The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-17 00:00:00

CHERBOURG AND PO.RTSMOunr.

If we wanted a proof of the French zeal in naval
matters (and there are a score forthcoming from
any inquirer at once), it would be afforded by the
familiar instance of Cherbourg. There we have,
or rather they have, a kind of model modern dock-
yard, free from the faults of old ones, and rich in
all that ought to be found in the new. It is much
nearer to us than older French arsenals, is built in
the smoothest part of the Channel, and on a scale
suited to the most formidable preparations. Take
Portsmouth and Plymouth dockyards, and you find
that there is a great deal of time lost in consequence
of the departments being separate from each other;
whereas rigging, arming, and victualling all go on
at Cherbourg within the same walls. in our ports
above-named, boats, lighters, buoys, keep endlessly
moving through the yellow water (at the risk of
wetting and otherwise damaging goods), while at
Cherbourg everything is put on board from the
wharfs, along side which the ship Fes. And so, of
course, with coaling. Coal must be hoisted out of
a ship's hold, and thus taken on board—a tedious
process, " hateful to the seamen," as the Naval Peer
justly observes, instead of being moved from the
quays by machinery, as in the Norman port. Again,
the Cherbourg authorities don't " hulk" their
seamen, as we do, in narrow, dirty, old-fashioned
hulks ; but march them aboard comfortably from
a kind of naval barralks. Surely, all these are
sensible business arrangements, vastly superior
to our old happy-go-lucky way of managing
matters ; and ought to teach us to mend it. Dock-
yards 'are the " positions" on which fleets retreat
for refreshment and repair; and rapidity in and
convenience for refitting a fleet would be half the
battle in war time. That the French are eminently
business-like in their way of doing work was shown
at Genoa in the late war. This general superiority,
of sizes and of arrangements about Cherbourg, and
its nearness (only 52 miles) to our coast, make
Cherbourg an ugly neighbour. Blockade it, you
will say, as Collingwood did Toulon, so persistently.
Nobody supposes that such traditions will not be
honestly acted on by our service. But blockades
have been evaded before ; and a steam fleet running
12 miles an hour would not be so easy to catch if
once a feint had drawn the blockading force from
before its prison. Observe, too, as an instance of
the organisation of Cherbourg, that French ships
can enter Cherbourg docks at all times of high
water, and that our ships can only enter those of
Portsmouth and Plymouth during spring tides.
The fortification of our dockyards and arsenals in-
volves a military question. But it is not denied
that Cherbourg is very strong from 'that point of
view, nor that the improvements which have been
going on at Portsmouth of late years still fall short
of what is wanted.—Diekens's All the Year Round.

Are ilte:s4—
sterday a middle-aged. fashi 1-
lady, and who appeared in a state rtif -nertetipil
exciteinent, applied to the NertoriYat
Lambeth Police-court, for his adviceias to how shp
should act .n, in h• , to whom she
had not be tortwkf months.
From the lady's statement it appeared: that ..ehe
had been the daughterof a surgeon, and Iradbeen
married to:a`gentlernan 'who died about five years
ago, leaving her a Widow" withotit a family, a well-
furnished house, and a handsome income. In the
month of -March last, while attending one of irat-
nunt's lectures, in St: Jaines's Hall, she met a gen-
tleman about her own age, who introduced himself
as the son of an earl;•made. passionate love to her,
and vowed: he would shoot her unless she married
him. • On his repreSentations of his family and con-
nections, his promising: to present her with a new
carriage and.. £2.000 in.. money, and consenting to
have her. own jointure settled upon herself, shecen-
sented to comply with his
,wishes, and they .weie
married on the 28t1i of June last, at St. Georgs
Church, Hanover square. Weeks paSsectover with-
out the PreSentation of either the £2,006 or the
carriage, and this induced her (applicant) to sus-
pect that her husband had not acted candidly with
her ! and this feeling was increased by his not in-
troducing her to a single member of those whom
.he _described as his aristocratic family. All, In
fact, she could learn about her husband' was thg
he was the. friend of a merchant of much respect-
ability, having offices in Threadneedle-street
and 'residing At the West end, and in whose service
he held some appointment at the time of his mar-
riage. This appointment, she had reason to suspect,
he had since lost, and was at present wholly living
Upon her. The first question which she had to ask
his worship was Whether she was obliged to supply
her husband with clothes, partii, larly aa-he'vasin
the habit of piing out in a very good suit and coming
.home in a very bad one. (Laughter.) 'On Saturday
last," said the applicant, " he left my house as nicely
dressed as any gentleman, and did not returantil.
mid-days- in Monday,- when "e .•dir,OZ%-rtlitTOTYfe
state." ,r;• - -

Mr. Norton—What is the name of your husband,
pray ?
Applicant—Capt. William Denby Sipper Harris
•I think it-is. -
Mr. Norton—lt is rather strange ;that a lady
shoUld not know her own name. (Laughter.)
Applicant—Well,' r must admit that it is strange,
but I now think, it is Harrison, but I shall go and
get my marriage certificate.
The applicant .here left the court, but returned
in a short time.with the marriage certificate, which
She-handed to the magiStrate.
Mr. Norton—l see by this doctiment that your
marriage took place on the 28th of June,-and that
the name of your husband is Harrison. • He must
therefore. have made some misrepreSentation,.as the
name of the nobleman he assumed is not Harrison.

Applicant—Oh, yes, he must have-deceived me,
and yet professing so much love. (Renewed laughter.)
He has treated mo cruelly, and yet he tells me my
home and all I have got is his—insists (In having the
whole of my, keys, and says I shall -be obliged to
support him.
Mr. Norton—Well, I am afraid that is so ; but I
understand from the officer who has been to your
house, at your request, that your husband has not
only consented but wishes you to sue for a divorce.
Applicant—Then I will do so. I only wish I
had it now. I had an excellent offer from a barrister
just before,.and was fool enough not to accept it. I
wish your worship would take the troublo of just
'reading the letter sent to me by my husband before
our marriage. and then the letter of tha barrister
making me an excellent offer. (Laughter.)
Mr. Norton—l have no great curiosity in such
matters ; but now, Mrs. Harrison,. as that
appears to be your name, if you can say you, go, in
fear of your husband I shall grant you a summons.
Mrs. Harrison (after some hesttation)—No, I
cannot say I do. I think he loves me too well to
injure me, though I do not love him a bit.
(Much laughter.)
Mr. Norton—Then I should recommend you to
go home and to come to some arrangement for a
speedy divorce or separation.
Mrs. Harrison—No, I will not go home. I am
afraid to do so. I shall go to Brighton, and he may
sell or do what he likes with the goods in the house.
Mr. Norton—What may be their value ?
Mrs. Harrison—;e3oo or £4OO.
Mr. Norton—Well, my advice to you is to go
home.

Mrs. Harrison—l feel very much obliged to you,
sir, but I shall go to Brigh ton.
Mrs. Harrison then withdrew from the court.

THE GRE T EASTERN AND HER PROS-
PBOTS.—caRK AND QUEBEC.

To obtain a passenger and goods traffic sufficient
for this ship is, no doubt, an object of anxiety and
thought to the directors of the company. If Liver-
pool and New York were accessible to her, their
these would be the ports. Nature, however, im-
poses a barrier—the want of a sufficient depth of
water in the approaches to both.
Considering that the East Indian trade will not
pay, as there is no emigration to that part of the
empire, the Peninsular Company taking the pas-
sengers chiefly connected with the military dn d
civil departments, the steamer would have to-de-
pend on troops out and home,or_coolies to the West
Indies—a rather disreputable traffic. To Australia
the emigration has eeased,there being few goods back.
It is plain, then, that to get a passenger and goods
traffic she must run between some port on this side
and Quebec, thus getting the trade formerly carried
by the New York packet ships, and latterly by them
and the various lines of steamers.

It may be well first. to decide on a British port,
having an eye not only to our own but the Conti-
nental trade with the United States and Canada.
Three present themselves Holyhead, Milford
Haven, and Queenstown (Cork). The first is nearest
to our great seaport, Liverpool'; Milford has thead-
vautage of cheap fuel ; Cork, in being clear of the
dangers of the Channel (which proved so disastrous
to the Tayleur, Pomona, and other passenger ships),
as being nearest to Nantes, Havre, and Bordeaux,
by which the French and Continental traffic could
be intercepted, and already having steam linen to
London, Bristol, Liverpool, and Glasgow,by which
goods can be conveyed as cheap from them as- by
rail to either Milford or Holyhead. This will be a
golden apple to the winner.
The reasons for choosing Quebec are that it has,
by the Grand Trunk and its conceOtions, commu-
nication with all parts of the States and Canada ;
by the St. Lawrence, steam and shipping with the
great lakes and the South-Western Railway ;while
New York, with transhipments, has 360 miles of
canals by Buffalo, and 210 by Oswego, through
which it gets its chief supplies, Quebec has only 69
miles canal to Buffalo, and 42 to Oswego, the dis-
tance to Europe being by the St. Lawrence 287
miles shorter from Buffalo, and 360 from Oswego,
than by New York. The railways would carry
alongside the` Great Eastern the bacon, hams, tal-
low, cheese, hides, lard, wool, and other produc-
tions of St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukie,
Cleveland, and other western cities, now sent to
New York ; while the shipping could discharge
into her the wheat, corn, flour, beef, pork, and other
goods which would not pay the railway charges.
Some idea of the extent of this trade may be known
from 25,605,000 bushels of grain being transhipped
at Buffalo, and 11,000,000 at Oswego, for New
York, as well as 35,000 barrels beef, 94,000 of pork,
11,000,0001b5. tallow, 15,500,000 lbs. bacon, in 1856,
Chicago alone exporting that year over 2,500,000
qrs. grain, 9,300,000 lbs. hides, 4,000,000 lbs. lard,
and taking vast quantities of manufactured goods
in return.

By a system of through bills of lading from the
cities of the west and our manufacturing towns, a
great deal of the trade would be diverted to the
Great Eastern from its present channel by 'New
York, as passengers would be in Quebec 14 six
days, and in St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Chicago in
eight, and at St. Paul (almost half way to British
Columbia) in nine days, while goods would be de-
livered at those cities under three weeks from Eng-
land via Cork.

Ships of 400 tons, by elevators, would discharge
their cargoes of grain in one day, while on-this
side, by the same facilities, they could be as easilY
unloaded.
At Quebec the Great Eastern could lie along the
depot between the rails on one side side and the
shipping on the other. Elevators of great
~power
are ashore and afloat, so that in no port could there
be more despatch.
In winter the St. Lawrence is °Pill
' h
to which the Grand Trunk is finis ed. A wooden a high as Bei,
the landing of the goods and passengers.
wharf could here be extended out to deep water for

THE CAPTURE OF THE HERALD,—We (Shipping
Gaatte) are pleased to learn, on the authority of the
Foreign Minister, that compensation boas been demanded by
the British Government from the Go. vernment of Portugal
for the seizure of the Herald, some months since, on the
East Coast of Africa, and that comps ,nation will be granted,
although the money not yet be en paid. A grosser out-
rage upon British subjects and th eir property, or one more
rp imperatively demanding the int, , osition of the Govern-
ment, tlfan this affair of the Fier al, it has seldom been our
duty to record. Of course it, v, as idle to hope for indemni-
fication from the authoritie,-,
seizure of the Herald we 7.n. Delagoa Bay, and the appli-
cation was made direct t ,
was accompanied by the Cabinet of 'Lisbon. The
to mark, if any
into Delagoa Bay, out' 45 made in one of the rivers flowing
addi sde the Portuguese territory, and
.11 tunstances of rapacity, which serve
ter of the officials ' - real evidence be required, the &erec-
tion
Coast. , who represent Portugal on the East
. ,