The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-14 00:00:00

3inhetained shelter in the Nepaulese territory.
story requires confirmation. The Court of
Nepaul cannot regard the Begum and her followers
as political offenders unless they break the alliance
with the British Government. Some of the refugees
are certainly not political offenders, but criminals
guilty of mutiny, murder, and assassination. It is
said that the sepoys were opposed by the Nepaulese
Guards, but that after a time they bribed away the
opposition. They have only secured an asylum for
the moment, as I cannot believe Jung Bahadoor
will permit them to remain in the kingdom. The
report states that they have been already deprived
of their arms. Should it be true, there can be no
doubt that such a step was preparatory to their
extradition or expulsion. The Begum has fled from
the sepoys as much as from RS.
Ere we departed from Mejiddiah a wing of the
Belooch battalion, 400 strong, and 50 of the Ist
Punjab Cavalry, were left to occupy the fort, and
complete its demolition, and as they were little
pleased at being left behind, they will no doubt
work well, and work the coolies too, till the ram-
parts have been thown into the ditch.
The whole of the north-east of Oude, up to
Khyreeghur, now seems tolerably secure. The
great difficulty is caused by the numerous rivers,
of which the enemy know every ford, while to us
they are obstacles and impediments worse than
baggage or heavy guns. Before Lord Clyde left to-
day he received a direct communication from the
corps on the right of the Chouka. Any ordinary
map of Oude will show the course of the latter
stream, as well as that of the Gogra or great Surjoo,
ere they unite at Beyramghat, but none will exhi-
bit that of the Gagee or Dhour, which, leaving the
Chouka opposite Thindoa, falls into the Gogra be-
low Easanuggur, and above Mullapoor. In the
lower island formed by this stream is the town of
Buragaon. Brigadier Troup is now at the right
bank of the Chouka, opposite this town, whence he
will advance up to Thindoa. He has pushed a small
column, under Col. Dennis, 60th Rifles, two guns
and one squadron of Cureton's Mooltanee Horse,
across the Chouka, which on the 26th was engaged
in crossing the Gagee or Dhour, and it would be no
less than two days ere they got their baggage
across. This column, having passed the river, would
clear the Easanuggur Doab towards Khyreghur.
Our old enemy Nirput Singh, together with Gholab
Singh, with 200 Sepoys and 400 Nujeebs, were on
the Gagee on Christmas-day, but they fell back on
the jungles of Khyreghur when they heard of Den-
nis's advance, where it does not seem possible for
them to live or us to pursue them. The political
agent with the column had made a last appeal to
these rebels. He sent them copies of the proclama-
tion, pointing out that only five days of the amnesty
remained, and ordering them to come in with all
their followers. The Daorera Rajah has already
made his submission. The direction of movements in
this district is left to Brigadier Barker, whose head
quarters are at Seetapore, subject to the instructions
of the Chief of the Staff. In order to strengthen
Troup, H.M.'s 93d Highlanders are marching from
Seetapore, and have joined him before this date.
Our march to-day presented no very interesting
features. By taking a short cut our guides actually
for once shortened the distance and reduced it to
12 or 14 miles. Lord Clyde is much better to-day.
DEC. 30.
It is probable that we shall have a night march
te-night—a secret expedition—very disagreeable,
inasmuch as the postmaster has just told us he must
change the hour of post departure on account of
" tigers." The postmen won't face them. Lieut.-
Colonel Nicholson, of the Royal Engineers, a most
deserving officer, has met with a serious accident.
His suffering will be deplored by all who knew him,
and his absence from active service will be a public
loss. I have not heard the full particulars, but I
have seen a letter from Sir Hope Grant's force, to
whieh poor Nicholson was attached, dated Bulram-
pore, Dec. 24, in which it is stated that on the pre-
ceding day, while drawing his ramrod, the gun
went off, shattering one hand by the ball, which
then went through the other hand and up the arm.
Sir Hope is sending him at once to Allahabad.
RETURN OF CAPTURED ORDNANCE.

BURJIDDIAH, DEC. 26.
One 9-pounder brass gun, native make, in park.
Two 4-pounder brass guns, native make, in park.
One 21-pounder brass gun, native make, in park.
One 1-pounder iron gun, native make, destroyed.
One 3-pounder brass howitzer, native make, in park.
MEJIDDIAH, DEC, 27.
Two 6-pounder brass guns, native make, in park.
One 18-pounder iron carronade, English make, in park.
One 3-pounder brass gun, native make, in park.
One 21 pounder brass gun, native make, in park.
One 5-inch brass mortar, native make, in park.
Total 12 pieces.
Two iron wall pieces and one wooden ivtket tube, of
native manufacture, destroyed.
DEC. 31.
I have yet to make up my narrative of the events
of the 26th and 27th of December. The escape of
the enemy on the first day was wonderfully rapid.
It is now known that the Nana was in the neigh-
bourhood, and some elephants were seen to go off
to the left the moment the enemy opened fire. The
movement of the cavalry to the right set the rebels
in full retreat, and just at that moment, Lord Clyde,
disabled by his fall, gave the command to General
Mansfield, who went on with the disposable horse
and guns. But the day was too far advanced, the
enemy too scattered, and covered by dust fields, for
sabre or gun to do much. I am persuaded that
they were informed of our advance long before the
column came to the jungle. They withdrew either
five or six guns at the very outset, and part fell
back or ran to Bankee, others towards Mejid-
diah. " Common domestic case," as Sir William
Russell calls that aggregated missile, when deli-
vered at 200 yards had, of course, no effect on
men who were nearly a mile ahead. In some in-
stances the cavalry passed men in thick cates, who
fired at them, and whom they could not reach.
Gun after gun, however fell into our hands. They
are set forth in the return of ordnance appended to
my previous letter. At last darkness began to set
in, the artillery horses were " pumped out," and
orders were given to retire. I saw few bodies of
the enemy along the route back ; but just as we
approached the village of Burjuddial the Beloo-
chees on the left flank of the Rifles, close to me,
began firing furiously into a cate. Some few of the
enemy were discovered and shot down, and for the
second time we made prisoners. On returning to
camp it was quite dark, not a tent was pitched;
the baggage was coming up in darkness and in
storms of angry voices. As the night was cold the
men made blazing fires of the straw and grass of
the houses of the neighbouring hamlet, in which
Nana Sahib's followers had long been quartered.
At one of those fires, surrounded by Beloochees,
Lord Clyde sat with his arm in a sling on a char-
poy, which had been brought out to feed the flames.
Once, as he rose up to give some orders for the dis-
position of the troops, a tired Beloochee flung him-
self full length on the crazy bedstead, and was
jerked off in a moment by one of his comrades,—
" Don't you see, you fool, that you are on the Lord
Sahib's charpoy ?" Lord Clyde interposed,--" Let
him lie there ; don't interfere with his rest," and
took his seat on a billet of wood. The groups round
these fires were most picturesque and wonderful in
effect and colour. Native soldiers, camp followers,
general officers, aides-de-camp, prisoners, subalterns,
all circling round holding out their hands to the
genial glow, or guarding their faces from the fly-
in'g embers as the roof of a shed or a fresh bed-
stead or truss of straw was thrown on the fire. I
took particular interest in a " budmash," who,
with his arras tied behind his back, joined the social
circle of which Sir William Mansfield was the prin.
cipal personage. He sat down on his haunches with
great coolness, and conversed affably with those
around him, his only inconvenience being, he said,
from want of food. Indeed, he favoured us with
some extracts from his private history. He had
been a servant of Ali Nucky Khan, late Prime
Minister of Oude, and he fought against us at
Lucknow. When the place fell he wandered about
from place to place with one rebel band or another
till he got tired of being always beaten and went
back to Lucknow. There, however, everything
was changed. His house was pulled down, his
relatives and friends all gone. What could he do
He heard that Bainie Madhoo would pay and feed
men to
fight for him ; and so a month ago he left
Lucknow and joined Bainie Madhoo, but he was
too poor
sword and
a musket, and as he' could only
muster
a 3him,
but and shield the rebel chief would
not have
hanging about the force he
got a morsel of fby
food, He was an elderly man, of
truculent, coarse features,oannedleftnoin verylndia amiable
fightiable
expression. He evidentlyn had no love for us or for
the Sepoys. (here is
with you now," he said, "for you have beaten all
werenonwoty
the people with your Sepoys, and
the
drusbheeonf
thefiri ns gh then
beatn
aware the
Sepoys themselves." As we
grape at us, and
inntythh
supposedof not being heard
that the enemy
that the enemy fired blank 'd Cartl'l ges, we asked
him the reason. " They had, I suppose, blank and
•
ball cartridges in their limbers," said he, and
their hands and feet are so swelled with fright they
could not tell one from the other." Our tents were
pitched late ; our dinner was eaten in the open by
the light of the stars and of the burning village,
and to bed we went, and slept as only men can
sleep who have done 30 miles over rough ground
on horse or foot.
The early part of the morning of the 27th was
spent in destroying the enemy's ammunition, bury-
ing round shot, chain shot, grape, and canister.
Some of the pieces were very composite in their
various accessories. The tumbril of one was made
out of a wine case, addressed "W. Johnstone, Esq./
Shahjehanpore." Another had on the fore wheels
" Patent mail axle." A coarse quoin instead of an
elevating screw injured the efficacy of the best piece.
lAwativao efferto had been mab t 9 find Ql4 Plc

position of the runaway enemy. It was ascertained
that Churda was evacuated, and for a time no cer-
tain intelligence could be got of the Nana's move-
ments, but Bainie Madhoo was reported to have
gone to a fort called Mejiddiah, about seven miles
to our left, where he would, it was said, make a
hard fight of it. It appears that the Nana had for
some weeks past resided at the fort of Burjuddiah,
which belongs to the Rajah of Churda, and that his
followers were in the village close at hand, which
we burned on the 26th. A villager whom we ques-
tioned said he had seen "the Nana Rao" once, that
he was a stout man, with pock-marked face, but
that when he went to walk in the garden the by-
standers were driven away, and that it was very
difficult to get a sight of him. Early in the morn-
ing orders were sent round for the march of the
force at 10 a.m., and while the tents were being
struck I went over to the fort, which is a wall of
mud enclosing a large garden of fruit trees, with a
well and fountain prettily laid out, and well kept
for a native place. In the centre there was an or-
dinary house, but it was burning, and only the hot
ruins remained. It was quite empty when we en-
tered. The outer walls of the fort were flanked by
bastions, but no guns could be discovered. It was
a poor position, open to assault on any side, and
was wisely abandoned by the enemy.
There was a disagreeable feeling in walking about
the garden when one reflected that the Nana had
been recreating there but a few days before. It is
surprising that the natives should shield a monster
whose deeds they repudiate with horror. Maun
Sing says the Nana is not a Brahmin and has ho
religion, or he would not have murdered women
and children ; but we have too many examples of
the massacre of both to believe that the detestation
of such offences can be very deeprooted or ener-
getic. There is much treachery still to be dreaded.
At the very moment when one of our district
officers was proposing that rewards should be con-
ferred on Hushmut Singh and Murdan Singh, two
Hindoo chiefs who had rendered us service and
were supposed to be faithful, evidence turned up to
create suspicions that there were emissaries of those
very men in Feroze Shah's camp at the time of his
escape and that therefore they were acquainted
with his intentions.
At ten o'clock the force marched off towards

Mejiddiah, where it was now ascertained beyond a
doubt that the enemy were in some force. No in-
formation could be got as to the strength or posi-
tion of the force. Maun Singh affected not to know
it. As we advanced the spies and villagers gave
still more perplexing amounts. Some said the
place was empty; others that a cavalry force was
posted in the jungle at the back of the fort,and that
there were a few men inside, but all agreed that
whoever was there would fly the moment we ap-
proached. We passed through a thick jungle
without opposition at
-11 o'clock, and advanced over

a fine plain till 12, when we came, upon another
jungle extending as far. as the eye could reach. It
was, however, not very broad, for in half-an-hour
we had debouched on a plain, and Burjuddiah was
before us. All we saw was a dun-coloured parapet
of mud, with three embranired bastions, in the front
of a dense forest, whicb; extended interminably on
the flanks and hit the rest of the work. Colonel
Harness, of the Engineers, proceeded to reconnoitre
the place, and found a spot on the right where we
could place oar heavy pins. The cavalry, under Sir
William Russell, were sent round to the left, where
the ground seemed more open, the Carabineers being
in support, under Lieutenant-Colonel Bickerstaff.
The Commander-in-Chief, who was carried in a
dooly with a led horse by his side, suffering from
the dislocation and shock of yesterday's fall, but
full of mental activity, gave the general direction
of the attack to the Chief of the Staff, and remained
in front, just 'under fire, the rest of the day.- We.
could see the enemy in the bastions watching our
motions, but the greater part of our force was
screened from their view by a heavy croprof dall;
which stood on a slightly elevated field, just in
front of the spot on which our troops and baggage
debouched from the jungle. The bit of the place'
we could see gave one a disagreeable impression of
its strength—a ditch and abattis were visible, and
the place might contain 10,000 men, for all we
knew. As there was only space for the heavy guns
on the right, it was resolved to send our mortars to
the left. All this time the enemy had observed 'us
in silence. I had gone towards the left, haVing, a
fair glass, to see what could be seen, and found
myself in front of the fort. I could see a man in
purple and fine linen, attended by several natives,
going round from bastion to bastion, and encourag-
ing the men. I could see the artillerymen looking
along their pieces, and the Sepoys strutting about
very confidently inside the parapets. Presently Sir
William Mansfield and a few officers came past,
riding to the left to reconnoitre. Bang went a gun
from the western bastion, but it was laid too high,
and the shot went whistling through the air above
our heads, and plunged with a heavy thud into
the ground 300 yards behind us. The
General went on at a canter; bang went gun
number two, and, again, gun number three, is fast
as they could load and slew the piece round. The
General reconnoitred, and found a place for our
mortars on the left near the cavalry, returning
under the fire as before—one good shot which
passed close and sharp being very near emptying
one of the saddles. As the heavy guns were being
sent round, the enemy opened on them, and one shot
disabled a soldier, and killed and wounded a couple
of gun bullocks, but they were soon placed in safe
cover; then they opened on the mortars going round
to the left, but were less fortunate, though their
round shot sadly discomposed some groups of dooly-
bearers, and one of them had the side of his face
shattered by a round shot. But the vivacity of
their fire was soon diminished. Part of the Rifle
Brigade, of the Belooch Battalion, and of the 20th
Regiment were sent up to the fort in skirmishing
order, and, extending themselves, as fax as their
numbers would admit, from the open front to the
right round into the jungle, got close up to the
parapets, and poured a- constant flight of bullets
through the embrasures, clearing the parapet of
Sepoys, except a •few resolute fellows who kept up
their fire very steadily. The heavy guns opened
on the right ; the mortars answered on the left.
Shell after shell burst inside the place, the round
shot tore great clumps of earth off the parapets. I
could see that in ten minutes the number of the
defenders of the place, never very great, had become
much diminished, but some of the enemy remained
at their posts with steadiness andjletermination.
One man in particular I could see s:Ming a gun by
himself. He fired, sponged out, served, rammed
home, aimed, for round after round, throwing grape
at the Rifles and round shot towards the front, till he
suddenly disappeared, and the gun only opened once
more. Nearer and nearer crept our riflemen, less and
less became the fire of musketry from the parapets
and the flashes of the answering guns, while our mor-
tars and heavy artillery kept up a heavy,monotonous,
uniform battering and bursting and pounding inside,
outside, and above the fort. About 4 the firing had
almost ceased. Major Dillon, of the Rifle Brigade,
soon afterwards came up to the Chief of the Staff,
to announce that the fort was evacuated, just ex,
Colonel Harness, suspecting suchto be the case, had
gone with a few men to ascertain if it was so. I
went in with the Rifles, who were ordered to ad-
vance and occupy it, and as we approached the
abattis a spatter of musketry was heard, which pro-
ceeded from the last of the enemy leaving the place
and who fired probably on Colonel Harness's little
party. This abattis was a thick fence of thorns
and pointed branches, inside which was a thickset
hedge, then the ditch 25 feet deep, 28 feet broad,
filled in places with several feet of mud and water,
and opposite us the face of the bastion, fully 35 feet
high from the bottom of
.the ditch. Falling,
scrambling, and climbling, we got up through the
embrasure—a feat which few of us would have per-
formed had there been an enemy inside; for it re -
quired hands and feet to do it. The first impres-
sion produced was wonder at the small size of the
interior, and at the strength of the place. A small
low wall pierced for musketry surrounded son ie
houses in the centre, which probably served as the•
residence of the Rajah and his followers. The.
ground was covered with cooking places, thatched
sheds, cooking utensils, and quantities of ammuni-
tion. There were rockets, blue lights, port fires,
cartridges, hammered shot, newly cast brass shell,
very well made, moulds for making them, fuses,'
heaps of English cartridges, and bags stuffed with
percussion caps. The rockets weremost ingeniously
providedwith a contrivance, of which our engineers
took a note, to prevent the rocket flying back, an
occurrence which is too probable not to be guarded
against. I recollect poor Sir William Peel saying
one day at Lucknow, " If the rascals are half as
much frightened as we are at every rocket we fire
we will soon clear the place;" and no one wide] :-
stood rockets better. A buggy stood under a she 3d
—in that shed was a horse. With most remarkable
presence of mind an active officer• walked to
the place as if he knew all about it, saw that a cot a-
bination of the two might be effected with advar s-
tage, harnessed the horse, and put it to the Bugg, y,
and drove out of the gate in great glory. Ti ie
magazines were well made—the best I ha ve
seen in India. Great quantities of food were femur.
in the storehouses—rice, grain, and atta. Wild gon
vraoaulsd retreat.
have been
e
bullocks lashed their sides with their tails, and ,
charging
those who furiously among the invaders, causei 1
had never fled before to take to ignomi-
ni
en a A
very splendidy fonn ißdarabhlemfionee
indeed, bull, whowaa
fortunately fastened by the nose to a rope, and .
seemed rather low
- s iiite dinofour old b
.consequence of ht
death of a cow Which
lay at some distance killed
by a piece of shell. Bullocks—some
tery draught with the marks on their loins—were
also found in the ditch. It was evident that the
ta
foi had been ;for §vwe one
occupied, tuid, that

those who told us it was empty were deliberately
deceiving us in order to befriend the enemy. A
141 b. mortar limber was found in one place full of
ammunition. There was not a dead body inside,
and only in one place was there trace of any of the
enemy being wounded, but it is scarcely possible for
the fire to have left them unscathed. The parapets
were injured in places, bits of shell lay over the
ground, and the embrasures were scored in every
direction by our rifle balls. Probably they carried
of their dead and wounded through one of the
numerous sallyports which led out into the jungle
on the rear.

_
The fort of the Mejiddiah is of a pear shape, run-
ning north and south, about 400 yards long by 350
in breadth across the middle. The stem is hidden in
jungle, and. it is the principal gateway. It is sur-
rounded by a ditch, with an abattis on the south and
east up to the stem. The west is quite covered by
jungle, hidden in which there is another gateway,
protected by a small lunette in advance. Two lu-
nettes are also in the jungle in the west. There are
four or five round towers or bastions along the ram-
part, pierced for guns. The ditch at the north gate
is 28ft. broad and 20ft. deep from the ground, the
face of the scarp to the top of the parapet being 37ft.
high, the top of parapet seven feet thick, and the
exterior fenced by a heavy abattis. In some places
there is a double ditch, and the ramparts are perfo-
rated by sallyports, which run into the outer
ditches. In the centre of the fort is a semi-circu-
lar citadel, or keep, about 150 yards long by 100
yards broad. It is certainly the strongest and best
fort we have yet seen in Oude. As it fell dark the
Rifles were marched out, and their place was taken
by the Beloochees. One of their sentries next
morning spied five men walking towards the fort,
three of whom were armed. When they were
close to the gate he challenged them. The men
dropped into the jungle, but, on his threatening
to turn out the guard and shoot them down, they
came up and surrendered—the Rajah's barber, his
steward, and three armed followers, who had been
out in the district, and had not heard of the fall of
the place. Some grasscutters of the 7th Hussars,
who had been missing since the 26th, returned to-
day, and reported that they had been taken pri-
soners by a party of the enemy's cavalry •, and the,
monshee of Captain Fremantle of the Rifle Bri-
gade, whe fell into their hands, was permitted to go,
after he had been offered a high place in their army
if he would join them.
On the 28th the engineers were employed in
demolishing the fort, which was too good to leave
behind us, and our companies were out in all direc-
tions to ascertain what had become of the enemy.
Churda was found to be empty. As the work of de-
molition was difficult, owing to the absence of
coolies, though the enemy's gunpowder was largely
used, and 1,4001 b. was available, It was resolved to
garrison the place on our departure with a wing of
Beloochees and 50 of the Ist Punjab Cavalry till
the Coolies; had levelled the parapet and filled up
the ditch.

On the 29th the Chief, being quite in the dark as
to the locality of the enemy, moved south at noon, and
pitched his tents at Nanparah. Our appearance on the
plain caused some anxiety to the garrison of Oudo
police, who had been left in the place, but they
recovered their equanimity on seeing the force de-
bouch on the plain and show the English camp
coloUrs. It was dark before our tents were pitched,
On the 30th information was.received that the Nana
Sahab, Bainie Madhoe, and some thousands- of
Sepoys and desperadoes had collected near Bankee,
about 20 miles north of Nanparah. The news was
verified about fotir,o'clock in the afternoon, and at
six Lord Clyde had.' 'bade his arrangements for a
night march, of which the details and the object
must be left for another letter.

CAMP AT BANKEE, New Year's-day.
The well-conceived secret night march, planned
by Lord Clyde and executed yesterday, has caused
great consternation among the desperate rebels who
still hold out on the verge of Nepaul. The loss of
their guns, the suddenness of the attack, the sur-
prise, have all told on them, and they feel they are
now no longer safe wherever they may go, and that
the information of our movements which stood them
in such good stead while they were "at large is now
failing them as our columns occupy mile after mile
of the country. It is much to be regretted that we
missed Nana Sahib, but we shall not have him yet.
We must wait till the bands of the enemy are more
thoroughly dispersed. I saw to-day a Sepoy of the
72d Bengal Native Infantry who was with the Nan a's
own force yesterday, being one of his armed fol-
lowers. He said that the first intimation of an ad-
vance was the sound of the guns opening upon the
head of the column. The Nana was in. the wood a
couple of miles in the rear. He at once gave orders
for flight, had his eight elephants loaded, and made
straight off for the Raptee, which he crossed, no
doubt, long before our cavalry reached its banks'
But, although that particular body of the rebels may
not have been warned of our approach, that which
defended the entrance into the jungles was no doubt
advised of it by their cavalry pickets before we came
in sight. Living in a state of constant apprehension,
the rebels are ever on the alert, and throw out
strong pickets of horse all along their front, which
are on the watch night and day, though the cold is
said to affect their energy. Indeed, we heard at ono
of the villages that a picket galloped past with the
news of our advance half an hour before our ad-
vanced guard made its appearance. Under every
tope we saw horse litter, cooking places, and recent
signs of the Sowars. In the night we passed one
large party on the left, which remained perfectly
still. Some of our officers observed the lights in the
distance, but they were supposed to proceed from a
village, and it is the custom in Oude to plough by
torchlight, as the earth is soft, and yields to the
plough when moistened by the dew, and no notice
was taken of them. Had there been we should have
given the alarm to the main body by our firing, and
warned them to escape. ' The picket quietly re-
mained on their ground aftek we passed, but when
the guns opened they fled away towards the west,
and probably broke up. The sepoys tells us that
there are great dissensions among the rebels.
Whenever our force 'approaches the recriminations
and reproaches of one to the Other are only silenced
by the opening of our fire; " Where. will you fly to
now ?" they ask. " What a. fine example you set
the other day !" It was you who brought me to this;
but for your advice I should have been well clad
and fed and my fathily 'looked 'after. Now I am
hungry and in rags, and no chance of escaping
death? For food, however, so far as rice and grain
go, they must bpewell off, as the country is teeming
both. The new year, which opens upon us full of
hope, to them presents no prospect but of disgrace,
suffering, and death. The last day of grace and
amnesty has passed, but even yet the gates of mercy
are not closed, and the prerogative is still free to be
exercised as the Viceroy pleases.

REGISTRATION OF REAL ESTATE.

Besides the luminous arrangement, and the clear
and accurate statement which adornedit, the speech
of the Solicitor-General on Friday night was dis-
tinguished from most of those usually heard within
the walls of Parliament by the ,abstract and philo-
sophical nature of the principles on which it was
based. We have passed the time when the reforms
and improvements which the age requires can be
met by obvious and popular remedies. The mere
abolition of restrictions and prohibition of abuses
no longer satisfy the' spirit of 'the times in which
we live. Whatever May be thought of the Parlia-
mentary eloquence :abuts ti.lfib",ve exact from our
statesmen tasks never dreamt.of before, and require
them to become the inventors, or at least the expo-
nents, of doctrines much fitter for the closet, ac-
cording to ordinary conception, than for the atmos-
phere of apopular assembly. Look, for instance,
at the chain of abstraction by which the exact truth
with regard to the exercise by the State of the
power of conferring_a Parliamentary title is, step
by step, elicited and deinonstrated. A great emer-
gency arises, which startles our Government out of
the narrow limits of its mediocrity. A vast mass
of the property of Ireland is discovered to lie in the
hands of persons whose interest in it. is merely
nominal, and whose right really resolves itself into
the barren privilege of representing an imaginary
surplus over existing, encumbrances, which the
estate, when sold, was never destined to yield. It
was felt to be absolutely necessary that these pro-
perties should be sold • and the power of the law
was called in to facilitate this salutary transac-
tion. For the first time the pdrchaser was relieved
from the necessity of inquiring into the title and
negotiating with the encumbrancers. The State
undertook all -this _ herself,- and gave to the pur-
chaser an absolute assurance that he should receive
his estate, as free from all . charges and questions
as if he had taken it from the hands of the great
purifier of Irish titles, Strongbow himself.
Nothllig ;could appear at. first sight more local and
temporary than such a) measure ; but in this mass
of temporary and fleeting elements there was dis-
covered something which was not temporary and
fleeting—a permanent truth. It was soon ob-
served that the principle of relieving the purchaser
from the investigation of title,. and giving him an
indefeasible right, was not necessarily connected
with the encumbrance of the estate or the division
of the purchase-money among the different claim-
ants; and then it came to be seen that such a pro-
cess could be carried on and such a title given just
those titles are:found good, it'is
as well where no sale was in contemplation as other-
wise. The result was the proposition to establish a
Court with power to -inquire into titles, and when
certificate which pur---haser foL.,evveer
protects the
against all claims prior to the date of his es,.-. v
ante. In all 'this there is nothing peculiar to de
law either of England or of Ireland. The principles ta,oction,
accredit them by a
the Imperiat
an as capable application the law of the land C°ll4 liwagjudgmeuv

of one country as to that of another'. -They are, in
fact, universal truths, and maybe considered as the
axioms lying at the base of a new science, the pro•
blem of which is, without interfering with the sub-
stantive law, to establish a perfectly clear, simple,
and indefeasible-title to land.

The truths thus established have proved, as is
the nature of new truth, eminently fertile and
prolific. It could not fail to be observed that this
process of purifying the title, however complete and
perfect for the moment, contained in itself no power
of self-perpetuation. The stream issued from the
fountain, but it was liable to be rendered turbid by
the muddy rivulets which emptied themselves into
it as it rolled along. The glfts is soon worn off a
Parliamentary title ; the purchaser mortgages,
grants annuities, makes a marriage settlement, has
judgments entered against him, becomes a Crown
debtor, makes an ambiguous will, or dies leaving a
son of doubtful legitimacy. The stone of Sisyphus
has rolled down the hill, and the labour has to be
gone through again. Immediately there arise the
further questions—Cannot the purity which it has
cost so much trouble to attain be retained un-
soiled ? Cannot the rivulet be guarded from its
muddy affluents ? Cannot the title be kept clear
from the causes which contaminate it ? One happy
thought leads to another. The operation of the
Encumbered Estates Court showed the possibility
of separating the beneficial ownership of land from
the power of disposing of it, and the application of
the same principle will secure to us the advantage
thus gained. Let people continue as before to
exercise the unbounded licence at present possessed
of dealing with land in any manner their conve-
nience or caprice may dictate, but let the land be
represented for all future purposes of transfer by
persons who appear as the owners of the fee simple,
and who claim by direct transfer from the previous
owner. Let notice of all dealings with the bene-
ficial interest of the land be carefully excluded from
the register, and the land in the hands of the fiftieth
transferee from the man who acquired the Parlia-
mentary title will be just as easy of sale as in the
hands of the first. Thus has the principle of recog-
nising two species of ownership in land, the one
public and notorious and undivided for the pur-
poses of transfer, the other private and susceptible
of every kind of modification for the purposes of
beneficial ownership, been established. The Bank
of England had already hit upon a somewhat similar
device in dealing with the proprietors of stock.
The operation really consisted in issuing annuities
of a certain amount and of perpetual duration in
exchange for ready money, and the contract which
the bank made with its annuitants was, that it
should not be obliged to pay the annuities to any
but themselves and their transferees entitled to the
whole interest in the annuity. In the same way
the lord of the copyhold, when he admits one
tenant instead of another, refuses to take any
notice of the interests which the ownership of that
tenant may represent or protect, and the same prin-
ciple has been applied with great success to the
registration of ships.
It remains to show what protection can be de-
vised for those whose names and interests do not
appear on the register. In the case of stock there
is no protection at all, but the measure of the
Solicitor-General is more careful of the interests of
those beneficially entitled to land. It distin-
guishes between the disclosure and the protection
of an interest, and avoids the first, while it attains
the second, by the simple device of entering a
caveat or inhibition from transferring on the regis-
ter, which must be removed before the land can be
transferred. To procure this removal will be the
business of the seller, and the purchaser will have
nothing to do but to suspend the completion of his
transfer till no caveats are left. Another equally
simple and ingenious protection is founded on the
observation that in almost every instance in which
stock has been fraudulently sold out by a trustee
it has been by a single survivor, and that instances
of a joint fraud of this description are almost un-
known. The protection will therefore consist in
negativing the doctrine of survivorship, and requir-
ing that before the power of transfer is executed
the place of the trustee who is dead shall be sup-
plied., _ _ _

Thni, by a machinery at once simple and effec-
tive, has been solved the mighty problem how to
render the immense property which is locked up in
the lands of England available and negotiable for
the purposes of commerce, to increase its value by
removing all doubt as to the title of the vendor,
and to enable its owner to enjoy nearly the same
facilities for pledging and selling as are possessed
by the proprietor of stock or shares, and all this
without diminishing the security or invading the
privacy of settlements, mortgages, or other similar
transactions. Such a measure will, if passed, be
equivalent to a gift of many millions in the shape
of increased value of land to the proprietors of the
soil of England, and will give an impulse to all
improvements that depend on the acquisition of
land, which it is hardly possible to over-estimate.
We have a good right to feel gratified at the intro-
duction ix a practical shape of this great improve-
ment, for the readers of the Times are well aware
that many years ago, and while the attention of
the most earnest law reformers was directed to a
register of deeds—a measure which, at a vast
expense, would only have aggravated and stereo-
typed the defects of the present system—we
earnestly advocated instead the assimilation of the
transfer of land to the transfer of stock, and ex-
pressed our belief that, with a few slight modifica-
tions which the difference of the subject matter
required, the same principles were just as applicable
to the one as to the other.—Times.

DREADFUL FIRE AND LOSS OF LIFE.

On Saturday morning, between the hours of five
and six o'clock, a fearful fire broke out on the pre-
mises belonging to Mr. Walton, wholesale tea dealer,
No. 85, High-street ,Whitechppel, and was attended
with loss of life to two human beings, and a serious
destruction of _valuable property. The fire was
discovered by police•officer No. 160 of the H divi-
sion. A fire escape, under the charge of Conductor
Wood, was soon on the spot, when three persons
were seen at the second floor window. The con-
ductor brought these down his escape, then raised
his upper ladders to the third floor, where three
other parties were getting upon the window sills,
for the purpose of jumping into the street. He
called to them to remain until he got to them. He
then brought them down the ladder to the canvass
bag and passed them down in safety. He inquired
whether any one else was in the house, and was
told that the two female servants were in the back
room third floor. He repaired to the third floor
front again, entered the room, and reached the door
of the apartment ; but the handle of the door was
very hot, and whilst he was endeavouring, with
the aid of his coat, to turn the lock, the door fell
upon him, to some extent sheltering him from the
flames. He managed to crawl on his hands and
knees to the front window, where the flames had
preceded him, and had actually set fire to the top
of the machine; was obliged to get out head fore-
most, nearly stifled with smoke. He next un-
shipped the short ladder of his escape, by great
exertions succeeded in placing it on the roof of the
next house, and managed to get to the room
where' the unfortunate females were; but it was
then in one body of flame. In the course of a
few minutes the whole of the interior of the build-
ing fell with a loud crash. The engines went to work
in an admirable manner, but the only good they
cquld do was to protect the adjoining houses, the
premises in which the misfortune commenced being
totally consumed. Search was afterwards made for
the missing persons. One was found lying across
the other in the cellar. They were placed in shells
and removed to the dead-house to await an inquest.
Their names were Charlotte Law, aged 33, and
Emily Williams, aged 15. The foreman, a person
named Watford, rushed through the fire, and made
his escape at the front door, but was so badly burnt
that he was obliged to be taken to the hospital.
The origin of the fire is unknown.

THE LAW OF MARRIAGE IN FRANCE.—Another
case respecting the validity of a foreign marriage was a few
days ago submitted to the Imperial Court of Aix. In 1850
a Jew named Cohen, who was born at Geneva, but whose
parents are now domiciled at Marseilles. married at Calcutta
wherehe was established in business, a young Frenchwoman
named Muret, of the same city, who had sometime lived
with him as his mistress. Mademoiselle Muret being a
Roman Catholic, the marriage was celebrated in the Ca-
tholic church of 'the Sacre Ccsur in that city. M. and
Madame Cohen had four children, whose births were duly
registered at' the French Consulate. Cohen informed his
parents of hia marriage, and in 1854 he brought his wife to
France to introduce her to them, but they refused to receive
her He returned to Calcutta, and on the 18th February,
1856, accidentally fell into a huge boiler filled with boiling
syrup, and was so dreadfully scalded that he expired. By
his will he left his wife a life interest in all he possessed,
and the Supreme Court of Calcutta awarded the property to
her. Notwithstanding all these circumstances, Cohen's
father in Maylast called on the Civil Tribunal of Marseilles
to declare the marriage null and void—first, because it was
clandestine, inasmuch as it had not been published in France;
and, second, because a Catholic priest cannot legally cele-
brate the marriage of a Jew and a Christian. The tribunal,
however, after hearing lengthened pleadings, decided that
by the Code Napoleon a marriage between French people
celebrated abroad need not necessarily be published in
France, when there was no reason to suppose that the par-
ties wished to elude the French law, when they had been
some time established abroad, and when they had mani-
festly acted in good faith—all which was the case to this
affair. As to the second objection, the Tribunal ruled that
even supposing a religious marriage between a Roman
Catholic and a Jew was void according to the canon law—a
point it was not called on to decide—yet, as by the English
law the marriage at Calcutta, by the Boman Catholic priest
was admitted, it must be regarded as valjd in a legal point
of view in France also. The Tribunal thereLre rejected the
^nd declared the marriage valid. M. Cob.,:_n a)pealed
"rturt of Aix against that decision, the
coal.l=l