The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-06 00:00:00

EXPENSES OF PRINTING.

Sir GEORGE CLERK moved that the following
gentlemen be a Select Committee to assist Mr.
Speaker in all matters which relate to the printing
executed by order of this House, and for the
purpose of selecting and arranging for printing re-
turns and papers presented in pursuance of motions
made by Members of this House, which may be referred
to the said Committee : —Sir George Clerk, Sir Robert
Harry Inglis, Mr. Pusey, Mr. Vernon Smith, Mr.
Strutt, Viscount Mahon, Mr. Tufnell, Mr. Patrick
Stewart, and Mr. Hume :—Power to send for persons,
papers, and records ; five to be the quorum.
Mr. HUME said, he had last session moved for re-
turns:of the expense of printing each document, but they
had not been laid on the table of the House. He con-
sidered there was great laxity and delay somewhere
connected with this subject. The expense of every
document ought to be printed with the document itself.
He did not wonder, from the mode in which the business
was managed, that the expense of printing now amounted
to 170,000/. or 180,000/.
Sir GEORGE CLERK could assure the Hon. Gentle-
man there was no wish to delay the returns he moved
for, but there was great trouble in making them out.
Mr. HUME thought it was as easy to make out the
cost of each book, and bring it with the book itself, as
it was to bring penny rolls, and the price at which they
were sold.

The motion was then agreed to, and the House ad
journed at Seven o'Clock.

CHILD-BIRTH IN THE Show.—Shortly before five
o'clock on Friday morning, whilst the snow was fast falling,
as a police-constable, of the I) division was going his rounds,
near Marylebone workhouse, New-road, he heard a moan
proceed from one of the gardens attached to the houses op-
posite that establishment, and, on close inspection, found a
poor woman lying in the snow, together with a living infant,
of which she had just been delivered. The constable imme-
diately ran to the Marylebone Infirmary, and gave informa-
tion to Tebutt, the porter, who lost no time in conveying it
to Mrs. Walsh, the matron. Blankets and an easy chair
were at once provided, and carried to the spot where
the poor creature laid, and she and her offspring having
been wrapped up, were at once conveyed to the work-
house, where, after receiving prompt medical attendance,
they were placed in bed; and yesterday both mother and
child were found to be doing well. At the time of the oc-
currence, the poor woman was on her way to Queen Char-
lotte's Lying-in Hospital, where, by the regulations, females
are not admitted until the very last hour, when their ac-
couchement is likely to take place.
DRY HUMOUR.—An Irish post-boy, having driven
a gentleman a long stage during torrents of rain, the gen-
tleman drily said to Paddy, " Are you not very wet 2"
" Arrah I don't care about being very wet, but plase your
honour I'm very dry.'

SIERRA LEONE and the GAMBIA.

Two important papers relative to these interesting
settlements, ordered . by the House of-Commons, one,
printed on the 24th of August last, have just reached
our hands. The first (on the motion of Mr. Hume)
is " a Return of the total income of the two Settlements
in each of the years 1839, 1840, and 1841, and how
expended ; stating the several and separate heads of
income and expenditure, with the particulars thereof,
under each head." The second (moved by Sir Harry
Inglis) purports to be " a Return of the Public Ex-
penditure in the Settlement of Sierra Leone from
1825 to 1842, both inclusive ; distinguishing that
from Colonial Funds, and that from Parliamentary
Grants ; and distinguishing the expenditure in each
year from each source."
The " income " of Sierra Leone is classified under
the following heads, viz. (1) Customs dues, (2)
Licenses' dues, issued under Colonial Acts or Ordi-
nances (for retailing spirituous liquors, for auc-
tioneers, hawkers, pilots, &c., for marriage licenses;
also market dues, taxes on horses, carriages, and
Dogs. (3) Fines, forfeitures and fees, from sessional
and police courts, copies of public office documents,
&c. (4) Rents and sales of lands. (5) Special and
miscellaneous (chiefly proceeds, in 1839, of sales of
goods abandoned for duty, 7211., (the minor items
under this head ranging from 201. to 861.) The
" Customs" which yielded 11,0051. in the year 1839,
and 12,6091. in 1840, in 1841 fell to 7,4801. The
spirit selling licences in like manner produced in
the same years, successively and respectively 1,116/. ;
1,0181., 8711., and market dues, 841/., 8561., and
4711. " Fines, &c." declined, in like manner from 1521.
and 2291., in 1839 and 1840 to 391. only in 1841.
Rent of factories brought in the two former years
31/. and 135/. ; in the last only 11/. In short, the
only heads on which we find an increase in 1841. are
(characteristically enough) in passports (from Sierra
Leone we presume), which in 1839 produced but 551.,
in 1841 212/. ; auctioneers' licences, which advanced
in same interval from 91/. to 1031., and miscella-
neous, which rose from 421. in the first to 861. in the
third year of this term. The total income and ex-
penditure results as follows :
Income. . Expenditure.
In 1839 £14,179 £12,086
1840 15,302 10,165
1841 9,379 14,243
The principal heads of increased expenditure, which
went to make up the excess over income in 1841,
were to salaries paid by agents in London, contin-
gencies of the colonies, revenue salaries, pensions in
London, pay of militia, contingencies of ditto, rents
and customs to native chiefs (911. in 1839, and 1,370/.
in 1841), presents for ditto, and missions to and from
ditto. Thus it will be seen that there was
In 1839 a surplus of income of £2,093
1840 ditto 5,137

£7,230
1841 as excess of expenditure... 4,864

£2,366

It appears that, allowing for the surplus income of
1839 and 1840, amounting in all to 7,2391., the ex-
cess of expenditure in 1841, 4,8641., there was still a
balance of income on the three years of 2,3661. Un-
der the heads pensions in colony, expenses of tak-
ing the colonial census, maintenance of distressed
seamen, and ecclesiastical contingencies (co-
lony), the items are stationary, or very nearly
so, throughout the whole period ; whilst, on the
charges for contingencies (London) ; ecclesiastical sa-
laries (colony) ; contingencies (ditto), medical sala-
ries, and contingencies (ditto) ; clothing and contin-
gencies (London) ; and buildings and repairs (colony),
there was a considerable aggregate decrease in 1841
from the aggregate of 1839.
In the return for Gambia, the chief items of in-
creased expenditure in 1841 are civil salaries paid in
the colony; judicial salaries and contingencies, ditto;
pay of militia; repairs and buildings (colony) ; presents
to, and missions to and from native chiefs. But the
excess of all these together, as compared with their
amount in 1839, is but 1,464/. ; whereas, in the other
prominent heads of expenditure, the decrease in 1841,
as compared with the two preceding years, is about
2,1001. There is, however, an additional item of ex-
pense, a 500/. repayment of a 500/. fine in 1841, by
order of the Secretary of State. The truth is, the
revenue of Gambia has lamentably declined in the
same interval. The Customs yielded in 1839, 7,117/. ;
in 1841, only 4,532/. The other items of revenue in
1839 and 1841, scarcely exceeded a total of 200/. ; in
1840, of 7741. The excess of expenditure, therefore,
over income for three years is very considerable, as
may be shown by this statement :
GAMBIA.
Income. Expenditure.
1839 £7,381 £5,126
1840 4,953 8,284
1841 4,840 6,413

£17,174 £19,823
Excess of Expenditure in three years £2,649

The third return in this Parliamentary paper, ex-
hibits the public expenditure in the settlement of
Sierra Leone, from 1825 to 1842, thus distinguished
and arranged, namely :
TOTAL OF EXPENDITURE, 1825 TO 1842, FROM
PARLIAMENTARY GRANTS.
Liberated Africans
Civil Establishments 116,850
Public Works 12,434
Colonial Contingencies' 3,878

£327,436
EXPENDITURE FROM CLERICAL REVENUES.

Under same heads and in same interval .E164,676

Grand total..

£492,112

HARRIS'S LIGHTNING CON-
DUCTORS.
" H.M.S. MINDEN.—We have been favoured with
a copy of a letter from the Minden (hospital-ship at
Hong-Kong, China), from which we extract the fol-
lowing :—` The lightning last night (July 30) was
heavier than I ever saw it before ; two flashes struck
the Minden, and played about Harris's conductors for
some seconds, conveying a stream of fire through the
ship awful to behold ; a frizzing noise was distinctly
heard, and I have no doubt but that we should have
received serious injury had we not been furnished
with these conductors. We are now lying with the
fore-yards and top-masts struck, and have just had
orders to receive on board fifty more of the worst
cases out of the 55th Regiment : we have the sick on
two decks at present. I have just been informed that
the lightning last night also struck some merchant
vessels, killed four men, and wounded some others,
Dr. orrison, the chief interpreter, is dead, after hav-
ing been nearly all his life in China. Lieutenant
Ralph Milbanke, of the Childers, is also dead, and
Mr. Forbes, mate of that ship, has been promoted to
the vacancy. Dr. Rae, assistant-surgeon, is appointed
to the Minden.'

It appears from the above which we extract from
the Devonport Independent of last week, that the most
complete protection has been afforded by Harris's
lightning conductors to one of her Majesty's ships
employed in a service of great consequence to the
country—and that, too, under very trying circum-
stances, and when other vessels near, and exposed to
the same storm of lightning, evidently suffered con-
siderably.
It has always been our object, as impartial jour-
nalists, to afford due and fair consideration to any
question of practical science affecting the public in-
terests, and we cannot, therefore, but admit that this
result of the action of Mr. Harris's system of pro-
tection from lightning is most important, and quite
conclusive of the truth of the principles for which he
has so long contended.
Without any undue bias in favour of our towns-
man, or the least wish to treat lightly the opinions of
those who have expressed themselves as adverse to the
general employment of his conductors in our navy,
we are at a loss to understand upon what ground
they insist on their danger ; seeing that they have
been now employed in her Majesty's navy for up-
wards of fourteen years, and that the ships fitted on
his plan have been exposed to the. effects of lightning
under various circumstances in every climate,—yet
not a single instance has ever been adduced in which
they have failed to afford protection, or in which any
injurious consequence has resulted. Had the views
which have been lately pressed upon the public mind
through the pages of a most respectable and valuable
journal, the Hampshire Telegraph, been founded on
truth, then we most unhesitatingly insist upon the
fact, that such a case as that we have just quoted of
her Majesty's ship Minden could not possibly have oc-
curred. Now, one fact is worth a thousand theories.
In the Nautical Magazine, for December last, we
find an equally important illustration of the operation
of these conductors. It appears by the official jour-
nal of the sloop Scylla, signed by Captain Sharpe,
and transmitted to the Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty, that on the 6th of August, 1843, in lat.
24 3 N., long. 96 13 W., the ship having shortened
sail to a squall from the N,W., was at this instant
struck by a terrible shock of lightning, which burst
on the main• mast, and was instantly carried clear out
of the ship, so that within half-an-hour the vessel
had again made all sail, as if nothing had happened.
The electrical discharge is said, in a private letter, to
have passed down the masts and by the lower deck
into the sea, attended by a rattling peal of thunder.
The force of the shock was so great as to start some
of the fixings of the copper plates in the royal pole ;
yet not the least damage was done, or any inconve-
nience felt in the ship.
With such facts before us, we cannot but hope that
the Editor of the paper to which we have alluded
will see the necessity of revising the disparaging
statements which he has allowed to appear in his
pages, relative to these conductors. It can never be
for the interest of the press to deal narrowly, and
through the prejudiced opinions of others, with any
question in any way affecting the national interest.
To rescue our shipping generally from the terrible
consequences of so destructive an agency as light-