The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-07 00:00:00

ma'
THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 7, 1863

NOTICE.
THE LADY EMILY FONSONBY'S NEW
WORK, "MARY LYNDqAY, in 3 vols., mill be ready
at all the Ll3raries on Friday, July 10.
Hurst and.Blackett, Publishers, 13,Great Marlborough-street,

• Now ready, with a LETTER from the Author, in 3 vole.,'
FOURTH EDITION ot LOST AND SAVED.
By the Hon. MRS. NORTON.
" This story is animated, full of exciting situations and
stirring incidents. The characters are deline 'ted with great
power. Above and beyond these elements of a good novel,
there is that indefinable charm with which true genius in-
vests all it touches. In the largest sense. too, these volumes
have a noble and courageous purpose."—Daily News.
Hurst and Brackett, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

Now ready at all the Libraries, in 2 vols., 285.,

'LORD WILLIAM LENNOX'S FIFTY
X/ YEARS' BIOGRAPHICAL REMINISCENCES.

" Lord William Lennox has given us, in these two very
charming volumes, a pleasant glimpse of society, and the
different celebrities of every kind and character woo, meteor
like, have come and gone during the last half century. The
work cannot fail to amuse and interest all who read it."—
Sun. _

Hurst and Blackett„ 13, Great Marlborough-street.

A CRITIQUE on the NEWSPAPER PRESS,
in the
LITERARY TIMES,
Every Week, id.

MR. CHURCH'S New Picture, the ICEBERGS,
painted from studies made in the Northern Seas in
the summer of 1859.—German Gallery, 168, Ne Ar Bond-street,
W. Admission, ls.

ARI S.-GRAND HOTEL DU LOUVRE.
Established in 1855.—Situated in the most Central part
of Paris, Rue de Rivoli and Place du Palais Royal Six hun-
dred Bedrooms at from 3 to 20fr—,0 Sitting-rooms at from
4 to 20fr.—a richly decorated Dining Saloon—Table d'Hote
at six o'clock—Public Coffee and Dining Rooms—Choice
Wines—Dinners served a la carte both in the dining-rooms
and the private apartments—Reading and Conversation:
Sd'inontii also gifoons fatMtortcal, Wedding, and other par-
ties -all Newspapers and Serial Publications received—
Divans, Coffee, Smoking, and Billiard Rooms—numerous
Bath-rooms—Carriages on the premises—first-class Private
Equipages at command—Omnibuses running to all the rail-
way stations—Postal Letter-box—Telegraph-office day and
night—Photographic studio—a staff of servants speaking all
Languages.

THOXF O R D,
(1, OXFORD STREET.
Will be performed Selections from the following Operas:—
LA CIRCASSIENNE, MARTHA, and
MASANIELLO.

Supported by Miss Russell, Miss Townley, Miss Ellison,
Messrs. Albert, Green, Bernardi, Huish, Kimberley, and
W. Evans, with full band and chorus.
Conducted by Mr. Jonighmans.
Drew Dean's Flute Solos
Master Sanders, the Juvenile Vocalist.
UNSWORTH, the modern Demosthenes.

Eugene, W. Randall, J. Hutchenson, and the marvellous
ARTHUR and BERTRAND.

The HALL has been newly Decorated and Ventilated, and
is now one of the most Beautiful in the Metropolis.

CANTERBURY HALL AND
FINE ARTS GALLERY.
NoTICE.— ENTIRE CHANGE OF ENTERTAINMENT.
The Last Two Weeks of the" Marvellous ARTHUR and
BERTR,AND, the Two French Clowns.

A RTHURYLOYD'S burlesque Drama, arranged expressly
for him.

SAM COLLINS, with new Songs.
UNSWOR HT, the celebrated Stump Orator.
EUGENE, and TAYLOR.

GRAND SELECTIONSANTATAS from OPERAS, GLEES, and
C.

Principal Artistes—Miss Russell, Miss Townley ; Mr. Green,
Signor Bernardi, and Signor Tivoli.
Conductor, Mr. Jonghmans.
Admission—Ball, 6d. ; stalls and balcony, is.

OYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE: The
_llO RISARELIS, in an entirely new Performance of their
own invention, EVERY EVENING during the Week.

ROYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. The
FAIRY FOUNTAIN EVERY EVENING, at Half-
past Ten o'clock.

ROYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE.—The
WARRlORS.—Unprecedented Attraction—
The Maori Chiefs, who arrived from Australia on board the
Dover Castle on the 22(1 June, will give a REPRESENTA-
TION of VARIOUS SCENES of NATIVE LIFE EVERY
EVENING. The Maori War Dance—The Maori Game
—Launching.; the War Canoe—Maori Wrestling—The Maori
Double War Dance, &c., &c. Commencing at Half-past Nine
o'clock

JOURNALS.

already well known to Europe, upon a subject of inte-
rest both to England and to France. Upon this simple
incident is bssed the statement made by Mr. Roe-
buck, a stateseent in which the Emperor saw with
amazement himself represented as having sent a
message to the British House of Commove, and es
having selected Mr. John Arthur Roebuck. to be e
bearer. -We did not need the announcement in the
Moniteur to comprehend the exact truth. Before
that announcement appeared mostpersons who knew
anything of the character of the French Emperor
and of Mr. Roebuck had made up t2leir minds that
the statement of the latter originated in that morbid
vanity which is of all human passions the metst likely
to give rise to grotesque delusioes. Some \cords
of good-natured complaisance were sufficient :0
melte the person to whom they were ad-
dressed imagine himself an accredited agent of
an Ernpeter ; and the came vtnity which sug-
gested the delusion of necessity prompted the an-
nouncement to the astonished House of Commons.
Another member has however rushed into print to
claim his share in the Imerial confidence, and his
participation in the mission from Napoleon 111. to
the British House of Commons, and Mr. Roebuck
and Mr. William Shaw Lindsay are the illustrious
Ambassadors through whom, if we are to believe
themselves, the Emperor of the French conveys his
wishes and sentiments to that assembly. This is
something more than silly impertinence. It is a
grave offence against the constitution and the
law. It is a violation of the first duty which sub-
jects owe to their Sovereign, and Englishmen to
their country. Great lawyers have held that any
public communication, on matters of State, between
a British subject and a foreign Sovereign is a
high misdemeanour. liut unquestionably it is so
for any British subject to thwart and oppose by
such communication the councils of his Queen.
Unquestionably it is so to bring to the people of
this country a message from a foreign Sovereign in
opposition to the policy of the Queen. The ueen
is the only representative of the nation to foreign
States. With the Queen alone rests the right of
holding intercourse, in the name of the nation, with
the authorities of those States. The right of send-
ing and receiving ambassadors is one of the highest
prerogatives of the Crown. That prerogative is
infringed when any one of the Queen's subjects
presumes to make himself the medium of communi-
cation on matters of State policy between a foreign
Sovereign and any portion of the people of this
realm. The House of Commons must judge what is
due to their own dignity and to their respect for the
constitution and the prerogative of the Queen. If
they think fit to permit Mr. Roebuck and Mr.
Lindsay to play out on the boards of St. Stephen's
the.little farce of " The Twin Envoys; or, The Im-
perial Ambassadors," the best that can be said of it
is that everybody will perfectly understand that it
is a farce. It may have one advantage. It may
teach persons in high station the dangers of con-
versing too freely with the Roebucks and the Lind-
says who may find their way into their presence.
We have a very strong suspicion that there is no
one more heartily sick of the names of his illustrious
visitors than the Imperial personage whom they
assumed to represent. The moral of the whole
matter may perhaps be nothing higher than this—
that frankness and politeness are very good things
in sovereigns as well as common people, but are
not the only qualities requisite in an interview with
a gentleman who cannot resist the temptation of
publishing to the world that he has actually had a
conversation with a real live Emperor upon affairs
of State.
HERALD.—The accident of London life which
allows as to live without any knowledge of our
next-door neighbour, has had a curious exemplifi-
cation in the state of things which has just been
discovered in the interior of a respectable trades-
man's shop. Who would have thought that in a
genteel part of Hackney the worthy inhabitants
have been having through months an undertaker in
their midst who has been systematically turning
his house into a burial-ground, and evading the
dues of sexton and parson by taking charge of the
corpses of his neighbours as permanent members of
his household ? The skeleton was not in his cup-
board, but under his work-bench. The memento
mori never took a more palpable form even with the
skull and open grave of the Trappist Brothers.
Death was here, and death there, arid death every-
where. Three children lay about him in as many
eoffins in various stages of decay. One had been
so long with him that it had shrunk to the skeleton.
Another was so far decayed that the head fell off as
the body was touched ; and all three bore traces of
attempts to subdue the effects of decomposition by
the corrosive action of lime. There were two other
large coffins enjoying a like family distinction, but
were void of their adult tenants. As we ran
through the catalogue of the inmates of his house
and home, and recal the months through which they
were allowed to sojourn with him, one is tempted
to ask with Hamlet, " Has this fellow no feeling of
his business that he sings at grave-making ?" and
to inquire how it happens that houses under the ken
of the police, and subject to visits from all sorts of
legal authorities, can have been allowed to have
remained under such ghastly tenantry. " The
custom that made it a property of easiness" to the
Danish grave-digger, no doubt had a like effect on
the English undertaker; but the public have in-
terests that hardly allow of so free an indulgence
of taste ; and it would be charitable to hope that
there was no worse motive in action. He had
the coffin in the cases of the adults, the skeletons
in the case of the children, and he saved possibly
some paltry fee in reference to the burial ;
but, except for these trivial considerations,
the only repayment which this respectable trades-
man, enjoying the full confidence of the parochial
authorities, received for the proximity of the most
offensive and revolting of nuisances, was that "feel-
ing of the business" that had at last given it a
"property of easiness." The long use of the most
repulsive calling will end in giving an artistic re
lisp for some of its traits and characteristics. The
associations growing up of time are like the lichens
covering the rock, they give a new surface to ideas
nakedly not prepossessing. The daintiness that at
first repelled is succeeded after long use by another
that appreciates, and the enthusiasm of the laun-
dress, in "Dickens," over the corpse of the dead
husband, is, perhape, quite as natural as the refined
appreciation of a Correggio or a Canova by a higher
class of connoisseurs. But, beyond the study of a
phase of character that we may well wish to be
unique, there are some important public considera-
tions involved in this strange neglect of all the de-
cencies a healthy state of society associates with the
treatment of the dead. There is no better law than
the old Roman one—lntra muros mortuos ne sepelito
—but it asks some vigilance as the price of its full
utility. The passing of the Burial Act, which in-
hibits the use of cemeteries not situate at some dis-
tance from towns, has made interments at once
mere expensive and troublesome, and the ternpta•
tion to offences like those of the Hackney under-
taker must be too strong to be resisted by many
poor persons who are not aided in their duty by the
fact that their professional calling obliges them to
visit cemeteries and bury the dead. We have re-
peatedly been hearing complaints of the length of
time poor Irish families are accustomed to keep
shut up with them, in narrow rooms, the todies of
children or deceased relatives; and accordingly, as
occupation may prove pressing, money wanting, or
the people themselves indolent, it is easy to see that
the cae of the undertaker may be that of hundreds
through the different parts of the metropolis every
month. For a week or more the corpse is retai
in an every day increasing state of offensiveness ;
but when the decomposition is past tolerance, the
first expedient may be expected to be adopted
which offers itself as a means of relieving them;
selves of a nuisance, whose existence they mus
suspect to be a legal offence, and which they
know to be a serious danger. " is as
wellnot
to know that a contingency which 1:r tht
likely to be growing less is provided for
the provisions of the statutes which
ettroPr"ii
medical inspectors for districts and instil:o s
olice,
nuisances ; and the public, but especially t
interposition whenever a case. may call f
dertaker,
should not be slow in bringing intoop.eorratttio.pn
The
be made to cover
is one which, if permitted, might .
of the dead is
licence, too, assumed by this Hackney un
that of the living, and the
still more uncertain than might be made
death
a great deal of crime. Ihe identitY
certificate that applie.d CO onof
another. There were
to facilitate the covering
theu
inspector of health for
two coffins discovered by
found, and whatever the
' which no tenants..
earauee we leno nethi
manner of their cilsragin- king that it be
which prohibi.ta
"reaching such a place less
tended to sub]
;egad forms
I€5S ho-
the public
nestly. The encouragement anent to infanticide
y hogeten astihjectof spring..
painful public
certain that ther h
e not
bo an increasingly active use of
in order that
wo have,''andalwreeeere n
n,,luay. have some
a public Pen the value of life
rveen c to the
ibr:tatineourtupsgr}:sunaprpanotseeedintorehfea been still
rtive burial of
innovation which tends to cheapen Every
iii any of its stages is
we have all the most important calamity in which
public authority cannot be of stakes, and the
too ;
interposed to • v.,gila.ntly or energe-
ticallyloteCt
P society. from the mia-

chief. Mr. Humphreys, the coroner, gave as his
reason for holding an inquest on one of the infants
found festering in a respectable trademan's house,
that " great numbers of children were found in
parcels in various parts of the metropolis, and that
no one knew where they came from." The state-
ments made by Dr. Lankester are equally sugges-
tive of a painful alarm on the most delicate of all
social subjects. In our state of civilisation and
morals there is everything to fear from the remotest
approximation to the habits of thought or system
of life of the Chinese; and we hardly know any
betterguard against an increasing popular demo-
ralisationcondition with every security that may wake its
t as much a part of our public morals as it is
than the fencing round life in its infantile
respec
certainly of our public policy.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.
The officers of the steam reserve at Devonport
entertained their chief, Capt. A. Cooper Key, C. 8.,
on board the Indus in Hamoaze last week, on the
occasion of the conclusion of his command at that

port.
The Russian sloop of war Poseadnick and the two
gunboats Neysdwick and Rasboiwick, from China,
which have been for some time in Plymouth Sound,
left on Saturday for Cronstadt.
The paddlewheel steam sloop Sphynx, 6, Com-
mander J. W. Jones, from Portsmouth, recently
returned from the China station, arrived on Satur-
day morning at Plymouth, where her crew will be
paid off. She will be placed in the 3d division of
the steam reserve in Hamoaze.
The paddlewheel steam sloop Geyser, 6, Com-
mander Mark R. Pechell, from Kingston, with
supernumeraries for the receiving ship, arrived at
Plymouth on Saturday afternoon.
Leteers received at Plymouth from the paddle-
wheel steam frigate Leopard, 18, Capt. Charles
Leckie, dated Hongkong, May 10, state that the only
other ship of war there was the Princess Charlotte,
12, Capt. Matthew S. Nolloth. The screw steam
sloop Perseus, 17, Commander Augustus J. King-
ston, left on the 16th May for the fleet at Japan, and
the Leopard was expected to follow immediately
after the arrival of the next mail from England.
Her master's assistant, Mr. Meesom, was drowned
on the 29th April.
The Renard, 4, screw steam gunvessel, 680 tons
200 horse-power, Commander Charles J. Rowley,
was paid off at Sheerness dockyard yesterday under
the superintendence of Capt. Charles Wise, A.D.C.,
superintendent of the yard. Commander Rowley
was complimented by the Capt.-Superintendent on
the very creditable manner in which the paying off
had been accomplished through the good conduct of
the men, the time occupied being less than a quarter
of an hour. The Renard will be placed in the third
division of the Sheerness steam reserve.
Mr. E. J. Reed paid a hurried visit to Portsmouth
Dockyard and H,M.S. Warrior yesterday from the
Admiralty.
Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, G.C.8., the
Naval Commander-in. Chief at Portsmouth, has
placed the Pigmy steam tender at the disposal of the
officers of the United. States frigate Macedonian dur-
ing the stay of that vessel at Spithead. Yesterday the
officers and cadets landed from the vessel, and accom-
panied by the American Vice-Consul at Portsmouth,
Mr. James Garrett, visited the dockyard, and dis-
played great interest in the inspection of the ropery,
the turret ship Royal Sovereign, the iron frigate
Hector, the ironcased ship Royal Alfred, the Hector,
nearly ready for commission, and the Sovereign and
Alfred, converting. To-day the Warrior iron fri-
gate, St. Vincent training ship, Victory flag ship,
and the Royal Clarence Victualling yard will be
visited. To-morrow or Thursday, as may best suit
Captain Luce and his officers, Vice-Admiral Sir M .
Seymour will give an entertainment in their honour
at the Admiralty House.
The Hector, 32, iron frigate, has been placed in
the Warrior dock at Portsmouth, to have her bilge
pieces or keels bolted on, and to be otherwise pre-
pared for her official trial prior to being finally re-
ceived by the Admiralty from the hands of the con-
tractors, Messrs. Napier and Sons, Glasgow.
An important code of regulations for the guid-
ance of the officials and others engaged in bending
and preparing the slabs of iron used in armour-plat-
ing the iron frigate Achilles, st, and the other ves-
sels under construction at Chatham dockyard, bas
been promulgated by order of the Lords of the Ad-
miralty, and is to be strictly adhered to. The regu-
lations are drawn up from thereportof the Armour-
plate Committee appointed by the Admiralty, of
which Capt. Sir John C. D. Hay was the chairman.
The committee included a number of scientific offi-
cers belonging to both branches of the service. The
committee, in their report to the Admiralty, state
that they have examined the various processes
adopted in bending the iron plates, and are of opi-
nion that the plates need not suffer deterioration in
quality from any reasonable degree of bending, pro-
vided the process is properly performed. It is the
nature of wrought iron to admit of such changes of
shape without injury. The most essential prepara-
tion for the process of bending is that the plate
should be sufficiently heated, for it is only under this
condition that it will acquire the ductility and soft-
ness and freedom from elasticity necessary to admit
freely the change of shape. The committee consider
that a good red heat is probably the minimum that
will suffice ; " blood red" or " cherry red" is hardly
sufficient. The committee, however, deem it neces-
sary that certain precautions should be taken in the
process of heating the plates-Ist. That the heat be
not carried to such an extent as to injure the irono
2d. That the heating be done gradually, so as t
heat the large mass uniformly throughout i sub-
heat
stance ; and 3d. T heating furnace
currents
so arranged as to prevent fierce fire
or
damage
arrieses of the plate, by which
from impinging on the edges
4 red to
would be done. Probably from goos.
provided
brightest red are the safest limits;
auis reason to
the proper precautions be taken, therewill be rather
believe that the quality of the plate . ...
the
improved otherwise, t
as i
sharp
improved by the heating ill beequiva-
s
iron happens to be hard the prd r
ocest
theiv
Port metal softer.
lent to annealing, and will red e
adopd aPortsmouth in
The process of heating
appears to comply
the presence of the committeeand the committee
be.
with the required conditions,
the plates sobent to be well re-
lieve the quality of
bending the heated
tained. The mode of plates is
the committee conceive
a matter which . e may be
mechanical advisers of
safely left to the the Adriii.
dge and tap process, a_
ralty. The we N adopted at
Portsmouth, has the
ladvantage of simplicity
; but
the committee think iff
t would be better if the ch 2E
of shape could be e eeed .1.,
& -y dead - ana -
pressure—hy-
-1 Relic, for example—instead of by blows.
committee consider it highly inexpedient 'The
to bend
thick plates cold, or only slightly heated, as there
are very few kinds of
iron
bend cold, even in small bars, sufficiently ductile to
without
structure of the metal, and injury to the
i
tempt must be n large masses this injurious,at-
for if th
sur-
face should escape injury the e external
process will inevitably
produce undue intern
the internal strains, very detrimental to
powers of resistance under the blows of shot.
The following appointments were made at the Admiralty
yesterday afternoon :
Richard Sleera an, chief engineer, to the Indus, for the
Sphinx.
T. Stead, ass' t , is ant engineer, to the Asia, as supernu•
incrary.
J . T. Chanson, engineer, to the Fisgard, as supernu •

merary.
W. R Leeson, acting engineer, to the Indus, for the
Ripple.
J. C. Walsh, surgeon, to the Pembroke.
It. Humphry, assistant surgeon, to the Maunder.
Thos. L. Bickford, assistant surgeon, to the Fisgard.