The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TH HSDAY EVENING, JAid UARY 20, 1859.

THE NAT7I7,

A court-martial was held on Tuesday, in namoaze,
Plymouth, on board the flagship Impregnable, to
try Mr. John Foster, assistant engineer of the third
class. The charge was that " he, being in active
service, and belonging to her Majesty's ship Leopard,
did on the evening of the 15th October quit the
ship without leave, after being refused permission
by the first lieutenant." Sir Thos. Pasley, Under
Superintendent of the Dockyard, presided ; Mr.
John Eastlake officiated as Judge Advocate, and
Capt. Wainwright (Leopard) prosecuted. The first
lieutenant, Mr. Webb E. Stone, having proved the
fact, which occurred at Greytown, and the prisoner
having submitted that at the time he was labouring
under great mental depression, sentenced him to
six months' imprisonment in the county gaol, and
to be dismissed from her Majesty's service.
Her Majesty's screw line of battle ship Agamem-
non, of 91 guns, was taken out of No. 7 dock at
Portsmouth, yesterday, and placed in the steam
basin.
The Ariadne, 32, screw steam frigate, of 800
horse power, building at Deptford, is fast progress-
ing towards completion, and will, we understand,
be launched about July next.
Her Majesty's steam frigate Termagant, of 25
guns, commenced roasting yesterday under the
sheers of the Portsmouth dockyard jetty. She will
shortly be commissioned.
Her Majesty's screw frigate Mersey, of 40 guns,
sent up topmasts yesterday, and is to be brdight
forward with all possible despatch. She rates as
a first class, being only- 27 tons less than the Duke
of Wellington, three-decker.
It has been announced to the friends of the officers
and men belonging to her Majesty's sloop of war
Sappho, 12*, Capt. F. Moresby, that in the event of
the Admiralty receiving no further information re-
lative to that ship, the name of the vessel is to be
removed from the next edition of the " Navy List."
Her Majesty's paddleship Argus, of six guns, is
at Spithead.
The Queen's regulation, similar in all its bearings
to that issued in 1858, relative to the'grade and uni-
form of the corps of military store•officers, has been
issued to the Royal Engineer department. Accord-
ingly, the clerk of the works and other established
clerks attached to that office at Woolwich yester-
day appeared in uniforms precisely similar to those
of the Military Store department. They are to
be entitled to honorary grades in the army as non-
combatant officers equivalent to lieutenants, cap-
tains, &c., and when in uniform are to be saluted as
commissioned officers of her Majesty's service, and
take precedence in the usual manner as officers.
Regulations to that effect have been printed for the
information of the garrison.
The Standard gun foundry at Woolwich arsenal
having completed the stipulated number of 130
heavy siege guns, yesterday commenced turning
out a number of 32-pounders, a couple of which
will be cast each alternate day, amounting to six
guns per week.
Her Majesty's paddlewheel steam-sloop Alecto,
late from the West Coast of Africa, having been
dismasted and stripped, was yesterday paid off at
Woolwich. A large proportion of her crew, con-
sisting of service men, were granted one month's
leave of absence, and the remainder were dis-
charged.
Her Majesty's steam storeship Rhadamanthus,
in dock at Woolwich, has been newly rigged and
caulked, and completely overhauled. Her timbers,
in various places decayed and rotten, have been re-
placed, and she is likewise in progress of being
newly coppered. The Rhadamanthus has been
employed for many years as a transport in the
conveyance of steam gear, and has seldom required
repairs of any importance. The copper now re-
moved, it is ascertained, has been in place 17
years.
ACCIDENT TO CAPTAIN TATHAM, H.M.S. EAGLE.

—On Wednesday last, while this officer was riding
in full cry after the hounds in the neighbourhood
of Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, his horse stum-
bled in taking one of the fences, which are of no
ordinary height, and precipitated his rider with
such violence, that very serious apprehensions were
entertained as to the result. We are glad, however,
to be able to say that the gallant officer has slightly,
recovered the shock, but will, it is feared, be con-
fined to his house fin some weeks.—Plyinouth Mail.
The following appointments have been made at
the Admiralty :
Master.—C. J. Polkingham, to the Hannibal.
Second Masters—Silas Vicary (confirmed), to the Perse-
verance ; John S. Compton, to the Calcutta.
Assistant-Paymaster—Charles E. Phillips to the Russell;
Francis Braddon to the Leopard.
Clerk—Charles Royle, to the Victory.

8.R12781l COLUMBIA,

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)

VICTORIA, VANCOUVER'S ISLAND, Nov. 11.
Had my time permitted I would have made some
remarks on the agriculture and on the capabilities of
the soil of this island in my last letter.

Here is the experience Of a gentleinan who was for
years a farmer in Essex, in England, and who has
farmed a tract of land about two miles from Victoria
for the last six years. The notes which I have taken
of his operations will convey to the agricultural
mind abroad an idea of the quality of the soil, the
character of the seasons, and the results of farming
operations conducted with skilli in Vancouver's

Island.
This farmer has not established, as yet, any fixed
rotation. His general course has been, when he first
breaks up the land, to sow it with peas, which tend
to clean and open the ground : next year wheat,
next oats, and the fourth year peas again, or tur-
nips. The virgin soil is too rich to require or to
bear manure for a few years, unless on poor stony
spots not yet cultivated. The essential point is to
keep:the land clean from brakes and weeds. In a
state of nature the best of the land is covered with a
thick crop of ferns, which attain an enormous size—
five, six, and seven feet in height, strong in stem
and tough in roots. This is the system, and its
results •----

Wheat, sown after turnips fed off by sheep, or
after potatoes; sows• 11 bushels to the acre, broad-
cast. Return, 28 to '3o bushels to the acre, accord-

ing to quality of soil: but the produce depends
chiefly on the freedom-=fit' the .soil fipm weeds.
Cleaning makes the body-y00g:- Ills Wile* tiveragei
641 b. to the bushel. Considers the quality very
good. Wheat may, of course, be sown after potatoes ;
but after turnips gives the best crop.

Oats—Sows- 2 -bushels, broadcast, to the acre.
Return, from 50 to 70 bushels to the acre ; not
heavy; grain rather small. None , yet made into
meal. An oatmeal mill is on the way out for the
use of the farmers in the neighbourhood.
Barley—Sows very little. Market hitherto
limited; now increasing with the advent of troops
of mules and horses for " packing" in the adjacent
mining country of British Columbia. The soil is
well adapted for growing barley.
Peas—Sows 2 bushels to the acre. Return, 30 to
40 bushels to the acre from the dun pea and the
scimitar (blue) pea ; seeds sent froMEngland. They
grow larger than in the old country, but he can't
give the weight.
Potatoes—The ground prepared. by two or three
ploughings and well cleaned, and (such fields as
have been already cropped) manuted by about 20
cartloads of farmyard dung to an aere ; plants about
three-fourths of a ton to the acre i 4 rows, three feet
apart. Return, Bto 10 tons an acre ; the produce
large in size, mealy, and well-flavoUred ; the quality
of all kinds good, but the white oval-shaped kidney
excellent. This last fact I can winch for. They
are smaller in size, but superior in flavour to the
California potato. In some few instances the pro-
duce is enormous,-56 tubers from one seedling, of
which number 40 were large-sized; potatoes, choice
and fit for market.

Talking of potatoes, let a successor worthy of the
immortal Soyer, ambitious of fame in culinary
science, come out here and learn from the Indians
their method of cooking them, carry home the art,
and his fortune is made. Considering that the
savages have neither pot nor, pdn nor oven, the
result is marvellous. It is attained by steam, gene-
rated by heated stones from a little water in a
wooden box, sewed (or held together) by withes.
But to resume my friend's story of his turnips,
which he sows in fallowed land, sometimes manured
and sometimes not. Gets good crops from a variety
of seeds, hybrids, &c. Cannot give the produce per
acre ; but the crops are quite as good as he ever
saw in England. I saw very large ones the other
day grown in rather a thin soil on a bill close to
Victoria.

Clover does well. Not mach land yet laid down
in clover. The land, when freed from growing
timber, is laid down often in timothy for pasture,
to save the great labour and expense of clearing
out the stumps of the trees—an arduous task, until
machinery is had to wrench them out of the earth,
I hear of such a machine being in use in America,
and it is to be hoped it will travel to Vancover's
Island.
The sewing and reaping seasons are, for wheat,the
latter part of October and in November; also, in
spring, as soon after February as the weather per-
mits ' • all to be in the ground before the end. of
March, harvested in August, Oats, barley, and
peas sown in March and April, harvested. about
August to middle of September. Potatoes planted
as early in May as can be. None should be put in
later than May, and they would do better if planted
earlier, so as to be ripe before the early frosts set
in, taken up in October. Turnips sown in June,
July, and August. t,The swedes in June ; the white
sorts will do to be sown down to the end of August.
The soil of this farm I should take to be a fair
sample of that, of the island generally, although I
do know some much better soil, scattered about,
within a few miles of Victoria, than any yet culti-
vated on this farm.
A writer in a Californian paper, who visited se-
veral portions of this island, reports that " the soil
throughout consists of a warm vegetable mould,
resting on a substratum of sandy or gravelly clay.
This mould is generally not more than three or
four inches deep, except on the bottoms, where the
depth is much greater. ' He is mistaken as to the
depth of the mould. In all the land thought worth
the trouble of being cultivated the mould is deeper
than three or four inches. It is deeper than the
depth of an ordinary furrow ; but in some situations
is thin as he says. The writer proceeds to describe
the quality :—" This soil is very quick and fertile,
but not durable, so after a few ploughings the land
begins to show signs of impoverishment, the upper
and more productive stratum of earth becoming
mixed with the poorer material below ; hence, after
three or four crops the yield is sensibly diminished,
unless manure be meantime applied.' As to pro-
ductiveness, from actual results, he says, " Wheat,
barley, and oats generally give what would be con-
sidered two-thirds of an average crop in California,"
but " peas do even better here than there." The
comparison with California may be correct, for,
except the delta of the Nile, I have not heard of any
soil yielding such large returns of grain as that of
California.
The quality of the crops pleased him better than
the quantity. " The straw, which generally looks
clean and healthy, is short and slender, and stands
thin on the ground; but the berry of the grain is
much larger and heavier than with us ; in truth, I
have in no part of the United States seen such
plumpness of kernel as the wheat and oats here
exhibit, and I doubt not most excellent crops of
these cereals will always be grown on the alluvial
bottoms, and also on the wood and uplands, when
the latter shall receive the benefits of careful hus-
bandry:" I think this gentleman is correct in his
conclusions. He has travelled over a considerable
portion of the south and easterly districts, and made
good use of his time. The only drawback to the
cultivatiox of the soilis the scarcity and high price
of labour. There is a ready market for all produce.
I cannot afford space in this letter to pursue the
subject farther ; but in my next I will give a sketch
of the quantity of agricultural land already sold,
its present market value, and the quantity still dis-
posable on the public domain fit for cultivation and
for grazing,
I may here remark that I find from several letters
which I have of late received from England there
is great misconception abroad on the subject of the
climate of this island, which it is as well to remove.
The farmer whose report of his farming operations
I have given above tells me—" The seasons are
very much the same as in England as to general
character, wet in winter, but decidedly milder.
The fact is, there is no better or healthier climate
in the world. It is just an English climate tempered,
modified, and improved ; the east wind being soft
and genial, instead of cold and cutting as in Eng-
land. The only cold winds here are the northerly
winds, and they are merely bracing—a little sharp,
but without the sting so trying in England and in
Scotland. They only prevail in the winter season."
The summer is drier and more steady, only a few
shouters of rain falling during the hot season, and
the winter milder. The climate, in short, is safe
for the delicate and invigorating for the robust in
health. 'These remarks apply more strictly to the
southern portion of the island. At the north, about
Fort Rupert, the climate is moister, and somewhat
colder.

Asa proof of the genial effects of the climate, I
may mention that the rains which fell occasionally
during the last month have caused the grass to
spring up with such vigour that at present
the meadows are freshet and greener than they
were in June and July. In fact, a lawn or grass
field preserved from cattle is now, on the 11th of
Nov., just as green as our best kept lawns in Eng-
land are at any season. This is seen under the walls
of the fort at Victoria, in an enclosed paddock,
and in confirmation of my own assertions I may
quote the experience of a Californian gentleman—
a hostile critic too—writing of this place for a pub-

lication in San Francisco, who, in speaking of the
climate.of Victoria, reports that—" This year we
have had one entire rainy. day in July, and two
thus far in August, besid.es several showers. These
rains keep the grass green, and all kinds of vegeta-
tion fresh and growing throughout the summer.
The meadows and pastures now look as verdant
here as in California. From May until the
middle of July the wind blows fresh every day.
After this it ceases, and until the winter rains set
in the -Weather is delightfully calm, rand the tem-
perature subject to very little variation, the ther-
mometer not changing more than 15 or 16 degrees
night or day during this period. From April to
Nov. it rarely ever falls below 50 or goes above 75.
In:this respect it is the most even climate I have
ever seen.' To this testimonyl will only add, that
apple and peach trees are at present partially in
blossom`, after having delivered themselves of abun-
dant crops of fruit within the past few weeks. I
prefer this climate myself to that of California, sim-
ply because it is not so enervating. With more
streams meandering through the meadows and
prairies than they have, the country could be culti-
vated into one grand garden for many miles all
round Victoria.

On the other hand, the climate of British Colum-
bia, the new colony, on the mainland, is hotter in
summer and much colder in winter than that of this
island. The climate of the mainland, as I learn from
old residents in the Hudson's Bay Company's. ser-
vice, is, however, quite healthy, and certainly %, ,from
my experience of it during the month of Sept. last,
the whale of which. I passed in the open. air and
under canvass, nothing can be more delightful.
Among the thousands of miners ar.d others. all
exposed by day and by night, wit'a whom I for-
gathered, I did not meet a sick
arson, and only
one mall who complained of P, headache. J The
winter is cold and frosty, but one air is clear and
bracing 4
I noW come to speak of Me town of Victoria, as
it has grown since I last 'noticed it. Situated on a
rocky plateau, which rises from the bay, it runs
along the top of the bank fronting the water in a
north-easterly direction till it embraces a portion
of the Victoria Ann, which runs up to Esquimalt,
and the,principal portion runs back from the water
till it joins the open prairie and forest country
which formS the south-eastern portion of the island,
bounded by Cadboro Bay and the Straits of De
Haro. •The south-western portion of the town is
divided from the inhabited and business part by
James's Bay, a small arm of the harbour, running
inland in a south-easterly direction for about a
quarter of a mile, or less. The town extends, on
paper, south and west of this bay, following the
sinuosities of Victoria Bay towards the Straits of
Fuca, so as to embrace the whole of the northern
and eastern side of the harbour, and to which side
the town is confined. The situation is extremely
fivae, commanding, as I before stated, extensive
views of sea and mountain at a distance, and pictu-
resque glimpses of forest scenery close at hand, with
charming peeps of the innumerable little bars and
inlets indenting the shores of the waters which wash
the base of the plateau on which the town is laid
out.

The ground laid off for the town is about one and
a half square miles, subdivided into blocks and lots ;
the lots measure 60 by 120 feet each, and 20 of these
compose one block, except in one suburb, where the
blocks contain only 18 lots, and in other parts
forming narrow strips and angles which did not
afford sufficient space to form blocks of such large
size. These exceptional parts are made into smaller
blocks. The width of the streets varies from 60
feet to 100 feet, and the principal thoroughfares
are at present being graded and macadamised, for
which there is abundance of rock in the neighbour-
hood. The total number of lots in the whole town
is 1,552, a few of them, on the outside, being a
little larger in area than 60 by 120 feet, and the
total number sold is 1,142, leaving only 140 lots un-
sold, and of this remainder several lots are already
I bespoken. This quick sale is a remarkable instance
of the avidity displayed for the acquisition of town
property in so remote a part of the world, and it is

fair to assume that it shows great public confidence
in the future growth and prosperity of Victoria as
well as in the prospects of the country generally.
Another cause of the eagerness to invest here is the
confidence placed in the :security of the title, and
in the protection of life and property afforded by
the administration of English law, and, in short, a
reliance upon everything real.and.personal placed
under the guardianship of the British flag.
The subdivision into such small lots has been
keenly objected to by speculators whose operations
were defeated by the entirety of the blocks having
been broken by the purchase of single lots by per-
sons of small means, who bought their lots for
actual occupation. In no case of any other new town
do I know of so many small proprietors who own
their own houses on their own land. Victoria is
emphatically a town laid out for the benefit of the
poor man.
The objection to the smallness of the lots fronting
on the water is well founded. The size is too small
for shipping and general commercial purposes, and
the few traders in the place are cramped for room
in their waterside premises. A wharf cannot be
erected to any useful purpose on a frontage of 60
feet. A few frontages of greater width than this
do exist in the hands of two or three of the older
settlers, but the greater portion is dribbled away
in lots of only 60 feet wide, and there is not a single
property on the bay fit to build a capacious and
convenient wharf upon.
Another objection is the paucity of streets. Each
of the blocks should have been intersected in the
middle by cross streets, or at least by alleys, both
for convenience and for easy and prompt access in
cases of fire.
Three spaces have been reserved for public uses,
one of them for. the church, one for a school, and
the third for a park. The latter is a fine rising
round, running southerly and westerly from near
the inner angle of James's Bay to the sea, and con-
tains Beacon-hill, a prominent object by which ma-
riners steer to make the south of the harbour, and
from which it is not far distant, The ground is a
natural' park, interspersed with oaks of the true
" ancestral" aspect, their jagged bark and gnarled
branches bearing sufficient evidences of their anti-
quity, while two sides of the space are beautified
and. protected by thick belts of the Douglas pine
and other trees and shrubs. The sward is good; and
when the ferns are removed, and the shrubbery
trimmed, thegrouud needs only roads and walks to
be made to perfect the park. The view from Bea-
con-hill is magnificent, embracing an immense semi.
circle of snowy mountains in Washington territory,
on the opposite coast, the whole lengthand breadth
of the Straits of Fuca, and the entrance to the in-
land sea now called Puget Sound.
The increase of buildings is astonishing ; it ex-
cites .my surprise even, although I have seen the
speedy rebuilding of San Francisco five different
times. Houses, small and rude, most of them, it is
true, are continually going up. The sounds of the
hammer and the saw are never out of my ears ex-
cept when I escape for a few hours into the coun-
try. The houses are all of wood.
The population is about 3,000 residents, and I
should think 500 more are constantly floating about
on the way to and from the mines and various parts
of the coast. This looks like Falstaff's commissa-
riat, a small quantity of bread for so much sack ;
but small things and great things are relative terms.
An old colonist told me the other day that at this
time last year there were not 300 inhabitants in
Victoria. •
These 3,000 inhabitants are kept in order by 20
policemen, regularly organised under the authority
of a commissioner, who is also police magistrate and
a justice of the peace. The policemen are clothed
and provided with batons, and perambulate the
streets much after the fashion of your London po-
lice ; the peace and good order of the town is per-
fectly preserved. The other day an inspector was
added to the force ; and, with some drilling, I have
no doubt it will become efficient in detective service.
The administration of justice is carried on in this
wise. There is only one court of law professionally
speaking—the Supreme Court of Civil Justice of
the Colony, established by an order in Council in
1856 ; and one judge, who tries all civil cases.
Criminal cases are tried by three magistrates, ap-
pointed by commission issuing from the Governor,
who always have a jury. The plan adopted is quite
constitutional, and, as a temporary expedient, ren-
dered absolutely necessary by unlooked for circum-
stances, works very well. The magistrates are gen-
tlemen of known respectability of character, who
try prisoners with fairness and impartiality, al
whose sentences are more tinged with mercy than
with severity, and who are guided by the rules of
natural justice rather than by strict principles of
law. Bar there is none, there being only one gentle.
man in the colony who is eligible for its privileges,
and he, being but a visitor, has been compelled to
decline the very kind and courteous offer of the
Chief Justice to admit him.
I have visited a great many places, great and
small, but this is the first place I remember to have
found without a member of the long robe. Is the
privation a blessing or an evil ? Lawyers are often
considered great evils, and I am ready to admit that
the charge is sometimes well founded ; but I fear