The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-20 00:00:00

FRANCE AND MOROCCO.

We extract the following official dispatches from
the Messager of Wednesday :

" MARSHAL BUGEAUD, GOVERNOR •GENERAL OF AFRICA, TO

THE MINISTER OF WAR

" Bivouac of Oaed Isly, near the mouth of
the Oued Mouilah, July 3, 1844.
" Monsieur le Marechal,—l cannot inform you better of the
combat of the 3d July, than by sending you a copy of the
letter that I have written to his Royal Highness the Prince
Joinville. It will tell you all that I could have stated in a
direct report.

" MARSHAL BUGEAUD TO HIS ROYAL HIGIMESS THE PRINCE

DE JOINVILLE.

"Bivouac on the Oued Islv, near the mouth of
the Oued Mouilah, July 3, 1844.
" Monseigneur,—ln my letter of the Ist of July, I stated
that I was advancing on the Tipper Mouliah, in order to
favour the return of a large fraction of the Augades, the chief
of whom had come into nay camp the day before, in order to
negotiate about his submission and his return. The point
of the river where I pitched my camp, bears the name of
Oued Isly.
"The Moorish camp, which was two leagues thence, came
on to me, and established itself at two cannon ranges, in a
way which seemed provisional. In the course of the day,
some eclaireurs of the enemy came and fired on our out-posts.
Their fire was not slackened ; a few horsemen of our Augades
having approached the camp, I sent some of our Arabs to
converse with them, and ascertain whether the movement
agreed to was being effected. They proved arrogant and
boastful, and said that the Moorish Chief having been
apprised of the intercourse they had had with us, he had
made the tribe go back to the mountains.
_ _

" They added that, whether we retired or marched on, a
combat would take place next day; that the Moors had re-
ceived a reinforcement of 1,200 men of cavalry under the
command of Scheriffe Mamoun, and of 1,000 men of infantry
commanded by Harnida, the old kaid of Ouchda ; and that if
we were conquerors they would submit. I had not the in-
tention of marching forward.
" Early this morning I retired in good order of combat to
the cavalry ; the eclaireurs of the enemy soon commenced
the fire with my rear-guard ; those horse tirailleurs were
successively reinforced and formed in a short time a large arc
of a circle, which embraced a part of my right and left
echelons ; the bulk of the enemy's troops advanced slowly ;
they did not seem determined to fight, but were desirous, as
would appear, to give us so very serious an accompaniment
which would have been celebrated as a victory.
" When I stopped, the enemy also stopped. This sort of
work continued for a league and a half. Net wishing to
leave the Moors a moral advantage which they would have
turned to great account with their co-religionnaires, I decided
on assuming the offensive, and soon after we drove before us
all those undisciplined horsemen.

"That of the enemy has been so dispersed by our offensive
movement, that their superior numbers were no longer to be
apprehended. Nevertheless, I supported our Chasseurs and
Spahes with the principal part of the infantry, without
its haversacks, leaving the rest to guard the baggage
and the sacks. Our cavalry advanced beyond Ouchdah,
which was on our left. It only found horsemen flying before
us in every direction. Several were killed, and we captured
a few horses, but we met no infantry.
" Perhaps there was some mistake when we thought we
saw them, or perhaps they had taken the left, to reach the
gardens of Ouchda, and the dust had prevented us from perer
ceiving them. The enemy having entirely distiPPearecl in
every part of the horizon, I marched my troops back to the
camp of the town, where I wag onamtwed this morning at
eleven o'clock.

-7, This fight has had very little material results, because
the whole of the enemy would not stand, and we had only to
face their cavalry; but it certainly has given us a very con-
siderable moral advantage. We have once more proved
to the Moors that we do not fear a war with them, and that
they are utterly incapable of gaining a serious battle over us.
I had several chiefs from the province of Oran in my
camp at the time, who had come to visit me on their own
accord. They will now return to the interior, and tell with
what a degree of sans tacos we treat the Moors, and this
must contribute to maintain tranquillity in Algeria. It is
much more with a view to Algeria that I shall seize every
rightful opportunity to fight, than for the pleasure to beat the
Moors.—Receive, &c., &c.
First P.S.—I forgot to mention that the enemy's force
in to-day's battle amounted to about 4,000 cavalry, of which
3,000 were regular troops. His infantry
behind to engage in it. e
"Jr is asserted that Abd- was muck tOO far
battle. 1 wader was present at the
ti have just now received positive infbrma-
e:4 that Abcl-el-Kader was present."

'ARISH OF SOUTH HACKNEY.—A church-rate was
yesterday carried in this parish without a poll beiug de-
Al4ndetl. The West Hackney
N119a.1 follow this

POST-OFFICE COMMITTEE.
Mr. Duncombe's account ti4iis interview with the House
of Commons' Post-office Committee is an entertaining inter-
lude in the progreauif that business, the interest in m hich
has been rather slablrening of late. Mr. Duncombe, it seems,
has made si.oliarge with respect to this transaction of letter
opening.- He professes himself able to substantiate this
charge. He says he can prove that some fifty or sixty of
Mazzini's letters have been opened, as well as of Captain
Stolzberg's and other individuals, and he 'believes he can
prove that some of his own letters • have been opened too.
Under these circumstances the Committee send for him, and
Big they understand he has a statement to make to them.
Duncombe says he has no statement to make but this,
and that he is willing to give the Committee the benefit of
his information. "Then give us your list of witnesses," he is
told; " we will send for them and examine them punctually ;
and in the meantime we have no further concern with you,
Mr. Duncombe—good morning to you." Now, everybody
knows what an examination of witnesses by a Committee is.
Just so much is extracted from the witnesses as the Com-
mittee choose to extract, and no more. The amount gained
may vary from everything to nothing, according to
the disposition and questioning talent of the members
of the Committee. In the present instance, letting alone the
disposition, there was not one man on the Committee who -
had any knowledge of, or had at all entered into the matter
in hand; or who could, therefore, know anything of the
proper way of getting at the facts of the case, and the pro-
per questions to put to the witnesses. Mr. Duncombe was,
accordingly, much obliged by the courtesy of the Committee
in offering to take the trouble upon themselves, but he had
rather examine the witnesses himself. He knew, from his
acquaintance with the circumstances, how to get the truth
from them, and they did not know. A person at a table
d'hofe, who sees a very awkward carver going sedulously to
help him to the driest and most unsavoury corner of the
whole joint, says, " Thank you, is that for me ? I will not
trouble you." Mr. Duncombe had rather help himself to his
own evidence, andsarve the joint himself. He had a pre-
sentiment of the bones, and gristle, and skin that the Com-
mittee's carving would result in, and thought that he should
take more interest, probably, in proving his own charge
than the Committee would in doing it for him ; in other
words, that he would find himself and his charge left in
the' lurch: But the Committee were bland and pressing.
" The. Committee pressed him very much to give up
his list to them. He had nothing to complain of their de-
meanour. They were all of them in their manner most in-
dulgent—(Hear, and a laugh)—indeed, he might term their
conduct as almost coaxing.—(Loud laughter.) It was sug-
gested that he might leave his papers in the hands of some
member in whom he had confidence, and who might put all
the requisite questions. To this he (Mr. Duncoinbe) had re-
plied, with perfect candour. and courtesy, that he had equal
confidence in all of them.—(Loud laughter.)" Mr. Dun-
combe has certainly a good deal of prima facie justice on his
side. A Committee that takes the substantiation of an ac-
cuser's charge out of the accuser's hands into its own, has
the former's character forthwith in its power, and can, by
simply preventing as much as they please of that substantia-
tion, make his charge empty and himself calumnious. As
Mr. Duncombe says—" The Committee was appointed to in
vestigate certain charges which he had brought against Go-
vernment; but it turned round suddenly and converted
itself, in fact, into a Committee for trying his (Mr. Dun-
combe's) veracity." Lord Sandon was willing to allow him
to be present, but not to examine, except, indeed, the
House made him a regular member of the Committee. Sir
Robert Peel, after an eulogium upon his own great indul-
gence in allowing Mr. Duncombe to bring on his motion at all,
which he thought he would have been justified, according to
the rules of the House, in objecting to, proceeded to state
that he should certainly oppose Mr. Duncombe's bein_g one
of the Committee;—" he should certainly advise the House
to adhere in this case to the general practice with regard to
all Committees of the sort. It was now a question of confi-
dence in the Committee." Mr. Strutt, a member of the Com-
mittee, observed upon the difficulty which would be occa-
sioned by a fresh member coming in, and having to be told
all that had gone on before. The motion was after a discus-
sion put, that Mr. Duncombe should be placed upon the Com-
mittee, and was negatived. Now, "the rules of the House,"
and " inconvenience," and other reasons of this sort, may be
fair reasons in their way; all we know is, that here a charge
is made and the accuser is not allowed to prove it : a Com-
mittee is appointed for the express purpose of collecting
information, and it refiises by one act a whole body of in-
formation • that is to say, it refuses the only
.prac-
tical condition on which that information is to
be got, and therefore it refuses to receive that information
itself. But, "We asked for the names of the witnesses,"
said the Chairman of the Committee. Why, certainly you
could riot do less. If an accuser declares he has witnesses, a
Committee must in decency profess itself ready to admit
them. But to ask for the witnesses, and to exclude at the
same time an efficient examination of them, is a poor, ambi-
guous course to take. As Mr. Vernon Smith remarked, a
Committee ought to catch at information, and take every
means to procure the development of the truth. The bare
material of evidence, as everybody who has been in a court
of justice knows, is nothing without the power to open and
lay it out. What the Committee have done in the present
instance has been to express their readiness to admit a quan-
tity of witnesses corporeally within their Committee-room. 9
What is to be got out of them when they are there they
leave to chance. They cannot examine them themselves,
and they will not allow the person who can do so. They are
willing, however, to have a certain number of individuals
sent up and then sent down again. So much for the zeal for
information manifested by a House of Commons' Committee.
They just save their bacon—they just do not actually refuse
evidence, and that is all that can be said.—Times.

AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS'
WAGES.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN,
Sin,—ln your capacity of a journalist, perhaps the follow-
ing statement of the condition of the agricultural labourers
in the counties of Hereford, Monmouth, Gloucester, and Ox-
ford, may not be unacceptable. It would be as well to give a
statement of the present rate of wages, as in the course of
two or three weeks the harvest time will commence, and a
different rate of wages will appear ; but such as I shall now
state is now, and has been, the rate of wages since the last
autumn.

I look upon the county of Hereford as one of the finest in
England, and it is a boast of the natives that it will produce
everything necessary for the wants of man. Now I find,
upon strict inquiry at four different parts of this rich and fer-
tile county, that the labouring man cannot earn more than
7s. per week, with an allowance only of two quarts of cider
per day. On my journey to Hereford last October, I asked a
farmer (a distant relative of my own) what he considered the
labourers were getting on an average. His answer was in the
following terms :—" They will tell you here that they are
getting 7s. per week, but I will bet any man 1001. that I go
into the Hereford market to-morrow
ry (Saturday), pre- ,5...4.114tial
cure any quantity of labourers necessary for working aand fa
of 500 acres at ss. per week."
At Ragland, in Monmouthshire (one of- the best farmed parishes in the county), I inquired of a firmer whom I have
known for many years the rate of wages in the neighbour-
hood. He said we talk about 7s. a week and an", allowance of
eider, but the fact is we can get them at any price, time is
such a superabundance of labour.
In the neighbourhood of Cirencester and Northkach I find
that the rate of wages are about the same as those I have
mentioned, but in one parish, situated between the above-
named towns, there are 250 people out of employ.
In the neighbourhood of Bicester (Oxon),1 am assured,
upon good authority, that wages will not average more than
6s. 6d. per week; and on Tuesday last thirty-five able-bodied
labourers marched through the town of Bicester, on their
way to the union at Lanton.
In Northamptonshire wages are better, but this may be at-
tributed to a branch of manufacture which runs through the
county; but there are an immense quantity of hands unem-
ployed, and who are suffering great privations. I make no
comment upon the above state of things, further than:the re-
ply of a customer of mine In the town of Thrapstone, who,
upon an observation of mine as to the state of the agricultu-
ral labourers, said, " Sir, they are broken-hearted."
A COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER.

ADUTERATION or GUANO.—We have already as-
serted that guano is often an abominable mixture of all sorts
of brown ingredients that are worthless. Here l 4 the ana-
lysis of some which a near-sighted gentleman purchased
lately at 121. a ton. It contained one-half per cent. of am-
monia, not a trace of urea, minute quantities of alkaline
sulphates and phosphates of lime; in short, the largest esti-
mates that could be made of the real guano present in the
sample amounted to three per cent., including feathers, which,
however, appeared to have belonged to sparrows and phea-
sants. On the other hand, there were 50 per cent. of stones
and yellow earth. In this case the buyer was near-sighted
indeed, for this guano cost him 'yearly four hundred
pounds a ton. These must be famous times for farmers,
when manure can be bought at such a price. A quantity
of guano sold at Manchester has been found to contain
seventy-five per cent. of brickdust ; another sort from Derby-
shire contained ten per cent, of sawdust and six per cr.snt.
of clay ; and another Derbyshire specimen was doctored
with ground bark to the extent of twelve per cent. Really.
with such facts staring us in the face at every turn of the
road, it is most incomprehensible why farmers will not throw
themselves into the hands of the chemist, who alone can
help them. We are urged to publish the 'names of the
people who are swindling the country in tilt's manner. Per-
haps we may. But that will never abate such enormous
evils as we have now described. Farmers must look to them-
selves, and get their manures analysed before they buy thens 4
or they must purchase under warrranty, as they do with their
horses.—Agricultural Gazette,
'
HUNGERFORD SUSPENSION BRIDGE.—CJIIe of the
principal rivet chains has been completely svrung across theAlder the future
river and secured to its arches, which will r
operations of the workmen light.
ST, MONANCE.—A few days ago a boat's crew oe
our enterprising nautics captured a ..."-eagle--a creature
never before witnessed by our oldest fishermen. This rare
marine prodigy had made a haplesg plunge beyond its
vince on a catering expedition, aria in its aquatic gambols
energy, etearely failed to effect a release
became entangled in the meslon of a turbot-net, when in-
The computed length of this
glorianodusbond
tenant of the deep was •
about four feet from the one extreme
to the other ; it
fsrtoinmctitscriaftu
had 0.4 brace of piercing eyes, and a air or
Jerusalem wings, v;ith which it plied in the fathomlessp abyss
of the ocean, a°, its nominal relative traverses the aerial re.
gions of infinitude. We understand that this peculiar fish
has been seat to the grand museum of the Modern Athens.--.
Edinburgh Evening Post.
T FOUNTAINS IN TRAFALGAR-SQUARE.—The
engine-house in the stone-yard at the back of St. George's
Barracks, to supply these fountains with water, is advancing
in its erection- Iron pipes of eighteen inches diameter, for the conveyance of the water, have been laid down in exca•
vatlons under the barracks and National Gallery, and have
reached the road in front of the latter. As soon as these
are completed the boring for water will commence, which it
is expected will have to go to a considerable depth, as was the
case with the Artesian well recently sunk in Piccadilly. It LI
expected that about three months longer time only will be
required before the fountains are in operation.
THE SHIPPING INTEREST.—There are, at present
212 vessels (exclusive of steam-packets) entered outward*
at the Custom-house for foreign ports. Among these are—.
for Algoa Bay, 7 ; Bombay, 9 ; Calcutta, 16 ; Ceylon, 4 ;
Cape of Good Hope and Ichaboe, 8 ; Hobart Town, Port
Phillip, and Sydney, 10 ; Madras, 4 ; Victoria, Macao, Intl
Canton, &c., 3 ; West Indies, 16.
DESTRUCTIVE FlRE.—Thursday morning., shortly
after one, a fire broke out in the premises of Mr. W. T.
Purkis, publican, the Prince of Wa),es, Lewisham-lane, near
Greenwich. Two engines from Deptford Dockyard and one
from the brigade station in Souttmark-bridge- road were us
attendance a. soon as possible, but the fire was not extin-•
guishet ;Afore the house was gutted, and the major part of
',Antents destroyed. Cause of the fire unknown ; building
supposed to be uninsured ; contents insured in the khceniz
Fire-office.
BOROUGH AND CITY
.ELECTORS.—This day is
the last day for paying the poor-ratfn and window-tax due
on the 6th of April, in order to obtain the right of voting fot
the current year. All those .7r.ho have not paid up to that
time, and neglect
So to-day, will, in consequence,
be disfranchised till N'uvember, 1845. Let all Liberals bear
this in and 'Li the collector du not call, take or send no
an`"„ant to 11;:s house ; that is, if it be desired to retain the
right of voting.

-

'