The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-22 00:00:00

BURGLARY BY A SOLDIER.

William Hawthorn, a private in the Royal Artillery, was
indicted with stealing a quantity of whisky, the property of
Richard Turner.

The prosecutor stated that he kept a public louse in
Woolwich. On the night previous to the robbery, the 28th
of August, the whisky was safe in the cellar, but next
morning when ho was called up the flap of the cellar was
found to have been forced and the liquor stolen. A police-
constable met the prisoner after the robbery, and found two
bottles of whisky in his possession, which the prosecutor
identified as his property.

The jury found the prisoner guilty.
A corporal of the Royal Artillery said the prisoner was
under his charge as a court-martial prisoner.
Sentence deferred.

THIS DAY'S MARKETS.

WRECK OF THE JERSEY MAIL STEAM

PACKET EXPRESS.

On Tuesday last the Express left Jersey at a quar-
ter to 7 o'clock a m. for Guernsey and Weymouth,
having on board nearly 200 passengers and three
horses. The latter, with most of the passengers,
were bound for Guernsey, Tuesday being the first
day of the races. The vessel was under the com-
mand of Mr. Mabb, chief mate, the usual captain,
Mr. Harvey, being at the time too unwell to take
his accustomed place in the ship. As bcfore stated,
the Express left at a quarter to seven o'clock,
under the most cheering auspices for a fine run
across, the weather being very fine. When off tie
Corbiere the ship was hugging the land so closely
that a few of the passengers made remarks to the
bystanders, but no notice was taken of their ob er-
vations. However, Mr. Hamson. a Jerseymau, and
deputy-harbour-master of St. Helier's, observed
that he had often made the trip by steamer, and
had never known and vessel attempt the cut they
were then making. These words had scarcely been
spoken when the Express struck on a rock called
the " Grunes Houillieres." Consternation and
terror seized all parties, but Mabb endeavoured to
calm their fears by stating that " it was nothing,
and all would be right." A second shock was now
felt, and Mabb for the first time seemed to
understand that the ship was in danger.
To extricate the ship from her position he endea-
voured to get her into deep water again, and to
run her on the sandy beach of St. Brelade's Bay.
Fortunately, the Express is built in compart-
ments, and, having struck on her port bow, the
water had not reached her engines, which were
still manageable. Mr. Hamson, assisted by Mr.
Brett, a boatman of St. Helier's, who took the
helm, drove the ship into a snug berth on some
rocks a very short distance from the mainland.
The next thing was to see to the safe landing of
the passengers, which was accomplished by Mr.
Hamson, ably assisted by the second mato of the
Express, who throughout exhibited great coolness,
activity, and judgment.

. _
Three lives, however, at least have been lost.
Their loss is attributable to the persons themselves,
who endeavoured to descend into a boat which had
been lowered shortly after the disaster. The rest
of the passengers were landed from their perilous
position by means of the steamer's boats ply-
ing between the rock and the shore. The,
three horses were also saved by swimming
to the rocks. The mail bags for England were
conveyed to Southampton yesterday by the com,
pany's steamer Despatch. The big of letters for'
Guernsey being in the fore part of the vessel could
not bo got at, and it may be considered lost. During
the evening of the day of the disaster, the three
bodies were found and brought on shore. The Ex-
press lies in such a position that she may yet pos-
sibly be got off, unless a southerly wind should
spring up, and then she must become a perfect
wreck. Mr. Green, the manager of the steamship
department of the London and South Western Rail,
way Company, arrived at Guernsey yesterday morn,
ing on his way to Jersey, hiving left Southampton I
immediately on the news of the sad event reaching
the latter place by telegraph.
Mabb was to have been arrested yesterday afte4
noon by order of the Queen's Procureur.
An investigation will take place as soon as po
sible, and the real truth, no doubt, will come out a
to the reason why Mabb should have selected

passage never before attempted by any steamer, o!
indeed any other vessel. _ _ 1

Three bodies have been found ; those of a womai
and two men—Philippe Coudray, of the Star Hotel,
St. Peter's, Jersey, and that of an English gentle-
man, who had his wife and daughter on board. He
imagined that a boat had been lowered, and let
himself down by a rope, and fell into the water.
The woman whose body has been found is not
known. It is feared that other persons have been
drowned.
Immediately on the arrival of the Despatch a
Jersey on Tuesday morning Capt. Babot, her com-
mander, visited the wreck, to render any assistande
his nautical skill might suggest, and sent his vessel.,
the Despatch, to Guernsey, to convey the intelli-
gence, as the electric wire between the islands was
out of order.

LANDSLIP AT TV-IRD.EN POINT,

SIIEPP I.

A writer in a contemporary says :—From Sit-
tingbourne, on Sunday morning, I walked over to
Warden Point, and inspected the landslip noticed
in your columns last week.
The whole northern seaboard of the Isle Of
Sheppy, from near Mile Town, east of Sheerness, to
Warden Point (from whence eastward the land
rapidly falls, and the cliffs terminate towards Shell-
ness Point at the west entrance of the Swale), is
composed of London clay, of undulating form,
moderate height, and intersected by a few main
gullies or chines, carrying off the surface water.
The whole of this cliff is constantly falling, acted
on by atmospheric agencies, the influence of the
tide and waves, with gales from north-east, and
from land drainage, forming a sloping undercliff
below ; the same remark applies to the tertiary
cliffs eastward, past Whitstable, Herne-bay, and
Reculvers ; until the chalk rises and crops out in
tie promontory forming the Isle of Thanet. This
is well described in the works of Lvell and others.

There are, however, some exceptional circum-
stances about this fall, which the agencies above
referred to can apparently hardly account for, and
the following slight sketch may possibly draw
towards it the attention of others who have made
such subjects their more especial study, and may
not be wholly uninteresting to the general reader.
About three years back a similar fall or slip took
place to the westward, which the present one in
effect appears a continuation or prolongation of to
the eastward. The present fall is immediately
adjoining the church, extending an equal distance
east and west of it, including about two and a half
acres of land, the former fall apparently about three
times that amount ; in all there are some 10 acres
of land affected, and in each case the results are
similar. The recent fall took place on Sunday, the
11th inst., about 9 p.m., and occupied some hours
—i.e., it was a gradual, and not a sudden, move-
ment or subsidence.

The results presented are these—a broad belt of
land moves seaward (not a mere abrasion or under-
mining of the cliff), settles vertically downwards,
or spreads out, and slides seaward, presenting a new
cliff landward at the last parallel fissure ; and the
moving mass obtain a state of rest in the form of
an undercliff. This latter presents the following
appearances :—The mass in moving appears to fall
forward towards the sea into regularly defined
parallel belts of, say, ten feet in thickness ; these
laminae, as it were, obtains a state of rest at an angle
inclining forward of about 45 deg., so that the
fallen mass now presents in the valley of the fall
a series of parallel terraces rising and falling in
steps, the faces composed of the fresh section of the
natural clay, the tops dipping towards the sea, the
turf and vegetation undisturbed. The mass in
subsiding or falling forwards is split into layers
presenting angular sectional edges, the same as
those of an inclined pack of cards, of an open book,
or leaning stack of tiles or slates. The mass is more
broken up, and rises into a huge mound seaward, so
that the fall assumes a concave or valley form be-
neath the cliff, falling from it and then rising again
seaward. An extraordinary result of this fall is
that it has, by its superincumbent moving weight,
driven the old foreshore and superimposed shingle
up about ten feet above its former level, rounded in
form. My attention was specially directed to this
result, which is apparent when standing on the
shore. The fall is, in fact, a complete avalanche of
earth intersected by parallel fissures or crevices,
scooping up and causing the saturated material
forming the foreshore to rise up en masse. The
singularity, as many observed looking on, was that
this great slip should have occurred after so dry a
season. The edge of the altered cliff is now only
18 yards from the chancel of the church, in a line
with the west side of the nave, and portions of the
row of trees and fence adjoining have settled down
bodily, and are now standing on the undercliff some
50 feet lower than they were when in situ, at a
slight inclination, corresponding with that of the
detached pieces of cliff on which they stand, plainly
denoting how gradual and vertical has been the
subsidence.

It is difficult to account for this phenomenon ; a
question arises, viz,, to what extent are the bases of
cliffs in the tertiary formations saturated or affected
by percolation through fissures by tidal agency,
and how far may this be the first cause ?
There are no appearances of land springs from
the cliff-face, the whole appears to have squeezed
down into a saturated or partly fluid base, or this
apparent effect may be the resultant merely of the
spreading of the dislocated mass.
A similar fall took place at Axmouth, in Devon,
some 10 or 15 years back. In that case, however,
it was mainly one parallel bolt of land that slid or
fell away in a similar manner, possibly from like
causes. Without knowing the exact condition of
the cliff before the fall, it appears difficult to explain
the cause ; the slip may in reality be merely the
result of the cliff having become gradually too steep
to remain in repose, the same as a slip occurs in an
artificial cutting which has been excavated to too
steep a slope ; the appearances presented hardly,
however, warrant the conclusion that this is the
cause alone.

TROUT FISHING.—A few days since John Bird,
fisherman to the late Captain Woodhouse, of Armathwaite
Castle, Cumberland, caught in the Castle fishery, in the
river Eden, a grey trout, which measured 16 inches in
length, 34 inches in circumference, and weighed 71b. 1510 z.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

SOUTH WALES.

The adjourned half-yearly ordinary meeting of
this company was held yesterday, at the Great
Western Hotel, Paddington—Mr. C. R. M. Talbot,
M.P., chairman of the company, presiding.
The SECRETARY having read the notice eonven-
imp; the meeting, and the report, which appeared in
lhe Sun of Tuesday last,
The CHAIRMAN said, as the report had been in
the hands of the shareholders for some days, he
thought they might dispense with the usual form
of reading it. At the last meeting they had re-
ceived the report of Captain Galton, fixing the
amount which the Great Western Company would
charge for working the line. It was impossible to
exaggerate the difficulty and trouble which this
matter gave Captain Galton. The clear cost of
working the line was greater than was generally
supposed; but this company stood in this position,
that they knew exactly what it would cost to work
the passenger line and the goods line. The traffic
had greatly improved since the 30th of June last,
and in the latter part of the year they would pro-
bably have the largest receipts which they bad yet
had, and he expected the traffic would be greatly
increased by the opening of the Swansea Docks.
With reference to Milford. Haven, the company
were in a similar poition to all companies who
had a sea terminus—they were under the neces-
sity of doing something to induce naval men to
adopt their terminus. Every line which ended 'at
the sea—the Southampton, the Chester, the Holy-
head, and all others—was in that position ; and un-
' less they took steps to induce steamers to start from
their terminus, no steamer would do so. For him-
self, he was of opinion that railway proprietors
should be also the proprietors of steamers. (Hear,
hear.) The company were now running daily
steamers to Waterford, which paid exceedingly
well. (Hear.) As to the Cork line they were not
so fortunate, but the South Wales Company had
lost nothing by that line hitherto, and he had no
doubt that ultimately it would be as good as. the
Waterford line. (Hear.) So much for home lines.
With regard to foreign lines, a. proposal had been
made to this company by the IL azilian Royal Mail
Steam-ship Company for. the establishment of a
monthly service between Milford Haven, Lisbon,
and the Brazils, by means of large and powerful
ocean steamers, which the directors were anxious to
adopt. The directors had an undoubted right to
employ the balances which might be in their hands
for any purposes generally which they might think
proper, and they proposed to accept the offer of the
Brazilian Company, provided they would agree to
start their steamers from the company's terminus.
(Hear, hear.) There was another steam line which
the directors were_ most anxious to see established
at Milford Haven ; that was the line just initiated
by the Great Eastern steamship. No doubt, Wey-
mouth was a fine harbour, and Holyhead was also
a good one ; but he was perfectly certain there was
but one port in Great Britain from which the Great
Eastern could start, and that was Milford Haven.
(Hear.) Neither at Weymouth nor Holyhead was
there room for the Great Eastern, but at:Milford
Haven there was ample room for her to lie. (Hear.)
The proprietors would recollect that at the last
half-yearly meeting Mr. J. Orrell Lever, MT., was
elected a director of the eompany. It was well
known that Mr. Lever was largely connected with
the great shipping interests, and the directors were
led to consider whether in securing his services as
a director they could not also avail themselves of
his influence and active co-operation in the estab-
lishment of steam communication at Milford Haven
in such a manner as to lead to the increase of traffic,
and a permanent improvement of the property of
the company. Having regard to the personal ex-
ertions which would be necessary to secure this end,
the directors had agreed to the following resolu-
tion:—" That, provided the traffic of this railway
shall have so far increased as to admit of the pay-
ment of a dividend upon the ordinary capital, at
the rate of 6 per cent. per annum, on or before the
expiration of three years from the next half-yearly
meeting, the directors hereby agree to recommend
to the proprietors to set apart a sum of £20,000 out
of the receipts from traffic—one moiety of such sum
to be paid to Mr. Lever, and the other moiety to
such persons as shall, in the opinion of the directors
and Mr. Lever, have been instrumental in the im-
provement of the dividend so realised." The duty
of carrying out this arrangement would devolve upon
the joint traffic committee, but the board of directors
thought it right that the proprietors should be in-
formed of it. That was a proposition not usual in
railway reports. All he could say was that it was
of the utmost importance to make that advance to
Mr. Lever, and if he (Mr. Lever) succeeded in do-
ing that which he hoped to do, namely, to double
the dividends of the shareholders, he would be very
much underpaid by that advance. He should con-
clude by moving that the report be now received
and adopted.
_ _ _

In reply to observations made by different share-
holders regarding the advance to Mr. Lever,
The CHAIRMAN said that Mr. Lever would give
his time and services to the interest of the proprie-
tors iu performing the ordinary duties of a director;
but he believed Mr. Lever would be a very great
loser by the transaction, while the proprietors would
have the advantage, not only of his services, but
also of his enormous capital. (Hear.)
The motion that the report be received and
adopted was then agreed to.
The following resolution was also agreed to
That a dividend for the half-year ending the 30th
of June last, at the rate of £2 ss. per cent. per
annum, be now declared on the consolidated stock
and ordinary shares of the company, and that the
same be apportioned among the stock and share-
holders, according to the stock held by them re-
spectively, the said dividend to be payable on and
after the 27th of Sept. to the proprietors who are
registered at the closing of the transfer books."
Mr. PETERS proposed that Mr. J. W. Bowen be
elected an auditor of the company in the room of
Mr. G. W. Brown, who had resigned that office.
Mr. CONEYBEARE moved, as an amendment, the
election of Mr. G. Allen as auditor.
After a few remarks from Mr. Allen,

The CHAIRMAN observed that Mr. Allen was a
very small shareholder in the company, and Mr.
Bowen was a very large one.
A show of hands was then taken, and Mr. Bowen
was elected auditor by a large majority.
Th© usual vote of thanks to the chairman con-
cluded the proceedings.