The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-28 00:00:00

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i-questioned as to who the three countrymen
:e, but her answer was that she did not know their
names, though she did their faces. At last Lord Lo-
vaine elicited from her that what she did say to Har-
wood was, " You have been in a row and lost your
jacket, like a snake that has slipped its shuck." The
bench being unable to get any further information out
of Mrs. Seabrook, the prisoners were asked if they
bad any questions to put to her.
Jones asked how it was she knew that it was he
who came to her house ou Saturday to secs Levi Har-
wood ? Witness—Because I saw you.
Jones—lt was dark. You did not hear me speak,
did you ? Witness—Do you suppose I did not know
you ? I saw you both standing together outside the
door and talking.
This terminated the evidence adduced during the
sitting, and
The Chairman announced that the prisoners were
remanded till Friday next, before which time there
seemed every probability that more light
would be
thrown upon the ca..:e, and that the pri!woers might be
called upon to say why they should not ta..l their
trials both for burglary and murder.

PREPARATION OJ FLAX.
We were yesterday favoured with an inspection of
, a new process of preparing ilex, by which the delay,
• as ate, end expense connected with the present modes
of its preparation are entirely obviated.
Our readers are probably aware the; under the or-
, dinary mode, the flax is steeped for periods varying
from eight to fourteen days, and under Schenck's pa-
tent system of steeping in heated water, recently in-
, troduced into Ireland, the period required is not less
than sixty hours. Under the ordinary method of
steeping great care is required to prevent the -fibre of
the flax from being completely destroyed, and not-
withstanding the attention which is usually bestowed
upon this branch of the process, large quantities of
flax are constantly injured to such an extent as to
render it all but valueless. Under Schenck's system,
where the water is required to be gra.
dually heated by steam, from eighteen to
twenty hours, until it arrives at a temperature
of 85 to 90 degrees, and the flax remains in the water
for sixty hours—is afterwards dried in summer by
spreading it thinly on grass-land, and in winter upon
ranges of shelves in a building connected with the
" vat-house," and heated by means of steam-pipes—
the operations are of such a nature as manifestly to
render the system unsuitable to the great mass of the
flax. growers.
Under the new system, however, the whole of the
cperation of steeping is dispensed with, and we wonder
how such a step could ever have been resorted to in
the preparation of flax, unless it were intended thereby
to increase the expenses, to seek unnecessary risks, to
waste time and labour to deteriorate fibre, and to
throw as many difficulties as possible in the way of its
successful and profitable preparation. The chemical
properties of-the plant appear to be such as to render •,-
totally unnecessary the application of anything like a
steeping.process, while, so far from benefiting, it only
evealtense and;, to a. great extent, destroys the valuable
fibre. But the complete absurdity of the proces.s is most
strikingly shown by the dye or stain which the steeping
necessarily gives to the fibre, and the large quantity
of injurious substances which always adheres to the
fibres after the operation of steeping, and which it is
necessary to remove subsequently by the tedious,
expensive, and destructive process of bleaching. In
effect it is the same as though the growers of' cotton
were, previous to its being shipped, to cause it to be
saturated with a dye, end afterwards to have it rolled
about on a sandy beach, leaving it to be subsequently
cleaned by the manufacturer. One of the greatest
difficulties connected with the manufacture of linen is
that of weaving it sufficiently close in consequence of
the dirt which adheres to the fibre, and which scarcely
any amount of scutching is able to remove.
The unsteeped process of preparing the flax com-
pletely obviates all these difficulties, and places the
fibre in the hands of the manufacturer with none of
its oleaginous properties destroyed, free from dirt and
dye, and of considerably greater strength as com-
pared with steeped flax. The rapidity by which
the flax may be prepared may be judged by the fact
that, during our visit, a quantity of the stalks in the
state in which they were pulled, with the bolls of •
seed upon them, passed through their several stages,
and within one hour was handed to us in the shape of
a beautifull silky-looking fibre, almost as white as
the paper on which we now write. We are not at
liberty to state the process by which this result is
arrived at, as the patent for the invention has not yet
been secured ; we may state, however, that the whole
operation is so perfectly simple that a child may with
ease accomplish it, and that, although we had not
seen the process before, we were ours:lves able, with-
out further instruction, to produce a small quantity
of fine fibre from the plant.
The process has, we believe, rah with the cordial
approbation of Lord Clarendon and a number of
noblemen and gentlemen interested in developing the
industrial resources of Ireland, who have had the
opportunity of witnessing it. Application has been
made to the Board of Trade for a charter of incorpo-
ration to carry out the patent, the company un-
dertaking to purchase, at the rate of 121. per acre,
exclusive of seed, the produce of 100,000 acres of flax
in Ireland. They also propose to allow the use of
the patent, to supply the machinery, and to provide
instructors to those growers of flax who may possess
the means, and who are anxious to afford employ-
ment to their own labourers in the preparation of the
fibre.

The inventor of this process also claims a patent
for a mode of saturating the seed before its being
sown, which has the effect ofrendering the crop more
than usually prolific, of diminishing the extent of the
ligneous properties of the plant, and producing a
degree of fineness in the fibre which has not yet been
attained.

A quantity of the seed so prepared was last year
sown by a gentleman at Tullagh, near Cork, and the
produce exceeds three tons to the acre; and such is
its quality, that the:grovier has been offered 51. per
ton for his crop, exclusive of the seed.—Morning
Chronicle.

[ADvERTIBEmENT.I
Messrs. HARDING and Ca., 81, beg to
intimate to the public that, in consequence of the rebuilding
of their premi6es, it has become imperative on them to
dispose of the whole of their valuable Stock, which they
have determined to cffer for immediate Salo. at a very eoa-
siderable reduction of price. Messrs. IL and Co. offer to the
public the assurance that the Sale thus announced is Lena
fide. Their entire Stock, consisting of Silks, Ribbons, Lace,
Embroidery, Shawls, Scarves, Cloaks, Mantles, Gloves, cad
the recherché Selection of Millinery, fur all of which their
establi,hment is so eminently distinguished, will be unre-
servedly subjected to the reduction. The Sale will be con-
tinued for a limited period.

EADVERTISEMENT.I-A dangerous CP.se of Erysi-
pelas, attended with Swelling and Inflammation, cured by Hol-
loway's Pills and Ointment.—Extract of a letter, dated East
Kiel, Spilsby, Lincolnshire, October 8, 1845 :—" I beg to an-
nounce to you a most wonderful care wrought upon myself ty
your pills and ointment. I had a very severe attack of erysi-
pelas in my right foot and ankle, with swelling and inflamma-
tion to an alarming extent. I was unable to move without the
assistance of crutches. I consulted an eminent physician to
no purpose. However, in less than two weeks, by the use of
kour ointment and pills, I was cured, to the surprise of all wlio
new me. Signed, Joseph Gildon, a farmer.' —Sold by all
Druggists and at Professor Holloway's Establishment, 244,
Strand, London.

THE GREAT AGRICULTURAL MOVEMENT IN THE
Gnowixo os FLax.—A company, comprising many of the
leading nobility and landowners, is seeking from the Govern-
ment a royal charter to give encouragement to agriculturists
and farmers to bring into immediate cultivation at least
one hundred thousand acres of land in Ireland, for the pro-
duction of flax straw, which substance the promoters of this
charter have (by new and peculiar processes never hitherto
adopted) the power to convert into a fit state to hold com-
petition with the best flax imported from foreign countries,
without the aid of sleeping, kiln-drying, or mill.scutclaing.
The machinery by which the fibre is separated from the
stalk without steeping is of a very simple and inexpensive
kind, requiring no previous knowledge to work it. The un-
steeped flax is uniform in strength, and free from stains, so
that all the after processes of manufacturing and bleaching
may be conducted with a facility and exactness not hitherto
attainable.

OBTAINING MONEY UNDER FALSE PRETENCES.--.
At the public office, Birmingham, on Thursday, Mr. Paul
Birch (who has been for upwards of twenty years in the ser-
vice! of Messrs. Wheeler and Co., jewellers, of Bartlett's-
buildings, Holborn, London, and of St. Paul's-square, Bir-
mingham), was brought up on a charge of having committed
a number of frauds upon his employers, under the following
circumstances :—The defendant was employed as foreman at
the Birmingham establishment, and a part of his business
was that of paying the men their wages weekly, taking a
proper account of the time each man worked, and to trans-
mit a weekly statement of all moneys received and disbursed
to his employers in London. For some time past suspicions
were entertained that Birch was in the habit of rendering
fraudulent balances by a system of charging for men's wages
a greater amount than he had paid them in consideration of
the number of hours they had worked. In order to test this
Messrs. Wheeler sent on a particular day for a workman
named Mordaunt to town unknown to the defendant; not-
withstanding this, in his weekly balance Birch charged for
Mordaunt six days' work (1/. 69.), although he had only
paid to him 1/. 101. Other frauds of a similar character were
brought forward, and from the evidence it appeared that
this system of fraud had been carried on for some time. The
prisoner was committed for trial. At the time he was taken
into custody he had 700/. of his own money in the hands of
his employers.

SHI I•WRECH.—FALMOUTIT, OCT. 9.3.—0 n Tues-
day night, at about &even o'clock, the schooner Thetis, of
Preston, Strickland master, from Dieppe, left this port for
Liverpool, with a cargo of flour, was run into by the
choon,r Shepherdess, of Llanelly, Morris master, from Ply-
mouth for Wales, r, he having, at Six A. 31., come out of
Mount's Bay. The concussion was received by the Thetis in
her waist, immediately after which she turned on her beam-
ends, when her captain and his wife, and the crew, consisting
of four hands, got into the boat and took refuge on board the
Shepherdess, the poor woman escaping in her night-dress.
A boat shortly after went from the Shepherdess to endea-
your to pick up or take off some of her stores, and, when
, f
eshe
Falmouth,careened whereover, bottom up.
landed
,arhhoou
Shepherdessetthfreonmmandeer
the unfortunate people on the following morning, It is
likely, from the
.sature
.of the..catgo,of the Thetis, that she
will pot go down, but will be made a prize of by some cf the
.Modfit '1 Ccatv tisherthen. The collision took i)laea
'between the Lizard and the. Longships. The in
a line
Shepherdess was split, and she makes water Itein
of
the