The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-25 00:00:00

KENT HOP INTELLIGENCE,

CANTERBURY.—We have been visited with some very
cold weather this week, and its effect has been very
prejudicial to the hops. It has been more like Martin
than May weather.
MAIDSTONE.—There appears to be a sprinkling of fly
generally throngh the plantations in this neighbourho,d;
in some sheltered situations two to four on a leaf
may be found; the bine in some few grounds is rather
weakly from the attack of fly, but upon the whole it may
be considered good.
BRENCHLEY.—We have more fly to be found daily.
'WITHAM. —The hops have not grown so much the
last week, owing to the cold nights, which have changed
the bine rather yellow, and we have a slight in-
crease of fly.
YALDING.—The late cold winds have very much
changed tha appearance of the bine here, which looks
very yellow, and fly, to the number of one or two on a
leaf, is quite general.

Several of the light-fingered gentry were yesterday
detected practising their skill on the pockets of the visitors to
the Exposition, and conducted to the Prefecture to improve
their morals. The Pairie mentions a report that one of them
made free with the pocket handkerchief and eyeglass of his
Royal Highness the Duke de Nemours, while the Prince was
engaged in examining smie of the machinery.—Paris Print

of Tuesday.
THE IRON TRADE.—STOURBRIDGE.—Proofs of
improvement in the iron trade, and with it of the general
trade of the mining districts, are daily developing them,
selves. The colliers have already received an advance of
fiorn 3s. to 3s. 6d. per day generally throughout the district,
and on Saturday we understand that considerable numbers

gave notice to leave their employ unless their wages were
advanced to 4s. We cannot but consider this step as ill-
advised and premature, tending to a disruption of the good
feeling which existed between the masters and the men.
BIRMINGIIAM.—We learn from authority on which we place
implicit reliance, that at a meeting of iron masters, held in
Birmingham on Thursday last, it was determined that an
advance of wages to the men employed in every department
of tha mills and forges should take place from the Ist of
June. The paddlers have already very generally received
an addition of Gd. per ton on their previous wages. If the
colliers will place the same reliance on their employers
• which the mill and forgmen have, there is small doubt but
that they will in due time participate in the same advan-
tages.— Worcester Chronicle. •
THE 'FIRST ENGLISH RAILWAY.—To the success of
the " Stockton and Darlington Railway," may be traced the
rise of all the others. "To -the originator of this line is due the
honour of being the founder of the railway_s3:stem. His

fame was hardly earned and will last long. When success
was proved, when the opening was made, and by the
light of this experience a vista was illumined, whose
long perspective pointed distinctly to wealth and
eminence, crowds of speculators were ready to tread
the path. But great as their merit was he was the
leader ; and 'we hope the time may never come
when the millions at home and abroad, who enjoy
the advantages of railways shall have forgotten that
they owe them all to Mr. Edward Pease, of Darlington. It
would be idle to relate the opposition he received, the hosti-
lity of antagonists, the cold support of friends, the vexatious
obstacles, the absurd objections, the doubt of some, the pre-
judice of others, the ignorance of all: These matters
are now being forgotten. Confident in judgment, ready
in resource, undismayed by difficulty, with indomitable
energy and perseverance he gradually surmounted every-
thing; and it remains a striking instance of foresight that,
without any experience, and with "all the world before him
where to choose," he selected what to the ordinary observer
is an unpromising district, and made the first and the
most successful railway. Perhaps even more remarkable
was the singular sagacity shown in his choice of an
engineer. At this day the names George Stephenson, and
of his no less eminent son Robert, are known far and wide.
But Mr. George Stephenson is a man of humble origin, and
at the time when the Stockton and Darlington railway
was projected,- unknown, untriNl, and inexperienced. It
was Mr. Pease's eye which detected the sterling
metal beneath the rough exterior, the genius which only
wanted a fair opportunity and fitting occasion to reveal its
gigantic power. He was drawn by Mr. Pease literally
from the mine to construct the first railway, and well has he
justified the choice. One success followed another in
triumphant succession until he can boast that he is the con-
sulting engineer of or has actually laid down every railway
between London and Edinburgh.—Fraser's Magazine.
Admiral Sir Courtenay Boyle, Bart., died on
Tuesday, in his 74th year. He was second son of the late
and brother to the present Earl of Cork and Orrery, married
1799, daughter of the late William Poyntz, Esq., of Midham,
Berks, by whom he has left issue Captain Courtenay Boyle
and the Hon. Miss Caroline Boyle, Maid of Honour to the
Queen Dowager.
SHOCKING DISAPPOINTMENT.—The old adage of
the course of true love not running smooth was fully realised
on Thursday in the following (to the parties shocking)
manner —, a medical gentleman, residing in the
Isle of Wight, had for some time past been paying his ad-
dresses to Miss T--. the daughter of a respectable trades-
man, carrying on business near the Strand, which were not
only received by the young lady herself, but countenanced
by " Pa" and " Ma." The courtship had existed for some
time, and yesterday was the day appointed when the pair of
lovers were to be made one. " Publishing the banns" was
beneath the dignity of the parties, as by such a mode every-
body would know when Miss T— was to be married. A
license was therefore procured, and anxiously did the bride
and bridegroom, with their friends and relations proceed to
St. Martin's Church, where the indissoluble knot was to
be tied. The beadles ushered them into the vestry-room,
where the Rev. Mr. Ramsey was in Waiting to perform
the ceremony. The clerk inquired for the license, upon
which the father of the bride exclaimed, " Oh, dear, who
has got it ?" The bridegroom fumbled in his' pockets, but
found 'it not; and then for the first time discovered that he
had left the key to his happiness at home on his dressing
table. A postchaise was at the Church door intended to
convey him and his bride to' a distant part to spend the
honeymoon, when quick as thought he jumped into it and
drove to his lodgings, being told that he must be back before
twelve o'clock, or the ceremony could not be performed that
day. The wedding party waited with great anxiety the re-
turn of the bridegroom. The clock struck, and the bell had
scarcely cooled before the bridegroom " breathless with
haste" arrived, but too late for the performance of the cere-
mony. The effect on the bride was rather alarming, she was
seized with hysterics, and remained in a fit for some time.
On her recovery the disappointed party left the Church much
ess buoyant in spirits than when they entered it.
SUICIDE OF A LUNATIC IN BETHLEM.—Last even-
ing an inquiry took place before Mr. Joseph Payne, the
Deputy Coroner, at Bethlem, St: George's-field, South-
wark, concerning the death of James Forster, aged 40,
a criminal lunatic. Thomas Hooper, attendant at the
" criminal wing" of the institution, said that se de-
ceased first carne under his charge in 1841, having been
Acquitted 'upon his trial for some crime on the ground
of insanity. Witness saw him last alive on Tuesday
evening, at eight o'clock, when all the lunatics in that
part of the building retired for the night. At six o'clock on
Wednesday morning witness opened the door of deceased's
dormitory, that being the hour at which the patients rue
from bed, when he saw him suspended to the roof by a
black silk handkerchief. Deceased .was then quite dead;
but, upon examining him more clOsely, witness . saw a
wound on his throat, and another on bis wrist, from both
of which blood was still slowly issuing. Witness searched
the room, and found nothing with which the wounds
could have been inflicted but a piece of an old iron hoop.
Such a thing was not kept on the premises, and it was
witness's opinion that it had been thrown into the yard
by some boys playing outside, and that deceased had
picked it up, and kept it in secret ever since. There
were attendants employed to. keep watch in the gallery
from which deceased's- room led, all night, but nothing
•in particular was heard. Deceased was a very ingenious
man, and was in the habit of amusing himself by read-
ing.and drawing, and sometime; by making butterflies
and baskets out of silk. He had some very strong de-
lusiols, and not long ago told witness that he was George
the Fourth and Napoleon Buonaparte. He said, at the
same time, that he was going to be excommunicated from
the Church. Mr. John Thomas, the resident surgeon,
said that he was in immediate attendance upon the de-
ceased, but his services were useless. Deceased, he had
no doubt, died from strangulation. The jury returned
a verdict of "Insanity."