The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-19 00:00:00

pany's Army, retired upon full-pay, to have a step of
honorary rank :
Lieutenant-Colonel George Stephens Brown, Bombay
Infantry, to be Colonel.
Lieutenant-Colonel John James Hamilton, Bengal In-
fantry, to be Colonel.
COM lIISSIONS SIGNED BY LORDS-LIEUTENANT.
Royal South Gloucester Light Infantry Regiment of
Militia—Charles Austin Gibson, Gent., to be Lieutenant,
vice Compigne, deceased.

RAILWAYS 1N CANADA.

the localities that have one. It has the advantage,
also, of actually possessing—temporarily, at least
—the prize contended for. It is the present seat ;
of the provincial Government, under an arrange-
ment by which the Lc:gislature meets alternately
at Toronto and Quebec for a term of four years.
Toronto has two years of the current term still to
run, and would very willingly convert its tenure
into a perpetuity ; but against this Montreal re-
monstrates and Quebec protests in the spirit of au
old seigneur rebuking the ambition of a parvenu.
The question has naturally arisen out of the politi-
cal union of the two provinces, and it would he
well if it were settled, as the periodical migration
of all the branches of the Government is very in-

(Front the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
QUEBEC. Nov. 26.
Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec are the three
cities linked together by the band of the Great
Canadian line of railroad. The ironway that con-
nects them at the same time renders them indepen-
dent, as to intercourse, of Lake Ontario, the canal,
and the St. Lawrence, formerly the only or the
principal channels of internal traffic. Winter seals
up canal, lake, and river for six months of the
year ; the railroad will be open during that period.
The change, not yet fully felt, which has been thus
effected is immense ; the centres of commerce and
population are not only brought by the measure of
time nearer each other, but the natural obstacle
presented by the climate has been overcome. No
railroad yet constructed has wrought so great a re-
volution. The nearest approach to such a result
may, perhaps, be seen in the lines of Prussia
and North Germany, which compete with the
Baltic when it is open, and partially carry on its
traffic when shut. But the yearly suspension of
commerce on the great inland lakes and streams of
British North America is more complete than on
the Baltic, and lasts longer. The railroad releases
two fine provinces from the worst part of the des-
potism of winter. It is not surprising, therefore,
that Canada celebrated the completion of the last
section of the line by a grand festival. Its advan-
tages are likely to be soon illustrated. Though
" the fall" has been remarkably mild and open, yet
winter is rapidly closing in. The very last rays of
autumn brightened • the Montreal fete, and the
Canadians sang their gaudete colons ! just in time.
The gusts dispersed under a grey and heavy
wintry canopy, and ere the distant visitors could
have reached their homes the shores of Lake On-
tario were white with snow. Close on the rejoicing
comes the experience that is to justify it. The
jubilation, however, though pretty general, is not
unqualified, and the few discords must be noted as
well as the harmonies. There are two provinces,
having their local and political jealousies, and a
French and English population, with national rival-
ries not quite rubbed out ; there is the provincial
Government that has to deal with an opposition in
both, and far off is the British capitalist, who, in
the conflicts political and national over what his
money created, may perhaps obtain less than his
due of equity. His prospects are large in hope
from the future, but for the present ho has no
over-measure of praise, and stands second best for
the division of profits. The charges of the dis•
contented against the directors and management
of the undertaking are that they have constructed
the road too well, too expensively, with stone and
brick station-houses, embankments, and bridges
prepared for a double line of rails—all British
extravagances that appear enormities within
view of the wooden sheds and narrow lines
with which the Americans are content, at least
to begin. The result is that the original capital
has not been sufficient—less has been accomplished
with it than was first proposed. This grief over the
"waste," as it is called, of English money might
possibly have been very calmly borne had not the
deficiency involved another consequence ; the pro-
vincial Government consented to advance three
millions towards the cost of the work, and this ad-
vance immediately became a Canadian question.
Political and national parties gathered round it ; it
was debated, opposed, but the measure has been
carried, and the Government has a lien on the pro-
perty which fully secures it from loss, and the pro-
vinces have all the benefit of the line besides. But,
the Government becoming thus a party to the con-
struction of the work, the Opposition attacked
work and Government together, mixing up both
with very harsh denunciations of the "thick-headed
English shareholders" who had permitted the ex-
travagance of contractors, the carelessness of direc-
tors, and everything else, of which the net result
to the Canadians is 900 miles of railroad superior to
any line on the continent. In short there is a party
rather unreasonably discontented, looking their
iron horse in the mouth very ungraciously, but his
services will probably mollify this irritation, and at
least repress the abuse of the English shareholder ;
quite ignorant, as usual, of how his money was
being applied, he has, after all, been a benefactor,
and to revile him for it is as bad in policy as in
taste. Nor has the extravagance been excessive ;
the average cost of the line has been 10,0001.
a-mile, a sum which, read over a London board
of green cloth, would appear very moderate.
Bat there are other grounds of discontent
which, as they impeach the plan and course of
the line, can only be stated, not discussed. The
line at Montreal crosses the St. Lawrence, and
descends that river on the southern bank ; from
the point opposite Quebec passengers have to cross
the stream again by a ferry. It is asked why it
was not brought along the northern bank, which is
the more thickly peopled, direct to the capital of
the eastern province ? The answer is the necessity
of making the connection with the American lines
to the southward, with the possibility of continu-
ing the line hereafter to Halifax, for without that
port as a terminus the great Canadian road will not
be complete for all purposes, as it is the only har-
bour on the British terribary which is open through-
out the year. Portland, the present terminu3 on
the Atlantic, is in the State of Maine, and that is
only reached by a branch line, leased for a term
equivalent to a perpetuity from an American com-
pany, and which has had to be almost recon-
structed at an expense that seriously diminished
the original capital of the Grand Trunk share-
holders. The purchase of this branch line is one
of the proceedings strongly condemned. The ad-
vance of a loan by the provincial Government was
coupled with conditions that the line should be
extended eastward beyond Quebec, and much fur-
ther than it has yet been carted, and westward
beyond Toronto to Sarnia, the southern point of
Lake Huron. It is doubtful whether even the ad-
vanced money will enable the company to complete
both these extensions; and it is expected that appli-
cation will be made to the Legislature to consent to
" modifications" in the bill by which the loan is
authorised. This is another cause of dissatisfac-
tion. To escape the necessity of making the
continuation westward to Sarnia, the policy has
been discussed of amalgamating the Grand Trunk
line with the Great Western (for there is a Great
Western in Canada), which already links Toronto
with Detroit, on the frontier of the United States.
This amalgamation is strongly opposed. The local
reasons of the opposition to these different plans
could not be made quite intelligible without refer-
ence to good maps, and are only mentioned to show
that many reasons exist why the outlay of British
capital has not produced unqualified satisfaction.
Should the provincial Government propose, as an
inducement to further investments from the Old
World, to guarantee a certain rate of dividend, the
11 measure would, in all probability, be strongly re-
sisted till it is seen that, without some security of
the kind, further extensions of the railroad system
will be left to the more limited capital of the colony
to carry out.
The three capitals of the Canadian provinces dif-
fer considerably in aspect and character. Toronto,
the youngest and the nearest to the " Far West,"
resembles the new towns that spring up with such
marvellous rapidity on American soil ; it is as level
by pristine formation as if the process of grading
had been applied to it by American civil engineers,
who are merciless to all elevations and have no
notion of allowing the surface of a city to sink or
swell as nature pleases. They precede population,
and bring down every high place that the paths of
men may be wide, straight, and plain ; they would
not tolerate for six months euch a toilsome steep as
Holborn-hill has been to us for centuries. But
Toronto, situated on the great level of the lake
country, presents no such internal Alp to be abated,
and has required very little artificial adjustment.
It is all new, broad, and right-angled, with pine-
planted sidewalks, handsome shops and stores, and
that certain sign of American influence, a rapidly
rising monster hotel, with its basement of shops and
lodging room for the population of a small town
above them. That peculiar institution is " Jona-
than, his mark," on the British territory, for it
does not flourish beyond the reach of American
migration. In the upper province of Canada the
vicinity of the frontier of the States is evident in
many things, especially since the conclusion of the
reciprocity treaty, which appears to have developed
an amount of traffic within two years almost in-
credible, and the problem now is to decide which
way it shall reach the Atlantic—down the St.
Lawrence and through British territory, or by the
American railroads southward to Boston and New
York. The Americans have done everything in
past years to secure it ; but the new railway, the
river, and regular lines of ocean steamers are
opening an effective competition with the old routes.
Whichever course commerce may ultimately take,
Toronto will be one point of departure ; thence it
may flow south or east, according to cost and faci-
lities. It is hoped that the east may prevail, and
then Montreal and Quebec will share in the advan-
tages ; Montreal is already busy, but Quebec looks
as if it required a little awakening. The three
cities are at the present moment in strong rivalry;
concurrent with the struggle for commercial advan-
tages against the settled enterprise of America
there is a lively competition between them for the
political predominance conferred by being the seat
of Government. The contest of the seven Greek
cities for Homer was nothing to this dispute, as
the prize would be more than a barren honour.
Toronto is new, enterprising, and has a sufficiently
good opinion of itself and its rapid achievements,
looking down on the ancient centres as slow
and non - progressive. With present wealth.
but no past history, it is slightly irreverent to

BANKRUPTS.
George William Bremner, oil merchant, Stockwell, Sur-
rey, Dec. 30 and Jan. 27, at two, at the Court of Bank-
ruptcy. Edwards, official assignee, Sambrook-court ;
Lawrance, Plows, and Boyer, Old Jewry-chambers.
John Pront Davis Stephens, wine merchant, Brabant-
court, Philpot-lane, City, Jan. 5 and Feb. 2, at one, at the
Court of Bankruptcy. Pennell, official assignee, Guildhall-
chambers ; Lawrance, Plows, and Boyer, Old Jewryoham-
hers.
William Henry Grimsdale and Thomas Hart Grirasdale,
brewers, Uxbridge, Dec. 30 at two, and Feb. 3 at twelve,
at the Court of Bankruptcy. Edwards, official assignee,
Sambrook-court ; Chauntler, Gray's-inn-square ; Gardi-
ner, Uxbridge.
Moses Lipman, tailor and outfitter, Liverpool, jan. 2
and 23, at eleven, at the Liverpool District Court. Tur-
ner, official assignee, Liverpool ; Dodge, Liverpool.
James Longmore, provision dealer, Liverpool, Dec. 30
and Jan. 26, at eleven, at the Liverpool District Court.
Cazenove, official assignee, Liverpool ; Evans and Son,
Liverpool.
James Reid, tailor and draper, Liverpool, Jan. 1 and
23, at eleven, at the Liverpool District Court. Bird, offi-
cial assignee, Liverpool ; Evans and Sons, Liverpool.
Frederick Pulbrook, grocer, Surbiton, Surrey, Jan. 3,
at half-past eleven, and Feb. 6, at twelve, at the Court of
Bankruptcy. Carman, official assignee, Aldermanbury ;
Smythe, Serle-street, Lincoln's-inn.
Edward Richard Nash, wine merchant, College-hill,
City, Dec. 30, and Jan. 29, at twelve, at the Court of
Bankruptcy. Bell, official assignee, Coleman-street-
buildings ; J. and J. H. Linklater and Hackwood, Sise-
lane.
John Cotching, farmer, Hail Weston, Huntingdonshire,
Jan. 3, at twelve, and Feb. 6, at one, at the Court of
Bankruptcy. Whitmore, official assignee, Basinghall-
street ; Sismey, Serjeant's-inn.
Francis Jones, timber merchant, Walter-villas, Hack-
ney, Dec. 29, at eleven, and Feb. 2, at twelve, at the
Court of Bankruptcy. Nicholson, official assignee. Basing-
hall-street; Lawrance, Plows, and Boyer, Old Jewry-
chambers.
Francis Nicholls, merchant, Thornhill-crescent, Isling-
ton, Jan. 3, at half-past twelve, and Feb. 6, at half-past
one, at the Court of Bankruptcy. Whitmore, official
assignee, Basinghall-street ; Sadler, Old Jewry-chambers.
William Porter, builder, Nottingham, Dec. 30 and Jan.
20, at half-past ten, at the Shire-hall, Nottingham. Harris
Nottingham ; Bowley and Ashwell, Nottingham.
Robert Henry Adamson, wine merchant, John-street,
Berkeley-square, Jan. 3 and Feb. 13, at one, at the Court
of Bankruptcy. Whitmore, official assignee, Basinghall-
street ; Lawrance, Plows, and Boyer, Old Jewry-chambers.
Robert Prudhoe, Grocer, Durham, Dec. 33 and Feb. 10,
at one, at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne District Court. Baker,
official assignee, Newcastle-upon-Tyne ; Brignal, Durham.
Henry Taylor and Henry Hoyle, cotton spinners, Man-
chester, Dec. 30 and Feb. 20, at twelve, at the Manchester
District Court. Pott, official assignee, Manchester ; Hen-
ton, Rochdale.
George Johnson, corn merchant, Billingham, county of
Durham, Dec. 30 and Feb. 10, at half-past eleven, at the
Newcastle-upon-Tyne District Court. Baker, official as-
signee, Neweastle-upon-Tyne ; Brignal, Durham.

convenient.
Three hundred miles eastward of Toronto is
Montreal, the old fur-trading station of the early
French settlers grown into a bright and pleasant
city. It is the point on which the influence of Eng-
lish occupation has most visibly told. Time and
frequent fires have swept away most of its French
exterior, and all the renovations have taken an
English character ; but the streets are named after
the saints, business is conducted in two languages,
and the French element is still strong, though be-
ing rapidly modified—more rapidly, however, in
the city population than in that of the country
round it. The habitant adheres to his old customs,
modes, and dress tenaciously, and is still easily
distinguishable from the Americans and English,
who, in the west of the province, are closing him
in and overgrowing him. You cannot tell an Ame-
rican farmer from the man of the city, but the
Canadian cultivator preserves a touch of the
roughly picturesque in his costume ; his coat of
coarsest cloth, white, grey, or blue, is generally
broidered with red, sometimes affecting an approach
to epaulettes ; he resists the -despotism of the hat,
retaining the fur cap, and always wears a sash,
more or less gay in colour. The whole garb may be
also more or less rough, worn, or even ragged ; but
it remains the same in its chief items, and is thus
always peculiar. Montreal is built on an island
more than 30 miles long and 10 miles in breadth at
the conjunction of the Ottawa with the St. Law-
rence. The whole of the island was once, and most
of it is still, the property of an ecclesiastical body,
the priests of the seminary of St. Sulpice, who de-
rive a large revenue from it; but their tenants have,
under a recent law, the power of converting their
holdings into freehold by paying a commutation
fine. In the city the law is changing the tenure of
property extensively, but the rural tenants of the
Church, it is said, show no great disposition to
avail themselves of the right, as their rents are little
more than nominal. The chief feature of the city is
the fuse line of quays along the St. Lawrence and
the terraced road above them. There is a grand
market, in the rooms over which the committee of
the railroad festival gave their visitors the tremen-
dous squeeze that was intended to be a ball, and a
splendid court-house, with excellent accommoda-
tions for every branch of the law, civil and criminal.
The proceedings are carried on in both languages,
the advocates employing either English or French
as they may prefer ; but it is impossible to keep the
two currents of speech quite pure, and hard English
nouns are continually rising to the surface of the
fluent tongue of Gaul ; the pleader, in a British
gown, minus the British wig, grows warm over
a disputed entry in le ledger of some unfortunate
party. Montreal is a competitor for the advantage
of being the seat of Government, but has partly
disqualified itself for the preference by an untimely
excess of loyalty. Some years since, in a fit of in-
dignation with the Legislature for passing an in-
demnity bill, by which compensation was given for
losses during the insurrection to those who were
called the " rebels," but have since been received
into grace and favour, the people set fire to the
Parliament House during a debate ; the members
narrowly escaped being reduced to premature ashes,
and the building, with the valuable library, which
could not be replaced, was destroyed.
Quebec, the old capital of the lower province, is
as unlike its rivals in outward appearance as if it
were in a foreign land. It is the antiquity of the
northern continent, shut in by walls and gates, and
frowned over by a citadel on the cliff above it.
There is no room for the upper town to spread,
and the streets, here also named from half the
saints of the calendar, are steep beyond any
hope or attempt to make them otherwise. Que-
bec is reproached by its competitors with being
behind the age ; but it repays their scorn with al-
most feudal pride in its strength and position ; it
looks on Toronto as a mere mushroom of a town,
sprung from what was but yesterday a swamp,
and reminds Montreal that in time of trouble its
citizens were glad to place their wealth under the
protection of its fortress. There is much truth in
the arguments by which Quebec supports its claim
to be made the seat of Government. It has a direct
communication by sea with England, and is
strongly fortified ; while the railroad and telegraph
neutralise the objection that it is not central.
Quebec is at present nearly the extreme eastern
point of the Grand Trunk line. Returning upon it
westward to Richmond, the branch line leased by
the company goes to Portland, on the coast of the
Atlantic. This line threads the valleys between the
White Mountains, through the States of Vermont
and New Hampshire. It is a track of grand moun-
tain scenery, abounding in small lakes and streams;
the land is roughly cultivated, and the half-cleared
fields, ragged with stump and fence, look even
more wild than the forest before the axe begins its
work. The peaks of the mountain are white with
the first snow of winter, which lies along the edges
of the streams, making them more dark and black
by the contrast, like strips of sable with a fringe of
ermine. There must be fine summer exploring in
the recesses of these mountains, which the railroad
has opened up. Turning from them, not far from
the coast, it crosses a level country to Portland.
This is a rising place, with one of those excellent
harbours which commerce often perversely passes
by for inferior accommodation elsewhere, and to
which speculation attempts to attract it by im-
proving enterprises. It is hoped that the levia-
than steamer now building in the Thames will lift
Portland into the traffic it ought to have. Such
a ship must find special harbours, since the old
ones will not admit her. A wharf is being erected
for her accommodation ; there is nothing gigantic
about it ; it is as simple a pile-supported fabric as
if it were being built for mere coasting vessels. A
large hotel, in anticipation of the periodical influx
of passengers, is also rising ; but, as moat Ameri-
can hotels are already much more than large enough,
there has been no perceptible increase of the exist-
ing scale. It appears probable that the steam mon-
ster, when it arrives, will dwarf hotel, landing
place, and the town itself into comparative insig-
nificance.

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 19, 1856.

LAW INTELLIGENCE—Dec. 18

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS
KNOWLES V. PRICE.-AGREMIENT TO LILT SPORTING

BIGHT:i.

The plaintiff in this cme had agreed to pay the de-
fendant 1501. for the right of sporting during one season,
over 3000 acres of land ; and the present action was
brought to recover damages, upon the ground that the
defendant had misrepresented the quantity of land over
which the right of sporting extended.
Mr. Edwin James and Mr. Lush appeared for the
plaintiff; and Mr. Serjeant Byles and Mr. Hawkins for
the defendant.
The plaintiff is an architect, in Raymond's-buildings,
Gray's-inn ; and the defendant keeps a canteen at
Aldershot, and a beer-house in Waterloo-road. The
plaintiff lost autumn was desirous of having some shoot-
ing, and his attention was attracted by the following
advertisement, which appeared on the 4th of August
—" Shooting to be let. About 3000 acres, well stocked
i with game, about 43 miles from town. For further
particulars apply personally to Mr. Fuller, gun-
maker, Strand." The plaintiff answered the advertise-
ment, and was referred to the defendant. On the Bth
of August the plaintiff and defendant went to view the
land, which is a few miles from Godalming. The de-
fendant said he had shooting rights over 6,000 acres, and
the plaintiff agreed to rent his rights over 3,000 acres.
Subsequently an agreement was signed, by which the
plaintiff, in consideration of 1501., was to have the ex-
clusive right of shooting, hunting, and fishing for the
season over " 8,000 acres, more or less." On the let
September the plaintiff and his friend Mr. White took
the field, but were surprised and annoyed to find that
the right of shooting did not extend over anything like
the extent of country represented ; and, upon investiga-
tion, it turned out that instead of 3,000 acres, there
were only 601 acres 13 poles. In feon9equenee of this
discovery complaints were made, and in October the
present action was brought.
The plaintiff and Mr. White were examined to prove
the above facts, and several other witnesses were called
to show the extent of the land over which the rights
extended.
The defendant, on the other hand, alleged that he
offered the plaintiff all his money back again on the
morning of the Ist September, and again in the evening,
and that there was no mention in the agreement about
le. an acre, and that he offered . him 1001. on the last
day of September, after having had a month's shooting.
After several ineffectual attempts to settle the matter,
it was arranged that his lordship should say what amount
the plaintiff should recover.
The Lord Chief Justice said that the land bad been
taken at the rate of is. per aore, and he thought that
the defendant should retain ls. per aore for the 600
acres, and return the remainder.
A verdict was entered for the plaintiff accordingly.

injured man Moles, and 2/: to the one who took the
knife from the pnsoncr.

THIRD COURT.
(Before the Recorder.)
Samuel Leigh Booth, 24, chemist, pleaded guilty to
several indictments charging him with having obtained
by false pretences from J. J. Dew and W. N. Brown
various sums of money, and from 11. Stringer oil and
other goods of the value of 301. 133. Gd.
Mr. Orridge, who prosecuted, said that for months
the prisoner had been, by false representations, carrying
on this system of fraud, not only here, but in various
parts of the c iuntry, and had been convicted at Chester
and Derbyshire of such frauds.
The Court sentenced him to 4 years' penal servitude.
As the prisoner was leaving the dock some one stepped
into the witness-box, and begged that a fashionable
paletot, which prisoner then had on, might be given up
to him, as prisoner had got it by false pretences and
not paid for it.
The Recorder directed it to be returned.
Herbert Edgar Stanbridge, 23, a fashionably-attired
young man, was indicted for obtaining a quantity of
goods by means of false pretences.
Mr. Metcalfe prosecuted ; and Mr. Steigh defended.
Mr. Metcalfe stated that the prisoner, who is well con
nected, had some time ago come into the possession of
about 1,8001., which was put into the hands of Mr. Ste,
pher, an attorney, upon whom prisoner used to draw
cheques. The prisoner had run a course of most absurd
extravagance, and, upon the 19th Sept., Mr. Stopher
gave him to understand that he had no more money of
prisoner's in his hands. Notwithstanding this prisoner
still drove about the town in a brougham, drawn by a
pair of greys and coachman in livery, and, upon the 17th
October, pulled up at the shop of Messrs. Cox and Sav-
ory. where he bought a watch and jewellery amounting
to 351. 9s. 6d., which he paid in a cheque upon Mr. H.
1 Stopher. Upon the Ist of November he went to the
shop of Mr. Porter, a shirtmaker in the Strand, and
there obtained shirts to the value of 91. ss. 9d., giving a
cheque for 121. 158., and receiving the difference in
money. Upon the 7th November he paid a visit to
Nathan, the costumier, and stating that he was to go to
a fancy dress ball given by a gentleman named Kent,
selected a costume which would come to 351. This he
said he would pay ready money for, and gave the address
Weetbourne-terrace. He after this drove up again to
Messrs. Nathan's, and begged that the dress might be
very first rate, as he had betted a friend 1001. that his
would be the best turn out in the room, and added that
he should come down to Nathan's and put the dress on
there, that they might superintend his dressing. He
came in a brougham, and after he was dressed, instead of
paying in money, gave Nathan a cheque, which, like
the others, was not paid, but since he had been given
into custody some small amount had been lodged to his
account at Mr. Stopher's.
The jury found him guilty, recommending him to
mercy, and he was sentenced to four months' imprison-
ment.
A few unimportant cases having been disposed of in
Fourth Court, before Mr. Prendorgrast, Q.C., the busi-
ness of the session terminated.

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.—Dec. 18.

(Before the Assistant-Judge.)

The Caurt eat yesterday for the purpose of bearing a
list of appeals by the Sauth-Western Railway Company
against the poor rate of Staines, comprising all the rates
made from Jan., 1851. to April, 1856, upon that portion
of the branch line to Windsor which is situate in Staine
parish. One case was gone into, which was not con-
cluded when the court rose. It involved a great mass
of dry statistical detail. On the part of the company it
was contended that after all proper deductions had been
made the rating should not be over 1591. ; while the
case for the parish was that the rateable value was a trifle
under 6501.
Mr. Sergeant Ballantine, Mr. Huddleston, and Mr.
Johnson appeared for the company ; Mr. Pickering,
Q.C., and Mr. Field for the respondents.