The Sun.
London, England, 1850-03-08 00:00:00

GERMANY.

A telegraphic dispatch from Berlin of the sth inst.
mentions certain rumours of an unexpected delay
which, it was believed, was impending on the convo-
cation of the Erfurt Parliament. The correspond-
ent of the Kolner Zeitung asserts that these rumours
are devoid of foundation, and that the Parliament is
to meet on• the day appointed, viz., on the 20th
March. The draught of the Message to that Parlia-
ment has been confirmed. _ _

The Allgetneine Zeiturg has letters from Munich
of the 2d instant, stating that the conferences of
Munich have at length led to the conclusion of a
treaty between the Kings of Saxony, Bavaria,
and Wurtemberg. This treaty is intended summa-
rily to dispose of the affairs of Germany. It was
signed on the 27th of February. H mover has not
as yet consented to join the three other king-
dom.; on account of certain differences of opinion
between Hanover and Austria on the subject of the
propositions respecting the German Constitution, on
which Austria, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg are
alre.ady agreed. M:. Sturve, the Hanoverian
Premier, withholds his sanction from the Auitro-
Bavarian scheme, on account of its want of
guarantees for its future stability. He objects to
it because Austria will not consent to a state
chamber, or to a twofold representation of
the Governments. Austria in her turn
stands up for a single chamber to represent the in-
terests of Germany. She offers to make the greatest
sacrifices, and proposes to join the Confederation with
all her provinces, with the exception of those of Italy.
She demands a Diet of 300 members, in which she
proposes to represent the 33,000,000 of Austrians by
100 members, the 16,000.000 of Prussians by another
100 ; aad the 17,000,000 of inhabitants of smaller
states by the third hundred. In the Directory of
seven votes, Austria claims but a single vote.
The Breslau) Gazette says that the Countess Casi-
mir Batthyany, who accompanied her husband on
horseback during the whore Hungarian war, and
afterwards followed him into exile, has just had con-
fiscated her family jewels, estimated at 80.000 florins.
They had been buried in a secret place known only to
a domestic ; this man having fallen dangerously ill,
communicated tha secret to a priest, and the priest
made it known to the military authorities, who im-
mediately seized the jewels.

PORTUGAL.
Advices have been received from Lisbon to the 1s
of March.

Tee Royal Family and the Prince and Princess of
Joinville continued at Mafra.
The Count of Thumar had laid before the House of
Deputies his annual report of the Home Department,
and presented twelve new projects of law relating to
reforms in the internal administration, division of
territory, recruitments, mines, statistics, &c.
The House had pa!sed the Bill for confirming the
privileges of the Bank of Portugal ; the principal
modifications which it makes in the original Bank
decree are the reduction of the capital from 11,000
to 8,000 contos, with power to reduce it to 5,000
contos, or 1,125,0001., when the old notes of the
Lisbon Bank and the Confianqa Company shall
have been paid off. The privilege of issu-
inq notes as a circulating medium is re-
stricted to the district of Lisbon, but the Bank
is empowered to establish branch agencies in different
parts of the country. The concessions granted by
the old Bank Charter of 7th June, 1824, are again
revived, and it is specially stated in the Bth article,
" That the Bank may negotiate and discount bills and
all other papers of credit used in commerce, which
bear the number and quality of signatures required
by its statutes, and that the effects of all drawers,
acceptors, endorsers, and guarantees, shall be consi•
dered as tacitly and legally hypothecated for its pay-
ment without the necessity of re,i,tration."
A project of law, presented 'by the Deputy M.
Francisco Antonio da Fouseea, for taking off all duties
upon the export of grain and relieving the vessels
from tonnage dues, was likely to be adopted by the
Government.

Tha Committee of Deputies had formed, upon
the Government project, a complete code for the
represssion of abuses of the press. It retains the
trial by jury composed of citizens eligible
to be elected members of the House of Deputies,
but proposes the establishment of an exceptional
court of appeal, composed of three members chosen by
the House of Peers, and three by the Deputies, under
the presidency of the President of the Supreme Tri
bunal of Justice, which would naturally feel itself un-
justly slighted by such a transfer of part of its
functions to a political tribunal subservient to the
Government, which will name the Judges through
the Cortes. _ _ _

'-'Te;ewas some talk in Lisbon of referring the
American claims upon the Portuguese Government to
arbitration.

ITALY.

The Piedmontese Gazette of the 21 publishes a
proclamation of the Syndic of Turin, announcing that
a solemn religious service would be celebrated in the
Church of the Mother of God, on the 4th of March,
the second anniversary of the proclamation of the
Constitution, and of the institution of the National
Guard. We find in the same paper a circular,
addressed by order of the Minister of the
Interior, to the Intendants-General of pro-
vinces, for the better organization of the National
Guards, containing directions for the distribution of
arms to those who had not yet received any. in
the sitting of the Chamber of Deputies of Turin,
or the Ist, Dr. Zunini moved that the Cham-
ber should celebrate the anniversary of the 4th
of ;Marcia with peculiar solemnity. Dr. Polto
seconded the motion, adding that the President
should be empowered to arrange matters, so that the
Chamber and National Guard might be present toge •
then at the ceremony. Both motions were agreed to
unanimously. Another motion by M. Chenal, that the
4th:of March be declared a perpetual holiday, was so
fir agreed to that the Minister of the Interior was
itistructed to present a law on the subject. The dis-.
cussion of the Bill on postal reform was then resumed,
and advanced to Art. 24.

PuthADELrnIA, FED. IS.—Antiquarians will feel
deeply interested in the discovery of vast regions of
ancient ruins near San Diego, and within a day's
march of the Pacific Ocean, at the head of the Gulf
of California. Portions of temples, dwellings, lofty
stone pyrlimids (seven of these within a mile square),
and 1113951" granite rings, or eiroolar walk, round
venerable trees, columns awl blocks of hiero-
glyphics—all speak of some ancient race of men
now for ever gone, their history actually unknown to
annoy of the existing
families of mankind. In some points,
these ruins resemble the recently discovered cities of
ram/live, &c., near the Atlantic or Mexican Gulf Coast;
in others, the ruins of ancient Egypt ; in others, again,
the monuments of Phoenicia ; and yet in many features
they differ from all referred to. The discoverers deem
them to be antediluvian, while the present Indiana have
a fraditioa of a great civilized nation which their fere-
china forefathers utterly destroyed.
The election of Lord Rector, Aberdeen, has been
:natio in favour of Sheriff Gordon, who had a majority
of 72 oval his opponent, the author Qt the Latter Day
Pamphlets—Thetaaa Carlyle. i

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.
On Tuesday, March 5 (William Cubitt, Esq., Pre-
sident, in the chair), before the business commenced,
it was announced by the Secretary, that an electric
tel egraph dispatch had been received, communicating
thi 3 gratifying intelligence that, at seven o'clock in
the morning of Tuesday, three locomotive engines
d twenty-two loaded coal waggons, weighing in all
th ree hundred tons, had passed through the Britannia
mho, over the Bilenai Straits, with perfect safety, and
very satisfactory to Mr. Stepheason, the engineer.
The discussion was resumed on Mr. Taylor's sys-
tem of Street Paving, and was extended to such a
length as to preclude the reading of any paper.
It was contended that a rigid and unyielding sub-
stratum had been tried by Mr. Telford many
years since, and had been used with success in
some parts of the City paving, up to the present
time. The average duration of the pavement of the
streets in the City was stated to be eight years, but
that it was constantly subject to injury, from being
moved by ;he water and gas companies. The pave-
ment on London bridge by Sir John Rennie was
instanced as a good, but expensive, example of the use
of long narrow stones; and that by Mr. Walker, on
Blackfriars-bridge, was quoted as another instance
of the success that might be attained by great care in
the preparation of the substratum, which was of con-
crete, and the stones of the pavement being laid with
more than ordinary skill and care. The results in
both cases were eminently successful, but it was
allowed that such an expensive system, however
beautiful, was not applicable to the ordinary streets.
It was admitted that, although the principal streets
of the City and the main thoroughfares of the West
and East ends were well attended to, yet it must be
allowed, that the paving of the majority of the streets
was not in a satisfactory state, and it was attributed,
in a great degree, to the want of a definite
system being adopted; there being too many autho-
rities in the shape of parish paving boards, each of
which bad a separate surveyor, too often equally in-
efficient and ill paid. The water and gas companies
appeared to vie with each other in their endeavours to
destroy the paving ; and a portion of the Strand was
quoted as having been removed thirty times within
two years.
With respect to Mr. Taylor's system of paving, it
was contended that the Mount Sorrel granite was
a very superior material, both as regarded its
toughness and durability, and that its natural structure
enabled it to be worked very advantageously into the
small cubes. The main feature of the system was the
selection of the material for the substratum, and the
careful preparation, so as to afford a sufficiently rigid,
but yet imperceptibly elastic bed, whereon the small
cube stones should rest. These stones being well
driven down by repeated blows of light rammers,
attained a degree of solidity which defied the heaviest
traffic ; and in the towns where the system was em-
ployed, considerable economy had resulted. The sur-
face of the paving appproached as nearly as possible
that of a macadamized road, affording even a safer
foothold for the horses, and with less noise of
passing vehicles. The surface possessed extraordi-
nary durability, and it might be considered as a solid
mass of granite. It was announced that within a few
weeks there would be specimens of Mr. Taylor's
system of paving laid down at the entrances of Hyde-
park, where they would be subjected to regular traffic
of a destructive nature, and which would be under
constant observation.
A model of an improved crossing point was ex-
hibited by Mr. Duncan, of Leeds; the notch in the
rail was shown to be done away with, and the two
rails in it were so dovetailed together, as to render
any vertical motion between them impossible, thus
materially strengthening the crossing.
A piece of brickwork, set in Greave's blue lies
lime, and which had been kept under water for nine
days, was also exhibited. This material was com-
posed of one-third of lime to two-thirds of burnt clay;
and it was stated to have b?en used with great suc-
cess in the tunnels on the Great Northern Railway,
as well as in many hydraulic works, in which it was
as durable as cement.
At tl'e monthly ballot for Members, the following
gentlemen were duly elected :--Mr. E. 0. Tregelles,
as member ; and Messrs. J. A. Agnew, W. Bevan,
E. Goddard, J. D. M. Stirling, G. B. Thorneycroft,
C. C. Williams, and Lieut. Douglas S. Galton,
as associates.
The next meeting was announced to take place on
Tuesday evening, March 12, when an interesting
paper will be read, " On Tubular Girder Bridges," by
Mr. Wm. Fairbairn, M. Inst. C.E.