The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-15 00:00:00

Great anxiety is felt respecting the fate of the
screw steamer New Pclton, owned by Messrs. Ford and
Jackson, of London. This vessel left Llanelly on the 29th
of December last, coal laden, for Havre, and has not since
been heard of.

Accounts from Brussels announce that the treaty
of commerce between France and Belgium had been
signed. The stipulations are not known, but it is believed
that the duty on coal entering France is reduced to 90 een •
times the ton, and the duty on cast iron to 2f. Me., instead
of 4f. 50c.

It is reported that the terms proposed by the
London and North-Westernand Great Northern Companies
jointly to the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Com-
pany are as follows :—A guarantee of 11 per cent. per
annum, increasing per cent, per annum up to 31 per cent.
in perpetuity, and the privilege of exchanging every £lOO
Sheffield Stock into £65 (or £7O ?) London and North-
Western Stock. Three Sheffield directors have been ap-
pointed to confer and negotiate with directors similarly
appointed by the other boards. The resignation of the
Marquis of Chandos of the chairmanship of the London
and North •Western Company occurred, it is said, in conse-
quence of his opposition to the guarantee.
A circular of Messrs. Arles Dufour and Co., of
Lyons, mentions that although the United States take
annually about .£8,000,000 worth of silk goods from Europe,
the fall in prices since the outbreak of the disunion crisis
has not been more than between two and three per cent. on
the superior descriptions, owing to the limited supply in
the market. In the common descriptions there has been a
reduction of between six and twelve per cent.

The report of the Union Bank of London, to be
presented to-morrow, states that the profits of the half-year
ending the 31st of December were £63,063, which, with a
previous balance of £3,407, makes an available total of
£66,470. A dividend of 12s. per share is recommended,
and £30,470 will remain to be carried forward.
THE REV. J. BONWELL'S CASE.—The case of the
Rev. James Bonwell, incumbent of St. Philip's, Stepney,
who is under sentence of deprivation by the Dean of the
Court of Arches, will come before the Judicial Committee
of Privy Council, at the sittings which will be held at the
close of Hillary Term. In the event of their lordships con-
firming the decision of the Court of Arches, Mr. Bonwell
will cease to be a clergyman of the Church of England, and
his benefice will revert to the patrons, the Principal 'and
Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford.

TERRIFIC CONFLICT WITH A TIGRESS.—On Fri-
day morning, while Maccomo was going through his per-
formance with the Bengal tigers, at Mender's Menagerie,
Shaw's-brow, Liverpool, a tigress caught his hand in her
mouth. Never were coolness and nerve displayed to
greater perfection by any man than were shown by Mac-
como at this j ancture, for, planting his knee in the small
of the tigress's back, and pressing her against the bars of
the cage, then seizing her lower jaw with the right hand,
he held her powerless to do more than retain the left hand
ix her mouth. So cool was Maccomo in this trying posi-
tion, that lookers on thought it part of the performance,
but when Maccomo called to one of the keepers, " She has
got my hand fast in her mouth, bring a bar of hot iron,"
the truth of his dangerous position flashed through the
minds of those present, and created the greatest excite-
ment—one lady fainting away, others running from the
painful sight. Four or five minutes elapsed before the iron
was ready, during which time Maccomo stood as a piece of
statuary, net a quiver of the lip to show the pain he was
enduring. When ready, the hot iron was applied quickly
and surely by one of the keepers to one of the large teeth in
the upper jaw, and, as though she had been electrified, her
mouth sprang open. Maccomo, quick as lightning, drew
his hand away, caught hold of a thick stick, struck the
treacherous animal a terrific blow on the skull, brought her
down, and forced her to finish her performance before he

left the stage. When Maccomo came out of the cage his
bleeding hand testified to the frightful struggle which had
been going on between man and beast. One gentleman
gave Maccomo 10s. as a mark of appreciation of the cool
courage displayed. We cannot avoid expressing our dis-
like to see cool and daring men placed hourly in such a
position as must atlast, in all probability, terminate fatally.
—Live: pool Mercury.

THERMOMETERS.—Mr. E. J. Lowe, in a letter to

the Times, says :—" Allow me to say a few words in reply
to the letter of Messrs. Negretti and Zambra, a firm to
whom we owe much for their improvements in thermo-
meters and for the great care they bestow in the construc-
tion of these instruments. Their excellent letter of caution
has been misunderstood. "What they have stated is per-
fectly true as regards instruments in the hands of the pub-
lic, but it does not apply to those used by the careful ob-
server. All meteorologists are aware of the fact that the
spirit evaporates in the thermometer tube, and on again
becoming condensed is collected at the end furthest from
the bulb, but they also know how to remedy this source of
error from time to time. I have been extensively asked if
20 degrees must be added to the very low readings of ray
thermometers for the 24th and 25th of December, 1860.
On referring to my letter in the Times, dated December 25,
it will be seen that 13.8 degrees and 11.7 degrees below
zero were recorded by mercurial thermometers. These
thermometers are exceedingly sensitive, being two of those
which were specially prepared for me by Messrs. Negretti
and Zambra for observation of the total eclipse of the sun
in Spain last July. In short, none of my thermometer
readings require corrections. 'While alluding to the great
cold on Christmas-day, 1860, let me answer the numerous
inquiries as to whether ' Murphy's cold day in 1838' did
not exceed in severity that of December 25, 1860. In this
neighbourhood (Beeston) the greatest cold in January,
1838, was 8 degrees above zero, or 16 degrees warmer than
on December, 25, 1860, and the mean temperature of the 24
hours was—ln 1838, 14.1 degrees ; in 1860, 4.0 degrees ;
or above 10 degrees warmer in 1838."
IRON-CASED MEN-OF- WAIL—We are gratified at
being able to announce that the Admiralty have decided
upon increasing without further delay the number of our
iron-cased steam men-of-war, and letters were sent out on
Saturday from Whitehall calling upon Messrs. Napier,
Laird, Scott Russell, Mare, Samuda, Palmer, Westwood
and Co., and the Thames Yard Ship Building Company
(Limited), to send in tenders by the 24th inst., for building
two ships of about 4,000 tons each. The vessels are to be
very similar in construction to the Resistance and Defence,
now nearly complete. They are to be 280 feet long, 66 feet
broad, and plated 'with iron slabs fore and aft. The angular
principle will not be adopted in this instance, notwithstand-
ing all that has been done and said upon the subject. We
however infer, from inquiries which we have made, that
the question is still a moot one with the officers of the
Comptroller's Department, and that consequently the instal-
ment made to our iron navy is at present only a small one.
The report made by Captain Hewlett of the Excellent, last
August was, we are informed, decidedly favourable to Mr.
Josiah Jones's invention; and he is supported in his state-
ment by the openly expressed opinion of all the principal
scientific officers in the Royal Navy.

BIRDS AND THE WEATHER.—A writer in a con-
temporary says :—lt is not so very long since you published
in a letter from a correspondent, a floral catalogue to prove
the mildness of the season. Your readers may now form
an estimate of the severity of the season by running an
eye through the subjoined catalogue of birds seen, and in
most instances shot, within the last week on the twelve
miles of coast between Wells and Thornham-harbour, Nor-
folk :—Pink-footed goose, Brent goose, merganser, mil-
lard, red-headed poachard, gold-eye, curlew, widgeon, gulls
of three kinds, godwit, redshanks, gray plover, knot, san-
derling, purple sandpiper, dunlins in myriads (probably
" the seven snipes at a shot" of one of your correspondents),
oyster-catcher, wild swan, diver, scoter, and jack
snipe. Among land birds I observed the short-eared
owl, snow bunting (probably "the piebald birds"
noticed by another of your correspondents), moun-
tain and common linnet, corn bunting, and black-
headed bunting. But what was most remarkable
was the number of land birds driven by the severity of
the weather from the meadows and arable land to pick up
a subsistence on the seashore. Among these I noticed
crows, Royston crows, jackdaws, starlings, greenfinches,
meadow pipits, thrushes, redwings, fieldfares (the last so
tame that they allowed the observer to approach within 20
yards of them), and larks flocking with dunlins, and alight-
ing on the " scarves" of the submarine forest of Brancas-
ter, when almost covered by the advancing tide.
THE WEATHER ON THE EASTERN COAST.--At
Burgh Castle, three miles from Great Yarmouth, at 10
feet above the sea level, the following have been the lowest
readings, at night, of two minimum thermometers, one of
Negretti and Zambra, and another tested and working with
theirs. The thermometers were in the open ground 4 feet
above the surface. Sunday, the 6th.-16 deg. Heavy fall
of snow at night two inches on the level. Monday, the
7th.-0 deg. Another heavy fall of snow five inches
more on the level. Tuesday, the Bth.-2 deg. Wednesday,
the 9th.-2 deg. Thursday, the 10th.-10 deg. Friday,
the llth.-29 deg. Saturday.—A cold thaw now set in.
The barometer has been steady at 3033. The air
is very light from the south-west all the week.
On Monday, the 24th of December, the thermometers
marked 0, at night, and on the 25th, 6. The salt-water
tidal rivers within a short distance of the haven were frozen
to the thickness of 9 inches, and on Monday and Tuesday
night the channel of the Yare, a salt tidal river, froze to
the thickness of 31 inches. From the proximity of the sea
the coast is generally warmer than inland. No weather so
cold as that of the past week has been observed hero within
living memory.
TESTIMONIAL TO A RAILWAY OFFlClAL.—Yes-
terday morning a handsome testimonial, in the shape of a
purse containing the sum of £l7l 15s. 6d., was presented
to Mr. Gibbs, chief inspector at the Slough Station of the
Great Western Railway, by the passengers using that line,
as a mark of the high eEtintation in which he is held by all
classes, and the courtesy and kindness uniformly shown by
him in the discharge of the important duties of his office.
The testimonial was subscribed for by nearly 300 of the
passengers, among whom were the Duke of Buccleuch, the
Earl of Darnley, the Earl of Dartmouth, Viscount Ebury,
Viscount I? owerscourt, Lord Carrington, the Earl of Bass-
borough, Lord Taunton, his Excellency the Belgian Minfa.
ter, Lord Home, Lady Mary Hood, Lady Molyneilx, Sir
George Couper, W. Yansittart, Esq., M.P., &c. The
ounh Stat'on, in the presence a a Araerous body of the
nocribers,
EeBeat4ti°a took 1.,11.ce in one of the lar
9:0 rooms at the