The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-07 00:00:00

T EIE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY MORNING, MAY 7 1845.

THE WEATHER—SUN OFFICE, MAT 6.
THERMOMETER, Lowest, 36 ; Highest, 58; Noon, 47.
BAROMETER, 29.89.—W1ND, N.V.
Nora.—The figures which follow the words "Lowest" and
" Highest" denote the lowest and highest state of the
Thermometer during the preceding twenty-four hours. All
the other observations are made at noon.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE THIS DAY.
Morning .. 23 minutes after 2 1 Evening •• 41 minutes after 2.

single commissioner, if well chosen, would supply all
that is wanted as regards trade, and at the same time
throw valuable light upon the natnral history and
state of society in the whole region ; although it
might be well that, in the first place, his attention
should be more especially directed to the principal
ports in Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, and the Soloo
Archipelago.
Now we have no doubt that the necessity of an
intermediate station for her trade with China will be
at least as sensibly felt by France as her want of
such a station for her Levant trade. Will
she be less indifferent to national rights in
supplying this deficiency in the one case, than
she showed herself to be in the other ?

If the credulity of English statesmanship be still as
plastic as it was in 1830, and again in 1834, French
duplicity may play over again, with equal success,
the game in which it so completely finessed the Ca-
binet of St. James's—touching, first, the conquest ;
and, secondly, the permanent occupation of Algiers.
On both occasions our Foreign Minister was wilfully
or preposterously blind to intentions that were univer-
sally seen through by the common sense of the Eng-
lish people. When the expedition of General (no iv
Marshal) BOURMONT, in 1830, to demand satisfaction
for so.ne insults to the French flag, terminated in the
deposition of the DEY, and the overthrow and extinc-

tion of that Turco-African Government, it was
apparent to Englishmen in every part of the king-
dom—except the little precinct of Downing-street—
that a permanent establishment in the Mediterra-
nean was the real object of this French aggression.
A degree of natural uneasiness and distrust was
created in the public mind, and especially among the
commercial community. Remonstrances were ad-
dressed to the Government, and in Parliament on
several occasions the attention of Ministers was
directed to the suspicious character of the transaction.
Four years rolled on, in the course of which our
Foreign department perpetually assuring all inquirers
" that there was no design on the part of the French
to retain the Algerine territory," was being utterly
bamboozled by that shameless duplicity to which a
French Minister unscrupulously resorts, whenever
there is a coup d'etat to be effected, the results of which
are likely to be of magnitude sufficient to warrant
to Frenchmen the experiment. At the end
of May, 1834, the declaration of the French Mi-
nistry (in the teeth of the solemn assurance w hich
had just before been given to ours, in the name of the
KING, to the contrary) confirmed the apprehensions
of the British public and the infatuation of the British
Ministry. The French Government coolly " pro-
nounced" for permanent occupation, and it was found
that the moment for preventive negotiation was
passed. That the French have since bungled and
mismanaged their conquest is only in the usual
course of their inaptness at colonial organisation ; but
it might have been imagined that such a lesson of poli-
tical perfidy would not have been soon forgotten..
To judge, however, by the little sensation hitherto
excited by the announced design they have of occupying
the Soloo Islands, we are afraid that we shall be little
better prepared to counteract this movement on the
Indian ocaan, than we unfortunately were to neutral-
ize their movement in the Levant.
Our readers, who will, perhaps, from the considera-
tions above premised, concur with us in our estimate
of the positive value of Manilla, and its enormously
enhanced value in relation to the Soloo Islands, will
participate also in the apprehension with which we
regard the possible result of their occupation
of the Soloo territory, in an exchange with the
Spanish Government, under some pretext or other, for
Manilla. That would be, indeed, a change of pro-
prietorship by no means to be desired. But when
we recollect the paramount, absolute; and all-efficien
influence of the French Cabinet on the Court and
Councils of Spain, we must not close our eyes to
that contingency even. And who shall say that other
and higher considerations would deter the French
Cabinet from seizing so advantageous an opportunity
of Oriental aggrandisement, should it once present
itself? Let us hope the Soloo question will not
quite escape the present notice of her MAJESTY'S
Government.

Mr. HOME has given notice that on Friday next he
will move a call of the House. The attendance of Mem-
bers in Committees, independent of other Parliamentary
duties, has become so fatiguing, owing to the vast
number of railways and private Bills, that a more equal
division of labour is found absolutely necessary, and a
very general feeling was expressed on ➢londay of the
hardship that certain representatives should be com-
pelled to do all the drudgery of Parliament, while not
fewer than one hundred Members were absent without
leave, and enjoying rustic felicity during the most
busy period of the session. Lord CASTLEREAGH,
concurring with others in such sentiments, asked
whether the House was prepared to order the
Sergeant-at-Arms to be sent over to Ireland, to
bring in custody those Honourable Members who
had not attended Parliament this session ; and the
reply was, on the part of Lord G. SOMERSET, that he
should be prepared, in the case of every Member,
whether connected with England, Ireland, or Scotland,
who did not attend when summoned, to move that he be
committed to the custody of the Sergeant•at-Arms.
This question will, therefore, be brought to an issue,
and it will be curious to see what influence the order
will have on the Irish absentees. Probably some of
them will set the resolution at defiance. In Ireland it
is no uncommon occurrence for an officer with a
judge's warrant, or other warrants equally peremp-
tory, to be kept at bay. for weeks, and
finally compelled to retire with defeat. Will the
Speaker's warrant in this instance be treated with more
respect ? Mr. O'CONNELL and a great portion of his
tail have wilfully absented themselves from the House of
Commons; they regard the Legislature as totally useless
for Irish purposes, and it is extremely probable that
they will carry out perhaps a preconcerted
plan, and avoid the warrant. But, besides, it will re-
quire a small army of officers to capture the recreant
Members—some will escape to the fastnesses of the
west or south, others will hide themselves in Dublin ;
and supposing that each Member is endued with the
obstinate spirit and resolution of Ceaus WiLsoN, ten
officers far each fugitive would be barely sufficient.
Some twenty or thirty representatives have deserted
their post, so that a force of at least two hundred men
would be required to carry on this game of Member-
hunting, even supposing the peasantry to remain neutral.
Still-hunting was nothing to this. But to look
at the subject in a serious light, the public
cannot fail to view Mr. O'CosNELL'a conduct
in a very unfavourable light. Certain parties, it is
true, have exhibited an uncharitable spirit in reference
to the Maynooth grant, but that is no fault of the House
of Commons or the Government. Never did Members
perform their duty so nobly towards Ireland as the ma-
jority on that question, including Whigs,
Tories, and Radical Reformers, all of whom
have sacrificed great interests for the sake of
principle and rendering justice to Ireland.
The least that Mr. O'CoNsELL can do is to assist them
in this noble purpose. Does he wish to strengthen a
conviction entertained by some of his political enemies,
and refuse to lend his powerful aid in forwarding mea •
sures which may render agitation unnecessary ?

The first and most natural emotion excited by an
overwhelming calamity like that which has just occurred
at Yarmouth, through the fall of an iron suspension•
bridge, is naturally one of profound regret fur so vast a
number of our fellow-creatures and countrymen, sud-
denly, and in a moment, as it were, of unheeding fes-
tivity, swept off the stage of human existence! The next
impress-sun produced by so awful a catastrophe as this
sacrifice of more than 100 lives, in little more than as
many seconds, is one of profound sympathy for the be-
reaved survivors of these ill-fated victims, who, in the
relations of wives, sons, daughters, husbands, have
lost their natural friends or protoctors, their guar-
dians or parents. The considerations, however, which
connect themselves with so frightful and extensive a dis-
aster, are too solemn for a more enlarged discussion in
this place. We turn, therefore, from the irretrievable
destruction of life to the precautions which the demands
of future security so imperatively require to be adopted
in testing the stability of all public works, structures, and
edifices, upon or about which masses of the people
are l'kely at any time to be congregated. It
would be strange, indeed, were this horrible
causualty to be allowed to pass out of the
public remembrance without furnishing a salutary as
well as memorable lesson, in the first place, to those who
undertake such constructions; in the second to the au
thority and principals, municipal or other, by whom
they are employed. Is it possible to give more force and
point however to such a lesson than are communicated
by some of the incidents connected with this
deplorable accident ? We do not happen to be
aware
of
otrhewdeiimghetnsoiofntsheocfhathi
niss, suspension-dbrinidgg-e,
,o:
the size
or the links, the total length of the bridge, the dis-
tance between the extreme points of suspension, or the

aggregate weight of metal employed. But it would
seem, that at the moment preceding its breaking
through or down—that is when the greatest number
of spectators was upon it—there were not above
four hundred persons assembled, and of these a large
proportion were probably youths and children. Sup-
pose there had been five hundred adults of the average
weight of twelve stone each ; their united pressure on
the bridge would have been but thirty-seven tons. It
is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the material, the
design, or the construction of this bridge, must have been
faulty to a most extraordinary extent. We should be
extremely sorry to prejudge the cause of a misfortune
which must so soon become the subject of legal inquiry.
The matter is still open, no doubt, to the proof, for aught
we know to the contrary, that it was the result a una-
voidable causes not within the control, nor, necessarily.
within the cognisance or calculations of the areliii(ct,
the engineer, or the contractor, or of the surv, yor,
er Committee who may have approved and reported upon
both the design and execution of the bridge. 13ut let us
take the fact to be so; and even on that most favourable
assumption how powerful a case is made out for the esta-
blishment of some responsible jurisdiction—some Na-
tional Commission of scientific and practical men,
who shall be invested with the important trust
of minutely examining and severely testing every
work of this kind before the proprietary or di-
rection shall be at liberty to open it to the public. It is
really remarkable that but a few weeks have elapsed
since the fatal falling in of part of a railway bridge at
Ashton ; and, if we remember rightly, within a very
brief period indeed, this same town of Yarmouth has been
signalised by two other fatal accidents. In the first, the
centering of an archway being struck too soon, the super-
incumbent masonry gave way, the master-builder nar-
rowly escaping with his life, his foreman being killed on
the spot ; in the second, under circumstances not very
dissimilar, the same master-builder being himself
killed on the spot, tt,gether with one of his

labourers. Surely, had the works in question been
previously inspected by duly qualified persons, having
no further interest in the matter but to make such report
as should be consistent with their own reputation,
veracity, and standing, pre fes:ional or official, there
is every human probability that these sad con-
sequences would not have ensued. If for a moment
we picture a case nearer home, we are absolutely ap-
palled at the bare imagination of what might have hap-
pened on Thursday last, when Hungerford Suspension-
bridge was first thrown open. In the course of the day
its total length of fourteen hundred feet was crossed by
at least twenty-five thousand people. But on its ex-
treme centre breadth of six hundred feet from tower to
tower, there were collected, at one period, not less than
one thousand people. What would have been the effect
of bad construction, defective material, or untested de-
sign, in that instance ?
Averse as we are, on general principles, to the inter-
vention of the Government on suspension-bridges or
railroads, the first duty of that Government, it must be
allowed, is to provide for the personal safety of the
QUEEN'S subjects ; and if the Commission we speak of
were to be composed, one-half of private, the other of
Government engineers—the latter to be remunerated
by the Minister, the former by the county
or the district—the main objection to its constitu-
tion would be removed. And, indeed, up to this
extent, we should as much advocate the interference of
Government as we should deprecate such interference
beyond it. But the Government itself, as in its whole
legislation on money and on railroads, is always prone
to commit the error of exceeding the mark, which they
would do so beneficially for the public to pause at.
And, with all respect for the Premier, we cannot help
saj ing that if, instead of indulging his morbid horror of
private " speculation," which is the soul of all mereln-
tile enterprise and greatness, he would limit his legisla-
tion to avoid positive, tangible evil to the public, h,
would make the just d4tinction he has so tnischievou*
missed in the two cases we refer to, of leaving pivot!
capital to pursue its own evolutions, so long as these do
not infringe on the public convenience or welfare.

Madrid journals of the 28th ult. have been received,
but we find no news in them of the slightest interest.

On that day the Three per Cents. closed at 35i at 60
days ; the Five per Cents. at 26 1-16 ; and the Debt
without interest at 84 for cash, and 9f at 60 days.

The French Chamber of Deputies on Saturday
brought the discussion on the Jesuit question to a con-
clusion, by adopting the following. resolution proposed
by M. TRIERS :—" The Chamber, relying on the Go-
vernment for the execution of the laws of the Stat",
passes to the order of the day." The result appeared
to give great satisfaction, not only to the Ministry, but
the great majority of the Chamber, for in a House con-
sisting of four hundred, not more than forty Members
opposed it—these consisting chiefly ef Legitimatists and
Members of the extreme Left. After M. BERRYER had
finished his speech in the early part of the day, the
Attorney-General, M. IlEneeT, followed, and took
nearly the same view of the case as M. TRIERS, but de-
nounced the Jesuits in still stronger terms. The exist-
ence France, as an unlicensed con-
gregation, oftl
he said,
uas
an evil, and contrary
to the law. The Jesuits he regarded as the
most
con
the liberties of France.
:
taut enemies of the two
dangerousthe aneedumreoes
et
" The laws against them," concluded the speaker,
" exist and are efficacious ; wisdom, revolutions,
perhaps, counsels
that they be allowed to sleep for I time, for peace is
better than war, and persuasion better than force ; but
if peace be no longer possible, and persuasion fruitless,
the laws, I repeat, exist, and ought to be executed.' M.
DE LAMARTINE spoke next but amidst constant interrup-
tions. His eloquence was all thrown away, for no one
would listen to arguments for the separation of Church
and State, and in favour of the Jesuits. The Marquis
DE Li ROCHEJAQUELIN had ne better success, and the
feeling in the Chamber left no doubt whatever that
unless the Government, put down these intriguing reli-
gious politicians, the representatives of the people will do
it for them. M. Tin Flus, on finding that his motion
met with the approbation of the Government, again
brifly addressed the Chamber in these words
After the declaration of M. Martin (du Nord), I think we
have come pretty nearly to an understanding. I shall state my
opinion. There are laws of the State incontestible, uncontested—
uncontested, at least, by the Government, by me, or by a great
portion of the Members of this Chamber. In consequence of cir-
cumstances these laws remained unexecuted. The circumsttances
have changed, and it has become urgent that the laws should be
applied. Nevertheless, the Government charged with their exert'.
tion ought to have the latitude which is necessary for that purpose.
It has had recourse to the spiritual authority. I approve of that
proceeding, but upon one condition. It is this, that whatever may
be the result of the negotiations with that authority (an authority
which I respeet, but to which I would not submit the laws of my
country), the laws shall be put in execution. On this condition
the Minister of Public Worship and myself agree in opinion. This
is au admission that the laws exist, and that the application of them
is necessary, and it is well understood that should the negotiations
with the spiritual authority be unsuccessful, that application of the
laws will take place."
On Monday the Chamber was to take into considera•
tion the Bill for arming the fortifications of Paris.
Three amendments had been announced, and it ii.s
generally believed that one of them, which is to the
following effect, would be adopted :—" Paris shall not
be placed in a state of defence but in virtue of a law,
and the arming of the fortifications shall not
take place until after war shall have been de-
clared." The papers announce that on the cele-
bration of the KING'S fete at Lyons a deplorable
accident happened on one of the bridges. The crowd,
eager to see the fireworks, had rushed forward in a
mass to obtain good places, when eight persons were
trampled to death. No business was done_at Paris in
the public funds on Sunday.

MARRIAGE IN MGR LIFE: --1 he marriage of
Mr. James Harrison Cholmeley, brother of Sir James Mon-
tagu Cholmeley, Bart., of Easton Hall, Lincolnshire, with Miss
Charlotte Octavia Johnstone, of Alva, took place yesterday,
in Langham- place Church. After the ceremony a nu-
merous party of the friends and relatives of both families as-
sembled at Farrence's Hotel, Belgrave-square, where an
elegant dejeune was served to a party of fifty.
Novi:J. RACE or MAN V.
floasE.—On Monday a
considerable number of the sporting fraternity mot at the Three
Cats public-house, at Acton-bottom, to witness the singular and
novel match performed, which was for Mountjoy (the well.known
London pedestrian) to
contend against Mr. Counsellor's horse.
The terms of the contest were that Mountjoy should hop on one leg
75 yards, and the horse to gallop 150 yards, the first in to be the
winner. The stakes were 101. aside. In the betting department
there was a good deal of speculation. The necessary preliminaries
being arranged, the competitors came to the starting scratch, and
Mountjoy, taking his position in advance of the horse, leaving 75
yards to the winning post, the signal was given, and away they
went, Mountjoy hopping with great dexterity, and the horse was
quickly in a gallop. The biped having stole a march upon his
quadruped opponent, all efforts of the jockey were unsuccessful,
and Mountjoy came in the winner.
FATAL ACCIDENT BY MACIIINERY.—MANCHES-
TER, SATURDAY.— Monday a moat melancholy and fatal accident
occurred at Messrs. Yates' mill, commonly called the Bee Hive
Mill, Jersey-street, in this town. It appears that on the morning of
yesterday, a
female, about 23 years of age, named Elizabeth Elliot,
went into the mill in search of employment, which she had beets
promised. On entering the room in which she was to have been
employed, her clothes were caught by an upright shaft going at the
time at the rate of 100 revolutions a minute. She was instantly
"lapped" round the shaft, and several minutes elapsed before the
engine could be stopped
to extricate her. The shaft is situate
within a few inches of the wall, so that with each revolution she
was da-hed against the wall. She was dreadfully mutilated and
quite dead when taken down, In the evening an inquest was held
before Mr. Chapman and a respectable jury, when a verdict of
' Accidental death" was returned.
ROYAL SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.—In con-
sequence of the unfavourable state of the weather, the opening of
ihose gardens has been postponed until Whit. Monday I . xt.
We regret to announce the serious' illness, from
paralysis, of Lord Carbery, at his seat, Castlofrelce, county Cork.
His Lordship is a representative Peer, arid in the 80th year of
hilt age.

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