The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-02 00:00:00

LATER FROM AUSTRALIA.

The Overland Mail brings later intelligence from
Australia, brought to Ceylon by the Marion, which
left Melbourne on the 11th October.
__

The Coloinbo Observer gives the following sum-
mary of the intelligence received :—From our Mel-
bourne papers we gathered that during the week
ended 4th October 170,0161 b. of coffee had
being warehoused at Melbourne, and542,5981b. de-
livered for home consumption, leaving the stock in
bond at 387,7511 b. At Beechworth the price of
gold was 3/. 15s. 9d. per ounce ; of " black sand,
good sample" (?) 381. per tou ; good Ceylon coffee,
Is. Gd. per pound. This, of course, refers to an
inland station. In Victoria 44,500 acres under
wheat were calculated to yield at 20 bushels per
acre, 20,200 tons. It would appear that Victoria
will yet take a high position as an agricultural
country. The amount of gold expected by escort
was heavy-13,031 ounces from Bendigo alone,
notwithstanding the rusk to Dunolly. The escort
which had arrived on October 11th had brouirht
down 45,000 ounces from the various gold fields.
In 12 months it is anticipated that Melbourne
will boast of a patent slip suited for vessels of the
largest class. The Sailors' Friend and the Golden
Era were both to have sailed for Ceylon Oct. 11.
On the 30th of September the liabilities of the
Bank of Australia were 2,167,000/. ; the assets
2,265,0001. In the week ended 4th October the
value of imports at Melbourne was 254,000/. ; ex-
ports 130,0001., including
18,060 ounces of gold.
Twenty-eight members of the New Assembly had
been already elected. The Argus believes the elec-
tions to be in favour of the Haines Government ;
the Herald holds the opposite opinion. At a meet-
ing to oppose State aid to religion it was asserted
that thirteen members of the Upper House and
fourteen in the Lower were opposed to State aid.
The first cattle fair in Victoria had passed off well.
The duties on gold exported from Melbourne in
the year ended 30th of September, 1856, were
381,0001. The total Customs' revenue for the same
period reached 1,607,0001., being an increase of
colony
oSI
yp tfeomr, btehre,
1582515,0.00T1.hoevetrottahle
ryeeva ;neuned efdor3Othtlei
2 792, 00/ in the •
0 .
year ended 30th of September, 1856, was no less
than 3,042,000/. against ,
year. The total credits for the quarter were
826 00/. ; debits, 766,0001.
wages being high and the necessaries of life
cheap,
the deposits in the savings banks were in-
,o
creasing largely. Large auriferous deposits near
Malmesbury were reported. We notice that the
Annie Wilson had sailed for Ceylon on October 3d
with 10)000 ounces of gold. The price of gold at

Melbourne varied from 755. 6d. for Castlemaine to
775. for Ballarat.

We find the following notice of a good sample:...o
" We were yesterday indebted to Messrs. Mantel
and Willis, pld brokers to the Bank of Victoria,
Market-hill, for the sight of a remarkably pure and
beautiful piece of gold, weighing 64 ozs. 19 dwts.
nett. It was originally purchased by Mr. Moly-
neux, at new store, Main-street, opposite White's
restaurant, and was found in ten feet sinking, and
not far from the main road. We trust, and have
reason to believe from miners' reports, that many
such nuggets will be found."
The following paragraph is interesting :
DUNDAS.—A correspondent of • the Portland
Guardian communicates the following :—The abo-
rigines in the vicinity of the Dundas ranges persist
in affirming that there is a fine country far away
towards where the sun sets, which the foot of white
man has never trodden. " Black fellows," they
say, are there as plentiful as sand on the sea-shore,
and the mountains are speckled with black sheep.
This had led some people to entertain an idea that
Arden's black sheep, which escaped many years
I ago, have established a colony far in the interior,
where they have propagated their species to a vast
extent, as they were known to be a flock of twin-
getters. Some lucky adventurer may possibly
throw some light on this subject before many moons
had passed.

Tl►e Government of New South Wales had passed
an act to enable "the Governor, with the advice
of the executive council, from time to time to raise
by the sales of debentures, secured upon the conso-
lidated revenue fund of the colony, and bearing in-
terest at a rate not exceeding 5 per cent. per annum,
such sum or sums of money not exceeding 200,0001.
as may be required for carrying on of railway
works."

The Cowper Administration seems to have lasted
only a fortnight. The Governor refused to dissolve
Parliament. Mr. Hay endeavoured to form a Go-
vernment, but in vain. Mr. Watson Parker seems
to have been more successful.

Great excitement had been created in Sydney by
the announcement of a nugget of gold weighing
five hundredweight. It is stated, however, to be
merely a mass of quartz, with a veil of gold run-
ning through it.
The revenue of New South Wales for 1857 was
estimated at 1,277,0001.

DEATH OF MR. JOHN BRITT ON, F.S.A.

We regret to have to record the demise of Mr. John
Britton, which took place yesterday morning, at 10
o'clock, at his residence, Burton-street, Burton-crescent.
He had attained the advanced age of 86. His autobio•
graphy is left unfinished. It is singular that during his
last illness he expressed a wish that be might live till
New Year's Day, in order that he might be enabled to
complete that work.
Mr. Britton was born on the 7th of July, 1771, at
Kington St. Michael, in Wiltshire, where his father once
enjoyed a fair share of patronage as baker, maltater,
shopkeeper, and small farmer. A change, however,
came o'er the scene ; the business failed, and the family
was involved in circumstances of difficulty, under which
the parents of the late John Britton were unable to
afford him much of a school education. In his autobio-
graphy Mr. Britton thus speaks of his birthplace :
" Without a regular clegyman to advise and admonish,
or a magistrate, or private gentleman residing in the
principal house of the village, the inhabitants were
undisciplined, illiterate, and deprived of all good
example ;" and again he observes, " I do not think
. there was a newspaper or magazine purchased by one of
the inhabitants before the year 1780, when the London
riots were talked about, and wondered at." He was
first consigned to the care of a schoolmistress, and was
subsequently placed under four successive masters, net
one of whom seems to have been able to administer
a large amount of knowledge. On the 25th of
October, 1787, he quitted the home of his childhood,
and accompanied an uncle to seek his fortune in the
great metropolis. He was then apprenticed as
cellarman to Mr. Mendharn, of the Jerusalem
Tavern, Clerkenwell-green, where he was initiated into
the mysteries of " forcing or fining wines, bottling,
corking, and binning the same." He was wont to steal
as much time as he could to visit old book stalls, and
make small purchases ; but, we are told, "All the
reading I could indulge in, during my term of legal
slavery, was by candle light, in the cellar, and at
occasional intervals only, not of leisure, but of
time abstracted from systematic duties." The
vicissitudes, privations, and hardships which he expo•
rienced during the next seven years could not be re-
lated without exciting sympathy. In obscure lodgings
at eighteen-pence per week, he still indulged in study,
and often read in bed during the winter evenings, being
unable to afford a fire. When in his 22d year, and with
a purse containing about six pounds, he walked home
to Wiltshire, and found his native village much
altered—his mother had died broken-hearted, his
father had become idiotic and was no longer in
the land of the living, and his brothers and sisters
were scattered abroad. His old home being thus de-
stroyed, after having endeavoured in vain to procure em.
ployment in the West of England, he returned to Lon.
don almost penniless, shoeless, and shirtless. Soon after-
wards he was engaged as cellarman at the London Tavern,
and next as " clerk to a widow in Smithfield." We then
find him in the service of an attorney in Gray's-inn.
In 1799 he W 33 engaged by a Mr. Chapman to " write,
recite, and sing" at a theatre in Panton-street, Hay-
market, at three guineas per week. From that date hi■
literary career may be said to have commenced. His
first production of any importance was a volume on "The
Life and Adventui•es of Pizarro," suggested by the then
popularity of Kotzebue's favourite German drama. In
his work on the " Beauties of Wiltshire" he was emi-
nently successful ; and his " Architectural Antiquities
of Great Britain," and " Cathedral Antiquities of Eng-
land," gained him a considerable reputation.

THINGS WHICLI NO OLD BACHELOR WILL
EVER DO IF HE CAN HELP IT.

To begin with—Got o-atside an omnibus to accommodate
a lady.
Go to a theatre on a Juvenile Night.
Assist in drawini, up a Christmas Tree, or be present at
the distribution of gifts.
Escort his married sister when she goes to buy a baby.
j um per.
Throw away his cigar when he comes in contact with a
lady.
Take a walk down Regent street at the time when the
perambulators do mostly congregate.
Accept an invitation to stanit godfather, for fear of its
being cited as a precedent.
Give up a dinner party for the sake of escorting his
friend's wife to an evening one.
Take his country cousins shopping, for fear of being
asked to carry home their parcels for them.
Attend a juvenile party, and submit to be made a blind
man's buffer of.
Oblige his married sister at a railway station by "just
holding baby for a moment."
Burn his fingers at snap-dragons, because "it will please
the children so."

Run the slightest chance of ever being caught beneath
the mistletoe.

And to end with—Dine twice with a family where he
finds the baby handed round with the dessert,—Punch,

A general meeting of the Royal Swedish Railway
Company is called for the 21st inst., when a report will
be presented by the directors.
Her Majesty's annual gifts to the poor were distribut-
ed in the riding school at Windsor Castle yesterday
morning. The recipients consisted of about 600 poor
persons, residing in the parishes of Windsor and Clewer.
Sir Colin Campbell arrived in Berlin on Wednesday.
He is charged to deliver to the Prince of Prussia the
insignia of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. A
number of generals of division are now there.
ROYAL BRITISH BANK._Formal notice has been given
that Vice-Chancellor Kinderaley proposes, on the 10th
of January, to make a call of 751. per share " on all
those contributories of the Royal British Bank who Inive
been settled on the list of contributories up to Wednes-
day."

There is good reason for believing that the Austrian
government has resolved to place corps of observation on
the frontiers of Tessin and of the Vorarlberg as soon as
the Prussians begin their march to Schaffhausen and
Basle.

COUNTY CoURT APPEALS.—There are no appeals on
points of law from the County Courts to the superior
Courts, and the reason is stated to be the expense and
trouble attending the same as the law now stands.
The explosion at Naples was so terrific that the:table
at which the King and Queen were breakfasting wag
covered with the glass of the windows, which were
shivered to atoms by the shock.
PENSIGN TO THE ROYAL FAMILY p OUDIL—It is
rumoured that despatches have
haveisreacsesnitglnyedbeteon
the
ewßarodyeal
to India, by which a pension
Family of Oude on a most liberal scale- If report be
correct,l2oooo.
Ithe grant amounts to 12 lace of rupees, or
per annum, and is in perpetuity.
A slur. SHOT IN THE THAMES.—A. few days ago,
Ben Dukes, the attendant on the boats at the Feathers,
Wandsworth, shot a large seal in the Thames, near tho
above place. It is a beautiful specimen of the species,
and is the only one of the kind that has been seen by any
one of the Thames fishermen above bridge. It measures
4 feet in length, 2 feet 1 inch in breadth, and is 2 feet 3
inches in girth. The fish may be seen at Mr. H. Salter's,
the Feathers Tavern, Wandsworth.
THE IMPERIAL FAMILY OF FRANCE.—In the portion
of the garden of the Tuileries railed off from the public,
family groups may sometimes be seen of no small interest
to st_augers and sight seekers. Passing in that direction
lately t a somewhat early hour, I witnessed the Imperial
circle taking the morning air with a freedom they seemed
greatly to enjoy. The Emperor, in a stout pea-jacket, was
amusing himself with, and helping to amuse his infant
heir, who sat smiling in a superb coach drawn by a couple
of goats, magnificently caparisoned, and whose possible
caprices were duly restrained by two dapper little grooms
or pages with gold laced hats standing at the heads of
the animals. The Empress herself looking down from
her
mar
window upon the ground, chatti ag and laughingw
imperial sposo. High health, merriment, and perfect
ease and security cbaractersied the happy looking
party. Napoleon grows stout on his prosperiiy, and
gives the lie by his hale and hearty appearnce to all the
vain prognostications of those enemies who are for ever
killing him by the course of nature. Her Majesty, too,
shows signs of a recruited health; and as to the future
hope of France even the tongue of envy cannot refuse to
his plump cheeks and twinkling pair of orbs the desig•
nation se dear to matrimony of an " uncommonly fine
obild."—Correspondent of Guardian.

ENE Y- MARKET

AND

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

P---

CITY, Two o'CLocK.
The advices from the manufacturing districts in
the North of England generally describe trade as
being quiet, the Christmas holidays having, as
Usual, interfered with business. At Bradford a
fair demand exists for wools, yarns, and pieces,
and full rates are current. In Manchester the
spinners and manufacturers have large orders on
hand for delivery during the spring, and full quo-
tations will no doubt be supported. The Notting-
Lana firms have been occupied in the completion of
Orders from the United States, but the home in-
quiry is limited.

The commercial accounts from the United States
report increased stringency in the money market,
but no alteration of importance bad occurred in
the rates. The market for public securities, after
the recent excitement, had become comparatively
quiet, and prices had generally receded.
_

From Mexico the accounts are favourable, inas-
Much as the revolutionists at Puebla had suc-
cumbed to the Government forces. It is therefore
anticipated that order will soon be restored, and
that the remittances of silver, which have been
Prevented by the unsettled state of affairs, will
row be resumed.

In Lombard-street, and at the Bank of Eng-
land, the inquiry for discount accommodation is
less active, but there is no diminution in the rates.
Six per cent. is still the minimum rate, but the
Supply having increased less difficulty is found in
obtaining capital.
The market for Public Securities has been ex-
ceedingly dull all the morning, but the quotations
hare remained without variation. In Foreign
Stocks and Railways, as well as in English Secu-
rities, the dealings, both real and speculative, are
very much circumscribed, but when the January
dividends are paid, more animation will no doubt
be experienced. Consols have been 94 to 94a for
the Bth inst., and 94 ft for February. The New
3 per Cents. are 941 I, the Reduced 941 Ex-
chequer Bills 3s. premium, and India Bonds le.
discount. ,

Foreign Securities have undergone very little
change. Turkish 6 per Cents. are 95i I, and the
4 per Cents. were steady. Portuguese 3 per Cents.
are 43i ex div. Belgian 4i per Cents. 96i, and
Dutch 2i per Cents. 64k.

Messrs. D. Bell, Son, and Co., report—that
during the past week the market for American
Securities has been devoid of all animation, and
Prices are without any material change :