The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-26 00:00:00

able statements represented the average daily
earnings of each individual not to exceed 5 dolls.
This year, in the statements of a similar character,
the amount is represented to be between 6 dolls. and
10 dolls.; while the unusual height of the waters is
described as a serious drawback. If with the next
increase of population there is to be a like in-
crease in individual results, the prospect will indeed
be an extraordinary one —and it would almost seem
that somethirg like a feeling to that effect exists
among the present inhabitants from the eagerness
with which- every report of a swarm of new-comers
is received.

But even in the face of all these circumstances,
it is something apart from the gold-finding that
demands the chief attention both of the practical
merchant and of the philosopher. Although, as far as
the mines are concerned, we must keep our eyes
open for extraordinary events, still these events are
beyond the power of certain calculation 'either one
way or the other. The probable continuance or in-
crease of the supply is a matter of opinion upon
which each person must be left to his own specula-
tions. The momentous fact, which nothing can now
do away with, is, that 300,000 or 400,000 Anglo-
Saxons are settling themselves on the shores of the
Pacific. A new world is before them. They look
across to China, Japan, and all the riches of the Indian
Seas, and the use they. will make of their opportuni-
ties may be best inferred from what they have already
accomplished, and from the known aspirations which
the people of the United States have so long dirtected
towards that region. Already the presence of a large
number of Chinese is a distinctive feature of the po-
pulation of San Francisco, and already the Sand-
wich Islands, Australia, and Southern and Central'
America have been called into a new life from
the traffic that has been established. The prophecy
of Humboldt, that the activity of commerce would
be carried progressively from east to west, is
rapidly in process of fulfilment. At present, how-
ever, there are few signs that even this fact is appre-
ciated in Europe, and the thing to be apprehended is,
that when in the course of a few years the success
arising from it shall have led to excitement, our
people, NI ho are regardless of it now, will then rush
furiously to overdo what should have been done mo-
derately and deliberately from the first. It is to pre-
vent foolish extremes of this sort that every endeavour
should be made to familiarise the public with the con-
templation of the change that is coming on, and to
induce the spirit of enterprise to adjust itself to the
new order of things while it can rationally and pro-
fitably do so, instead of waiting to regain by a sudden
and destructive rush the opportunities that will have
been lost through inattentiou.— Times' City Article.

COUNTY COURT ABUSES.
FRAUDS UPON TRADESMEN.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUE.

Sint—Relying upon your well-known impartiality,
strict sense of justice, and your fearless exposures of
fraud in its various hues, I trust you will insert the
fol lowing.
I am a beerseller, and upcn the evening of Satur-
day, July 27, three men came to the bar of my house
and called for a pint of ale, for which one of them
tendered a sovereign. My wife, who was serving at
the time, gave change (less the amount for the ale),
viz., one half sovereign, three half-crowns, two
shillings, and some halfpence. After remaining up-
wards of half an hour, the one with the change went
out, returned, gave my wife a half-crown, wishing
for smaller change; she saw at once it was counter-
feit and refused it ; an altercation ensued, and they
all left. The sequel is, I was summoned to the County
Court, Duncan-terrace, for the 2s. 6d. I appeared
this morning, and although I produced a witness, a
respectable person, who was standing at my door
sheltering himself from the rain, and who proved that
he saw this very man cross the road, speak to another
man, re-enter my house, and then tender the spurious
coin, yet the judge decided against me, and I have
been ordered to repay the 2s. 6d, thus giving the
1/. 2s. 61. for 1/., besides expenses, to say nothing of
my loss of time.
Surely, Sir, there must be some redress for this, or
there is no protection for tradesmen. Perhaps some
of your numerous correspondents can point out a
remedy.
I forgot to state that this man swore he received
the sovereign in St. Paul's Church-yard, and though
a pouring wet night my house was the first he came
to, although a mile distant, to get change to pay his
man.—l remain, Sir, an old subscriber,
G. MAXWELL.
Old-street, St. Luke's, Sept. 25, 1850.

[The law does not give any appeal against the de-
cision of the Cuunty Court in such a case, and the
suitors are entirely at the mercy of the judge, how-
ever stupid, unreasonable, or prejudiced he may be.—
ED. SunJ

CAXTON'S " PROOE-SHEET.-Mr. Walker, of Mar-
garet-street, Cavendish-square, has just completed an en-
graving, of the mixed class, of Mr. J. E. Doyle's painting
of Caxton submitting his first proof-sheet to John Esteney,
the abbott of Westminster, in 1477. The character of the
subject is imposing, and the execution of the engraving is
highly satisfactory. The scene is laid within the precincts
of Westminster Abbey, which it is generally admitted
was the place where the clerical authorities of the time
allowed the erection of the first English printing press. In
the centre stands the press itself, being a transcript of
the one found on the title-page of a hook printed by
Jodocus Badius Ascensianus, a contemporary of Caxton.
At the case behind is Wynkyn de Worde, the assistant and
successor of Caxton. On the left, in front, sits John
Esteney, the abbot of Westminster, to whom the first Eng-
lish printer, Caxton, and the author,; Esrl Rivers, are sub-
mitting a proof-sheet of the " Dictes and Sayinges of the
Philosophers," the first work which bears a date, and which
the Earl had translated for the use of his nephew and
pupil, the young Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward V.
It is gratifying to observe that, after a lapse o: nearly four
centuries, public opinion is being directed to commemorate
the introduction of Caxton's art. Painters and sculptors are
competing for the honour of perpetuating his great achieve-
ment, and in the contest for distinction the printer and en-
graver of the present work will take a foremost place.
SUSPICIOUS CASE.—An Italian, who is in exile in
France, for the active part he took in the insurrection of
Rome, has just been arrested under very singular circum-
stances. A few days ago a banking-house of the quarter
Feydeau received from a correspondent at Rome directions
to pay a sum of about 400 f. to a Count de P—. Two days
after a person presented himself, and stated that he was the
Count; he was almost blind, and was led by one of his
friends. He was called on to prove his identity, which he
did by producing his passport; he was then asked for his
letter of credit, but he said that he had mislaid it. He
added that he was to leave the same day for the south to be
treated for his eye-sight, and he asked the banker as a fa-
vour to spare him the loss of time which the necessity of
demanding a new letter of credit would occasion. The man
seemed so respectable, and his passport so satisfactory, that
the banker gave the money. Two days later the banker was
informed by a second letter from his correspondent that an
ex-lieutenant of Garibaldi was making dupes in France and
other countries, by passing himself off as the Count de P---.
The police immediately arrested the man who received the
400 f., and at the same time succeeded in discovering the
veritable Count de P—. The latter, on seeing the ex-
lieutenant, declared that he knew nothing of him; but the
lieutenant swore that he was the veritable Simon Pure, and
that the other was an impostor. It is not known how the
ex-lieutenant could have obtained the information with which
, he presented himself to the banker. A searching judicial in-
vestigation has been commenced.
CARDIGANSRIRE. A BOLD WOMAN. Police
constable Harrison, of the constabulory rural police in this
county, stationed at the village of Ltanrhy stvdt, having oc-
casion to come to Aberystwyth on business, left his wife at
home. No sooner had the policeman turned his back than
a robbery was committed by a tramp at a farm-house not far
distant from the village. The policeman's wife, having re-
ceived information, immediately started off, and came up
with the tramp with the stolen property on his person. She
secured the thief, ar.d detained him until her husband re-
turned.—. North Weirs Chronicle.
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SWALLOW.—In the
summer cf last year one of a small batch of enthusiastic or-
nithologists in Methvcn, after discussing the migratory
habits of various kinds of birds, differed from his friends on
the question " Whether the swallow, on its return, after its
winter absence, took up house in the same locality it had
migrated from." He maintained the negative, giving such
plausible reasons as induced the coterie to devise sonic me-
thod in obtaining a settlement of the question. The only
method, therefore, was to catch a swallow. This they inge-
niously contrived to do. They captured a female as she was
feeding her young. Taking great care of her, they sewed a
small piece of red ribbon about its neck, in such a manner
as it would not, in ordinary circumstances, get loosened, and
then sent her to the broad expanse. The hedged bird reared
its young, and continued in the neighbourhood until the mi •
grating season, when, with its fellow, it disappeared. Great
was the anxiety this spring of the naturalists to discover if
it would return. Group after group appeared, but not the
ribboned favourite. At length, on the 13th day of April,
among the last influx of returning emigrants, appeared the
identical bird, thereby. overthrowing the hypothesis that
they do not revisit their former haunts. But what is worth
still more notice is the circumstance that it built its nest
and reared its this year's brood in precisely the same spot it
did the year previous. It flew again to sunnier lands only a
few days ago.—Perth Courier.
A branch of the Royal British Bank is to be
opened at Islington on the Ist of October.
The dividend declared yesterday at the half-yearly
meeting of the General Screw Steam Company was at the
rate of 8 per cent. per annum, and the report and accounts
were received as satisfactory.
The Halifax Guardian contains the following ex-
traordinary statement:—" On Saturdsy last a young man,
named William Marsden, of Deanlicad, left home to sell
some cattle in Halifax market. Not meeting with a cus-
tomer, he had to drive the cattle home again, and not ar-
riving at his usual time, his parents became rather uneasy
at his stay, and remained up to two o'clock in the morning,
waiting his coming. They then retired to rest, and on get-
ting up in the morning they were horrified at finding their
son's coat, waistcoat, and hat laid down under their window,
saturated with blood. Slight traces of blood were also ob-
served on the gate leading to the spot whet e.the clothes were
found. There were about 301. ia his pockets. Immediate
inquiries were made, but no traces of Marsden have been
discovered."
ACOUSTIC ALTERATIONS IN EXETER HALL.—The
alteration which is being made at Exeter Hall consists in
in
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