The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-29 00:00:00

mission are exorbitant. Nothing can be more pro-
per or equitable than that railway proprietaries, to
whom the public are indebted for the invaluable be-
nefits of the present rapid transmission of correspond-
ence and communications between all parts of Great
Britain, should be well and even liberally rewarded
for the arrangements which have been made to ac-
complish objects so desirable. But it must be re-
membered that, however desirable in themselves, these
objects were not the main or original ones proposed by
the projectors of railroads, in those magnificent con-
structions. The carriage of the mails can be re-
garded simply as an incident, for the purposes of
which their scheme of operations, and the materiel
and service of their roads, were quite available. In
like manner, in the case of each railroad, the amount
received from Government for carriage of mails can-
not be legitimately considered in any other light than
as a mere subsidiary head of income. The direct
expenditure and contingent charges incurred for mail
carrying by any railroad company, will form but a
very inconsidera'Ae proportion of their general outlay,
in the first instance, even. After these arrangements
and details are established and in working order, the
current expense of them will be but fractional, com•
pared with the returns on ti-o- total expenditure, of
which their provision fr'r- 'art. Thus the act of
conveying mails by rat. , is a very different affair
from that of their conveyance by the highways and
roads on the old system, under which every incidental
expense is special and continuous—as relays of horses
for the mail coaches, exclusively, forage, wear and tear
of carriages, harness, carriage-lighting, &c., &c. We
apprehend that, in France, the Government contract
with the railway lines for transmission of mails is on
very moderate terms indeed. Whether we look to
this analogy, or to the nature of the negotiations
which Mr. Labouchere, when in office, opened so
properly and carefully with various railroad proprie-
taries on the subject, we cannot repress our astonish-
ment at finding in the returns in question, so vast an
annual charge, for the carriage of mails by rail, is
85,0001.

MORTALITY IN THE METROPOLIS.—The return for
the week ending, Saturday, March 23, is very favour-
able, showing a decrease of 8 as compared with the pre-
vious week, 28 less than the average. The total number
was 981, while but a few weeks since it exceeded 1,200.
In epidemic diseases, including small-pox, measles,
typhus, and scarlatina, the number was 190, average
170 ; diseases of the brain 167, average 163 ; of the
lungs 309, average 330. Of the latter the following is
an analysis :—Bronchitis 34, average 19 ; pneumonia
78, average 91 ; asthma 26, average 45 ; consumption
147, average 146. Only four died of influenza ; old age
carried off 79, average 88 ; and 23 died from intempe-
rance, privation, and violence.. Of these seven were from
burns and three from suicide ; and of the 22 persons
who died of small-pox 17 had not been vaccinated. The
thermometer was highest on Friday, the 22d, 494 de-
grees, and lowest on Thursday, the 21st, 2910 degrees.

A Cabinet Council is appointed to be held this after-
noon at the Foreign-office, Downing-street. All the
Ministers are expected to attend.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
TATTERSALL'S-YESTERDAY.
WEEPSTAKES AT EPSOM-THIS DAY.
Sane small sums were laid out on Akbar at 4 to 1, 3 to 1,
and finally at 5 to 2 ; and on Emma at 7 to 2, and 3 to 1 ;
2,000 to 15 was laid against Akbar winning this and the
Derby

CHESTER CUP.
11 to 1 agst Mr. Bristow's Pharaoh
15 to 1 agst Col. Cradock's Pagan
15 to 1 agst Mr. Collett's Cattonite—taken
17 to 1 agst Lord EFlintoun's Jamie Forest
23 to 1 agst Lord Miltown's Scalteen—taken
25 to 1 agst Mr. Milbank's Sir Robert
25 to 1 agst Mr. Plummer's Alice Hawthorn
30 to 1 agst Mr. Speed's Everton
If our list had been governed by the business actually
transacted, it would have bees minus two-thirds of the horses
contained in it; our purpose in quoting the market prices is
simply to show the altered feeling with regard to Pharaoh
and Pagan—the latter was friendless.