The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-19 00:00:00

ARMY CONTRACTS.

TENDERS will be received at this Office min
12 o'clock noon on the 3d of October, from persons who
May be willing to enter into Contracts to supply
FORAGE AND PAILLASSE STRAW,
in such quantities as may be required, for the use of Her
~.Majesty's Land Forces stationed in the following pl
aces,
4rOm Ist November, 1863, to 31st October, 1864 :
FORAGE.
- -

- -
1. Hyde-park, Kensington, Regent's-park, and horse
Guard.
2. Hot nslowsand Kneller
3. Hampton Court.
4. Windsor.
K. Ilri2liton.
6. Sandhurst.
7. Enfield.

PAILLASSE STRAW.
1. Brampton House. Hyde-park, and Kensintr,ton.
2. Regent's-park, St. John's-wood, andPortman-street
Barracks.
3. New Barracks, Chelsea.
4. Wellington and St. George's Barracks.
5. The Tower.
6. Hounslow and Kneller Hail.
7. Hampton Court.
S. Windsor.
9. Brighton, with Coast Forts from Newhaven to Shore-
ham.
10. Croydon.
Separate Tenders must be made for Forage and for Pail-
lasse Straw for each of the above-menticned Stations or Bar-
racks as grouped and numbered.
Pornas of Tender and Conditions of Contract may be ob-
tained on application at this office, by letter or in person,
between the hours of 10 and 4 o'clock.
Tenders on the printed forms must he properly filled up
and simed, and no Tender will be noticed unless delivered
at the under-men t toiled iffice, under closed envelope (trw.rked
on the outside " Tender for Commissariat Supplies ")., before
12 o'clock noon on the 3d October next.
(Signed) W. 'l'. POWER,
Comm s,sary-Gcncral. Deputy Commissary-General's Office
New-street, Spring-gardens,,
London, S.W., 10th Sept., 1863.

li!LATING,s -f---.._ INSECT DEsTioi_
n,, tiN.G POWDER, for which a Prize Atecial was awarded
1-
~,,-,,,he Produ^er at, the International Exhibition, 1862,
riv-a-Itlit'owder is quite harmless to animal life, but is un-
Iteei,:;; ,i/1 destroying Fleas, Bugs, Plies, Cockroaches,
sPeetes'orPats, MosqUitos, moths in furs, and every other
.„,sPott.taeeet.
3411_eas fii‘ttill find this an invaluable remedy for !_lestroy.
vohieo the orb Dogs, as also Ladies for their_Fe_t_DOZS.
Veild has foull-Tn.al importer of this. DOW invaluable article,
observet'eallEl ;°_great a sale that it has tempted others to
autozni,- -.at th -ruele, the public are therefore cautioned to
S .h pat ir e Packets f the Genuine Powder bear the
So In pack rt0),14, t_ o _
Dior 36 post its, is 24,-EATING•
W' char ta
"
~s• d, and 4s. 6,i each, or post free for
437 -ChY4rd 41—• bY Thomas lieatirlg, chemist, 79, St.
i Lona
.on, Ex.

ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT
INSTITUTION

(Incorporated by Royal Charter).
PATRONESS—Her Most Graeious Majesty the Queen.
PRESIDENT—Vice-Admiral the Duke of Northumberland,
K.G„ P.R.S.
i CITAIRMAIT—Thos. Baying, Esq., 31. P.
the beginning
'II'ETY-CllAllttlAN—Thomas Chapman, 'Esq., ER. S., V.P.
APPEAL.
The Committee of Management have to state that, since
of the year 1860 , the Royal National Lifeboat
Institution has expended 432,000 on various Lifeboat Estab-
lishnts on the Coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Society. ..nd other means,
Theme number of lives saved by the Life-boats of the
ior which services 82 Gold Medals, 718 Silver Medals, and
£16,480 in cash have been paid in rewards. The Institu-
tion has also expended since its formation, is 12,800;
.
Transporting-cart lazes, and Boat-houses.
The Committee desire to express their grateful
£87,5'00 on Life-boats, Life-boat
se of
the generous sapport which they have receir- •"n
British public during the past iew years, P
~d from
has enabled them to establish their prem.-
-support
of 123 Lifeboats on the shores of - -.it magnificent fleet
Deeply sensYble, however, of the (tie United Kingdom
whtihche
11:d effecteduby ea
lmarao-na
great responsibility that
ifleetthin a thoroughly efficient
r statees s onn,:(tdltei
,m, C
t or
e
w
s maintainpru ut
,tsh,,,
ee
di .._
isnt I yu
pshoupiedni
n 1
g tou
n'adl
pacciradps
csPet
nes
ai O''ll.nalbeelilur
boat:,can only gemezt
pert
theht•
an anal income, the;
rdountrymen to Aid theaermne
great and tr,ty national a work.
The Co%rimittee gratefully acknowledge the following con-
tributi:das,_

....
.....
4,atninlnduoanl 3
n.,5 0 oco, .. .. annual
101
110 Oti
~C a. d
I tier Majesty the Queen .. .. • • annual 50 C 0
nAe5..53::,:....8Gank...c...rs .. .. annual 10 0 n
ceCaol
eunrltkpcsbcealonlidotncheoel:
,IBI:i
Currie, Wm., Esq.,
' ifeholt r ; , M. 25 0 0
Penwiek, G. J., Esq., cost, of aI. . ..
,nd j
an-
rt:kgCl, CVicieef-AJ:lisntreral Sir .A.. R...(....8. .. 9,1
0:.3 0 0
Fportill'Z Citri%l,2:e • • ' ' * • • • • • 271 (4 ,D
flaricy, Rey. G. (3. and Mrs.
-,11-,:itin, Bir Ileury, Bai t. .. • • ••,' th don. 00 0
Moore, Rev. I i'. B. .. • • ' • don. 15 15 n
Smith, Mrs, Geort.,,c, Greenwich .. • • 30 0
Stirling, Col. Sir Anthony, K.C.13. .. annual 2 0 0
Thomas, Lady, Weston-super-Mare, collected by her Ladyship
.. .. .. • • •• 16 16 0
Willoughby d'Eresby, Lord .. .. .. annual 50 0
Donations and Annual Subscriptions will be thankfully
re-
. eived by the Bankers of the Institution, Messrs. Willis,
Percival. and Co., :6, Lombard-street; Messrs. Coutts and
Co., 59. Strand; Ittesers. Berries, Farouhar, and Co., 16, St.
James's-street, London; by all the Collectors of Customs
and Bankers in the Unitedkingdom; and by the Secretary
Richard Lewis. Esq., at the Office et the: ,Institgio%l, 14,
John-street, Adelphi, London, ii-r.‘;. -
..

The argument that I have just summarised, as exactly as
possible, M. le Due, is in complete disagreement ~with the
most certain facts, and wanders no less from the letter than
the spirit of the treaties. The Polish question, accord•
ing to Prince Gortschakoff, is only European by its origin
and its revolutionary tendencies, and the present events are
solely the work of a cosmopolitan demagogy. In our time
societies have been seen to be agitated by too many various
movements for us to confound under one and the same
appellation the desperate efforts of a people defending its
nationality and the disordered aspirations of evil minds
attacking the very bases of social order.
The disturbances in Poland spring from causes having
no factitious or accidental character. They are the result
of a state of things dating back for nearly a century, and
which has contributed more than any other conjuncture to
give rise to and maintain revolution in Europe.
The rising which we now witness was announced by evi-
dent symptoms, and provoked by a measure which in the
state of men's minds at the time could not fail to be at-
tended with the most serious consequences. Poland replied
to it by making appeal, not to revolutionary passions but to
that which is highest in the hearts of men—to their ideas of
justice, of country, and of religion. Is it not a fact of in •
congestible notoriety that the entire Polish nation, each and
every class, according to its means, actively or passively,
according to place and circumstance, has identified itself
soul and body with the inettrrooliou p

What are, before such a manifestation, the agitations of a
few emigrant committee ? The Cabinets have not, therefore,
been mistaken in the true character of the insurrection.
They pointed out its import to the Russian Court. In the
French Chambers, in the English Parliament, in the Aus-
trisn Reichsrath, the opinion of the three countries has wade
itself heard through its most accredited organs, in order to
encourage the Governments to persevere in the path on
which they had entered, Throughout Europe, wherever
there exists deliberative bodies, the same accents have re-
sounded. Besides the Constitutional Powers, free and spon-
taneousdeliberations have everywhere testified to thevivacity
of the public impressions, the unanimity of which is daily
confirmed by the press. Bound by the consciousness of
their responsibility to observe greater reserve and circum-
spection, nearly all the Cabinets, 'from the Court of Rome
to the Ottoman Porte, from Stockholm to Lisbon, have re-
corded
inde
is
atches'with the tenour of which the Russian
Government acquainted, the expression of opinions
agreeable to those of which the three Courts have more
particularly made themselves the interpreters.
The Governments, far from outstripping public opinion,
have followed, and at the same time moderated it. lhis is
,vhat has been done, as far as it is concerned, by the Em-
not hesitate to affirm that t would be obstinately clinging
i
peror's Government; and
not duty accomplished, it does
to a fatal illusion to continue to explain the formidable con-
vulsions which stain Poland with blood by reasons so little
in harmony with the testimony of history and contempo-
raneous facts.

The Cabinet of St. Petersburg is disposed, it informs us,
to take into consideration the six points which have been
recommended to it on the basis for deliberations, but it
puts forward as a condition that the revolt must be previ-
ously suppressed. We believe, on the contrary, M. le Duc,
that the surest means of appeasing the public mind would
be the application and immediate development of a com-
prehensive system of concessions really proper to give satis-
faction to the national sentiment. The perpetuation of daily
conflicts in which so much blood has already flowed can
only render resentment more implacable, and close every
way to conciliation.

Profoundly moved by this spectacle, the three Courts
flattered themselves that in the suspension of arms, ar-
rangements acceptable to both parties might be concluded,
and that the provisional suspension of hostilities would only
precede a definitive pacification.
The Cabinet of St. Petersburg sets this suggestion aside
in the name of the Russian nation and arm ; but is the
dignity, then, of a great empire interested in the counten-
ance of an unequal struggle, neither did we think that the
idea of an armistice destined to facilitate the work of nego-
tion would be impracticable.
The most irreconcileable adversaries of Russia would not
have dared to refuse or violate this truce. In the contrary
case the responsibility would rest cn them. Such a trial
was worth making, and even if it bad failed there would
have been, in our ideas, honour told profit for the party
attempting it.

We could not expect the same result from an amnesty
which would be made subordinate to the political conve-
nience of the Russian Government, and of which his Ex-
cellency Prince Gortsclmkoff makes prospective after the
entire submission of the insurgents.
We are in a position to judge by the last amnesty of the
influence which a simple premise of clemency would have
on the arrangements of the Poles.
In fact, the Cabinet of St. Petersburg substitutes for the
acquiescence which it appeared to have given in its preced-
ing declarations to the assembling of a conference of the
Powers f
signing I.e
Prussia
n e„. ye; n: ee
sctoi
0.:1248t
oolls:ne ts
e betweent roi of
interior
r Vienna, enunas sita the ,
administrationpropositiond
Austria
raais of
nedp r
u a
u
by the
6181... e of things in Poland.
The Powers would only have besides a right of interpre-
tation which could not bind Russia, and there would be
nothing useful to expect from a fresh discussion of stipula-
tions so often argued without any understanding being ar-
rived at.

I do not propose, M. le Due, to enternow into a profound
examination of the doctrine professed by the Cabinet of St.
Petersburg relative to the negotiations of which Polish
affairs were the object in 1815, and on the clauses of the
treaty of the 9th of June of the satin) year, whereby the
Congress believed it had eettled the destiny of the Polish
nation,

sinaif to Stale
and deiliqa the idea of
lates the facts _ _ .... .
hthae4nclnvhiiiiochtelt.ieteiiaTijetstia
:i 1 1 Ta,. .you to tuffs a,4 1--,jt /113 SC f
in.:
I 'luta which argleA'l:4tO me to issue thole
,rionna
was
I append to this desppa,itch:a.
be,t weal the
if -.'s true, by the conclusion of speem. the essentrai
three frontier Powers of Polowl ; pr,t ih,,,,,k ,„..ge,§ were
The 4-;-11ature of the general ,A,:tt3.
iltreaties Pre"dea'
prepared by long and laboriourilifF.:(iiir.tik.n, the hely Euro
pean character of which it is inipepsible net to tctognise,
Besides, the Congress did not establish so absolute a (143-
Unction as the Cabinet of St • Petersburg supposes between
lotaliftxtetheegerietanhreeerraeix.lBpsitrtieptshus
lelya
ttai
annexeds nks oft a nhdet 0 t
ih
Powerst : liar :foe nth©re revise
i ser. at: ge 7 0,8
ian,t, s:
If the former are introduced textually in final Act tlJ::
administrative regulations, and put them in -,bartv.or;yl4
wiltl:ii,,,,,,,thjezp.trelofir;s4iils oefiptt age,
eyes
axe
0:1
their
trial,
av 1

THE SUN AS A DWELLING-PLACE.

(From the Spectator.)

Sir Wm. Armstrong suggested, in his inaugural address
last week to the British Association, that that curiously
mottled appearance of the sun's bright atmosphere when
seen through a telescope, which has given rise to Mr. Na-
sniyth's expression about the solar " willow-leaves," might
be due to " organised" forms of matter ; and that the con-
stant supply of heat which warms the whole solar system
may, as previous astronomers have suggested, be due to the
constant concussion of falling bodies rushing into the centre
of our system, and heating it just as his own cannon balls
or shells heat the great targets at Shoeburpaess. Both
these suggestions are, of course, mere guesses, though the
latter, at least, is as probable as any other mere conjecture
concerning the source of the solar heat; but both of them
suggest so many marvels and inconveniences which would
attend its possible inhabitants, if it could be the habitation
of beings in any way resembling the inhabitants of this
earth, that if astronomers were to acquieso in them, or, at
least, in the latter of them, the sun would probably be
given up as rapidly as the moon to that desolating theory
of 1)r. Whewell's, which refuses to giro ...Hama anino,n,
foothold anywhere in the universe except upon our little
Planet. Certainly, one would not choose for a dwelling-
place a sphere, however majestic, eternally bombarded from
all parts of the celestial spaces—a world into which minute
planets, that had been travelling from infinite distances
with a constantly accelerating speed, should be constantly
crashing home, where the annexation of a comet would be
an every-day event. Sebastopol or Vicksburg under siege
would be a sort of heaven to such a life as that, besides that,
they at least had the satisfaction of returning the fire,which
would be impossible for the sun, seeing that the force which
would keep up the bombardment would be of no alien origin,
but inseparable from its own existence. The big sala-
manders, 100,000 miles in area, which Sir W. Armstrong
pictured as floating in the solar atmosphere, and this heavy
celestial artillery, are alike matters of conjecture; but of
the sun as a dwelling•place for embodied creatures we can
form a few notions based on more trustworthy facts. In-
deed, the elder Herschel, who was one of the earliest theo-
rists about the sun's spots, always held that the sun might
be inhabited—and its solid nucleus, that is, need not be so
hot as to prevent the existence of beings organised more or
less as we are. It is, at least, worth while to consider what
sorts and degrees of difference such a life, if it be possible,
would imply, even without an atmosphere of gigantic sala-
manders, and a converging fire of innumerable meteors and
planetoids, or a lashing by cometary tails a few millions of
miles in length.

In the first place, there is no doubt room enough for a very
considerable immigration there, as the surface of the SUE
would accommodate in mere extent the population of 12,000
earths. In other words, if the earth had been fully peopled
during 12,000 general ions, and all its population transferred
to the sun, the sun would only then become fully peopled,
supposing its surface to be in the same proportion suscep-
tible to cultivation. Unfortunately, however the muscular
power, needed for walking on the sun would have to be 28
times as great, for a man of the same size, as the muscular
power needed for walking on the earth. The sun is very
much less dense than the earth—not much, indeed above
the density of water--but its enormous size increases the
gravitation there to twenty-eight times its power on
earth. Every man, therefore, suddenly transferred to the
surface of the sun—if he could live there at all—would
appear to himself to have an accumulation of twenty-
seven other men upon his back—a weight under which it
is needless to observe that no human muscles could
stagger. However,
swimming upon such a surface, in any
fluid as light as water (and the bulk of the sun appears to
be made up of fluid at least as light as this) would be far
easier than it is hero; for all weights being multiplied by
about 28, the difference between the weight of the water
displaced and of the human bed y—which measures the sup-
porting force—would also be multipled by 23; and just in
proportion therefore as the difficulty of walkingis increased
there, that of swimming (in such a fluid as our water) would
be diminished.
But thesa differences are trifling compared with the diffe-
rences arising from the central position of the sun. To in-
habitants of that globe there would be no such phenomena
de day and night, but a perpetual and uniform blaze, liko
the light with which the roofs of the Houses of Parliament
are nightly lighted up, though infinitely intense, would be
always blazing above that semi-transparent cloudy screen
which Sir W. Herschel thought might temper the light and
heat of the solar world. It is natural to suppose that the
light and heat of the sun are derived from the same source,
and that since we have at times glimpses into the recesses
of a darker sphere, that darker sphere would also be a cooler
sphere than we usually connect with our visible sun. In-
deed, if inhabitable at all, it would need to be. The tem-
perature of the sun's heated surface is calculated to be seven
times as hot as the hottest known blast furnace. It
would require the combustion of more than 130,0001b5., or
nearly sixty tons of coal per hour, on each square foot of
the sun's surface, to produce a heat equal to that radiated
from the solar orb," The probability of some deep cloudy
stratum of atmosphere, there, enveloping a cooler world,
seems considerable.

But oven if this be so, the vast difference between the phy-
sical situation of the Sunites and that of our race would
scarcely be much diminished. With a sufficiently thick sea
of cloud between them and the intolerable light and heat
they might manage to exist, like the fabled mermen, who,
living on the ocean floor, saw sunlight only through the un-
fathomable depths of the sea. But then, though living in the
centre of our system, they could never know that there was
a system at all beyond this centre. They could not even
know that their oWn sun revolves in about 251 of our days
ou its own axis. For no celestial phenomena at all could be
aLces&ible to them. The constant and uniform would
shut them in far more effectually than any darkness; and
the cloud which would be essential to soften that con-
stant rind uniform light would be a second screen. We
could never know that our own earth revolved on its axis
!bail Ihe strongest noon always shut
-fa certainly would be far
If a blaz3 fit '-- their light
_

out the night. The solar inhata...--
more effectually cut off from astronomy, botu
4114 by the intonal screen which would interrupt the
than
Iy any darinegdi The planet Neptune would have a
better chance of good astronomers than the sun. The ab-
-1 Penne of anything like night and dew, and of all the conse-
iquilt periodic changes in the vegetable and animal world,
Tevolativ-;a:.e,e tho,,whoie
_character of the~tuuld carte..
re uatut al history. ..:leep uught perhaps es,s
(tilv‘B;tl:::'..lt",i'gahlit, but both p
rt lants and. animals must have a
Won't , cr,jv tcctlre it, Then too there :outs

VALETTA, Sept. 14.—Her Majesty's iron screw
troopship Orontes, 2, Capt. Hire, arrived last night
from England and Gibraltar, having on board from
the latter place the 2d battalion 7th Regiment, con-
sisting of 25 officers, 832 men, 73 women, 6 ladies, and
97 children, under the command of Major R. Hibbert.
She also had on board Assist.-Adjt.-Gen. Maude.
Capt. Clarke, R.A., Dr. Clarke, R.A., Capt. Darn-
ford, R.E., and 15 naval officers supernumeraries
for the fleet. The regiment will disembark to-day
and relieve the 4th battalion Rifle Brigade, which
is to embark in the Orontes on Tuesday or Wed-
nesday for Gibraltar. Her Majesty's iron paddle-
wheel sloop Trident, 3, Commander C. J. Balfour,
arrived to-day from Gibraltar to be employed in
victualling the fleet. Her Majesty's screw corvette
Cossack, 20, W. R. Rolland, arrived at the Piraeus,
from Malta, on the 26th ult., and was to leave on
the Ist inst. for Beyrout, to relieve the Chanticleer,
17, Commander C. Stirling. Her Majesty's ship
Marlborough, 121 (bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral
R. Smart, K.H.), Capt. the Hon. F. Egerton ; the
Trafa!gar, 70, Capt. T. Mason ; the Meeanee, 60,
Capt. G. Vitodehouse ; and the Icarus, 11, Comman-
der N. Salmon, V.C., which last arrived on the 29th
ult., were anchored in Phalerum Bay. The Cossack
remained in Phalerum Bay till the 29th, when she
went into the Pit-was, and took up her berth along-
side the Orlando, 46, Capt. G. G. Randolph, the
only other English ship there. The French ship
Magicienne, and two other French war vessels, one
Turk, one Greek, and one Italian, were also lying
in tha Piraeus. The Austrian frigate Novara and
another Austrian vessel left early in the morning of
the Ist inst., soon after the arrival of the mail. The
English frigate Magicienne, 16, Capt. W. Army-
tage, called in at Phalerum Bay on the 28th ult., to
communicate with the Admiral, and the Surprise,
4, Commander C. M. Seymour, left for Patras the
same day. A court-martial was held on board the
Cossack on the Ist, to try a private of Marines for
striking a sergeant. The prisoner was found guilty,
and sentenced to penal servitude for five years.
Her Majesty's ship Queen, 74, Capt. C. F. Hillyar,
leaves after the arrival of the mail from Marseilles,
due to-night, for Athens, with stores and provisions,
and £20,000 in specie, for the use of the fleet.
Her Majesty's screw steam corvette Scylla, 21
guns, 400-horse power, recently commissioned by
Capt. S. G. Cresswell, was this day removed from
Sheerness dockyard, where she has completed her
fitments, to moorings in the harbour, for the pur-
pose of being swung for the adjustment of her com-
passes, preparatory to being taken on trial of her
machinery at the measured mile off Maplin Sands.
The Medusa, paddlewheel, tender to her Ma-
jesty's steamship Cumberland, 70, guardship of the
Sheerness steam reserve, Master-Commanding J,
H. Allard, was yesterday taken into the dockyard
at Sheerness to be examined and cleaned, and to
have some small defects in her machinery remedied.
The Wrangler, 4, screw steam gun-vessel, 80-
horse power, Commander Henry H. Beamish, re-
cently returned from the West Coast of Africa, will
be paid off at Sheerness dockyard on Monday next,
and will be placed inlthe third division of the steam
reserve at that place.
The following appointments and promotions were
made yesterday at the Admiralty :—Lieut. Richard
M. Blomfield to the Cumberland ; Arthur Heath-
cote, nominated to a naval cadetship ; John Weir,
engineer, to the Wasp; Alexander Stewart, of the
Asia, promoted to first-class assistant engineer; and
George M'Lean, in the Ringdove, promoted to
acting first class assistant engineer.