The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-25 00:00:00

WORK AND TVAGES IN QUEENSLAND,

The following is an extract from a letter of an
emigrant to a friend in Edinburgh, dated " Bris-
bane, Queensland, March 19, 1867 :"—" My expec-
tations regarding this colony have been sadly dis-
appointed. Work has been very scarce, and money
even more so. About ten months ago there was a
general complaint among the unemployed, and Go-
vernment was forced to open what are called relief
camps,' and employ between 400 and 500 men in
making roads and bridges, paying them at the rate
of 2s. 6d. per day. Men were obliged to accept this
wage or starve, and it yielded them but a scanty
subsistence.,This state of things continued till about
January last, when Government funds fell so low
that it was impossible to keep the men working even
at that reduced wage, and about half of them were
paid off; and now they are nearly all thrown idle.
I do not think there are above 30 or 40 at work out
of the 500. It is really too bad to announce in the
home newspapers that wages average from 10s. to
12s. per day for mechanics, and from 6s. to Bs. for
labourers. I can assure you that I have seen first-
class mechanics—blacksmiths, engineers, means,
joiners, &c.--as well as several highly educated
men, working on the roads with pick and
shovel, and even breaking stones, at 2s. 6d.
per day. It is cruel to mislead people by pub-
lishing imaginary accounts of the prosperity
of the colony, and cause many to break up com-
fortable homes in the old country and come out here
to be scorched under a tropical sun, as well as
starved from want of work. The colony is in a very
unsatisfactory condition. Almost every article of
consumption has to be imported, and the exports
are only wools and hides. Some people talk of its
growing cotton and sugar, but one season is too
wet, another too dry, and the heat so intense that
the crops are burnt up. The land has also de-
creased very much in value. For example, an allot-
ment, with a house upon it, which could not have
been bought under £lOO about 18 months ago, can-
not now realise £2O ; and an allotment for which I
have seen £25 refused cannot now find a purchaser
at £4."—Scotsman.

APOTHECARIES' HALL.-- -The following are the
names of the gentlemen who passed their examination in
the science and practice of medicine, and received certifi-
cates to practise, on Thursday, May 23:—Frederick Wal-
lace, 243, Hackney-road; John Amos Woodhams, Bourn,
Lincolnshire. As au assistant: -Edward Owen, Newtown,
Montgomeryshire.

The Late

,c 1 Alison.

The late Sir Archibald Alison was the son of the
Rev. Archibald Alison, author of " Essays on
Taste," and incumbent from 1800 to 1831 of the
Episcopal Congregation of the Cowgate, which,
during his incumbency, built St. Paul's Church,
York-place, Edinburgh. He was a brother of the
eminent Dr. William Pulteney Alison, Professor of
the Practice of Physic in the University of Edin-
burgh, who died a few years ago esteemed and
honoured, not only for his high medical skill, but
for his rare and disinterested philanthropy. The
deceased baronet was a cadet of the family of
Alison of Newhall, Forfarshire, and his grandfather
was a magistrate of Edinburgh. His father, in the
earlier years of his ministry, filled different incum-
bencies in Shropshire ; and the subject of our
notice was born at Kenley, Shropshire, on the 29th
of Dec.•mber, 1792, and was thus by the accident of
birth an Englishman, though in all his traditions
and feelings and tastes a thorough Scot. His mother,
Dorothea Gregory, was the granddaughter of the

17th Lord Forbes. Sir Archibald was educated at
the University of Edinburgh, where he enjoyed the
advantage of studying under such men as llugald
Stewart, Playfair, and Leslie, and where he car-
ried off the highest honours in the mathematical
and Greek classes, in one of which departments
of study (mathematics) it may be remarked,
several of his maternal ancestors had ac-
quired distinction. In 1814 he passed the bar
of Scotland, but he devoted the first few
years after Obtaining professional status to a con-
tinental sojourn, in the course of which he
made himself well acquainted with the condition
and history of the principal countries in Europe.
In 1822 he was appointed one of the advocates de-
pute under Sir William Ray, then Lord Advocate,
and held that office till the dissolution of the Wel-
lington Ministry in 1830. Shortly aftewards, while
out of office, he published his well-known treatise
on the criminal law, which soon obtained the cha-
racter of a standard authority on that branch of

jurisprudence. In 1834 he was appointed sheriff of
Lanarkshire by Sir Robert Peel, which office he
held up to the period of his death. In 1833 ap-
peared the first volume of his celebrated " History
of Europe from the Commencement of the French
Revolution in 1789 to the Restoration of the Bour-
bons in 1815"—a remarkable work, which has been
translated into nearly every European language,
and even into Arabic and Hindustani. It may be
mentioned that of the library edition of the history
108,000 volumes have been sold, and of the people's
edition 439,000 volumes. In 1852 Sir Archibald
published the first volume of a continuation of his
" History," of which a good many volumes have
been published, bringing down the work to the
accession of Louis Napoleon. The continuation,
however, is generally admitted to want the fire and
animation of his original work, while it treats of
subjects that are really too new to be received in
the domain of history. As annals of the later

period, however, they are full of interest and copious
in detail. Sir Archibald was also the author of a
' Life of Marlborough," in two volumes ; " Essays
—Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous," ori-
ginally published in " Blackwood's Magazine," in
three volumes ; and " The Principles of Popula-
tion," in two volumes. Sir Archibald Alison was
created a baronet by the Government of Lord
Derby in 1852. In 1855 he was appointed Lord
Rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen ; and six
years later the University of Glasgow conferred on
him the same honour. In 1853 he received the
degree of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford.
The deceased gentleman married in 1825 a daughter
of Lieut.-Col. Patrick Ty tier (some time Assistant
Quartermaster-General for Scotland), and grand-
daughter of Lord Alva (Hon. JaMes Erskine), Judge
in the Court of Session. The deceased is succeeded
in his title by his son Archibald, born in Edinburgh
in 1826, who married, in 1858, a daughter of Mr.
James Connell Black. With the present Sir Ar-
chibald's military career many of our readers are
familiar. He served for a good many years with
the 72d Highlanders, and was through the principal
part of the Crimean war. Afterwards he was ap-
pointed to the Staff of Lord Clyde, and served under
that gallant soldier in the arduous campaign which
followed the Indian mutiny. He was present at the
capture of Lucknow. His distinguished services
gained for him in 1861 the honour of C. 8., and ho
uow holds the office of Assistant Adjutant-General
with the rank of colonel.—Edinburgh Courant.

IItELAND.

DUBLIN, May 24.

The most important case tried before the Dublin
Commission Court yesterday was one for tampering
with a soldier in order to induce him to transfer his
al!egiance from the Queen to the Irish Republic.

Edward Butler was indicted for this offence. The
principal witness was the soldier whom he attempted
to seduce, John Rain, or Rein, of the 85th Regi-

ment. He was corroborated by Private Moore and
others. The plan adopted was treating the soldiers
tl drink in certain public-houses, talking to them
of patriotism and tyranny, promising an early rising
for the delivery of the country; and then adminis-
tering the Fenian oath on a prayer-book. The pri-

soner was defended by Mr. Hamill. The jury, after
deliberating for two hours and a half, brought in a
verdict of guilty.
The charge was delivered by Mr. Justice Fitz-
gerald, who availed himself of the opportunity to
give some important admonitions to those who had
been duped by the Fenian conspirators. Addressing
the prisoner his lordship said :
You, a man who had been earning fair wages,
and your wife keeping a shop, are now, for the se-
cond time, at the bar of this Court, and obliged to
stand the sentence that this Court must impose
upon you. I hope that this case, as well as some
others that we had to try, will at last open the eyes
of the deluded people of this country to the conse-
quences of the confederacy in which they have been
engaged. And there is one circumstance that I
ought to allude to. It ought to be known in every
house in the country—it is a circumstance that
came before us this week. A person named Duffy
was tried here, as having been a leading member of
that confederacy. He was convicted, and be did
not deny the justice of that conviction. He was
a friend of Stephens, the head of that confederacy,
his bosom friend, his most trusted man ; and
he, standing in the " position that you do, de-
nounced that Stephens as one lost to honour and
to his country—as one that had induced people to
come here to fight, pledged himself to be with them
when the time came, and who is now wisely amus-
ing himself at the French Exhibition. If there is
anything that ought to open the eyes of the de-
luded people of this country to their folly and mad-
ness, it is that one fact. But, however, when we
find, in the course of the trials here, that a delibe-
rate system has been attempted of inducing soldiers,
upon whom we rest for safety, to abandon that oath
of allegiance which they had taken to the Queen,
and, in place of it, to swear allegiance to what has
been called the ' Irish Republic,' we would be want-
ing in our duty to the public at large, whom we
now represent, if we did not, by a substantial pun-
ishment, endeavour to repress that evil. We have
given our best consideration to the mitigatory cir-
cumstances of your case, to the facts of your good
character and previous good conduct, and to the
imprisonment you have already suffered ; but we
feel still that we should not perform our public duty
if we inflicted a less sentence upon you than that
you be detained in penal servitude for a term of five

years."

The prisoner was then removed. Loud exclama-
tions were made in the gallery by a woman, who, it
is supposed, is his wife.
A number of persons pleaded " Guilty" to hav-
ing arms in a proclaimed district, and were dis-
charged on their own recognizauces.
The trial for high treason at the Cork Special
Commission was interrupted yesterday by a demand
that Capt. M'Clure, the principal prisoner, might
be permitted to withdraw his plea of " Not guilty,"
and put in a plea of " Guilty." Addressing the
Court, he said :
"My lords, I wish to say a few words to your
lordships in extenuation of my past conduct. I wish
the trial to go on, in order that my conduct on

the night of the sth of March should be before the
public. lam glad that no blood was shed on that
night, and no personal outrage committed, and that
when I had unarmed men in my power no insult
was offered to them. I was made to believe by
traitors that I came to assist an oppressed people,
but, finding I was fatally deceived by lies they told
me, I then did everything in my power to prevent
injury to any human being. My lords, I now de-
sire to save your lordships and the jury any further
trouble, and I ask liberty to plead guilty to the
charge preferred against me." _ _

The Attorney-General had no objection, but he
cautioned the prisoner that he would be in the same
position as if he had been found guilty.
Chief Justice Monahan having explained this
matter to M'Clure, he said he was aware of that,
and persisted in pleading guilty. He was then put
aside, and the trial of the other prisoners proceeded.
A number of witnesses deposed to the overt acts of
rebellion in which the prisoners were engaged, and
with which the public are familiar. Mr. heron ad-
dressed the jury for the defenee iu a lengthened
speech, in which he dealt with the history of high
treason in Ireland. The Solicitor-.general replied,
and Chief Justice Monahan then charged the jury,
who, after an absence of about an hour, returned a
verdict of guilty against the prisoners Kelly, Joyce,
and Cullinane, recommending them, however, to
mercy. Sentence was deferred.
By telegraph from London, his Excellency the
Lord Lieutenant has announced to the Lord Mayor
that he will receive the memorial from the citizens
at 1 o'clock this day, praying his Excellency to
spare the lives of the Fenian prisoners now under
sentence of death. The Lord Mayor being absent
on public business this intimation has been commu-
nicated .to his locum towns, Alderman Moylan, and
arrangements have been made that the deputation
shall assemble at the Mansion-house to-day, at 12
o'clock, and thence proceed to the Viceregal Lodge.
The May Flower Show of the Royal Agricul-
tural Society was held yesterday in the Rotunda-
gardens. The weather was favourable, the attend-
ance numerous and fashionable, and the display of
flowers, plants, and vegetables was one of the finest
ever seen in connection with the society's exhibitions
for some years past.
The Lord Lieutenant this day, in reply to a de-
putation to present a memorial praying that the
life of Burke might be spared, stated that he could
hold out no hope, not even that the execution should
be postponed. The Government, after anxious con-
sideration, have determined that the law shall take
its course.

At Cork M'Clure, Kelly, Joyce, and Cullinane
have been sentenced to be executed on Wednesday,
the 19th of June. James O'Brien is now on trial
for high treason.