The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-17 00:00:00

HOLLAND.

The King of Holland opened the Session of the
Chambers yesterday, the 16th, at the Hague. His
Majesty's speech contains but few references to
general politics, but announces the presentation of
a large number of measures effecting charges and
improvements, social and material. The King spe-
cially congratulates the Chambers on the favourable
state of the finances. While the other nations of
Europe have been compelled to contract loans, Hol-
land has been able to continue the reduction of her
public debt.

Mr. Milner Gibson has been on a cruise in his
yacht, the Resolute, in the latitudes of Norway and the
Orkneys. The right hon. gentleman returned to Cowes at
the close of last week, having put into Lowestoft for stores,
&c., on his way down the eastern coast.
BAKERS HELD IN ESTEEM BY THE ROMANS.—
pakers were held in great esteem among the Romans, being
incorporated with considerable privileges, and subjected to
certain restrictions. " The fraternity of bakers, by the
Roman laws, held their effects in common, and could not dis-
pose of any part of them. Each bakehouse had a patronus
who had the superintendence thereof; these patroni
elected one out of their number each year, who had the su-
perintendence over all the rest, and the care of the college.
One of the body of bakers was at different periods chosen
and admitted among the senators. To preserve honour
and honesty in the college of bakers they were expressly
prohLited all alliance with comedians and gladiators;
each had his shop or bakehouse, and they were distributed
into fourteen regions of the city. They were excused from
guardianship and other offices which might divert them from
their employment." We thus learn that bakers were thought
more highly of in the times of the heathen Romans than
we think of them now. Whoever heard of a baker among us
becoming a senator? The baking system, as at present
carried on, shuts out the men, and not a few of the masters,
from the pleasures and enjoyments which should be common
to all who labour. It would be a useful and instructive
inquiry, if our Church and Dissenting ministers were to
ascertain how many of the 12,000 journeymen bakers of
the metropolis aro regularly in the habit of attending a
place of worship.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, MONDAY.
SEVERITY OF THE WEATHER-SHIPPING

DISASTERS.

The gale of Friday night and Saturday, which
swept with but comparative violence over the Iris%
mainland and coast, broke with unmitigated force,
as may well be conceived, on the Welsh coast.
Scarcely had the Munster mail steamer got within
the shelter of the harbour at Holyhead, when the
gale broke with a suddenness and force only to be
attained at the equinoxes. Crowds of vessels, prin-
cipally of small tonnage, ran for protection to that
harbour, filling the enclosed area to a dangerous
extent, and, failing of entrance, casting anchor in
the roadstead, dangerous at once to themselves, as
being exposed to all the risk of a lee-shore, and to
the incoming and outgoing mail, express and cargo
steamers, passing to and from Ireland. The first
casualty of which an account has reached Kings-
town was found to have occurred some 20 miles
west of holyhead, where four men were picked off
with great difficulty by the Scotia, express Holy-
head and Chester railway steamer, from a schooner
the Providence, laden with 140 tons of iron ore.
The men when taken on board—they being in a
very exhausted condition—stated that the schooner
of which they formed the crew was about to
founder in the gale, being heavily laden with iron
ore. The next casualty occurred at midnight on
Friday, owing, it is stated, to the crowded state of
the harbour of Holyhead, and to the fact that the
vessels in question carried no lights. The Admiral
Moorsom, cargo and passenger boat, from
the North Wall, Dublin to Holyhead, ran down
a sloop, named the Alma, and sank her, a
man and a boy being immediately drowned, a third
escaping, the three having formed the crew of the
unfortunate vessel. A schooner was Lt the same
moment run into, her bowsprit and cutwater being
carried away; but, happily, in this case no loss of
life occurred: All incoming steamers were detained
through the violence of the gale and the heaviness
of the sea in the Channel. The Munster arrived at
eight a.m. on Saturday, the incoming mail on the
preceding evening being kept out till seven p.m.,
the detention in some measure, however, arising
from the difficulty of getting clear of the crowds of
shipping at Holyhead. The above, it is feared, are
but a few of the casualties arising from the gale
This (Sunday) evening the wind moderated, the
mercury rising considerably.
The Daily Express says :—" The accounts from
the provinces, as to the weather during the past
week, and its effect upon the harvest, although not
quite so favourable as those previously received,
were, on the whole, by no means discouraging. In
the early part of the week advantage was taken of
its comparative fineness, and a great deal of agri-
cultural work was completed. An unwelcome
change, however, took place about the middle of
the week, and the weather became wet and tern-
pestous. In some places violent storms have been
reported. Along the west coast especially there
have been violent gales, attended in some instances
with loss of property, and, it is feared also of
life. The Galway papers mention disasters to
shipping off the Arran Isles, and in one instance
apprehensions have been excited respecting the
fate of a barque seen in great distress.
A gentleman, w:iting from Connemara, gives a de-
scription of an extraordinary tornado which he
witnessed, by the force of which the water was
lifted some feet out of a river in his demesne, and
cattle and even human beings carried away some
distance'.