The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 30, 1858.

ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT
INSTITUTION.—The Committee of this Institution
earnestly appeal for PUBLIC ASSISTANCE to enable them
to continue their hitherto successful exertions in the cause of
humanity. THOMAS BARING, Chairman.
THOMAS CHAPMAN, Deputy Chairman.
14, John-street Adelphi, W.C.,"Dec.1858.

THE OPERA COLONNADE HOTEL
COMPANY (Limited).
Charles-street, Haymarket (late Feuilladc's), London, S.W.
Capital, £25,000, in 5,000 shares of £5 each. Deposit 10s. per.
Share on application, and £2 per share on allotment.

The alterations and furnishing are being proceeded with,
and the HOTEL will be OPENED in .FEBRUARY.

Applications for the REMAINING SHARES, l'rospectuses,
&c., may be made, for a LIMITED PERIOD, to the secretary,
at the Hotel ; the solicitors, Messrs. Prichard and Collette, 57,
Lincoln's-inn-fields, W.C. ; to the brokers, Messrs. Samuel Hill
and Son, 3, Copthall-buildings, Bank, E.C. ; or at the tem-
torroaark7rffieceßts
E.C.o the Company,T 152, Gresham-house,

CONTRACT FOR LIGHTERAGE.

WAR-OFFICE, Pall-mall, London, S.W.,
27th December, 18,58.
NNOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, That sealed
Tenders, in duplicate, will be received at this Office
on or before 12 o'clock, on WEDNESDAY, sth January
next, for the LIGHTERAGE OF STORES between the
Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, and the London and St. liathe-
rinelt Docks, Tower, the Pool, East India Docks, 'and City
Canal, West India Docks and Blackwall, Deptford, Purfieet,
Gravesend, Sheerness, Chatham, ajsd .I.lmkor.,,and!Clothing-,
,EatablintErntirk-Piffilico,- and also between Pimlico and the
betorernamed places for a period of three years, from Ist
January, 1851).
All proposals to contract must be mach upon the proper
printed form, which can be obtained, in duplicate, on appli-
cation at this office, or to the Principal Military Storekeepers
at the Tower and Woolwich, and which must be filled,up,
signed, scaled, marked on the outside "Tender for Lighter-
age," and delivered at this Office on or before 12 o'clock on
Wednesday, sth January next, addressed to the Under
Secretary of State for War, War-office, Pall-mall, S,W.
THOMAS HOWELL, Director of Contracts.

TO BUILDERS.—By Order of the Court of
Chancery.—The Trustees of the Bedford Charity are
desirous of receiving Tenders for the ENLARGEMENT of
the GRAMMAR SCHOOL, also Tenders . for" the Erec-
tion of a New Preparatory COMMERCIAL SCHOOL, and
making a New Road. Plans and Specifications of the works
required may be seen at the Office of Mr. James Ilorsford,
architect, Bedford.

All Tenders must b 2 delivered at Mr. Illorsford's Office, at
or before eleven o'clock in the morning of the 24th day, of
January, 1859.
The Tenders for the enlargement of the Grammar School
must be placed in a sealed cover and marked "Tender for
Enlargement of Grammar School." The Tenders for the
Preparatory Commercial School must be placed in a sealed
cover, and marked " Tender for building Preparatory Com-
mercial School ;" and the Tenders for.making a New Road,
and other works, must be placed in a sealed cover, and
marked "Tender for making a New Road, and other Works."
The Trustees will not be bound to accept the lOwest; or any
Tender.

•
Dated this twentieth day of December, 1858.
. (Signed) JAMES HORSFORD.
MAPLES, MAPLES, and PEAItSE, 6, Frederick's-
idace, Old Jewry, London, agents for T. W. Pearse,
of Bedford, the solicitor to the said Trustees.

nINOPOLION TAVERN and HOTEL.
Nos. 1, and 2, Brownlow-street, High-Holborn, W.C.
The Best Served Dinner in London for is. 6d.
A Succession of JOints from One 'till Seven o'Clock.
Private and Smoking Rooms.
TABLE D'HOTE on SUNDAYS, at 5 o'clock, 2s. each.

THE WELLINGTON RESTAURANT,
ST. JAMES'S-STREET, AND 160, PICCADILLY.

Gentlemen visiting the Metropolis will find ample accom-
modation for dinners at this establishment. The arrange-
ments are varied and perfect, and the tariff of charges is very
moderate.• Private rooms for large or small parties may be
engaged on application to the Smperintendent.
. By Order. JAMES GOFTON, Superintendent.
27th November, 1858.

DINING TABLES, CHAIRS, and SIDE-
BOARDS of fine Spanish Mahogany, Walnut Tree,
and Oak, in the greatest variety, are now on Tien, at Messrs.
DEUCE and Co.'s Extensive SHOW ROOMS, 68, 69, and
58, BAKER-STREET. N.8.-,.Very superior Dining-room
Chairs, in Leather, 19s. 6d. each. 500 Easy Chairs to select
from. Down Quilts, from ss. 6d. each.

TILE .ISTA.VY.

Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew P. Green, K.C.H., died
on Sunday last . in, his 82d year. He-entered the
navy more than -65 years ago, being a midshipman
On board the Illustrious, 74, at the investment of
-Toulon in 1790 ; .also at- the reduction of Bastia,
and in Hotham's first action. When in the Cen-
seur, 74, Capt. J. Gore, he was taken prisoner, after
a brave defence, by a French squadron. After a
short detention by the enemy- he was -released, and
in March, 1796, joined the thunderer, 74, bearing
the flag of Sir Hugh C. Christian. Commander-in-
Chief of the-West Indies, in which he witnessed
the reduction of St. Lucia, the destruction of the
French frigate Harmonic, and the evacuation of
St. Domingo. After serving in several other ships
(fully. detailed in
." O'Byrnes's Naval. Biography") -
he joined the Ganges, 74, Capt. T. F. F. Baker, in
which he served at the Battle of Copenhagen, in
April, 1801. In .Septernber, 1803, he was appointed
to the Eurydice, 24, Capt. Nicholas, in the com-
mand. of boats of which. vessel he acquired great
praise for his gallantry in an attack made in Octo-
ber,.lBo6; on the Mestuo la Solidad, Spanish pri-
vateer of 'six guns, and a convoy of which the
privateer had charge. Immediately after that
event he joined the Neptune, 98, Capt. T. F. Free-
mantle, one of the victorious fleet under Nelson at
the battle of Trafalgar, and part of the naval force
next employed at the siege of Dantsic. After
holding different commands he joined the Sham-
rock sloop, in which he distinguished himself at
the battle of Cuxhaven, and served subsequently
as a volunteer at the reduction of Gluckstadt. He
obtained post rank in 1814, and he held several
commands, when. at length, in 1820, on the paying
off of the Rochfort, he went -on half-pay. The
gallant and venerablebnitnitiiiiiihstrillBn noini -
noted a Knight-Commander. of the Royal Hano-
verian Order and had been previously, by' the
permission of his -Sovereign, allowed to be made a
Knight of the Sword of Sweden for his services at
the siege of Cuxhaven and at Gluckstadt, and was
also a Knight of the Iron Crown of Austria. His
commissions were dated as follows :—Lieutenant,
August 8, 1800 ; Commander, February 1, 1812 ;,
Captain, April 12, 1814 ;.. Rear-Admiral, March 3,
1849 ; and Vice-Admiral, January 31, 1856.
General Williams, commandant of Woolwich
garrison,' yesterday went through the half-yearly
examination of the two battalions of the Royal
Military Train, in command of Colonel Erskine.
Having first inspected the troops off duty at the
encampment on Woolwich-common, as well as the
books_and offices-of the establishment, the General,
attended by his aide-de-camp; Major Teesdale, C.B.
Equerry to his Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales ; Captain Freeth, Deputy Asssistant Quar-
termaster General ; and a staff of officers of the
Royal Artillery, proceeded to the arsenal and passed
in review the remainder of the corps who are
employed in considerable numbers in the removal
of stores,. &c., formerly carried out by. contractors.
The whole of the men in command. of Colonel
Erskine, Major MeCourt, and the various officers
belonging to the division, were drawn up, dis-
mounted, in double column, and having been
thoroughly inspected they remounted and marched
past. - Before retiring, from the arsenal'the general
announced to Colonel Erskine his satisfaction at the
result of his inspection. No complaints or symp-
toms of diSsatisfaetion emanated from the men,
the whole of whom have additional remuneration
when employed in the arsenal, at . what is
termed extra duty, and receive beyond their
ordinary pay at the rate of ls. per day
each non-commissioned officer and 6d. the private
soldier. The advantage, however, is not extended
to the commissioned officer, who, although perform-
ing equal duty beyond the ordinary routine of tke
service, is in. no way recompensed for extra duty.
Lieutenant Bishop, R.A., attached to the riding
house establishment of Woolwich, was a few days
engaged, in company with one of the veterinary
surgeons of Hilsea, inspecting the horses at that
estalishment, when one of the animals bit off the
forefinger of his right hand, slightly above the first
joint. Amputation of the joint was subsequently
performed., and the lieutenant was shortly after
enabled to return to Woolwich.

The paddlewheel steam-sloop Alecto, Commander
James Hunt, from Sierra Leone and the West Coast
of Africa, last from Portsmouth, steamed into har-
bour at Sheerness on Tuesday. The Alecto has,
during her commission, taken the following prizes,
all of which have been condemned :—On the 27th
of August 1857, the Eliza Jane ; on the 6th of Sep-
tember, a Spanish bark, supposed to be the Resto-
ration ; on the 13th of September, the brigantine
Onward, under American colours ; on the 15th of
October, the fore-and-aft schooner Lewis M'Lean,
also under American colours; on the 26th of Oc-
tober, the American bark Clara B. Williams ; on
the 4th of November, the American brigantine
Windward, having 605 slaves on board. Only 416
were. alive at the time of her condemnation ; 454
were landed at St. Helena, the others having died
on the passage. The Windward was registered
267 tons. On the 15th of April 18.58, she took the
Swedish-built schooner St. Olaf; she was taken on
the north coast off Capo Verga. The Alecto was
inspected by the Commander-in-Chief Vice-Admiral
of the Red, Edward Harvey, who expressed him-
self highly satisfied at the efficient and high state
of discipline of the ship's company.
A court martial is ordered to take place on
Saturday next on board the flagship Waterloo, to
try Mr. Coglan, gunner, on a charge of drunken-
ness; he has been placed under open arrest for
upwards of five months.

Her Majesty's ship Shannon, screw, 50, Captain
Marten (acting), arrived at Spithead yesterday
afternoon, having left Calcutta Sept. 23. ; arrived
at Trincomalee October 3, left on the 9th ; arrived
at the Cape November 23, Ascension on the 28th ;
sailed for England on the 29th. She has met gene-
rally on her voyage home with very bad weather,
working under canvass until she made the Needles,
Isle of Wight, when she got up steam, and came
through that passage to Spithead. She brings home
on promotion Commander Elliot, late of the Bos-
cawen ; Lieut. Thompson, of the Alecto; Lieute-
nants Croke, Reid, and Mandeville, from the Cape
of Good Hope , Mr. Hearndon and three engineers,
and the crew of the Myrmidon, from Ascension ;
125 invalids from Calcutta, Trincomalee, the Cape,
and Ascension, and five distressed British subjects.
As the Shannon took so conspicuous a part in
India, the Naval Brigade of which so signalised
themselves under the ever to be lamented Captain
Wm. Peel, we give a list of the officers belonging
to the ship at the present time :—Commander
Vaughan, Commander Young, Commander Wilson,
Commander Hay, Lieut. (Acting) Verney, Chapl tin
the Rev. J. Bowman, Master G. A. Waters, Surgeon
M'Lening, Paymaster W. J. Lapidge, Chief Engi-
neer C. A. 0. Dwyer, Assistant-surgeon Mr. Fla-
nagan; Lieut. Stirling, Royal Marines; Lord Kerr;
mates St. J. Daniels, Way, Church, Johnson, Far-
quhar, Richards, Lascelles, Watson, Briggs, Willan,
Digby ; Master's Assistant, Mr. Love ; Clerks,
Messrs. Theakston and Stanton ; Engineers, Messrs.
Bone, Hennie, Mills, Slatey, and Boxall ; Mr.
Thompson, gunner ; Mr. Lawrence, boatswain ;
Mr.'Brice, carpenter. Dr, M'Lening served in the
Furious at China on the Staff of Lord Elgin.
Her Majesty's storeship Dee, Mr. Pullen in com-
mand, left Portsmouth harbour yesterday. morning,
but was
.signalled from the flagship Victory to
return into harbour.

Lieutenant John Liddell was yesterday appointed
:0 her Majesty's ship Nile.

professional duties, particularly before and at
Lucknow. He suffered severely in health, but it
was thought repose and change of air would recruit
his health, and that before a few months had
elapsed he would be able to resume the arduous
calls on his professional attention. His death will
be deeply regretted by a wide circle in the army
who had the pleasure of his friendship and acquain-
tance. He• was appointed hospital assistant in
November, 1827, and in November, 1829, obtained
the rank of assistant-surgeon. In October, the
following year he was appointed junior assistant-
surgeon to the 79th Highlanders, and after some
years' service with that regiment exchanged to the
93d Highlanders, and served with that regiment in.
Canada. At the outbreak of the late war he
accompanied the Eastern army to Turkey. He
served in the campaign of 1854.55 in Bulgaria and
the Criinea in medical charge of the Second
Division of the army, including the battles of the
Alma, Balaklava, and Imkermann, the siege of
Sebastopol, and the repulse of the principal sorties
on the 26th of October, 1854. The late Lord
Raglan bore testimony to his ability and exertions
in his despatch of the 11th of November,
1854, "as deserving to be most honourably men-
tioned." After a brief sojourn in his native
country he was ,ordered to Calcutta, to attend on
the Queen's forces in that country. Like many
other distinguished and gallant men he has fallen
a victim to over exertion and the climate. He ob-
tained the rank of regimental surgeon on the 6th
Jan., 1843, staff-surgeon on the 28th March,.lBs4,
and eputy Inspector-General on the lstTeb,,lBss.

STA TR OF PARTIES IN PR USS lA.

(From a Correspondent of tho• Times)

BERLIN, Dec. 27.—T0 enable ourselves to form a
clear idea of the position of parties towards each
other in Prussia our first object naturally is to
ascertain what are the special legislative measures
which each is anxious to promote. Every one
knows, to begin with, the general tendencies of the
party of progress and the party of resistance. They
bear the same character in every country of Europe.
But we wish to know the peculiar shape in which
the same spirit clothes itself in different shapes. In
Prussia, as I have said before, a foreigner finds it
difficult to grasp any substantial measure or pro-
posal beneath the declamatory phraseology of the
Kreutz party. He finds no such difficulty in ac-
quainting himself with the immediate aims and
objects of the party of progress in all its various
shades. But on the side of the reaction all is
" wind and blue vapour." He gets phrases in an._
swer to his questions—the " Kingship by Grace of
God," " Breach with the Revolution," " the Inte-
rests .of Religion and Order," and what besides ?
If he insists on looking closer into the affairs of the
•
party he finds that their policy is wholly negative.
Their efforts are not for enactment, but for repeal.
They would undo the progress which Prussia has
made during the last half-century. And when the
legislative enactments which have attended that
progress were undone they imagined that the social
condition of the country would again be what it
was in 1830. Such a party is evidently totally
wanting in statesmanlike views. It -has no prac-
tical system of policy. All the inen of intellect, all
the men of political experience, the practical as
well as the speculative understanding of the coun-
try, are on the other side.
But no party, whatever affinity it may have to
a bubble, can subsist upon wind and nothing else ;
its interests, as understood by itself, must find
expression in some tangible measure or other.
One (at least) such measure of the most solid
proportions does recur again and again in the
speeches and manifestoes of the feudal party both
in and out of the house. The reaction before 1848
and more loudly since, have never ceased to call for
additional restrictions upon the free disposal by
sale, deed, or testament of landed estate. I have
already mentioned, in my general review of the
legislation of the last eight years, that after a series
of attacks the feudal party succeeded in striking
out of the Constitution Article 42, which guaran-
teed the general principle of the free disposal of
real estate. This victory of the reaction, however,
has as yet been a fruitless triumph over the letter
of the Charter. The statutable guarantee of the
absolute rights of the freeholder was indeed torn
out of the code. But the practice, endeared to the
country by the experience of 40 years, had struck
too deep roots to be safely assailed. No positive
legislative restraints on free dispoSal could be car-
ried, though proposals to that effect were again and
again made. In 1855 the programme of Conserva-
tive politics issued by the Ri;ht declared it desir-
able "to restore perpetual entails ; to do away with
freehold estate, and replace the wliDle of the soil
under the conditions of feudal tenure, endowing it
at the same time with all the privileges formerly
appertaining to the several sorts of fees; and to
make moveables' part of real estate."
Wild as this scheme for a return to the feudal
tenures of the 16th century may appear, it is not
to be supposed that it has no deeper foundation than
a mere childish romanticism—a political enthusiasm
for the Middle Ages, with all their trappings, tour-
naments, ordeals, wager of battle, and witchcraft.
The Right ground their proposals upon very solid
motives of public welfare. They complain of the
breaking up of great estates, the dispersion—to use
their forcible expression—of the soil of Prussia into
particles of dust, the ruin of scientific farming, the
waste of forest, and rise in the price of fuel; but,
above all, the gradual extinction of the class
of proprietary yeomen who formerly constituted
so considerable a part of the strength of the
country. The condition of the French pea-
santry, pauperized by the continued subdivision
of the land into smaller and smaller holdings,
is held up as that to which Prussia is
rapidly approximating. All these social evils are
alleged to flow from the stern enactments of 1807-

11, which destroyed feudal tenure, and made land
a marketable commodity.
These allegations are at least tangible—much
more so than the ordinary declamation of the party.
The interests involved in this question are not
merely Prussian, but arc common to all nations.
It may be worth while to give a short summary of
the facts, and to see what is really the result of 40
years' experience in Prussia of free disposal of
landed property. This question, as one of momen-
tous consequence, has been very laboriously sifted
largeby economists here, and a mass of evidence
has been accumulated. These discussions and evi-
dence have been carefully summed up in a recent
work by President Lette, to which, together with
the " Landeskultur gesetzgebung des Preuissischcn
Staates," by Lette and Von Ronne, those who wish
for further information are referred.

The ordinances of 1807-11, which removed the
restrictions and the feudal burdens on landed pro-
perty, left that species of property thenceforward
to the free play of the ordinary laws of commerce
and the natural instincts of parents to provide for
their children. The result has been that the num-
ber of-middle proprietors, owning between 20 and
200 acres English, has increased at the expense of
large estates (Ritterguter). But this increase of
middle properties is not progressive, but appears
to have already reached equilibrium. Secondly,
that a number of cottier holdings—i. e., below 20
acres English, has been called into existence ; but
that this also is not a progressive subdivision, but
advances in those provinces where it does advance
in a less ratio than the increase of population.
This is the general result, taking Prussia as a
whole. The assumed fact on which the complaints
of the feudal party rest is false. Infinite subdivi-
sion is not in progress. There is a law in opera-
tion which checks the tendency to the dispersion
of property and the breaking up of farms below the
extent at which cultivation is profitable. This is
a law of custom, not of enactment. It consists in
that usage traditional not only iri the Prussian
provinces, but over a large part of Germany and
Flanders, by which the peasant proprietor, at the
approach of old age, resigns the ownership as
well as the occupancy of his farm to one of his
children. This child takes the estate and stock upon
it at a moderate valuation, usually below its market
price. Upon the footing of this valuation the
father's (and mother's) realty and personalty is
divided among all the children, that child who
takes the farm being charged with the payment of
his (or her) brothers' and sisters' shares, as well as
with a life annuity to the parents. It is customary
to stipulate for this life rent very high, but for the
parents to take less than covenanted for. The divi-
sions between the children may be either equal or
unequal, but the tendency is to equal division.
Where the ready money for paying the portions
of the other children is not supplied by the wife's

dower it is easily raised by mortgage. The excel-
lent and simple system of registration of landed
property established in Prussia makes mortgage
easy. By the system of Pfandbriefe a mortgage
is made a transferable and marketable commodity,
and by the system of Credit-Instituten it .is mane
the most secure species of property extant. It will
often happen that these provisions for the other
children are so charged as to become due by instal-
ments, or as they successively come of ap, or on