The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-27 00:00:00

THE CAIRO COURT-MARTIAL—The revelations
made by the Cairo court-martial are destitute of interest.
Four officers were tried, but the witnesses who were called
forward were generally more in fault than the prisoners.
On what principle the prisoners were singled out appears to
be quite unintelligible. One witness admitted having said,
"How d'ye do, old fellow," as the Pacha passed him in the
mosque, but in a very low tone of voice. The others
implicated merely laughed and bowed in the mosque and
overturned'earthenware lamps in the street. The evidence
failed fully to convict any of them of being intoxicated on
the occasion. The sentence of the court-martial is not yet
known. The singular story of Lieutenant R. C. Kennedy
is one of the subjects on the lapis at present. This
gentleman, when at Damascus, thought proper to dress,
speak, and act like a native of the place, chiefly,
as he said, to perfect his knowledge of Arabic. He
gave out that his mother was a Mahommedan, and ad-
mitted having married a Mussulmanee in Damascus while
he had a Mussulman wife living in Bombay. The gravest
charge against him was that he spoke against the British
Government, and wished well to the cause of the rebels.
Ho has been dismissed from the army by order of the Secre-
tary of State,—Overland Friend of _lndia.
RAILWAY EXTENSION IN FRANCE.—The amount
of new railway communication opened in France last year
is returned by the Minister of Agriculture, Commerce, and
Public Works as follows :—Old reseau—Northern, at Mau-
beuge, 1 kilo. ; Orleans, at Bordeaux, 2 kilos. ; Medi, at
IBordeaux, 2 kilos. New reseaa—Northern, Paris to Sevran,
14, kilos. ; Lens to Ostricourt, 16 kilos. ; Eastern, Port
d'Atelier to Aillevilliers-Plombieres, 29 kilos.; Western
Lison to St. Lo, 18 kilos.; Orleans, Perigueux to Brives,
72 kilos. ; St. Cristophe to Rodez, 29 kilos. ; Paris, Lyons,
and Mediterranean, Pontarlier to the Swiss frontier, 11
kilos. ; Moret to Montargis, 51 kilos. ; in all, 245 kilos., or
1:52 miles. The total length of railway opened in France
to Dec. 31, 1860, was thus raised to 5,778 miles. The
length of line set down for completion during the current
year is about 430 miles.

HEALTH OF SCOTTISH TOWNS.—The Registrar-
General reports that the deaths in the eight principal towns
of Scotland in Jan. last-2,779 —greatly exceeded those of
any January since the Registration Act came into operation
in 1855. This is partly to be attributed to the prevalence
of small-pox, scarlatina, and diphtheria, and partly to the
severity of the weather at the close of the last year and the
opening of this, though Scotland has again been better off
in this respect than might have been expected from its high
latitude. Indeed, at Aberdeen the thermometer never fell
below 10 deg. in January, while at the Royal Observatory,
Greenwich, nearly six degrees further south; it was at 16
deg. ; at Paisley, however, it marked 8 deg., and at Perth
10 deg. The deaths in the eight towns in 1860 (26,028)
were in the high proportion of 286 in every 10,000 of the
estimated population. It would be understating the facts
to say that for every four persons who died in London last
year five died in the Scottish towns; it would be nearer the
truth and a very little way from it, to state that for every
three deaths in the metropolis there were four in the Scottish
towns. In Glasgow half the deaths in the year were of
children under five years of age. The mortality was
heaviest in Glasgow and Greenock. In Edinburgh it was
but 229 in the 10,000, and the Registrar• General notices the
advantage that city possesses in its exposed site on sloping
hills, and the consequent thorough ventilation of even its
most densely peopled low streets and closes; were its drain-
age, surface as -well as underground, and its sanitary ar-
rangements in the lowest class of dwellings somewhat im-
proved, and overcrowding prevented, he has no doubt that
it would prove one of the very healthiest towns of the
kingdom.
WESTERN BANK GE SCOTLAND.—The liquida-
tors of the Western Bank of Scotland have issued their re-
port to the gentreal meeting of shareholders, to be held on
Wednesday. The report shows that the debts paid off
during the year ending the Ist of February last amount to
£417,160, and the total liabilities discharged during the
three years of the liquidation are upwards of £6,000,000.
In fact, the enormous debt which the bank owed to the pub-
lic at the crash in November, 1857, is now reduced to the
comparatively triling sum of £:53,000. Tho liquidators are
using every means in their power to pay off this rem-
nant by advertising over the whole kingdom for per-
sons who have paid money into the bank and who have
neglected or forgatton it ; and, meanwhile, interest is
n any longer allowed on these sums. The
ceire paid on calls a monnts to a total close upon £2,000,000
sterling. The sacrif ices made by the suffering shareholders
to diseharge their liabilities to the public have been most
heroie, and iu connection with this great calamity these will
ever be remembered as in the highest degree honourable to
the national integrity of the country. The liquidators state
that, apart from litigations with trustees, which involve
some nice and unsettled questions in the law of Scotland
there is only one action in court for recovery of a call. The
probable surplus of the Western Bank, subject to the future
expense of winding-up, amounts to £187,000, being an in-
crease of about £50,000 as compared with the previous
_year. A considerable portion of this improvement is, of
course, owing to the saving in interest, for, after providing for
all that is duo, the amount added to last year's balance of
interest is only about £7,000. The expenses of liquidation
for the year, includtag law costs, amount to 40,000,