The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 1

Now ready, at all the Libraries,
THE COUNTESS of BLESSINGTON'S
NEW NOVEL.
" STRATTIERN; OR, LIFE AT HOME AND ABROAD;"

A STORY OF THE PRESENT DAY.
henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

On Saturday, January 4, 1845, will be Published the First Number
f a New Weekly Newspaper, price 6d., under the title of
y-ouNG ENGLAND;
OR, THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE EMPIRE.
All Communications, Letters, and Books for the Editor, are re-
quested to be addressed to Richard Bentley, 8, New Burlington-street.
Office of " Young England," No. 2. York-street, Covent-garden,
where Advertisements should be forwarded immediately to secure in-
sertion.
*4* Orders received by all News agents and Booksellers through-
out the United Kingdom.

ROYAL.THEATRE DRURY-LANE.

THIS EVENING, DECEMBER IS,
Will be repeated a Grand Opera Sella, called THE DAUGHTER
OF ST. MARK. Lnsignano, Mr. Burdini ; Andrea Corner., Mr.
Borrani ; Moncenigo, Mr. Weiss Adolphe de Courcy, Mr. W.
Harrison ; Catarina Cornaro, Miss hainforth
To conclude with the celebrated Ballet of THE PERI. Achmet,
M. Desplaces ; The Peri, Mdlle. Plunkett; Nourmahal,
O'Bryan ; Aysba, Mrs. Payne.
The Box.omce is open daily, from Ten in the Morning until Six
sn the Evening, where Private and Family Boxes, Stalls, Places,
aid Tickets may be had on application to Mr. John Parsons.

THEATRE ROYAL, HAYMARLET.
Lessee, Mr. B.WEBSTER.

THIS EVENING, DECEMBER IS,
Will be performed a New and Original Comedy, in Five Acts,
cared OLD HEADS AND YOUNG HEARTS. Colonel Rocket
air. S rickland ; Littleton Coke, Mr. Charles Mathe,. s ; Ton Coke
Mr. Webster; Bob, Mr Buckstone; Jesse Rural, Mr. W. Farren;
the Countess of I birpion, Mrs. W. Clifford; Lady Alice Hawthorn
Madame Vestris ; Miss Rocket, Miss Julia f,ennett.
Alter which, will be repeated a New Comic Drama, entitled
SOMEBODY ELSE. Hans Moritz, M . Charles Mathews; Minnie,
.dadame Vestris.

To be followed by a New and Original Farce, called YOUNG
N(4 LA ND Major Mar;inet, Mr. Strickland; Mr. John James
Poolcy, Mr. Buckstona ; Mrs. P,olev, Mrs. Humby.
Private Boxes, Two Guineas and One Guinea and a-Half each.
rickets and Places to be had of Mr. 1. T. Ar cher, at the Box-office,
from len till Five o'Clack.

THEATRE ROYAL, ADELPHI.
Under the Direction of Madame CELESTE.
THIS EVENING, DECEMBER lA,
Will be produced (by special permission of Charles Dickens, Esq.)
a New Drama, entitled THE CHIMES. A Goblin Story of Some
Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In. Toby deck,
Mr. 0. Smith; Aldersnan Cute, Mr. Wright; Tugby, Mr. Wilkin-
son ; S.r Joseph Bowley, Bart , Mr. Paul Bedford ; Will Fern, Mr.
Hudson; Richard, Mr. Selby; Meggy Vcck, Miss Fortcscue; Mrs.
' Chickenstalk2r Mrs. Frank Matthews.
After which a New Prams, entitled THE MYSTERIOUS
STRANGER. Count Henry de Beausoleil, Mr. Hudson ; Count
ganille, Mr Selby; The Mysterious Stranger, Madame Celeste ;
Crequet,, Mr. Wright; Chechore, Mr. 0. Smith.
To conclude with THE UNFINISHED GENTLEMAN, to
which Messrs. Wright, Selby, and Miss Woolgar will perform.
Prompter, Mr. Gailot ; Principal Painter, 'tr. Pitt; Leader of the
Ban,t, Mr. Mellon.—Box—octice open from Eleven till Four. Private
Boxes to be had at the Theatre, and at all the principal Libraries.

HIGH WATER. AT LONDON.BRIDGE THIS DAY.
'tat rang ... 19 minutes after 8 f Evening ... 51 minutes after 8

turn of mind. He has nothing of the CHATHAM or
CANNING in his nature. He adopts popular measures,
not from conviction, but on compulsion. He is inac-
cessible to lofty and fervid impulses, and must be as-
sailed on the side of his apprehensions. Above all things,
he is the slave of precedent, and shrinks aghast from the
idea of originating anything for which he has not
some sort of warrant from the past. It is this marked
trait in his political character that induces many
people to give him credit for being a safe Minister;
but such people should bear in mind that there are
times and seasons when the boldest and most decided
course of policy is also the safest that can be
pursued. Such a period is the present, for there
is no question that the Premier's constant habit
of shilly-shallying on the subject of free-
trade, at one moment giving it his direct counte-
nance, at another repudiating the system,
as uncalled for by existing circumstances, merely in
order to keep himself for a short time longer in fa-
vour with the Conservatives ;—there is no question,
we say, that this favourite habit, on tRe part of Sir
ROBERT PEEL, of playing fast-and-loose with free
trade, is daily tending more and more to unsettle
men's minds ; to engender in them a dis-
trust of Government and its policy; and
by so doing, to affect in no inconsider-
able or remote degree, all the great commercial
interests of the country. And'are the Conservatives
grateful to the Premier for this temporising course of
policy ? Certainly not. They see clearly enough that
it must ere long have an end, and already they dislike
their leader quite as much as they would do, were he
at once to cut all connexion with them, thro w himself
into the arms of the Liberals, and publicly proclaim
his adhesion to the principles of free trade.

From the acceunts we have recently published of
the release of the gigantic " GREAT BRITAIN" from
Cumberland Basin in the Bristol Docks, our readers
will have learned, with pleasure, that the mightiest
ship in the world is now a free denizen upon her des-
tined element. This stupendous production of mer-
cantile enterprise and mechanical science at length
walks the waters " like a thing of life." Long may
it be her lot to attract the admiration of the civilised
world in general—the wonder and respect of
the nautical profess ion in particular —as the
marvellous embediment of the daring pro-
ject of her builders. They aspired to pro-
duce a specimen of steam-ship building that
should be matchless in its dimensions, its capacity,
and its velocity of motion. They have accomplished
even more. With the working of her " Archimedean
screw" she can run, it seems, from eleven .to twelve
knots an hour, not stretching a yard of her canvass.
Her mighty fabric is said to be unaffected by the
vibration of the steam-engines which work that
colossal propelling power, and the passengers in her
spacious cabins can scarcely detect the momentum
of her speed. In less than seventeen traversings
of her deck from stem to stern, the astonished voyager
will have paced one mile; and between two and
three of our old 36-gun frigates would represent no
more than her own single stowage of more than
3,500 tons ! What performances may not be antici-
pated from such powers and such means, working
with all the ease, celerity, and precision, which the
late trial-run demonstrated the Great Britain to pos-
sess ! To what increased facilities and rapidity of
transit from and to the remotest regions, under gua-
rantees how much enhanced for the safety of those
whose calling it is "to tempt the trackless deep,"
may we not be justified in looking forward, after this
test of a vessel thus stupendous in her construction !
The whole human race, perhaps—but assuredly the
great maritime and commercial Powers of the world
—may be considered as deeply interested in the
memorable and successful result of the experiment
we refer to. We make no apology for recurring to it,
and the rather as we have, of late, so frequently had
occasion to direct public attention to the progress of
naval architecture in another branch of that science—
namely, the construction of our ships of war.
I'Ve have no disposition to revive the controversy
which has been so long and warmly maintained be-
tween the advocates of the Surveyor of the Navy's
intuitive-principle" of ship-building, and the stick-
lers for the canons and practice of naval architecture
according to the matured state of our experience in
the actual construction of ships. Yet we are grati-
fied to learn, on the authority of our vigilant Con-
temporary, the Plymouth Times (to whose strictures
on this very important subject we hold that the coun-
try at large is very much indebted), that the Admi-
ralty have given orders to suspend for the present
the building of any more ships on the principles
adopted in the construction of the Queen (110)
and the Albion (90). The time has come,
we trust, at which the judgment and ex-
perience of the acting Lords will induce them
to return to the adoption of such noble models of the
old school, but with all the improvements of modern
science and observation, as the Neptune and other
such three-deckers. But having already expressed
our reprobation of everything like favouritism in ad-
ministering such vital interests as those wherewith
the Admiralty have to deal, we must enter a very
brief plea for their adoption of tried improvements
and certified inventions, having for their object to
supply existing deficiencies in nautical mechanism, ra-
ther than in nautical science. We are anxious, in
respect of one of the most extraordinary of these
improvements and inventions—the (as it appears
to us) invaluable " Ship Manceuvrer" of Mr. ROBERT
FOULESTON—tO learn the number of her MAJESTY'S
ships to which it has yet been applied ? By this
" Manoeuvrer," as it is shown by the abundant docu-
mentary papers and certificates just published by
its ingenious inventor, "a ship's head may be directed
at all times to any point required." The Earl of
DUNDONNALD, Captains T. BENNETT, Sir W.
DILLON, W. H. SMITH, Sir THOMAS HASTINGS
and F. BEECIIEY, R.N., Commanders MILES, CRAU-
FURD, W. BROWNE, R. RICHARDSON, J. BAILEY,
R.N., Lieutenants BALLET, M. COMBE, .1. BIL-
LINGSLEY, HUGHES, T. CAREY, HENRY BUTT,
JAMES CLARKE, R. J. JEFFREYS, J. WILLIAMS,
ALFRED MILES, R.N., and Master SYMONDS,
R.N.—all attest their unqualified satisfaction
with its properties. There are succinctly de-
scribed by Mr. FOULESTON himself :—" The
power of immediately turning a ship, so as to
direct her head to any given point, independently of the
rudder and sails, has long been felt to be a desidera-
tum by practical seamen. This want is supplied by
the present invention, the principal advantages of
which Ire its simplicity; its general applicability; the
prompt means, both of attack and defence, it affords
to engagements ; its security from cannon shot ; and
the facility with which it may be made to subserve
any other means that are now used for steering.
The invention consists in a powerful screw, secured
within a tube, and fixed (out of reach of cannon shot) in
the dead wood of a vessel's stern, at right angles to the
keel. It is worked by a capstan, operating on a ver-
tical spindle, which communicates by means of a
bevel wheel and pinion, with a horizontal shaft, into
which the pinion is keyed to the screw. They, acted
upon by the capstan and their accessories." We shall
endeavour in a day or two to find room for some ex-
tracts from the pamphlet whence we extract this
description.

Accounts from Madrid of the 10th state that
pwlearcee dm cankincag pigrilaeat(ienfrortthsetochapel
Colonel REUJEFO, GARCIA, and ARI
).
procure
az ,Tr.ch.4.oemi hrmadufrrindsends
of the
cee
di
ngs e; nftoern cNe, withE
za, pdpeasrpeint
et l yt h lei trtleeprhe
soepnet a
toifo
nssu
of
f-
Mr. BULWER and the Count DE 13aussox, seems de-
termined upon more slaughter, or examples, as he
terms his butcheries. We are inclined, however, to
believe the statement in the French Government
papers, that they had been pardoned. We find no
news of importance in the papers. The cold at
Madrid on the Bth was excessively severe. At
Bayonne the thermometer had stood as low as 24,
and vast quantities of snow had fallen along the
frontier.

MADRID BOURSE, DEC. 10.—The Three per
Cents. are 1 per cent. higher to-day, and transac-
tions to the amount of 127,000,000 of reals took
place ; they closed at 32,t at 60 days. Five per
Cents. 21k at 60 days; Floating Debt 74 for 18th
instant; Coupons 25 at 60 days

The sudden departure of Sir STRATFORD CANNING
from Constantinople gives rise to several conjectures
in the Paris papers. Some infer that it is a mere
jaunt of pleasure, and others that a serious misunder-
standing has taken place between the Porte and the

British Ambassador, and that he has demanded his
passports. It appears, however, from the statements
in these papers that there is little foundation for such
rumours. The Smyrna Journal states that the short
absence of Sir STRATFORD CANNING is no more than
an excursion of pleasure, which he has been in the
habit of making every year, and the Journal des De-
bats, which contains news from Constantinople to the
27th ult., says :—" It appears that the object of Sir
S:CANNING'S excursion was to visit the British Con-
sulates in the Troad, and a desire to ensure the sup-
ply of provisions which the English station of the
Levant required. Sir S. CANNING had passed over
to Tenedos on the 23d, and when the last intelligence
left was daily expected at Constantinople." M. THIERS'
journal, however, takes a different view of the affair, and
infers that owing to the little support which the Am-
bassador received from Lord ABERDEEN, the report
merits attention, "not that it is true, but as it proves
the truth of an observation we have often made during
the affairs of Servia, and which, indeed, has become a
general opinion, that the British Ambassador is not
sufficiently supported by his own Government, and,
therefore, not in a position to obtain any important
concession from the Porte." The National has an
article on jobbing in railway shares and on the nature
of the contracts entered into by the Government with
the different companies, which it considers too favour-
able to the latter. It states that the conditional pro-
mises of shares in the Northern line are sold at a pre-
tnium of 40f. each, that the shares of the intended
line from Amiens to Boulogne are at 180 f. premium,
those of Orleans to Bordeaux 130 f, Vierzon 2301.,
Rouen to Havre 293 f., and Avignon to Marseilles
4271. The National observes that, upon the shares
of the Paris and Rouen line, which is in action,
the shares are at a premium of 530 f., and
those of the Paris and Orleans line, also
in action, 600 fr" The Journal des Debuts
announces on the authority ef a letter from Madrid
of the 10th, that the Queen of SPAIN has granted a
pardon to Colonel REUGIFO, Captain GARCIA, and
Don MANUEL ARILLA, who had been condemned to
death by a court-martial, and then adds :—" This act
of clemency and royal generosity does honour to
the Spanish Government, andis, in the present state
of disturbance, both a proof of courage and of
strength. Such acts do more to insure the duration
of a government and the peace of a kingdom than
those which we have been lately obliged to condemn,
and we hope that they are only the augury of a really
humane and liberal policy." We can see no proof
either of courage or strength in such a course. These
men were unjustly condemned. and NARVAEZ would
have carried the sentence into effect but for the fear
of universal execration. The following extract of a
Madrid letter in the National forms a strong contrast
to this proof of courage and strength :
" Each day brings us the news of some massacre. The
Government was not quite satisfied with having shot
Zurbano's brother-in-law and son ; it has also shot
mother, and with them all the victims taken with arms
.n their hands, or without them.' All this is done with-
out trial, and on the simple proof of their identity. They
have just shot twelve men in Arragon ; it is the begin-
ning of a butchery which will pot stop there. General
Don Pedro Ramirez, 75 years of age, and who reckons
65 years' services, had the imprudence to make some
representations to the Government on all these acts of
barbarity, and at once he was arrested, and taken by a
file of soldiers to the eastello of Cadiz, where he is to be
embarked in the first vessel for the Canaries. Prison
first, exile next—such is the fate reserved for the oldest
and most faithful servants of the State."

The ConstituVonnel makes these remarks on the
announcement of the Siecle, that the King of
PRUSSIA is about to give a Representative Constitu-
tion to his people :

" The Slecleinnounces that the King of Prussia is
about to give a Constitution to his States, and has al-
ready officially communicated his intentions to the other
European. Cabinets. According to all the information
we have received from time to time from Berlin, this
news is at least premature, The King of Prussia, it is
true, long ago though/ of giving a Constitution to his
people, and he has beftowed great labour on the project;
but nothing has yet appeared to show that the work is
completed, and that the population of Prussia is on the
point of seeing its present government transformed into
a representative government. it-is certain that between
the elaboyation of a Constitution, in the leisure hours of
a Cabinet, and its public promulgation, there must be a
long interval. There is no doubt, however, that at a
period more or less remote, and under divers forms, the
representative system will be extended to nearly all
civilised States. Prussia, that- enlightened, wise, and
inquiring nation, the lover of cc-Istroveray, will certainly
be one of the first to adopt a -.node of government founded
upon free discussion. I.:',ut whether her King will take
the initiative, is very problematical."

THIS DAY'S NEWS

PRIVY COUNCII4.-(THIS DAY.)
The Committee of the Privy Council for the affairs of
Guernsey and Jersey sat to-day, at the Council-office
Whitehall, for the purpose of bearing the further argu-
ments in the part-heard case with respect to the course
pursued by the Lieutenant-Governor of Guernsey.
Mr. WADnisoTox resumed his arguments on behalf
of the Crown, and in support of the Lieutenant-Go-
vernor; and occupied their Lordships the whole morning.

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SECOND EDITION.