The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-09 00:00:00

LATEST NEWS.

BERLIN, MONDAY.

The Prussian note, relating to the Neufchatel
prisoners, wai expedited on the 6th. It discusses
the question of the right of the Federal Council
to deal with them, and hints at the adoption of

energetic measures.
The Grand Duke of Baden has granted a gene-
ral amnesty to the political offenders of 1849,
with some exceptions. Those who have remained
n the country since their condemnation recover
their civil and political rights.

ST. PETERSBURG, Nov. 29.

The Second Army, under the command of
General Luders, who is now on leave, is dissolved.
The 4th, sth, and Gth army corps, of which the
Second Army was originally composed, will re-
sume their place as distinct corps.

1 8 5 6.1

AU

IA

By the arrival of the True Briton we have
received our letters and papers from Melbourne,
dated Sept. 12. She brings nearly 100,000 ounces

of gold, about 400,0001.
The Red Jacket was announced to leave Mel-
bourne for England on the 25th of September.

The Golden Era had arrived out.

The Melbourne Herald, of Sept. 11, in its

"Summary for Europe," says :

" Keeping our little controversies to ourselves,
and making allowance even for the neglect of the
Home Government as well as for the boundless

extravagance and ludicrous incapacity of our local
Administration, we may safely epitomise the sub-

stance of all that is contained iu the following sum-

mart' under the heads of tranquillity—prosperity

—and progress.
" The gold fields—which every experiment and
inquiry shews to be inexhaustible—are yielding a
hrger produce, and new ones are being opened ii
all directions.

Recent discoveried have been reported both of
tin and silver, "and, a careful exploration is being
made of a coal mine, to which we alluded in our
last suromaiy, said to have been found on the
shores of Port Phillip. Quarries of slate and
mar'..% have been pointed out, and last, though
nit; least, of all these additions to our wealth and
comfort, a bank of codfish has been sprung, so to
speak, in the neighbourhood of King's Island, in
Bass's Strait.

"Our first general election is going on with
great animation—the most remarkable feature in it
being the great intelligence displayed by the mass
of the people, and the consequent discomfiture, so
far as we have gone, of those gentlemen who have
been so bold or so eccentric as to declare their ad-
hesion to the present Government. Old colonists
now in England will be amused at learning how

completely the ancient regime—which in their time
used to be regarded as a fixed institution, and in-
deed a dire necessity—has been shaken and con-
verted into a laughing-stock and a bugbear.
" The information we have received as to the
mail contract is not deemed satisfactory. The
Peninsular and Oriental Company will do all they
can to carry our traffic too far to the eastward.
We want one transshipment only, and a direct line
from Suez.

" Although our winter has not yet passed over,
and the pools of mud which still form many por-
tions of our so-called roads to the diggings have
not yet been dried up, the spirit of trade, and the
indomitable perseverance which characterises our
workers in the hive, have kept pace with the wants
of our mining population, and secured, if not brisk-
ness, at least vitality to cur markets. The steady
and increasing supl,y of gold, with the almost
daily discovery of new deposits of the precious
metal, are in themselves sufficiently cheering ele-
ments of our commercial prosperity ; but when to
these are added tits wide-spreading labours of our
farmers and agriculturists,—the fast changing
features of the country around us,—the wild bush
disappearing for the cultivated plain,—it is not
difficult to foresee a course of prosperity and plenty
whieh must ensure the improved condition and
sound advancement of ourselves, and of the thou-
sands yet to come amongst us.
" Our returns of all kinds show a state of real
prosperity and healthy trade, which under common
prudence must lead to results as great, and much
more lasting, than those of the past. Not that we
can record anything like excitement in trade, oi
even great buoyancy in our commercial trans-
actions.
"House property and land in Melbourne is also
rising. The following properties were sold last

week
"Brick building, Chapel-street, Prahran, of six
rooms, for 750/. ; Star and Garter Hotel, St. Kilda,
41.,600/. ; two acres of land, East Prahran, 600/. ;
S 2 feet to Collins•street West, by a depth of 80
feet, for 1,6001. Also let on a long term, allotment
•ne of section 11, East Melbourne, at 1001. per

were :

Mount Alexander and Bendigo ....•
16,766
Ovens
14,066
Ballarat, including Geelong
Maryborough
Fiery Creek
Avoca
1,251
Daisy Hill ll' 1,323
M`lvor
Mount Blackwood

58,887

For week ended 6th September :
Ballarat, including Geelong
Mount Alexander and Bendigo
Maryborongh .............. -
Daisy 11i11........... 503
Avoca , . 87

36,021

annum.
"In the midst of political meetings and elections,
as a contemporary remarks,—the railway question
has experienced more real advancement than duripg
all the five years, of gold mining that have been
comparatively lost to the country. The Attorney-
General has set the Government right with our
citizens on the subject of the central terminus,
which is to be at Melbourne, and not elsewhere, as
had been currently rumoured.
" Our resources and mineral and other wealth
appear to increase almost daily. We boast of our
own slate, stone, marble, in several localities ; and
we have this week seen a specimen of stone from a
'newly-discovered quarry at Western Port, which
promises to be very valuable for foot pavements
and other purposes. Two vessels were despatched
yesterday, and are expected to arrive here again in
a week or two with full cargoes—enough of the
stone being to be easily obtained to pave the whole
of Melbourne. Large quantities of silver and tin,
copper and iron, as well as coal, are now within
our reach, and are gradually being introduced into
use and for export.
" Black manganese is also found
of it
largelyto,
shipment of a considerable quantity aEnndga-
land is about to be made as an
thatexpertihe
inencto.d
fislhn
lioaudr
last summary, we mentioned
further
t w i ill nvesti-
gation tbie-
gation has fully con
been caught near ofiurrmsehdortehse, and
fact.
diggings, and add another to
long before this luxury will be found in ponds and
lagoons around our
the growing comforts of our miners.
"With her growing population and her increas-
ing resources, Victoria may indeed cry Onward !'
" Railroads, roads, and bridges, are now the
older of the day, and uppermost in the public
mad, not only at election meetings, but almost
wlerever else a discussion of a public nature takes
place. The construction of our great lines of rail-
way between the capital and the gold fields, is to
be prosecuted by the Government, and a Railway
Board has been recently appointed, ab is supposed
to be busily employed in the preliminary details of
such vast and important undertakings. Already
tenders have been accepted for the construction of
3 miles 77 chains and 38 links of the line between
Melbourne and Williamstown, and though 21 con-
tractors had tendered that of Messrs. Thomas Miles
and Co. was accepted for 20,8261. 7s. 4d.

OUR GOLD FIELDS.
Returns since our last Seminary have been kept
no to their average, although some allowance might
be made for the licence of general election times
at the diggings. Quartz crushing operations were
being extended, and no doubt could exist of the
ultimate success of such a system.
The escort returns for the week ended 30th Aug.

Giving a total for the year of 1,804,041 ozs. The
escort from the Ovens arrived in town on Monday
evening with 11,202 ozs.
The quantities shipped during the two weeks re-
f?,rred to were to—
Sydney 2,278
Launceston
Adelaide
Per Lightning to Liverpool
,„ Labuip to Hong Kong
„ Lady Hayes, do.
„ Kossuth, do 2,263
„ Pacifico, do.
„ Sydney
In order to enable our friends at home to form
their own opinions as to the state of affairs at the
gold fields, we append a few extracts from a file of
the latest country papers at hand.
The Beechwovrth Constitution records the follow-
ing as a " Sign of the Times :"
" In walking down the Woolshed Creek, in the