The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-03 00:00:00

The French Academy of Sciences.

At the last sitting the Secretary read a letter from
MM. Pouchet, July, and Musset, thanking the
Academy for having appointed a commission before
which the experiments of M. Pasteur on the one
hand, and those of the three above-mentioned
gentlemen on the other, are to be repeated. They
add that, although they had supposed that the mem.
bers of the Academy, who had so openly declared
their opinion against spontaneous generation, ought
not to form part of the commission, they nevertheless
are convinced they will meet with the greatest imm
partiality at the hands of their adversaries.

COST OF ALGERIA TO FRANCE.—It has been
calculated that since the conquest of Algeria, np..
wards of thirty years ago, France has spent three milliards
of francs in that colony, and that at this moment in all the
vast tracts of African soil subject to her rule there are not
200,000 colonists.

No LESS THAN 500 RAILWAY BILLS are to be
brought into Parliament this Session.

RUMOURED MURDER OF DR. LIVINGSTON.--We
are happy to learn that there is reason for hoping that this
news was untrue—an opinion supported by the great
authority of Sir Roderick Murchison.
FORTHCOMING MAGAZINE FOR GIRLS.—Mrs.
S. C. Hall is stated to be about to commence t
periodical for girls, with the assistance of writers and artists
who have already won favour with the young. Boys have
many caterers for their amusement and instruction. Ladies
also have their magazines and newspapers, but the field of
special labour for the benefit of girls is still invitingly open.
TUE CRAWLEY DEFENCE FUND now amounts
to nearly £2,000.
ANTIQUARIAN TREASURE TROVE.—The Scotch
papers report a find at Kin born, Fifeshire, of a
large earthern jar containing no less than about thirty
pounds' weight of old silver coins, chiefly coins of the Eng-
lish Edwards, but with some Scottish coins of Alexander

lll.,:John Laliol, Robert Bruce, and David 11. intermixed.
The latest date legible on any of the coins is 1375 ; the total
number of coins is calculated (surely by exageratior) at
over 12,000. They are, doubtless, relics of the English
invasions of Scotland, and some of them might even carry
the imagination back to the time of the occupation of Scot-
land by the English under Ed ward I. The place of the find
is also most suitable; for it was at Kinghom that there
happened that fatal accident to the Scottish kingdom—the
death of the Scottish king Alexander 111. by a fall from
his horse—which, by cutting off the direct succession to the
crown, led to the English interference with.the Wallace and
Bruce Struggle.
ANECDOTE OF THE CZAR NICHOLAS AND SIR
RODERICK MURCHISON.--In the year 1841 Sir
Roderick was travelling in Russia, and he was requested
by the Emperor Nicholas to explore that empire, and
to report on the probability of finding coal.
lle did so, and his report to the Czar was :—" Sire, to find
coal in the north of Russia is a physical impossibility." Ho
thought it a bold thing to say to the Emperor, who had
been informed by great naturalists of this and former times
that, if they wore to sink deep in certain portions of his
Majesty's northern dominions, they would find coal. The
Emperor, instead of being offended, said :—" I am delighted
to find a man who will tell me the truth, for I seldom hear

EMINENT SCULPTOR, MR. BEUNES
(who breathed his last lately under such melancholy
stet
et
at
ow,iitah circumstanceshfiase
fullest
tsf
ts
especially almost
recognitiondestitution
a nachieved
en encouragement.
oliu
supremertah
ge e l\mlie
s. la;
success,
s wouldsi 1,
andos -
THE LATE
have been a marvel had he not done so (says a weekly con-
temporary), for, excepting two or three by Nollekins, he has
done the best that England can boast of; and, taking his
whole series during middle life, they are the best beyond all
exception we have ever had, The Lyndhurst, Follett,
Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, Wingfield, Pirie, Garwood,
D'Orsay, Prince George of Cumberland, Prince George of
Cambridge, Princess Victoria, and numerous others, show
his absolute success in seizing likenesses, and frequently
the dominant expression also ; but the Clarkson, Bloomfield,
Bishop of London, and the son of the Earl of Munster
may be considered the types and highest perfection reached
in this department of his art. The Clarkson is so lifelike
one almost listens to his breathing; and, unless one has
seen the Bishop of London, it would have seemed an impos-
sibility that such delicate unmarked features could have
been so thoroughly and satisfactorily rendered in sculp-
ture ; iu the child's bust his young soul seems sparkling
forth in sprightliness and joy.
SIIAKSPERE'S MONUMENTAL BUST IN THE
CHANCEL OP STRATFORD CHURCH is known, without
much difficulty, to have been executed by Gerard Johnson
in London immediately after Shakspere's death in 1616,
and it is probable that Johnson worked from a plaster cast
of the features, which now lies in tho British Museum,
under the custody of Professor Owen. The cast layonged
to a collection of art curiosities left by Count von Koski-
stadt, who died at Mayenco in 1813, and whose ancestors,,h
for above 300 years, had been accustomed to preserve such
things, and had sometimes purchased them in Lon,
German nobbnintn, or one of his correspon
ande fin' ding that
is not at all improbable, a.; Mr. Friswell edlisnetrave.l,:ttnitg.atina
London shortly after Shakspere's deatli,,,f
him,
which
the German sculptor had executed boata.s of Ben Janson and
was praised in the contemporary
The cast, it is said,
and add it to his collection at h
c'einxecept that in the bust the
verses
it was modelled
Digges, would pick up the cast frovrac,
agrees very well with the bust,
upper lip is longer,
checks are fuller than in the c •
checks
nose
ashstorter and thicker, and the