The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-28 00:00:00

Garibaldi's Arrival.

It is expected that Garibaldi on his arrival at
Southampton will proceed to Brook Lodge, in
the Isle of Wight, the country residence of
Mr. Seely, M.P. for Lincoln, on Monday, the
4th April, where he intends staying about ten
days, and will visit London on the 16th, arriving
at the Waterloo station, and thence proceeding to
the town residence of Mr. Seely, Albert-gate.
At a meeting of the council of the borough of
Southampton, held on Saturday at the Audit House,
the following address was agreed to :
" Sir,—We, the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses
of the town of Southampton, in council assembled,
avail ourselves of the opportunity afforded by your
visit to England to give expression to the feeling of
profound respect we entertain for your public and
private character, and our high appreciation of the
service you have rendered to the cause of your
country's liberty and independence.
" We desire also to offer you a hearty welcome on
your arrival in this country, and to assure you that
we feel it a distinguished honour to be the first com-
munity to receive you on the shores of Britain. The
name of Garibaldi is esteemed and honoured in the
homes of England, and your disinterested patriotism
has long been the theme of universal admiration.
" Permit us, then, to render you our cordial and
sincere congratulations on the occasion of your
landing at our port. We may undertake to say that
nowhere in her Majesty's dominions are your noble
exertions in the cause of human freedom more
highly valued than they are among the people of
Southampton. Having learned that your chief ob-
ject in visiting England is the improvement of your
heall,h, we sincerely trust that in the midst of
sympathising friends yon will soon be restored to
complete convalescence, and that, under the protec-
tion of that Divine Power who has preserved
you throughout so many dangers and vicissitudes,
your valuable life may long be spared to aid in the
promotion of the great end to which it has hitherto
been devoted.
"Given under our common seal this 26th day of
March, A.D. 1864.
(Signed)

" GEO. BRINTON, Mayor.

PROPOSED PRESENTATION OF THE FREEDOM OF THE
CITY OF LONDON TO GARIBILDI.—The following motion
will be moved in the Court of Common Council by Mr.
John Richardson:—" That the visit of Giuseppe Garibaldi
to England affords an appropriate opportunity for the recog-
nition by the Corporation of London of his long devotion to
the cause of political liberty, his numerous acts of self-
sacrifice in America and Europe in the service of freedom ;
and especially of his labours in preparing the way for the
establishment of Italian liberty on the basis of law, and
order, and constitutional rights ; it is resolved to present
him with the freedom of the City in a casket of the value
of 100 guineas."

THE SLUICING OPERATIONS AT BIRKENHEAD.—
The sluicing operations in connexion with the
Great Low-water Basin at Birkenhead were resumed on
Wednesday afternoon, when the whole of the paddles were
lifted. At the commencement of the operations there were
about 13ft of water in the basin, and the tide had about an
hour to ebb. The head of water in the float was 20ft 6in,
and the sluices drew off 3ft llin of water over the area of
the great float-112 acres—in 20 minutes, The apparent
results on the water in the Great Low-water Basin were
similar to those produced at previous experiments. The
experiments were resumed on Saturday afternoon, in the
presence of Mr. J. C. Ewart, M.P., Mr. H. Littledale, Mr.
Lyster, engineer to the Dock Board; Captain Hookey,
Birkenhead harbourmaster, and other scientific gentlemen.
At a quarter past 5 o'clock the whole 20 sluice-gates were
fully opened. The great float, from whick the water is run
off, is 112 acres in extent. At the time the gates were opened
there was a head (or height above the outer basin) of 19ft
6in of water in the float ; and when the gates were closed,
18 minutes afterwards, it was found that there was only 16
feet. The sluices are found to take off, when all fully
opened, a foot in five minutes. This, over an area of 112
acres, would give no less than 39,000,000 gallons of water
every five minutes, or a total of 126,600,000 gallons during
the time the gates were open. This will give some idea of
the immense commotion caused in the basin by such a
sudden influx of that vast body of water. The whole sur-
face of the basin heaved and boiled and seethed in a manner
little abort of the sublime, and would give a clearer idea of
the vast pressure of a great column of water than it is often
within the power of any one to witness. The Pradfield
Reservoir, the bursting of which caused such a vast
destruction of life and property, contained 912,000,000
gallons—a quantity that could be run out of the great float
in a little over an hour and a half (should the supply be
sufficient), without the slightest injury, and with the most
perfect safety to all concerned.—Liverpool Albion.
VELVET DRESS COATS V. THE OLD BROADCLOTH
SWALLOW TAILS.—The Prince of Wales, it is said,
proposes to abolish the swallow-tailed broadcloth coat, with
its total absence of lines and superabundant buttons—put
on originally to keep the sword-belt from slipping—in favour
of a black velvet coat without tails, as like the present frock
coat as the material will admit, and without, we should
trust, any recurrence to the buttons, or rather systems of
buttons, IoS which the special beauty of velvet has since the
time of Charles 11. been destroyed. The idea is a good one,
and if really entertained by the Prince, a point on which we
know nothing whatever, we see no reason why it should not
be successful. His Royal Highness is just now in a very
happy position for making an innovation of the kind. It
would not do for Englishmen to be ticketted as Englishmen
all over the continent, for they are recognised easily enough
by that dialect of French which Mr. Kinglake once called
Continental English —ho has exchanged mots since
then for mares' nests, to the world's loss but
in the absence of young men at the Tuileries,
an English heir-apparent, young and popular,
might set the fashion for Europe as well as his mother's
dominions. The frock-coat, were it but a little more like
drapery, instead of mere dress—the whole secret of pictu-
resqueness—is one of the best and most useful garments
ever invented, and the material indicated is the one which
Englishmen of late years have wasted most, light falling on
velvet as it never can by possibility fall on the mixture of
iod wool and rotten shoddy we call broadcloth. It is not
too n,astly, for it lasts, at least our wives complain so, "for
ever ant;
a day," while it admits of those hundred grades
of quality
I,ithout which English tailors would be mad-
dened by the n,vel necessity of drawing up honest bills.
Colour is,
we imag::ne out of the question, for besides the
pronounced national
waste for black—a taste which is not
e
northern, but arises from a.? extreme distaste for gaudiness
and individuality of appearano—there is not a distinct rea-
son for its adoption. Any attempt deepen the apparent dis-
tinction of classes by dress would be warmly resented, and
colour costs too much, spots too readily, and allows of too
great a difference of price in the different cia„:lity of the dyes
employed. But plain velvet, in the form alrea.:l.9 accepted
and populdr, and of the customary colour, won:d
.be a
genuine improvement, would-remove the outward ding:ness
of an English assembly, and xid us once for all of the at:a •
minable swallow-tail. There is a potency of bad taste iii
the human mind, but even Englishmen could not stand
that absurdity in an unaccustomed material, and once vetoed
there is not much chance of the monstrosity re-appearing.
Sooner should we return to tatooing, or that equally bare
adornment the round jacket, which endures in schools be,
cause it is never in the way, and lasted in India tiil 1850
because it was the nearest approach to nudity practicable
under the Police Acts, but is about as much fitted for grown
men as a spencer, and nothing else, would be for their
wives. The stock has disappeared from everywhere except
the mournful memories of old colonels, the dirty appendages
called straps have almost ceased to bs made, and there is a
strange idea creeping among bootmakers that Providence
gave us feet that we might walk with them, and that con-
sequently if shoes are worn at all they may as well fit the
foot, and the time may have arrived for English gentlemen
to leave off wearing a tail such as all other mortals leave to
birds.
THE LANCASHIRE COAL TRADE.--WIGAN, Satur-
day.—Considerable activity still prevails in the
coal trade of this district, and the general aspect of affairs
is quite as promising as can be expected. The stocks in
the hands of some of the firms have not lately been much
reduced, but it is thought not unlikely, now that a difficulty
is felt in obtaining men to work full time, that a consider-
able decrease raay before long be apparent. During the
late slackness many men were thrown out of employ, or
employed so seldom that they deemed
it advisable to leave
the district, in net a few instances the mines in America
proving attractive, and the want of these hands is now be.
ginning to be felt in some quarters. This difficulty cannot,
however, be of long continuance, as the demand will shortly
be checked by the approach of summer. The iron smelting
making the fifth, having lately been erected by the
business is gradually extending in this locality, a new fur-
nace,
The gradual introduction of this
e apparent in different parts of the
aKi rdkel,e sssi -hall lo
f which Company.a
r
county, must have a beneficial effect on the coal trade. The
additions to existing works show that the result so far has
been most satisfactory, and there appears little doubt that
in a short time the markets adjacent will be supplied from
the district itself.
THE DEATH OF THE KING OF BAVARIA originated
in a very tr Ong cause. On the Gth his Majesty scratched
the left side of his chest with a pin that was attached to an
order which he was fastening to his coat, and on the 10th
inst. be was a corpse.