The Sun.
London, England, 1829-02-02 00:00:00

next to Rear-Admiral Sandford Tatham, having
been made Captain in the same year (1794).
The Naiad, of 46 guns, is ordered for immediate
commission.

The Variable brig was commissioned on Satur-
day, by Lieut. Nash, of the Britannia, for the paciet
service.

The Zebra, 18, Commander E. W. Gilbert, was
paid off on Saturday at Plymouth, and re-commis-
sioned, for the East India station, by Commander
R. Pridham.

We are glad to observe that the terms offered by
Government to settlers in the new colony in the
Swan River are so regarded by capitalists as to in-
duce many to embark in the speculation. The
alacrity which prevails among individuals of this
class, in preparing to depart for this settlement, has
no precedent in any former opportunity for emigra-
tion. Many highly respectable and indeed distin-
guished individuals, whose names we have learnt,
are eagerly engaged in forming parties on a large
scale to emigrate thither. Captain Stirling, the
Governor of the colony, will embark in a few days
on board the Parmelia, and two ships will sail shortly
with freight and passengers for that destination.

EXPANSIVE POWER OF FREEZING

WATER.

The expansive power of freezing water has ever
been a subject for the admiration of philosophic
minds, and some of the greatest men of every age
have devoted portions of their lives to the examina-
tion of its cause. Extensive experimental know-
ledge has been given to the world on the subject,
and it has been said that frost swells or dilates water
nearly one-tenth of its bulk, and is capable of exert-
ing a power equal to 28,0001b5. This has been
fully proved by an instance of the great force of the
diletation of water in the Dock-yard, during the se-
vere frost last week. The water which had from
rain accumulated in a cannon, placed upright against
the angle of a large store-house, having frozen, its
expansive power became so great that it lifted a shot
placed on the mouth of the cannon, the edge of
which touched an abutment of the building, 'with
such force that the whole groin of the building
was removed from its position,—a feat that could
be scarcely accomplished by the application of the
greatest mechanical power in the arsenal. The
force of exploded gunpowder has been found by
several accurate experiments one thousand times
greater than the pressure of the atmosphere.—
That of ether, which consolidates water into ice,
may prove equal to it, for aught that has been
discovered to the contrary. We do not wonder
at the power of fire, when accompanied by a
vehement degree of heat, although its effects
are so great that nothing scarcely can withstand
them, as in gunpowder and steam, and here we have
the same substance exerting a most surprising force,
even when reduced to the temperature of ice.—
There are other causes to excite our admiration be-
sides the mere phenomenon, for this expansive
power is of eminent use in nature, as is exemplified
in the commination or loosening the texture of
dense clay soils, whereby the delicate fibres of
plants can easily penetrate them. They are also
applied en several occasions to save the labour of
man, and perform such things as are beyond the
reach of art. Blocks of slate stone, consisting of
thin plates of lamina, not separable by a tool, are
taken out of the quarry and exposed to rain, which
soaks into the pores of the stone, and is there frozen
into ice, and by its expansion separates the stone in
the places where it breaks most easily, and shivers
it into plates of an equable thickness throughout,
proper for many different uses, but principally for
covering buildings. In the iron works also, when
the workmen want to re-cast old bomb shells of
some magnitude, they fill them with water, and
then fastening up the vents, expose them to the
frost, which bursts them to pieces without further
trouble.— Devonport Telegraph.

ROWLAND STEPHENSON.---Mrs.
Knivett deposited with him, at five per cent. interest, the
whole of the money she had carefully saved previously to
her marriage.. The poor woman, who keeps the gate at
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, had, by extreme parsimony,
and as a nest egg for the comforts of old age, scraped to-
gether nearly 3001., which, by accident, came to the
knowledge of Stephenson, when he prevailed upon her
to deposit the same in his hands for security. The old
woman is now reduced to comparative beggary.—Sunday
Times.