The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-10 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This morning

This day at Two o'clock ....................
Barometer-30.06.
Wind—S. ; fine.

.°4 3C9- 444%
Tjj4 WI

LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 1863.

Looking through the Mexican intelligence, has
been of late, and, for that matter, still is, for all
the world like peering through the tube of a kalei-
doscope. With the same materials—as valueless,
some of them, as so many little bits of coloured
glass—the changes arc so total, so rapid, so very
bewildering, and yet, each of them in turn, to all
appearance so complete in itself, and in a manner
so exceedingly symmetrical ! Even the momentary
crises of anarchy—when, like chips of bead and
bugle, the political nonentities of the hour, there,
have been recognised, as it were, in the very act of
changing places—Mexico has presented to view a
certain picturesqueness. JUAREZ and his rivals,
poussetting and balanceing, to the right, to the left,
hands across, and more frequently still at daggers
drawn, up the middle and down again, have ,
presented to view the Mexicans themselves, in the
first instance, like the Christmas-eve company in Mr.
.FEZZINVIG'S country dance "in various stages of
affectionate grouping,"—sometimes it may be
allowed, also, in various stages of grouping any-
thing but affectionate ! Afterwards came the
tripartite intervention. England and France, with
Spain, projecting at first a joint interposition be-
tween
the belligerents.
Abandoned, as some might say, left in the lurch,
by her sometime associates in the enterprize,
France perseveres as France is, under the
like circumstances generally in the habit
of persevering. And, although, in thus per-
severing, she alone remained consistent in re-
spect to the enterprize, France immediately
learns that a change has come over the spirit of
the dream of her Mexican project, so far as any
change could possibly be effected in it, by the
somewhat perverse withdrawal of all farther
sympathy on the part of one at least of her two
intending associates. General FOREY lands with
his expeditionary force, a force consisting of some of
the picked troops of the first military nation in the
world. The Mexican anarchists are expected by
most observers—particularly by those numbering
themselves among the more enthusiastic believers in
French prowess—to succumb almost imme-
diately upon the advance inland of the in-
vading army of Frenchmen. Time elapses,
however, and nothing whatever of the kind
occurs. The republican soldiers of JUAREZ
are still, there, in arms—unconquered. So far from
gaining any brilliant success at the outset of his
Mexican campaign, General FOREY appears to
stumble into a succession of difficulties. One blow
is parried after another, When they are not actu-
ally parried they are evaded. Ominous rumours
come floating eastwards across the Atlantic. The
French are announced to have been driven back—
are stated at length (and that, moreover, pretty
confidently) to have been actually defeated with a
sanguinary loss. Suddenly, however, after delay
upon delay, these ugly and sinister misstatements
are swept aside altogether as misstatements
clearly and definitively demonstrated. General
Poetry, girding up his Joins—all things being pre-
Pared—advances inland at the pas dcharge. And,
as NAPOLEON'S good fortune will have it, immedi-
ately upon the very morrow of the perverse rejection
by Paris of all the Imperial candidates without one
solitary exception.come to the EMPEROR at
Fontainbleau, iuthe very nick of time, the tidings
of the Fall of Puebla. They come so suddenly, so
unexpectedly, e,„
opportunely for the Emperor
of the FRENeR, that they have all the effect of a
coup de theatre. Afterwards, almost as abruptly
after a little intermediate pause, come
tidings also of the Fall of the city of
Mexico itself. The victorious general, in one of the
earliest of his exulting despatches, indulges in a
certain amount of hyperbole, that is in the descrip-
tion of the pupular enthusiasm of the Ilex:cans on
the arrival of the victors, a description adorning that
FORE-Vs to the Imperial
very dispatch of General
Minister at Paris. This triumphant despatch of the
French General talking, as may be remembered, of
the French soldiers as " crushed" under the weight
the bouquets and garlands showered down upon
them from the windows, as they marched into the
captured city. to shouts of " Vivo
l'EmPereur,
viva l'lmperatrice !" Now, as the very latest news
from _Mexico, came ringing to us across the
Atlantic, other cries of " Viva l'Ernpercur !" But,
this time, the EMPEROR whose name is thus
ardently greeted by the Mexicans is—not IN-APo. The evidence taken
at ih© in quest uon the er-
LEON III! It is the newly-elected Emperor of sons who were killed
accident on the Lynn
Mexico—the Emperor MAXIMILIAN I ! The Aus- and Hunstanton Railway proves that much ma
trian Archduke, whose brows Diplomacy has been be done to avoid the e recurrence of simailtaasrzeeinngheifers
at the p p
or
rus
used
stated
df that tbe casualtiesian e.
striving to measure for so many crowns, has at last The Rector of South I:ucocittio r
had the most imperial among them all fitted to on both sides was very
the fence separating
sheep,
them—it yet remains to be seen whether or not to bullocks, and horses,
and ho had twice
on the line. "He considered
his own entire satisfaction.
in some respects, it may be admitted at once Mr. BLO:ITIELD'S land from the railway Was per:.
that the selection is eminently satisfactory. Had fectly inadequate to keep the bullocks off the line."
any scion of the Imperial dynesty or All the other evidence corroborat J 1 this state-
France been elected to the throne of Mexico, the went, and therefore it will be evident that no
choice might have been, would almost certainly time is to ho less"; in imme3l7.tely rectifying thy.
save been, looked upon with jealousy. It woui4 I ilai§lo/N5 1114 t bElvo Ica to sued fek.ul ruultg. A

to find a decrease in Lancashire and Cheshire.
There has been so much said about the ill health of

Lomdon lately, that the actual facts will be looked

for with some interest. It seems that after two

years of improved public health the mortality in

creased last autumn, and has remained at a high

rate ever since. The average for the three
quarters ending in June is 2-191 per cent.,
whereas in the last nine months it has
been 2.313 per cent., and it is singular
that this increase is not confined to one part, but is
spread throughout the country. We are not sur-
prised, for instance, to find the manufacturing dis-
tricts suffering fram an unusually heavy mortality,
but the distress in the cotton districts has not
happily affected the general trade and prosperity
of the country sufficiently to render that an expla-
nation of the high death rate elsewhere. Neither
is it due to one particular ailment. Measles,
usually ranked among the mildest of zymotic
diseases, has been remarkably fatal in the manufac-
turing districts, nearly one-fourth of the total of
deaths being in some parts attributed to it. This
is so singular that it is worth special attention. It
is to be feared the: a reduced state of the system
consequent upon the distress of the last eighteen
months has something to do With it. But while
measles people in Lancashire, small-pox
is bus busy
in are
L7BB deaths being registered in
killingon d on ,
the quarter. It is time that the authorities should I

eee that the laws respecting vaccination are strictly
enforced, and the importance of this precaution more
fully shown to the ignorant and prejudiced. Mr.

MARSON, the surgeon of the Small-pox and Vac

cination Hospital at Highgate, who is well quali
fled from his experience to give reliable information,
found that when amall-pox attacked persons who
. _

had not been vaccinated it killed one in every three,

whoreas vaccination reduced the mortality to one
in 15. The virulence of the disease is abated in

every way, but it is important to know that much
depends on the manner in which the operation is
performed. We have to thank these records for
collecting much valuable information, and for en-
abling the public to guard against many dangers to
the general health.

great part of the evil consists in delaying necessary
t work, and also in disputing which party is to
1 undertake the necessary alterations. It would
f seem that the company, in one place, had put up
a fence four and a half feet high, owing to the
trheperseistieentea n
ftiotheof nraoilwea whoy farmed theland
accident alongha
p.
and tiepht
up
a pity
pbaerrierswhtehraetvetrhey aeydiedninmoatlegoweorne,
b illikelyity of
toany accident be
et
ehuursr
iprevent tthee
sameposs possi-
bility
be so considerable
immediate
miemmetedei theaptre vicinity
e ve
expe
et n
tshee
couldoc occupiers of ground in the
of railways from themselves
undertaking the task. The fact is, that both sides
are to blame, and surely this terrible misfortune
will make them bitterly regret the iil-saved trouble
and expense of putting up fences. The obloquy of
the affair will rest with the neighbourhood in
which the accident happened ; but exactly the same I
blame attaches itself to all parts of the country,
wherever trains arc passing to and fro, and the
same shortsightedness prevails in making the need-
ful preparations for guarding against such events.
Besides those killed, many persons have been
seriously injured, and perhaps for the remainder of
their lives will have cause to regret their ill-starred
journey on this occasion. It was to an excursion
train that the accident occurred; but there does not
appear to have been any of those mistakes and
blunders made that two years ago caused so much
confusion in this special kind of traffic, and created
so much trouble and suffering in so many quarters.
The sole cause of the disaster was the want of due
foresight on the line, and that indifference is shared
by so many persons residing in the neighbourhood
of railways that it is to be earnestly hoped that this
sad occurrence will servo as a warning that they
will turn to good account.

It is very satisfactory to notice that the distin-
guished members of the French medical profession
are raising their protest against the disgraceful
practice of vivisection. The conduct of the EMPEROR
in this respect has been most praiseworthy. Some
time since a deputation from the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals waited upon him,
and explained to him the great extent to which
this pernicious custom was carried on in France.
The EMPEROR promised to give this subject his
attention, and he has done so. If the result be that
this cruelty is put down, a great benefit will have
been conferred on the people by the prohibition.
Nothing demoralises or deteriorates the mind more
than such revolting acts of cruelty. Those who
are callous at first become downright brutes as they
proceed, and those who at first shrunk back become
hardened at the repeated efforts. The excuse given,
that such a course is necessary, is quite absurd.
The fact is that those who uphold such practices
do it for the love of the thing itself. They delight
in experiments, and it is in the cause of scientific
discovery that such tortures are inflicted, and not
for the sake of the benefit of their fellow-creatures.
The perpetrators of such acts profane the name of
the humanity they profess to serve. Nothing can
justify the infliction of such atrocious cruelty, and
the best answer to the untenable reason, that it is
done to gain knowledge, is that right cannot come
from wrong. The worst is that the same animal is
kept for fresh experiments instead of being killed
at once after the tortures inflicted. It would
be only right to render such revolting acts
impossible by the stringent exercise of the
law. It is a disgrace to any civilised
country in which such deeds are enacted, No one
possessed of right feeling in or out of the profession
but will raise his voice against the practice, and no
one has yet clearly defined or fully proved any
known benefit that has ever been gained to society
by such horrors. The ignorant are taken in by the
dogmatic assurance of the learned that it is neces-
sary, but those skilled torturers would find it very
difficult to make the experienced believe in the
necessity. It is not altogether an idle belief that
encourages one to hope that the worst is over in
this horrible practice, and that a stop will speedily
be put to the practice of vivisection that has so
long continued in France. When one of the chief
members of a profession sets his face against any
custom, a great step is gained in the right direction.
Instead of proving beneficial to the young surgeon
to witness such displays, such indifference to brutal
torture, and such wanton cruelty, it must render
him very unfit for his vocation in after-life. To
deaden all sympathy with suffering, and to harden
the mind to all consideration, is not at all the way
to fit one for walking through the world amid
scenes of trouble and anguish. wherever "mankind
and miseiy are found." The thousand ills tha

flesh is heir to are sufficiently trying in themselves
to endure without the professor of medicine, who
is sent for to minister to the afflicted, regarding all
pain as a joke, and considering the intensest torture
a good opportunity for making observations. Such
would be the result of the continuous practice of
vivisection, and it is highly to the credit of all con-
cerned in putting down this disgraceful practice in
France. No one who strtves to assist in this good
cause will ever regret the trouble that has been
taken, or consider that he has not conferred a
benefit on all concerned.

A POSTHUMOUS OPERA BY MARSCHNER is about
to appear at Vienna.
• CHARLOTTE CORDAY'S POLITICAL WORKS, in-
cluding all her letters, edited " par un Bibliophile Nor-
mand," is the title of a small volume just published.
Two NEW DRAMAS are announced by Victor
lingo : " Torquemada" and " The Twins."
GOUNOD, it is said, has finished another opera,
which is first to be performed at the beginning of the winter-
season in Paris. It is called " MireUle; the text by Mistral
and Carre ; the scene in Spain.

A NOVEL EY M. ALEXANDER DUMAS will soon
appear embodying the leading facts of Lady Hamilton's

life, and called "Emma Lyons."

A PART-SONG BY THE VETERAN METHFESSEL,
now in his eightieth year, but, unhappily, deaf, was exe-
cuted recently at Brunswick in his presence, with every
imaginable German musical ovation.
Tiu prize of the French Academy for Eloquence
for the year 1864 has "L'Eloge do Chateaubriand " for its
subject.

THE RENAN-LITERAT lIRE LS Swelling up in
proportion to the demand for his work, there having ap-
peared among commentaries upon it very recently :—" Re-
p" Re-
ponse
aM.Renan Sur la Vie de Jesus,' " par un Libre
croyant ;:" Le Livre de M. E. Renan Bur la Vie de Jesus,"
par N. Laurentie ; "Lecon preliminaire a M. Renan sur la
Vie de Jesus," par l'A.bbe DI. Michon ;" " Une Echappee
sur la 'Vie de Jesus' d'Ernest Renan," par Frederic des
Granges.

Mr. WALLis, the painter of the "Death of
Chatterton" (lately disposed of at the sale of the late L. A.
Egg, R.A., for £800), has recently returned from a long
soj nun in Italy, where he has been engaged in making
studies of the people and scenery of the southern half of the
Peninsula.

Mr. ITEIIBERT,S first fresco in the Westminster
Palace is within a week of completion. The subject is
"Moses giving the Law to the Israelites." It is said to
have been most elaborately studied, the painter having
:.ought to indicate even !ha season of the year and tha hour
of the day in which this great delivery of the law was ac-
complished.

IifERER'S ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST NIGHT OF HIS
CRERON—In one of those delightful and pathetic
let ters to his "Ling," which relate his English experiences—
" My beat beloved Caroline I" he says, "through God's grace
and assistance, I have this evening met with the most com-
plete success. The brilliancy and affecting nature of the
triumph aro indescribable. G.3d alone be thanked for it I
When I entered the orchestra, the whole of the house,
which was filled to overflowing, rose up, and I was saluted
by buzzes, and waving of hats and handkerchiefs, which I
thought would never have done. They insisted on encor-
ing the overture. Every air was interrupted twice or
thrice
with bursts of applause. . • . So much for this
night, dear
life, from your heartily tired huslnnd, who; 1
however, could not sleepin
p3aco till he had communicated
tv You V.C64I;)Z cf Licayeu. Goud Right