The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-27 00:00:00

THE HARVEST.

Considerable progress has been made with the har•
vest in this neighbourhood during the present week.
The weather has been extremely favourable ; and the
scythe and sickle have been in active operation both
early and late. In some situations, the wheat is so
fully ripe that the labours of reaping and loading
have been going on in the same fields at the same
time. The grain also is so remarkably plump and
so liable to shake, that great care is required whilst
pitching sheaves for the purpose of stacking. There
is but one opinion. indeed, as to the wheat crop, viz.,
that it is most bountiful, that, it will weigh very.
heavy, and prove of superior quality.
A considerable portion of wheat is cut in the neigh-
bourhood of Castle Donington. The head is very
fine and bold, and bids fair to yield well. Barley and
oats are also much improved since the rains, and are
expected to be average crops. Should the weather
continue favourable, a great part of the grain will be
housed in another fortnight. Such has been the
anxiety of one farmer, at Melbourne, to get his corn
before continued rain set in, that he has been carry-
ing it for the three last successive Sundays, assigning
as his reason for so doing that it was easier to get
assistance on those days than on others !—Nottingham
Review.

Excepting Sunday, which was dry, warm, and de-
lightfully bright, we have had more or less rain every
day during the week. The rain has not fallen in any
considerable quantity ; and being generally followed
by light winds and occasional intervals of sunshine,
the moisture has not yet been productive of any more
serious injury than that of retarding the work of the
sickle. E very dry interval is now eagerly seized to carry
forward the important operations of the harvest, and in
the earlier districts a considerable breadth is already in
stook. Everywhere in this neighbourhood, and to the east
and west, there is much grain ready for being cut,
and dry breezy weather is looked for with the utmost
anxiety. All accounts agree as to the great bulk of
the crop ; what the quality and yield may be cannot
be ascertained till it be brought to the test of the
barn floor. No doubt wheat will be coarser than
what we have been accustomed to for the two past
years ; but if there be no sprout, a slight degree of
coarseness will be no serious evil, and will be amply
atoned for by the great bulk of the crop. Potatoes
and turnips are thriving beyond all precedent ; and,
judging from the samples of the former, which we
see and taste .daily, the quality promises to be ex-
cellent, being in general dry and mealy, and having
already attained their delicious October taste.—
Scotsman.

CAPTURE OF BUSHRANGERS IN
VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
It is with sincere pleasure that we have to an-
nounce the capture of the bushrangers Jones and his
two companions, being the remaining tail of Cash,
Ksvenagh, and Jones's party. The capture was ef-
fected in a very masterly style by district-constable
Morton, of the Brighton police. This officer, having
received information, proceeded to a spot near the
Pear-tree, where, after having watched upon the
hills for two days and two nights, he at last saw
circumstances which convinced him the bushrangers
were in a thatched store but a short distance
from his look-out. Hereupon Morton returned to a
gully where he had planted three of his constables out
of sight, and also called at Mr. Turnbull's house,
when he requested Mrs. Turnbull to write a note to
Mr. Foster, the police-magistrate at Brighton, inform-
ing him of the position of the bushrangers, and re-
questing immediate aid. Morton then made arrange-
ments with his four constables, and proceeded towards
the place. When near enough they made a dash
upon the hut, and, according to the preconcerted
scheme of attack, each man occupied his post. Mor-
ton then called out for every one in the hut to sur-
render and come out unarmed; upon which five free
men presented themselves, and were ordered to ad-
vance about twenty yards and then lie down, under a
threat of being shot if they attempted to stir. Mor-
ton then called upon Jones to come out, instead of
which the bushranger fired several shots out of the
window. Morton called them cowards, and told them,
if they wanted any firing, they had better come out
of the hut; upon which Jones rushed out, and fired
his gun at one of the constables, but without effect ;
the constable, however, returned the fire upon Jones,
and shot him in the head, and a second shot told upon
one of his arms. Jones dropped, and crawled into
the hut, and in a few minutes crawled out again, and
lay down about twenty yards from the hut. Morton
then again called upon the others to surrender and
come out, which they said they would not do so long
as they had a round of ammunition left. Morton
then gave directions to set fire to the thatch of the
hut, and again called upon them to surrender and
creep out on their hands and knees; which Moore,
one of the bushrangers, did, but no sooner got out
of the hut than he endeavoured to get possession of
Jones's gun, which was on the ground. Morton
called upon him to stop, which, however, he did not
do; and one of the constables fired, and severely
wounded him in the head. The other man (Platt)
and a woman (Bridget Brown) then came out, and
surrendered themselves. The two men (Jones and
Platt) were brought into town the next day, and are
now in the Hobart Town gaol. Moore is too severely
wounded to be removed, and we understand his life is
despaired of.—Hobart Town Courier, March 22.

PASSENGERS' BAG GAGE.—Applications having been
made to the Customs authorities by certain passengers
who have recently arrived at this port from Sierra Leone
and New South Wales, praying that some skins and other
articles of trifling value, intended as presents, and found
!ti their baggage, might be delivered upon payment of the
British possession duty, notwithstanding that they were
not included in the certificates of clearance, the board
having conferred with their practical officers, and being
of opinion that in cases of this kind, where the high duty
on the articles may not exceed 10s., and the principal
landing officers are satisfied that the goods are im-
ported from a British possession, and are intended for
private use, the articles may be delivered at the low duty,
without a special application being made. Orders have
been issued to that effect, of which the several depart-
ments have been apprised.—Morning Herald.
FEARGUS O'CONNOR.—A correspondent informs
us that Mr. O'Connor appeared in the Market-place, at
Hanley, on Monday evening last, according to previous
announcement, for the purpose of addressing the people,
when the numbers who attended were so very few, that,
after speaking a few minutes, he gave it up as a hope-
less case. About seven shillings was collected on the
occasion towards the expenses.—ifacclesfield Chronicle.
A TERRA-COTTA CHURCH.—At Haugh, near this
town, a beautiful church has recently been built, entirely
of terra-cotta--burnt clay. The inside, outside, tower,
and basement, are all of the same material, a kind of
fine clay, found near the spot, between the beds of coal,
in Mrs. Fletcher's mines, which, after being subjected to
a great pressure, is burnt. The colour is rather good,
a kind of tawny. The situation, too, is very pretty.
The architecture is florid Gothic. The interior is much
decorated—the roof of dark stained oak; the floor is of
tile, inlaid with numbers of crosses; the steps of tho
communion, encaustic tile; and all other matters in con-
formity. The seats are open, not formed into pews.
The architect is Mr. Sharp, of Lancaster.—Manchester
Guardian.

IMPORTANT TO HIGH-CONSTABLES. -An Act of
Parliament has just been passed " for facilitating the
collection of county rates, and for relieving high-con-
stables from attendance in certain cases, and from cer-
tain other cases." Under the system in practice hitherto,•
high-constables of the hundreds bad to receive the
amount of the county rates after they had been collected
by the overseers, and then personally pay over the same
to the county treasurer. They had also to attend per-
sonally at each quarter sessions, on pain of a heavy fine.
By the Act just passed, they are relieved from having
anything to do with the county rate, nor are they re-
quired in future to attend the quarter sessions. The
rates are to be collected by the boards of guardians of
the poor-law unions, and by them paid to the county
treasurer.

WooDcocKs.—Last year we noticed that two
woodcock's nests were discovered in Melkinthorpe
Woods, near Lowther, by Mr. George Harrison, game-
keeper to the Earl of Lonsdale, and that in both in-
stances the eggs were all hatched. At that time both
Mr. Harrison and his brother (his Lordship's principal
gamekeeper) expressed their decided opinion that many
of these delicate birds, if unmolested in their favourite
retreats after the beginning of February, would become
naturalised and breed in this part of the country. In
support of their opinion, we have now to report that
five fine young birds, strong upon the wing, were sprung
a few days ago in the same locality. As these woods
are strictly and carefully preserved, and seldom entered
during the summer months, probably many more breeds
yet remain to be discovered.—Lancaster Guardian.
THE BIRKENHEAD DOCK WAREHOUSES.—On
Tuesday last, from twenty to thirty of the most influen-
tial gentlemen from various parts of the country as-
sembled at the Monk's Ferry Hotel, for the purpose of
discussing the propriety of erecting warehouses round
the Birkenhead Dock, and adopting the most advisable
course of bringing the subject prominently before the
public. We understand that the project met with una-
nimous concurrence, and that every gentleman present
agreed to become a shareholder in the undertaking to
a considerable extent. The parties dined together at
the Monk's Ferry Hotel.—Liverpool Journal.
Mrs. Drummond, the widow of the late Under
Secretary for Ireland, lately paid a visit to the Royal
Exchange, in order to inspect the marble statue of her
late husband, executed by Hogan, The visit was strictly
private, and Mrs. Drummond remained far a consider-
able time contemplating the work, which so vividly re-
called the features of the departed.—Cork Southern Re-
porter.
KIWERRAN FAIR.-9ur fair last Wednesday Vas
a bad one as compared with former ones. It used to be
one of the best fairs in. the country ; but this week the
show exhibited a falling off, and what is worse, prices
ruled in the same downward direction, stock of all sorts
fetchinginferior prices to those obtained at the last Car-
marthen Laminas fair.— Welshman.
FACTORY CASE.—At the Borough Court on Friday,
Thomas Shorrocks, a spinner, in the employment of
Messrs. Simpson, Thompson, and Co., Collyhurst, was
convicted, at the instance of Mr. Armstrong, sub-inspcc-
tor of factories, of overworking his brother, and not
sending him to school, the boy being under 13 years of
age. He was fined 195., including costs.—lllandes'er
Guardian.

INFLUENCE of BURYING-CLUBS in
AUGMENTING the MORTALITY.
PREMIUMS ON TIIE DEATH OF CHILDREN.
In the evidence of one of the physicians examined
before the Commissioners of Inquiry into the state of
large towns, &c., whose first report has just appeared,
we observe these words :—" I used often to observe
great apathy in a certain class about the death of
their children. They did not seem to look on the
death of the young as the great evil which it is com-
monly regarded ; they said, ' God took care of young
children who died; that their death did not ;natter
much ; that life was full of hardships and misers-, and
that the child was provided for when it died.' • This
feeling I found to be rather c0mm0n."—(3,313, p.
203). The picture here presented is true to nature
so far as it goes ; but the shades in which it must be
finished, we regret to say, are of a much deeper grain
than those yet laid on. There is not merely indif-
ference among the labouring population of England
in regard to the death of their children ; in some
places there is a positive premium upon the
event, and that to such an amount that instead of
Dog-stealers' Bills, and Chimney-sweepers' Bills, and
Blacklegs' Bills, we shall, next session of Parliament,
have to get some intelligent legislator to introduce a
Bill to prevent English men and English women
from being accessory, in cold blood, to the destruc-
tion of their own offspring!
The new sacrifice to Moloch is perpetrated in this
way : soon after a child is born, it is entered on the
books of as many burying-clubs as the parents can
command funds to pay for. The sums subscribed to
each is hut a few pence, or even half-pence, weekly ;
so that parties being in full employment can some-
times afford to have the name on the register of ten
or a dozen of these societies. And the investment
may always be made a profitable one : the hapless
child has but to be killed by exposure, by neglect and
worse treatment, to give these unnatural parents a
claim upon the several societies of which they have en-
rolled their infant a member, to the extent in all, per-
haps, of 301., 401., and even 50/. !
We feel the hot blood rising to our cheek, as the
outward sense follows the pen that is fixing indelibly
such statements as these, which will soon he before
the public in all their revolting details, authenticated
by the Commission whose first report is referred to
above.

What comment shall we make, what comment can
be made, upon a state of society so horrible—a state
of society in which one of the first and most power-
ful impulses of the human heart is set at nought ?
Tigers and wolves give suck, and laying their savage
natures by, tenderly wait upon and cherish their
young. Man and woman, made more than wolf or
tiger by force of circumstances, beget children in the
prospect of deriving pecuniary advantage from their
death!

The difficulty of living, the recklessness that is en-
gendered by the pressure of vice and misery, and the
daily and familiar contact with them, lead men first
to despise the laws of God, which are also those of
nature, and then to defy the laws of man—to set fire
to the rick that contain the harvests which their own
hands have toiled for and gathered, and so to de-
stroy in an hour the bounty of a year—to smother
natural affection in their hearts, and doom their own
flesh and blood to premature death, that they may
have a fuller meal and a draught of beer the more !
Great God ! is it not horrible ? What may be done
to abate the fast accumulating load of guilt and in-
famy under which we must needs be whelmed if we
sit supine ? We put it to our brethren to meditate
this subject, and to use the light and information they
so commonly posses for the illumination of those
among our men of rank and influence with whom, in
the course of the holidays, so many of them are
brought into contact. Let them remind these our
leaders that the time is not long gone by, when de-
fective legislation raised the price of a perishable hu-
man carcase to such a height, that it became a tempta-
tion to commit murder ; and that at one time sub-
jects were selected for the dissecting-room in the
streets, just as sheep and oxen are selected for the
shambles in the fields.