The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-03 00:00:00

THE ATLANTICTELEGRAPH. THE PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION OF ENGLAND AND WALES.
4.
......._._
The future progress of submarine telegraphy may CLAIMS OF THE COUNTIES.
be said to depend in a great measure upon the re- We present our readers to-day with some brief Such a scale w.e had indeed arranged, but its mu], twelve cm anti es - a difference, too, which has
suits which will be achieved by the company which
has laid the present defunct wire between England tables, which we are confident will do more to guide tiplicity of figures could only annoy the great ma- doubled sine :o 7831 !"
We have therefore The secor el table shows, by a moment's and America. If the cable is capable of being re• them towards an impartial decision on the great jority of readers. calculated
inspec-
stored to such a condition as will permit the trans-
point in dispute between rival schemes of Reform the results, in a form 8o simple that they will re- Lion, the de dais ofpopulation, and of property as re-
mission of signals, all, of course, will go well. If,
On the other hand, as is most probable, the wire is than any they have yet seen. We would even quire but small patience, indeed, from those who preselited b y the income tax assessment, and the
are at all interested in forming an impartial con- average bet Steen the two. If anything can enable
found to be useless, and the company fail to obtain advise them to preserve these tables within easy
a guarantee for the capital required for a new cable
access,as a sure and ready means of testing the fair- elusion, us to arrive .at a conclusion that should satisfy an
from the Government, then the advocates of long
lines of submarine communication are likely to be ness of the different proposals. The Ballot will, in of We have arranged our tables so as to illustrate the impartial Rid, this table will furnish the materials
checked in their enterprises until such time as the course, be one clear issue between the two great claims of both the parties in the impending for doing it„ Here are seen at once what members
heavy loss entailed by the present unsuccessful
artier .
gument has,_ however, settled that struggle. Our readers will see at a glance are allotted to each class by the Reform Act, by
attempt has been forgotten in the mercantile world. I) • Ar
The chances of restoring the line to a healthy con- question ; and not a single public meeting has been that we have compared the twelve most populous Mr. BEIGE sr, and by the Times. One amusing
dition, as regards the transmission of messages,
called, or could be called, not favourable to it by and busy counties of England and Wales with all result-a si triking one, too-is, that, taking PRO-
appear to be very small indeed; in fact, the tests
for faults give such results as almost to lead to the immense majorities. On this question mystery the others. An obvious distinction between the PERTY alone( as the basis of representation, it
belief that continuity has ceased and the wire is is impossible. It is simply-" Shall the coercing counties is, DENSITY of population, Now, we find exactly reverses the allotment given us by the
completely parted. Nevertheless, in spite of this classes at elections retain the coercing power or that twelve counties, reckoning the West Riding Times in it a competition for fairness' with Mr.
.
most discouraging state of things, !there are not but imperfectly Yorkshire as one, haveall apopulationwhich
wanting able men who express themselves confident not ?" The subject is yet under- of
that the wire is still capable of being restored to stood-the one, therefore, on which the ruling gives less than two acres to each person-that the thickly-popui;lated counties, and 283 to its favourite
good working order. Of these various schemes and classes and the journals in their interest, attempt remainder all give more than two acres to each thinly-people( I counties. The proportions required
propositions only two deserve notice. The first is
made by a gentleman of skill and experience, who to mystify us is, the re-distribution of the seats individual. The population also of the first class of by the income tax give 283 to the populous coun-
proposes to better the earth connections of the wire, taken from boroughs wholly or partially disfran. counties increases at more tb an double the rate of that ties and 217 to the others !
which at Valentia were always bad, and which now
Two classesthe on
chised.
fight for them. One, the of the agricultural counties. They are, in fact, the The last co lumps in this table afford l
from oxidisation of the plates, are worse than ever. y
By enlarging to a considerable degree the present LANDED interest-an interest very small in its life and soul of the kingdom. means of deciding on the proportion of members
surface of earth plates, and saturating the earth numbers, and wholly distinct from-indeed, in Our first table, therefore, gives the population fairly belonging to each class of counties, quite
round them with a solution of sulphate of copper,
there is no doubt that the condition of the wire may many respects in antagonism with-the AGRictri, of each of the 12 counties at the time of the old apart from me re party considerations.
be much improved. His plan is next to charge the VIRAL interest ; and the COMMERCIAL interest. Reform Bill, at the time of the last census, and their The third brief table speaks for itself ; but what
wire itself till in a state of electrical equilibrium, - His last class, properly, includes the farmers estimated population for the present year; that of does it tell us. P Unquestionably that Mr. BRIGHT
and so keep it in circuit with a battery, and, on the
make-and-break principle, disturb the electricity in and their labourers. Theoretically, they were the other counties is given in the total only. This has been moderate indeed in his demands for the
the wire and transmit the signal. This gentleman always food manufacturers ; and they are startling fact results, that in 1831 the twelve busy counties of peogress, increase, and wealth. Accord-
has made several experiments in the presence of the -
daily assuming in their modes of production counties had more than a quarter of a million less ing to the scheme of the Member for Birmingham,
Lord Lieutenant, in Phcenix-park, upon an uninsu-
lated wire, upwards of 100 yards in length, the appearance of manufacturers. Look at them inhabitants than the other forty counties,-but every member for the sparsely-populated counties
in water, and through which signals were freely sent. how we will, the land is but the raw material of that in 1851 they surpassed the forty in population would still represent 11,623 persons, £85,160 income
This, however, is by no means a new discovery, as
their manufacture, and the farmers and proprietors by upwards of a million, and surpass them this tax, and £797 assessed taxes, LESS than a member
some time since messages were sent across the Ser-
pentine under water by means of a perfectly unin- of land have no interests in common beyond those year by more than one million eight hundred thou- for one of the
.populous counties / !
tmlated wire. But during the experiment in Phcenix which exist between the American growers of cot- sand inhabitants ! All this time they have had but We defer additional remarks for the present,
Park the experimenter not only sent messages
ton and spinners and weavers the of it at Man- the same number of Members, and that number is, merely observing that, in two respects, these tables through the core of the wire, but through the con-
ductor and the outside metal covering of the rope, chester. Give the farmers political independence, it will be seen,l62 Members fewer than their stand- are favourable to the members for thinly-peopled
simultaneously. From the results of these expert- protect them, as we propose to do, by the Ballot still neighbours ! To this table we have added counties. First, In some manufacturing counties,
meats the inventor thinks that, even in case of the
from those who can deprive them of their raw ma- a column showing the proportion of assessed taxes like Glamorganshire, the development, though
cooper conductor in the Atlantic cable being severed,
he could still transmit signals along the outer cover- terial, the land ; and they and the borough voters paid by the Twelve and the Forty counties respec- rapid, has not brought
the population quite up to
ink wires, of spiral though this hope is not enter- will row in the same boat. tively. It will be seen that the former pay nearly the two persons per acre, at which we have drawn
tamed either by eminent electricians or even by the
officers of the company. Another proposition is to For these and other reasons we have always £lOO,OOO more than the others, and are, therefore, the line. Secondly, We have placed the unappro-
underrun the wire till the most serious faults on thought that the representation of the kingdom so far as this test, as well as that of population prided members in the plans of Mr. BRIGHT and
the English and Newfoundland side have been raised
could be best considered
in counties. We would goes, entitled to more members. Indeed, as things the Times' with the populous counties. Were these
and repaired. Such a plan, however, would not
only be most expensive but hazardous in the ex- ascertain, by the tests of population and property, now stand, each member in the agricultural coun- members either distributed amongst the 40 counties, •,
treme, as, in case of the cable parting under the what number of members each county ought to ties represents less than half the taxes represented or given to Scotland or Ireland, the case against
strain of raising in deep water, even the value which
it now undoubtedly possesses as a medium for the have, and then adjust, on the same principle, the by the members for the busy counties! While, the latter class of counties would be so much
return current, in case of a new wire being laid, proportions which should be returned by the in regard to population, the difference, it will be stronger.
would be utterly and totally lost. A costly attempt, and the
boroughs
likely to be attended with such injurious results, is
therefore rather to be deprecated than regarded as 1.-The Parliamentary Representation of England and Wales, divided into Two Groups of Counties, according to Density of population and Annual 1
ameans by which the state of the cable may be im- rate of increase. 7
proved. In the meantime, as we have said, the con- 1. Eleven Counties, and the West Riding of York, in all of which the area gives less than 2 acres to a person (1851 census). The rate at which the
dition of the wire is as bad as it can possibly be. population increases is 1.96 per annum.
-About the middle of last October very powerful 2. Forty Counties and the North and East Ridings of York, in all of which the area will give more than two acres to a person (1851 census). The rate
batteries were put in circuit at the Newfoundland at which the population increases is 0.967 per annum.
station, in order to force the signal, if possible, past 3. A column is added for the Assessed Taxes paid, showing the relative number of seats to which the two groups of Counties are respectively entitled. ]
the fault on the English side. This dangerous ex- 1
pedient, however, was attended with very slight I
Reform Reform Population. Reform Assessed Taxes and Seats
Population. I
success, the only and the last signal which reached -
Counties. Population. Act. Act. 1859. Act.in
proportion to Taxes, Counties.
1851.
the English shore being. the words, " Daniell's in 1831. Seats. Seats. (Estimated.) Seats. 1856. 1
circuit." Almost immediately after this a large and - _____ 1
most important fault was discovered at the New- 1 Chester
2 Durham 239,256 10 390,997 10 4,51,054 10 22,830 6 Durham 2 I
foundland end, apparently about 400 miles from 3 Gloucester
land, and caused beyond all doubt by the use of the 4 Kent
powerful batteries referred to. The tests to discover 6 Lancashire 1,336,8.54 26 2,031,236 26 2,343,233 26 120,953 32 Lancashire 5 (
3
6 Middlesex
the exact distance of this fault from land have given 1
7 Nottingham
the most uncertain and contradictory results. At
8 Stafford
ono time the injury has appeared within 300 miles, 9 Surrey.
and the tests for several days has given the dis- 10 Warwick
tance as exactly 371. After that, however, the 11 Worcester
distance fluctuated between 400 and 900 miles, 12 West Riding (York) 984,609 18 1,325,495 18 1,529,091 18 71,559 19 West Riding (York) 12
settling down finally at about 750 from land. This -
Total
fault is supposed to be even of a more serious nature Forty Counties, and
tban that on the English coast. About a month N. &E. Riding (Yk.) 7,095,860 331 8,448,845 331 9,085,887- 331 912,629 237 ~
since the words " Henly" and " You understand" - -
were received at the station at Newfoundland, and Fifty-two Counties... 13,996,797 500 17,927,609 500 20,020,589 500 £1,926,550 500 I .
for a time revived the hopes of those in charge at
that side of the Atlantic that successful means had SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 1"
1831. 1851. 1859. £
been found to restore the cable to working order. A D
Average popu
lation er seat in 12 counties of first ou 40 240 56,087 64,701 Assessed taxes per seat in 12 counties of first group
Unfortunately, a comparison of dates showed that Do. do. Pm 40 counties gr /2" ' of second table .. 21,440 25,525 27,449 Do. in 40 counties
on the day these words reached Newfoundland the - E
station at Valentia was locked up and deserted, and Deficiency per seat in the 40 thinly-populated counties.... 18,800 persons. 30,062 persons. 37,252 persons. Deficiency per seat in the 40 thinly-populated counties 3,242 N
the signals, therefore, were merely due to the con-
atant and perplexing vagaries of earth currents. The estimated population for 1859 is obtained by reckoning the increase to have taken place at the same rate as that at which it increased between C
The fault on the English side remains in just the the census of 1831 and the census of 1851. L
--
same state and position as when it was first disco- The amount of assessed taxes paid is taken from the return moved for by Mr. J. D. Smith, July 29, 1858. B
vered at the beginning of September last, about
270 miles from land. This distance, 'calculating IL-THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND AND WALES IN TWO GROUPS.
the amount of slack wire payed out during the 1. Twelve Counties, in all of which the area gives less than two acres to a person. Si
last days of the submerging operation, would place 2. Forty counties, in all of which tha area gives more than two acres to a person.
the fault at about 220 statute miles from shore, or 3. Columns containing the present number of seats-the number proposed by Mr. Bright, and the number proposed by the Times plan, Jan. 28, 1859.
somewhere upon the now well-known mountain 4. The number of seats to which these counties are entitled, calculated upon population and property, and upon an average of both-for 1851 and for
range which divides the deeps of the Atlantic from 1859, in separate tables :- -
the comparatively shallow waters of the Irish
coast. The logs and diaries kept by those on board Ref 'm .50 Times' Calculated upon Calculated upon N
Income Tax Act :If: si Plan, Population, Ave- 1859' Ave- K
the Agamemnon during her las- successful cruise Counties. Assessment, Seats, ar,s-1 Jan. 1851 Pro- Popu- rage of Population Pro- Popu- rage of Counties.
show that this range was crossed between 4 and 5 1857. 1832. 4 28. Census. perty. lation. both. (Estimated.) perty. lation. both. Di
CI
o'clock on the afternoon of the 3d August, or more -
a Chester £2,201,813
10 12 13 455,725 10 12 11 525,724 10 12 11 Chester
1 N
than an hour before the time when it expected 2 Durham 1,675,049 10 12 10 390,997 7 H 9 451,054 7 11 9 Durham 2 In
the ship would arrive upon it. It was intended 3 Gloucester 2,027,066 13 14 12 458,80.5 9 13 11 529,277 9 13 11 Gloucester 3
by Sir Chas. Bright to allow a great quantity of 4 Kent
slack cable to
run while crossing this ridge, in 5 Lancashire
6 Middlesex
24,878,678 26 46 40
14 34 30 2,031,236 63 57 60
1,886,576 108 52 80 2,343,233
2,176,354 63 59 61 Lancashire
108 54 81 Middlesex
6 Li
order that there might be amply sufficient to reach 7 Nottingham - 311,964 7 9 8 Nottingham
the bottom of all inequalities which might exist 8 Stafford
there undiscovered by the sounding line. But, 9 Surrey
'through the defective and most uncertain method 10 Warwick
of ascertaining the speed of a ship at present in 11 Worcester
vogue in the Royal Navy , the Agamemnon through- 12 West Riding (York)... 4,194,574ppr0priat 18 .
7 . 24 20 1,325,495 19 37 28 1,529,091 18 38 28 West Riding (York) l2 K
Not aed* 11 NS
out the whole cruise steamed at a greater rate than '
- - -..... as registered by the log line. Owing to this cir- Twelve Counties..... 169 253 273 278 £64,864,195
228 217 9,478,764 283 263 273 10,934,702 ----
Twelve Counties. - Ci
-w
cumstance the range of high submarine land was Forty Counties 49,834,136 331 250 283 8,448,845 217 237 227 9,085,887 217 227 222 Forty Counties. 01
reached at least an hour before the expected --i- Ci
- _
- - -
time, the first intimation given to those on board 1 £114,698,331 500 478 1500 t 17,927,609 500 500 500 20,020,589 500 500 l 500 In
5....:....... - -.....1.1 a • 41,,, ...sc.,: ni,...,,.1 ~1...,.:.... Ca

The future progress of submarine telegraphy may
be said to depend in a great measure upon the re-
sults which will be achieved by the company which
has laid the present defunct wire between England
and America. If the cable is capable of being re-
stored to such a condition as will permit the trans-
mission of signals, all, of course, will go well. If,
OD the other hand, as is most probable, the wire is
found to be useless, and the company fail to obtain
a guarantee for the capital required for a new cable
from the Government, then the advocates of long
lines of submarine communication are likely to be
checked in their enterprises until such time as the
heavy loss entailed by the present unsuccessful
attempt has been forgotten in the mercantile world.
The chances of restoring the line to a healthy con-
dition, as regards the transmission of messages,
appear to be very small indeed; in fact, the tests
for faults give such results as almost to lead to the
belief that continuity has ceased and the wire is
completely parted. Nevertheless, in spite of this
most discouraging state of things, !there are not
wanting able men who express themselves confident
that the wire is still capable of being restored to
good working order. Of these various schemes and
propositions only two deserve notice. The first is
made by a gentleman of skill and experience, who
proposes to better the earth connections of the wire,
which at Valentia were always bad, and which now
from oxidisation of the plates, are worse than ever.
By enlarging to a considerable degree the present
surface of earth plates, and saturating the earth
round them with a solution of sulphate of copper,
there is no doubt that the condition of the wire may
be much improved. His plan is next to charge the
wire itself till in a state of electrical equilibrium,
and so keep it in circuit with a battery, and, on the
make-and-break principle, disturb the electricity in
the wire and transmit the signal. This gentleman
has made several experiments in the presence of the
lord Lieutenant, in Phoenix-park, upon an uninsu-
lated wire, upwards of 100 yards in length, immersed
in water, and through which signals were freely sent.
This, however, is by no means a new discovery, as
some time since messages were sent across the Ser-
pentine under water by means of a perfectly unin-
sillated wire. But during the experiment in Phoenix
Park the experimenter not only sent messages
through the core of the wire, but through the con-
ductor and the outside metal covering of the rope,
simultaneously. From the results of these experi-
ments the inventor thinks that, even in case of the
cooper conductor in the Atlantic cable being severed,
he could still transmit signals along the outer cover-
in 0. of spiral wires, though this hope is not enter-
tamed either by eminent electricians or even by the
officers of the company. Another proposition is to
underrun the wire till the most serious faults on
the English and Newfoundland side have been raised
and repaired. Such a plan, however, would not
only be most expensive but hazardous in the ex-
treme, as, in case of the cable parting under the
strain of raising in deep water, even the value which
it now undoubtedly possesses as a medium for the
return current, in case of a new wire being laid,
would be utterly and totally lost. A costly attempt,
likely to be attended with such injurious results, is
therefore rather to be deprecated than regarded as
ameans by which the state of the cable may be im-
proved. In the meantime, as we have said, the con-
dition of the wire is as bad as it can possibly be.
-About the middle of last October very powerful
batteries were put in circuit at the Newfoundland
station, in order to force the signal, if possible, past
the fault on the English side. This dangerous ex-
pedient, however, was attended with very slight
success, the only and the last signal which reached
the English shore bein the words, " Daniell's in
circuit." Almost immediately after this a large and
most important fault was discovered at the New-
foundland end, apparently about 400 miles from
land, and caused beyond all doubt by the use of the
powerful batteries referred to. The tests to discover
the exact distance of this fault from land have given
the most uncertain and contradictory results. At
ono time the injury has appeared within 300 miles,
and the tests for several days has given the dis-
tance as exactly 371. After that, however, the
distance fluctuated between 400 and 900 miles,
settling down finally at about 750 from land. This
fault is supposed to be even of a more serious nature
than that on the English coast. About a month
since the words " Henly" and " You understand"
were received at the station at Newfoundland, and
for a time revived the hopes of those in charge at
that side of the Atlantic that successful means had
been found to restore the cable to working order.
Unfortunately, a comparison of dates showed that
on the day these words reached Newfoundland the
station at Valentia was locked up and deserted, and
the signals, therefore, were merely due to the con-
stant and perplexing vagaries of earth currents.
The fault on the English side remains in just the
same state and position as when it was first disco-
vered at the beginning of September last, about
270 miles from land. This distance, 'calculating
the amount of slack wire payed out during the
last days of the submerging operation, would place
the fault at about 220 statute miles from shore, or
somewhere upon the now well-known mountain
range which divides the deeps of the Atlantic from
the comparatively shallow waters of the Irish
coast. The logs and diaries kept by those on board
the Agamemnon during her las- successful cruise
show that this range was crossed between 4 and 5
o'clock on the afternoon of the 3d August, or more
than an hour before the time when it expected
the ship would arrive upon it. It was intended
by Sir Chas. Bright to allow a great quantity of
slack cable to rim while crossing this ridge, in
order that there might be amply sufficient to reach
the bottom of all inequalities which might exist
there undiscovered by the sounding line. But,
'through the defective and most uncertain method
of ascertaining the speed of a ship at present in
'vogue in the Royal Navy , the Agamemnon through-
out the whole cruise steamed at a greater rate than
-was registered by the log line. Owing to this cir-
cumstance the range of high submarine land was
reached at least an hour before the expected
time, the first intimation given to those on board
being a sudden decrease in the registered strain
-upon the dynamometer and an equally rapid
falling off in the speed of the cable's paying out,
the Agamemnon all the time maintaining the
same rate registered by the log. Sir Charles
Bright's attention was called to the circumstance,
and he, seeing that the shallow water was approach-
ing, or had actually been reached, at once ordered
Abe weights to be taken off the brakes, and allowed
a quantity of slack cable to go overboard by the
'run. The doubt, however, is now whether the
falling off in the strain and speed of the cable was
observable at all till the top of the ridge had been
gained, and, if this was the case, it is more than
probable that the cable remained suspended upon
some projecting points of the steep till its insula-
tion was gradually injured and destroyed by its
Own weight.
of course, is only a conjecture,
but it is quite borne
the fault is situated exactlyun the
.distance at which
arrival of the Agamemnon atlei9ine.diding with the
range is often mentioned as a sloisligghe. bank,
shsteep
upon what ground it is so called lint is hardan though
upon
for but two soundings were taken upon
the bottom and another at the top, it—oneand these,at
though only eight miles apart, show a difference'n
elevation of 7,300 feet ! Of the nature of the inter-
vening vening space no one can, of course, form eany-
thing but conjectures, and whether the sides of this
submarine mountain are broken by ravines and
precipitous cliffs, in the same way as the sides f
mountains on land, nothing but a close and accurate
series of soundings will ever determine.
The Atlantic Company, in case all methods to
resuscitate the cable fail, have applied to Govern-
ment for a guarantee of 41 per cent. on a fresh
capital of £500,000. This application is based not
alone on the ground of State necessity for such a
means of instant communication with our North
.American provinces, but also on the precedent of
the Treasury hivingalready given guarantees to
other submarine lines,
especially to the Red Sea
Company, whose capital of £BOO,OOO is guaranteed
to the same amount. If the principle of a guarantee
for a submarine line to India is admitted, it appears
difficult to see how it can be withheld from a line to
America, for none can foretell the hour when such
events may occur as may render telegraphic com-
munication with Canada not only desirable, but of
vital importance to the interests and well-being of
the nation. During even the brief time that the
Atlantic telegraph remained in use ose message
alone, countermanding the embarkation of the 39th
and 62d Regiments for India, probably saved this
e fintrY Some £50,000 sterling. If the immense
importance of such a means of communication was
thus shown in the course of a single fortnight,
what results
line is laid as can not be anticipated when such a
remain in work be implicitly depended upon to
whirch t years ? From the additional
information
.now bees gained as to the
best means of submerging
exists but that, in the deep-sea cables, no doubt
a fresh wire being
laid, contractors could abSee fof
to undertake to
perform the work suceessfullpynnd
for %given sum, in
short, to insure both compan
Government
against loss. No proposition, howeveryehaannee
~ from any
a in the share
Atlantic Company has much
market without the sanction of Government
guarantee.

Reform
Seats. Act. in proportion to Taxes, Reform Population. Reform Assessed Taxes, and Seats
Population. Population.
Act. Act. 1859. Counties.
Counties. 1831. 1851.
Seats.lBs6.
Seats. (Estimated.)
1 Chester
2 Durham 239,256 10 390,997 10 451,054 10 22,830 6 Durham 2
3 Gloucester
4 Kent
5 Lancashire 1,336,854 26 2,031,236 26 2,343,233 26 120,953 32 Lancashire 5
6 Middlesex
7 Nottingham
8 Stafford
9 Surrey.
10 Warwick
11 Worcester
12 West Riding (York) 984,609 18 1,325,495 18 1,529,091 18 71,559 19 West Riding (York) 12
- -
-
Total
Forty Counties, and
N. &E. Riding (Yk.) 7,095,860 331 8,448,845 331 9,085,887- 331 912,629 237
Fifty-two Counties... 13,996,797 500 17,927,609 500 20,020,589 500 £1,926,550 500 -
SUMMARY OF RESULTS.
1831. 1851. 1859. £
Average population per seat in 12 counties of first group.. 40,240 56,087 64,701 I
Assessed taxes per seat in 12 counties of first group
Do. do. m4O counties of second table .. 21,440 25,525 27,449 Do. in 40 counties

* Some seats were left unappropriated by Mr. Bright, and the Times also. We have supposed them to be added to the twelve counties) to make the totals correct.
t Mr. Bright's plan gives 17 seats to Scotland and 5 to Ireland, making up 500.
lll.—Three Tables showing the Numbor of Seats allotted respectively by the Reform Bill of 1832, by Mr. Bright's Plan, and by the Times Plan,
January 28, 1859, to the population and property of England and Wales, in Two Groups of Counties, twelve densely populated, and forty thinly
populated:—

Reform Act seats Reform Act seats 'Deficiency in the forty counties
for the Twelve Per Seat. for the forty Per Seat. per seat.
Counties. Counties. •
. . _
Population, 1859
Income Tax, 1857
Assessed Taxes, 1856
I £5,999 ,
£2,757 £3,242 Assessed Taxes, 1856

Times' Plan, Jan. 28, 1859, including in First Group the 11 unappropriated Seats.
Population, 1859
Income Tax, 1857
Assessed Taxes, 1856
,

Mr. Bright's Plan, including in First Group the 7 unappropriated Seats.
Population, 1859
250 / 36,343 persons 11,626 persons Population, 1859
Income Tax, 1857
£797 Assessed Taxes, 1856
Assessed Taxes, 1856

MAMA-HILL COLLEGIATE SCHOOL.

A FRENCII SOLDIER DESERTING TO

TILE _RUSSIANS.

of you afterwards ? " " I remained a prisoner
in the town." " After some time you had a desire
to return to France, and you came back as
stoker in the Don steamer. Did you know the fate
that awaited you as a deserter ?" " Yes." "It was
in October last that you arrived at Marseilles ?"
" Yes." "On the Bth of November last you got
into a quarrel with several Russian sailors in a
public-house at La Jolliette, and were arrested by
a police-officer ?" " Yes, and I told him that I was
a deserter." " Did you not tell him that you had
received 30f. or 40f. from General Gortschakoff for
the information you gave him ?" "No ; what I said
was that on Ist Jan., 1858, I, as a deserter, received
900 f. from the Russian Government; and that pre-
viously I had 20 kopecks (about 16 sous) a day."
" You said that you had nothing to fear from the
French authorities, as you had become a Russian
subject." "I said that I had become a Russian, but
I did not say that I had nothing to fear from the
French authorities." "Did you not declare you would
sooner come to France to die than live in Russia?"
" Yes, sir." Some sergeants and an ex-soldier of
the 39th then proved the various facts touched on
in the interrogatory, and a police officer detailed
the man's arrest at Marseilles. One of the
sergeants and an ex-soldier who had been prisoners
of the Russians at the time of the desertion stated
that when they and the other prisoners in the
Northern Fort at Sebastopol knew that he was a
deserter, they called him a scoundrel ; and added
that even some other deserters abused him, because,
in addition to the crime of deserting, he had indi-
cated the position of the French mines. The public
prosecutor insisted that he ought to-be convicted
not only of desertion, but of having borne arms
against France, and having given the enemy infor-
mation calculated to injure the operations of the
French army. The tribunal, however, convicted
him only of desertion, and for that it condemned
him to death. Had he been convicted of the other
two crimes, he would have been condemned to
degradation as well. In the course of the proceed-
ings it was stated that Grosjean, the man whom
the prisoner stabbed, was killed in the attack of
Sebastopol on the 18th of June.

On Friday evening, Jan. 28, the scientific depart-
ment of the above college was formally opened by
an eloquent lecture on "Common Things, in Educa-
tion," by the Vice-Principal, Dr.:Reid. At half-past
seven p.m. a large and distinguished assemblage of
ladies and gentlemen; chiefly the patrons and friends
of the numerous alumni of the college began to as-
semble, when the lecturer proceeded, amidst the
heartyapplause of the audience and the marked atten-
tion of the students. After cautioning his audience
against the danger of falling into a course of in-
struction calculated to stimulate the memory, more
than to draw forth the powers of thought and faculty
of
f observation, the lecturer proceeded, by a great
variety of amusing and lucid argumentative details,
to show
anwthaat the young should be instructed to
observe
understand the common objects of the
created world
be shown by around them. Much of this might
minds of lads very simple experiments, and the
were quite alive to learning and
appreciating such
tI
tnowfieelaboratingen
information
and en-
forcing the the great statement
to the essential differenceellb Lord Macaulay, as
importance
and knowledge, and eloquentlmye
zan
en-
forcing the paramount i
d infinite
ained that
superiority of the. latter, Dr. lainde.ee
the practical plans of Dr. Muir's
arrangements for
the scientific department of the college had been
most anxiously matured, and Were founded
on a
deep conviction that in, the young " the great inlet
for improving the mind is the observation, and
that whatever tends to create habits of observation.
keeps open the principal avenue to knowledge."
Other approaches to the mind are useful
as side entrances, but the observation is the
street-door. If we can excite this faculty and let the
youths use it in their own way, we lay the founda-
tion of more knowledge than by any mass of facts
which we could cram into their heads.
The lecture lasted nearly two hours, being, as we
noticed last week, introductory to a course of Friday
evening lectures on Chemistry and applied sciences,
by the Principal, Vice-Principal, and several of the
Professors of the College, in their various depart-
ments of science and literature.
Captain Spencer, the able and popular author of
" Travel's in Turkey, Asia, and Africa," is to lecture
at the college on Friday, Feb. 18, at half-past 7 p.m.
We doubt not but this will prove a most interesting
and instructive evening. Any lady or gentleman
°
is free to attend these lectures on the preseneation
of a private card.

The military tribunal of Lille, the day before
yesterday, tried a man, named Legoff, for having
in April, 1855, when a soldier in the 39th Regi-
ment of the line, before Sebastopol, deserted to the
Russians. " You were, on the 22d of April, 1855,
in the camp at Sebastopol ?" said the president.
" Yes," answered the man. "You had a quarrel
with a comrade named Grosjean ?" " I do not re-
member." " Several persons present say that you
and Grosjean quarrelled whilst on dirty, and that a
corporal silenced you ; but that, after returning to
your tent, Grosjean called you a dirty Breton,' and
challenged you to go out to fight ; that you did go out,
and that you stabbed the other twice with a knife."
" I do not remember." "After this you went away
in the direction of Sebastopol, and you ran so fast
that, though pursued, you could not be overtaken.
You arrived at the enemy's camp—were you ar-
rested there ?" " No." " You were confined in
the northern fort ?" " Yes." " You found some
French soldiers there P" " Five." " They asked
you if you had been taken prisoner ; you at first
pretended that you had, but at last you confessed
that you had deserted, and you falsely said that
you had done so because you had stabbed with a
bayonet an officer who had struck you for
refusing to work in the trenches ?" "I did not
say stabbed with a bayonet, but that I had
given him a blow with the butt-end of my
musket." " The tale, however, was not true ?"
" It was not." " The other prisoners suspected that
you were a deserter, because you had on epaulettes,
though in your division the men employed in the
trenches did not wear any, and they questioned
youraeb remained
e.
aonintn
etfaho
four-and-twenty
with
iatnbhjde_tethtwep I, Nothing was said on the
s"ubject, and, in fact, I had not epaulettes on."
You once left the Northern Fort, and were
were absent 24 hours, and onhe"yNsoay,
enotthymh.sTs"?;
your return you
haaltwya you
said you had been taken before Gen. Gortschakoff,
that you had dined with him, that he aused you to be
dressed like a Russian officer, took you to the Flag.
staff battery, and that yell:indicated to him the
situation of the French mines?" " I did not
say that." "You were taken to Simpheropol P
Yes, on the 27th or 28th of April." " How long
did you remain there ? " "To the month of June,
and I was with the same prisoners as in the
northern fort. Afterwards, however, I left for Tom-
bock, and they went to Odessa." •6 What became

THE FATAL OCCURRENCE AT CAMBERWELL,
Yesterday afternoon Mr. W. Carter, coroner for East s.ur
roy, held an inquest on the body of the unfortunate young
woman,
Mary Ann Hum,
in who met her death from gunshot
wounds accidentally inflicted by her brother, at Camber-
well, as mentioned our columns yesterday. Several
witn&ses were examined, but no further facts were elicited
than those we have already given. The jury returned a
verdict of "Death by inzadveutare."

THE MAILS; &C.—SOUTHAMPTON, Feb. 2.—The
Royal Mail Compatiy's steamer Magdalena, Capt. Baynton,
took her departure to-day with the mails for the West In-
dies, Central America, Mexico, the Pacific, &c., £l2O in
specie, jewelleiT value £10,550, and a full cargo. She has
68 passengers, including Col. Mores Cooper and his secre-
tary, the Lord Bishop of Guiana, Capt. and Mrs. Harvey,
Mr. Peter Loys and family. The screw-steamer Barcelona,
Captain Don Jose Tapias, arrived to-day from the Spanish
ports.