The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-29 00:00:00

BEDROOM CANDLES.

TRICE'S CANDLES, which will not drop
grease when carried."—Thin, very hart candles,
sold in boxes is. and 3s. each, are recommended as the best
carriers.
" EXTRA HARD 5.12 CHAMBER CANDLES,"

sold in boxes 2s. each. Thicker candles intended for those
who will not burn thin.
" SHERWOOD ECONOMIC BED LIGHTS,"

In packets of 36 candles for one shillimr„ intended for use
where chcapness is a rarest oltject, will be inund an improve-
ment on the ordinary candles, al they gutter kip.
Special candle ticks to fit thin candles, ls. and 2s. 6d each ;
reducing sockets, making them fit any candlesticks, 2d. each.
TOILET SOAPS.
Sberwooi Brown Windsor Soap, with a pleasant scent.
Belmont Glycerine Spy, contains Price's Glycerine.
Camphor and Glycerine Soap, to tender skins in winter.
GLYCERINE. SHERWOODOLE
"Price's Glycerine " may be Cleans gloves and removes
had from any Chemist, in grease and other stains.
cansuled bottles, lettered Perfumed, in capsuled hot-
- Price's rateot," from 6d. ties, fid. and ls. each.
upwards. Impure Glycerine
has been gold 'n the state-
ment that it is "equal Jo
Prices."

Retail throng]
Wholesale by Pcto9 8 Patent
LOlld

'll any Grocer.
'7, Caudle COmpAny:(Lianited),

ItTOTHING IMPOSSIBLE.—The greatest and
.L most useful invention of the day, A GIJA AMARELL A.
Messrs. JOHN GOSNELL and CO., 3, King-court, Lombard-
street, London, Perfumers to her Majesty, respectfully offer
to the public this truly marvellous flute. which gradually
rest res the human hair to its pristine hue- no matter at
what age. The Agua Amarella has none of the properties of
dyes ; it, on the contrary, is beneficial to the system, and
when the hair is once restored one application per month will
keep it in pm feet colour. Prise one guinea per bottle, or in
half bottles, Ifs. 63. Testimonials from artistes of the highest
order, and from individuals of undoubted respectability, may
be seen on application. Messrs. John Goonell and Co. have
been appointed Perfumers to her Royal Highness the Princess
of Wales.

The enormous piggery at Portesham, in Dorset,
new contains a herd of swine nearly 4,000 in number. The
animals are chiefly fed on wheat and maiz-. Pig meat is 23
a ecero dearer than it was this time last year, owieg to the
scarcity of butchers' meat in general.
[ADVERTISEMENT.]—IioIIoway's Pills aro the most
gentle yet most effective aperients, and Iherefore better cal-
culated for a family medicine than any other drug. They
always set the stomach right, rouse the liver, stimulate the
kidney, and thoroughly cleanse the whole system. Hollo-
way's pills aro most useful in chronic weakness of the
at,. mach induced by luxurious living, sedentary habits, or
other causes. They have restored the emaciated to health
after every other means had failed. While they are puri-
fying they are strengthening, while regulating they are in-
creasing nervous and muscular power. These pills do not
excite any violent action iu the body; hence they are spe-
cially suited to the young and feeble, whose constitutions
may be irretrievably injured by more powerful medicines.

this forest of houses, and cannot retrace their way to a
home which perhaps they cannot describe. Who is to give
so much as a night's lodging to these, when then they are
believed to be only the head of a column counted by literal
myriads ? At last the Metropolitan Board of Works, bear-
ing in mind the larger duties and the higher position they
are daily assuming, accepted this moderate charge. So the
Act was passed one of the last days of the session, and,
after some correspondence with the Boards of guardians,
the Poor Law Board issued the explanatory Circular which
appeared in our yesterday's columns. Taking the Act and
the Circular together, we must consider that a great step
has been taken towards the mitigation, perhaps the extinc-
tion, of this scandal, and, possibly, to the further alle-
viation of distress though not houseless and on the
streets. Such of our readers as do not know the
metropolis so well as we are obliged to know it will
notice, with surprise, the very stinted modicum of
relief which it is assumed that thousands will
struggle for, and which it becomes a public necessity to
protect from abuse or misappropriation. Tho regulation
6' ward," or place of reception, is to consist of two rooms,
in each of which a continuous platform bedstead, like the
raised portion of a dog-kennel, is divided by boards into
widths of not less than 27 inches. Each sleeper is to be
allowed clean straw, or cocoa fibre, in a loose tick, with a
rug; and the women and children a little more covering.
The rooms are to be warmed and ventilated. There are to
be bathrooms, and it is expected that every person admitted
shall take the opportunity of a complete ablution. A yard
for work is to bo provided for the men, wfio are to be coma
polled to do a task of work in return for their night's board
and lodging. The meal given is not to be such in quantify
or quality as to invite a repetition of the visit. The task
of work, however, is the chief repellant relied on, and there
is a special censure directed against allowing the lodger to
depart without his task In consideration of his saving the
union the cost of his breakfast. The practice has been found
too agreeable to the habits of many of the lodgers. Here
is a night's hospitality reduced to the very smallest scale.
Perhaps a man ought to have passed a few nights in our
low London lodginghouses to estimate duly the boon here
offered to the houseless. We must, however, guard against
a mistake our unofficial and unparochial readers may fall
into. All this is substantially no novelty at all.
Every parish and ovlry union is bound to take
in the houselcss, as it has been adjudged long
ago. But hitherto it has been the interest of parishes and
unions to offer as little accommodation as possible and fence
it round with every possible obstruetion. This act makes it
no longer their interest to bandy the houseless from one
door to another. They are to do their duty—'heir old duty
—and to render an account to the Metropolitan Board of
Works, which will reimburse them for what they have done
according to law; not, of course for money payments. The
directions of the circular appear to provide, as they should
do, for the thorough supervision and record of a system
which, it must be admitted, is liable to abuse. The class
taken in hand, as a general rule, is one nataral'y and habi-
tually averse from labour and discipline ; hating scrutiny,
desirous to live only from day to day, with no value for
identity, and ready to undergo, if possible, a daily trans-
formation, if it could thereby obtain a daily supply for its
wants. Superintendents and books are necessary not oily
to cheek the system but to improve and develop it into
something better, and that, in cur opinion, is the most
valuable and the most cheerful aspect of the matter. When
we call the whole affair a work of necessity, we are aware
that is this is at once the best and the worst thing we can
say of it. What can be more necessary than that all this
population should be housed every night in some fashion
or other ? What can come less under the bead of spon-
taneous, discriminating, delicate benevolence? After
all, the houseless are not they who suffer the most, and
that most invite the interest of those who wish to
make almsgiving and hospitality a means to some higher
kindness and more abiding benefit. The poor forlorn wo-
men who struggle on for months with sickness, and want
of all things, and then simply die out by long exhaustion,
unfriended and almost unseen, are to bo sought out, as
they do not present themselves for admission to vagrant
wards to be barracked for the night, rationed in the moan-
ing, and then turned out with a caution against too early a
reappearance. Whole families do not suddenly take to the
streets and enter the jaws of a union workhouse. They
will first suffer everything, part with everything, and try
every expedient that may be lee fully—not always lawfully

—tried. The Poor Law Board carefully excludes the
thought of this being a measure for such extensive forms of
distress as we have had recently, by long frosts or long
stagnation of trade. When thousands are famished awned
thing else must be done. They are not "wayfarers,"
" wanderers," or " foundlings." The great mass of the
work of charity therefore is not affected by this measure.
That remains for private benevolence or the general adnii•
nistration of the Poor Law. It will be found in due time,
as sure as the seasons come round, that either in the thun-
der of discontent or the still small voice of silent suffering,
misery makes its ever fresh appeal to those who have
hearts and hands. There will be abundant need of them,
and they will find enough to do, even though Parliaments,
parishes, churches, and past generations have done so much
to take the work out of private hands.
HERALD.—Under the directions or with the authorise-

tion of Earl Russell Mr Ward, her Majesty's consul general
at Ilamburgh, has been travelling through the manufac-
turing districts, with the purpose of obtaining from the
different Chambers of Commerce their advice and sugges-
tions as to the articles a reduction of the duty upOn which
should bo urged upon the Zollverein at its next re conside-
,bweheno
bsubject that he knows
coninitmkpaorhaarys
ration of its tariff rates. Mr Waryd'es
very little more about the Zollverein and the commercial
greetedshows
uw
hi tihe
ec
bo nse e dveart
ebnl as auppporno vt
ha le
policy of Germany than he did two years ago, when he
announced the intention of Prussia to enter into the
Zollverein. We are sorry to be obliged to regard Mr Ward's
labours as useless, if they are not positively mischievous.
In the first place, it is to be regretted that he has lent
himself to the circulation of a very unfair and most un-
founded representation of the policy of the Prussian
Government. Mr Ward says that whilst the treaty
between France and the Zollverein was being negociated
our Government entered into negociations with Prussia
upon the same subject, and was met with the question,
" What have you to concede P" but that eventually the
Prussian Government promised to give England the same
privileges which it conceded to France ; thus leaving his
hearers to draw the inference that Prussia was at first in-
disposed to put them upon the same footing as the French
producers, and only atter some pressure yielded. The fact
is that the Prussian Government from the first intended
that its concessions to France should be concessions to all
other nations, and indeed employed the treaty with Franco
much as the Emperor used his treaty with England—as an
instrument to break down the system of prohibition and pro-
tection. Several months before the treaty was signed Count
Bernstotff, the then Foreign Minister of Prussia, in his
reply to a memorandum in which the Austrian Govern-
ment had raised objections to the treaty, declared that

the object of the Prussian Government in entering into
tho treaty was to introduce info the Z dlverein the
groat economical reforms which, first carried out
in England, had then, by the treaty with France, been
put into practice in the t so, industrially, most wealthy
nations of Western Europe ; and he went on to say—" We
have in our negotiations with France by no means been
actuated solely by the idea of purchasing certain commercial
advantages by corresponding concessions, but by the con-
viction that important alterations of the customs tariff are
neoesmry in the weli understood interest of the Zollverein
itself, and therefore without any reference to equivalents."
The Prussian Ministry. never thought for one instant et
denying England the advantages of whatever reductions it
might make in the tariff, and the Prussian people would

Yo•,,terday Earl Do Grey and Itipon received at.
the War 01113 e a depwation horn the inhabitants of
Erith and Belvedere to present a memorial relative
to the late catastrophe, and especially calling fcr
inquiry into the management of Purfleet and
otter Government magez!nes.
The deputation was headed by the Yen. Archdeacon
Smith, vicar of Erith, and included the following gentle.
men :-1)r Broom, J. rarish, Rev. J. Bateau, W. Onycr,
A. T. Jay, C. Hortridge, W. Everett, A. Wells, A. Hall,
F. K. addy, J. L. Bidtnead, C. Beadle, jun., Captain
M‘Killop, R.N , and J. Reos, secretary to the committee.
The following is a copy of the memorial
To the Right Honourable Earl de Grcy and Ripon, her
Majesty's &outfit), ct S:ate for War.

"The memorial of the undersigned inhabitants of the
parish of Erith, in the county of Kent, showeth,
" That by the recent fearful of explos:on of gunpowder in
their parish, which has resulted in much loss of life and de.
struction of property, their attention has been drawn to the
legislative enactments regulating the manufacture, packing,
conveyance, and storage of gunpowder.

" That upon careful consideration of the same they are
compelled to regard them as inadequate to the duo protec-
tion of lite and property.

"Your memorialists therefore pray that it may please
you to take the matter into your serious and immediate
consideration, and to adopt sueh means as may seem to you
best calculated to secure a searching investigation into the
operative effects of the present enactments and orders which
regulate the manufacture, packing, storage, and conveyance
of Government powder, as well as to the manner in which
such enactments and orders arc complied with and c irried
out. And that, pending the investigation prayed for, you
will, if possible, cause the establishment at Purfleet to be
closed, in order that the testing operations, the loading,
unloading, end shipment of powder (fraught as your me-
morialists believe with appalling danger) may be suspended,
" Your memorialists urge the prayer of their memorial
upon your attention, under the conviction that, in common
with a large number of her Majesty's subjects, they arc in
great jeopardy and peril, and that it is possible to frame
such enactments and regulations as shall prevent a recur-
rence of the late fatal disaster.
" Signed on behalf of the memorialists, in accordance
with a resolution passed to that effect, this 14th day of Oc-
ber, 1864.

S( CHARLES SMITH, Vicar of Erith.
" HERNERT I3noose, } Churchwardens."
" JOHN PARISH,
Archdeacon SMITH stated, in support of the memorial,
that the deputation had great confidence in the Government
both with regard to the control and supervision at present
exercised over their magazines and manufactures, as well as
in the attention they would give to the important matters of
consideration referred to in the memorial ; and therefore the
deputation felt it a satisfactory duty to bring under the
notice of the Government every circumstance in connexion
with the late calamity which might lead to the prevention of
similar occurrences, as well as to suggest where the manage-
ment or enactments relating to gunpowder were weak or de-
fective. The Archdeacon, after alluding to the terrible
effects of the late disaster, for which his parishioners as well
as surrounding localities had suffered so severely in loss of
life and property, alluded most pointedly to the dangers
which some believed to be attendant upon the establishment
at Purfleet. In the late explosion, he said, about 50 tens of
powder blow up, but at Purfleet no loss than 2,300 tons were
stored, or more than 40 times the quantity. Should an ac-
cident occur the consequences were incalculable ; but it was
not too much to say that the surrounding districts would be
destroyed, and London itself affected to a most fearful ex-
tent. If in asking that Purfleet might be temporarily closed
it was asking that which the Government could not grant,
the deputation would urge upon his lordship the necessity
of making a most searching investigation into its manage-
ment as well as into all the circumstances attending the
storage of gunpowder at the Government magazines, and
the points for consideration were these :—Whether it is
necessary to store large (or almost unlimited) quantities
of powder in ono magazine—whether a number of small
magazines, sufficiently far apart to be beyond the limits
of danger to each other, would not Le as serviceable—
win thcr the present magazines are constructed upon the
best and &trot principles, or whether modern science may
nut suggest improvements—whether the casks in which the
powder is packed are of the most suitable material, and
whether in ehapo and make they are adapted to effect per-
fect security against leakage—whe her in the trensit of
powder, by rail or river, between the powder mills and the
several magazines, such rules and regulations aro laid down
and enforced as to prevent the probability of danger—
whether the testing operations at Put fleet cannot be n -
moved altogether from the contigni•y of a magazine—
whether the rule should not be strictly enforced, "that
nothing but powder should be stored in any powder maga-
eine," and whether the ball cartridges now at Purfleet can •
not be stored elsewhere—whether the regulations for barges
moored alongside when unloading or shipping powder are as
stringent and cautiously carried out as is required by the
tremendous consequences involved.

Capt. 11.1..Kita,oP, R.N., called attention to the necessity
tur proper regulations for lightning conductors, and referred
to the dangers arising from passing steamers, some of which
were in the habit of taking in powder from barg‘s which
were taken in tow, the operation of removing the powder

"It appears to be customary for the Foreign-
office to forward to the Board of Trade all informa-
tion upon commercial matters received from mem-
bers of the diplomatic or the consular services; but
if a despatch from a foreign Minister or consul con-
tains a reference to matters other than commercial,
the commercial information only is forwarded.
" With the exception of same correspondence
with the consuls under the Mercantile Marine Act,
there is, as a rule, no direct communication between
the Board of Trade and the members of the dip,
lomatic or the consular services.

" With regard to the representations by the cam-
merciAl community to Government upon foreign
trade, there appears to be no ut e or practice defin-
ing to which department they should be made, but
if they are made to the Board of Trade they are
forwarded from thence to the Foreign-office, and, if
to the Foreign-Lffice, the opinion of the Board of
Trade is generally taken respecting them.
" In the case of any individual merchant haling
a complaint to make connected with foreign trade,
if he applies to the Board of Trade his complaint is
forwarded to the Foreign•ofpice, and if he applies
direct to the Foreign-office it appears to be at the
discretion of that office whether or not the opinion
of the Board of Trade is taken.

"There appears, also, to be no rule determining
.he Minister of whom questions relating to foreign
:rade should be asked in Parliament.

" The Foreign-office does not generally make
known to the public the facts relating to trade of
which it is informed, such as alterations in foreign
tariffs, but for wards them to the Board of Trade for
publication by that department in the Gazette.,

"There appears to be a difference between the
two departments in the manner in which they re-
spectively manage such business as arises from their
comniunication with each other. In the Board of
Trade there are officers whose especial duty it is to
attend to foreign commerce; but in the Foreign-
office there are no :such officers, that department
apportioning almost all its business among its
clerks geographically.
' This being the arrangement between the two
departments, your committee find, from the wit-
nesses they have examined, and also from memo%
rials from chambers of commerce referred to them,
that dissatisfaction, with regard to its present work-
ing, is felt by the commercial community upon the
following grounds :
" Ist. A belief that, from the Foreign-office hav-
ing to take the opinion of another department, there
is delay both in carrying on negotiations on com-
mercial matters with foreign countries, and in
carrying out the representations and in redressing
the grievances of British subjects.
" 2dly. A belief that there may be unnecessary
delay in the publication of important information,
from its not being limed by the office which re-
ceives it.

" 3dly. A fear that as the permanent officials
whose duty it is to collect and give information con•
nected with fereigu trade are not in the Foreign•
office, nor in personal contact with the Foreign
Secretary, the latter may not be in possession of the
information necessary Icr him to treat such com.
mercial questions as come before him.
4thly. A fear that, in addition to the want of the
necessary information, the Foreign Secretary may,
in snoh questions as have both a political and com-
mercial bearing, lose sight of the latter from the
former alone being kept constantly under his eye
by the officials connected with his own department.
" sthly. A fear that the members of the diplo-
matic and consular services may not be able to pro-
mote the interests of commerce so efficiently es they
would if they were in direct communication with a
department informed respecting their interests,
and—

"GLlily. A complaint by commercial then that if
e3r go to the Foreign Secretary, h© has to refer

their representutious to the Board of Trade iti order
to learn what action to take ; and if they makesuch
representations to the President of the Board of
Trade, he hos no power to carry them out himself—
and that if, in consegnenee of this double action
between the two departments, they make repre-
sentations to hoth,,they aro not confident that the
impression they make is the same in both cases,

hat the action of the two offices will be harmonious.

"Upon examination of the permanent officials in
reference to the above complai-ts, your cmmittee
find that an opinion prevails at the Foreign.office
that either they are unfounded, or that they arire
from inherent difficalties which =not be satis-
factorily removed ; but by the Board of Trade, on
the other band, it is admitted that some of theac

" Your committee are of opinion that, in order to
secure harmonious action by the Government upon
commercial matters, if that department be cone
suited by one office, it should be by all ; as, for
instance, by the India and Colonial office, as much
as by the Foreigneofßee, in relation to tariffs levied
upon British goods; and, that, if commercial run
Ire to be expected to look to the Board of Trade to

protect their interests with the Porcign cr any
other office, they ought to be able to flail it in ft
I staff especially devoted to such object.
" Your committee have also examined into tho
constitution of the Board of Trade, and they find
that while thcre is no meaning in the title of board,
its nominal members, such as the Lord Coancelior,
the Speaker, and the Secretaries of State never
attending, the relation in which the Vice-President
stands to the President is one which leaves the
second officer iu that department without such de-
finite duties as those fulfiled by the Parliamentary
Under Secretary in either of the Secretaryships of
State. They also find that the President is not ncd
cessarily a member of the Cabinet.

4‘ Upon the supposition, then, that the Foreign.
dace continue to consult the Board of Trade, your
committee have had brought before them two sug-
gestions:—

"Ist. That there should be, within the Foreign.
office itself, an officer or officers who should take
special charge of the correspondence of the Board
of Trade; and—

"2dly. That the Board of Trade should be put in
direct communication with the members of the con-
sular and diplomatic services upon commercial
matters.

"Upon the first of these suggestions different
opinions have been expressed, but, after carefully
weighing them, your committee are of opinion that
such departmental change would be of service.
"To the second of thesesuggestions the committee
have devoted much of their time; on the one hand,
the advantages of direct communication between
he department whose duty it is to promote com.
merce and those servants of her Majesty whose
duty it is to watch the interests of such commerce
abroad are self-evident. Oa the other hand, inasa
much as the members of the consular and diplomatic
service must be appointed by the Foreign.office, it
may be inconvenient for them to be in communi-
cation with any other department.
"Your committee, however, agree with the Earl
of Nlalmesbury and with Sir Emerson Tennent and
Mr. Mallet, the two gentlemen who have the
charge of foreign commerce at the Board of Trade,
in the belief that there will be no danger of cols
lision between the two offices if all correspondence
with consuls and foreign Ministers pass through
the Foreign-office, so that the Foreign Secretary
could acquaint the President of the Board of Trade
if the instructions of the latter be at variance with
his own.

"Your committee think that if the 13oard of
Trade were thus enabled to carry on communioa.
tion through the Foreign-office, that department
would be more quickly informed of such facts as it
is its duty to publish ; would be able more speedily
to serve the interests of individual merchants ; and,
in transactions in which its opinion is asked by the
Foreign-office, to obtain full information without
which its opinion is of little value.

" Your committee conclude with the following rem
commendations for the improvement of the relation
of the Foreign-office to the Board of Trade :

" Ist. That the Board of Trad© be placed more
nearly upon an equality with the Foreign-office than
it is at present, in order that its opinion, when
asked, may have due weight, and that its chief be
always a member of the Cabinet.

2dly. That the Board of Trade be put in direct
communication with the members of the diplomatic
and consular services, and that such communication
be carriad on through the Foreign-c face, with such
provisions as shall prevent collision.

4:„" Labtly. That au officer or officers be appoi►.;ted
in the Foreign-office to conduct its correepcudtuce
with the Board of Trade."

TXTRAORDINARY CLAP or TilITNTr.P..—The
habitants of Cheltenham were f;ltaken in their buig
at balf-pst four o'clock on Saturday morning by a tremen-
dous peal of ilinnilcr and a Ill:11 of lighinina of univnal
brilliancy. Many p-rsons jrnylpci out of bed under she

impression that their houses were about to tumble about
their ears; but as the phenomena were not repeated, the
alarm gradually subsided. It is supposed that the brief but
extraordinary storm burst immediately over the parish
church, for in the morning it was discovered that the
lightning had entered the belfry, a lanthorn standing in a
recess there being dashed to pieces, the horn being thri-
yelled up, and the metal fused by the heat, and the frag-
-1 wrath, scattered about the opal t merit.

.'.. ;~..-.~C
._ '~~.tl

LONDON, SITURDAY, OUT. 29, 1864.

The apathyof our leading politicians with regard
to the great question of Parliamentary Reform is
not, it seems, to last undisturbed for ever. Man-
chester is mindful of its old reputation for energy
and public spirit, and is seemingly prepared to ins
augurate a movement which shall convince the
recusant leaders of the Liberal party, that fine
words and empty promises will not always pacify
the people. Last spring a Reformer's Conference
was held in Manchester and a National Reform
Union was formed. The members of this associa-
tion are now bestirring themselves, and held a
meeting on Tuesday evening for the discussion of
affsirs. It is proposed to hold reform meetings
fortnightly throughout the winter, though whether
this intention will not prove too burdensome when
put in practice remains to be seen. But supposing
the number of meetings to be reduced one-half;
which we should consider would be more in accord-
ance with the present necessities of the case, there
Rill still be a goat deal giined. Statesmen will
leiro that the great Indy of the cimmunity are not
so indifferent to the state of Parliamentary repre-
sentation as they try to believe. There has, it is
true, been of late but little agitation in the matter,
but that is rather from the reaction caused by diss
gust at the proceedings of the proposed It formers
tun from any actual wish to keep things as they
'no Whigs have so completely enacted the
in the manger of the old fable that
psrt of the dog
people have been puzzled
where to turn for Re-
farmers and how to act. It took Come time betoro
the English public could believe thatits long trusted
leaders meant to betray their trust, that the states-
saga and politicians who had aIWdYB put thenaselyca

s'e.