The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-16 00:00:00

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

PORTSMOUTH, MONDAY.—The Neptune, 120, Cap-
tain Goldsmith, shipped her lower masts to-day.
The Birkenhead iron steam transport, Master-
Commander Salmond, went out of harbour to-day,
to lie at Spitbead until further orders.
The Diligence naval transport arrived on Saturday
with stores from the eastward.

Rear-Admiral Dundas returned to London to-day.
Saturday next is the day named for the departure
of the Court from the Isle of Wight for Windsor.

APPOINTMENTS.

WooLwicu, DEc. 15.—Acting Assistant• Surgeon
Francis Hardinge (1851) to the Tortoise store ship,
at the Island of Ascension.
Lieutenant W. 11. Hire (1841), Lieutenant E.
Nares (1848), and Lieutenant F.T. Hamilton (1848),
were each examined on two days of last week by Mr.
Charles Atherton,.Chief Engineer at Woolwich Dock-
yard, on their completing a course of study of steam
at the factory, and having passed satisfactorily they
received their certificate.
Lieutenant T. P. P. Barrow, who passed his ex-
amination about a week ago, after a course of study
of steam at Woolwich factory, has been appointed
agent in the transport service ; and it is said Lieute-
nant W. H. Hire, who passed on Friday last, is ap-
pointed First Lieutenant of the Fury steam-vessel,
at Woolwich, but it has not as yet been officially an-
nounced.

FURTHER SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.
The public will learn with satisfaction that the
next expedition to the Arctic regions, in 1852, in
search of Sir John Franklin and the missing officers
and crews of the Erebus and Terror discovery ships,
will be made as efficient as possible ; and that, in ad-
dition to the Pioneer and Intrepid screw-steamers,
employed in the recent expedition, the Phoenix, a much
larger screw-steamer, of 260 horse-power, which was
taken up from Woolwich to Deptford about a week
ago, is ordered to be fitted and strengthened at the
latter dockyard for service in the Polar seas. The
excellent arrangement of sending three screw•
steamers to Wellington Channel has been made in
order to avoid similar delays to those experienced by
the Pioneer and Intrepid steamers during the recent
expedition, when they had to tow the Itesolute and
Assistance sailing vessels. In the event of its being
considered necessary to send sailing vessels with
stores to the Arctic regions next spring, they will be
entirely independent of the steamers, and the latter
will only have to act in concert with each other.

ARRIVAL OF HER MAJESTY'S SHIP
D.z'EDALUS AT SAN FRANCISCO.
__

We learn from an American journal that her Ma-
jesty's ship Da Talus, which was detached from the
squadron in the Pacific, to communicate with the Plover
in Bebring's Strait, arrived at San Francisco on the
221 of October, from Port Clarence, Behring's Strait,
which she left on the Ist of that month. She brought
as passengers Lieutenant Cooper and Dr. Simpson, of
her Majesty's ship Plover, which vessel had returned
to Port Clarence from the summer expedition, having
been unable to penetrate farther north than 71 degrees,
being three degrees short of their excursion last year.
The Plover's consort, it is added, had not returned to
her winter quarters at the sailing of the Dwialui,
but this observation is evidently inaccurate, as the
Plover has no consort. It must refer to the Enter-
prise, Captain Collinson, which would thus appear to
have entered the ice. _ _ _

The following is the report of the Dscdalus :
" Her Britannic Majesty's ship Dx ialus, Captain
G. G. Wellesley, from Port Clarence, Behring's Strait,
October 1, arrived in our harbour yesterday, and an-
chored at Sancilito. The Daedalus was dispatched
from Valparaiso last spring, to visit the provision
which is kept at Port Clarence as a depot and point
of succour, in case either Sir John Franklin's expe-
dition, or the other vessels in search of him, should
be obliged to quit their ships and take to their boats.
The Daedalus arrived at the edge of the ice (which
was then close to St. Lawrence Island) in the middle
of June, where she fell in with a large fleet of whalers,
principally American, waiting for an opening to pro-
ceed northward. There had been but little done in
takicg whales this season, although large numbers
of them had been seen in the Arctic Seas in the early
part of the season. Most of the ships had gone south.
Captain Wellesley thinks that all the vessels had
passed the straits for the south before the Daedalus
sailed. The summer season is later than usual, the
first snow having fallen on the Ist October, the day
the Daedalus sailed from Port Clarence."
With respect to the recent losses in the American
whaling fleet it appears that the vessels employed in
that service are not intended to encounter ice, and
are wholly unfitted for doing so, besides being, ge-
nerally speaking, very crazy, ill-found vessels.

MISS POOLE'S BENEFIT.—This accomplished and
popular vocalist has announced her benefit, at the Surrey
Theatre, for Thursday evening, the 18th inst., on which
occasion she will sustain her favourite role in the Daughter
of the Regiment ; and appear, for the first time, as Tom Tug,
in the Waterman. The entertainments will also comprise a
concert, in which the names of Mrs. A. Newton, Miss
Messent, the Russian Brothers Becker, &c., are announced,
so that with Borrani, Travers, Kuchler, and the fair
beneficiare herself, a host of musical talent will signalise the
occasion. There can be no doubt but that a crowded
attendance will mark the high appreciation universally
entertained of the merits of Miss Poole, whose .reputation,
as one of the first of English singers has been confirmed by
her brilliant success during the opera season of the present
year at the Surrey Theatre.
A BLOOMER IN A PREDICAMENT. —Yesterday
evening, soon after four o'clock, a young woman, who had
been imprisoned in Tothill-fields Prison for seven days for
creating a disturbance in the streets, was released from her
incarceration; and sailied forth from the portals of the pri-
son, as she entered, in full Bloomer costume. A mob of
juveniles soon formed an escort to her—and as she proceeded
through Westminster, every street she pas ed swelled the
number of her followers till she arrived at the Broad Sanc-
tuary, where the crowd had become so numerous that
she was compelled to take refuge in the Mitre and Dove
public-house, at the corner of King• street, Parliament-street.
The extensive estates in West Yorkshire of Lord
Wharncliffe have recently been revalued, and in some in-
stances reductions of from 20 to 30 per cent. have been made
in the rentals.
" GAROTTE " ROBBERY BY CUILDREN.—At the
Manchester Borough Court, on Monday, Mary Ann Welch
and Mary O'Brien, neither of whom were more than four-
teen years old, were sent for trial at the sessions, for robbing
Mary Mutch, a girl of the same age, at nearly seven
o'clock on Sunday night, in Millgate. The prosecutrlx saw
the prisoners come out of a dram-shop, and immediately
afterwards one of them pushed against her. This made
some money rattle in her rocket, and O'Brien soon after
seized her by the throat and held her tightly, while Welch
and another girl robbed her of Is. 71/.2d., one of them holding
her hands behind her back. the magistrate commented on
the strangeness of the robbery, and its similarity to those
now so common.

At the half-yearly meeting of the Bank of Aus-
tralasia, held yesterday, a favourable statement was pre-
sented. In the absence of accounts, which it is not usual to
submit at this period of the year, the chairman (Mr. Oliver
Farrer) gave an outline of the progress of affairs, and alluded
particularly to the gold discoveries in New South Wales, the
recovery of the remaining portion of the debt due from the
Bank of Australia, and the position of some old accounts,
through which it was originally anticipated severe losses
would have been incurred. These points, which constituted
the grounds of discussion, were encouragingly received, as
was also the intimation that the directors in April next in•
tend to increase the yearly dividend upon the capital stock
from 4 to 5 percent.

FATAL COLLIERY ACCIDENT.—An engineman
named William Fletcher, employed at the Oakwellgate
liery, Gateshead, met with a fatal accident on Wednesday
morning last whilst preparing to take his breakfast. it
apf eared that whilst the unfortunate man was endeavouring
to reach his meal over a rope kept in motion by the engine,
he slipped his foot, and fell upon the rope, by which he was
forcibly drawn towards a wheel round which the rope was
coiled, and so fearfully cru'hed that he almost instantly ex-
pired. lie has left a numerous family to lament his loss.
At a coroner's inquest held on the following day by Mr.
Favell the facts were inquired into, and a verdict of " Ac-
cidental Death" returned.