The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-03 00:00:00

DECEMBER.

1. Death of Dr. Birkbeck, the founder of Mechanics'
Institutes. _ _

The colossal statue of Washington is placed upon
the pedestal erected for it in the rotunda of the Capitol at
Washington.
3. Death of the Duke del Infantado.
4. Edward Beaumont Smith pleads guilty to the
charge of forging Exchequer bills, and is sentenced to
transportation for life.
Letters patent, under the Great Seal, create the
infant prince Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.
6. The Royal Guards of the Queen of Spain are
disbanded and suppressed.
8. Sophia Darbon obtains 1,600/. damages in an action
against Richard Rosser, an attorney, between 70. and 80
years of age, for breach of promise of marriage.
9. Great meeting at Derby, styled " The Midland
Counties Conference," on the subject of commercial

distresi.
13. By Royal ordonnance, dated in September last,
and published to-clay, the French army is reduced from
A 33,000 men to 344,000 men, thereby effecting a saving
to the country of 30,000,000 francs.
A Royal decree, in the Madrid Gazette, pardons all
persons arrested or banished, and not yet tried, on ac-
count of being concerned in the events of October last.
15. Death of the Earl of Westmoreland, in his 82d year.
Death of Mr. Sergeant Arabin, one of the Judges
of thel Central Criminal Court, in his 65th year.
16. Robt. Woods, Isaac Jacques, and Thos. Molyneux,
are found guilty, by the' Coroner's inquest, of the murder
of Mr. Grayson, at St. Helen's.
17. In a speech delivered by Mr. Christopher, M.P.
for Lincoln, to his constituents, the Hon. Member an -
nounces the willingnesi of the landed interest to agree to
a relaxation of the restrictions on the importation of
foreign corn.
18. M. de Salvandy, Ambassador from France to the
Court of Madrid, having insisted upon presenting his
credentials to the Queen in person, unaccompanied by
the Regent, who required their presentation to himself,
addresses a note to the 'Prime Minister, threatening, in
case of further delay, to demands his passports.
20. A treaty between Great Britain, France, Prussia,
Austria, and Russia, fur the more effectual suppression of
the slave trade, is signed at the Foreign-office.,
Execution of Ward for the murder" of an infant 20
months old.
21. Death of Vice-Admiral Sir Geo. Scott, aged 70.
22. At a meeting of the unemployed silk weavers, it
is resolved that distress exists amongst them " to a most
alarming'extent, equal to, if not exceeding, any former
.1' period.'
The Corporation of Dublin, at the instigation of
JLord Mayor O'Connell, negatives' by a majority of 34 to
the motion for an address to Earl De Grey, congra-
tulating him on his appointment as Lord Lieutenant of
)Ireland.
• 23. The French Chamber of Peers sentences Quenis-
,set, Col.onabier, and Brazier (the conspirators against the
lives of the King'ts suns), to.death, and their accomplices
to various terms of imprisonment. Dupoty, the Edit( r
of the Journal du Peuple, is included amongst the accom-
plices, in consequence of an article having appeared in
his paper Which was construed by the Chamber to have
incited the conspirators to make the attempt against the
Princes' lives • ,
A meeting of the Editors of the Opposition Jour- •
gals in Paris is held at the office of the Temps to take
into consideration the perils to which the press is exposed'
in. consequence of the prosecution of the Crown, and the
sentence of the Peers.
Death Of the Earl of Egmont, aged .51. •
24. The luggage-train of the Great Western r
and Railway}',
consisting of 14 waggons with 37 passengers,
.wrl,
in
Sorining, a cutting about midway between TwYf
Reading, is thrown off the line by a slip of
earth,
_ and
eight of the passengers killed on the spot, and all the
others severely injured.
At Manchester, five persons killed andlen seriously
hurt by the falling of one of the walls of a cotton factory
which had been destroyed by fire.
25. Eight fires take place,{ to-day, in London, occasioned
by over-heating stoves in cooking the Christmas dinners.
27. The Coroner's Inquest on the bodies of the eight
passengers killed by the overturning of the luggage wag-
gons on the Great Western Railway, returns a verdict of
--Accidental death in all the cases, with a deodand of
1,000/. on the engine and tender.
The King of the French opens the session of the
Chambers.

Sixteen of the Paris journals sign and circulate a
declaration against the sentence on M. Dupoty. This de-
claration is followed by another of a similar purport from
the Society of Men of Letters.
29. A deputation from the weavers of Spitalfields waits
on the Lord Mayor, to obtain his Lordship's interference
(which is granted) to procure a distribution of the funds-
already subscribed for the unemployed wearers and their
families, consisting altogether of 24,000 individuals.

. .
When the Lord Chief Justice Dou4herty was
leaving Beatnaris, where his family had 14;ng been re-
siding, after an assize in which there had not- been a
single criminal case for trial, he turned to his Irish ser-
vant, and said, in allusion to this circumstance, " Well,
Pat, what would they say to such a thing in our country ?"
The Hibernian replied with an evident air of self-com-
placency, in the true Irish brogue, " I'll tell you what it
is, your Honour, these Wel.th are a poor mane-spirited
people, and hav'nt the heart to do anything worth hang-
ing for,"