The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-30 00:00:00

YORK SUIRE.

In the North and East hidings daring the past
week the progress of harvest work has been rapid.
Tnere has been very little interruption from the
weather, only a trifling
,shower or two having
fallen. The temperature of the week has been
low, with a keen north-easter blowing and frotsy
nights, on Friday night, in low districts, even
damaging the dahlias and vegetable marrows, &c.
The crops during the week have not ripened much,
and farmers, fearing rain, have mown them rather
green in some cases. Wherever it has been practi-
cable the fields have been cleared, and a journey
through the district now thaws new wheat stacks
more frequent than is generally supposed. As more
acquaintance is being made by farmers with the
actual character of the crops, there are very few of
them who now grumble about the deficiency, but as
a rule they admit the wheat to be an average crop.
Barley, on all hands, is stated to be the best. Oats
however are generally reported ligt.t. Potatoes are
small, but little will be done among them till the
corn harvest is out of the way. The turnips have
made no progress, and the deficient crop is a great
cause of anxiety upon sheep farms especially. One
wold farmer has not an acre left out of 90—all are
killed by the drought. The pastures are so brown
and burnt up that at a distance they can with diffi-
culty be distinguished from the corn stubbles. The
want of water necessitates leading from the rivers
for stock, and new oats are being used as fodder for
cattle in some places. The first fall of rain of any
value to the root crops and grass lands was during
Saturday night and Sunday, when very nice showers
fell, and there is every indication of more. Rain to
the pastures and roots would far more benefit the
farmer than any temporary interruption to the har-
vest would do him damage. At the time of writing
the atmosphere is very still and moist for the &pi
time for many weeks.

Charing-Cross Railway Refreshment Rooms.

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One portion of the extensive pile of building for the
Charing-cross Hotel is now so far completed as to be ready
for opening in a few weeks. It consists of a noble room on
the ground floor in the Villiers-street front connecting with
the railway station, and it is to be appropriated to refresh-
ment rooms. In connection with this department the di-
rectors entertain opinions which will be considered as
heterodox by some other boat ds—they think that a refresh-
ment room at a railway station should be what its name
implies, and not a mockery and a delusion to railway tra-
vellers. 'We believe that the public will regard with no
small favour this bold innovation upon a state of things
which has already existed too long. It is strange that it
should have required the experience of so many years to
convince sensible men, as directors of railways are generally,
presumed to be, of the absurdity of a system which con-
demned travellers to the alternative of hunger or
indigestion, and' which was alike mischievous to the
revenues of the companies, and to the health and
comfort of travellers. All this, we are glad to say,
is now to be changed; brighter days are in store
for the traveller on the South-Eastern, and let us hope that,
their example followed by other lines, we TelY soon'lvitt°BB
a complete reform in the matter of refreshment s'Pems• The
experiment of supplying good, wholesome, and nutritious
food and drink is about to be made at Charing-cross by
Messrs. Spiers and Pond, who come to us from the Anti-
podes. These gentlemen, who were enterprising enough
to engage the team of cricketers and took them out to
Australia, who have been negotiating for some time
with Mr Charles Dickens for a series of readings in
the gold and wool producing colonies of Australia,
and who, it is rumoured, have designs of a similar
chat actor upon either Mr Spurgeon or Tom Sayers, will not,
we are assured, be found wanting in the enterprise neces-
sary for a railway refreshment room at Charing-cress. The
same firm have, we believe, also entered into arrangements
with the London, Chatham, and Dover Company for the
supply of refreshments at all stations on their line. The
arrangements made are mutual in character, the companies
receiving, instead of a fixed rent for the stations, a certain
percentage of the gross receipts, thus giving to each party
to the contract an interest in the extension of the business
to be done. The contractors will endeavour to attract
customers by the quality and price of their goods supplied,
and the companies will assist by giving facilities for carry-
ing on the business.—Railway News.

THE ABBE CHATAIGNON.—Ttie Civil Tribunal of
Angonleme has just given judgment in the action
which was brought by the Abbe Chataignon against the
officers of the ttat-eivil of the communes of Plassac-Rouf-
fiac and of Mouthiers, for refusing to publish and celebrate
his marriage. The Court has decided that as the Catholic
Church imposes celibacy on the priests ; that as conse-
quently a citizen who enters into holy orders engages never
to marry, and that as it is on the faith of such engagement
that the Church authorises him to exercise his ministry and
to receive confessions, which he might abuse if he had not
laid aside all hope of ever again returning into the world,
the officers of the etat-eivil of the said communes were jus-
tified in refusing to comply with the application made to
them by the Abbe; the plaintiff, therefore, is nonsuited and
condemned to pay all the costs.—Galignant,
THE ENDOWMENT FUND OF THE CORPS OF COM-
MISSIONAIRES. —la March last the captain an-
nounced that for this purpose a sum of £B,OOO was neces-
sary, although men of business allege that the institution
is more than self-supporting. From March to August, the
amount subscribed towards this £B,OOO, is less than £3130,
of which at least one-half must have been absorbed by the
cost of advertisements in the Times, of xhich the captain's
brother is the chief proprietor, and which has had a mono-
poly of the advertisements.—The Comet.
DEATH THROUGII THE UPSETTING OF A CUP OF
TEA.—On Saturday afternoon Mr A. A. Fletcher, coroner,
held an inquest at Walsall touching the death of Elizabeth
Tomlinson, a child 31 years of age, the daughter of a.wag-
goner. The child while at the breakfast table accidentally
upset a cup full of hot tea over her chest, arms, and side,
and extensive inflammation being caused she was taken to
the Cottage Hospital, and there treated as an out-patient
until Wednesday last, when she was admitted into the in.•
stitution, but death terminated her sufferings on the follow-
ing day. A verdict of accidental death was returned.
THE GAME SEASON.—Partridge shooting com-
mences on Thursday next, Sept. 1, and there is every pro-
spect of good sport for the gunner. In consequence of the
dry weather the season has been very favourable for
hatching, and rearing both pheasants and partridges. The
latter are numerous and strong, and the former are also
Plentiful and strong on the wing. Some covies in Wor-
cestershire could fly well before the end of June. The
great scarcity of cover, however, has made the birds un-
usually wild, and sportsmen will have to walk a good deal
in order to make up a " Lag." Hares and rabbits are pieta •
tiful, the season being also favourable for their increase.
The harvest is finished everywhere, so that there will be
oo interruption to the sport.
UNCLAIMED DIVIDENDS.—The unclaimed divi
deeds handed over to the Commissioners for the, Reduction
of the National Debt, and by them invested in the public
funds, mounted at the close of the last financial year to no
lees than V,70,975 stock. There is also in the hands of
the Commissioners more than' £500,030 stack on which no
dividend has been claimed for upwards of 10 years.
DEATH OF LORD MORLEY.—PLYMOUTH, Aug.
30.—The Eiri of Morley died on Sunday evening,
aged 54, after a short illness, while on a visit at Whitaway,
near Chudleigh, Devon, the residence of Mrs. Parker, the
Countess of Morley's 'nether,