The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-21 00:00:00

rHE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 21, 1864.

Viceroyalty of Ireland—Cui Bono.

TOLLING OF THE BELL FOR ITS FUNERAL.
Scotland has had no Lord Lieutenant " tO mock the air
with idle State," yet her progress in population, wealth,
and industry, with a more rigorous climate and a poorer
soil, is far greater than that of " the first flower of the earth
and first gem of the sea." Blessed or cursed (according to
the opinion of various parties) with a pseudo-monarch, who
holds a mock court in Dublin for the entertainment and
amusement of the shopocracy, mercantile aristocracy, mili-
tary and professional men of the metropolis, and as many of
the second-rate and smaller gentry dwelling in the beauti-
ful suburbs,

The tailors and miliners of the city may be benefited, but
as to the former it is doubtful, as we often see Court dresses,
with the other paraphernalia, advertised in the papers for
hire on Castle days, at a moderate rent. Edinburgh has
much increased in population; Glasgow has quadrupled ;
Liverpool and Manchestez has advanced with equal strides,
as well as our own Belfast, but Dublin remains in state quo)
owing to the dark shade of the Castle and its backstair
influence.

Among the classes attending the levees and drawing
rooms of the Viceroy a good deal of sensitive feeling
exists. The country squire, the western Fodeen, " the
lord of heather and rushes," thinks ,himself a better
man than Viceroy's knights, and his wife and buxom
daughters look down with contempt on Lady This or Mrs
That, the wives of belted knights, wealthy merchants or
eloquent lawyers. These, in their turn, play the same part
to,those they think a peg lower, and so it goes to the bottom
of the ladder. Lady Haddington, a quarter of a century ago
attempted to raise the qualification, thinking the wives and
daughters of her tradesmen were not in their proper places
when attending levees and drawing rooms, and she was
right, though she failed. The want of industry in Dublic,
and the distaste for a commercial life, may fairly be attri-
buted to the desire of admittance to the Castle, which en-
courages a "niter habitus supra vires" among the families
unfortunate enough to have this privilege.
The Viceroyalty is a delusion, while Royalty, with the
Phoenix-park as one of its residences, visiting us annually,
would be a reality, The sooner the exchange is made the
better. We will give an imaginary meeting of the Cabinet
at the Irish-office,and the supposed opinions of the members.
The Veteran Premier in the chair, and to his questions
as to what each thought of the Viceroyalty, the follow-
ing answers were given :—Sir Robert Peel—A bore.
Earl Russell—A sham. Mr Gladstone—Delanda est
Carthage. Lord Granville—Remove that bauble. The
others nodding assent, the Premier remarked that it was
sheer nonsense to have a mock court there, which kept
her Majesty from one of her finest parks, where she
might reside a couple of months in the year. He had 8,000
acres in and around Dublin, and he had no doubt but his
property would be much increased in value by the change,
as the citizens instead of Castle hunting would devote
themselves to industrial pursuits. No city in the empire
presented greater facilities for commercial enterprises, the
railways North, West, and South centroing there, would
be soon all connected, and two canals larger than any in
England, giving a great International navigation with the
Shannon, the Erne, and the Suir ; but these cheap water-
ways are comparatively neglected owing to the Castle. As
the Cabinet were unanimous he thought Lord Wodehouse
would be the best man of business to wind up the old clock,'
which had already been ticking too long, and never could
keep time, running one day too fast and another day too
slow, as the wire pullers were at work. The Viceroy with
the Chiet Secretary as his good man Friday, resembled
Punch and Judy (here Sir Robert laughed). As we have
come to this decision we may as well call in Wodehouse,
who is warming his toes in the next room, and Peel can
lecture him on his duties. (We pause for the present, re-
serving the schoolmaster's teaching for another oppor-
tunity.;
Before separating they drank the Viceroy's health in a
bumper, Sir Robert calling for a second for "Royalty in
Ireland," which was cordially responded to.

The Liverpool Albion states—No little anxiety was felt
by political parties here to ascertain which answer Lord
Wodehouse would make to the Flapdoodle address of the
Corporation of Dublin. Nothing could have been more
dignified than his Excellency's reply, and it has elicited
general approbation. Mr Vereker and his co-operators did
not entrap Lord Wodehouse into a pledge to oppose the
abolition of the Viceroyalty, nor did they get him to endorse
their statement that the narrow spirit and the jealousy with
which the Galway Transatlantic Company had to contend
necessarily eventuate in its failure. With respect to these
and several other assertions which the Corporation made as
if they were admitted and incontrovertible facts, his Excel-
lency replied—" I am sure you would not expect that on my
arrival among you I should at once pronounce opinions on
subjects which have been or still are matters of controversy."
But that is just what the Corporation wanted to make him
do. The must have since learned, if they did not know it
before, that the new Lord Lieutenant is a man of ability—
much too able a one to be thrown away on such a sham
office. Very appropriately, Lord Wodehouse wound up the
day of his arriving by dining with the Hibernian Catch
Club. As his principal responsibilities in Dublin will be
those connected with levees, dinner parties, and balls, he
did right not to lose time in entering upon the active dis-
charge of one of his chief duties.—Cork Repoiter.

THE MIDDLE TEMPLE AND THE INNS OF COURT
(DEVIL'S OWN) RIFLE VOLUNTEERS.—At a parliament
hold on Thursday evening last the bonchers of the Middle
Temple consented to grant the use of their hall for the
volunteer dinner which is to be given on Tuesday, the 29th
inst,

An account was given about two years ago of
the escape of a certain number of convicts from
Casenne. One of them, a man named Hallotiez, who was
under sentence of penal servitude for life as accessory in
the crime of parricide, has just been recaptured at Mantes.
He appears to have first reached English Guyana, and
from there suc .essively passed to Barbadoes, St Thomas,
Porto Rico, and New York ; from the last named place he
embarked for France, and landed at Havre, Oct. 23, 1863.
In the month of April last the authorities received
information that he was employed in the woods at Sinnois
Seine-et-Oise) as labourer; he had obtained possession, it
is not known how, of a passport. bearing the name of
Cronnier. On hearing that his whereabouts had been dis-
covered he escaped before he could be arrested. He went to
Mantes under the name of Rendu ; he here became ac-
quainted with the neice of a small innkeeper named
Lavigne, and made her offer of marriage, although he
had a wife still living. He had declared himself
to be a native of Valdampierre, and Lavigne
having written to the mayor of that place to
make inquiries as to the character of a man named Rendu,
who had been living at Mantes for about six months, sus-
picions wero excited, for a person named Rendu in reality
resided at Valdampierre, but had not left his native place
The gendarmerie being communicated with, Rendu at
Mantes was identified as being the missing Hallotiez, but
he again succeeded in escaping and got away. However, a
few days back he wished to see his mother, and for that
purpose returned to his native village, where he was cap-
tured. He has been taken to Toulon, and will be sent tack
to Cayenne by the first convict ship.
NARROW ESCAPE.—During the height of the
tempest which prevailed the day before yesterday
in the Atlantic, a pilot boat was observed by the look-out
at Nantes to be making for that port. She was, however,
presently seen to miss the regular channel, and run ashore
on the mud outside, Several persons went to the assistance
of the little craft, but were surprised to find that the only
person on board was a boy, who made the following state-
ment :—" My name is Alphonse Denis, and my age twelve
years and a half. I am a native of St. Nazaire, and
have been for six months employed on board pilot.
boats. This sloop, the Vipere, left St. NszAire on
the 6th, having on board the master, two pilots, and
myself. We put the pilots on board two ships, and were
returning to St, Nazaire when the weather forced us to put
into Belle Isle, which we left this morning. The weather
being calmer we set sail, but the wind presently recovered
its former violence, and the sea washed over our decks, 1
told the master we had too much sail on, but he was too
much occupied in steering to pay any attention. We ap-
approached the 'Four' rock, but passed too near the tower
to be in the right channel ; suddenly the sloop touched on
the rocks, and the waves, which were as high as the top of
the mast, threw her on her beam ends. We clung to the
bulwarks which were above the water, and the master cut
the rope of a little boat wo had in tow, and jumped in ; he
asked me to follow, but I said I preferred remaining in the
sloop. He then put off, but had not proceeded more than
three boat's lengths when his craft was swamped and man
and boat disappeared. Shortly after the sloop was raised by
a wave, and the wind catching her sails, righted her. This
was about one in the afternoon. The sloop not being
water-logged, 1 steered for the nearest land in order to save
myself. Not being acquainted with the coast, I did not
know which direction to take to avoid the rocks. I passed
between Piriac and the Island of Met, and made for the
bottom of the bay, hoping to reach port Navalo. I how-
ever presently saw the masts of the ships in the port rising
over the coast—l made for the shore, and not being able to
get the anchor out as the chain was entangled, I run her
ashore here on the thud. The naval population 'gave this
gallant little fellow three cheers, and took him off to break-
fast.

APPARATUS FOR MEASURING THE SPEED OF A
TRAIN.--The necessity of an apparatus for measuring
the rapidity of trains, in order to ascertain whether they have
kept within the bounds assigned to it by the regulations
has long engaged the attention of the engineers. This pro-
blem, it, is asserted, has be:n solved by MM. Borde and
Meritens, by an apparatus consisting of a pulley placed in
the centre of a large wheel, and receivhg motion by means
of an endless strap from one of the wheels of the locomotive,
or one of the carriages. The large wheel turns indepen
dently of the pulley, and by means of a system of gearing,
it effects a single revolution during the whole trip, while a
second pulley, put into communication with, the first one,
turns with the same rapidity as the latter. Meanwhile a
centrifugal regulator impresses a forward or backward
motion on a pencil, according as the rapidity increases or
diminishes, and the marks left by this pencil on a piece of
circular paper determine the rapidity of the train at a given
moment,