The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-01 00:00:00

THE NIGER EXPEDITION.

Captain Walters, of the ship William Canynges, arrived at
Bristol on Monday last, the 27th instant, from Cape Coast
Castle (west coast of Africa), which place he left on the 22d
of .\larch, brings some interesting information respecting the
Niger expedition. The following is an extract from Captain
Walters's Report :
The William Canynges sailed from Cape Coast Castle on
the 22d of March. At Cape Coast Castle were her Majesty's
ship Madagascar and the steampacket Wilberforce attached to
the Niger expedition. This vessel (Wilberforce) arrived on
the 20th of March from the island of Ascension, on her way to
Fernando Po, whence she was to proceed, in company with the
Soudan steamer, on a second attempt to ascend the Niger.
With the exception of one case of dysentery, all on board the
Wilberforce w ere in tolerable health.
" The Wilberforce brought accounts from the island of As-
cension as late as March 10. At that time the island was
healthy, and most of the invalids from the Niger expedition
had sufficiently recovered from fever to allow of their being in-
valided to return to England. One death had occurred among
them while in hospital at Ascension.
The Albert remained at Ascension, undergoing a refit.
" The Gold Coast had been visited lately by a swarm of
locusts, which had done much damage among the corn, &c.
" The Ashantee mission had been established under favour-
able circumstances, and the two princes, Quantamissah and
Ausah, were residing with the Rev. Mr. Brooking, at Coo-
massie.
Captain Stanley, late 2d West India Regiment, and Lieut.
Fairholme, invalided from the Soudan, passengers (per the
William Canynges), from Cape Coast."
Captain Walters deserves the thanks of the public for the
above valuable extract from his report.

THE PENNY POSTAGE.—It is a fact appearing from
returns to Parliament lately printed, that the postage
revenue for January, 1842 (100,3831.), under the penny
rate, equalled within 3 per cent., that for January, 1840
(103,6231.), under the fourpenny rate.
At the Court of Assizes of the Loire-Inferieure, on
June 14, 15, and 16, Julien Lebreton, whose arrest we an-
nounced in the Messenger of May 16th, was tried for the mur-
der of a woman named Leger, and her grand-daughter Auguste
Laudin, a child of six years of age, on May 6. The case rested
principally on circumstantial evidence, such as the prisoner
having been in great want previously to the murder, and being
in possession of several hundred francs the day after—his
having been seen with some articles which had been taken
from the house of the murdered woman—and lastly his having
sold at a jeweller's, at Nantes, four old six-franc pieces which
had belonged to the deceased. The prisoner behaved during
the three days' trial with extraordinary coolness, assigning
plausible reasons for each circumstance advanced against him.
The Jury found him guilty of murder with premeditation, and
the Court sentenced him to the punishment of death.
A weaver, named Girard, residing at Besse (Var),
who had been in the habit of getting drunk, and beating his
wife, in consequence of which ill-treatment she had left him
for about three weeks, went to her, a few days since, as she
was washing clothes at the river, and threw her in, in spite of
the remonstrances of two other women who were present.
He then flung stones at her, and, when he thought she was
dead, endeavoured to abscond. He was arrested, however,
half an hour afterwards, and, so far from denying his act, ap;•
peered to glory in it, exclaiming " I want to be guillotined
He was taken for the moment to the prison at Pignans, in order
to be transferred to Brignoles the next day. When the gen-
darmes came to take him, they found him dead. lie had made
a sort of cord of his trousers and three pocket-handkerchiefs,
which he had fastened to the bars of the window, and, by
me n. of this apriratus, had hanged himself. The woman,
though much injured, is likely to survive.
traTA um ENT OF HATS.—On Tuesday last, amongst
the various articles exhibited in our market, was one of so ex-
traordinary a nature as to draw hundreds of spectators, viz., a
waggon-load of rats' tails, or to be more definitive in the de-
scription, forty-three bushels of rats' tails ! A question natu-
rally arises, what were they there for? Simply to corroborate
facts. A noted rat-catcher, well known to our nnmerous agri-
cultural readers, whose veracity was long disputed, respecting
the number of rats said to be caught by him, hit on the fol-
lowing novel mode of certifying his statements, to preserve
the tail of every rat he destroyed, and in a f‘w years he has
collected the above quantity, which, with thirty perfectly white
rats, he exhibits at a charge of a penny or twopence, accord-
ing to his customers' apparent resources. This very useful
member of society has, by the profits of his trade, added the
name of Farmer to that of Rat-catcher, and after the "season"
is over, enjoys his otiurn cunt dignitate by his farm fireside.
Salisbury Herald.

CottuarrulN.—lt is openly stated in certain
political circles in the metropolis that there are along suspi-
cion., from materials found in some of the public departments,
that with the view of corrupting the constituencies, and in the
hope of being enabled to prolong their tenure of office, the late
Whig Government applied no less than a hundred thousand
pounds from the secret service money and civil contingencies
in aid of their partisans at the elections last summer.—Brigh-
ton Gazatte (Tory paper. )
SINGULAR CIRCUMSTANCE.--On Friday the 10th
ultimo, being the day after the gold cup was run for at Ascot
'races, a pigeon alighted in a tree adioining a farm house in the
parish of Newtown, Moragomeryshire, about twelve o'clock on
that day. The bird was taken, and at they
was a paper,, with the
,
names of the horses that ran, and as came in ; Bee's-wing
ly
first, Nob second, St. Francis third. No doubt the _pigeon
rnis.ed its route ; she is at the same place now perfect
con-
tented.

THE WEATHER.—NOON, JUNE 30.
"Oi AL GALLERY OF SCIENCE, ADELAIDE-STREET.
Taiermometer 61 Highest
_75 J Lowest 54

Bart neter 'o.o2.—Wind. E.