The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-10 00:00:00

DEFERRED ANNUITIES.

The best and most varied provision for after life hitherto of-
fercd—E2 12s. per annum ( Is. per week) at 20, will at 65
give the policy-holder the choice of an annuity of £47 165. 6d.
or £349 11s. cash, or policy at death of £466. Similar ad-
vantages at 50, 55, and 60—Two-thirds payments lent at any
time, and Two thirds returned in case of premature death.
The detailed Plans, and Last Annual Report, to be had at
the Office, at any of its Branches, or on application will be for-
warded post free.
F. FERGUSON CAMROUX, Secretary.

Ur WALKER'S NEEDLES (by autho-
-11-• rity the " Queen's Own)," with the new large
eyes, are easily threaded (even by blind persons), and work
with great ease, having improved paints, temper and finish.
The labels are correct likenesses of her Majesty and his Royal
Highness Prince Albert in relief, on coloured grounds. One
shillings valae can be sent free by Fort by any respectable
dealer, on receipt of 13 penny stamps.
Sold in papers, and in leather eases and boxes of 100, 125,
250. 500, 1,000, or 5,000 needles.
H. Walker's improved Fish-hooks, Steel Pens, Hooks and
Eyes, Bodkins, &c., are particularly recommended to notice.
11. Walker, Manufacturer to the Queen, 20, 3laidon-lace,
Wood-street.

TIDE NEWS FROM AFFGUANISTAN.—The exciting
intelligence just received relative t 9 the struggle carried an
in the town and neighbourhood of Cabul, to which all eyes
are at present so anxiously directed, invests this part of the
world with an unusual interest. The publication of Captain
Fane's " Five Years in India" will go far to gratify the public
curiosity as to the singular ter. itory and localities in question.
Re,ides giving a highly interesting description of those remark-
able spots which at present form the th, atre of war between
the British and the Affgharis,. the gallant writer has furnishe
from his own pencil, the following, among many other spirited
intiorations :-1 he City and Valley of Cabul ; Bala Iliasar, or
Shah's Palace at Cabul; Candahar ; Fortre•s and Town of
Ghuzne ; Forts of Jumrood, Alice Musjid, &c., besides some
highly interesting particulars relative to the traitor Mohammed
Akhbar Khan (the assassin of Sir W. Macnaghten); a view of
his residence, &c.
LONDON FIRMS IN 1841.—This week's number of
the Mechanic's Magazine contains Mr. Baddeley's interesting
resume of the nu:nber, cause, character, and extent of the fires
in London and its suburbs in 1841; by which it appears that
there were in January, 59 ; February, 68 ; March, 63; April,
59 ' • May,r 56 ; June, 50 ; July, 45 ; August, 63 ; Sep-
tember, al ; October, 67 ; November, 63 ; December, 52;
making the total number of fires fast year, 696. The
number of fires wherein the premises were totally de-
stroyed was 24 ; seriously. damaged, 234 ; slightly da•
maged, 438 ' • alarms which proved to be occasioned by
chimneys on fire (those known to be such are not included),
92 ; false alarms, originating in error or design, 67 ; making
the total number of calls, 855. The number of instances in
which an insurance had been effected on the building and.
contents was 343 ; on the building only, 149 ; on the con-
tents only, 52 ; neither insured, 152. There were 16 fatal
fireF, attended with the loss of 19 lives. Of all the most
important fires of the year Mr. Baddeley has given a full
and explicit account. 'these are followed by lists showing
the occupancy of the premises, and the daily and hourly
distribution of fires throughout the year. The apathy of
the City authorities towards the preservation of the lives of
the citizens from fire, is briefly but pointedly alluded
Thu exertions of the Fire Brigade and the West of England
firemen are justly commended. A description, with three
engravings, is given of a splendid marine tire engine, which
has been recently completed by Mr. Alerrywcath-r, Long-
acre, London, for the Emperor of Russia. To all those
persons who take any interest in this important branch of
our domestic statistics, the authentic and voluminous report of
Mr. Baddeley will be peculiarly acceptable, containing, as it
does, the most complete and accurate information ever pub•
lished of these accidents.

ALARMING FlRE.—Monday morning at half-past
one o'clock, an express reached %Vatting-street fire station with
information that a fire had broken out at Minerva House, near
New Cross, Deptford, the residence of the Duke of Normandy.
Mr. liraidwood repaired to the spot with three engines and a
strong party of the brigade, and found the fire existed in a
building recently erected for the purpose of snaking experi-
mental bomb-shells and other projectil, s. The greatest alarm
existed in the neighbourhood, as it was supposed that a quan-
tity of combustibles were in the place, which would explode.
Mr. Braidwood immediately brought his force into operation,
but no water could be obtained except by buckets from the
neighbouring houses, and it Bras only by unwearied exertion
and judicious management that the fire was extinguished. The
building, which is detached from the mansion, and its contents,
were nearly wholly destroyed. Not the slightest idea can at
present be formed as to the cause of the fire, which was not
discovered until the flames burst forth.
MESMERISM.—CAUTION TO THE LADIES.—A cook

:n a
gentleman's family having heard Mesmerism much spoken
of, and many strange s'ories told of it, took it into her head
she would be Mesmerised, and for that purpose applied to a
noted professor in a country town ; being a very hale and
healthy subject the surgeon had some difficulty to induce mes-
meric sleep, but he eventually succeeded. The lady not only
dept but tiled, her first words were perfectly natural, but in a
altering tone the fair one said—" Coachman, oh ! take your
cold feet away !"
In the Vice-Chancery Court on Saturday, in the
case of Bulteel v. Lord Abinger, Sir T. Wilde concluded his
reply in this case, and Vice-Chancellor Wigram requested to be
furnished with the documents which had been read, to assist
him in forming his decision.
The sale of the celebrated Horace Walpole's match-
..

less seat of Strawberry-hill, ,with its um quelled galleries of
paintings and sculpture, collections of intaglios. cameos, missals,
coins and medals, renowned throughout Europe as the most
costly and exquisite collection eier formel in Britain, announced
for sale by Mr. George Robins, has already set the virtuosi of
the Continent on the qui vice. Not only are several of the
most distinguished and wealthy private connoisseurs of Paris
preparing for a visit to England, solely for the purpose of at-
tending the rile, but an agent of the Civil List proceeds thither,
we learn, with unlimited powers of selection and purchase.
Agents from other Continental Governments, we also learn,
have arrived in Paris on the way to London on a similar
mission.
ENGLISH SAILORS.----Mr. Cooper, the justly popu-
lar author of " the Pilot," " Red Rover," " Water Illiitch,"
ko., who has, as a faithful delineator of the perils of the sea,
earned for himself, both in America and England, an undying
reputation, has just presented the public pith a new pro-
duction of his unrivalled talent in another story of the
sea, called " The Two Admirals." In this new romance he
brings before his readers a gallant Engl sh fleet, with its two
Admirals. We must not anticipate the story, sshich gill he
eagerly read by every body, but merely congratulate the Author
on the production of a work which will, if possible, add even
to the great celebrity of this most enter taining writer.
The ice is breaking up in the Baltic, as the last ac-
counts fr•nn Hamburg inform us, and the navigation of the port of
Kiel, in Denmark, being open, the steamers have resumed their
service.
It has been determined to send the 10th and 78th
Regiments forthwith to India. The augmentation of two addi-
tional companies to six regiments will take place immediately.
The corps originally selected for the increase were, the 20th,
23d, 42d, 71st, 97th, and 2d battalion Rifle Brigade; but this
arrangement has been altered, and the augmentation will be
given to the six regiments last embarked for foreign service not
to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope. Six of the
Military Gazette. half-py list.—Naval and
com-
panies will be filled up from the

Mr. lIUTT rose to present a petition of which he
had given notice, from the Mayor, Aldermen, and
Common-Council of Kingston-upon-Hull, complain-
ing of the manner in which certain gentlemen
had been recently appointed to the Magistracy of
that borough. He would beg to call the attention
of the House to the great importance of this petition.
involving as it did serious charges against the Right
Hon. Baronet, the Secretary for the Home Department.
The petitioners state that from the time of King
Edward the Third until the passing of the Municipal
Corporation Bill, the power of electing the magis-
tracy tvas vested in the Mayor and Corporation of
Hull; that after the passing of that Bill the
Noble Lord, the member for London, continued
to them the privilege which they had before
possessed, but that lately the Secretary for the Home
Department sent a body of eight gentlemen, whose
names he ordered to be inserted in the Commission of
the Peace, all of them being partisans of the Govern-
ment. The petitioners believed that the appointments
were conferred for services rendered to the party in
power. Ile trusted the subject would meet the at-
tention of the house.

PRESBYTERIAN MIXED MARRIAGES.
Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD presented four
petitions most numerously and respectably signed,
from the first. Presbyterian congregation of Down-
patrick ; .from the first congregation of Kilmore ;
from the congregation of Grey Abbey, in
the County of Devon ; and from the Re-
monstrant congregation of York-street, Bel-
fast. These petitions represented the manifold evils
which would arise from permitting the late decision
of the Irish Judges to stand as the law of the land,
without some remedy being provided for all those who
might be sufferers therefrom, and they prayed the
House to pass such an Act as would reinedy those
evils both retrospectively and prospectively, placing
all sects on an equality as to the rights of marriage.