The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-04 00:00:00

THE POST-OFFICE.

Another Ministerial defeat ! When or where are these
disasters to end ? He must be something more than a
prophet that can answer the question. There seems nothing
for poor Sir Robert but disasters. Last night, knowing that
Mr. Duncombe's motion for an inquiry into the Post-office
espionage of the Home Secretary would be carried against
him, he actually prevailed on Sir James Graham to come
forward and make substantially the same motion himself.
Was ever humiliation equal to this? Pistol eating the leek
was nothing to it. Sir James Graham used to characterise
the Melbourne 'Administration as the shabby Ministry. The
epithet " shabby" may be applied with much propriety to
the Peel Ministry, and with a peculiar propriety to the
Home Secretary himself.
" We thank thee Jew, for teaching
us that word." The country will share in our gratification that
an inquiry has at last been extorted from Ministers. Eng-
land owes to Mr. Duncombe a debt of gratitude which
it can never discharge,. for the able and energetic and
triumphant manner in which he has conducted this case from
the first We shall now get at the real state of matters.
Startling, we doubt not, will be the disclosures which the
Committee will make--dark the doings which they will drag
into the light of day. It was generally said that it was a
part of the Post-office system of France to open letters. Mr.
Duncombe quoted the assertion to the contrary, which Guizot
made the other day in the Chamber of Deputies. Letters
are sacred in France. No functionary there plays the part
of a Post-office inquisitor. And is it come to this, that
despotic doings take place in the Post-office of England which
are unknown in the Post-office of France? Where is the
Englishman that does not blush for his country that such
things should be? The national indignation is aroused, and
it must not, and will not, subside until means are devised to
put an end for ever to such odious, unconstitutional, and dis-
graceful practices. A drerttser. •

HIGH TIDES.—On Tuesday afternoon, about three
o'clock, the low neighbourhoods on the banks of the Thames
were completely inundated by the encroachment of the tide
which was unusually high. The cellars and kitchens in Bank-
side, Tooley--street, and Wapping, were completely filled, and
furniture washed about in all directions. Some of the pub-
licans have experienced heavy losses by their cellars being
inundated.

SHOWER, OF SAND AND PEBBLES.—We have lately
read of showers of eels, frogs, and small stones having taken
place last week at Liverpool, and other places in Lancashire
and Cheshire. If any person doubts the possibility of the
occurrence of the phenomenon, his scepticism may be re-
moved by reading the following' fact, the truth of which can
be easily ascert?.ined:—During the thunderstorm that raged
in the metropolis on Monday evening, and immediately after
a loud clap of thunder, mingled with the heavy rain that fell,
there came down a thick sheet of yellow sand and small
white pebbles. How far it extended the writer cannot say,
but it fell heavily in the yard and on the leaden roofs of the
back premises of the houses situated on the north side of
Cambridge-street, Hyde Park-square. - An immense quan-
tity of this sand and small stones descended with great vio-
lence on the leaden roof of the back kitchen and wash-house
of No. 2, in the above street. The back premises of the
houses, Nos. 1,3, and 4, received a lighter sprinkling of the
sand shower. The writer's examination did not extend be-
yond those houses, and whether the shower took a more.ex-
tensive range onset he cannot vouch from personal inspection.