/. in propping
up a friend's bad speculation, or put it to some
safer and less private use. It is the drawback of
new associations that they are in the hands of new
men, who may be honourable and prudent enough,
but are not certainly known to be such. Such are

the general principles applicable to the subject.
Nevertheless, there is a large class which is only
taught by experience, and which prefers it, own
experience to that of others. When, therefore, a
bank or a railway company is suddenly turned in-
side out, the shock to the weaker portion of the
public is all the greater from their habit of only
learning by such catastrophes. The alarm then
spreads fast enough, and scarce a j int-stock bank
escapes suspicion, because ono appears to have been
ill-conducted. No doubt the recent failure had its
effect on shares of all kinds, and that to an unrea-
sonable extent.
As to the fluctuations of the corn-market, the
recent fall was intelligible enough. It was owing
to the ascertained goodness of our harvest, which,
after a period of excessive heat, followed by
rather more rain than was desirable, turns out to
be abundant and well got in. The present rise
is another question, and it is ascribed to the
damage done to the French crops by the inunda-
tions, and to the fact that the harvest generally in
the South of Europe is below the average. It is
presumed, then, that we shall not supply our
wants with such facility as heretofore, or with
such convenience to the usual course of trade. But
surely this inconvenience must be exaggerated when
the Americans are at this moment calculating, not
what they can supply—for on this point they
appear to think their resources boundless—but
what we can take. Free trade has given such
encouragement to agriculture in the Western States

that we have only—to give the word and any
quantity is forthcoming. So say the American
papers, though it is not unlikely they may
find the definite sooner fathomed than they ex-
pect. But, at all events, it appears that the im-
port of British manufactures into the States has
this year been much more than usual, and there is
now some anxiety lest there Elould not be a suffi-
cient demand for their agricultural produce to
balance the account. If, then, we are to trust to
Atnerican speculations, a scarcity is about the last
thing we need apprehend. What, then, makes the
present rise f There is just now a demand in excess
of the supply. That is a suffic;ent account of the
matter, though, rerhaps, not the whole account.
We know, however, of no adequate reason. It may
be that.farmers having recently sold wheat at 80s.,
and being flush of money, cannot make up their
minds to part with it at 655. There may be deeper
reasons for the pre vent state of the market. But
farmers have the game in their own hands. They
can now sell at a remunerative price. If they pre-
fer to hold out for higher, and are ultimately re-
duced to accept les.; than what they now refuse, it
will be their own affair.

(From. Galignani's Messenger.)

The Siecle contains some remarks on a subject
which, although not political in its character, is of
the highest importanc?—the fabrication of bread at
a cheap rate. If the populations of any nation are
to be kept tranquil and contented, the bitter pangs
of famine must be sedulously kept at a distance ;
for the sight of a hungry family is capable of urg-
ing the best-intentioned man to desperate attempts
against property and government. Hence all
statesmen have paid the most particular attention
to provide sufficient food for every person placed
under their protection. It was actuated by such
views that the French Government lately extended
to Dec. 31, 1857, the measures decreed for facilita-
ting the importation of corn into France. Nothing
could be more logical or more prudent than such a
course, for there is one very marked fact which
dominates in the whole of this question of corn,
and that is, that France does not herself produce
sufficient corn for her ordinary consumption. It
is true that occasionally an unusually abundant
harvest gives a surplus for the following year ; but,
if a quinquennial or decennial average be taken the
result will be found a deficiency. The Siecle gives
some statistics on this head which bear out our
assertion :

" From 1815 to 1825 we imported 9,014,369 hecto-
litres of corn of all kinds, and exported 1,978,179 hecto•
litres, making a difference between the imports and
exports of 7,036,190 hectolitres: From 1825 to 1836,
an interval of 12 years, the quantity imported war
21,775,246 hectolitres, and that exported 9 484 915 bee
tolitres being an increase of imports of 12,290,331 hecto-
litres. In the period cf 1836 to 1846 the import of
corn was 11,923,896 metrical quintals, and the export
3,638,245 metrical quintals. The difference in favour
of the imports was therefore 9,922,616 metrical quinta/s,'
or 1,288'1651 hectolitres a year. This quantity must,
howevtr,i be redniedi 'by 173,654 bectelitreS,, being the'
excess of the export over the import of flour. The
average of this last period was therefore 1,008,701 hec-
tolitres. From 1846 to 1854 the importation of corn of
all Janda amounted to 42,02,201 metrical epiAtals, and

t the exports to 51,767,034 metrical quintals. The imports
therefore exceeded the exports by 685,167 metrical quin-
tals, or 901,539 hectolitres, being an annual average of
, 112,693 hectolitres. This deficit is less ccnsideiable
' j than that which we have pointed out in Co former
periods, but it if we add to it that of 1855 and 1856, of
which we have not yet the exact returns, it will doubt-
less exceed the highest total we hare given."
In the face of this insufficiency of corn for the or-
dinary consumption of France during the last forty
years, it is not temporary measures, the Siecic de-
clares, that ought to be adopted fur allowing its
free importation, but a constant admission of all
articles of food without any duty or impediment
whatever. With corn brought in at all times, and
under every flag, a sufficiency of foci. would be an i
assured matter, whether in peace or war. But
even then, enough would not have been effected to
give cheap bread to the poorer classes of the popu-
lation. Our contemporary conceives that the Go-
vernment ought to go farther, and direct its atten-
tion to procuring a cheaper mode of fabricating
bread. The bakers' monopoly ought, it thinks, to
be abolished, and steam-power be employed on a
large scale in mixing the dough and forming the
loaves into shape. A better system of centralising
labour in this most important matter ought to be
adopted, and vast establishments organised for the
general public, as has been done with such advan-
tages of economy and salubrity for the army. Un-
fortunately, our contemporary treats the subject
somewhat too generally to lead to any particular
reselt ; but its suggestions seem so well adapted
to the matter that we hope to see some further ob-
servalions on the subject from the same pen.