The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-25 00:00:00

The League Banquet at Manchester is now drawing
near, and great anxiety is manifested among the corres-
pondents of the council of the League to secure places.
Levers are coming to hand from all parts of the country,
and the applicants include four cmplopse of the French
government. The first issue of tickets was on Thurs-
day, and up to noon the next day 700 or 800 bad been
sold, independent of the applications from a distance
The folllwini:adJi Tonal rn‘llibers of Patharnent neve
accepted invitations: Mr. W. A. Wilkinson, M.P.,
Lambeth; Mr. Robert Ingham, M.P., South Shields;
Sir George Goodman, M.P., Leeds; Mr. T. Kennedy,
M.P., Louth; Mr. S. M. Peto, Norwich; Mr. W.
M. Shoe, M.P., Kilkenny; Mr. Richard Gardner, M.P,
Leicester; Mr. M. Sullivan, M.P., Kilkenny; Mr. James
Sernier, M.P., Tipperary; Mr. W. 11. Gore Langton,
M.P., Bristol; Sir John Foster Fitzgerald, M.P., Clare;
Mr. John Green, M.P., County Kilkenny; Mr. F.
Scully. M.P., County Tipperary; Mr. P. O'Brien, M.P.;
King's County; Mr. John Ball, M.P., County Carlow;
Mr. Richard Swift, M.P., County Sligo; Mr. Thomas
Thornely, M.P., Wolverhampton; Mr. W. M. E. Mil-
ner, M.P., York; Mr. John Brady. M.P., Leitrim; and
Mr. H. Brown, M.P. Tewkesbury.
MODERN CYCLOPEAN WALL.—A recent number of
the Allgemeine Zeitung contains an interesting account of
a visit which the writer had made to inspect the progress
of building a wall in the manner called Cyclopean, at
Dusterebrook, near Kiel, in Schleswig-Holstein. Ho
considers the effect of the work and the style of execu-
tion far superior to any of the numerous remains called
by the same name which ho had seen in Italy, and goes
so far as to give it the preference over any other kind of
wall, so far as the plain, vertical surface of the material,
apart from ornamental accessories. is concerned. He
thinks that the polygonal stones, exerting their pressure
in all directions, must insure stronger work than squared
atones, however closely jointed, which only act in the di-
rection of gravity. Indeed, the innumerable many-
sided and multangular stones of all sins seem run to-
gether into one compact mass,_ of which neither time
nor age will get the better. Neither mortar nor any
other means of binding the stones together is employed;
but the greatest care is taken in fitting :the granite
blocks one into the other, the vacant spaces in the wall
a; it is carried up being accurately taken off with a lead
tape (bleistunge) forced with a hammer into all the angles
of the openings, and then applied to the flat hewn face of
the block best suited, and next to be brought to its pro-
per shape by the workman. From the workmen, ho learned
that the directions given them by the architect were—
" Five-sided and six-aided blocks, seldom four-sided;
straight lines, obtuse angles, joint upon angle and
angle upon joint; ail according to the lead tape,
and only inclined junctions." In fact, all the
junctions between the blocks were found to be in every
gradation between the perpendicular and the horizontal,
without coinciding with either of them. In this obli-
quity of the joints the author detected the arch principle
of construction as applied to the work, and the workmen
pointed out to him, that each stone either pressed or
supported, with every one of its sides, however nume-
rous. He was unable to learn the name of the architect.
Herr Mahnke was the name of the builder, who had
said that the cost of the work was less than a squared
stone wall ; that it was much stronger, so that ho should
have used it in several larger buildings if ho had been
acquainted with it sooner ; moreover, that this kind of
building was to be preferred, because every stone, large
or small, can be used up in it. Generally, the writer
holds this polygonal or Cyclopean kind of building to be
especially applicable in, first, hydraulic works, as it offers
nowhere a continuous joint to the water ; second, in for-
tifications ; third, for railways in substruction and steep
coverings, and in the cellar story and even in the next
story of large buildings and palaces. In those mortar
would be used, not as a means of connecting the stone,
but only as pointing to the joints, so that the immediate
contact of the stone should not be interrupted. In con-
clusion, the writer recommends the adoption of this
method of building, according to determined and clearly
defined principles and rules, as altogether practical,
wherever the material for polygonal blocks is found—a
method which is at least to us a now ono, and not simply
a more careful execution of the loug-used rock walls, or
an ornamental imitation of an old style, as in the
halls, of which practical method, in short, the Cyclopean
wall, near Kiel,
is the first example that has been exe-
cuted in Germany.— The Builder.
THE BALLOT.—Mr. Cobden in a letter to the un-
successful liberal candidate for Montgomery remarks—.
It is to meet such crying evils that you describe that the
ballot must be adopted. It is not as a cure for bribery,
that I advocate secret voting, so much as a shield against
intimidation and coercion. The remedy for bribery is
the enlarging of the small constituencies, and the ballot.
With q 8 millions of people to be represented in Parlia-
by 656 members, there ought not to be any small consti-
tuencies.

THE MARIONETTES IN LITERPOOL—The Forform-
ances this week have been slightly varied. Mr. A. Browne
delivers a new introductory address, and then follows the
burlesque of " Bombastus Furioso." Next, we have a
duet from Norma, the perfamences of the Ethiopian
melodists, a comic song, and the splendid spectacle of
" Aladdin." The audiences are numerous, and if we
may judge by the roars of laughter and thunders of
applause with which the efforts of the puppets are
greeteG, greater favourites never appeared before the
Liverpool public, We are not at all surprised that it
snould be so, for the performance of the Ethiopians alone
is so natural, and withal so ludicrous, that all classes are
provoked thereby to, we had almost said, the most out-
rageous
laughter. The scenery is splendid, every scene
being a perfect picture in itself ; and the action of some of
the figures is graceful, if notalwaya natural. For children,
a visit to Marionettes will be a great treat; and although
large numbers attend nightly, they are specially pro-
vided for in the morning performances, which take place
every Saturday.—Liverpool Mercury, Oct. 22,
NEVER DESPAIR.—A Couple were married at
Ii ng's Cliffs lately, who had "wooed" for 37 yours.