The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-18 00:00:00

PARIS and STRASBURG RAILWAY
The great enemy of war is steam ; and it is to
extend the advantages of steam and railway commu-
nication over the world, that we must now invest
those hundreds of millions which our ancestors pre-
ft rred' to lavislrin war and: useless conquest. In this
respect, England .war
s.,t _an example to the rest of
Europe: her- total lenth or- railway line, extending
now to nearly 2,000 miles, representing an investment
Of upwards of 50 millions. Belgium alone of the
Continental States hai as yet, largely imitated
our example ; but within the last year France
also has . bestirred herself, and the intersection
of that fertile and industrious 'couutry with railways
in all directions has new become a prime object of
the French Legislature. In-.our advertising columns
we present to-day the
_prospectus of a projected line
to be undertaken in • eenjtinction with the French
Government, being,one of the most important of
these national undertakings—a line to connect the
metropolis of France (already about to be brought
near to England by the railroad.to Havre) with the
city of Strasburg, the - point of departure from
Germany. At the bead of this undertaking appear
names of commercial and political eminence, the
French President being one who has served the
Crown" in its highest office, and "may hope to serve
it agiin." The district ter" be traversed will appear
important, even*from a glance on the map of Franco,
but we perceive, front authentic data, that, besides the
bronzes of Paris, of which, even under a duty of 20
per cent., we 'import annually to the value of
1,000,0001., the -line ' abounds not only with rich
natural resources, both of the farm and the vineyard,
but with woollen and cotton factories, producing
fabrics to the annual value, in one province alone, of
5,000,000 t. sterling ; and affording, even under much
disadvantage as -respects intercommunication, abund-
ant local traffic. In a national point of view, - the
undertaking presents, both to France and England,
prospects of extensive moral and commercial benefit.
---,l4ilway paper.

- --- --- -
Last w- neek, handbills were distributed at all the
police stations,' offering a reward of 201. for the detection and
apprehension 'of the diabolical person or persons, who, on the
ith instant, sent by the ten o'clock train, from the Eustnn-
square station of the London and Birmingham Railway. a
basket addressed to a gentleman at Cheltenham, in which was
placed a small black coffin, containing a full-grown dead male
child. The coffin was a small black one, two feet long, made
of half-inch deal; with inch elm ends. The child was dressed
in a new cap, with a lace border, a bed gown, and covered with
a diaper napkin. A further reward of 51. is offered to the per-
son who sold the coffin, on his giving up the name and ad-
dress of the person to whom it was sold, and 51. to any per-
son identifying the clothes and other articles found around
the child in the coffin.
Mr. Cobden's motion for a Select Committee to in-
quire into the peculiar burdens borne by land—so important
to the tsnant-farmers and farm labourers of this country—
was brought. before the House of Commons on Tuesday even-
ing. We. unite with Mr Cobden in expression of his surprise
that the bringing forward a motion for the appointment of
such a commitfee should be left to him. Wherefore was it
not brought forward by the Dukeciof Richmond, the Earl of
Harewood,tord Worsley, or some ottter Member .of the Coun-
cil of the Anti-League Association?. Was there no noble us
honourable farmer's friend to anticipate th e motion of the Hon.
Free-trade Member fur Stockport ? Was his fat.-
headed Grace: of Buckingham asleep ? Where was Mr.
Christopher, the Lincolnshire " Peel pilot balloon ?" One
would have supposed that every pretended "farmer's friend"
in Parliament would have appeared armed with such a mo-
tion the instant it was known that a single voice was raised
in the country in favour of the abolition of the corn-laws.
But the landlords are a peculiarly coy race. They are deli-
cately 'sensitive upon the subject of those peculiar burdens
of theirs. They shrink from exposing them as much as a
young beauty would from indicating a high shoulder, or the
necessity of •a pair of padded stays. Like the sweep in
" Hood's Comic Almanac," perusing the Act of Parliament
which forbids him to proclaim his calling from the honso-
tops, and who indulges in the plaintiff ditty, " I have a silent
sorrow here," the landlords, with a modesty as peculiar as
their burdens, have hitherto confined the details of their dis
tresses to the somewhat vacant sanctuary of their own bo-
soms.—Hull Advertiser.
SUPPOSED MURDER OF THE STEWARD OR BOARD
THE CHIEFTAIN, OF SUNDERLAND, CAPT. R. REAT.—On the
2d instant, two letters were received here, written on.board
the above ship, and dated Spalatro, Feb. 16. John Med-
forth, second mate, the writer of one addressed to his mo-
ther, says ;.—" I am sorry I have bad news to tell you ; on
the 21st of January, being Sunday, about half-past eleven,
or a quarter to twelve o'clock at night, the carpenter came
down into the cabin, and called up the master, who dressed
himself ; and then I saw him (for I was not asleep) put. a
pistol in his pocket, and go upon deck. He had only been gone
a short time when I heard the report of a pistol ; I went ha-
mediately upon deck, and saw the steward shot, and the car •

penterhOldiiig his head." The other letter is.from William
Smith, seaman before the mast, in the same ship, and bears
the same date. Smith writes :—"I suppose you have learnt
the sad account of poor John Harrison ; ho was shot by the
captain on the 21st of January; the ball entered the brain,
and he died on the 22d. I had been on shore with him in
the evening, and wanted him to return on board with me,
but ,he did not ; he came, however, in about an hour after, and'
I helped him on board ; I knew nothing more until I heard a
pistol fired, when I came on deck and found the steward
shot." Such are the statements of the letters with regard to
the death of poor Harrison, who has left a widow and child
to lament his hard fate. Harrison served his time with Mr.
Bunney, of Hull, arid always bore the character.of an upr!glit
seaman, and an honest man. His widow has received a cer-
tificate of his death from the captain, stating that he met his
death by accident. The ship-is understood to be now on its
passage to Southampton.—Hull Adrertiser.
Our friends
.in the " far north" appear to'feel the
rigours of winter with almost unexampled severity. We
learn that, since Monday, the 19th ult., the inhabitants of
Stornoway have been under the necssity, in several instances,
of finding egress from their houses by- the roofs, or by pas-
sages dug under the snow. All the roads are completely
blocked up, and many of the houses are buried beneath the
drift. Loss of life, we are sorry to say, has frequently oc-
curred in the Highlands since the commencement orthe pre-
sent storm. An instance has just come within our notice.
On Friday, the 23d alt., whilst a man named Alexander
Macdonald, belonging to Coll, was returning home from
Stornoway, he was overpowered by the storm, and perished
in the snow. His body was found on Monday, at a short
distance from his own house. He has left a widow and six
children to lament his death.—lnverness Courier.

VESSELS SrOKEN Wint.-British schooner, Sophia, Feb. 4,
lat. 30, lon. 61, by the Pollux, arrived at New York.
Ernestine, Nantes to 31auritius, Feb. 9, lat. 3, N., lon. 18.
W. ; Franklin, Liverpool to New Orleans, Feb. 23, lat. 25; N,
lon. 37, W., by the Margaretha, arrived in the Downs,
Louisa Maria' • Patjatan for Amsterdam, Dec. 22, lat. 26, S.,
lon. 60, E. ; Urgent, Calcutta to London, Dec. 27, lat. 28,
lon. 19 ;, Barbab, from Padang for Amsterdam, Jan. 21, lat.
18, S., lon. 2, W., by the Catherina Johanna, off Portland.
Devon, of and from Liverpool, Feb. 6, lat. 841, N., lon. 21
39 W. ; Urania, of and from Leith, to the . Cape of Good
Hope, out 35 days from Stromness, Feb. 8, lat. 10 15, N.,
lon. 23 50, W., by the Mary, from Mauritius, arrived.
Margaret of Bristol, South Australia to Batavia, in the Straits
of Sunda, by the Margaretha Bauer, arrived in the Downs.
Ernestine Leroy, Nantes to Mauritius, 9th ult., lat. 3 N.,
lon. 18W:'Franklin,
by the Liverpool to New Orleans, lat.
25 N.,.10n. 37 W.- Carolina Johann Batavia to Amsterdam,
Jan. 2, lat. 38 S., lon. 39 E. ; Maria, Batavia to Rotterdam,
15th," lat. 32 S., lon. 12 E; Francis Ann, Liverpool to Sin-
gapore, sth ult., on the Line, in lon. 20 W., by the Cambridge,
Brown, arrived off Falmouth. Matilda, of Liverpool, steering
S.W., lat. 38, ion. 12, by the Princess Royal, West, arrived
in the. River. Englishman, Bristol to Africa, Jan. 17, lat. 14
N., lon. 28 W., by the Columbus, arrived at Liverpool. Ab-
botsford, Liverpool to Boston, 25th ult., lat. 43, lon. 47, by
the Mennssia, arrived at Liverpool. London, Calcutta to Li-
verpool, Jan. 8, lat. 30 S., lon. 42 E. ; William Henry,- Li-
verpool to Halifax, 7th inst., lat. 45, lon. 15 ; Little 'Wonder,
London to St. Michael's, 9th, lat. 48, lon. 11; Argus, from
Shields, 10th, lat. 49, lon. 8, by the One-and-All, Broeken-
shire, arrived at Milfbrd.

Is moral principle so utterly extinct in the British
Parliament, that not one of its Members evinces sufficient in-
tegrity, or possesses the common honesty to protest against
the fligitious robbery contemplated in the confiscation of the
small remnant of right which the avarice of landlords has
left to the poor of England in their native soil ? Can it be,
that the power of doing wrong with present impunity has so
deadened the feeling of shame for the meanness of plunder-
ing, and so completely extinguished every spark of genero-
sity, and sense of manly pride in the aristocracy, that not
one of its body shrinks from the infamy indissolubly bound
with the act of spoliation projected by the parents.anci sup-
porters of LOrd ti oreley's Bill? It would appear eo, from
the facility with which this unnecessary, indefensible, and
most odious measure, has passed through its second stage ;
and that we are now to witness the further augmentation of
overgrown estates, by the annexation of every patch, strip„
and shred of land, Which has hitherto escaped the maraud-
irg cepid:ty of the landlords, and assisted the over-taxes',
over-worked, and more than half-starved labourers and cot-
tagers, in the preservation of their miserable existence. For
actuallytli e-rrt.
occupyr nass o f
at
shdahe
Ooas:st
aprtnohtupeueortisleafoabtnniisogreantelr: -te.
erafnsonTar
:erhat_ellv,rimitinhatiNiffaei
poctEnti,ionialAllt:tohhlctloihninndeero.
ecannortstmo-
menteteimm •tipt
01 becomes
c
belongs to those who have taken possession of it in the exer.
ciee of their power as legislators, and all others are tres-
passers and aliens. Bit by bit, and parcePby parcel, the
landlords have seizei upon the property of the people, with nu
advantage even to themselves correspondent to theamount ot
pauperism which they have engendered. And it is not the
least remarkable feature of these acts of robbery, that each
baa been preceded by an affectation of sympathy for the pocr,
and a protestation that the deed was intended to give them
additional employment. Every successive act of robb,grm by
means of Inclosure Bills, whether private or public, hilleen
defended on precisely the same grounds, and every successive
Act has left the people eventually in a worse condition than
before. Private estates have accumulated, and in the same
proportion the means of general subsistence have decreased.
We have at once the wealthiest aristocracy and the greatest
number of hopelessly destitute, that can be found in any
country of which the soil is abundantly capable of sustaining
its entire population. Look on the subject in what light
soever we may, a melancholy picture is presented of a free
people degraded into slaves, and a rampant aristocracy oral.
lowing in wealth, which has been accumulated by abase per .
version of their power as legislators. Men condemn the, act
of the highwayman, who, strong in weapons of destruction,
plunders unarmed travellers : yet the seizure of the rights of
the weak by any act of power whatever, is substantially the,
same.: The name alone makes the difference; and, if this or
any other Bill of a like nature for the general inclosuro et
common lands become a law, let him that is endowed with
inexhaustible patience endeavour to discover the actual dif.

rerenee between a house of landlords and a den of tineves.—.

Morning Advertiser. •
Ensign Swetenham, of the 3d Buffs, eon of Majcr
Swetenham, of Somcrford Hall, Cheshire, was very ger erely
wounded, in charging a battery of the enemy's guns with his
regiment; at the battle of Punniar. A cannot shot entering
his right leg above the knee, carried away almost all the flesh
inside his thigh, passing through, killed his covering sergeant,
who fell dead at the same instant. Mr. Swetenham had
been previously struck by a mmiket shot, when hie sword.
belt arrested the ball from entering his body. We are happy
to learn the last account left him doing well.
DUELS.--:-Fr'oin the commencement of the reign of
George 111, to the rpign of her Blaisty upwards of 200
duels have 'been- fOught. In three 'both combatants were
killed. In 80 one of -the combatants was killed in each; and
in all 120 were Wounded. Upwaidalif '2O trials for duels have
occurred,, in which four duellists were found guilty of mur-
dert and two were hanged. In the list of duellists. occur the
names :1-pElc, Yorfolk. Castlereagh, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan,
Peel, Wellingtmn, &c.
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