The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-29 00:00:00

C§

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPT. 29, 1863.

moment shut up, their valiant opponents being
everywhere victorious. Nay, even this is not all.
" Manhattan" for once seems fairly to have lost his
head, as the phrase is, meaning his judgment. He
has certainly, for once, cleared out of view all consi-
derations of decency. He is not only boastful to
the lastpaegree, as to what the Federals are going to do
with.those poor little emmets of antagonists, the
Confederates, but he is announcing how the Fede-
ral Power is going to swallow up half a million
Frenchmen at a gulp! And while blustering and
boasting in this preposterous manner, he is out-
raging, to the utmost possible extent, the
Ifew remaining ideas of decorum, of which
the reader might still have a hope on
his (the writer's) part, by profanely yelling his
thanks to the ALMIGHTY, that a bloody war with
France has at length become inevitable. 'We
will give " Manhattan's" own words—so that
it may be seen at once, from them, how it is,
literally, as we have here said ! In his very
first sentence, in this his latest communication,
he writes, " We have to thank GOD, among other of
his mercies, that we are to have a war with France !
And may He so direct events that it may result in
making us a united naticn—a confederacy of States."
Again—" I have never hesitated to declare that a
foreign war was, of all things, the one thing needed
to restore us to our senses, and to make us a united
people. May GOD grant that it has come in the
shape of a roar with France." Further on, yet again
—"We devoutly (!) thank GOD that we are prepared
for a contest at sea with France." Even then, he bas
not done with this blasphemously prayerful exulta-
tion over the prospect of that sanguinary encounter.
He is still upon his knees, in irreverent rapture over
the bare idea of this new and more copious outpouring
of blood ! "Let war come" he cries (he still speak-
ing of the certainty of a wag' with France) "Let
war come, and it will be received as the greatest
blessing GOD can cnt itjj'ePlwork us this year I" To de-
monstrate quite
is conclusively,beidohimshelofwaetvetrh,e
p bowros.
wholly MANHATTAN
pect of a war with France it is only necessary to
refer to his poor little foolish expression of regret
that it will be impossible for NAPOLEON himself
to go out there to America with those French
troops his Majesty would have to send thither
immediately upon the declaration of such a war 1
NiANIIATTAN'S regret being that the defeat of the
French armies by the Federals cannot be thus ren-
dered the more signal and complete—by what ?
By NAPOLEON "playing the Monkey-General, and
smoking cigars"—as he did when opposed to the
Austrians in Italy ! Our Yankee Jumns being
quite oblivious, for the moment, of the perhaps
trivial circumstance, that that same " Monkey-
General smoking cigars" again and again defeated
the legions of Austria opposed to him at that time in
Lombardy upon a succession of memorable battle-
fields !

The Emperor of Russia is trying a new plan.
It would seem as if, after exhausting the policy of
the fortiter in re, he was now endeavouring to
essay the effect of the sunnier in mode. This may
be all very fine, but the question is whether he will
succeed in taking in those who have been attene
tively watching his proceedings of late. His doings
at Helsingfors have all been of the most affable
nature, and his speeches are all of the gracious
style. He was received by the students at the uni-
versity with great applause. He expressed his
great satisfaction at finding himself once more
within the walla of the university, of which for a
long time he had been Chancellor. He hoped that
for many long years to come it would still send
out young men who would remember their duties
to the fatherland, and that the Russian EMPEROR.
was their liege lord. This was putting it in a very
ingenious hint, and improving the occasion by re-
minding his hearers of a fact ho doubtless deemed
of immense importance. Ater this affair at the
university there followed a banquet to the officers,
and general illuminations in the evening. A grand
review took place the next day, and the number of
visitors was excessive. It would seem that the in-
flux was far too great indeed for the powers of
the inhabitants to accommodate; they were not
equal to the emergency, and some very extraordi-
nary incidents took place. It is said that seven
members of Parliament had to walk the streets
at night for lack of any accommodation.
This appears as if the resources of the community
were not very great, but doubtless such a demand
upon their extent of room and elasticity of arrange-
ments had never before occurred. One individual
who arrived, and asked for a refuge, was told that
there was not sufficient rocm for a mouse. It is
reported that it is intended shortly to take away
the division of the Grenadier Guards. This, if
accomplished, will greatly improve the state of
affairs, as the present combination is a very strange
one, there being no less than 20,000 troops in a
Place where there are scarcely so many inhabitants.
The people of Helsingfors will, for the most part,
be delighted with their removal. This step will
also augur a more peaceful state of things in regard
to Poland, as it will testify that so much anxiety
does not prevail on that score in the minds of the
Russians. The summoning of the Chambers was
celebrated with much ceremony. It is more than
half a century since Finland was annexed to the
Russian Empire, and during all that long period
there has been no session of the Finnish Landtdag.
Of course it is natural that the greatest gratitude
should be entertained for the present boon, and that
hopes should run high in regard to the benefits that
will accrue from the event just inaugurated. It would
certainly appear to studious observers, however, as
if the gift were more substantial if the exercise of
its privileges were more free and unfettered. If a
constitutional assembly had been founded the posi-
tion would indeed have been altered for the better.
In that case there might have been more reliance
to be put upon a consecutive form of representa-
tion; as it, is now, all depends upon the fancies
of the hour, and the fluctuations of policy
that take place in St. Petersburg are not the
most solid, sure, or safe foundations on which
to build the structure of a nation's liberties, or test
the hopes of a people's rights. If the Emperor of
Russia had bestowed some privileges that were
ensured beyond the possibility of removal, and that
no subsequent casualty could effect or future ruler
disclaim or deny, then indeed would the most sus-
picious have confidence, and the most sanguine see
their expectations realised. But when calmly re
°iewir.g the state of things, end taking a retrospec-
, hve glance at events, how can the present seem pro-
pion% or the future fortunate. To-day we may be
right, but what may not to-morrow bring forth ?
In the chancea and changes of the perplexing inci-
dents of de?pt,ti, Government, how soon is the
sunny Pr'neet overcast, and the smiling hope
respect or regard of a people, bowcver
It is not the way to ensure
proved quite illusory.
first to bestow upon them
mthuechlastthienyg
may
profess
at
a piece-meal temporary amelioration.
Whot
is not reform,secure ora
cannot be Sterling in its value,
or satisfactory in its workings. fence the grand
doings in Finland may be quite as much in the long
run the herald of a failure as the advent of a success.
The liberty that depends upon the caprices of
tyranny is hardly worth the name, and can never
attain to the reality of that blesaiiit. Insomuch,
however, as the whole of the mango Tres and ma-

If we were to give implicit credence to the state-
ments put forward by MANHATTAN and other pro-
Federal reporters, we should certainly be led to
regard this desperate Civil and all but Servile war in
America as even now virtually brought to a,conelo-
sion ! We should be deluded into a belief that
already the Union is reconstituted, the Confede-
rate Government swept out of existence, General
LEE reduced to a nonentity, President DAVIS ren-
dered utterly insignificant. That we are not, in
saying this, in any way guilty of exaggeration in
regard to the tone adopted by the Northern writers
can be rendered apparent upon the instant by a
single paragraph extracted from MANHATTAN'S
last vulgarly vigorous communication. A letter in
which that Yankee JUNIUS appears, more conspicu-
ously than ever, as the organ of what we may per-
haps most aptly term the blatant bumptiousness of
the North. Roaring at first quite as mildly as BULLY
BOTTOM himself—" I hope," cons this " sucking
dove" from the other side of the Atlantic,
" that no more blood will be shed in our
own unhappy civil war. I judge it is near its end,
for all the Southern papers have turned blowers,'
and brag of what is to be done, in such a manner,
that I am confident they are on the eve of a general
surrender. You will see that my words will come
true. After all, what have the rebels to fight for ?
—a part of South Carolina, up in the mounlains—
Georgia—Alabama—a part of Virginia—North
Carolina is on the fence—Arkansas is shaky, her
capital captured, and the Mississippi open ! Look
on Tanner's map of the old United States, and you
will see how little is left in rebellion. Their cause
is hopeless, so far as separation is concerned. The
rebels could govern the Union, if they had gumption
sufficient to go for the Union and fight in the Union.
Every day they are in rebellion they strengthen the
power of Mr. LINCOLN and hie Government." After
that, really the best thing, if not indeed, the only
thing left, for the Confederates to do, must
be—obvicusly—to send a flag of truce in hot haste
to General )MADE, meekly offering the submission
of the South in the humblest terms, and upon the
very mildest conditions, that can yet be wheedled
from the Federal Victors !

Before quite coming to this same conclusion,
however, it may, perhaps, be just as well to
glance down the latest particulars just brought
to 118, per the City of New York, from the actual
Beat of war. News of battle t will be found
to furnish, comprising within a very moderate space
the following extraordinarily long catalogue of the
most recent advantages gained by—the Confede-
rates I
-° epitomise them just as they stand in
this bewildering
string of Telegrams—we learn (per
the City
of New York) that, when the last mails
left, the Confederates, under LEE, though not in
large force, held %Strong position on the line to-
wards which AlEmat
was advancing upon them
--namely, upon the line of the Rapidan ! That
in the skirmishes Nvh-leh had already taken
place la!twecn the two train armies, 150 Federal
just been co
Cavalry had Iltured by the Confede-
rates! That the Federal (-4 ,
eenerar 'inomas was
reported to have met with a reverse at Lafayette,
Tennessee ! That BUCKNER 44
captured 300
Federal prisoners ! Tnat RosEeri,z
had been
driven back by the Confederates la
—RGG and.
JOHNSTUNE ! That General NEGLWB divi-
sion of 5,00 u Federals, attacked at Bird's Gap by
16,000 Confederates, had, not unnaturally, been
forced for a while, at least, to withdraw to a die.
tance,it was said, of three miles and a half, by that
formidable proportion ot three to one! That Gene-
ral LC)NGSTREE.T was reported to have advarced
through Resaca at the head of 90,000 Confederates, '
and to hare already pressed forward as far even as
Lafayette ! That from all quarters the Southern
troons were rapidly hurrying to ether at Atlanta!
That Fort Moultrie, although still being shelled,
had been strengthened by its Confederate defenders !
That a reconnoitring party
of Federals had been
captured on the Savannah Railroad ! That in front
of the Federal lines in North Carolina there was
-visible an increase of the forces of the Confederates !
That in Western Virginia Southern troops to the
number of 8,000 were preparing for a new
raid into the Federal territories ! Yet, with
a swarm of telegrams like those dropping in upon
us, we are assured by Northern writers like "Man-
hattan" that the cause of the South is altogether
desperate, that the Confederates are virtually at this

nagement that are chronicled as transpiring at
Helsingfors are of a progressive character they are
so far satisfactory, and that good results will follow
on even this minor attempt at enlightened policy
is certain. Putting aside the considerati9n of ulti-
mate consequences of the new organisation of things,
the Finlanders are rejoicing at the good things now
provided for them. It will be most fortunate if
they have no cause to change their happy mood for
a sorrowful one. It is to be trusted that policy
may induce their Russian rulers to persevere in the
course now commenced; and so, in waiting for a
better state of things, by that inducement they may
continue to enjoy as a favour what they should
possess as a right.

The usual budget of news from India brings us
little that is remarkable. The doubts as to the
identity of the prisoner now at Cawnpore with the
treacherous NANA SAIIIB are not yet laid at rest,
and the conflicting and unsatisfactory nature of the
evidence does not offer much hope of a speedy set-
tlement of the question. The Vines of India states
that his arrival at Cawnpore excited a good deal of
commotion, but that the interest which had been
awakened died out immediately after his arrival.
The people of the district, to most of whom the
NANA was of course well known, were unanimous
in declaring that the prisoner was not the veritable
culprit, and though, as the Indian journal observes,
their evidence is not entirely trustworthy, yet the
general indifference is certainly worth noting as a
feature in the case. The se me paper, after referring
to the numerous instances on record, in which the
nearest relatives have been unable to recognise
each other after long-continued absence and ex-
posure, remarks that the mere fact of recognition
or its absence, by persons who had formerly known
the NANA, must not be accepted as conclusive evi-
dence, but there are other points in the prisoner's
favour. The fact of the English surgeon who for-
merly attended NANA SABIB, being decidedly of
opinion that the prisoner is not the man, is cer-
tainly deserving of value, and it must be admitted
that his account of himself and his belongings is
not at all satisfactory. We need not doubt that the
greatest care and discretion will be exercised in
coming to a decision, and we may reasonably hcpe
that a little morn time will throw some further
light on the matter. With regard to other matters,
the prosperity of India appears to be increasing as
fast as the most sanguine wishes could make it.
The statistics of import, export, and land revenue
during the last ten years exhibit some startling
figures. The customs revenue of Calcutta
has risen during this decade from £95J,807 to
£3,081,515. On the old principle of the ill wind,
the cotton famine has brought good to India, for
cotton has of course contributed largely to the
recent rapid increase of trade in Calcutta. Of the
whole increase of nearly £5,000,000 over the trade
of the previous year, cotton we are told claimed
one quarter. Until within a year or two back
Calcutta exported no cotton save to China, whereas
last year its exports of this particular staple were
valued at over a million and a half. Political eco-
nomists may, if they will, preach a sermon to our
manufacturers and cur Indian legislators on this
text, and point the moral by showing them what
Lancashire might be if the point now gained in
Indian cultivation had been reached some five or

ten years ago. By next spring or summer we
may hope very considerable addition to our sup•
ply, but if the sources which are to keep our mills
at work full time in '64 or '65 had been forth-
coming in '6l and '62, might not English men and
women have been spared much suffering and Eng-
lish trade some loss ? It is worth noticing that the
greater part of the cotton exported from Calcutta
was grown in Northern and Central India, and
• brought down by the Ganges or by rail. The
time thus gained is of importance, but still more
advantageous is the improved mode of transit, which
spares the cotton much claroege on the journey.
When the systems of railway and water commu-
nication is fully developed merchants and culti-
vators will alike profit by the change. The tea
plantations are also rapidly increasing in importance,
and the total value of the trade of India, not many
years since reckoned as one of our most hopeless
and unprofitable possessions, is now estimated at
one hundred millions sterling. Truly a lesson to
political pessimists not to despair of the fortunes of
a great country. And we must remember that even
now only a thirty-third part of all Madras is under
cultivation. Such is the statement of the Madras
Board of Revenue, which reckons 21 millions of
square acres under the plough, and leaves the rest
of the 84 millions to be accounted for, we presume,
by the right hon. baronet at the head of the India
Office. Yet of this small amount more than one-
fourth has been added within the last year. Let us
hope that this is an augury of a little more rapid
progress in the art of cultivation for the future.
The heavy rains have been more violent than usual,
and their season has been marked by unwonted de•
struction, and, still worse, by the progress of the
cholera in some districts. Sanitary officers are dila-
tory, and, unfortunately, epidemics will not always
wait their leisure. Military promptness is better
fitted to deal with such an adversary, and the plain
and sensible rules issued long ago by the Com-
mander-in-Chief have probably been productive of
much good in checking disease. It must be a great
satisfaction, no doubt, to those who fall victims to
defective arrangements this year to know that next
season many reforms will be in progress. Still,
" Better late than never" is the motto; and the re-
organisation of barracks, the appointment of
officers of health, and the bill giving despotic
sanitary powers to magistrates, will go far to
remedy that serious evil of excessive and pre-
ventible mortality which we are now compelled
to deplore. The general peace and prosperity of
our Indian dominions gives us leisure to improve
and consolidate our internal administration. Let
cur statesmen look to it that they seize the oppor-
tunity and do all that lies in their power to atone
for past neglect.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

[REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

AMERICA.

(Per the Nova Scotian.)

NEW YORK, SEPT. 19 (Evening).
Intelligence received from Charleston to the 10th
inst. announce that General Gilmore is mounting
heavy guns at Fort Wagner and Cumming's Point
to bombard Charleston.

CNMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
Unfavourable rumours concerning the position of
General Rosecranz' army have caused a rise i❑
gold and exchange, which are now quoted, gold at
35 per cent. premium, and exchange on London,
HSI,. Money easy. Stocks steady. New York
Centrals, 13841 ; Illinois, 1241; Erie, 1071.

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.
BRESLAU, SEPT. 29.

REPRESENTATION OF BARNSTAPLE.—PoIiticaI
feeling is strong in this borough, but no candidate had
come forward, or public manifestation been made, up to
Monday, out of respect to the memory of the late member,
whoee funeral took place in London on that day. The
names of several gentlemen have been named as candidates,
but the most popular individual likely to come forward is
Mr. Richard Brcmridge, of Newport (Conservative). The
Liberals have, however, resolved on producing another
candidate.

Fresh well-armed detachments of insurgents have
appeared in the environs of Tarczyn, four leagues
from Warsaw.

The day before yesterday the commander of the
Russian troops in the palatinate of Kalisch held a
council with several superior officers of the Prus-
sian army, relative to the measures to be taken to
paralyse the movements of the insurgents.

INDIA AND CHINA.
SUEZ, SEPT. 28.

The Messageries Imperiales steamer Imperatrice
arrived here to-day with India and China mails, 64
passengers, and 1,746 bales of silk.
The Peluse is expected at Marseilles on the sth
October.

PRANCE.
PARIS, SEPT. 29.

LUNATIC ASYLUM SECRETS.—Every art has its
secrets; the attendants in such madhouses as this
have been for rears possessed of one they are too modest to
reveal to justices, commissioners, or the public ; the art of
breaking a man's ribs, or breastbone, or both, without
bruising him externally. The convicts at Toulon arrive at
a similar result by another branch of the art : they stuff the
skin of a conger eel with powdered stone; they give the
obnoxious person a sly crack with it ; and a rib or back-
bone is broken with no contusion to mark the ex-
ternal violence used. But Mr. Cooper and his fellows de
their work -.shit the knee-joint; it is round, and leaves no
bruise. They subdue the patient by walking up and down
him on their knees. If they don't jump on him, as well as
promenade him, the man's spirit is often the only thing
broken; if they do, the man is apt to be broken bodily as
well as mentally. Thus died Mr. Sizer in 1854, and two
others quite recently. And how many more God only
knows ; we can't count the stones at the bottom ef a well.
—.Dickens's " 411 the Year Round," the new number pub.
lisped today.

The Moiziteur of this morning publishes details
respecting the favourable impression produced on
the Japanese by the chastisement inflicted by
Admiral Juares on the Japanese forts from which
the Europeans were fired upon.
The Tycoon has sent the model of a flag which
belonged to him, with an intimation that his Go-
vernment recognised the right to foreigners to seize
any vessel which shall not hoist this flag.
BOURSE, Sept. 28.—The market has been more
buoyant, and a fair amount of business done, at an
advance—Threes, for the Account, being now at
67f. 90c. The Railway Share Market firm. The
market closed as follows:
ft per Cents. 95 50 Italian Loan 74
Do. end Do. end month —
3 per Cents
Do. end month.... 67 95 Do. end month....
Credit Mobilier.... 1213 75 Russian
Do. end m0nth....1215 Austrian -
Bank Shares 3395 Spanish Threes.... 52 50
Credit Fonder 1300 Rome Debt

GARIBALDI is reported to be very closely watched
by the Italian Government, now that be is nearly restored
to health. The next shot, it has been sardonicallyremarked,
will doubtleks be ordered to be aimed higher.

Lau'erdale House, Higbgate,
Sept. 18, 1863.

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 29, 1863.

to the eye may nevertheless be rendered perceptible by
the use of very delicate instruments, and which, though
quite insignificant as far as regards the daily operations of
commerce and even the ordinary pursuits of science, may
become considerable by being multiplied, and may conse-
quently have a sensible influence on geodetical and astro-
nomical inquiries."—(Page 29-30.)
" The inference from all the preceding facts and consi-
derations is, that neither the metre, nor any other linear
measure which may be substituted in place of the metre,
can with our present means of information be assumed with
certainty, and to the exclusion of all other quantities, as
the exact 10,000,000 th part of the quadrant of a meridian,
supposed to be measured from the North Pole to the
Equator. All such quantities must be taken as approxima-
tions, the same latitude being used in regard to them, as in
all ordinary cases of linear measurement; for it is to be
observed that minute differences must exist in all attempts
to compare the lengths of different objects. Euclid's
axiom, " Things which are equal to the same are equal to
one another," is strictly true only of mathematical lines
and other imaginary quantities. In practice it is sufficient,
if the inequality is not obvious to the naked eye, and does
not go beyond reasonable limits. All parties can only make
it their honest aim to arrive at perfect exactness, but will
not pretend to have attained it, such a pretension being a
proof of nothing but their own ignorance."—(Page 37.)
I also attach importance to the remark in the same
patrphlet (page 40 and 26 note), "that in case the rectifi-
cation of the metre should be rendered expedient by the
progress of discovery, the founders of the Metric System
themselves provided a remedy, not by altering the metre
itself, but by a change of the regulation, which fixes its
standard temperature. This temperature is now fixed
at Zero of the centigrade scale, which is the
temperature of melting ice. The consequence is
that in daily use the rectification takes place
without any legislation at all. The warmth of the
hand, the heat of the atmosphere, or the superior tempera-
ture of most foreign countries will of themselves prolong
the metre so as to meet the.objections of those who deny its
accuracy. It is only in rigorously scientific calculations
that the incorrectness of the metre, even supposing it to be
proved, can be of the slightest importance. . . . I
cannot find that this temperature is fixed by any positive
law, although it was applied under the authority of the
commissioners in constructing the definitive metre of 1799,
and has been maintained to this day. It appears that the
temperature may be altered whenever any sufficient reason
for the change is made manifest, and that the metric system
is in this respect self-adjusting."
It should be underatcod that the whole difference which
your author so strenuously condemns as rendering the
metric system worthless, is not more than the thickness of
a film of varnish at the extremity of any metre which may
be in use.
Let your author show us proofs of the universal adoption
of this " great argument." I find it not in the speeches of
Mr. Ewart and his supporters in the recent debate. I search
for it in vain in the report of his committee printed in July,
1862, by order of the House of Commons, and in the answers
of all the witnesses, on whose evidence that report was
based. It does not occur in the " Inaugural Address" of
Sir William Armstrong, which you quote ; nor in the
Report of the Council of the international Association
;n February, 1858, nor in any of the tracts issued by that
association. In short your author's assertion is nothing
better than a dream.
I now come to a part of your article, which more imme-
diately concerns myself, and which it is the more necessary
to rebut, because its aim is not merely to destroy my own
reputation for common sense and veracity, but to overturn
at one stroke both the report of Mr. Ewart's Committee,
and the credit of the Metric System. You produce as an
opponent.of the Metric System, the late Professor Play-
fair, of Edinburgh," whom Mr. James Yates, Secretary of
the International Association, with a recklessness rarely
surpassed, quotes as being the author of ' a most beauti•
fully written article,' in which he expressed a decided
wish 'that the system should be adopted in this country.' "
The reference to my evidence before Mr. Ewart's Commit-
tee, query 498. I will remark, en passant, that lam not
the Secretary of the International Association. That office
has been held for some years by my distinguished and very
able friend, Professor Levi, who would probably have
answered were he not on the Continent, having been sent
to Berlin as a delegate to the Statistical Congress, and
having, moreover, informed me by letter, that the Congress
has unanimously passed resolutions recommending the
adoption of the Metric System, and, following in this, the
example of the Congresses held at Brussels, Paris, Vienna,
and London.
I will now quote Professor Playfair's words in the review
referred to, that your readers may judge for themselves whe-
ther I was justified in stating to Mr. Ewart's committee that
the professor expressed the opinion which I have imputed to
him. The article in question concludes as follows:—" We
cannot finish our accoreet of these scientific operations with-
out expressing our wish that tho uniformity of measures
and weights were introduced into our own, and into every
other civilized country. The difficulty is not so great as
we are apt to deink, when we consider the matter at a dis-
tance; and to effect it requires in reality nothing but for
the Legislature to say it shall be done. As to the standard
to be adopted, though we think the pendulum would have
afforded the most c snvenient,yet when one has been actually
fixed on, and determined, that circumstance must greatly
outweigh every other consideration. The system
adopted by the French, if not absolutely the best,
is so very near it, that the difference is of no account.
In one point it is very unexceptionable. It involves
nothing that savours of the peculiarities of any country,
insomuch as the commissioners observe that, if all the
history which we have been considering were forgotten,
and the results of the operations only preserved, it would
be impossible to tell with what nation this system had
originated. The wisest measure, tnerefore, for the other
nations of Europe is certainly to adopt the Metrical Sys-
tem. .. It would not be necessary to adopt their
names, which might not assort very well with the sounds
that compose the language of other nations. But the
Metre, by whatever name it may be called, ought to be
adopted as the unit of length, and all the other measures
of linear extension derived from it by decimal multiplica-
tion and division."
Your readers will now be prepared to find that I was
justified in what I stated before Mr. Ewart's committee
(Questions 499, 500), in regard to Mr. John Quincy Adams,
"Mr. Yates," you observe, "did not scruple to say that
Mr. Adams passes the highest eulogy, quite enthusiasti-
cally, on the philosophers who were employed in making
the measurement and devising the system." Let us now
hear Mr. Adams himself, whose book I handed to the com-
mittee. After a most instructive history of the labours of
the French commissioners and the correspondent proceed.
ings of the Legislature, President Adams thus writes :
" No apology will be deemed necessary by Congress for
dwelling upon these details which signalised the establish-
ment of the new French Metrical System. The spectacle
is at once so rare and so sublime, in which the genius, the
science, the skill, and the power of great confederated na-
tions are seen joining hand in hand in the spirit
of fraternal equality, arriving in concert at one
destined stage of improvement in the condition
of human kind; that, not to pause for a moment, were it
even from occupations not essentially connected with it,
to enjoy the contemplation of a scene so honourable to the
character and capacities of our species, would argue a want
of sensibility to appreciate its worth. This scene formed an
epoch in the history of man. It was au example and an
admonition to the legislators of every nation, and of all
after times." (Report on Weights and Measures, p, 59,)
Again, "If that universal uniformity so desirable to human
contemplation be an attainable perfection, it is now attain.
able only by the adoption of the new French system of
meti ology in all its important parts. Were it even possible
to construct another system on different principles, but em-
bracing in equal degree all the great elements of unifor-
mity, it would still be a system of diversity with regard to
Franca and all the followers of her system. And as
she could not be expected to abandon that, which
she has established at so much expense, and
with so much difficulty, for another possessing, it
equal, not greater advantages, there would still be two
rival systems, with more desperate chances for the triumph
of uniformity. . . This system approaches to the
ideal perfection of uniformity applied to weights and mea-
sures, and, whether destined to succeed or doomed to fail,
will shed unfading glory upon the age in which it was con-
ceived, and upon the nation by which its execution was
attempted and has been in part achieved, In the progress
of its establishment there, it has been often brought into
conflict with the laws of physical and moral nature with
the impenetrability of matter, and with the habits, passions,
prejudices, and necessities of man. It has undergone various
important modifications. It must, undoubtedly, still
submit to others before it can look for universal adoption.
But, if man upon earth be an improvable being, it
that universal peace, which was the object of a Saviour's
mission, which is the desire of the philosopher, the longing
of the philanthropist, the trembling hope of the Christian,
is a blessing, to which the futurity of mortal man has a
claim of more than mortal promise ; . . . then this
system of common instruments to accomplish all the
changes of social and friendly commerce will furnish the
links of sympathy between the inhabitants of the most dis-
tant regions; the metre will surround the globe in use as
well as in multiplied extension; and one language of
weights and measures will be spoken from the Equator to
the Poles." (P.p. 47, 43.)
I must be excused from following your author through
the sequel of his essay, more especially since his remaining
assertions are rather expressions of opinion than state-
ments of facts. The best judges may differ in regard to
the "balance of scientific evidence," the convenience of the
Metric System, the advantage of uniformity, the preference
due to a binary scale, and "the sublime audacity," the
" breach of good faith," &c., implied in the introduction of
a bill such as Mr. Ewart's. Also, the question respecting
the sale of grain and wino is too intricate to pursue into its
details in a letter, which may, even as it is, try the patience
of your readers. I will conclude by observing that I make
it a general rule not to answer anonymous assailants. In
the present instance I have deviated from my ordinary
practice, not thinking I was under the slightest obligation
to reply, but in compliance with the suggestion of a friend
JAMES YATES.

LITEUATITITE.

Stevens' Grade Lesson Books. Fifth Standard.

Pp. 220. Longman and C 3.

Already we have noticed the four preceding
volumes of this really admirable series of " Lesson
Books," a series especially adapted to meet the
requirements of the Revised Code, The "Fifth
Standard," here aided to the set, brings out yet
more clearly to view the excellence of the system
upon which the compilation has been made.
Another, the Sixth, Standard alone remains to be
published, and the series will then stand completely
before the public. As far as it goes even now, it is
already in one sense complete—complete that is up
to the point at which the course of tuition has, at
the close of these 220 pages, arrived. Throughout,
with the most scrupulous care, the brother editors
of the series, that is to say, Mr. Stevens, of King's
College, and Mr. Hole, the head master of the
Loughborough Collegiate School over at Brixton,
have attended to the several requirements of the
Revised Code. While doing this, they have
notified to all such Teachers as may use these
Grade Lesson Books with due attention to
the official requirements alluded to, that the
reading lesons are intended to be car-
ried out as here given, namely, consecutively.
That the selected words, with their respective sig-
nifications attached, are designed to be learnt by
the pupil before beginning the lesson in which they
occur, and to which they are prefixed. And—among
other similarly useful little items of advice—
that the exercised in Reduction here given are
placed after those in Addition and Subtraction
advisedly. Even Tommy Merton, when first
he went, as a small high-bred dunce,
to good Mr. Barlow's parsonage, there to learn, or
not to learn, exactly as he pleased, in companion-
ship with honest Farmer Sandford's son Harry
—even little Tommy Merton might with the
aid of these Grade Lesson Books have astonished
Mr. Barlow in half the time required thus to
astonish him, by unexpectedly evidencing his
(Tommy's) suddenly acquired proficiency as a
reader. And many of the lessons here grouped
together for the boy student are to the full as in-
teresting as—while they are, beyond a doubt of it
(as thus given), far more rapidly instructive than
—the charming series of tales scattered through
the history of " Sandford and Merton," by Thomas
Day. Anyone, without looking into the book
under notice, may understand that it is actually
thus, as we say—upon our enumeration of some
among the various reading lessons lame collected
together. Instance this, Eliza Cook's " Bruce
and the Spider,"Riniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe
Saving Friday," Professor Longfellow's "Village
Blacksmith," Charles Dickens's " Little Dombey's
Deathbed," William Longman's "Dinner at an
Old Manor House," Du Chaillu's " Infant Gorilla,"
Oliver Goldsmith's " Moses at the Fair," and other
admirably well selected fragments from a very
wide range of sterling and popular litezature.

The Arts of Writing, Beading, and Speaking, in
Letters to a Law Student. By Edward W. Cox,
Recorder of Falmouth. One vol., pp. 328. Crock-

ford.

These very excellent lettera of practical advice
are republished from the Law Times. They were
commenced, Mr. Cox tells us, with the purpose
only of imparting to law students some hints on the
art of speaking, which had been suggested to the
writer by experience and observation. Becoming
impressed with the conviction that to speak well it
is necessary to be able to write well and read well,
the learned author has enlarged his original design
by the addition of instructions in the arts of writ-
ing and reading. By so doing ho has greatly in-
creased the value of his book, and he has also ren-
dered it generally useful as a manual of practical
information for others besides the Ban inter and the
Member of Parliament. Mr. Cox's instructions are
remarkable for their sound common sense; for
example, how earnestly truthful are the following
remarks on—