The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 7, 1859

FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

PLYMOUTH, MAY T.

A terrific railway accident occurred last night
on the Cornwall Railway, in consequence of the
down train, which left Plymouth at 7.25 p.m.,
running off the rails when crossing St. German's
viaduct, about eight miles from this town. The
engine and three carriages were precipitated into
the river, about 50 feet below the viaduct, causing
the death o f the engine-driver, stoker, and one of
the guards. Several passengers also were killed,
but the exact number cannot at present be ascer-
tained.

ANOTHER ACCOUNT.

PLYMOUTH, SATURDAY MORNINO.

Rumours have reached this place of a fatal acci-
dent which occurred last night, about three miles
west of the Royal Albert-bridge, on the Cornwall
line recently opened.
The first and second class train, which left Ply-
mouth at 7.25 p.m. yesterday (Friday) evening,
ran off the rails this side of the Notter Viaduct,
near St. German's. It is supposed that the engine
struck against the end of the viaduct, and was pre-
cipitated immediately into the water and mud
belOw. The train consisted of an engine, a
second-class carriage, a first-class carriage, a
second•class carriage, and a truck. The water
was at the time about seven feet deep. The engine
is buried in the mud. The driver, Biscombe, and
fireman, Hannaford, are killed ; and so is the guard,
Hosken, who was in the leading second class car-
riage, which is under water on its back on the
engine. The first class carriage rests on the leading
second class carriage. One passenger, a woman,
broke her arm. Up• to this time, 10 a.m., it is
unknown whether any passengers were in the
leading carriage or the first class carriage. The
other second elms carriage, through the dexterity
of the guard, Paddon, remained on the line, with
the truck. The height from the water to the rails
is about 45 feet.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday at the
official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in
Downing-street. The Ministers present were the Earl of
Derby, the Right Hon. B. Disraeli, the Lord Chancellor,
the Marquis of Salisbury, the Earl of Hardwicke, Mr. Sec-
retary Estcourt, the Earl of Malmesbury, Gen. Peel, Lord
Stanley, and Sir J. Pakington.

Her Majesty will hold a Chapter of the Order
of the Bath on Thursday next, the 12th inst., at Bucking-
ham Palace, for the investiture of several of the last nomi-
nated members of the Order.

LORD COWLEY.—The Earl Cowley, British Am-
bassador at the Court of France, arrived in London yester-
day morning from Paris. The noble earl, shortly after his
arrival, had a protracted interview with the Earl of
Malmesbury at the Foreign-office, in Downing-street.
Lord Cowley is staying with Lord and Lady Rokeby, in
Portman-square, whyre Lady Cowley has been for some

days past.
THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR.—His Excellency
the Duke of Malakhoff, the French ambassador, accompa
nied by the Duchess, leaves Albert-gate house this evening
for Paris. His Excellency, who presented his letters of re-
call to her Majesty on Thursday last, was engaged yester-
day in paying visits to the different members of the foreign
legations. Baron Malaret will act as Charg6 d'Affaires
until the arrival of the Marshal's successor.

His Excellency the Prussian Minister and the
Countess de Bernstorff entertained a select circle at dinner
last evening, at their residence in Carlton-terrace.

The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough are
entertaining a select circle at their seat, Blenheim House,
Oxfordshire.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Abercorn and
Ladies Hamilton arrived at Chesterfield House yesterday,
from visiting Viscount and Viscountess Valletort, at Moun-
Edgecumbe, Devon. _ _ _

The Marchioness of Salisbury arrived at her
mansion in Arlington-street yesterday, from visiting the
Earl and Countess Delawarr, at Buckhurst Park, Sussex.
The Earl and Countess of Ellesmere will leave
Bridgwater House on Monday, on a visit to the Dowager
Countess of Ellesmere, at Hatchford, Cobham, Surrey.
The Earl and Countess of Galloway have arrived
in town, from the family seat in Scotland.
Lord and Lady Bagot have arrived at Lady
Dover's, Whitehall, from Blithfield, Stafford.
_ _ _ _ _ _

The Right Hoz. Frederick and Mrs. Peel leave
Lady Pees to-day for Hampton Park, Warwickshire.
Mr. H. St. John Mildmay, formerly an officer in
the Kustrian service; will accompany the head-quarters of
the Austrian army, as British Commissioner during the war
in Italy. Col. Cameron will accompany the Sardinian army
in a similar capacity.

Bar silver was in great demand in the beginning
of the week, and 6214. to 6211 was paid for some parcels
for shipment to the Continent ; but it has since become very
flat, and yesterday the limited amount brought by the
West India packet has been sold at 521 d:, which still shows
an advance of td. on the price realised by the preceding
steamer. The dollars were disposed of at 600., showing
no variation.

The advices from Buenos Ayres by the present
mail state that, netwithstanding the repeated reports of
invasion by General Urquiza, circulated during the past
month by the friends of that personage, with the view to
create alarm and promote disturbance, the country re-
mained at peace. The general election of senators and
representatives had just taken place, and had terminated in
favour of the Government. The export trade was steadily
increasing, and the public revenue was also improving.
The ordinary receipts in February showed an excess of
about 19 per cent. over the sum collected in the correspond-
ing month of 1858. This packet has brought the usual re-
mittance on account of interest on the London loan, and,
in addition, a further sum of £5,000, for the purchase of
Three per Cent. Bonds on Government account.
GAS LIGHTED BY ELECTRICITY.—Two " sun-
lights," each containing 75 burners, have just been placed
immediately under the ceiling in the centre of the music-
hall in the Edinburgh University, the ceiling being 40 feet
in width and 50 feet from the floor. These burners have
been successfully lit by an application.of the electric
current The mode of operation may be thus explained :
The galvanic battery is placed in the cellar, and from it
positive and negative wires are carried up the sides of the
hall and along the ceiling to immediately over the burners.
Then it is coiled round the poles of an electro-magnet, to
the keeper of which are attached a couple of wires bearing
a platina wire. On the current of electricity being esta-
blished at the battery, the platina wire, placed within an
inch of the burner, becomes red-hot, and the gas being
simultaneously turned on, the whole 75 lights, which are
closely contiguous, immediately flash into flame. The
electric current having thus answered its purpose, is at
once intercepted at the battery below, and the dear
magnet, ceasing to be a magnet, its keeper, with the wires
attached, falls three inches below the flame, so drawing
down the platina wire, which, were it to remain in position,
would be destroyed by constant exposure to the powerful
flame of the gas.—Manchester Guardian.-

WEST KENT ELECTION.—The defeat of the for-
mer liberal members for West Kent, Messrs. Martin and
Whatman, by, the Tory candidates, Lord Hohnesdale and
Sir E. Filmer, is an event which forcibly points out the
danger of inertness on the part of reformers. At the pre-
vious election the Tories had but one candidate, Mr. H.
Smith, of Camer, near Gravesend, and Messrs. Martin and
Whatman .were returned by a majority of about 500. Since
this period the. Liberals have gained an advantage upon the
register, and yet tho Conservatives managed yesterday to
obtain both seats. We have reason to believe that the
Liberals relied too much upon their former success and the
state of the regisier, whilst the Tories werked unceasingly,
and an immense sum has been expended to oust the Liberal
members. The Blackheath and Lewisham diStricts have
heretofore given a large majority to the Liberals, but yes-
terday the tables were turned, and large numbers of voters
who_formerTy_supported Martin and Whatman polled for
the Tory candidates. The Liberal party, confident of sue:
cess; was surprised at the unexpected turn of the contest;
and it is broadly stated that the excellent breakfasts pro-
vided at Woolwich and other places for the Conservative
voters produced the impression upon the poll.
THE MICROSCOPIC SOCIETY.—This society gate
a soirée on Thursday evening at the Kensington Museum,
which was attended by no less than 3,000 persons. The
microscopic tables were of course the greatest attraction of
the evening; and immense numbers of the instruments were
supplied in four large rooms especially devoted to the pur-
pose. The "objects" were in profusion, and the miniature
photographs, the last novelty produced in the art, were to
be found in large numbers. The whole of the museum
buildings were thrown open toethe visitors ; indeed, if this
had not been the case it would have been impossible to ad-
mit all who came, and the various interestine, models and
manufactures, with which the rooms are full, appeared to
afford the visitors the greatest pleasure.

CRINOLINL --Last night a lecture on this subject
was delivered byMrii. Emilius Holcroft, at Hanover-square
Rooms, to an audience consisting chiefly of ladies. The fair
lecturer began her discourse by noticing some of the more
striking cddities of female attire in England from an early
period, which she illustrated by models, and contended that,
whatever absurdities of dress her sex had adopted from time
to time, they had found ample warrant for them in the ex-
ample set by their lords and masters. She warmly advocated
crinoline as perfectly faithless and unexceptionable, and
strongly condemned the hoop as not only inconvenient and
dangerous, but as the ugliest, most unbecoming, and most
disfiguring fashion ever introduced. To call hoop petticoats
crinoline, she observed, was to use one of the great misno-
mers of the day, for the latter was as thoroughly a recognised
material as calico, dimity, linsey, or any other substance of
which ladies' skirts were made. It consisted of woven horse-
hair, or woven horse-hair and cotton combined, and had
been used foe many years for bonnets and other purposes.
It had, therefore, a full right to have a distinctive name of
its own, and "crinoline" was no fancy term, but was one
deriving its origin from the Latin word crinis—a band
made of horsehair—and the French word crinier, a worker
or dealer in horsehair. The lecturer next pointed out some
of the defects and disadvantages of hoop petticoats, whether
made of cane, whalebone, or fithel, mentioning that a lady
wearing one would, on leaving her home, present a beautiful
circle, and yet might, in consequence of a crush sustained
in the streets, in an omnibus, or in a theatre, return in the
shape of an irregular triangle, or a lop-sided octagon. On
the other hand, crinoline was light, strong, expansive, and
compressible, and, though it might not form an unbroken
circle, it fell naturally into folds round the figure like, the
branches of a graceful willow. Mrs. Holcroft, who is a very
ladylike and prepossessing person, treated the subject with
much vivacity, humour, and delicaey, and frequently elicited
applause from her hearers.

LATEST NEWS.

THE WAR IN ITALY.
The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Renter's office :

TURIN, MAY 6.
The following official bulletin of the army has
been published to-day :

" The Austrians have increased their forces at
Vercelli, and have constructed there defensive
works. They have also occupied Trino and
Pobietto. Their vanguard is at Tronzano. During
last night the enemy withdrew from Tortona.
Yesterday evening they burnt seven arches of the
bridge over the Scrivia. At Piacenza they have
ordered the demolition of houses erected upon the
fortifications."

A company of troops has been despatched to
capture the war material, which the enemy had
transported to the western side of the Sesia, for the
purpose of being conveyed to Candia and Terra-
nova.

The body of the enemy's army, which yesterday
occupied Trino and Pobietto, has withdrawn to
Vercelli.

The official Pieclnzontese Gazette publishes an
announcement laying an embargo on. Austrian
vessels in Sardinian ports, but neutral property on
board is to be respected.

PARIS, MAY 7.

The Moniteur of this morning contains a decree
appointing Marshal Vaillant and Count Walewski
members of the Privy Council.
Another decree makes the following fresh ap-
pointrsepts :—M. de Royer, hitherto Minister of
Justice, to be Senator and first Vice-President of
the Senate; M. Delangle, hitherto Minister of the
Interior, to be
_Minister of Justice ; Gen. Randon,
to be Minister of War ; the Duke of Padoue, to be
Minister of the Interior ; Marshal Valliant, hitherto
Minister of War, to be Major-General of the Army
of Italy.

A note in the 31oniteur denies the correctness of
the statement that France intends to place an army
on the Rhine. The garrisons of the frontier towns
have not been increased by a single regiment. If
the Emperor has given to an illustrious marshal
the title of Commander cf the Army of Observation,
it was to indicate that, in case our frontiers should
be threatened, all the garrisons would form one
army under the command of the Duke of Malakoff.
The Moniteur also states that Lord Cowley has
gone to London on family matters, but will return
to Paris on Sunday or Monday.

HAMBURG, MAY 6.

England is said to have officially notified that
she will not be able to protect commercial vessels
in case of war between Germany and France.

TRIESTE, MAY 5.

The committee of management of the commercial
bank of Trieste has called together an extraordinary
general meeting of the shareholders for the Bth of
June to discuss the advisability of deferring for the
present the further payment of dividends.

TRIESTE, MAY 7.
The Austrian Lloyd's steamer just arrived brings
the following advices :
" CONSTANTINOPLE, APRIL 30.

The Porte has called in 50,000 Redifs. Omer
Pasha has already quitted Bagdad en route for
Constannople."

BERLIN, MAY 7.

Berlin is plunged in sorrow by the melancholy
news that the Nestor of German science, the
immortal Alexander von Humboldt, died yester-
day at 3 p.m.

ATHENS, APRIL 30.
The Grand Duke Constantine of Russia arrived
here on the 26th ult.

FRANCE.

PARIS, MAY

The Emperor and impress were present yester-
day at a solemn mass in the Chapel of the Tuileries
in memory of the 38th anniversary of the death of
Napoleon I.
In consequence of the present political situation
the annual gathering of old soldiers at the foot of
the statue of Napoleon I. in the Place Vendome was
unusually numerous yesterday. At 10 in the morn-
ing a body of the veterans of the armies of the Re-
public and the Empire marched round the column
in procession, and deposited crowns of inimortelles
on the railings. They afterwards proceeded to the
Hotel des Invalides, where the crowd of persons
assembled was so great that it was found necessary
to close the gates, and only admit the grand digni-
taries and the old officers and soldiers of the first
Empire who were in uniform. The chapel was
thronged, and in the reserved seats were a number
of senators, deputies, councillors of State, and other
high personages, as well as officers of the army and
of the National Guard.

The exact day of the Emperor's departure is not
known, even if it be yet fixed. Prince Napoleon's
baggage is packing up, and people say his Highness
leaves on Sunday, others not till the 20th, but pro-
bably before the Emperor. It is said among naval
people that Admiral Bouet Villaumez had been ap-
pointed to the command of a fleet for landing troops
and besieging towns on the coast of Italy; but that
the command has been suppressed, and the fleet not
formed. The principal Secretary to the Minister of
Marine is appointed Commissary-General of Marine
at Toulon.

All the officers in the French Imperial navy on
leave of absence, to the rank of commander included,
have been recalled, and all the Marines whose
period of service is about to expire are to remain
with their regiments.

There have been so many orders given to the
manufacturers of St. Etienne for rifled cannon
that the workmen are forced to remain part of the
night at work.
A Turin letter of the 2d states :—" If the Aus-
trians come on the side of Pavia or Piacenza, the
King will be the first to meet the invaders ; but if
Novara, it will be Garibaldi. The Austrians keep
advancing, and massing their troops round Pavia.
When they occupied Novara, they gave orders to
the municipality to drain off the water with which
the country had been flooded by cutting the embank. 4
ments of the rivers. The same orders were given at
Mortara and Vigevano, underthreat of burning the
towns. If the Austrians are not masking their move-
ments, it would appear that they intend to make
an attempt on Valentia, and risk a general battle
there, or else take the place, and thus get between
Casale and Alessandria. Seeing the position of the
French army, however, and the rather uneven
nature of the country, it is likely enough that
Marshal Gyulai invades Piedmont on all sides with
a view of dividing the enemy's army, and beating
them, if he can, in detail ; but, in any case, to
weaken the resistance on the point which he has
chosen as the great objeet of the war—Alessandria.
That is wihy he has occupied Frassinetto, and has
concentrated great masses of troops on the left bank
of the Po."

The following appears in a Vienna letter of the
Ist, published in the Presse : --
"The utmost secrecy prevails regarding our mili-
tary movements. I can assure you, however, that
measures have been taken to raise the army in Italy
to 300,000 men (at present it is 200,000 strong), and,
moreover, to concentrate an army of 120,000 men in
Gallicia, to oppose the Russians. This is exclusive of
our three federal contingents, which may be set down
at 110,000 men, and which, in all probability, will be
sent to the Rhine. In our political circles there is
a growing conviction that Russia will take the
earliest opportunity to bring about the triumph of
nationalities in the East, exactly what France is
now attempting in favour of Italy. The union of
all Sclavonian races is a scheme which Russia has
long cherished. We have some grounds for these
apprehensions ; the military preparations in Servia,
in the Principalities, and in Montenegro, and the
accumulation of a war materiel, which is in obvious
disproportion with the resources of those countries.
cannot but be set down as meaning something,
Another indication that something is brewing mad

be found in the fact that a constant correspondence
is kept up between Milosch, Couza, and Danilo,
and in the presence of Prince Michael, the son of
Milosch, in Paris."

A Russian squadron is expected at Cherbourg on
its way to the Mediterranean, to watch the course
of events.

The Patrie of this evening publishes a very curi-
ous document, a letter written by the Emperor
while a prisoner at Ham in 1844. It is as follows :

" Nothing can contribute to embitter certain questions,
to aggravate difficulties, and give a wrong bias to men's
minds than a bastard policy without dignity or consistency,
that does not know what it wishes, because it is not bold
enough to have a will of its own. To establish peace on a
sound basis is a very different thing from keeping up
a fictitious tranquillity for a few years ; to do so it is
requisite to endeavour to bring about a cessation of
hatred between nations, by favouring the tendencies and
interests of each people; it is requisite to create an
equitable equilibrium for each of the great Powers ;
it is requisite, in a word, to follow the policy of Henri
Quatro, and not the disastrous course pursued by the Stuarts
and Louis Quinze. Open Sully's'Memoirs,'' and see
what were the great ideas of the man who had pacified
France and founded religious liberty. To establish on a
solid basis the equilibrium of Europe, Henri Quatre thought
it requisite that all the nations composing the great European
family should be equal in power, and that no nation should
be able to preponderate over another. He foresaw that for
peoples as for individuals equality alone could be the source
of j ustice. Henri IV. had brought round the greater part of
Europe to his own views on this point, and when the
dagger of the assassin brought his life to a termination, he
. was assembling a mighty army coinposed of European con-
tingents, having in view not barren conquest, but universal
peace, to attain which it was necessary to compel Spain
(the House of Austria) to recognise the equality and inde-
pendence lof nations, and he would have established an
areopagus, intended to decide by argument, and not by
brute force, the quarrels between nations. Henri Quatre,
had he lived, might have been named the Hero of Peace.
"Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."

The Patrie adds that that grand scheme which
Henri Quatre was unable to accomplish was the
independence of Italy, and that to facilitate`. the
carrying out of his plans he had contracted an
alliance with the Duke of Savoy, who gave him
the key of the Alps. It is this scheme, adds the
Patrie, which the Emperor Napoleon 111. resumes
to-day.
There are reports of important Ministerial modi-
fications. 111-natured people whisper that Marshal
Vaillant (tho Minister of War) has had a serious
difficulty with the Emperor—how far this may be
true is impossible to say.
BOURSE, May 6.—The market has been steady,
but with a very limited amount of business doing,
and it is probable that no great variation will take
place in Rente until the end of the subscription to
the loan. Threes have been done 60f. 95c. and 61f. ;
Mobilier, 507 f. 50e. and 510 f. ; Austrian, 330 f.
to 332 f. 50c.; Lombardo-Venetian, 415 f. ; Orleans,
I,loof. 50e. to 1,105 f. ; Lyons, 717 f. 50c., and 722 f.
50c. ; Northern, 820 f. ' • Eastern, 532 f. 50c., and
535 f. ; Southern, 400 f. The following were the last
quotations :

4k per Cents. BB I Credit Foncier.... COO
Do. end month _ 87 76 Belgian 41- B7l
3 per Cents 6l Piedmontese (5) .. 73
Do. end month 6O 95 Roman 77
Bank Shares. 2550 Austrian —
Credit Mobilier .. 620 Spanish Threes
Do. Account ..... 515 Home Debt —