The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-04 00:00:00

FASHIONABLE INTELLIGENCE.

ARRIVALS.
Captain Vansittart, Coldstream Guards, in Halkin-
street, from Cheltenham; the Earl of Milltown, from
Brighton; Lady Osborne, at the St. George's Hotel,
Albemarle-street; his Excellency the Belgian Minister
and family, in Portland-place, from Brighton; Lord
Middleton, at Thomas's Hotel, Berkeley-square; Colonel
Maclaine, from Cheltenham; Lady Morgan, at her house
in town, from Boulogne-sur-Mer ; Sir Charles Scuda-
more, M.D., in Wimpole-street, from Buxton.
DEPARTURES.

The Right Hon. Charles Arbuthnot, from Apsley
House, for Woodford House, near Kettering, Northamp-
tonshire; Major Everard, for Brighton ; Thomas Glad-
stone, Esq., for Sussex-square, Brighton; Lieut.-General
Sir W. Peacock, for St. Leonard's-on-Sea; the Hon. Lady
Capel, from Grosvenor-street, for Brighton; T. Erskine,
Esq., and Mrs. Stirling, from the St. George's Hotel,
Albemarle-street, for Paris; Captain and Mrs. Stevenson,
from ditto, for their seat in Kent ; Major and Mrs.
Graham, from Cumberland, for Brighton; Lieut.-Colonel
Snell, for Eastbourne, Sussex; Mr. and the Hon. Mrs.
Wallis Grieve, for Lord Nortbwick's, Thirlestone
House, near Cheltenhum; the Dowager Lady Kilmaine
and Miss Louisa Disbrowe, from Chester-street, Bel-
grave-square, for Hartlebury Castle.
CHANGES.
The Hon. L. A. Grant, Royal Horse Guards-Blue, at
the Earl of Seafield's, Castle Grant, N. 8., from the
south; Sir H. D. Goring, Bart., at Highden, Sussex,
from Brighton; Lieut.-General Sir R. Arbuthnot, from
Morrison's Hotel, Dublin, on a tour; Earl Spencer, from
a visit to the Earl of Leicester, at Holkham Hall; Sir
Augustus and Lady Foster and Mr. Vere Foster, at St.
Leonard's-on-Sea, from a tour; Mr. and Lady Jane
Lawrence Peel and famib-, at Paris, from Dieppe; Sir
J. Kimpton and Lady James, from Cheltenham, for
Dublin; Lord Northwich, at Thurlestane House, from
Northwick Park.

FATAL EXPLOSION.—A frightful accident has just
occurred at the powder manufactory of Tivoli, near the
Faubourg of Bourges, a place in which cartridges and
other articles for the use of the army are made. On
Friday last, about three o'clock, while the workmen were
engaged at work, a terrible explosion threw the neigh-
bourhood into consternation. The labourers were en-
gaged in prosecuting their work, but the powder being
in a very dry state, and exposed to the heat of the sun,
became ignited, and a dreadful explosion followed. A
child of 12 years old, belonging to a man named Ducot,
a quartermaster, was thrown to a great height, and was
literally in flames. The mutilated head was afterwards
found separated from its body ; the remainder of the
corpse was a complete wreck, and scattered here and
there. A gunner also received a severe wound. The
chief artifice: was injured slightly in the leg, and one
of the children of M. Affre, quartermaster, had its arm
fractured, besides sustaining other injuries of a less seri-
ous nature.

FIRST IMPORTATION OF DUTCH SHREP.--Yester-
day forenoon the steam-packet Batavier arrived at the
St. Katharine's Steam-packet Wharf, from Rotterdam,
after having experienced very tempestuous weather,
having on board a considerable number of cabin passen-
gers, and an extensive cargo, chiefly consisting of live
agricultural stock. She shipped several heavy seas,
which, with the heaving of the vessel, occasioned the
death of no fewer than twelve oxen out of sixty-two, the
number shipped at Rotterdam. The Batavier also
brought sixty prime sheep, being the first importation
of the Dutch fleecy flock. She also brought a largo
quantity of live poultry, geese, &c. The passengers
reaped the advantages of the new Custom-house regula-
tion, relative to the examination of their luggage. Addi-
tional landing waiters and weighers having been in
attendance on the arrival of the Batavier, the passengers'
luggage was all examined, &c., in little more than one-
third of the time usually taken.
PEDESTRIAN FEAT.—Yesterday a match for 51.
came off in the Park-road, Clapham, which drew together
a good sprinkle of spectators. The feat was to pick 100
atones from the ground, each being placed a yard apart ;
the match was undertaken by Collis, who went at his
task, commencing at the far end (the stipulations were,
not to fetch more than one stone at a time, and to deposit
it in a basket at one end, the whole to bo completed in
fifty minutes.) He worked hard for forty-four minutes,
when he accomplished the match, and winning by six
minutes. The distance actually run over was five miles,
five furlongs, and 200 yards.
BREWERS, VICTUALLERS, AND BEBRSIIOP-SEEP•
ERS.—It appears from a Parliamentary document, that
on the 10th of October last there were 2,644 brewers in
the United Kingdom, of which number 2,318 were in
England, 188 in Scotland, and 138 in Ireland. There
were at the same period 86,073 victuallers in the United
Kingdom, of whom 57,698 resided in England, 15,499
in Scotland, and 12,926 in Ireland. In England there
were 31,227 persons licensed to sell beer to be drunk on
the premises, and 4,252 persons licensed to sell beer not
to be consumed on the premises ; there were 27,009
victuallers who brewed their own beer, and nearly 14,000
beershop-keepers who also brewed their beer.
IMPORTATION OF FOREIGN WREAT.—For the time
of year—arising chiefly from the comparative sluggish-
ness in the demand for wheat here, and the low prices at
which that article has been disposed of—the imports of
foreign wheat have not proved large, though they have
quite equalled our necessities. Of Canadian flour, how-
ever—frona the premium offered to its importation by the
new Flour Bill—the receipts have been large beyond all,
precedent, and no doubt will continue so, while the pre-
sent legislative enactment continues in force. Our ad-
vices from Quebec and Montreal inform us that not less
370,000 barrels of flour has been exported this season,
aviinst about 180,000 at the same time last year.—
arnters' Magazine.

Moth-eaten, rot our banners proud;
Our good claymores are red with rust;
And if we pray, 'tis not aloud—
For him who from his throne is thrust.
Dawn quickly, Day! when we may trust
To face his foes again,
Strike down the oppressors to the dust,
And free our shields from stain!
Woe! woe to thee, Culloden Plain!
Where gallant blood was shed;
Our Coronach is o'er the slain,
Our wail is for the dead!

Now silent are the trophied halls,
Where mirth and music sped the hour;
The green o'ermantling ivy crawls
From niche to niche, from tower to tower
No more smiles Beauty from her bower—
'Tis rent by wind and rain;
There drops the ripe fruit, and the flower
Perfumes the air in vain!
Woe! $llO4O to thee, Culloden Plain!
Where loyal blood was shed;
Our Coronach is o'er the slain,
Our wail is for the dead!

UNITED SERVICE JOURNAL.
This Number contains more readable articles than
usual, and among the best, or at any rate the most
seasonable, is one on the subject of Prance and Mo-
rocco, of which latter country a very minute account
is given, and which bears every mark of authenticity.
In the "Naval Chaplain's Note-Book," which is con-
tinued from last month, occur several interesting re-
miniscences connected with the writer's profession.
" Sketch of General Pollock's campaign in Affgha-
nistan," is a narrative that should have appeared
months since in the pages of this periodical, when the
public took a deeper interest in the subject than is the
case at present.

SIMMONDS'S COLONIAL MAGAZINE.
Of the numerous periodicals of the day devoted to
the consideration of colonial matters, the one before
us is unquestionably the best—in the first place, be-
cause it is most careful and circumstantial in its de-
tails; and secondly, because it is most varied in the
range of its information. In the Magazine for the
present month we find some instructive, and to all
appearance, impartial, remarks on " the affairs and
prospects of New Zealand"—one of the most pro-
mising of our infant colonies—together with an in-
genious essay on the " Agriculture of Hindostan."

JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE.
This is a periodical which appeals exclusively to
the tastes of agriculturists, as may be surmised from
its title. It is got up with evident care, and contains
this month an article of more than ordinary interest
on the subject of the " Geology of Dnmfriesshire."

BRITISH MAGAZINE.
In the Number before us of this monthly register of
religious and ecclesiastical information, the only
article worthy of being pointed out to our reader's
attention, is a curious, and not unamusing one, en-
titled " Some Notices on the Subject of our Early
Colonial Church."

POLYTECHNIC REVIEW.
Devoted to the consideration partly of scientific, and
partly of literary matters, this useful periodical is
calculated to win the favourable suffrages of a large
class of the community. In the present Number the
reader will find an intelligent essay, evidently sug-
gested by Captain Warner's late extraordinary experi-
ment at Brighton, on the subject of " Projectile Wea-
pons of War and Explosive Compounds.

MEDICAL TIMES.
A cheap and serviceable periodical, confined, like its
contemporary the Lancet, to the discussion of medical
subjects.

LITERATURE.
FOREIGN QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. 67.
Chapman and Hall, London, 1844.
In an elaborate notice of Mr. Featherstonhaugh's
recently published "Excursions through the Ameri-
can Slave States," the Reviewer points out the demo-
ralising effects produced on all classes in the Southern
States of Yankee-land by the prevalence of this ac-
cursed system—a superfluous task, by the bye, since
no one needs to be told of the debasing influence that
slavery exercises over the human mind, even in its
most mitigated form. Of the newly-formed State of
Arkansas, which has only been admitted within the
Union within the last five or six years, he draws a
most flattering sketch, observing that it has become a
sort of Alsatia for all kinds of thieves and gamblers,
forgers, horse-stealers, and the like, who, " flying from
the inconvenient inquisition of the laws which they
have outraged, take refuge in this happy district, where
they may enjoy the luxury of lawlessness to their
heart's content." In the article on " French Aggres-
sions in the Pacific," Great Britain is taunted with
having been baffled and laughed at by the crafty ag-
gressors, of whose proceedings in Otaheite a very mi-
nute, and apparently authentic account, is given,
though it does not add much to the knowledge which
the majority of our readers already possess on the sub-
ject through the medium of the public press. The
" Military Power of Russia"—a theme always inte-
resting to Englishmen—is suggested by a work that
has recently appeared, and which maintains that the
military strength of this immense empire has been
considerably overrated by all foreigners, a statement
in which the Reviewer seems disposed to coincide.
When we bear in mind that it took Nicholas not less
than two campaigns to put down insurrectionary Poland,
and that with all the vast resources at his command,
he has been able as yet to make little or no impression
on the brave Circassian mountaineers, who scarcely
number two hundred thousand souls, we can scarcely
believe but that the German accounts of his prodigious
military influence are greatly exaggerated. The
" Punjaub" is a graphic description of the past condi-
tion and present prospects of this remote Indian dis-
trict. We subjoin, from the article on American
Slavery, a fearful sketch of a duel that took place not
long since in the State of Arkansas :

"Out of the whole population there are hardly twelve
inhabitants who ever go into the streets without being
armed with pistols or large hunting-knives, about a foot
long, and an inch and a half broad. These formidable
instruments,' says our author, ' with their sheaths
mounted in silver, are the pride of an Arkansan blood,
and got their names of bowie-knives from a conspicuous
person of this fiery climate.' Amongst other illustra-
tions of the red-hot temper of the people, Mr. Feather-
stonhaugh relates a story of two persons who, without
any quarrel, except of that brutal kind which originates
in pure wanton aggression, fought a duel after a fashion
which, even in America, must have been regarded as
something extraordinary. They were placed in a room
totally dark, from which every glimpse of light was
carefully excluded, stripped to the skin, except their
trousers, their arms and shoulders well greased, and a
brace of loaded pistols and a bowie-knife given to each.
A signal was to be given from the outside before the
butchery began ; but a quarter of an hour elapsed after
the signal before the slightest noise was heard. The
two men were cowering and glaring in the dark, sup-
pressing their breath, and watching their advantage.
All of a sudden a pistol went off, then another, then two
more. The survivor afterwards stated, that becoming
faint from loss of blood, he stumbled against the wall
and fell. The other approached stealthily with his
bowie-knife to dispatch kim. The prostrate man clutched
his knife, raised himself, listened, but could hear nothing.
At last he saw a pair of cat like eyes gleaming through
the darkness—he lifted his knife with a desperate effort
and stuck it into the heart of his opponent. When the
door was opened and the seconds entered, they found the
survivor still holding his knife up to the hilt in the dead
man's body ! Such horrible examples of unmitigated
ferocity ought not to be quoted against the
in case
morality
the or
‘
social civilisation of any country, unless, a
of these States, they are not exceptionable:
bturtaoorrddiinnaarr):
illustrations of the habits of the people. l
such as the duel between Buckingham and S
duels in former periods have taken place in Ehrevisburyngland-3
—surrounded by circumstances of peculiar heartlessness
or bravado ; hut, in no instancein our annals, or in the
annals of any country in Europe, can there be traced,
even in standing out solitarily from the chronicles of the
most brutalised chivalry, an example of that fierce and
reckless spirit which is common to tho duels of America,
in greater or lesser degree of intensity. There is an-
other peculiarity worth noticing in these duels, over and
above their mere criminal ferocity. It is this, that they
generally take place in the open streets, and ordinarily
on the Sabbath-day, because we presume it is the idle day
when the victim is sure to be met with lounging at his door,
or smoking..., in perfect unconsciousness of impending'
danger. This would be incredible, if we had not the
best authority for the facts themselves in the daily papers
of the Union, and if the character of the society out of
which these atrocities spring were not authenticated by
a cloud of witnesses."

• _
il MAGA ZINES—(CON TINUED).
HOOD'S MAGAZINE.
Mr. Hood here continues his lively dramatic story
of " Our Family," which in some passages reminds
us, not unpleasantly, of Sterne's manner in his
" Tristam Shandy," especially in the scene of the
christening at the parish church, which is replete
with an arch and delicate humour, not usual with the
author. " September in Paris" is a gossiping ac-
count of the French capital at this season of the year;
in the course of some remarks on literature, the
writer tells us that Eugene Sue's new novel of the
" Wandering Jew," for which he receives the enor-
mous price of ten thousand francs a volume, is
generally considered a failure, so far as it has gone.
The "Monk's Finger" is a singular tale, which would
form the subject of a good melodrama for one of our
minor theatres. We subjoin some spirited stanzas by
Delta, entitled " Woe, woe to thee, Culloden Plain :"
In splendour glow'd the morning sun,
As curb'd our chief his gallant grey ;
And from our ramparts peal'd the gun,
While marched afield his proud array :
Yes I rose to llearen the wild huzza,
When woke the pibroch's strain—
But ahl they bade adieu, that day,
That came not back again!
Woel woe to thee, Culloden Plain!
Where noble blood was shed;
Our Coronaoh is o'er the slain,
Our wail is for the dead!