The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-04 00:00:00

some better foundation than mere surmise by
a State return which has just been officially
issued, showing " that the amount of gold from
that district deposited in the United States Mint of
this city from the 19th May to the 19th Nov.
inclusive, was, before melting, 9,092.86 oz. ; after
melting, 8,333.56 oz. ; the loss in melting being
759.30 oz., or 8.35 per cent., 5.14 per cent. more
than the average loss in Californian gold. , The
total value of this lot was 146,380.35 dols. When
to this return is addedthe great amounts purchased
by the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company and
by merchants at Victoria. which are remitted direct
to England, as well as the large quantities carried
down by private hands and returning miners, we
arrive at an aggregate which must effectually silence
all gainsaying about the auriferous resources of
British Columbia, especially when computed in com-
parison with the fitful labours of scattered bands of
adventurers without proper instruments and bent on
prospecting. rather than on steady work. I know I
am a sanguine man, but allowing for a liberal degree
of phlebotomy in that respect, I maintain that su'fi-
cient proof has been elicited to give the new colony a
most alluring character as a gold-producing country.
As a specimen of further outside proof, I may mention
that the captains of the steamers engaged in that
trade declare they never carried diggers on any
other line who seemed so padded with gold, which
was displayed in heaps as they sat in groups gam-
bling on the decks. I was recent myself on the
15th ult. at one of the district courts, where a re-
turned Frazerite was had up for drunkenness, with
1,760 dols. worth of gold in his belt, which caused
his worship to remark, when inflicting the usual
fine, " that he might set himself down as a con-
siderable lucky fellow in bring picked up by a
policeman, instead of by a prostitute." It is not to
be expected, however, even should her resources
prove equal to either, that British Columbia will
rise with the rocket-like rapidity of California or
Victoria, for this simple reason, that there does
not now exist the same surplus population in the
old countries as in 1848 or 1851. The teeming mil-
lions of Ireland have been thinned down to a fair
working average, the redundancy in Great Britain
-ias also been reduced to the reacting standard.
France is not holding her own, deaths are bating
procreation, and it is said that even the German
States, so prolific in princes and people, taking the
alarm at the progress of emigration, are about to
repress it by legislative restrictions. So that no
matter how great soever may be the mineral wealth
of the new colony, she must go through the olden
process of creeping before walking erect, unlike her
precursors in the golden strife, who emerged from
their swaddling clothes into tailed coats and Wel-
lingtons. I have only further to remark about the
depreciatory and conflicting accounts concerning
the new gold country, that precisely the same was
the case with respect to this State, even two years
after its start, for in 1649, when I wrote a long
letter home to the Times, the majority of the public
marvelled at the credulity of that paper not only
in publishing it, but in calling special attention to
it in a leader, while the great preponderance of
private communications designated the Californian
diggings as an American hoax.
It is tolerably clear that the private despatches
of Governor Douglass must have been both positive
and conclusive when Government, in the midst of
the busiest session on record, brought in a special
bill calling the new colony into existence, even in
anticipation of the extirpation of the charter, send-
ing troops and engineers there too, with two great
wars on hand in the East, and establish; lig a Go-
vernment bank in the new capital besides.
.Such
energetic proceedings, so much at varianc^, too, with
the usual pace of Downing-street busine..,s, must
have had their proper warrant. But the curious
part of the matter is, that while the Go-
vernor's home despatches were blazon-El in
characters of gold, his local sayings and
writings were of a hesitating, almost discouraging
tendency. The only explanal 'on of the riddle
that I can arrive at is that he wanted to
excite rapid emigration from home, and to repress
the wholesale inclusions of his filibustering neigh-
bours over the frontier, until, at least, he could se-
cure a counterbalancing British element to keep
them in order.
I will close this long letter with an agreeable and
reliable bit of information, to the effect that the
Plumper, surveying vessel, has discovered a channel
over the bar of the Frazer River through which
vessels drawing 25 feet can pass. Capt. Provost,
of the Satellite, says he can take his vessel to Fort
Langly with ease, and she draws over 21 feet.
This discovery settles the question as to the site of
the future capital, which under these circumstances
must be on the main—an inevitable conclusion,
which must prove rather disastrous to those specu-
lative folks who invested largely in town lots, at
fabulous prices, in and abort Victoria and Esqui-
mault. I learn that we are soon to have steamers
out of great power and light draught to stem the
Frazer River rapids, but I would make two sug-
gestions to the company—first, to fit them with
high-pressure engines ; and, second, to have them
propelled by a stern wheel paddle; because, in the
first place, one in that position would be less likely
to come in contact with snags or floafng timber
than two at the sides ;- and, again, because while
side wheels revolving in the same direction with
a rapid current would lose much of their usual
effect, that at the stern, working in comparatively
still water, would have nearly its full propelling
,ower.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—Jan. 3.

GUILDHA LL.—A NEW LEAF FOR THE NEW
YEAR.—Mr. Alderman Humphery, the magistrate
on the rota for the current week, took his seat on
the bench at the usual hour, and inquired what
charges were on the list.
Mr. Martin, the chief clerk, said there was not a
single person in custody for any offence whatever.
Alderman Humphrey expressed the utmost sur-
prise on fi-td'ng a blank list, or as it would be
termed on circuit, " a maiden session," and remarked
that it was the only instance, to his knowledge, of
ever having a blank day at this court on a Monday,
and it was the more surprising coming as it did . o
soon a f.ler New Year'.-day, a day of such general
. . .

rejoicing.
Mr. Martin said it had always been customary
on days when there were no cha,•ges, to present the
presiding magistrate with a pair of white kid gloves.
- Alderman Humphery said the circumstance was
so remarkable that he certainly should claim the
gloves. It- was very graOfying indeed, in such a
densely-populated distiict, at a season of the year
when even the poorest were often tempted into
excesses, to find that not a single charge, even of
drunken or disorderly conduct, was registered
against any one.

WESTMINSTER. —,RIVAL " WAITS."—Thos.
Oliver charged John Connolly with assaulting him.-
Both parties are wandering minstrels.
Complainant. according to his account, had long
been in possession of a large field of operations at
Chelsea, where he (the violin), accompanied by a
harp and cornet-a-piston, claimed the privilege,
under the appellation of " waits," of nightly sere-
nading the sleepers of the neighbourhood at Christ-
mas. They were engaged at two in the morning
of Christmas-day in the execution of " Ever of
thee," when, to their dismay, a rival band of violin,
harp, and flute, headed by the defendant, drummer
in a militia corps, struck up something very much
resembling, " Don't you wish you may get it P"
Complainant and his party " moved on," and think-
ing themselves secure in another street, tried " Kiss
me quick and let me go," but found there was no
getting away from their rivals, who, ranging them-
seh es opposite them, gave vent to " Don't believe
them Norah, darling." So from place to place the
defendant's band followed the complainant's, and,
trying to outdo the other in dulcet strains, defen-
dant thought of a mode of putting a completAx-
tinguisher upon his rival. This was no other than
resorting to what complainant described as " a big,
brass, braying, bass band instrument, which so
drowned the sound of everything else, and created
such an uproar, that the police interfered to restore
order," after which defendant struck complainant
a.blow, but not hard enough to knock him down,
which was the assault complained of.
In answer to this, on the part of the defendant,
it was alleged that the other party were the ag-
gressors, preventing the accused and his friends
following, professional avocations. Defendant ad-
mitted bringing out "this big, brass, braying, bass
band instrument,' but said it was not till com-
plainant, in allusion to his being a soldier, had said
something about a man " taking a shilling per day
to be shot at," and in compliment to him hall played
" the rogue's march." He declared the assault was
a mere push.
Witnesses on both sides having been examined,
Mr. Arnold thought it must have been very dis-
agreeable to the inhabitants to be disturbed by the
conflict between the bands, and ordered defendant
to pay the costs, and enter into his recognisances to
keep the peace for a twelvemonth, as that would
extend over next Christmas-day.
DETERMINED ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE.—AmeIia
Rudd, a woman of about 35 years of age, whose
husband vends vegetables and coke at Vine-street,
Westminster, was charged with a determined
attempt to drown herself.
Between nine and ten on Saturday night defen-
dant, who was under the influence of liquor, had a
quarrel with her husband, and while so engaged
declared she would drown herself, and rushed
out of the shop. The shop boy, who had over-
heard the avowal of her intention, followed
her at a rapid rate, and without stopping in her
course she ran into the water at the Horseferry, a