The Sun. — 1865-06-08 (London, England)

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.  STEALING A JEWELLED VINAIGRETTE.—WiIIiam West, a young man described as a painter, living in East-street, Manchester-square, was charged before Mr. Yardley with stealing an antique gold and jewelled vinaigrette, the property of Colonel Francis Mountjoy Martyn, of 33, Berkeley-square. Caroline Baldwin, servant to Mr. William Swindell, of the Tottenham-court-road, said that yesterday afternoon the prisoner showed .her the vinaigrette, stating that he had picked it up in Portman-square. Ho said he did not know whether it was gold, and asked her to take it to a shop and see, and she did so, when the person detained her and took her to the police-station, where she stated how it came into her possession.  Caroline Galsworthy, lady's maid in the family of Col. Mountjoy Martyn, deposed that on Tuesday she replaced the vinaigrette on a table in the drawing-room after it had been cleaned by a person from Messrs. Storr and Mortimer's. Yesterday the:prisoner was engaged at the house in replacing the window blinds. Wm. Penton, assistant to Mr. Lawley, pawnbroker, of South-street, Manchester-square, said that on the vinaigrette being presented to him by the first witness he questioned her, and then took her to the police station. The value of the vinaigrette was £lO, but it cost a great deal more.  Police-constable George King, 76 D, a plain-clothes officer, said the prisoner told him that he found the vinaigrette opposite the door of a house in Danes-street, and on asking him where he had been at work, he said at 19, Berkeley-square. He (King) then made inquiries, and afterwards apprehended the prisoner, when he again denied stealing the article. Having been cautioned by Mr. Yardley, the prisoner said that all he had to say was that he found the vinaigrette on the street. Mr. Yardley committed him for trial.  brokers based the full charges under the Act of Parliament on the tenants.  Mr. Partridge—ls the rent under £2O ?  Mr. Branwoll—Yes, sir. _ _  Mr. Partridge read several clauses of the Act of Parliament, and said the words were very large. He granted the summons.  THE END or MY HoLThAvs.—William Bebby, a labourer, was charged with attempting to commit suicide. William Brown, a waterman, of No. 1, Rosby's-ropewalk, Limehouse, saw the prisoner walk into the Thames at Limehouse-hole, and proceed until the water reached the top of his chest. lie thought the prisoner was having a bathe with his clothes on, to cool himself this warm weather, but he suddenly threw himself on his back, and was floating down with the tide, and would have been carried under the swim of a barge and drowned, if he had not got into a boat and pulled him out of the river. The prisoner said, " This is the end of my holidays," and was drunk, or he would not have acted so foolish as he did. The prisoner said he had been holiday making, and was intoxicated when he went into the water. The prisoner was remanded for a week.  Forests in France.  In a highly interesting paper addressed to the French Academy of Sciences, M. Becquerel examines the subject of forests both as to their commercial importance and as to their influence on climate. For this purpose he casts a rapid glance at the effects produced by the destruction of forests from the remotest ages to our time. Forests existed on the globe long before the appearance of man, a fact proved by the immense coal deposits which are to be found in every part of it, even in the polar regions. These deposits consist of Equisetacea, Sigillaria, &c., &c., particularly also of ferns of the size of trees, instances of which are now only to be met with under the tropics. In most parts of the old continent the primitive life of man was passed in forests, and increase of population was the cause of the first attacks upon them ; but the greatest devastations only date from the periods when great conquerors cut down or burnt the forests in which the peoples they wanted to subdue had taken refuge. From the Ganges to the Euphrates, from that to the Mediterranean, an extent of ground 1,000 leagues in length, and several hundred broad, was ravaged by wars during the lapse of thirty centuries. Nineveh and Babylon, so celebrated for their civilisation, Palmyra and Balbeck, renowned for their opulence, now offer nothing but ruins to the exploring gaze of the traveller, in the midst of deserts and swamps once covered by luxuriant forests. From the time of Sesostris to that of Mahomet 11. Asia Minor was a constant scene of unrelenting wars leading to similar results. The land of Canaan, so highly praised in the Bible, is now little more than a desert, and the whole coast of Africa along the Mediterranean tells a similar story. Turning from historical considerations to the present- state of forests in France, the learned author tells us that from official statistics it appears that France has a surface of 52,768,610 hectares (2i acres each). Of this, 8,804,550 hectares are covered with forests ; pasture-land comprises 21,729,102 hectares, and the ground not devoted to tillage, and therefore covered by towns and villages, 2,920,217 hectares. In 1860 the domainal forests were reduced to an extent of 1,077,046 hectares, including 40,716 hectares of new plantations. At present this number has risen to 1,100,000 hectares, exclusive of 67,185 hectares granted as a donation to the Crown. From 1820 to 1864 the surface of forest-land cleared was 665,363 hectares, and for the last 16 years permissions have been granted to clear about 15,000 hectares per annum. To these must be added about 9,000 hectares cleared without permission, and with some other items the surface annually cleared comprises about 31,000 h ectares. The surface replanted does not amount to more than 10,000 hectares, few of which have been stocked with the more valuable kinds, such as oak, teak, &c., these species being of much slower growth than firs and similar sorts.