The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-26 00:00:00

UESDAV EVENING, AUGUST 26, 1845.

always have presented itself to the consideration of
every intelligent observer as being rec•immendcd by
many essential qualities that do not attach to any works
moved by steam power. The economy of fuel, of ma
(glittery, of labour, of wear and tear, of all the main
elements, therefore, that ultimately occasion the largest
sacrifices of capital in these undertakings—is the most
obvious and the most signal of these recommendations in
favour of railways on the atmospheric principle. Of the
few perfected attempts which have been made at its
practical adoption, we believe we are correct in stating
that the most important is one of the Irish lines, leading
directly from the sea coast to the capital—and on this it
has succeeded to an extent greater than had been anti-
cipated for it by some of its warmest supporters. Still,
there were found, in its practical details, some of those
elementary difficulties and disadvantages, on the strength
of which (far too readily assumed) engineers of distin-
guished reputation have concurred in pronouncing it to
be hopeless to anticipate its general adoption. Among
these the most formidable have always been regarded
(we understand) the construction of the valves and
pistons of adequate tenacity and strength, in conjunction
with adequate facility of action and perfectness of joint-
11g ;—and, the propulsion of carriages and trucks, laden,
up inclined- planes. This last exertion, it has been
stoutly contended, could not be accomplished by any
conceivable.. application of atmospheric pressure. The
results which have been arrived at, in the series of ex-
periments to which we alluded in our paper of Saturday
last, as having been commenced for some days on the.
London and Croydon atmospheric line of railway, should
operate to deter all men from pronouncing, too con-
fidently, on the impracticability of nossil projects of me•
chanical application, however startling by their boldness
or their simplicity. In the late experiments, the success
of which sve have already had the pleasure of announcing,
the two main difficulties that we have instanced may be
considered to have been finally disposed of ; and this,
too, with an ease and readiness that reflect the highest
credit on those who originated and devised the particular
modes by which the possibility of vanquishing them
might be tested. As to the first of those difficulties the
exhaustion of five miles length of tube, at a barome-
trical pressure of 27 degrees and four lines, and the un-
impeded traversing of that whole extent by the piston,
we take to be an experiment on a giant scale, the con-
clusizm of which tan leave no sort of reasonable doubt as
to its prolongation throughout any extent of space that
railroad purposes can require. As to the second diffi-
culty, it was extinguished and utterly removed by the
propulsion of a carriage train, dead weight, without mo-
mentum or impetus of any kind, up an incline of 1 in 50.

On the various accounts we have mentioned, and
especially because of the saving of human life which we
think we tray safely anticipate from its more extensive
application to railway lines—we regard these experi-
ments on the atm"spheric principle with much gratitica
tion. We heartily wish the individuals under whose
direction and auspices it is being thus admirably ap-
plied every further success in their spirited endeavours,
not at all doubting that they will soon be enabled tu
bring their results into almost universal adoption in the
practical construction and management of railways.

The last advises from Madrid bring intelligence that
a species of insurrection had broken out in that capital
on the 19th instant, in consequence of the discontent
excited among the middle and lower classes of the
people by the refusal of the Queen's Ministers—the
Finance Minister more especially—to make certain
modifications in his new tributary system. Angry
groups of people assembled in the squares and places,
and the authorities having been compelled to call out the
troops, several charges of cavalry were made on the
people, against whom several discharges of musketry
were also levelled. The garrison was under arms.
Considerable reinforcements had arrived from Gua-
dalajara and Cuenca ; and the Captain-General
had been vested with extraordinary powers, and autho-
thorised to declare Madrid in a state of siege, should
circumstances occur to render such a proceeding neces-
sary. Great consternation existed among all classes,
although the city was tranquil at the departure of the
mail.

From many circumstances we are strongly disposed
,o think this ebullition of popular feeling is by no means
the termination of the hostile movement that the Spanish
Minister's plan may expect to encounter. Still less is it
any adequate indication of the intensity of the disgust, or
the force of the passive resistance, which the tradespeople
of Madrid oppose to the excessive and unjust assessments
he has subjected them to, or the apportionment
of his forced contributions. We fully agree with the
Madrid correspondent of a morning Contemporary, that
perhaps the most formidable resolution at which any
large section of the Spanish people can arrive, is to
oppose passive resistance to the collection of the reve-
nues of the Crown. The Spaniard, beyond every other
European denizen, can bear and endure. His " passive
resistance" does not evaporate in party excitement,
or factious speeches ; nor can he be wheedled out of
his settled purpose by the cajolery and clap-trap speeches
of the most favourite empecinado. His resolution
once taken, he seems to make it a point of honour
and self-respect inflexibly to adhere to it, until either
the object it proposes be accomplished, or the chances of
its attainment has been risked and lost upon actual and
determined contests for its attainment. We have formed
this opinion on some personal knowledge and experience
of the Spanish character, especially as it develops itself
among the remarkable population of the metropolis of
Spain. But when w•e find that the Finance Minister him-
self, Senor Mort, is so alarmed by the voluntary closing
of shops and cessation of trading, that he makes
tours of personal inspection through the city, in
order to ascertain by personal inspection to
what extent and in what quarters this emphatic
though silent token of resistance and defiance prevails ;
—when we read that many hundreds of workmen have
been already discharged by their employers, on account
of the anticipated pressure of the new fiscal arrange-
ments, we tremble for the consequences. To crown all
the other disastrous aspects of affairs, NARVAEZ, to
whose unprincipled ambition and unsparing cruelty
Spain is already indebted for so large an aggregate of
political oppressions and civil misery, has been clothed
with renewed and enlarged capacities to degrade, en-
slave, and exasperate the unhappy country whose liber-
ties he has betrayed. The mournful present will
be followed, we suspect, by a terrible future, and
that not a distant one. Senor MON is, it seems, inflexi-
ble. The Madrid men are resolute. The Minister is
a man of his word. The citizens are men of their
purpose. The passive resistance to arbitrary and ex •
cessive taxation which is announced by closed shops,
disbanded establishments, and discharged workmen, has
been displayed by' the same people, in precisely the
same indications, where the immediate excitement has
been caused by the forced military occupation of their
capital by an invading army of foreigners. Those of
our readers who may remember as well as we do, under
what circumstances the French forces took armed pos-
session of Madrid in March, 1808, will not forget the
terrible retribution inflicted on those forces, in Madrid,
just two months afterwards (on May 2). It is earnestly
to be hoped that after the bitter experience which
the Spanish people have had during the last twelve years
of the unproductive results of the most sanguinary tu-
mults and revolts to the cause of civil liberty and con-
stitutional results, so long as they have no leaders of tried
fidelity to those ennobling and salutary principles, they
will not pass from this condition just now to one of more
direct collision with their military oppressors, which
would only result just now in the closer rivetting of
the fetters which have been imposed upon them, and the
still more prodigal shedding of that blood which has
been already so lavishly and vainly shed in the cause of
a country still noble in its decay, still precious to them
under all the sufferings they are compelled to endure
from the successful traitors to its liberties and its laws.
In this last intelligence from Madrid we see fresh occa-
sion to express the apprehensions we have long enter-
tained, that there is no Court of Europe at which the
influence of this country, or the authority of its example,
or the tendencies of its public opinion, are less felt or re-
sponded to than that of Madrid. Since the successful con-
spiracy against, and rapid downfal of, ESPARTERO, wo
appear to have lost even the privilege of addressing
Spain in the warning language of an old friend and a
tried protector. To what is this owing,—this loss of
consideration on the part of the most powerful with one
of the weakest, though most arbitrary, Governments in
existence ? We are compelled to believe that the cha-
racter and dignity of this great country cannot be ade-
quately upheld by our diplomatic representative there :
and, indeed, we have, of late, seen by far too
much of drawing. room and banquetting flirtation
between the British Minister and the adventurer
Naavaez, and the poor tools and creatures of
his who infest the throne of the young Queen
of SPAIN, rendering it inaccessible to the just
complaints and remonstrances of an outraged and in-
sulted nation. We would rather hear our Minister to
Spain blamed for a too distant deportment, than feel
thus compelled to censure his too great forwardness
towards a Court and Government which have earned
for themselves so unenviable a reputation for perfidious-
ness and cruelty.

News from Poland to the 12th instant has arrived.
There had been an emeute in Lithuania. Several minis-
ters of the Greek Church had been dispatched to a vil-
lage in that duchy, for the purpose of converting the
inhabitants. The Russian Government, in order to

render their preachings more efficacious, and to quicken
the perceptive faculties of the peasants as to the sup, -
riorityof the Greek Church over the Roman Catholic, had
placed at the orders of those reverend mi=ssionaries a de-
tachment of troops, consisting of an officer and forty
men. The peasantry, however, enticed the Greek priests
into a forest and murdered them ; and then setting fire
to a barn in which the soldiers were quartered, had sur-
rounded it, and driven baLlk into the flames all who
attempted to escape. There had occurred in the town of
Luck, in Lithuania, no less than six destructive fires
between the 6th and 26th of May.

No intelligence has been received from Madrid of a
later date than that we gave yesterday.

We have received the Paris Papers of Saturday.
The Moniteur announces officially the elevation to
the Peerage of the following Members of the Chamber
of Deputies :—Generals Viscount BONNEMAINS, Baron
DURRIEU, and Baron DOGUEREAU, Count DE MONTO
ZON, Baron TUPINIER, and Messrs. FULCIIIRON, GIROT
DE L'ANGLADE, HARTMANN, and RAGUET LEPINE.
The ifessager des Charnbres publishes an official con-

tradiction of the statement which appeared in La
Presse, announcing that the French troops in Algiers
had received a check in the neighbourhood of Orleans-
Tulle.

Marshal BUGEAVD is to leave Algiers for France on
the sth of September.
ABD-EL-KADER is encamped on tie frontiers of
Morocco, at the head of 6,000 men.

The National says that a caravan of black saves,
brought from the interior M Africa. were publicly put up
to auction in the market of Medeah, and asks how it is
that Marshal BUGEAUD tolerates such monstrous con-
duct in a French colony ?
It appears that the journeymen sawyers of Paris have
struck for wages. Several of them were arrested on
Thurslay and Friday. The trial of the carpenters out
on strike, before the Police Correctionelle, on a charge
of conspiracy, commenced on Friday. It was expected
to last over two days.

On the evening of the 22d a destructive fire took place
at Bordeaux, in the warehouses of M. TASTET, which
contained large quantities of brandy and spirits of wine.
The fire promptly communicated to the neighbouring
houses, and would have been far more extensive had not
the authorities succeeded in saving several warehouses,
containing three thousand pieces of brandy and other
spirits. The loss is estimated at 120,0001. in the tele-
graphic dispatch which conveyed the news of the
disaster to the Government on Saturday. On the
morning of the 23d, a wall of one of the burnt
houses fell, and killed the commandant, adjutant, a
lieutenant, and three privates of the Pompier corps.
The report of the adjudication of the Grand Northern
Railroad having been postponed, is officially contra-
dicted.

The Constitutiowtel says that the Count DE MONT-
FORT (JEROME BONAPARTE'S son), who has spent
some months at Paris, has been ordered to quit France
within the period of eight days.

General LARNE had returned to Faris from Morocco,
where he had been as Envoy.

General RAFAEL UnDANETA, Minister Plenipoten-
tiary and Envoy Extraordinary of the Republic of Ve-
nezuela at the Court of Madrid, died in Paris on the
23d inst.

The Moniteur inserts, by order of the Minister of
Commerce, a letter from Tangiers, dated 24th ult., which
announces that the Director of the Custom• house office
had published a decree of the EMPEROR, reducing by
25 per cent. the duties imposed in May last on foreign
merchandise. That decree had been likewise promul
gated at Mogadore, Tetuan, and Rabat. The same letter
mentions that the Government had declared the sale of
eggs and oranges an Imperial monopoly, and granted
the privilege of exporting them, for a sum of 14,000
francs, to the son of one of the administrators of the
Custom-house department.
The weather continued remarkably fine. The Three
per Cents. sold at TORTONI'S for 84f. 17ic.

The following are the quotations of the new lines:—
LYONS, AUG. 21.—Avignon and Marseilles, 1,1000, erd
of August; Paris and Orleans, 1,320 f., ditto; Paris and
Rouen, 1,106 f., ditto; Orleans and Vierzon, 813 f., ditto;
Orleans and Bordeaux, 7251., ditto.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, AuG. 25.
Boulogne and Amiens.. 11. ,Orleans and Bordeaux 1214
Bordeaux &Mediterran fOverYssel — 1,4 P
Bordeaux and Toulouse ;Paris & Lyons ( Lafitte) 3%
Do. and Cette 2% Ditto (Ganneron's).
Central of Spain .. — 1 Ditto (Calon's).... - 21%
Dutch Rhenish ... B4 'Paris and Orleans.--
Dendre Valley ......
Dieppe & Paris. Junet. [Paris and Strasburg
Dijon and Mulhouse ... 1 (Ganneron's) —
East Indian ....- ........ 03% 'Do. (Compte de L'Est)
Grt Northern of France . ,Paris and St. Quentin.
(Laffitte's)
Ditto (Rosamel's) ... 3 ,Rouen and Havre.-- 303%
Great Paris and Lyons. 21%3 Royal North of Spain. 2%
Jamaica Junction — ;Sambre and Meuse .... 8.3 A
Do. North Midland — 'Strasbourg and Basle .
Louvain and Jemeppe 5 Tours and Nantes
Lyons and Avignon — , (APKenzie's) —
Luxembourgh..
2% i : Do. (Lefebvre's) .....
Namur and Liege 6% Verona and Ancona....
Orleans and Vierzon

FOREIGN MAILS.— POST-OFFICE NOTICE.
Yesterday the following notice relative to the depar.
ture of foreign mails was posted at the Chief Office, St
Martin's le Grand :

PENINSULAR MAH.s.—The Royal Tar will sail from
Southampton with the Peninsular mails of the 27th inst.
(to-morrow).
MADEIRA, BRAZIL, AND BUENOS AIRES.—Her Ma-
jesty's brig Crane, for the mails of the evening of the 241
of September (from August to January inclusive the
paeket touches at Pernambuco and Ilthia on her outward
passage to Rio Janiero, and the other six on her home-
ward).

\Vila INDIES.—The Dee will sail from Southampton
with the mails for the morning of the 2d September, f,r
the British and Foreign Colonies in the West Indies
(except Bermuda), Vent.zuela, Madeira, and Mexico.
AMERICA.—The Britannia for the mails of the evening
of the 3d September.
SYDNEY AND NEW SOUTH WALES.—Tho Persian,
for the mails of the evening of the Ist of September.
The next mails for Gibraltar, Malta, Greece, the
lonian Islands, Egypt, and India, via Southampton, will
be dispatched from hence on the morning of September 3

PRINCE ALBERT'S BIRTH-DAY.—This morning the
bells of the various parish churches in London ushered in the
anniversary of the birth of the Consort of our beloved Queen. The
guards of the third regiment assembled on the Horse Guard's pa-
rade before ten o'clock, and from thence proceeded to take the
usual duty at St. James's Palace, where the band of that regiment
played severs) beautiful pieces of music, principally the corn-
position of his Royal Highness. There was a very numerous
and distinguished company present on the occasion. At one
n'cloek the Park and Tower guns were fired in honour of the
event. .

ANOTHER BALLOON A36ENT BY MR. C. GREEN.—
Last evening Mr. Green ascended from Cremorne Gardens, in
the Royal Nassau Balloon. It was anticipated by many that,
in consequence of the accident which occurred to the veteran
aeronaut at Gravesend, he would not have been able to proceed
on another aerial journey ; but, though suffering severely, Mr.
C. Green was determined that the public should not be dis-
appointed, and at ten o'clock yesterday morning he was in the
grounds, superintending the inflation of the balloon, which is
capable of containing about 70,000 cubic feet of gas, and which
was supplied from the Imperial Gas Manufactory. It was
announced that the ascent would take place at six o'clock. Pre-
vious to that hour the wind was blowing strong from the south,
and in consequence Mr. C. Green dissuaded Mrs. C. Green and
two other ladies from venturing with him. Shortly after the
above hour Mr. C. Green, Mr. H. Green (his brother), Mr.
T. Green (his son), Mr. Littlejohn, Mr. Spencer (a solicitor),
and another gentleman, entered the car, and Mr. Williams,
with Messrs. G. and W. Green took their stations on the
hoop. The wind having abated Mr. C. Green then, by means
of the liberating iron, released the balloon from terra firma.
After leaving Cremorne Gardens, it proceeded in the direction
of Highgate, where it met with a more westerly current, when
it went towards Essex. On coming between High Beach and
Waltham Abbey, Mr. Green, perceiving a favourable oppor-
tunity to alight, made preparations for his descent. By this
time, a great crowd of persons had collected, but the object of
the veteran aeronaut being perceived by a number of policemen
they hastened to his assistance, and formed a ring of the body
of people collected, in the centre of which the magnificent
machine was safely landed and emptied of its gaseous contents,
amidst the cheers of the populase. It was then packed up, and
being placed in a chaise, was taken by Mr. Green to his resi-
dence at Highgate. Mr. Littlejohn, who ascended with the
balloon, arrived at Cremorne Gardens between twelve and one
o'clock this morning, and communicated to the company the safe
descent of the balloon.
SHRINKING OF THE PAPER IN IMPRESSIONS OF
ENGRAVINGS.—It) the course of the evidence on the London
and York Railway Bill, a very remarkable instance came to
light of the effect of the shrinking of paper in impressions from
capper-plates. By the deposited plans of this railway, the
elevation at a particular spot, called Greenwood-place-road,
appeared to be only 413 feet, while it was found by actual level.
hng to be 422. Mr. James Wyld, by whom the plans were
engraved, being called to explain this discrepancy, gave the
following evidence :—" The copper-plate produced was en-
graved by him, and sheet 6of the section (the one on which
Greenwood-place-road occurs) was printed from that plate.
The height of Greenwood-place-road measured on the
copper is 422 feet, arid on the printed copies of the section there
is a contraction of about nine feet, in reference to the scale, so
that the height, as shown by the copies, measures only about I
413 feet. Had often known as large an amount of contraction.
He explained the mode in which contraction took place, by
showing how the sheets of paper, in the damp state, after being
printed on, were hung up to dry across a line. In consequence
of this the gravitation of the paper prevented the horizontal
contraction from being so great as the vertical. The contrac-
tion of paper varied very much, and was often equal to 1 in 40,
and even lin 36. Witness measured the contraction of the
scales and of some of the figured heights on a sheet of the sec-
tion printed by him and found it equal to about 3 feet in 200
in the longitudinal direction, and 5 feet in 200 in the vertical
direction."--Mechanics' Magazine.
GALLANT CAPTURE OF A PIRATE SLAYER,,—By
private -advices which we have received from the coast of
Africa we leiirn that a report prevailed of a most gallant' and
successful engagement on the west coast, between the boats of
one of her Majesty's ships and—a large pirate slaver. The
name of the vessel to which the boits belonged did not trans-
pire, but of the fact of the engagement,, which, though most
desperate, was completely successful on the part of the gallant
crews, there was not the slightest doubt. It was said that
one or two of tho of distinguished themselves in tile ay
•
treme.