The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-09 00:00:00

Tr-1E guN, LONDON) FRIT) A V EVENING-) AUGUST 93 /gsi)

praliel in tragedy. A 'ad cmtrricted the glasses fron
-;is gr..onlfather's aretaeles. The cid m.,n 1,, 1:e,
1-.rotir.,,,h the ungl:-.z. d frames and exoleinif d with horror,
• Mercy on me, I have lost my sight!' With tervou,
• lgitntiun he took them off to wipe them clean; his hami-
icerehif-f came on tron•sisting air, and now he cried wirl,
redcutd&l terror,' lleaven:.! I have lost my f eling too.'
F.; was well for him that they were his glatises which
wire gone and not his eyes."
This article on " Spectacles" should be perused by
-very one who experiences the smallest diminution in
-the powers of vision. After it, the biography of
Dr. Johnson," lately produced by the author of "Dr.
Hook well," is subjected to a severe and excoriating
attack. " Laplace and Biot "is the heading of a brief
anecdotal chapter, interesting to all lovers of the
science cf astronomy. Besides the above-mentioned
contributions, there are others in the present numlfr of
the great Tory periodical relating to "National Work-
shops," to " Ancient Agricultural Literature," to the
" Austrian Revolution," to the " Memoirs of Robert
Plumer Ward," and to " Lamartine's Refutation of
'he Quarterly." The laq-mentioned paper is nothing
more than a hasty and supercilious comment on a
recent article in Le Conseilltr do People, the political
organ of the opinions i.f M. de Lamartine.

FINE ARTS.
PORTRAIT OF DR. JELF.

We have just seen a portrait of Dr. Jeit, the Reve-
rend Principal of king's College, London, published
by Messrs. Wickham and Yelland, of 163, Strand, and
can speak with perfect confidence of the merits of this
production of Mr. Maguire's pencil, in respect as well
to the felicity of the likeness as to the masterly style of
its execution. It is rare indeed that so fine a speci-
men of lithography is offered to the public from an
English press. To all to whom the features of the
worthy original are familiar, this portrait will be
doubly welcome, combining as it does the two great
desiderata in portraiture—accuracy in detail and
truthfulness in expression. There is a thoughtful
and benevolent repose about the countenance, exciting
Ott once reverence for the excellent Doctor and grati.
tude to the artist who could giv it permanence. The
drawing is unexceptionable; the hands are themselves
a study ; and the form of the figure is simple, natural,
and artistic. The drapery, which is admirable, by
its quiet tone and lucid breadth, contributes to the
general effect. A few more such portraits cannot fail
to add much to the reputation of the accomplished
artist, and raise him to a high rank among the most
successful members of his profession. We must
make one remark upon the very elegant frame
which the publishers of the print have appropriately
got up for its reception. In its manufacture not only
has a pure taste been employed, but durability of ma-
terial has been insured, gutta percha haing been sub-
stituted for wood and composition. The result is a
charmingly neat and chaste article, calculated, like
the picture itself, to do credit in every way to the
judgment of all whose walls it is destined to adorn.,

SUMMER TIME IN TOWN AND COUNTRY.
(From Eliza Cook's Journal.)
Sunday is the great city-holiday. On summer
Sundays the streets are almost deserted. From an
early hour in the morning, the population has been
pressing out country-wards in all directions, on foot,
in busses, or along the river, up or down, in steamers.
To many of the hard-worked, toiling classes, Sunday
is the very eye of the week. Through it they see
Nature 'and her God. It enables them to cast the
slough of their six day's toil, and rescues them from
the polluted miasms in which too many of them daily
live. In our hearts we cannot believe that the bene-
ficent use of the Sabbath, in cleansing and purifying
the physical and moral nature of man, is inconsistent
with the example of Him who taught that it was right
to pull a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath-day. And
how much better is a man than a sheep ?
All the fields and heaths for ten miles round Lon-
don are gay with health and pleasure-seekers on this
day. On Shooter's-hill, on Primrose- hill, on Black-
heath, on Clapham Common, on Hampstead Heath,
you find working men, with their wives and families,
and younger men with their sweethearts, seated on the
grass, drawing from the depths of mysterious bags
and baskets the materials for their noon repast.
Greenwich and Richmond Parks are full, and Hamp-
ton-court Palace is swarming with visitors. Pleasure-
vans come pouring in till a late hour in the afternoon,
and disgorge loads of people, who, in turns, pass
through the gardens, picture-galleries, and chapels of
the Court. Towards evening all the tea-gardens
about town are filled, long tables are set out in the
open air, and many a tea is joyfully dispatched at
ninepence per head. Dusk comes on, and the streams
of human beings again pour back into the city.
And now for summer-time in the country ! The
weather is warm, the sky is beautiful, and a sense of
heat and quiet is over all nature—
" The birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees."
They are mute : some have already taken their leave
for the year, and migrated. The insect tribes are all
full of life ; the grasshopper's crisp notes ring amidst
the grass; the gnats dance under the pendent boughs
of trees. Flowers are fading, and the field-lanes and
hedge-rows are less gaudy than in past months ; but
the wastes, marshes, and woods are still dressed in
their luxuriant attire of ferns and heaths, with all
their varieties of green, and purple, and gold. The
skirts of the forest begin to be fringed with yellow,
for the cool evenings are coining on, and the pencil
of autumn is beginning to tint the woods with her
variegated hues. The fields are golden-coloured, for
the corn is fast ripening towards harvest. If we have
lost the fl,iwers of the year, we have abundant pro-
mise of its fruits. The air is balmy and serene ; the
sun rises and sets in beauty ; and the splendid har-
vest moon makes the night more glorious than at any
other season. The fairies of old used to dance by
night under her beams, and the bright green circles,
called " Fairy Rings," are yet to be seen in every
grass-field during August ; but
" Philosophy will clip an angel's wings,"
and so our fairies have disappeared, though their rings
are still left us.
When the beauties of nature afford so abundant a
variety as at this season, we scarcely know where to
choose. Shall it be hedge-rows and field-paths,
the sun-tanned reapers harvesting on either side,
little children sitting prattling under the hawthorn
bush, until their parents can rest for the mid-
day meal, or, playing by the old stile, half-
hidden under the overhanging boughs of an old
oak, waiting there for the evening hour of rest,
when they all plod wearily homewards together ?
Or, shall it be the green lanes about cities, many of
which are still preserved in the neighbourhood of old
London—the country pressing closely upon the
crowded city on every side? Beautiful exceedingly
are they about Highgate, where the Poet's Lane,
Coleridge's and Keats's favourite walk on the skirts
of Mansfield-park, still invites many lovers of nature
to while away the summer evening hour, until the
sun's departing rays
" Fling back a lingering, lovely after-day;"
when the air sleeps all over the heavens, and the red
round disc of the departing god crimsons over the
little inland mere with mellowed loveliness, while
the nightingale sends up her mellifluous song from the
bowery gardens in the lane. Or, shall it be Love-
lane, near Camberwell, or Hag Bush-lane, or the
beautiful green walks about Kensington or Dulwich?
But no ! it is the country—the far-off country of
which we would speak. Shall it be then by the sea-
shore? Ah ! how cool " the sea" sounds in hot
weather ; when we go to bed hot, lie half asleep hot,
rise hot, take a hot breakfast, gaze out upon hot brick
alls, see the hot postman hurrying on his errands in
hot scarlet, and walk along hot streets with heated
thousands. No wonder so many should, at such a
time, rush to Margate, Ramsgate, Brighton, and
every point of the sea-coast, for a breath of fresh air
and a plunge into the delicious cool brine. Or, shall
we bury ourselves in cool forests, beneath the shade
of thick trees,

" A covert of old trees, with trunks all boar,"
whose foliage nature already tinges as with the hues
of the dying dolphin; or lay ourselves down by cool
gross on the banks of running brooks, listening to the
water gurgling through stones, or welling up from
the cool recesses of the earth?

PeRILOUS DESCENT OF MRS. GRAHAM, AND TOTAL
DESTRUCTION OF THE BALLOON.—On Wednesday evening
Mrs. Graham made a night ascent from Cremorne- gardens,
under circumstances of great disadvantage, owing to the
state of the atmosphere and the heavy rain that had fallen
descendedd uri n
g the
ina field
near
after
the asoni
South-Easterne somewhat
R a hazardousßailway,
3t,
apt,
Edmonton. When Mrs. Graham was making preparations
for her descent, she heard the sound of a railway train, and
saw several lights, but owing to the darkness of the night,
she was unable to conjecture as to what part of the country
she was in. The grapnel, however, touched the ground,
but the wind increasing, the balloon was carried over several
fields, when the grapnel fortunately became strongly im-
bedded, and took firm hold in the bank of a ditch. There
being no signs of any person to afford any assistance,
Mrs. Graham continued for upwards of half an hour
shouting as loud as she could for help, but to no purpose.
She kept the valve open, however, to its fullest extent, the
t, balloon rolling abou and the car at times completely turn-
ing over, and Mrs. Graham with great difficulty being ena-
bled to retain her hold; after a lapse of some time, police-
constable, 305 N, came to her assistance, and held the car
for at least twenty minutes, when further assistance arrived
with lights, and whilst Mrs. Graham was in the act of
walking round to see that the valve was properly open, some
onesincioter:
mhtelaidse escapingabnofufita tmh
person approached too near with one of the lights, which ig-
h
eeg,as, and in an instant the balloon was in
having r
at
ho a
m run p r
of: re
eldhf:aedlierrestl.
oi Graham ibd
eaorunnt
bonnet
noto( nnd3eb.
yesterday
sef
etvaernererddysashyoi
ena
was ew present
l bmu rtnie:
Mrs
vered the remnants of the balloon,
itbut for any use and i t riencaoy
be said to be totally destroyed -
gentlemen have offered to contribute to is a
th
oilloon, in admiration of the courage displayed set ted
restorationt
bh
ya that
tsheuel; several
trepid aeronaut on the occasion.
The market to-
MANCHESTER MARKET, AUG. 8.
day has been somewhat quieter than on Tuesday,
de-
partments, and although there is no quotable
yarns suitable for India have shown a tendency to
givealle
a3;er.t
All other articles are quite firm at the prices of Tuesday.

RAILVVAY INTELLIGENCE.

-- ---
GUILDFORD, READING, AND REIGATE.
'file halt-yearly meetiog of the proprietors of the
a')ove railway company was held yesterday at the
offices, Royal Exchange-building; ; Mr. James
Gaiirard in the chair.

The advertisement by which the meeting bad been
convened having been read, the following report was
submitted for consideration:—
" Your directors have to report to the shareholders
that since the last half-yearly meeting the lease of this
line to the South-Eastern Company has been duly sealed
and exchanced by the two companies respectively. The
200,000/. authorised by von to be raised by loan was
raised, and 120,0001., part of the same, has been paid off
by means of the late call of 31. per share; 80,0001, the
emaintler of the loan, will be paid off by the call of 2/
per share still to be made, and of which call notice has
been given. It is, doubtless, known to most of the
giareholders that a bill in Chancery has teen filed
against the South-Esstern Company and this company.
or the purpose of preventing the rent from being paid
when due, and of invalidating the lease. Your directors
ook on this attempt, by an ex-director of the South-,
I,;astern Company to set aside a lease framed and com-
pleted under the concurrent advice of the most able
:counsel in the kingdom, as a futile proceeding. Your
!ireetors could not for one moment doubt that the rent
would be duly paid by the South-Eastern Company; but
for the better sati.rfactien of the shareholders they wrote
a letter to the South-Eastern Company, of which the
following is a copy:—
" ReLdiug, Guildford, and Reigate Railway Company,
2, Royal Exchange- buildings, August 7.
" ' Dear Sir,—As it is probable that questions will be
asked at our half-yearly meeting to-morrow relative to
the bill filed against our respective companies,
by Mr.
W. Gordon Thomson, on the subject of the lease of our
line to the South-Eastern Company, it has been con-
sidered desirable by my board to asc,,rtain the views
entertained by your board on the subject. My own
directors can only look upon the proceeding as ema-
nating from a vindictive spirit, and as utterly futile,
and they have no doubt that your board look upon the
matter in precisely the same way. It is, however,
advisable that we should be in possession of a resolu-
tion of your board intimating their determination to
pay the rent due to our proprietors under the lease, on
the 15th of September next. I shall, therefore, fee.
obliged by your submitting this letter to your directors
and favouring me with a reply by twelve o'clock to•
morrow.—l am, &c.,

"J. H. BAYLEY, Secretary.
" ' G. S. Herbert, Esq.. Sec..
South-Eastern Railway Company.'
" South-Eastern Railway, London Terminus,
August 8, 1850.
" Dear Sir,—l have laid before the directors your
letter of yesterday, and I ern desired to say in reply that
the directors are advised to, and will pay the half-year's
rent of the Reading, Guildford, and Reigate Railway
line when it falls due, unless, of course, en injunction be
obtained in the meantime to restrain the payment, but
which neither the counsel of the company nor the direc-
tors contemplate as at all probable.

" I am, dear Sir, yours truly,
" G. S. HERBERT.
"' J. H. Bayley. Esq.. Secretary, Reading., Guildford,

and Reigate llailway
" Your directors, then, have every reason to state with
confidence that the rent will be duly paid, and that on
calling you together the dividend due on the 15th of
September will be declared at the rate of 5/. 2s. 6d. per
cent. per annual, on the amount paid up in the terms of
the lease. The directors, therefore, have now merely to
propose that this meeting be adjourned to Monday, the
16:h of September next, at one o'clock, for the purpose
of considering the report and the accounts, declaring
a dividend, and cf fixing the periods for holding the
future half-yearly meetings of the company,"
The CHAIRMAN said with respect to the party who
had filed the bill against the companies, so far as he
could see there appeared to he no motives but those
flowing from vindictiveness and stock-jobbing. He
could not see it in any other way, but he hoptd it
was not so.

Air. MACGREGOR, the chairman of the South-
&stern Railway Company, in answer to a question
from one of the shareholders, said he considered the
question of the lease of the Guildford, Reading,
and Reigate line by the above company as irre•
vocably settled. He thought there was not any loop-
hole by which one party or the other could get rid of
the lease.

The CHAIRMAN then moved that the meeting be
adjourned to the 16th of September next, for the
purpose of considering the report and accounts, for de-
claring a dividend, and for fixing the periods for hold-
ing the future meetings of the company.
it was explained that the proposition for adjourn•
ing the meeting arose out of the fact that the com-
pany could not declare a dividend until the rent
from the South-Eastern Company should be paid,
and that it would not be due till the 15th of
September.
The motion having been seconded was carried, and
a vote of thanks to the chairman concluded the busi-
ness of the meeting.

FURNESS RAILWAY.—The half-yearly meeting of
Hon. the Earl of Burlington in the chair. After the
at
proprietors
tNo.2,N o
New-street,
wf this c .
street,onpy took
Spring-gardens;
ianpla jst
'erday,
theeßight
usualtenohserve d, the secretary
read
the directors regretted
that the expenses during the last half-year had been
thepreliminaries
report.
had
statedbehat
very heavy, and that they could not, therefore, re-
commend an increased dividend, which the satisfac-
tory amount of the traffic would have enabled them to
de. The extension of the railway from Crooklands
to the Lindal-road had been in progress during the
past half-year. Some pecuniary difficulties had ex-
isted on the part of the contractor, but the directors
had made such arrangements as had enabled him to
proceed with the works, and there was now no rea-
sonable doubt that they would be completed by the
period originally fixed—namely, the Ist March, 1851.
A further sum of money had been expended by the
commissioners daring the past half-year in the improve-
ment of Barrow Harbour. The works of tbe White-
haven and Furness Railway were already approach-
ing completion, and it is expected that the line will
be opened before the end of the present year. The
capital account showed that the receipts had amounted
to 255,985/., and the expenditure to 250,1961. 7s. 2d.,
leaving a balance of 5,788/. 12s. 10d. The Chairman,
in moving the adoption of the report, said it was un-
necessary for him to make any remarks, as the report
fully explained all the circumstances of the company.
He might however, allude to the fact that the iron
ore, which was their principle source of revenue, had
maintained itself well. As to the passenger traffic,
that was at present very considerable, and they could
not anticipate any improvement until the extension to
the Sindal Wood. The report was adopted, and a
dividend declared of five per cent. on the preferential
shares, and two per cent. on the original capital. Mr.
James Rameden was appointed secretary to the com-
pany, at a minimum salary of 300/., and gradually to
increase when the profits of the half-year should be
sufficient to authorise such increase. After a vote of
thanks to the chairman, the meeting separated.
CORK AND WATERFORD RAILWAY COMPANY.—
The eighth ordivary general meeting of proprietors
was announced to be held yesterday at the offices of
the company, in Delahay-street, Westminster. At
three o'clock, the time specified, a few of the pro-
prietors appeared, but not enough to form a quorum.
At four, there havieg been no sufficient augmentation
of their number:, Mr. J. B. Elfin, chairman of the
board of directors, declared the meeting adjourned
sine die. The statement of accounts which was to
have been presented showed that the receipts to the
30th of June, 1850, amounted to 75,569/. 153., and
the expenditure up to the same period to 68,4151. 12
10d., leaving a balance in favour of the company of
7,1541. 2s. 2d.

LONDONDERRY AND COLERAINE RAILWAY.—The
half-yearly meeting of this company was held yesterday,
at the offices, Coleman• street-buildings; Capt. Warren,
E.I C., in the chair. The minutes of the last meeting
having been read and confirmed, the secretary read the
report, which stated that the deliberation at the last half-
yearly meeting, as to the best means of resuming and
completing the works, resulted in the opinion, that
two sources presented themselves by which that object
wes to be obtained; one, the procuring of the neces-
sary funds by way of loan from the public Exche-
quer ; the other, the finding a contractor to undertake
the work wholly or chiefly from his own resources.
Considering that the completion of this undertaking
would have been more promptly and more advan-
tageously secured by means of a public loan, the
directors endeavoured to procure for this company an
advance of public money, but without any successful
result. The balance-sheet showed that the total re-
ceipts had been 261,2481., and the expenditure
260,6441., leaving a balance of 6041. After some dis-
cussion, the report was adopted, the retiring direc-
tors and auditor re-elected, and a vote of thanks given
to the chairman.

COFFINS OF BAKED CLAY OF THE CHALDEANS.---
Mr. Kennet Loftus, the first European who has visited the
ancient ruins of Warka in Mesopotamia, and who is attached
to the surveying staff of Colonel Williams, appointed to settle
the question of the boundary line between Turkey and Persia,
writes thus :—" Warka is, no doubt, the Erech of Scripture,
the second city of Nimrod, and it is the Orchoe of the Chal-
dees. The mounds within the walls afford subjects of high
interest to the historian and antiquarian; they are filled, nay,
I may say, they are literally composed of coffins, piled upon
each other to the height of forty-five feet. It has, evidently,
been the great burial place of generations of Chaldeans, as
Meshad Ali and Kerbella, at the present day are of the Per-
sians. The coffins are very strange affairs; they are in
general form like a slipper bath, but more depressed and
symmetrical, with a large oval aperture to admit the body,
which is closed with a lid of earthenware. The coffins them-
-84c.. Within.—
selves are also of baked clay, c9vered with green glaze and
embossed with figures of warriors with. strange and enor-
mous coiffures, dressed in a short tunic and. long under gar-
ments, a sword by the side, the arms resting on the hips, the
legs apart. Great quantities of pottery and also clay figures,
some most delicately modelled, are found around them; and
ornaments of gold, silver, iron, copper, glass,
Art Journal.
The Marquis of Breadolbane and Sir George Lee
were among the passengers by the General Steam Naviga-
tion Company's steam. ship Soho, that left St. Itatharine's-
wharf, for Antwerp, yesterday morning.

PARLIAMENTARY DIVISIONS.

HOUSE OF LORDS, AUG. 8.
ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION BILL.
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY'S CLAUSE.
NON-CONTENTS.
ARCHEISIIOp. Nelson Norwich
Canterbury Pow;s Oxtord
:EARLS. Romney Rochester
Desart St. Vincent Salisbury
Enniskillen Warwick LORDS.
Glengall viscouNrs. De Tabley
Jersey Canning Forester
Lucan BISHOPS. Redesdale
Longford Chichester Stanley
PAIRS.

NON• CONTENTS.
Ely
31 alm esbury
Talbot
Southampton
Clarendon
Wynford
Skelmersdala
Cardigan
Vend=
Lonsdale
Colchester
Exmouth

CONTENT&
Durham.
Col Lourne
Byron
Milford
De Lisle
Bedford
Clxlc.rd
A nglesqy
Crafton
Fit zhardinge
Pot trnan
'ooper

(From the Votes and Froceedings of the House of Commons.

THURSDAY, AUG. 8.

SPITALFIELDS AND SHORE DITCH NEW STREET

BILL.
(IN THE COMMITTEE.)

Motion made and Question put, " That the Chairman do
now leave the Chair." The Committee divided:—

MINORITY-AYES, 32.
Anstey, Thomas Greene, John Sandars, George
Arkwright, G. Gwyn, Howel Scrope, G. P.
Crawford, W. S. Headiam, T. E. Scully,Francis
Denison, Edmund Henley, J. W. Stafford, Augustus
Dickson, S. Hornby, John Thompson, Colonel
Disraeli, B. Hudson, G. 'i ownley, B. G.
Duncan, George Kershaw, James Walmsley, Sir T.
Ellis, John Lacy, Henry C. Willoughby, Sir H.
Ferguson, Sir B. Moore, G. H.
Forster, M. Norreys, Sir D. MMUS.
Fox, W. J. O'Brien, Sir Timothy Hume, Joseph
Fuller, A. E. Salwey, Colonel Mowatt, Francis

MAJORITY-NOES, 46.
Baines, M. T. French, F. Mettle, Fox
Bellew, R. M. Grey, Rt Hon. Sir G. Power, Dr.
Blackall, S. W. Harris, Richard Prime, Richard
Booth, Sir R. G. Hatchell, John Reynolds, John
Bouverie, B. P. Hawes, B. Shell, R. L.
Bowles, Admiral Higgins, George Somerville, Sir W.
Brotherton, J. Hindley, Charles Sothei on, T. H. S.
Carter, John B. Hobhouse, Sir J. Thompson, George
Chatterton, Colonel Hobhouse, T. B. Thornely, T.
Cockburn, Alex. Howard, Lord E. Vesey, Thomas
Copeland, Alderman Humphery, Ald. Wilson, James
Craig, Sir W. G. Jones, Captain Wood, Sir Charles
Cubitt, William Labouchere, Henry
Duckworth, Sir J. Lascelles, W. S.
Dundas, Sir David Lockhart, A. E. TELLES..
Ebrington, Lord Mackinnon, W. A. Hill, Lord M.
Fortescue, J. W. Masterman, John Hayter, W. G.

Clause (Commissioners of Woods may borrow moneys on
the credit of the Fund authorised to be charged) :—Motion
made, and Question put, " That the Clause, as amended,
stand part of the Bill." The Committee divided :
MAJORITY—AYES, 58.
Baines, M. T. Hatchell, John Power, Dr.
Bellew, R. M. Hawes, Benjamin Prime, Richard
Blackall, S. W. Higgins, George Reynolds, John
Booth, Sir R. G. Hindiey, C. Rich, Henry
Bouverie, E. P. Hobhouse, Sir John Scrope, G. P.
Bowles, Admiral Hobhouse, T. B. Seymour, Lord
Boyle, Colon& Howard, Lord E. Shell, It. L.
Brotherton, Joseph Humphery, Ald. Somerville, Sir W.
Carter, J. B. Jones, Captain Tenison, Edward K.
Chatterton, Colonel Labouchere, Henry Tennent, R. J.
Cockburn, Alex. Lascelles, W. S. Thompson ;George
Craig, Sir W. G. Lewis, G. C. Townley, R. G.
Cubitr, William Lockhart, A. E. Vesey, Hon. T.
Duckworth, Sir J. Mackinnon, 14, . Watkins, Colonel
Dundas, Sir D. liasterman, John Wilson, James
Ebrington, Viscount Mende, Fox Weod, Sir Charles
Fortescue, J. W. Mcstyn, E. M. L.
Fox, R. M. Nicholl, John
French, F. Nugent, Sir Percy TELLERS.
Grey, Sir G. Parker, John Haytcr, W. G.
Harris, Richard Perfect, Robert Hill, Lord Matta!'

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.
Commander George Merritt (1845), inspecting
commander cf. the coast guard district at Sdcombe,
died on the 3d instant, aged 45 He en►ered the navy
in 1816, passed his examination in 1823, was arde in
1831, and was promoted to the rank of commander
from first lieutenant of the Vestal, 26, for his gal-
lantry in the attack on the Bort e) pirates in Maluda
Bay, on August Ist, 1845, when he commanded the
barge of the Vestal.
Paymaster and Purser George H. Aluubray (1841),
late of Terrible steam-frigate, and formerly of the
Erebus, in Sir James Ross s expedition to the Antar •
tic circle, is reported to join the Retribution steam-
frigate, and Mr. James H. Biggs (1849), who was in
charge of the Enterprise, in Sir James Ross's late ex-
pedition in search of Franklin, and who had previ
ously served in several ships as acting paymaster and
purser, on very responsible and arduous services in
the East Indies, has been appointed paymaster and
purser of the Dauntless, screw-frigate, both ships
having been commissioned at Portsmouth. Mr. Biggs,
it will be remembered, served as Captain Austin's
secretary during the fitting out of the four ships now
in the Arctic seas, and received from the Board of
Admiralty a letter of thanks for his zealous and ex-
perienced services, and from the officers of Captain
Austin's squadron a handsome piece of plate for his
attention to their wants and wishes in suggesting and
providing for them those necessaries and comforts
which are calculated to mitigate their sufferings from
the rigours of the icy climate.
PORTOMOUTH, THURSDAY.—The Retribution steam-
frigate, 24, 400-horse power, is ordered to be com-
missioned at this port by Captain Frederick Warden
for service in the Mediterranean.

The Dauntless screw steam-frigate, 24, 560-horse
power, is ordered to be commissioned at this port by
Captain Halsted.

The Rodney convict-ship arrived at Spithead last
evening from the river to embark convicts from this
station. About 50 will be transferred from the Stir-
ling Castle, and a like number frum the York hulk
to-morrow morning.
The Bombay transport was towed out of this har.
bour to-day.
The Niger steam-sloop, Commander Heath, bent
sails to-day.
The Britannia, 120, advanced ship, has been
brought down under the sheers to-day, ready for
masting. In coming down she got athwart hawse of
the Fox frigate and Blake hulk, and damaged her
quarter gallery, and stove is the hulk's head. The
Fox will have her bowsprit taken out, to see if it is
damaged by the collision.
The service companies of the 95th Foot, consisting
of 17 officers and 363 men, from Hong-Kong, landed
yesterday from the Apollo troop-ship, and proceeded
by railway to join the depot at Winchester.
The Hyde Royal Victoria Yacht Club regatta com-
menced to-day, but not under the usual hitherto fa-
vourable auspices of fine weather, rain having con-
tinued more or less the whole day.
WOOLWICH, AuG. B.—Rear-Admiral M. Fitzbar,
dinge Berkeley, C.B. ; the Marquis of Anglesey,
Master-General of the Ordnance; Lord Clarence
Paget, Major-General Lacy, Colonel Dundas, C.B. ;
and Lieutenant. Colonel Chalmer, returned from
Shoeburyness yesterday evening shortly before ten
o'clock.