The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-21 00:00:00

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

On the motion of Mr. W. MARTIN, leave was given to
introduce a bill amending the laws relating to municipal
elections, and the bill was subsequently introduced, and
read a first time.

The house then adjourned at twenty-five minutes to one
o'clock.

Mr. Glaisher's Tenth Scientific Balloon

Ascent.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sir,.—My short letter of Saturday last informed the
public of my intention to make a balloon ascent on
that day. Mr. Cowell had partially filled his bal-
loon the previous afternoon, and resumed the opera-
tion on Saturday morning, in co-operation with Mr.
Ohren, with a view of starting before noon. The at-
mosphere was thick and misty; the wind on the
earth was N.E., but the clouds were moving from
the N. with an estimated velocity of 40 miles an
hour, and circumstances were not favourable for our
reaching an altitude of 5 miles. In all my expe-
rience I find it takes an hour to reach 5 miles high,
and I like an hour to descend, and therefore I want
a base of at least 80 miles, with air moving at the
rate of 40 miles an hour. About midday a pilot
balloon was sent up, which showed the wind to be
due north. Mr. Colwell proposed an hour's delay,
as the breeze appeared as if it would veer to the
north-east, which would afford a longer journey
than if we travelled towards Brighton. At 1 p.m.
the ascent was determined upon, although it was
evident the voyage could not be one of long dura-
tion, unless we crossed the Channel, but Mr. Cox-
well said it would not be prudent to do so, unless
the balloon were filled, alleging as a reason that
excessive elevation is incompatible with great dis-
tance, and that to cross the Channel it would be
necessary to make other and distinct arrangements.
We left the earth at lh. 17min. ; within 2 minutes

afterwards we were 3,000tt. above the earth, and
at lh. 23m. we were one mile high ; the second mile
was passed at lh. 29w.; the third at lh. 37w.; the
fourth at 2h. Om. ; and the highest point was
reached about 2h. 30m. at the height of 4 miles
nearly. At 2h. 36m. we passed below 4 miles; the
next mile downwards was passed at 2 h. 40w., and
at 2h. 46w. we were two miles from the earth,
which we reached at 2h. 50w. as presently will be
described. Just before leaving the earth the tem-
perature of the eir was 611 deg.; at the height of
one mile the thermometer read 41 deg., but we
had passed up so quickly that it is most likely that
this reading was higher than the true temperature ;
at the height of two miles the reading of the ther-
mometer was 32 deg.; at three miles the tempera-
ture was 21 deg.; at four miles, 16 deg., and at the
highest point reached was 12 deg., which was the
lowest temperature we experienced. The results
generally confirm the law as found by the combina-
tion of all the preceding experiments, viz.:—•' That
the theory of a uniform decrease of temperature
with elevation must be abandoned."

The air was dry before starting, and extremely dry
at the height of four miles, as found in all the preced-
ing ascents. Clouds were reached at the height of
one mile, and on passing above them a sea of shin-
ing white clouds, extending to the horizon, was, as
usual, very fine. From 2h. 15m. to 2h. 31w. I
devoted myself almost entirely to observing the
black line in the solar spectrum. Between these
lines the balloou was revolving once in five minutes.
I succeeded in adjusting the slit of the apparatus to
the sun, and kept my eye to the telescope whilst the
balloon completed three revolutions. When the
,ight entered the slit from the sun itself the lines in
the spectrum were innumerable; all those I saw
before leaving the earth were visible, and many
more. The nebulous lines (H) were both seen, and
the spectrum a good deal lengthened at the violet
end ; at the red end (A) was visible. When the
light came from the sky in the immediate vicinity
of the sun the spectrum was shorter, but all lines
were visible from B to G. On passing from the sun
the spectrum shortened very quickly, and when
opposite to the sun there was no spectrum—in fact,
no light at all.
For the purpose of learning something of the
action of the chemical rays of light I took slips of
sensitised photographic paper, having arranged that
similar slips made at the same time should be ex-
posed at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and
the amount of colouration in one minute noted every
five minutes, so as to have some simultaneous obser-
vations with experiments I might make in the
balloon. The paper in the balloon was exposed to
the full rays of the sun, and with this remarkable
result, that when above three miles high the paper
did not colour in half an hour so much as it did in
the ground of the Royal Observatory in one minute,
At lb. 47w., at the height of 33,- miles, the solar
radiation thermometer accidentally fell over the car,
from the sudden displacement of one of my instru-
ments. I should be obliged by anyone who may
pick up its remains informing me whereabouts it
fell. We were nearly at the time over Reigate; but
as the instrument was enclosed in a vacuum tube
with a globe at one end, from which the air had
been exhausted, it would not fall very rapidly, and
may have fallen between Tunbridge and Reigate,
or south of a line joining these places.
As the Crystal Palace remained some time in
view, it was at first expected that the upper current
was not so swift as the lower ; after reaching the
height of four miles, and we had determined we
were moving directly towards the coast, Mr. Cox-
well continually applied to me for the reading of the
barometer, and directed our companion isMr. I.) to
keep a sharp look-out for the sea.

Immediately after we attained an elevation of 41
miles, Mr. Coxwell let off some gas, and said he felt
assured that there was not a moment to be lost in
getting within view of the earth.

Mr. Coxwell again let off gas rather freely, so
that we descended a mile in four minutes. At 2h.
46m. we were two miles from the earth, the bat o-
meter reading 21.20 inches, when Mr. Coxwell
caught sight of Beachy Head, and exclaimed,
" What's that ?" and then the coast through a break
in the clouds, and exclaimed, " There is not a mo.
went to spare, we must descend rapidly and save the
land at all risks." It was a bold decision, but we
were in a critical position, and I do not see what
else could have been done. Mr. Cox well now used
the valve with a degree of freedom which would
have alarmed any one who had not perfect confidence
in his skill. I was requested to pack up my instru-
ments as quickly as possible, and then to assist in
getting ready a large amount of ballast to throw
away at the last moment. On breaking through the
clouds we appeared to be already over the water,
but as the ground came up to us, or seemed to do,
we found there was land beneath. Mr. I. rendered
important service in letting up the neck lines, and
in clearing the ballast far immediate delivery, so as
to lessen the violence of the descent. When orders
were given to put out sand we did so simultane-
ously, which gave a favourable check, and as the
lower part of the balloon itself assumed a para-
chute form, the shock was nut so bad as might have
been expected. Mobt of the instruments, however,

were broken, owing to their delicate construction
and my attention being drawn from then, yet,
strange to say, two large glass vessels of air, col-
lected at the highest point for Professor Tyndall,
remained uninjured, as did some bottles of lemon-
ade which Mr. Coxwell had placed in the car.
We descended the last two miles in four minutes;
and had we had done so less rapidly, the land
would have been missed altogether, and we must
h ivc fallen into the sea. The descmt was within
half a mile of the railway station at Newhaven.

Mr. Coxwell's decision and expertness were put
to as severe a test as it is possible to imagine, and
certainly he is entitled to my best acknowledg-
_

ments.—l am, &c.,
Blackheath, April 20.

JAMES GLAISTIER.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—Among the general public, as well as in
political circles, much interest has been felt in the
appointment of a successor to the late lamented Sir
G. Lewis. One man surveys the Cabinet or scans
the list of Parliamentary veterans to discover whose
talents, or length of service, or connections, or sta-
tion, or influence are likely to enforce his claims to
the vacant post; another reflects on what is re-
quired of a Secretary for War, on the special and
almost scientific knowledge which he must apply to
his work if he would perform it fitly, on the para-
mount importance which the office may at any time
acquire in case of war, and he asks himself who is
the able and laborious Minister who is worthy to
be trusted with such great interests. This will be
the question that will occur to the world in gene-
ral, but it is not that which usually suggests it-
self to party politicians. The fitness of a man for a
particular post has generally been little considered.
Parliamentary talents, political convenience, or
the necessity of rewarding past and encouraging
future services, have generally had more weight
than mere administrative skill or technical know-
ledge. In the present case there has, we believe,
been some difficulty in coming to a conclusion.
The Parliamentary have been balanced against
the administrative functions of the states-
man, and it is only after much consultation that the

latter have been allowed to prevail. ThelateSir

• G. Lewis, while at the War-Office, was little of an
administrator. It may have been that the old theory
that any man will do for any post was carried some-
what too far in his case, for though he had a natural
turn for official business, though he made a vary
good Chancellor of the Exchequer after having filled
with credit several minor posts, yet he seems never
to have applied himself congenially to the labours
of the War-office. He was to the last, from his
general ability and his high reputation, of the
greatest service to the Government, and one of its
main supports in the House of Commons; but mili-
tarily details had no attraction for him, and during
nearly two years that he presided at the War De-
partment he was content to leave to his subordi-
nates all but the most general supervision. Per-
haps one great reason of this disregard was the con-
sciousness that in his Under-Secretary he had one
to whom he could intrust the whole business of the
department. Lord de Grey had some experience of
the War Department under Mr. Sidney Herbert
before the appointment of Sir G. Lewis, and had
made himself so thoroughly acquainted with the
details of administration that it may be said the
department hardly required its ministerial chief.
Such ability as Lord de Grey has shown, however,
has not been generally held to merit an immediate
reward by promotion in the department where it
has been displayed. Statesmen, of course, do not
forget such services, and at anyperiod Lord de Grey
would have been held to have established his claim
to a place in the Cabinet at an early opportunity.
But the promotion of an Under-Secretary in his own
department has not been the tradition of Englishparties. On the death of Sir G. Lewis the question
arose who should succeed him. Mr. Cardwell would
probably have filled the place ably, and being in the
House of Commons, it would have been especially
convenient to confer the office upon him ; for to
find a Secretary of War in the House of Commons
has been the chief difficulty of Ministers. The
Government is already disproportionately repre-
sented in the House of Lords. The Admiralty is
presided over by the Duke of Somerset, and it is, to
say the least, inconvenient that the two Depart-
ments which between them absorb thirty millions of
the public revenue should be represented only by
Under-Secretaries in the House of Commons. To
make a Peer the Secretary for War would be to
transfer another first-class Minister from the Com-
mons to the Lords, and to leave the two great arms
of national defence with only minor representatives
in the popular branch of the Legislature. But it
seems to have been thought that Mr. Cardwell's
political claims did not out weigh the technical know-
ledge that was to be found in another quarter. Then
there was an arrangement which was a good deal
discussed out of doors, though we do not believe it
was ever seriously entertained in the Cabinet. This
was to take Sir C. Wood, who has come to know a
good deal about India, from the Department which
he has learnt to administer, and place him in the
War-office, of which he knows nothing. The Duke
of Argyll was then to succeed to India, of which he
has had no experience, and Lord de Grey, taken
from duties which he understands perfectly, would
have the Privy Seal, which fortunately does not
require knowledge of any kind. But from this ela-
borate plan for destroying the efficiency of the pub-
lie service the country has been spared, and two chief
Departments of the State will still be administered
by those who have gained by experience a perfect
acquaintance with them. To make. the matter
short, the Government, after consulting fully on the
matter, has determined to postpone Parliamentary
considerations to the exigencies of the public ser-
vice, and Lord Palmerston will recommend her
Majesty to appoint Lord de Grey Secretary for
War. We are disposed to think that this arrange-
ment is the best that could under the circumstances
be made. It is certainly to be regretted that both the
Secretary for War and the First Lard of the Admi-
ralty should be in the House of Lords, but the im-
portance of keeping at the War-office a Minister
who has made himself master of the work has been
felt to outweigh this inconvenience. The successor
of Lord de Grey in the Under-Secretaryship is,
we understand, the Marquis of Hartington, who
will thus, after a very short apprenticeship, leave
the Admiralty Board to represent the War-office in
the House of Commons. Lord Hartington, it will
be remembered, moved the celebrated Resolution
which decided the fate of the last Derby Adminis-
tration, and we have always regretted that he was
not at once initiated into official life. He speaks
well, and enjoys, besides, the great advantage which
high rank and an ancestral connexion with the
Liberal party always confer in Parliament. In
finding a successor to Lord Hartington, the Govern-
ment will probably be anxious to invite the co-
operation of one of the independent Liberals.
Should this bo the case, there will, we hope, be no
difficulty in obtaining a man fully competent for
the post among those who are habitual supporters
of Lori Palmerston, without belonging immediately
to the Whig pArty. On the whole, we think we
may congratulate the country both on the appoint-
ments we announce and the policy they represent.
Lord Palmerston has rightly estimated the import-
ance of the War Department when, in spite of
parliamentary inconvenience, and in spite of the
claims of older and not less able politicians, he has
advised the Queen to place at its head the Under
Secretary, who has had four years' experience of its
duties. We are glad, too, to see again what in these
latter days has been a rare phenomenon—a Secre-
tary of State who has scarcely yet reached middle
age. It was time that the ranks of the Ministry
were recruited from the generation which has arisen
since the Peace of 1815.

POST.—Our anticipation respecting the. reception
which the late proclamation of the King of Den-
mark would meet from the German Powers has
been fully realised. The Federal
.Diet hae protested
against the assertion by the Danish Crown of its
sovereignty in the Duchies of Schleswig and
Holstein, and already rumours of a threatened
" execution" have begun to circulate. It iS now
apparent that the interests of the Ifolsteiners do
not alone enlist the sympathies of the German
Powers, and that a ground for interference by the
Diet is suppliedin every region where the German
language is spoken, The ordinance of the Danish
King granting a special constitution to Holstein
was intended by the Danish Government to fix a
line of demarcation between Schleswig and Holstein
which might prevent the possibility of any further
interference by the German powers, and for this
very reason it has of course met with the disap-
proval of the Diet. Not alone as the Duke of Hol-
stein, but also as Sovereign of Schleswig, is the
Danish King deemed by the great Council of Ger-
man potentates to be amenable to their jurisdiction,
and on such an assumption the grant of certain pri-
vileges to the inhabitants of the former duchy which
are denied to the latter is of necessity con
condemned as
inconsistent. An issue is now raised which is clear
and intelligible, and which must ere long be defini-
tively decided. So long as the population of Hol-
stein could show a cause of grievance, so long the
interference of the Dii- t in their behalf cGuld at least
be jusiified by a reference to the engagements en-
tered into by the several powers constituting the
i
Confederation. It might beindeed that the Duke
or Holstein could with justice remind Austria of
her misgovernment in Hungary and Venetia, or
twit the Prussian King upon his novel interpreta-
tion of constitutional government at home, but still
he could not divest himself of obligation formally
,Ind deliberately undertaken. As a matter of fact,
the world knows that the great German Powers,

though sticklers for constitutional government in
, the smaller States of the Confederation, treat their
own subjects j oat as they choose. As Duke of Hol-
stein, therefore, the Danish. King was at all times
' amenable to the decrees which issue from the Nal.-
sersa,9 lof Frankfort. In granting to ti-.e. riolsteiners
everthing they asked, and everything which the
Diet could demand in their behali, the Danish Go'
vernment hoped, by removing all pretext for cote'
plaint, to render the jurisdiction of the former nuga-
tory. The Diet have now, however, formally pro-
' tested against the assumption by the Danish Sore'
reign that by granting to Holstein a liberal
constitution he has acquitted himself of his Federal
I obligations. The inhabitants of Schleswig must be
placed on the same) footing with those of Holstein,
and the protectorate of the German Confederation
in the foe mer province be unreserved lyacknowledged.
ft is, of course, only against Holstein that the
"execution" would he directed, but if hostilities
once commenced there can he no doubt that its
operation would be extended to Schleswig. We
consider it as most improbable that the oft-repeated
threat would actually be carried out ; but the cu..
cumstance that it is only in Holstein that the Diet
assert the right of vindicating their jurisdiction by
force of arms ?roves how utterly untenable would
be their grounds of interference. Unless Austria
or Prussia took part in the movement, the minor
German Powers would never attempt to declare
war against Denmark. Austria, however, feels too
little interest in the Danish Duchies, and is too far
removed from the scene of action, to interpose
otherwise than by the protest of her representative
at Frankfort. Prussia, who has always placed her-
self in the van of Danish persecutors, may now be
said to have her hands full. At a meeting of the
Chamber of Deputies on Friday last the attention
of the Government was directed to the ordinance of
the King of Denmark. The deputy who introduced
the subject demanded on the part of the Ministry a
declaration that the engagements entered into by
the Danish Government of 1851 and 1852, having
been infringed by the late ordinance, should be
declared null and void, especially those regarding
the succession to the Danish Crown entered into by
the protocol of London. Although, however, Herr
von Twesten was willing that the protest on the
part of Prussia should be formally made, he opposed
any attempt to give it a practical effect by an ap'
peal to arms. The internal dissensions of the country,
he said, rendered war impossible, and the Chamber
vehemently applauded his assertion that the House
would oppose the employment of force. Count Bis'
mark's reply was what might have been expected.
An opportunity of having a fling at Denmark, and
at the same time of snubbing the Chamber of Depu-
ties, was not to be thrown away. He considered
that the proclamation of March 30 did infringe the
assurances previously given by the Danish Govern-
ment, and that Prussia would forthwith concert
with the Federal allies as to the proper course.
to be taken. She had already, together with
Austria, forwarded notes to Copenhagen, and the
Government would take care that the national
honour should be vindicated. Aa to the question of
enforcing the protests already made, if his Majesty's
Government thought it expedient to embark in war,
it should so without the assent of the Chamber of
Deputies. There is really something positively
ludicrous in a Prussian Minister telling the repre-
sentatives of the Prussian nation, in a breath, that
his Sovereign will go to war in order to compel a
foreign potentate to respect his constitutional en-
gagements, even although by so doing he violates
in the most outrageous manner the rights of his
own subjects. The end justifies the means, and the
great champion of constitutionalism in Prussia in"
sists on giving political rights to the Danes, even
though in his own kingdom he should trample under
foot every vestige of civil liberty. Is charity, the
King of Denmark may well ask, the only virtae
which ought to begin at home ? Notwithstanding,
however, the braggadocio of Count Bismark Schott"
hausen, we entertain but little apprehension of see'
ing the peace of Europe disturbed in consequence of
the recent vindication of his sovereign right by the
Danish Monarch. The Polish insurrection gains la
proportions every day, and the publication of the
imperial amnesty has had no other effect than that
of swelling the ranks of the insurgents. The Polish
question must be settled before that of Schleswig"
Holstein can excite anything more formidable than
the indignant protests of the German Powers.
However divergent may be the opinions of the seve-
ral German States on other points, there always
exists a surprising unanimity when the subject 0
the Danish Duchies is put upon the tapis. For the
present, however, circumstances prevent any et'
tempt to enforce claims which all, except the Ger-
man Federation, agree in considering preposterous.
It is not impossible that Prussia may, ere long, be
forced into a war very much against the wishes both
of the representatives and of her Government, and
she would do better to consider with attention the
critical position in which she is placed than seek
groundless quarrels with unoffending States. Be;
if at any time a Federal execution were determined
on, the German Powers would do well to recollect
that neither France nor England, nor for that matter
Russia, would remain inactive spectators of an at-
tempt to dismember the Danish monarchy. BY
his recent proclamation the Danish King has, in the
opinion of every impartial State, more than fulfilled
his Federal obligations as Duke of Holstein. M
the Sovereign of Schleswig he owes no allegiance to
the Diet of Frankfort. It is absurd to say that by
giving to the Holsteiners a constitutional govern'
ment, and thus doing the very thing which the
German Powers demanded at his hands, he beg
violated the engagements entered into 11
years ago
respecting the Government of Denmark and the
Duchies. Groundless altercations are proverbially
termed " German quarrels," but it is not for I:
dispute referable to this class that the peace 01
Europe can be wantonly disturbed.