The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 30, 11E69.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

in times of political - cumcuity. w.uu
everything in a perfectly organised condition at
Ismailia, which is the centre of the Suez Canal
works. He did not wish to throw any doubt on
the ultimate success of the great work, but he
did not think the canal could be made navi-
gable for ships by November. He believed
also that it would take at least four
millions of money to complete it. Mr. Dixon, of
the Great Ship Company, who has returned from a
visit to the works, agreed generally with Mr. Moore
in the remarks he.made on the results of his observa-
tions.
A Immo OF FEUDALIkIf.

Every now and again we stumble on remains of
past ages, now in the shape of old ware, old battle
implements, er graves of the dead, in some
custom, amusement, or process, and anon in a
furious old law which would long ago have been
forgotten had it not been that personal interest had
kept it alive. Such a relic bequeathed by feudalism
has just been unearthed at St. Ives, Cambridgeshire.
The Court of Common Pleas has just been trying
the case of " The Duke of Manchester against
Penson." In 1203, Ring John, it appears, granted
to the Abbot of Ramsay the right to hold a
market at St. Ives, and this grant has descended
to the present Duke of Manchester. Two tolls are
levied by his Grace—one over a bridge leading into
the town, the other on the sale of beasts in the town;
and so productive are these tolls that in 1844 the.
Duke demised them for an an:mal rent of £5OO, on
which, of course, his tenant made a profit. The
dealers in cattle were opposed to paying ; so, termi-
nating the lease, the Duke became his own toll
collector. The defendant Penson refused to pay the
'tolls. Thereupon the Duke brought his action
against Penson, which action other cattle dealers
assisted Penson in defending. But, after a trial of
four days before Baron Martin, the jury found a
verdict in favour of the right of the Duke of Man-
chester to levy a penny a head on all animals pur-
chased within certain limits of the town of St.
Ives ; not, however, without the expression of
seine - doubts from the learned judge as to the
law. The Daily News says, in regard to this case,
" Setting the law of the case aside, the idea of a
great duke levying tolls for his own profit, and
I deriving hundreds of pounds a year from the sale of
animals for food in an open market in the nineteenth
century, has surely something very odious about it.
Out of England such a spectacle of extortion is not
now to be found; yet England is pre-eminently the
country of free trade."

quarters ol Islam, ann is accompanied by fetes and publil
rejoicings, which last three weeks. The liveliness of the
busiwss, too, is suite proportionate to its magnitude. All
poor children are admitted to the great rite at the same
time as the Sultan's children, and on this occasion not
fewer than 15,000 have been enrolled. The Sultan clothes
and lodges them during the festivities at his own expense.
Vast houses, or sheds, are being put up for the purpose.
The correspondent adds that divers trades in Constanti-
nople—to wit, tailors, mattress-makers, cooks, and
surgeons—are looking forward to a brisk time of it.