The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-12-27 00:00:00

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Sir James Hodson left Turin for Florence about a
week ago. It is not unlikely that the object of his
journey is to come to some understanding with Ricasoli
and the almost autonomous Tuscan Government respect-
ing the duties on iron. Those duties are considerably
higher in the Tuscan than in the Sardinian tariff, as
the object of the late Grand Ducal Government was to
protect the industry of the Elba mines.
The Opinione, of Turin, states that Count Ercole
Mastai, a nephew of the present Pope, and late captain
of the staff in the pontifical army, has offered his ser-
vices to the King of Italy, who has acccepted them,
granting him the same rank in the Italian army.
A Paris letter in the Nord says :—The negotiations
lately entered into with the English Government, for
obtaining more favourable conditions for the admission
of French wines into England, will soon terminate suc-
cessfully. There is even reason to hope that the clas-
sification by categories will be abolished, in conformity
with the wishes of all wine-producers in the centre and
south of France.

It appears that arrangements have been made for
housing several thousands of the homeless fugitives of
Syria in the government buildings of St. Jean d'Acre,
through the kind initiative of Lord Stratford de Red-
cliffe, President of the Syrian Fund Relief Committee,
the appeal of Lord John Russell to the Porte, and the
ealotts agency of Sir H. L. Bulwer.

A letter from Boston states that the national finances
of the 'United States are in a most wretched state.
Riggs; the Washington banker, who took so much of
the loan in October, now refuses to fulfil his contract,
because Sauth Carolina, one of the parties to the con-
tract on the other side, threatens to leave the Union,
which he knew as well when he subscribed for the loan
as ho did whets he refused.to pay the money.
The Board of Trade returns for the month ending the
30th of November, and the eleven months ending the
same date, have appeared. The returns for the month
exhibit a slight decrease compared with last year, the
figutes fespettively being £10,757,749 in 1860, against
£10,858,001 in 1859. On the eleven months a fair in-
crease is exhibited between'lB6o and 1859. The figures
are-1860, £123,714,276 ; 1859, £119,613,185.

A letter signed "A Piactical Gunner," appears in the
Times of yesterday, and urges the introduction of
uniform bores for ship guns, so that uniform ammuni-
tion would fit Owl, gun, With reference to Sir
William Armstrong's grin the *titer' says In the
Armstrong the recoil is Very shark; arid Cause setae
attain on Ships' decks; bolts, and sides: The elaborate
deflecting sight, WO, the time and difficulty of
pointing, and sometimes the breech sefeff gets set so' fast
as only to be moved with difficulty, a defect which increases
with the size of the gun ; and in sustained and quick firing
the vent-piece is very liable to be blown off; notwith-
standing &Nil bate; the grooving fouls and the balls
strip—a serious defect—which alsO increases with the
size of the gun, and renders it dangerous to fire °fer
treops or boats. To these disadvantages is added that,
in ease of damage to the screw, which in the 100-
pounder is exceedingly unwieldy, and liable to injury,
the gun cannot be loaded from the /nuzzle, lead- coated
shot oilly Can lfe fired and a particular powder is re-
quired ; so that all our present 'Vast sidies of shot; shell,
and powder, both at home and abroad, would be useless,"
Mr. John Brown, a member of the Institution of
Civil Engineers, sends a highly practical letter to the
same journal on the subject of colliery explosions, which
hare beeft so treiiti6tit and terrible of late, No ventila-
tion, however good, can, in his opinioii, guard against
the consequence of a sudden emission of gas floin
highly charged coal. " I am well acquainted with
collieries that are liable to yield, without a moment's
warning, such large quantities of explosive gas that
I am quite sure no amount of ventilation that can prac-
tically, and not Upon paper, be passed through the
**kings would dilute the enormous quantities of this
suddenly issuing gas sufficiently to pteitent igniting at
the first naked light with which it Mites in eontrint: I
have known in this district was to issue from beneath
the coal with such violence as to rip up the floor, which
was almost as hard as stone, producing great fissures
several feet in depth and many yards in length, the gas
issuing therefrom with a noise like that produced by high
pressure steam escaping from a safety valve, At the
period of this occurrence We had two kinds of safety
lamps in use in this "Ditty" and "Stephen-
son," and the gas, in going off to the upcast shaft, had to
pass great numbers of men who were at work with both
kinds of lamps. The whole of the " Davy's" became red
hot almost instantaneously from the rapid ignition of the
gas within the gauze ;the " Stephenson's" were as instantly
gal.-extinguished from the same cause, it being the
prominent tiiialifiiiatiott h f these lamps that, in addition
to affording a somewhat better light than tire " Davy"
lamp, they are suddenly extinguished when placed
within a highly explosive atmosphere, so that no person
can remain working and run the risk of his lamp be-
coming red hot—which, under such circumstances
would be the result with the " Davy" lamp. The red
hot lamps Were; most fottunately, all safely put out,
although the men in many cases had their hands
setetelj. burned by the gante, but from that time I
fully resolved to adopt the del tisibe Use ef the " Stephen-
son" lamps, and not expose men to the feafftil tisk they
must run from working with "Davy" lamps during the
probable recurrence of a similar event.
The Bishop of Rochester, in a recently delivered
charge, ilia& kite strong remarks on the tendency of
the clergy to indulge iii Loa great development of beard

and whisker ; and also censured their attendance at

cricket or archery matches. There has been some
murmuring at this, and the Rev. A. Watson, tem-
porary curaf4 cif Goggeshall, Essex, has spoken out
against what he consicleii tin attempt at episcopal

tyranny. The reverend gentleman in( a recent speech
expresses a hope that neither the Bishop of PLottiester
nor att) other bishop will again interfere with any of
the dutiee of the barbet, and that the clergy may never
again be called upon to listen to at Charge making it a
sin to pick up a cricket:ball and throw it at the wickets,
or to catch up a bow and arrow at an archery meeting.
The clergy and laity, he added, were not the slaves of
the bistopsi and mpst not allow them to become barbers,
or ifiteffere in What they had no coneern,
On Tuesday next a provisirm in a recent Act County
Coroners (23 and 24 Vic., chap. 110) will take effect,
and in future they will be paid by salary instead of fees.
The sum is to be fixed by justices in session on an
average of the last five years, and in the event of the
parties not agreeing, an appeal is given to the Home
Secretary, and he is to determine the amount for mile-
age and allowances, having regard to the number of
inquests held in the last five years. After the lapse of
every successive peried of five years, the salaries may be
revised by the justices and coroners, and the same are to
be increased or diminished, and, in case of their disagree-
rhenti a similar appeal is given to the Secretary of State.
By the same act the Lord Chancellor is empowered to
feilioie a bounty coroner for inability or misbehaviour
in his ottce--It *et/ important provision,
The Earl de Grey and Ripon, Under-Secretary for
War, in reply to a letter from Lord giallo on the sub-
ject of a proposal on the part of certain membete of the
Order of Foresters to form themselves into Volunteer
Rifle Corps, writes to say that while Mr. Herbert is
fully sensible of the public spirit displayed by the
Foresters who desire to form separate corps, or exclusive
companies in the various metropolitan corps, he is abso-
lutely precluded from sanctioning their proposal, as the
regulations of the service do not allow the members of
any secret society, as such, to constitute corps, or por-
tions of corps, in the volunteer force.
There is most important, as well as most gratifying,
news as regards Austria. According to the Patrie, the
programme of M. de Schmerling and the restoration of
the Constitution of 1848 have produced the most favour-
able impression, and the foreign committees for the get-
ting up of an insurrection.are more likely than ever to lose
their labour. It is also reported that the address of the
Emperor Napoleon on New Year's Day will be "eminently
pacific." The Russian Ambassador has undertaken to
do duty, on the occasion, for the Pope's Nuncio, who
has not been at his post for some time past. It is likewise
stated that the programme of Baron Schmerling will be
found to include a request to his Holiness to abandon
his concordat with Austria in tote. The Herald's
correspondent gives currency to a report that Eng-

land and France having come to an understanding
on the subject of Venetia are about to despatch
to Vienna a joint commission to urge upon the Emperor
Joseph the expediency of his agreeing to cede Venetia
without stipulating for any territorial recompense.
This rumour may or may not be true, but now that his
Majesty has succeeded in overcoming his extreme repug-
nance to granting the reforms insisted on by M.
Sehmerling, what may we not hope for as regards the
settlement of the Venetia question ?