The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-25 00:00:00

" The price of wheat has been for some time un-

deniably low—so low, indeed, as not to pay the cost
of production ; but severe as the misfortunes are

" I have mentioned the two great productions of
our agricultural industry as relating to our exports ;
but I cannot emit also the many means we have
of supplying our own consumption with the neces-
saries of life. The cultivation of barley—even
now sufficient to supersede the use of sugar in
an Englishman's beverage—and the growth of grasses
and green food, to supply our markets with native
meat and cheese, are open to us; and there only
want energy and example to bring the riches of our
soil into the coffers of the industrious. I cannot ex-
pect to witness this country's united enterprise ; all
I can do is, to awaken science from her sleep, and
lead her to the threshold of industry. I must leave it
to another generation to enthrone her in the temple.
" The true solution, gentlemen, of the present
state of the colony, seems to be this : the temporary
occasions of unnatural prosperity have passed away,
and the degree of its future condition must depend
upon the premature relations which it can establish
with the English market, where I think it will be
able to secure regular but moderate profits, sufficient
to reward the industrious, though not perhaps to
satisfy the desire of those who wish to be immediately
weal thy.
" In connexion with the well-being of the colony, I
feel one duty to be especially incumbent on me ;
namely, the protection of life and property; and as
some misapprehension still appears to exist on this
point, I wish it to be distinctly understood, that when-
ever any criminal shall be sentenced to death for
having broken into a house and used actual violence
towards its inmates, I never shall interfere with the
due execution of the law, unless some legal doubt shall
be brought under my notice.
"I am happy to say that criminal offences are at
the present time few; and though, in such an im-
mense convict population, occasional outbreaks and
violation of the laws must be expected, yet I think
that far fewer crimes are committed than could be an-
ticipated.

It is not my intention to lay before you many
Bills during the present session, for I am averse to le-
gislature on paroxysms of national difficulty, finding
by experience that partial tamperings with such mat-
ters aggravate the disease instead of remedying it, and
frequently create relief in one quarter while they in-
crease distress in another.

" The estimates are now in preparation, and when
I am about to present them to you, I shall enter upon
the financial condition of the colony, especially as
bearing on the revenue.

" E. EARDLEY-WILMOTT:

EXPERIMENTS IN WARFARE.
A second series of experiments in warfare was exhi-
bited on Tuesday at Mu'grave House, Fulham, for the
purpose of bringing into notice the inventions of the
Duke of Normandy. A considerable number of gentle-
men assembled in the grounds, among whom were Lord
Ranelagh, Sir John Hare, and many naval and military
officers and men of science. The experiments com-
menced with the almost simultaneous explosion of a
bomb shell pieced eight feet under the water of the lake,
of a similar shell but led underground, and of a rocket.
tired against a hulk head. The rocket was first fired,
and as seen as it struck the bulk-head it exploded, and
appeared to ignite two other rockets conducted by wires
to the invisibbe shells, which both exploded with loud
reports. The one underground threw up the earth to a
great height atilt made a large excavation ; the water
shell carried a mass of water into the air resembling an
immense fountain. Two roekete without sticks were
then fired at the hulk-head cased with iron, being
directed to the mark by wires stretched horizontally
,r a distance of el-out two hundred yards. The in-
stant they struck the object the rockets exploded,
tore away the iron easing, and carried off portions
of the thick plank behind. A bomb shell was next
allowed to drop into a hole within a strongly con-
structed but put trig.-then as firmly as possible. The im-
mense force exerted by the composition employed was
evident from the complete destruction of the structure,
pieces of which were carried to a great height., and one
of the timbers Wl3 actually driven through the brick
wall of a building about one hundred feet distant, and
was left sticking in it. For the purpose of showing the
safety with which these shells may be used, one of them,
to which a percussion cap was fitted, was made to fell
into a hole dug in the ground, when the caps exploded,
and a quantity of gunpowder was ignited without ex-
ploding the shell. An alteration having been then made
in the cap, by removing the guard, the shell exploded
with terrific effect. Rockets on a similar principle were
afterwards fired by throwing them on the ground,
though when protected they might be knocked about
without danger. One object for which these rockets
are intended is to protect merchant ships from the
attacks of pirates, for by throwing the rockets from
the mast of o:le ship on to the deck of another
it would be directly cleared. Au exemplification
of the force of the explosive compound was given
during the explosion of one of these rockets
that rather alarmed a portion of the company
A part of the wooden rocket case was propelled with
great velocity into the air towards the spot where many
gentlemen were standing, and it struck the ground be-
hind them. Some bombarding rockets, without sticks,
were also fired from a rocket case, which was pointed to
an angle of seventy degrees, to prevent the rockets from
going across the Thames. The first rocket took a very
steady flight, and fell in the middle of the river, where it
exploded on coming in contact with the water. Two
others did not fly so steadily ; they fell within the
grounds, and exploded on touching the earth. The ex-
periments concluded with the firing of the non-recoil
cannon, which was fired by several gentlemen whilst
holding it in their hands, without any rebound being
felt. The experiments were:altogether 'very successful,
and they showed that the inventor has at command a
power far more destructive than gunpowder. In the ex-
periments there were no trials of the facility with which
the force can be directed against an enemy, because:the
shells and rockets were directed by ropes and wires to
prevent accidents, but the inventor states that he can
place his shells either under ground or in the sea with
the certainty of their exploding the instant an advancing
army or a pursuing ship passes over them.

•
Levs's DESPHRATION.—On Wednesday last, some
excitement was created in Ulverston, by a respectably
attired female casting herself out of the window of a
room in the Queen's Arms Inn there. She tied a hand-
kerchief round her face, then slipped it up over her eyes
thus becoming " blind" to all danger, and putting up the
sash of the window, got out backwards, and after hang-
ing by her hands for a short time, dropped down. She
alighted on her feet on the pavement, but losing her ba-
lance she fell backwards, her head coming in contact
with the stones. She was immediately taken up in a
state of insensibility, and carried into the inn. From
inquiries, it appears that the female is the daughter of
a respectable tradesman in Kendal, and is about nineteen
years of age; that she has become enamoured of a young
man about the same age, who is connected with a com-

pang of itinerant players which were at Kendal last
week, and removed from that place to Ulverston, where
she also proceeded on the wings of love, in pursuit of the
" cushla, ma chree." She was, however, followed by a
relative, who took her to the Queen's Arms, where she
had her under restraint, when the incident above related
took place.
CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.—At a Committee of
the Court of Aldermen, held on Saturday, the proposi-
tion of Alderman Wood, to abolish the evening sittings
of the Central Criminal Court for the trial of prisoners at
the Old Bailey, was taken into consideration, and it was
unanimously resolved that the experiment should be
triQd, commencing with the sittings in the month of
December next. The consideration of the second part
Alderman Wood's proposition, as to having a third court
for the greater dispatch of business and the accoremoda-
Lion of the public, was reserved until the result of the
experiment of abolishing the evening sittings should be
ascertained.

BUY SALT MEAT IN THE MORNING.—Severa
butchers, from Leadenllall-market, who were summoned
on Friday and fined for having a draught of from one to
two ounces against purchasers, each declared that the
scale, being wooden, became saturated with the salt and
brine from the quantity of salt beef and pork weighed
therein throughout the day. The Lord Mayor asked
the defendants whether the draught was only against the
Purchaser in the evening, and being answered in the
atlirnaotive, his Lordship said that under such circum-
stanceshe would advise the public " to bey their salt
meat 321 the morning."

whfeh have in consequence befallen so many settlers,
yet I cannot regard the prospects of the agriculturists
as dark and forbidding, so long as the merchants can
make shipments to England, and so long as the ad-
vance on Van Diemen's Land wheat in the market of
that country continues.
" The real and inaxhantible min. of wealth In suds
a colony as this, is its agriculture ; and it is to this
and an improved system of cultivation, assisted by
extensive irrigation (which alone is requisite to give
to our alluvial soils their full measure of fertility),
that we must look for permanent prosperity; and it
is on steady remunerating prices we must depend, and
not on temporary though immoderate profits, for-
merly derived from the fitful demands occasioned
from time to time in New South Wales by unpro-
ductive harvests. We must look to the dawning
prospect, now before us, of becoming producers of '
grain for the consumption of the mother country, in-
stead of behig dependent on markets never opened to ,
us by our neighbours, except by the inclemency of
seasons, or by their own misfortunes.
" To hazard the opinion, that under the circum-
stances which I have mentioned, prosperity will im-
mediately visit the colony, I am far from wishing to
be understood. But to affirm, that, in a time of uni-
versal peace, with every advantage of soil and cli-
mate, with labour at command available during the
whole year—in winter as in summer, and when
freight to any reasonable extent may be obtained
at a moderate rate, a British colony, capable of pro-
ducing wheat and wool of the finest quality to an un-
limited amount, does not possess within itself the ele-
ments of prosperity, as well as inducements for the
investment of capital, is an assertion which no one
versed in the history of nations will venture to make,
and no one with a knowledge of this colony can suc-
cessfully maintain.
" Causes unforeseen and accidental may retard this
advance indeed; and causes of depression affecting
individuals may offer temporary obstacles ; but they
cannot ultimately prevent a development of success,
which is as inevitable as it is desirable.