The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-24 00:00:00

LITEST N

AUSTRALIA.
We have received the following from Mar-

seille3 :

.• "MALTA, JULY 19.
"The Scamander screw steamer has just arrived
from Alexandria, bringng 172 boxes and six bags
of letters from Australia, New Zealand, Point de
Galle, and Aden, which reached Suez, per Simla,
on the 12th inst.

" There was nothing new at Malta.
"No arrangement has yet been made about the
sailing of the Australian mails. The present mails
were brought from MaltA by the French posta
steamer."

The Moniteur announces that the rumour which
has been circulated of the despatch of French
troops to China is entirely without foundation.

orders that he should be everywhere receive" with
till honours due to his rapk. The carpals ILion
of the Iltrro was inaugurated, on the 19th with
great solorrni7. The popul4tion of Barcelona,
which, after Madrid. is the most important
town in Spain, now amounts to 183,787 souls.

In the year 1862 Russia will have arrived at the
thoua tndth year of fits existence as a separate
Power. In conamernontion of that anniversary.
the Emperor has ordained that a national monu-
ment shall be erected at Novgorod, where the first
Russian Sovereign resided. To defray the ex-
penses of the national in.,nument a general sub-
scription has been opened throughout the empire,
in conformity with a circular addresed to the d,f-
fer,n, Governments by the Minister of the Interior.
The Director-General of the Works and Ways has
been intrusted by the Emperor with the erection of
the monument.

It appears that the request of the amba-iFad.ors
at Cc,nstantinople to Lave the elections in _Moldavia
postponed to the 27th has not been gr-Antrl ; the
last accounts meiriodni4 that they took place on
the 19th. The abstentions are said lo be very
numerous, particularly among the m:mbeis of the
PARIS, FRIDAY, JULY 24, BA. m. I clergy.

The Tuscan Monitore •publishes a Grand Due)]
decree of the Bth, establishing a national bank in
Tuscany, having its principal est tblislunents at
Florence and Leghorn, and with power to establish
branch-banks in th,-, oih r towns of Vie Duchy.
The capiial of the bank is fixed at 8,000,000 of
life (6,660,0001 r.), and its charter is to last 20
years.

The Second Chamber of the States General of
Holland adopted on the 20th, by 47 to 13, the 1341
on primary instru tin. In consartrnce of the
adoption of h:s bill, M. Gr.envan Prin.terer, chief
of the last cabinet, g ive in his re,ignation as deputy
—the bill tot be n. of the exclusively Protestant
character which he considers necessary.

A communication from Vienna, in the Zeit of
Berlin, mentions a report that a s' amp duty was
about t,) be charged on newspapers in :A u-trig, with
the view to reducing the deficit in the budget.

NEW WORKS OF DEFENCE AT GOSPORT.

The Government have just completer] the pur-
chase of a tract of laud, encompassing the town of
Gosport, at a di,tanc- of about two miles from it,
for the purpose of establishing upon it a new line
of forifications. The 1 oid purchased is a broad
belt of about three hundre 1 yards in width, and
extends from Fritter's Paint, at the upper part of
Port-mouth Harbour, to the sea in the neighbour-
hood of Stokes Bay. In its direct on it bi-ects the
Fareham-road a short distance to the northward of
the haudtt of Brockhurst, then crosses the Itch-
field-road to the eastward of the picturesque chapel
of Rosner, from which point it bears away towards
Gr.nge, part of which ei;tete it includes, and t,r-
mieates, as before stated, at the sea at the wast
horn of Stekei Bay, near which, and include! in
the Government purclps.-, is the new fort already
built, named Gower, after the estate of Levesou
Gower, E-q., which has also been purchased.
Some of the circumstances cenn eted with the
purchase transa tion of the land in this neighbour-
hood are painfully ridiculons. Ab mt fifty years
ago, the neces,ity of strengthening the outlying for-
tifications at Gosport became apparent t) the mili-
tary engineers, and pm chases of land were made
about Browndown and in the locality of G7wer
Fort for this purpose, on which occasion ,bout
1001. per acre we e paid fir the property. The laud
however was not turned to accou,,t forfertifica ions.
Wi•h the exc,ption of a few small earthworks, no-
thin,? was done; and in the office of the late Sir H.
Vivian, the greater pare. of the Government laud
was sold, and in many instances did net resdae more
than 10/. per acre. ()lithe occasion of the last pur-
chase of the same land, wh,ch ley: been thus bought
and sold on such uefavculahle terms, Government
paid 2401. per acre for it, thus making the public a
loser by about 300'. per acre on their teen-actions !
It has n t yet trsnspired what will be the extent
and charac-er of the fortifieat.cea whilt aro to be
er:c•ed on this land. At presort the only move-
ment has been ae or dr t) clear away all h does
and other obstructions, and turn it into gloss land.
Rumour stat as that a canal is t) lea cut from the
upper part of the bat ly,ur to theses at Stokes Bay,
for the purpose ef allowing the passage of gun-
bo ,ts throw;h. But it can so ircoly be sup pose,l that
so much ext ease would he inciirre 1, when by the
continuation of the Stoke Lake through the valey
at its head, wh ch has evidently been recovered
from the lake, and which terminates a, a very short
di-tanco from the sea, a canal could be formed at a
very much smaller coat. The circumstance, tro, of
the gunboat dockyard being already on this lake
is more favourab!, for such an arrangement, as, in
event of a gin-b 'at hieing required for a
flank movement, they eould execute the same much
more quickly/r-m this pint than if they were to
make the circuit of the harbour.

The forts air.a.-I.y finished and in progress on this
intended line of f rtificati,ns c.,n-ist of the str,,ng
bastion redoubt before alluded to, gilled Gow r
Fort, and another in course of construction at
Frater.

There is no doubt but that all this is a mwe in
the right direction. The G rstport side of Port+.
1/)011,J1 Harbour has long been a source of anxiety
to military engineers, as hitherto the simple line
of earthworks surrounding Gosport has been quite
inadequate to bear any serious prr-ssure from an
entiliv, who, having once possession of that side r.f
the harbour, would have the dockyard entirely at
command. The cont,mplared extended works will,
however, give great security to this point, and the
public may be congratulated on the undrtaking.
We rcimenther, some time since, when our rela-
tions wiih our French neighbours were not quite
so satisfactory at they ate at the present time, and
when military officials were looking anxiously at
our uDast defences, proposing that two line-of bat-
tle ships shoul I be lightened, and one floated up
each of the creeks which run inland for some d s-
tance to the no? th and south of Gosport, and that
heavy guns should be placed on their upper decks,
which would enfilade the entire face of the earth-
works of Gosport, making it impossible foran enemy
to advance without regular siege approaches. These
ships, from lit-ing isolated, would be difficult for an
enemy to deal with.

Before cl.,sirig these remarks we must ref-r again
to she gun-b.iat e:tab!ishment on Stokes Lake. The
airaygeuients which at pr-a-nt exist for di=posing
of this new arm of our naval defences is to haul
them up on a slip, from which they are transferred
to a kind of: htign railway carriage or truck, which
miving at rally deposits the g.in-bxits into sheds
constiuctedforthe purpose. By the present arrange-
ment, the tide is allowed to flow and ebb into and
from the like, and the consequence is that the !To-
cess of hAuling up the gun-boats, and of course
launching them again, can only be perf,rmed at
high water, and at low neap tide there is not suffi-
cient water even for this. Now, the entrance to this
flue lake is narrow, and, at the point where Haslar
bridge crosses it, is admirably adapted for a darn,
which, by being thrown across, and furni.hed of
course with gates, would transform this now almost
useless creek into one of the finest wet docks in the
kingdom, and which would not only enable the
gunb .a 's to he launched or hauled up at any time,
but also provide a safe and out of the way place for
any vessels of this description now blocking up our
principal harbours,—Mechanics' Magazine.

The arrival of an Australian mail yesterlay was un-
expected, the agent at Sydney having dispatched the
Simla a Uirtnight befire her time to make up for the mail
which, owing to the breakdown of the Oneida, had been
omitted a fortnight previously—a step which it is feared
will disarrange the future monthly service. The dates
on this occasion are to the 30th of May from Melbourne,
and consequently about five weeks later than those re
cently brought by the James Baines; but, as owing to
the irregularity of the arrival, the company had no boat
.waiting to receive the mails on the Mediterranean side,
it is thought there may be considerable delay in the re-
ceipt of the letters. Although the Simla touched at
Ceylon on the 23d of June she brought no later Indian
news. The dates from Calcutta by the last overland
mail are suoposerl to have been to the 13th of June by
telegraph via Bombay, and as there is a telegraph from
Calcutta to Madras, and the communication between
Madras and Ceylon can be effected in a week or less, it
would have seemed to have been possible to have re-
ceived upon this occasion at least three or four days'
later intelligence. It is t be supposed, however, that
if any has been brought it is wholly unimportant, from
its not having been transmitted by telegraph this
morning.

The gold by the present Australian mail is only
40,5001. but she brings intelligence of more than a mil-
lion on its way. 406,5001 is on board the Great Britain,
which sailed from Melbourne on the 21st of May, and is
now 63 days out. This vessel made her last pa4sage to
Melbourne in 62 days, and she may therefore' be expected
at any time. The remaining sum is 674,6001, which is
on board the Indomitable, Swiftsure, Lightning, Sum-
mer Cloud, and Sardinian.
The SILK CROP.—A letter from Milan of the 15th,
says that, although the silk crop is gathered in the
greater part of Italy, the amount of the produce is still
uncertain. One fate, however, is aecertained—that the
crop is not so deficient as was apprehended. Ad the
foreign i.eed prospered. The seed raised in Lombardy,
on the contrary, generally failed. The spinners and
111.1ders of a stock of silk say that the crop is bad,
Speculators pretend that it is much better than last year.
Everybody speaks according to his interests and his
wishes ; but it is generally believed that prices will be
lower than last year, and that silk present is a
hazardous openulationl