The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-23 00:00:00

IN RE H. SLEEP.

This bankrupt was described as of the Abbey Arms,
Abbey Wood, Kent, and this also was a meeting for choice
of assignees.
Mr. Buchanan was for the petitioning creditor, and ap-
pointed to the estate.

IBIS DAY'S SKIPPING'.

- -4*-

LONDON, Sept. 23.—Wind this day at noon—W.S.W.
to W.N.W. ; strong breeze, and cloudy at times.
TORBAY, Sept. 22.—Wind W.N.W.—Arrived—Stella,
from Hamburg, for St. John's; Europe, from Hamburg,
for Singapore ' • Nicoline, from Hamburg, for Rio Grande ;
Maria, from Hamburg, for Gibraltar; Kullenso, from
Wyburg, for Rio Janeiro.

6IIEI:I4SEY, Sept. 19.—Wind S.S.E.—Arrived—Coys-
tela, from Buenos Ayres, and sailed for Hull.
OFF FALMOUTH; Sept. 21.—Arrived— Melbourne, from
Otago.

FALMOUTH, Sept. 22.—Wind strong.—Arrived—Queen
of the Taff, from Rio Grande; Eliza Laing, from Tagan-
rog ; Isabella, ditto; Cambrian, ditto.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
PLYMOUTH, Sept. 23.
The Royal Mail Company's paddle-wheel steamship
Derwent, Captain Ernest West, which left Southampton
on Saturday morning wi, h 50 passengers for Madeira, hav-
ing encountered a very strong gale from the south-west,
put back to the Sound at nine o'clock this morning. She
has not incurred any damage.
SOUTHAMPTON, Monday Morning.
Arrived.—George and Elizabeth, fron. Jersey ; Ann,
from Sandersford ; Firefly, steamer, from Cardiff; Neptune,
from Neath.
Sailed.—Sirius, for Shields.

(BY SUBMARINE AND MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Monday Morning.
Arrived, Sept. 22.—Frederick Wilhelm IV., from Dant •
sic ; Clarina, from Riga; Henry Hollman, from Marathon ;
Sarah Margaret, from Dantsic ; Mersey Packet, from
Nickerie ; Hercules, from - Mealel ; Penelope, from
Guernsey.
Arrived, Sept. 23—Matilda from Dantsic ; Catherine
from Worcum ; Richard Margaretta, from Ystad ; Bertha,
from Memel.

Sailed, Sept. 22—Ranger, steamer, for St. Petersburg;
Neptune, steamer, for Havre.
Sailed, Sept. 21L-Albion, steamer, for Boulogne.
DEAL, Monday Morning.
Passed.—Matilda, from London, for New York ; Mel-
bourne, from New Zealand, for London.
Anchored.—Helen, screw steamer, from London, for
Nantes ; H. S. Coleherst, from Genoa, for London (lost
sails), dragged anchor, and fouled a barque ; carried away
jibboom, and sustained other damage) ; Kurland, from
Libau, for Bordeaux.

A Diamond Belgian packet bore up with strong weather,
and landed heavy mails.
A barque was observed on shore at daylight on the north
part of the Goodwin ; a tug from Ramsgate and Deal life
boats assisting.
Systrarne, from Gothenburg, for Shoreham, slipped from
anchor and 60 fathoms of chain while at anchor in the
Downs, to avoid being run into by a large ship.

STRAW PAPER,-THE RAG SUPPLE

It seems beyond question that the consumption
of paper, not only in England, but on the Con tixent,
is rising into excess of the rag supply. America,
too, appears to be in rag difficulties, for she makes
large rag purchases on the Continent, and last year
carried 2,000 tons out of England. The English
and the Americans wear more calico and linen, and
are, therefore, greater rag producers than any other
peoples in the world; but they do not collect their
rags with the same care that the Germans, French,
and Flemish do. In frugal Scotland it is a common
saying, " Who burns rags will want a winding-
sheet ;" and the fear of the loss of a shroud, and
the thrift that enables many an humble housewife
to keep her family in crockery out of their rags,
works to the great advantage of the Scottish paper-
maker.

Every reader of newspapers is aware of the
growing scarcity and dearness of rags, and of the
numerous ingenious efforts to find substitutes for
them. Paper from wood, straw, nettles, grass,
thistles, rhubarb, hop-bine, and many other things
has been announced as made. The fact is, that
paper can be made from any vegetable fibre ; the
only consideration is, whether the paper so made is
worth makings and, if it is, can a mill secure a re-
gular and abundant supply of the fibre at a lower
cost than rags.
Paper from straw has come into extensive use
during recent years, and many imagine that not
only is straw much cheaper than rags, but that au
illimitable straw supply may be enjoyed by any
paper-maker. Yet both these ideas are incorrect.
Straw in any great quantities is not to be had. It
is a sins qua non in many farmer's leases that the
straw must be used on the land ; and such, of course,
have none to sell. Then a paper-mill sends up the
price of straw in its neighbourhood. When Mr.
Thomas commenced working his mill at High
Wycombe, he got his straw for about a guinea a
load of ; but, as he consumes about six
hundred tons a year, he has been the means of
raising its price in the country round to
335. and 365. a load. It may be said, Why
not draw supplies from a wider circuit ? True,
but straw is bulky, and the expense of its carriage
raises it to the high rate of the district round the
mill. Owing to the scarcity of straw in England
one paper-maker has been importing wheat-straw
from the Continent, In one placei it is said, straw
rose to L 4 a ton, and a mill had to give up its use.
Straw suitable for paper is now sold in Norfolk at
from 50s. to 555. a ton ; and Mr. Magnay admits
that if straw could be had for 40s. a ton, it would
come into serious rivalry with rags for all the com-
moner sorts of paper. It takes, indeed, 21 tons of
straw to make one ton of paper, whilst of rags only
11 to tons are required, but straw even at that
rate is cheaper than rags. Rags, however, maintain
their advantage over straw in the cost and difficulty
which attend the manufacture from straw. The
same machinery used for rags will not do for straw ;
the bleaching is far more troublesome, straw taking
four or five times the quantity of chemicals to bring
it to the same whiteness as rags. But improvements
in the methods of manufacture are going rapidly on,
and straw paper is passing into a firm and assured
existence. Two mills in Kent now work up 100
tons of straw every week. As an auxiliary to rags,
straw meets with considerable favour ; one-third
rags and two-thirds straw makes excellent writing
paper, and many people now use it exclusively,
owing to the ease with which they find their pens
glide over it.

We regret to have to announce that Lord Lynd-
hurst is suffering from indisposition, and confined to his
house in Hanover-square. His lordship and family ar-
rived in town last week, with the intention only of re-
maining a few days; but his lordship's sudden indisposi-
tion has prevented the intended departure.—Courtlournal.
THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER AT FROME.—The
discharged soldier, Joseph Seers, who is in custody charged
on his own confession with the murder of the young girl
Sarah Watts, at the Woodlands, Frome, in the month of
August, 1851, under circumstances of great atrocity, was
discharged from the military lunatic hospital, Fort Pitt,
Chatham, as incurable on the 11th of September last, only
a few days before that on which he gave himself up and
confessed being the murderer of the girl named. Several
circumstances, however, appear to throw considerable
doubt on the correctness of his statement. At the time of
his discharge Seers's age, according to li4s attestation paper
was 25 years, and, as the murder in question was committed
more than 10 years ago, he must at the time have been only
15 years of age. When before the magistrates the pi isonor
stated he enlisted directly after the murder, whereas he did
not enter the army until the 18th of December, 1857, when
he enlisted into the 2d battalion of the 4th King's Own.
In the month of June, 1859, he embarked with bis regi-
ment for Corfu. At Corfu he became insane, and after twice
attempt* suicide was sent home to the lunatic hospital,
Chatham, into which he was admitted on the Bth of August
last, but was discharged from the army as a hopeless lunatic
and unfit for further service on the 11th of September, when
he was conveyed, in charge of an escort, to Promo, and
handed over to the care of his friends. From the character
Seers bore in his regiment, and also the fact that he is in •
sane, no credit is attached to his statement at Chatham,
where the depot of his late regiment is quartered.