The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-28 00:00:00

give glimpses of those in the vicinity of the larger
lake. About half-way up this fine broad road, it is
crossed by paths winding to the right and left. To
the right there is an extended champaign view, and to
the left a view of the whole of the artificial hills,
which now assume an amphitheatrical form, and
which, when planted, will no doubt look extremely
beautiful.

At the head of this road, and seated on the height
of the rising ground, is Claughton Hall—a mansion
now in course of erection by Mr. William Jackson.
It is large, built of fine white free-stone, and is alto-
gether a beautiful structure.
Even at this distance from the town of Birken-
head, there is a good deal of building going on, the
houses erected consisting chiefly of large and
handsome ones in rows or of detached villas. In
Grosvenor-road, two blocks of fifteen neat, stone-
fronted, and substantial dwellings, are just on the eve
of completion. In the front, they have a good-sized
garden-plot, and they command an extensive and
varied prospect, in the foreground of which is the new
park. The aspect of the latter from this point is not,
as might be anticipated, as yet very prepossessing;
but when the black mounds are planted, and the work
of the gardener has been finished, it will be wonder-
fully improved.
Skirting the township along the road, you come
to a point where there are ways leading to Clif-
ton-park, Holt-hill, and Oxton-hill ; but we kept
to the left, and entered Grange-lane. Here
two good-sized hotels and a considerable number
of dwelling-houses and shops have been erected.
One of the hotels has as its landlord Mr.
Smith, who for many years kept a house
just above the Woodside Ferry. An old-fashioned
farm-house just below, which was a short time ago
isolated and rural looking, now looks completely out
of place, and presents a curious contrast to the new
and modern-built erection in its vicinity.
On approaching the town, the evidences of pro-
gression multiply amazingly; and it is not a little
startling to see on every hand houses which, but a
brief time ago, were supposed to be country residences,
with their garden plots and green-houses, now form
ing a portion of a long and unbroken line of street,
and perhaps having in proximity to them a handsome
shop, with plate-glass windows and so brilliantly
lighted that the plants in the adjoining green-house
may at least have artificial light, if they have been
in some measure deprived of that of the sun.
In the principal streets of Birkenhead the shops are
extremely good ; many of them would now be con-
sidered very handsome here, and the occupiers seem
determined, in fitting up and stocking them, not to be
surpassed even on this side of the Mersey.
The new market is fast approaching completion.
With the exception of the cornice, the outer walls
are complete; the interior, which is fitted up
with iron, will shortly be finished, and men are
now engaged in laying the iron roof. Notwithstand-
ing the doubt recently expressed, the walls seemed
to us abundantly strong. The total cost of con-
structing this handsome building will be from 17,000/,
to 20,0001., and the Commissioners have already let
a sufficient quantity of stalls to produce a rental of
1,6001. a year.

EXTRAORDINARY CASE, IF TRUE.—On Wednes-
day night, about ten, Mr. Barry, a gentleman residing
at 67, Lower Gardiner-street, discovered an interesting-
looking young woman on the steps of his hall-door,
nearly naked, and almost dead with cold. Ile, in the
most humane manner, procured her clothes, and had her
taken to Sackeille-place station-house, where every at-
tention was paid to her, and, after some time, she reco-
vered, and told the following story :—She said her name
was Anne Reilly, and that she came from a place called
Thornville, near Dundalk, in the county of Louth, and
that she was on her way to see her brother, who is a
cabinet-maker at Kingstown ; that alsout four o'clock in
the evening she arrived by one of the Swords' cars, was
set down near a bridge, adjoining the city, and met a
respectable-looking young woman, from whom she in-
quired could she recommend her to a decent lodging.
The young woman, in reply, said she could, and brought
her to a house where there were three young girls, and
a middle-aged woman, with a dark mark on her face.
About six o'clock she partook of tea. She then became
quite stupid, as she alleges. from the effect of some drug,
and went to bed, where she immediately fell asleep.
About nine o'clock, when she awoke, she found herself
standing in a lane, with her back against a wall, almost
naked. She afterwards made her way to the steps of
Mr. Barry's hall-door, where she was found by that gen-
tleman. When she went into the house, she had in her
possession a thirty-shilling note, a sovereign, and three
half-crowns, beside a blue cloth cloak, large cape, a white
straw bonnet, a blue cashmere new frock, two petticoats,
a pair of black cloth boots, a pair of shoes (single tie),
a pair of gray worsted stockings, a pair of white ditto, a
pair of stays, a yard of white muslin, tied round the
bonnet ; all of which were taken from her. She gave a
very minute description of the parties alluded to, but
could not tell the locality of the house. The police were
in search of the parties all day on Thursday ; but up to
a late hour they were not successful in discovering any
of them.—Freeman.
Between eight and nine o'clock on Monday night,
a stack of wood, of very large dimensions, containing
several thousand faggots, situate by the road-side near
Sawbridgeworth, in llerts, was discovered to be on fire ;
and after a short time it was completely destroyed.
The stack was the property of Mr. Barnard, maltster,
and there is little doubt it was wilfully set on fire. The
conflagration was distinctly observed here.—Chelmsford
Chronicle.
EXTRAORDINARY SnirwuecK.—The Esk trader,
Captain Stokes, left Newcastle on Saturday afternoon,
shortly before high-water, on her voyage to London,
with a valuable general cargo. She was towed by two
powerful steamers from the usual berth at Newcastle-
quay down the river, and on rounding the Whitehill-
point, near Shields, she grounded, in consequence of
taking the point too closely, on a rocky bank, which ex-
tends some distance into the river. She heeled round and
was towed off, as was supposed, with little damage. The
steamers towed her slowly down the river and across
the bar, without any leak being discovered. She
being supposed all light, went to sea. The wind blowing
from the east, it was desirable to give her what is called
" a good offing," and she was towed out about seven
miles. The steamers then left her, and in about an hour
afterwards it was discovered that she was making water
rapidly. The pumps were entirely useless against the
rapid progress of water, and the long-boat was launched,
into which the crew had just time to get when
the Esk went down. The crew were unable to save
anything, and had they not been prompt in launch-
ing and getting into the bout, all hands would have
suffered. It was broad daylight, and several other ves-
sels were near, into one of which the crew was taken.
It is supposed the vessel was strained by getting- on the
bank, and the heaving of the sea caused her to spring a
" bulk-head." It is somewhat remarkable that a vessel
belonging to the same company, also called the Esk,
likewise foundered at sea, a hen all hands perished, in
her voyage from Newcastle to London, some years ago,
and the vessel which foundered on Saturday was built
to supply her place.—Doncaster Gazette.
CHANNEL ISLAND SPIRITS.—The Commissioners of
the Customs have received a letter from Mr. Trevelyan,
one of the Secretaries to the Lords of the Treasury,
signifying that, having laid before their Lordships the
Board's report on a memorial praying that the duty on
certain Channel Island spirits may be paid according to
the quantity ascertained after vatting, instead of that
ascertained at the time of importation, he (Mr. Trevelyan)
was commanded to commnnicate to the Board their
giveno
er s
Lordship's concurrence in the course recommended by
them, and to desire that they would cause information to
to the parties interested.
Athnadt etffheect
Commissioners,
adverting to the course
recommended by them, alluded to by their Lordships—
viz., that duty should be charged upon all deficiencies of
Guernsey and Jersey spirits ascertained to have arisen
between the period of importation and that of the re-
gauge, prior to their reduction in strength, under the
Excise regulations, for home use, but 'hat no duty shall
be charged on any deficiency arising from such process,
orders have been issued that the memorialist, and others
by whom applications have been addressed to their
Lordships, be apprised accordingly, and copies of this
order have been furnished to the revenue officers at the
several docks and other stations, for their information
and future government.
A PUBLIC THARESGITING DAY IN AMERICA.—
A Boston paper makes the following estimate of the good
things consumed by the people of Massachusetts on
Thanksgiving Day, viz. :—" 5,000 ducks, 130,000 chick-
ens, 20,000 geese, 35,000 turkeys, 50,0001b5. of beef, pork,
and other meats, 25,000 bushels of potatoes, 28,000 bush-
els of turnips, 8,000 beets, 10,000 bushels of onions,
20,0001b5. of cheese, 25,000 gallons of apple sauce, 2,000
gallons of cranberry sauce, 737,699 pumpkin pies,
100,000 apple pies, mince pies 25,000, other pies, 75,000,
and eggs 1,000,000. In the preparation of the above
there would be used, at a rough estimate, 80 hhds. of mo-
lasses, 100 boxes of llavannah sugar, 100,000Ibs of all-
spice, ginger, cloves, nutmegs, and other spices, 900 bar-
rels of flour, 90,0001b5. of butter and lard, and 600 hhds. of
milk." A New York paper says—" If the 'tarnal Yan-
kees gormandise at this rate, it is worthy of considera-
tion whether New York ought not, in self-defence, to
hold her Thanksgiving earlier. As the case now stands,
we are a fortnight later than Massachusetts, Connec-
ticut, &c., and have to take our chance out of what they
have left."

Honnintai OCCURRENCE.—On Saturday week the
wife of a person named David Monteath, one of the cot-
. tars on the farm of Ingleston, in the parish of Irongray,
went to the farm mansion, nearly a quarter of a mile
distant, without the proper precaution of shutting the
door, leaving within a child from three to four years of
age, and an infant, two months old, in the cradle.
During her absence a brood sow, the property of one of
the adjoining cottars, entered the dwelling, when the
child left with the infant ran out from a sense of danger,
as we presume. Its cries soon attracted the notice of the
person to whom the sow belonged, who immediately
made towards the scene ; but, shocking to mention,
upon reaching the door of the cottage she found the sow
shaking and tearing the little innocent. No time was
lost in rescuing the infant from the savage beast, but
before this could be done its cheeks, neck, Ind arms
were sadly lacerated. A medical gentleman was pro-
cured as soon as possible, and upon first inspection ho
thought the little one would not long survive. We under-
stand, however, that it is still living, though in a very
precarmos state. Even should the accident not prove
fatal, the disfigurement that must follow the severe in-
juries it has received will prove very distressing. Such
an occurrence should serve as a caution to mothers not to
leave their little ones unprotected. The poor child is
still alive, but suffers very mach.---Dumfries Courier.

SPIRIT of PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—To offer violence to a dead body; even
though it be that of an enemy, is regarded, by the
general consent of civilised society, as an act of
savageism At once degrading and disgraceful to the
perpetrators. If any considerable number unite in
the offence, it shows that the general state of society
in the place where it occurs is brutalised. What,
then, shall be said of the scene which the
Earl of Limerick's funeral exhibited ? The
body of the deceased nobleman was on its
way to the tomb of his ancestors, followed
by his nearest relatives, and attended by about
1,000 of his tenantry, attired in hatbands and scarves;
the respectable inhabitants of Limerick testified their
regard for the deceased by wearing hatbands and
weepers ; and most of the shops were closed. A
large number of idle persons, who came in
from the neighbourhood and the adjacent
country, were collected in the streets and prin-
cipal thoroughfares. "As the procession passed"—
the description of the scene is furnished by one who
witnessed it, and whose account we give in another
column—" As the procession moved along there was
a good deal of shouting and groaning." Such
demonstrations of dislike to a deceased nobleman,
even had his life been marked by acts of in-
famy, would have been indecent demonstrations.
None but the lowest vagabonds would have
indulged their personal feelings at such a time,
and while beholding such a scene. The spirit of
the individual had passed to its final audit; and
his body was on its way to be consigned to the
tomb. While such a scene is passing slowly and
solemnly before the eye, the spectator—if he be not
devoid of intellect or destitute of moral sensibility—
instinctively reflects upon his own mortality, and in-
dulges the self-abasing considerations which the scene
suggests. The Earl of Limerick had committed no
offence against society. He had perpetrated no po-
sitive injustice—he had inflicted no injuries upon in-
dividuals. The infirmities of advanced age had com-
pelled him to withdraw himself from public life, and
in the bosom of his family seek the repose which
his decayed physical strength required. In private
society the deceased nobleman had acquired respect.
He had the character of being considerate and hu-
mane toward his numerous tenantry. He was
chargeable with no vice, and, confessedly, exempli-
fied many private and social virtues. And yet,
at the funeral of such a man —as though the
crowds of peasantry whom the procession had
attracted to the spot had been divested of t} e
feelings, while they retained the form, of men
—as though demons had seized upon them, and
employed men to gratify their malice against the
human kind by impelling them to bring this reproach
upon humanity—the outrages, thus commenced, con-
tinued to increase in enormity until they reached their
climax. It will be asked, what had provoked this
disgraceful attack upon a funeral procession ?
this outrage upon the dead—this brutal break-
ing in upon the sanctity of domestic grief—this
assault upon the persons, extending to endan-
gering the lives, of those who were performing
the last rites of humanity to the remains of one who
had ceased to be numbered among the living? W hat
had provoked the savages of Limerick--or rather of
its neighbourhood—to enact the scene we have de-
scribed ? The scene was " got up" as a demonstration
against the union. The Earl of Limerick was among
those who, at the time that Mr. Pitt had resolved to
unite the two countries under one Parliament, assisted
the Government in its negotiations with the leading men
who opposed the measure. The repeal agitators have
succeeded in enlisting the passions of the Irish peas
sentry in their " cause." They have taught them
to believe that the union of the two countries is
the source of their physical anl social evils. Many
of these calamities—the existence of which we ad-
mit and deplore—are created by themselves. Others
arise out of causes which the repeal of the union,
could it be effected, would enhance and multi-
ply. To the lamentable state of the relations
which exist between landlord and tenant—a state of
things that existed before the union, and which the
union has modified and diminished—may a still
larger share of the grievances which afflict Ireland be
traced. These are not topics to which the repeal
agitators allude in their addresses to the dupes
who crowd around them. The union of the two
countries is, according to them, the sole cause of the
woes and wants of Ireland. " Hurra for repeal !"
is shouted by them at the top of their voices,
The names of those who took any prominent part
in bringing about the union, are banded with
infamy in the speeches of the agitators; and, living
or dead, are exhibited to popular indignation as
enemies and traitors to their country. It was,
therefore, as a party to the union—as one who
approved and aided its accomplishment, nearly fifty
years ago—that the Earl of Limerick's funeral
procession was assailed by a mob, and his remains
treated with indignity. It was a demonstration of
patriotism—a practical declaration of the Irish people
in favour of repeal. We designate the proceeding as
an act of savageism, which every Irishman, who has
any respect for his country's name will condemn and
denounce. Such acts necessarily tend to weaken the
sympathies of Englishmen for the inhabitants of a
country in which they are perpetrated, and thus to
discourage the efforts of those who pity, and would
aid them ; and to retard the progress of the practical
measures by which their real calamities would be
removed.
STANDARD.—GeneraI Napier has incurred the
displeasure of the Times by defending its designed
victim, Lord Ellenborough, in one of the most in-
teresting and eloquent books of our day the
" History of the War in Sinde ;" and the Times
indulges its resentment against the gallant officer
this morning in an attack upon, disguised under the
form of a defence of, the obsolete and grotesque and
most mischievous privilege claimed by the Channel
Islands, the privilege namely of retaining the laws
and practices of the twelfth century, and of not having
the benefit of English laws. The attack upon Gene-
ral Napier, charges him with having exercised his
lawful authority, in an "offensive, impelitic, and dis-
courteous manner." To support this charge not one
word of proof is offered, or can be offered—the Gene-
ral pardoned a prisoner, and when the lawful autho-
rities refused to respect the act of grace, sent a mili-
tary party to release him. In this he did precisely
what it was his duty to do. The pardan is a separate
question. Properly or improperly pardoned, the man,
once he received his pardon, was de jure a free
man. His imprisonment for a single minute was
illegal, and it was the Lieutenant-Governor's duty
to protect a fellow-subject from an imprisonment, of
the illegality of which he had judicial knowledge by
all the means at his command. The offensiveness, the
impolicy, the uncourteousness was all on the side of
those who began the use of forcible measures to re-
sist the Queen's prerogative of mercy. The Times
is obliged to give up the judicial proceedings of the
Channel Islands as incurably corrupt, while it affects
to maintain the integrity and fitness of the constitu-
tion under which the judicial system has been cor-
rupted; this, we submit, is nonsense. Were not the
Legislature personally identical with the courts
of law as to a great extent it is, the Legislature that
allows the growth of a corrupted administration
of justice is not worthy of trust. • It is, says the
Times, like an old corporation. It is a greal deal
worse than an old corporation, for they never
oppressed any one, or resisted the royal authority
when exercised for the protection of the people.
But grant it only as bad as the old corporations.
Their charters did not protect them, though
many of them older and more explicit,
and derived from a clearer authority than the
Channel Islands' charters can plead. The strangest
of the Times' arguments, however, is that the
victims of oppression in the Channel Islands are
" aliens,' fugitive Englishmen, or persons ac-
cidentally connected with the island." The
facts are not so ; but what if they were?
they would not much redound to the honour of
these hospitable islands. We trust that the matter
will not rest where it is—we hope that the case will
come under the cognisance of Parliament, and then
it will be seen whether Englishmen ore the only vic-
tims of oppression—whether " the poor sufferer," as
Sir Robert Peel once called her—the Exchequer—
has not reason to complain.

INHUMATION OF THE REMAINS OF WEBER.—The
final inhumation of the remains of Weber, the composer,
took place at Dresden on the night of the 14th inst., with
great solemnity. The body was brought from Magda-
burgh by the railroad, and deposited in one of the
great rooms of the station. Thence, at eight o'clock,
it was carried across the Elbe in a barge hung with
black, and ornamented with musical trophies. On
landing, it was received by a guard of honour,
composed of 500 infantry, forming a semi-circle,
within which it was placed, and attended by all the
musicians of the Royal Chapel and the two theatres
of Dresden, with about 300 other artists and dilettanti,
each carrying a long wax taper 'and a crown of laurels.
Many came from Berlin, Leipsic, and Munich. About 400
instruments and voices executed a hymn written for the
occasion by Dr. Reissiger, and composed by M. Wegener.
This being finished, the procession moved to the Catholic
chapel attached to the grand cemetery, in which the im-
posing funeral service was performed. At the termination
of the service the remains were taken from the catafalque,
and deposited in a grave prepared by the side of those of
the deceased's son. When the grave,. was filled up, all
the mourners threw their wreaths of laurel upon it. The
whole of the procession and other cerenoonies were per-
formed by the light of innuaierable torches, and the
windows of the houses in the streets through which the
cortege passed were illuminated. In the evening of the
15th, Freyschutz and the funeral hymn were performed
at the theatre.

LAIABETIIEXTENSION RAILWAY.—Several of the
inhabitants of Lambeth are about to call a public meet-
ing, to consider of the best means of succe tisfully op-
posing the proposed extension of the London :Ind Scuth-
Westera Railway, at Nine Elms, to the brieiges. The
dissentients to the proposed extension are, httowever, few
in number, the general feeling being in frhyour of th,®
scheme,