The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-01 00:00:00

THE VOLUNTEERS.

THE CENTRAL LQNDON RIFLE RANGERS_
.Cho annual general meeting of the members of
this corps was held on Saturday evening at the New
Drill Shed, Gray's-inn—Major the Hon. Haliburton
Campbell in the chair. There was a large eaten.
dance of the members and the ,officers of, the cprps,
smOng -4girtititla were Captains Woods, Isaacs,
Walters, Lowe, Copes, &c.
The report, which was adopted, states that in
consequence of the Government grant the com-
mittee have recommended that the Lieutenant-
Colonel should, after the Ist inst., abolish any
furtber subscriptions from members to the general'
fund, officers excepted. After alluding to the
fact of the erection of a drill shed at a cost of
£l,lOO, the report observed that one of the filet
results of the increased accommodation has been
the formation of a gymnasium,in which instuuction
will be given on the system in process of adoption
in the army. The cost of the apparatus will b 3
defrayed by the officers of the regiment. The re-
port alluded to the satisfactory state of the regi-
ment. The report then alludes to the satisfactory
musters of the corps on public occasions during the
past year, the annual ball, the annual dramatic
performance; and the bazaar and volunteer exhi-
bition held at Willis's Room, which has in-
creased the funds. Mach interest continues to
be manifested in the corps by the inhabi-
tants of the neighbourhcod, cs has been
fully evinced during the past year, when
they subscribed for and presented to the cornsp a
series of battalion prizes. The committee, it up-
pears, have expressed a hope that they will be able
to give a similar series of prizes annually, and one
gentleman has already promised £25 a year towards
the project. The financial statement of the corps
shows that the balance-sheet of the general fund is
£1,124, and the estimated assets and liabilities
£446 Os. id., the balance-sheet of the band fund
1284 4s. 7d., and the assets and liabilities £lOB
18s. ld.

At the conclusion of the election of the committee
and auditors, &c.,
Major CAMPBELL made a few observations with
respect to the corps, which, he said, with th© exccp.
tion of numbers, was in a very satisfactory state,
not only in position but in efficiency.
Votes of thanks were then proposed and passed to
the retiring auditors and committee, the honorary
treasurers of the general and band fund, and the
hon. secretary, and the proceedings wero brought
to a close.

THE 4TE MIDDLESEX RIFLES.—Lord Truro,
Lieutenant-Colonel commanding this corps, will
distribute the prizes won during the past year to
the successful competitors on Tuesday evening neat
in Westminster Hall, at nine p.m.

MR. CHAS. MACKINTOSH, the well-known scien-
tific gardener, and author of a number of works on garden-
ing, is dead,

Mr. THACKERAL —Mr. Ernest Edwards will
shortly publish a very large photograph of the late
Mr. Thackeray, one of the latest, if not the latest, ever
taken. Copies of this on a smaller scale will be issued with
Mr. Theodore Taylor's new book, " Thackeray, the Hu•
morist, and the Man of Letters : the Story of his Life," to
be published on Wednesday next. This memoir will give,
for the first time, some account of the curious little maga-
zine conducted by Mr. Thackeray when an undergraduate
at Cambridge.—lhe Reader of Saturday.

NATION AL HOSPITALITIES.—." In France," says
Mr. Sala, in his last letter to the Daily 7elegraph,
"you get little but sugar and water out of your friends, in
Germany nothing but smoke, and in Italy there are somo
grand houses where you can only obtain supper by
for it. In Spain you can procure nothing to eat, because,
beyond eggs and chocolate, and garlic, there is nothing to
eat. But in the United States you may ruin your digestive
organs for nothing in a fortnight. If the oyster and the
canvas-back ducks don't give you dyspepsia, the eternal ice-
creams and candied sweetmeats will ; and, when you tall
sick, you will fled plenty of kind friends to press Hoch-
stetter's and Drake's Plantation Bitters as curatives on
your acceptance."

HONOURS AT CAMBRIDGE.—It appears that 104
gentlemen took honours at Cambridge this year, of
whom 43 were wranglers. In 1863 the number was 100,
and there were 33 wranglers; in 1562 the number' was 35,
and there were 32 wranglers; in 1861 the number was 93,
and there were 34 wranglers ; and in 1860 the number was
121, and there were 33 wranglers. On the restrictions as
to the Classical Tripos being removed in 1361, the mathe-
metical honour list perceptibly diminished in numbers.
Trinity College this year, in addition to the senior. second,
and fourth wranglers, claims 13 other wranglers ; seven
representatives of this great college are among the first 12
wranglers. The senior wrangler is Mr. J. H. Purkise, of
Trinity College, and formerly of the City of London School
and the University of London. Mr. Purkiss obtained a
foundation sizarship at Trinity a few months after coming
into residence, and his university career has been through.
out a brilliant success. _

covered by Professor Respighi at.Bo.logna,o. n the
28th of December, the same day on which it passed its peri-
helion, will, it has now been calculated, have its. nearest
THE APPROACHING COMET,
approach to the earth about the Ist of February, being then
escarnibdedobsietraysedbebinygP,o,nesxtartemMealyrsfueiinllest,
at about one-fifth of the nun's distance ft om us, or eighteen
millions of miles. Weiss, Stampfer, and Tietjen all infer
from their calculations (published in the Astronomische
Nachrieliten) that it is probably identical With a count
which was first die.
in the year 1810, and that its period is little snore than 53
resembling a small round nebula." Professor Littrow, the
Director of the Observatory at Vienna, thinks that it may
also be identical with a comet observed in China in the
year 1490. To its approaching greatproximity to the earth
we owe the fact that it will probably soon become visible to
the naked eye.
Nyvellaircsh. was
Po ns discoveredth d

EXPLOSION AT CAMBERWELL.—On Saturday
evening a fatal explosion took place at the shop of
an oilman and tallow-chandler named Tripp, carrying on
business in Ravill-street, Southampton-street, Camberwell.
One of his daughters, named Anne, 30 years of age, Nvv,s
mixing with a knife a chemical composition, supposed to bo
phosphorus and detonating powder, although her sister had
spoken to her several times and pointed out the danger of
using steel in mixing the composition. Suddenly a tremen-
dous explosion took place. Two men named Truman and
Lambert rushed into the place, followed by Mr. Ilaydan,
dairyman, of Havill-street. Miss Tripp was found with a
knife in her band, which had been partially blown away.
She was much injured, and blood was streaming from her
head and face. Her dress was in flames. The injured
woman empire before she could be removed to St. Thortn.s's
Hospital.

GR.EAT SUFFERINGS OF A SHIP'S CREW' By
the Shetland wail we ipive received information of
port io
The
,h ofe
vesselwhom a very sad character rPgarding the sufferings of a ship's crew,
n
is
saidare to
reported
large a as
rhavinge:pdi died
namedi
consequence. 4
largo
the Victoria, on her voyage from Calcutta to Liverpool,
with a cargo of coals. Seventeen of the crew landed on
the west coast of Shetland on Saturday from a
gist in
which they bad been tossed about at sea for four days
without food. Two had died and three had become insane.
O another boat, manned by the captain and 13 others of
the crew, and who left the vessel at the same time, intelli-
gence, not fully authenticated when the steamer loft, had
been received to the effect that she had reached the wort
side of Shetland on Monday with only two survivors.
i
sufferings of both crews, exposed without food
n open boas
for four and six days respectively, were most dreadful, re-
suiting in the death in till of
.14 men and the insanity
three.— If id; Northern Pisv,:.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAs.—Morning, 7h. sm.—Afterztoon, 7h. 30m.
To-mcmaow.-Morning, 712. 56m.—Afternoon. Bh. 26m.