The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-10 00:00:00

labour. You have been accustomed to the lazy
Palermitan beggar, and had an idea that the Sici-

The difficulty is the ignorance and the want o.
practice in doing anything for themselves. They
are so accustomed to find all done by the Govern-
ment that the very idea of doing something for
themselves is new. Thus they did not know how
to go about constituting the National Guard, and
at the request of the municipality the column
delays its departure to help on this work. There
seems to be a good number of guns, mostly fowling
pieces, and the rest can be armed in the meantime
with lances.
If the idea with which we had been impressed at
Palermo, that we should find a bad spirit in the
interior, turns out the very reverse, the idea which
was impressed upon us about the wildness and poor-
ness of the country is likewise false. At Misilmeri,
which has 11,000 inhabitants, the houses are little
better than hovels, dirty, wanting in every comfort,
with scarcely any furniture, little to eat, and that
bad. At Villafrate, which has but 3,000, things
were already a little better ; at Roccapalumbo, a
little place of 1,800 inhabitants, all officers were well
lodged, there was plenty to eat, and even the means
of getting something like a wash.
Now I and many others are lodged in better and
cleaner apartments than at Palermo. I am writing
in a large neatly furnished saloon, with a piano and
armchairs, have slept in an elegant brass bed with
clean fine linen, and, fancy, had my cold bath this
morning ! If it goes on like this we shall end with
palaces and every luxury instead of the privation
which we expected.
Not only is the interior better disposed than the
noisy capital to do something, but it is richer, and I
would almost say more civilised. Since we left
Missilmeri I have not seen more than two or three
beggars. The article seems almost unknown. The
.ountry, which I expected to find barren and uncul-
tivated, is a succession of cornfields up to the tops
of the mountains, broken by magnificent olive
woods. These morning and evening rides are the
most charming things you can imagine. You must
know that we have adopted the Indian style of
marching—viz., late in the afternoon and very early
in the morning, so as to escape the heat, which is
very great during the day. The splendid country
and good living exerts its influence on the spirits
of the soldiers, and it is a real pleasure to see them
march. Stragglers are almost unknown, and the
columns keep better together than ever I saw the
columns of a regular army.
As for the scenery, it is the finest you can ima-
gine—a continual succession of magnificent valleys
and grand mountain slopes.. In the distance we
have been hitherto accompanied by the picturesque,
rugged main-chain of the Sicilian mountains,
which traverses the whole length of the island from
Cape Gallo to the Straits of Messina. While we
have this magnificent back ground to our left, with
frequent glimpses of the sea, we wind up hill and
down hill among cornfields as far as the eye can
reach, and now and then an olive wood. From time
to time you can observe on the neck of a moun-
tain clusters of white houses perched up among
woods and gardens, for wherever there is a river
near everything lives with an exuberant life—the
cactus, the aloe, the vine, the fig and almond trees,
with flowers such as no hothouse can prodace, roses
and oleanders in full bloom, not shrubs, but trees.
The towns and villages, like eagles' nests, are perched
up high, and secure from malaria, which infests all
the lowlands, and from hostile attack,. the approach
to them through a garden. What astonishes you is
to see so much cultivation and so few villages and
towns—miles and miles of cornfields before you find
an inhabited place. The insecurity forced people to
herd together, and you could not understand how
they can, from so great a distance, attend to their
fields, did you not find now and then a little round
structure of reeds, something like an Indian wig-
wam or an English bell-tent of reed, with the
ground excavated as in the Crimea. With still
greater astonishment you see that all those grand
mountain slopes, with waving corn upon them,
oanuot be ploughed, but must be worked by manual

Bans in the interior were rather worse, and now you I
see an incredible amount of production for a small
number of inhabitants. Of course, a model farmer
would toss up his head at the imperfectionf, but I
have rarely seen so much production with such
scanty means of labour. The soil repays it amply.
I have counted some of the ears of wheat, and
found as many as 97 grains in one. I begin to
understand that Sicily was the granary of Rome.
The Crimean war and the war in Italy have given a

great impulse to the production, so that millions of
ducats have found their way into the pockets of the
landlords. If Sicily was once under a good Govern-
ment, which would encourage instead of stifling in-
dustry and trade, as the Neapolitan has done, there
would be soon no necessity to search for grain on
the Danube and on the Black Sea. With reservoirs
to keep what is now wasted by the torrents and
artesian wells, two crops could be easily obtained

in a year.
Verily the interior of Sicily is preferable in every
respect to the towns on the seacoast.

TIE BRI7IBII. EXPEDITION TO CUINA

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
POINT DE GALLE, JUNE 5
The Colombo has arrived from Suez, and the
Pekin from Bombay. The latter vessel sails this
afternoon for China, with the two Ambassadors and
their suites, the passengers of the Malabar and those
who came out by this mail. For an entire fortnight
have Lord Elgin and Baron Gros remained here, at
the greatest public inconvenience. Madras, Bombay,
and Calcutta are but two days' to a week's distance
from Galle, and there is telegraphic communication
between them. Yet the Peninsular and Oriental
Company had no vessel at any one of these ports to
supply the place of the Malabar, and convey her
passengers and mails to their destination. The old
Pottinger was sent from Madras on the 30th ult., but
the crew refused to take her to China, on the ground
that their time of service had expired. She there-
fore went round to Bombay. The Company must
look to its laurels, which are fast fading. In four
successive years four fine ships have been wrecked.
The Erin, the Aia, the Alma, and the Malabar
have been totally lost, while the Bengal had a
narrow escape from a similar fate in this very har-
bour. One vessel is laden up with a broken screw,
another with a broken shaft, and notwithstanding
the large subsidy received for the conveyance of the
mails, those saved from the Malabar have been
quietly reposing since the 22d at the Galle post-
office. The loss and inconvenience occasioned by
such an event on the whole trade of China cannot
possibly be exaggerated. It is surely not too much
to expect that at some one of the great 'lndian
ports the directors should have a single vessel avail-
able in case of disaster. When the Singapore ar-
rived from Hong Kong Lord Elgin proposed to
Mr. Bailey, the Peninsular and Oriental agent, that
the mails should be transhipped either on board
the Cyclops or on board the Pottinger, when she
arrived, and that the Singapore should return to
China with the mails and passengers of the Malabar.
Captain Pullen was quite ready to carry the mails
to Bombay, though he had no accommodation for
passengers. Mr. Bailey, however, declined to avail
himself of the Cyclops, nor would he consent to the
Singapore's return, and to the mails being forwarded
in the Pottinger, unless Lord Elgin would write
him a letter, and state that it was of the greatest
moment to the public service that such a step
should be taken. The mail agent expressed him-
self desirous of giving every assistance to the Am-
bassador, and also suggested that the mails might
be sent by the Cyclops, which was again objected
to. He then said he could not land the mails until
he knew precisely how they would be forwarded.
Lord Elgin felt that he might make the Government
reskionsible for insurance, in case any accident hap-
pened to the Pottinger or her cargo en route to
Bombay, if he wrote such a letter as was required.
He was a mere passenger on board the Malabar,
and it was the company's business to forward him
and the other passengers to their destination. So
the mails were not transhipped, the Singapore went
to Bombay, and we remained at Galle. Finding
there was no chance of a steamer for China until to-
day, I started at the early, part of last week for Co-
lombo and Kandy. On my return I heard that Capt.
Pullen had, at the request of Sir Henry Ward,
proceeded to take the evidence as to the cir-
cumstances attending the loss of the Malabar, in
which inquiry he was assisted by Lieut. Armstrong,
of the Cyclops, and by Mr. Macdougall, a master in
the navy, who has come out to survey the Bass
Rocks. The investigation commenced last Wed-
nesday, and continued until Saturday. The Court
sat at the office of the Peninsular and Oriental
Company, and Capt. Pullen states that it was per-
fectly open, but he requested that it might not be
inconveniently crowded with passengers. Many of
them have complained to me of being absolutely
excluded from the Court. It was certainly never
Capt. Pullen's intention that such a course should
be adopted, nor did he anticipate that no passenger
would be allowed to attend on the first day. Two,
who went at the request of the others, were desired
to leave by a gentleman in the Company's employ-
ment, on the ground that the inquiry was private,
and they could not be admitted. I am informed
that the Court will forward the evidence to the
Board of Trade without any formal report of their
own. Some comment has been made on the chief
engineer (Mr. Crawford) having been sent to Bom-
bay in the Singapore at the very time that the
agent was asking for an inquiry, and immediately
before it commenced. It was, to say the least, in-
judicious to prevent Mr. Crawford giving his testi-
mony. It is certainly material, and must be forth-
coming hereafter. The balance of evidence goes to
show that the ship was in her proper berth, and
that she dragged the single anchor with which she
was moored. Several other ships were in port
when the squall struck the Malabar, but, according
to the regulations of the harbour, they each had
two anchors down. No accident occurred to any of
them, and although the Fides dragged one anchor
she was brought up by the other. True it is that
the Peninsular and Oriental steamers are frequently
in the habit of riding in this port at single anchor.
It will be for the Board of Trade, however, to decide
whether the Malabar, in Gallo harbour, at the burst
of the southwest monsoon, was sufficiently moored
With one anchor only and no steam up.
The greatest dissatisfaction has prevailed among
the passengers in consequence of Mr. Bailey refusing
to pay the hotel bills incurred during the past fort-
night. He grounds his refusL on the plea that the
Company is " not liable for detention or delay of
passengers arising from accident or from extraordi-
nary or unavoidable circumstance," a notice to that
effect being endorsed on the passage tickets, The
wreck of a ship under the " circumstances" attend-
ing that of the Malabar may be " extraordinary" if
it be not " accidental or unavoidable." Certain it is
that the passengers were in no way responsible,
though they have been heavy losers by the event.
Many of them landed without a shilling, and with
no means of procuring money. Some of the China
merchants on board, whose names are known in
Ceylon, have, with the greatest kindness and consi-
deration, become security to the Bank for advances
made to their less fortunate ,
fellow-passengers—nlen
whom they had never seen before leaving
]
Mr. Bailey also has advanced money
from his pt.
vate sources to such as required taking their
, Engand..
one farthing will he pay for the company. A meet-
ing was held yesterday afternoon, at which resolu-
tions were passed that a formal protest be made by
all the passengers against the company and its
agents. This protest wa
delivered to-day. Whether
Oriental Company be liable for the value of the
property lost in the wreck or not, it is surely tin-
() )e
worthy of such a body to refuse payment f tl
necessary hotel bills incurred in a case like this.
the agent with separate protests, and
their own inte-
rests—to directorsvrdesEelrgvien' Baron Gros, and the Comte de Bastard
will do well—if only in
rests—to reimburse the passengers. Petty economy
on such points is totally unworthy of a great public
body, nor do I believe it will be sanctioned by the
men who constitute the Board of Directors.
The divers were at work last week, but could