The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-08 00:00:00

THE WRECK OF THE FRENCH BRIG.

Saunders's Newsletter of this morning states that
the safety of the lives of seven more of the crew of
the French brig wrecked at Kingstown on the night
of the 4th inst. was yesterday notified to the French
Consul in Dublin.
"It appears that these men, who were fortunate to
bare with them the coasting pilot taken on board their
ship when leaving Liverpool, were exposed for several
hours to the full force of the gale in one of the ship's
boats, which was greatly damaged, and was only kept
afloat by constant baling ; they had only two oars, and
could make no better attempt at‘sailing than by holding
up in turn the pilot's jacket. The latter 'sought first to
direct their course towards Kingstown-harbour, but fail-
ing in this they made for Ho wth, which they fortunately
succeeded in reaching, after suffering great hardships.
In the unavoidable absence from indisposition of M. de
Bourgrafl, M. de Merle, the Vice-Consul, made every
arrangement to provide comfortably for them, and to
insure them the requisite attentions of which they stood
so much in need, at the lodging-house in this city to
which French mariners in distress are usually conducted.
At a latter period of the day the three men who had
been brought into Kingstown were also brought to
town, and joined their shipmates. These latter, of
whom one had received a severe cut upon the bead, had
previously been taken on board her Majesty's ship
Con-
way, and hospitably
treated. No tidings whatever have
been received of the remainder of the crew, and there is
too much reason to fear that none will now be heard.
Respecting the captain, who with all the oflscere .
among the missing, there are different statements.
One ib that he with the others was in the second boat,
which was seen to founder ; the other version being
that he was the unfortunate man whose corpse
was seen upon the piece of drift wood, from which one
of the survivors was rescued ' • according to this man a
story his unfortunate comrade had only died 10 minutes
before succour come to hand. The fishermen state that
there was too heavy a sea to admit of their taking off
the corpse, and that they had to drag the other seaman
into their boat by throwing their lines over him. Ac-
cording to both accounts the captain was a young man,
and was upon his first voyage to Brazil. The pilot
furnished a detailed narrative of the occurrence, alleging,
that be was endeavouring to get through the Swash,,
and that the vessel struck upon the India Bank.'
Parties acquainted with the coast are, however, at a
loss to reconcile this ass,rtiou with the account given by
the French seamen of the lights observed,
&c., and the
time which it would take for parties in their helpless
condition to drift intone Bay of Dublin. It is considered
probable that the corpses will drift upon the northern
coast ; the wreck, however ,broken is into mere frag-
ments."

SUSPECTED MURDER.
The Cork Reporter has the following account 2f
the death, under suspicious circumitancee, of an
. official tho employ of tho Killarney Junction
Railway :

" Early on Saturday morning last a man named James
Barrett, a rnilesman on the Ki'larney Junction Railway,
was found lying dead in a cutting on the line at Gort-
more, distant about half-a-mile from the Lonibardstown
station. It appears that the deceased was at Mallow fair
oniriday last, and returned to the .Lombardstown station
the same evening the worse for drink ;
having left the
station he proceeded to a publichouse in the neighbour-
hood, kept by a man named Buckley, where, it appears,
he bad a dispute with some parties. He left the pub'ic-
house shortly after, and nothing more was heard of him
until the following morning, when, in consequence of his
not having returned home, his wife went along the line
in search of him, and found him with his hands across
tatchh: eee
rrs fhateilba,l ay
lnh'des
duringttgihn body,egodst on
ht lying at right angles with the rails,
oernanei
night
hr
tm;*the hands were cut across
which,two ita is g
es ti
cutsp p
o s ed,
were
on passed
the
heed—c ne immediately behind the left ear, and the
other across the Lead ; there were also several marks '
on the chest • his cap was found some distance from the
body on the line. From the appearance of the body
and its position on the railway, it is believed by the
people in the neighbourhood that the deceased was not
I killed by the train, but that the unfortunate man was
murdered and then placed on the railway, in order to
give it the appearance of an accident. The body was
shortly after examined by Dr. Foott, of Gortmore, who
gave it as his opinion that death was caused by the
wound behind the ear. Mr. Coroner Daly shortly after
arrived and empannelled a jury, who
viewed the body,
and then adjourned the iuvestigation until the 19th
inst. No arrests have as yet been made. The general
supposition in the neighbourhood is that the man was
murdered."

INQUEST ON MR. HUNT, POOR-LAW DISTRICT AUDITOR
—An adjourned inquest was held on Wednesday, at
Warwick, touching the death of Mr. Hunt, auditor of
the Oxford and Warwick audit district. He was one of
the passengers on the occasion of the accident (last
month) on
qh the
ouit
quite
ebe Oxford,well
wasel).
not hurt—he
afteriit. N
Worcester,
e and Wolaerhampton
Nevertheless,
e was
rt h
ee
only
ns
he die shakend
and
appeared sud-
denly in a few days. Oa a postmortem examination it
was found that he had died from escape of blood caused
by the bursting of an aneurism formed on the abdominal
aorta. On the previous Friday the deceased bad alluded
to the railway accident, and said that he had fallen with
his side on the elbow of the seat in the carriage. Tke
medical men were •f opinion that the aneurisms was
first lacerated by the accident, and that the laceration
afterwards increased, but that Mr. Hunt would in all
probability have died at some time or other from the
bursting of the aneurism, if no accident had happened.
A Governmest inquiry is to be made into the cause of
the accident. The inquest was adjourned till yesterday.
A GENEROUS MAYOR.—The first official act of the
new mayor of Cork was to visit the city gaol, from
whence he liberated all the pauper debtors there con-
fined, he paying the demands against them. He also
set at liberty a number of poor people who were under
a rule of bail.,

Agreeably to an Admiralty order, rec:dved at
Chatham by. Col. E. A. Parkeri commandant of
that division of Royal Mariue I..ii,glat,lrgaßtry, the
whole of the troops arathed to ire i eiouAl Ilea&
quarters were yesterday morning drawn up at the
rear of their barracks for the purpose of witnes-
sing the infliction of corporal punishment on
private John Williams, 6th company, who was
adjudged by sentence of a district court-martial to
receive 50 lashes for having been absent from bar-
racks and selling his kit. Although the prisoner
has been only about 12 months in the corps of
Royal Marines, he bears a most incorrigible charac-
ter, having been tried four times by court martial,
and sentenced to various punishments. His de-
meanour yesterday during the infliction of the
punishment was most hardened. The prisoner
was afterwards removed to Melville-hospital for
medical treatment. A considerable period has
elapsed since corporal punishment was infli,ited at
C hatham division of Royal Marines.
The Ocean Steam Navigation Company's ship
Jason arrived at Gravesend on Wednesday even-
ing from Southampton, having been chartered by
the East India Board for the transport service.
Her troop fittings afford ample accommodation for
upwards of 1,000 soldiers, and cabin berths for 40
officers. She has commenced receiving a large
supply of munitions of war from Woolwich Arsenal,
and is expected to sail in about 10 days hence fur

The freight-ship Lady Macnaghten, laden with
300 tons of shot, and other war stores from Gibral-
tar, arrived at Woolwich yesterday, and commenced
discharging her cargo at the Arsenal-pier.
Arrangements ara in progress at Woolwich for
the transfer of the offices composing the Field-
train Department, to be consolidated, most proba-
bly, with the Military Store Department, in con-
sequence of the Corps of Ordnance having been
placed under the administration of the Horse
Guards and the Ordnance Departments generally
having been amalgamated with that of the Minister
of War.

The freightship Regina has commenced shipping
war stores from Woolwich Arsenal for Sierra Leone.

The naval store transport Diligence, Master-
Commander Crook, which vessel sailed from. Wool-
wich on Saturday last, laden with dockyard and
victualling stores for the Mediterranean, was
obliged to lay to at the Nore on Sunday, having
encountered a terrific gale of wind, pronounced by
the Admiralty pilot to have been the most furious
gale he ever experienced. On approaching the
North Foreland Mr. Barnes, finding it impossible
to round the point, was obliged to put back to the
Nore, where the Diligence was securely moored by
two anchors. While riding at anchor a full-rigged
American ship, the Chase, lying a, mile ahead,
dragged her anchors and drove down upon the
Diligence, doing her considerable damage, dragging
away her bobstays, damaging bulwarks, (U. To
prevent her becoming a total wreck the Diligence
slipped her moorings, and bore up for Sheerness
harbour, where she is ordered to be repaired.
The Coapatrick, Capt. C. Scott, 1,500 tons, be-
longing to Messrs. Dunbar and Sons, of Limehouse,
left Blackwall yesterday morning for Portsmouth,
where she will embark 450 troops, besides women
and children, for the Cape of Good Hope. The
length of the ship is 200 ft., and her spaces between
decks are fitted up for more than 500 persons. It is
expected she will make a quick run.