The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-02 00:00:00

rals have shown their perception of the truth in the
efforts they have made to reach the cotton stores of
the South, and to export from New Orleans what is
now carried away from Wilmington. This unique
resource, however, the Confederates retain still, and
they have the resource, also, of their black popula•
tion for the reinforcement of their armies when they

choose to employ it; At present they seem to con-
sider that their necessities are not such as to drive
them to that expedient which the Federals were fain
to embrace some time ago ; and whereas President

Lincoln declarea that the war cannot be carried on

without negro soldiers, President Davis, on his side,
sees no necessity for yet enlisting them. In men
and money, therefore, the means of the South are
sufficient for the continuance of the oontest, its spirit
appears unabated, and its actual achievements in
this last campaign will at least bear comparim
with those of the North. But though we cannot
forecast the answer which may be given, we can
foresee that the question of peace or war may soon
be put under such conditions as will decide the
policy of the belligerents once and for all. Each
party may now reconsider its position by the light
of four years' experience, each may again learn its
own mind, and take its decision. Such an occasion
has not happened before since the beginning of the
war, nor for at least four years to come is it likely
to happen again.
HERALD.—A groat deal of feeble facetiousness
has been expended on the dearth of current topics
in the dull season which is supposed to drive jour-

nalists to their wits' end. Popular pleasantry on
the subject even go©s so far as to suggest political
writers sitting down and concocting paragraphs
about showers of frogs and enormous gooseberries,
in order to diversify their columns and give their
readers something to talk about. That such ap.
pearances are more manifest in the public journals
in some periods of the year than in others is not to
be denied. But it does not follow that the records
of such phenomena are imaginary, for it is a fact
that showers of frogs do take place, and from ascer•
tained causes, and it is also true that gooseberries

and such small fruit occasionally assume proportions
undreamed of in the philosophy of market garden-
ers. Apart, however, from this question, we may
safely assert that, whatever the time of year, the
conductor of a public journal is seldom at a loss for
subjects of interest wherewith to satisfy his readers.
It may be a providential arrangement which does
better than temper the wind to the shorn lamb
by making► the lamb sufficiently woolly to
be independent of the blast. But it most certainly
happens that when Parliament is nowhere in par.
titular, when Ministers make no sign, and the Op•
position have naturally no sign to make to any prac-
tical purpose, the world out of doors never fails to
force matters upon the attention of the journalist
which deserve or demand attention. And even

granting that the writer has comparative leisure to
look about him, such a condition is clearly to the
advantage of the public, since it enables him to do
useful work in the byways which he could never
hope to accomplish on the high road of politics,
where the race must be to the swift and the battle
to the strong as far as the immediate contest is
concerned. We all venture to declare, indeed, that
some of the most valuable work of the press is
performed during the Parliamentary recess, when
Government and Opposition—besieged and be-
siegers—have suspended active hostilities ; when,
under a flag of truce, they mingle in comparative
amity, dine together at neutral tables, and discover
perchance that neither are quite so bad as they seem
in the heat and fury of pulling one another to
pieces. Far be it from us todesip any ridiculous
moderation when the campaign has fairly com-
menced, to deprecate hard hitting when hitting
must be the order of the day. In proper time and
season let us have war to the constitutional knife.
In the meantime, we know that those in possession
are strengthening their works, or trying to do so,
and that we in our place are certainly advancing
our parallels and encompassing the doomed city on
different sides. Why not, then, pull together upon
what neutral ground may remain so long as active
hostilities are postponed ? Happily there is a tacit
arrangement to that effect, and upon social affairs
generally we justify the poet laureate's philosophi.
cal belief that for a good end of some kind all
parties are combined. Here is an illustration of
the advantage of a recess. Who in the heat of the
session, having much care for politica, would trouble
himself about the Guild of Literature and Art ?
Some of our readers may have forgotten what the
Guild of Literature and Art happens to be. We
have, fortunately, time to tell them. The Guild of
Literature and Art is an institution projected by
Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Mr Charles Dickens,
and an association of kindred spirits, having for its
object—well, something not very clearly defined,
except as regards its general purpose, to improve
the position of persons engaged in literary and
artistic pursuits who may be less fortunate than
their neighbours, and to encourage provident habits
in others, so that they may be saved from falling
into the same category. In order to meet existing
wants, incidental at least to old age, a sufficiently
intelligible plan is proposed—that of providing
dwelling accommodation and annuities to a certain
number of persons to be elected from time to time
—the dwellings to be erected upon land which
Sir Edward Lytton has handsomely given for the
purpose. Towards the ways and means Mr
Dickens and tho band of theatrical amateurs, now
broken up, gave a series of performances,
and the result, after the payment of all
expenses, with the addition of some independent
subscriptions, is a fund of, we believe, nearly
£4,000, at the disposal of the committee of the guild
for employment in whatever form may be ultimately
selected. What will they do with it ? The question
debated some years ago still remains unanswered.
'rho summer before last an attempt was made to
set the undertaking once more in motion, and a
meeting was held at which some little progress was
reported and a great deal promised. This year, we
believe, the members have met; but if the results
of their deliberations were published they have not
attracted our attention. At any rate, we see no
sign of any advancement being made in the main,
and, as far as we can understand, the only practical
object proposed. The home for the pensioners ap-
pears to have as little chance of existence as the
pensioners themselves. It cannot be that the delay
is merely attributable to the proverbial cause—
everybody's business being nobody's business. The
gentlemen concerned have exerted themselves ac-
tively in benevolent projects before now—there is
no reason why their aid should not be forthcoming
in the present case, which is one particularly con-
cerning their own calling. The fact we believe to
be, that promoters of the scheme have no heart in it.
They have discovered, as everybody else discovered
long ago, that the plan is distasteful to the class for
which it isintended, and that in its present form
it is ;not wanted and will not work. A literary
man or an artist must be very old and very helpless
before he would consent to shut himself up in an
almshouse for the remainder of his days, and the
cases of men who would be fitting and willing objects
of such charity are so few that they may be left
without much fear to be dealt with by special means.
To connect such misfortune with any thing like an
institution seems to us undesirable, and even mis-
chievous to this extent—that the most deserving
objects would be the least likely to avail themselves
of its advantages. For many reasons, indeed, into
which it is unnecessary here to enter, it is the opie
mon of most competent persons who have considered
the subject that the plan of an asylum is not adapted
to the ends in view. Far better would be a simple
benefit society, like the Theatrical Fund. But
the most satisfactory form, perhaps, would be that
of an assurance office, which, backed up with a
handsome endowment and such subscriptions and
donations as the public might choose to contribute,
might do business at a rate so low as to render it
available to persons of the most limited resources.
By this means provision might bo made either for
a sum of money at a certain age, or at death for
the benefit of survivors ; and to proper persons
loans might be made upon easy and advantageous
terms. The usual conditions of an assurance office,
in fact, would be applicable to the purpose, with
the result that a large number of struggling per-
sons would be assisted, and saved, perhaps, from
finding themselves qualified, in more advanced age,
for the asylum at present proposed. To belong to
such an institution need not lower the dignity of
any man. In the regular professions assistance in
a more directly charitable form is made in many
cases. There are several societies for the benefit of
clergymen ; solicitors, if we mistake not, have some
institution for the relief of members of that body;
and the officers of the army have not thought it de-
rogatory to their profession to set on foot a sub-
scription for schools for the education of their
daughters on reduced terms. Other instances
might be cited, but the classes concerned can
scarcely require a justification of the principle, es-
pecially as any among them who may not care to
receive the amount of his assurance can always
make a present of it to the institution. We have
thrown out these remarks with all respect for the
promoters of the Guild of Literature and Art, and
in thorough appreciation of their services and in-
tentions. But wo believe their plan to be a mis-
take, and should be glad to see it abandoned for
something more acceptable to the class appealed to
—something, in fact, which is wanted and will
work.

The Head• Mastership of York Cathedral Gram-
mar School, rendered vacant by the appointment of the
Rev. Wm. Hey, M.A., to a oanonry residentiary in York
Cathedral, has been conferred on the Rev. Richard Elwyn,
M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, late headmaster of
Charterhouse School. Mr Elwyn graduated in 1849, when
lie was 14th junior optima in tho mathematical tripos, and
let in the first class in classics,

Wear and Tear of Railway Working,

At the meeting on Wednesday night of the SO
ciety of Arts, W. Brydges Adams read a paper on
the " Mechanical Conditions of Railway Working
to Prevent Destructive Wear and Risk." Captain
Galton, R.E., occupied the chair. Going first into
the elementary mechanical condition of vehicular
transport, Mr Adams came to the commencement of
the railway system, and condemned at the outset
what is still the common practice with regard to
rolling stock—viz., ignoring wheels running inde-
pendently on their axles, and adopting the old classic
car system of rollers fixed on a shaft or axle, which
revolves with them in hole pins, or what are novt
termed horn plates. Pointing out the difference
between tramways and railways, he showed that
vehicles with fixed wheels and parallel axles were
only adapted to move in straight lines. Adverting
next to the modifications of rails and wheels to meet
the curves and gradients of our iron roads he
showed how much frictional and percussional des
struction still went on. This rapid wear of tires
and rails had led to greatly increased weight Of
rails, and now to harder and heavier, and finally
to Bessemer metal and Krupp's solid steel. H°
next showed the ill effect of extreme rigidity la
railway wheels and axles in causing wear and tear,
and explained an invention of his own by which
springs were placed beneath the tires of wheels. The
result of this method was that some Staffordshire
tires ran 106,000 miles on the North London Railway
without turning up, while some Low Moor rigid
tires fixed on a similar principle only ran 50,000
miles before they had to be taken off and turned up
to restore their surface. Explaining how the same
elastic principles had been applied to rails with the
most satisfactory result—for after three years' wear
they had not disintegrated at all, except where cor.
netted rigidly to the ordinary line, and there the
ends of the rails were split—he explained the best
means of applying this elastic principle by WI"
proved systems of sleepers and fishes. He nest
pointed out the importance of true mechanical action
in the movement of wheels and axles, and the ad.,
vantage of radial movement in the axles. Explain'
ing the first attempts to secure these advantages by
the " bogey," the lecturer explained how he bad
abandoned the bogey form altogether, and adopted
axle boxes toslide in curved lines laterally through
the horn plates of a rigid engine frame beneath the
spring bearings. This plan in practice had been
found to give good results. As a means of securing
greater adhesion between wheels and rails, he sue
gested converting the rounded flanges of the wheel
tires into two flats, at an angle of 45 deg., and ea'
larging them to take a corresponding groove formed
in the surface of the rail. The improvements, there'
fore, may be summed up by spring tires, angle
flanges, and elastic permanent way.—ln the died
cession which followed, a foreign engineer saga
gested that elasticity might be given to rails 14
making them of puddled steel, and of flat-bottous
form, and of rails with puddled steel tops and iron
base. Another speaker explained an improved mode
of fixing rails, the invention of the recentli
deceased Mr Jewett, by which they are set in a
groove in the sleeper, and partly supported in 6
plate running through the rail. Mr Zerah Col'
borne endorsed the soundness of Mr Adams prim'
ciples, and explained the form of rails and rolling
in America, which had been adopted to secure
those advantages. The Chairman said that the,
important subject which Mr Adams had introduced
was nothing less than a radical change in the cos`
struction of our railways, both as to road and toll
ing stock. As experience had shown the correct
ness of Mr Adams' principles he thought no 00
would object to giving them a trial, without which
it was impossible to express a decided opinion on
new proposal in regard to railways. A vote °L
,hanks to Mr Adams concluded the proceedings.