The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVE AIJ(UST 26, 1862.

especially, to the Humber,were rejoicing, they told

us, in splendid weather. This week, however, pro-
bably nearly all the kingdom has been blessed with
the weather for which we all pray, and for which

we trust all are thankful. May we enjoy a con-
tinuance of it for the remainder of the harvest.

Happily, we are not now dependent, as we once
were, on our own supplies alone, till grinding wheat

had reached a famine price. It was one of the many

iniquities of the old corn-laws, that in a season in
which the wheat was much injured by a wet har-
vest, the vast quantity of inferior wheat sold at a
low price, kept down the average price by which
the landlords regulated our supply from foreign
countries, till the wheat fit for human food was

enormously dear. We now look back with wonder
on the subservience of a people, and the power of a
selfish aristocracy, which could allow of such a state
of things. Yet there were not wanting worthy and
sensible statesmen who believed that national pros-
perity depended on high rents for landlords, created
as they supposed, by excluding the country from
the harvests of the earth. In no instance, perhaps,
has the folly of human interference with economical
laws been proved more conclusively, even to the
satisfaction of the immortal Fifty-Three. We have
received foreign supplies beyond all their calcula-
tions, yet never were rents higher or agriculture
more prosperous.

Within the last few years we have done some•
thing towards being less dependent on the seasons
Draining the land has rendered excessive wet during
the growth of the crops much less injurious. On
the strong clay lands, capable of growing such ex-
cellent wheat, the difference in a year like this,
distinguished by a cold and wet summer, is very
conspicuous, both in the quantity and the earlier
maturity. Our great London agriculturist, Alder-
man MECHI, can testify to the truth of this ; and
the more extensively and thoroughly the wet lands
are drained, the more shall we be saved from the
injurious effects of wet, from the time of seed-sowiag
to that of harvest. But we have also expedited the
cutting of our corn. The reaping-machine will do
the work of 20 men, and even where that is not yet
used the scythe has largely supplanted the reaping-
hook and the sickle. One thing, indeed, we yet
want in a climate like ours—perhaps it is a
natural impossibility—the means to render ourselves
secure against wet in harvest. We read already of
several places in which the wheat had even begun
to sprout, and though modern winnowing machines
easily get rid of the sprouted kernels which used to
give us a soft loaf, yet the grain which has become
wet and discoloured has sustained irretrievable
injury to its quality. It seems beyond human
skill to cut and dry wet ripe corn in the straw,
though after what this generation has seen, who
would venture to prophesy; but between the tent
manufacturer and the field labourer it does not
seem impossible to place a large field, pretty
cheaply, in a position to dry safely and It leisure,
be the weather what it might. It will be worth the
thought of manufacturers when textile materials
shall again become cheap.
But do we get the full benefit of our harvests
when we have secured them, or of the corn
which we import from abroad. Mr. TREMAN-
HEM'S report raises this question in a very prac-
tical form. Is our bread what it ought to be when
we have got our ordinary flour, and is the flour we
do get from our wheat all that we ought to get
from it ? That report ought certainly to be widely
circulated, in London especially. Called forth
originally by an inquiry on behalf of the cruelly
over-worked men who make our bread, it led to
fresh disclosures of, what was partly known and
partly suspected before, the intolerable and dis-
gusting filth connected with a great part of the
bread-making of the metropolis. Perhaps the man
who has no alternative in regard to the purchase of
his bread, had better not pry into the mysteries of
its underground manufacture. He had better ask
no questions, unless he can act in accordance with
the answers he obtains. Of adulteration, in other
senses, he is perhaps fully aware. He makes up
his mind to take his chances of alum, because he
must have his bread white, although it is chemi-
cally and physiologically certain that the excessive
whiteness is purchased by the sacrifice of nutriment.
As to bone dust, and so forth—well, as we all
have bones, phosphate of lime we must have from
somewhere—it won't make much difference if the
miller, or the flour factor, does add a little to that
which the farmer puts into the soil, and so gives us
it indirectly.

But there does seem the strongest reason to be-
lieve that in two ways wo waste a large part of our
harvest after we have got it. Experiments, con-
ducted by the order of the Emperor of FRANCE,
appear to have proved satisfactorily, that by the
ordinary method of grinding the wheat we lose,
with the bran, a part of the kernel termed eerealine,
which is of the most highly nutritious quality ; and
a mechanical mode of dressing the wheat has been
invented, which separates the silicious part of
the skin of the kernel, leaving the cerealine
beneath it uninjured. But this is not the only saving
which may be effected. The saving of nutriment
by Dr. DAIIGLISH'S device of aerating bread,
,and
rendering it light without the use of yeast, is pro-
bably equally important, if not more so. The public
have long heard of the aerated bread, and can
easily understand its main principle. The light-
ness caused by yeast, baking-powders, &c., is pro-
duced by the disengagement of carbonic acid gas,
chiefly, in the bread. Yeast produces it by the par-
tial destruction of the flour in the process of fer-
mentation, and this destruction is the waste to be
prevented. In the new process, the carbonic acid
gas is manufactured by itself in the same way as
for what is commonly called soda water. It
is then, by an ingenious process, forced into
the bread with the water in the pro-
cess of working the bread. The whole is
effected by machinery. The bread is kneaded by
machinery, and afterwards cut and handled by
implements, so as not to be worked by the imme-
diate contact of the human hand, till it emerges a
perfect loaf from the oven. It is computed that the
saving by thew two processes, at ordinary prices,
would not be to the nation less than £8,000,000 per
annum. Inventors and discoverers are of course
liable to overrate the value of their inventions, but
we think the basis of the calculation thoroughly
sound. The universal adoption of the two processes
would probably equal an importation of wheat of
that value.

It seems wonderful that so few families, the sus-
picion of uncleanliness and adulteration of bread
being so general, do not bake their own bread. In
some towns, even, of England, it is still very com-
mon. Fifteen or twenty ago, a regular bread baker
did not, we believe, exist in Bradford, the great
ea house.ea
to
bake
of the worsted trade. Every cottage was
fitted with an iron oven in the stove, and of course
oafk Everyfeam a loaf.
i
childlyba baking
in
g And still, h
of i
,t
mh believe,tor
everyNo North,
t h fourteen,
in
the better
practice
most common. Families used to good home-made
bread dislike bakers' bread as unsatisfying,
as well as prefer the taste of their own
manufacture. After keeping, indeed, but a short
time, the difference of the smell and taste of the
two kinds is perceptible enough, and the unpleasant

effect of the usual adulterations is easily recognised.
The subject is one of national importance. Every
family has an interest in it. And, practically, it
would be well for us to give a portion of that soli-
citude we feel respecting the harvest to securing
also a loaf w*rthy of a good harvest.

ADELPRI THEATRE.

A.DRTENNE LE COUVREUR."

An adaptation, in four acts, of this romantic
drama was produced last evening, in order to afford
Miss Avonia Jones another opportunity of testing
her claims to public favour. We regret we are
compelled to say we think the selection was in-
judicious. The drama is one of real life, to which
this lady, of undoubted genius, is not at all adapted,
and possesses but two positions, so entirely
infused by passion as to enable her to
rise to the true level of her power—the close
of the third act, in which she points her impas-
sioned recitation from Racine at the cruel treachery
of her rival—and the close of the play, at which
she dies, through that same rival's means, by poison.
In the purely real scenes of this drama Miss Jones
wanted ease and naturalness. She evidently
laboured under the constraint of the petty tram-
mels they imposed on her; and her entire action
and expression were an nnc mseious but false endea-
vour to endow them with the significance of the
scenes of passion she is at home in. Their effect
therefore was necessarily artificial and untrue. It
was the actress in sitaations which simply re-
quired the feeling of the woman. It was only when
she entered on the great scenes, and became in-
spired by their adequate feeling that she renewed
all her previous impressions, and substantiated her
claims. The denunciation of her rival was a burst
of fury worthy of Rachel, and the entire picture of
her death one of the most terrible, and yet affecting,
that we have ever witnessed on our stage.
The impression was, accordingly a very great
success, which led to her being summoned
before the curtain very warmly at the close. We
cannot restrain, however, the hope which we have
more than once expressed to see this lady in a field
which would give adequate scope to her power,
either in Shakespeare, Knowles, or Milman. Her
Lady Macbeth or her Bianca, we feel assured,
would be performances that would place her claims
in their true light. Miss Jones was very well
supported by Mrs. Billington on this occasion
in the thankless character of the rival ; by
Mr. Fisher as the fashionable Abbe, and
more especially by Mr. Toole, in the
poor Prompter Michonnet, whose secret pas-
• sion for Adrienne expressing itself in every form
of generous service and devotion, this admirable
. actor conveyed in a manner which showed how
, various is the power he possesses, and how superior
, to that demanded by the ordinary characters he
appears, in. The house was well attended.

The Duchess (Dowager) of Sutherland, who en
leaving -Vichy proceeded on a tour in Germany, has arrived
at Stafford House, St. James's, from the Continent, her
return home being hastened by the serious illness of Vis-
count Belgrave.
The Marchioness (Dowager) of Lothian and
Lady Alice Kerr left town a few days ago for Paris, with
the intention of passing a few weeks in the capital.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Westminster
and Lady Theodora Grosvenor returned last week from
Paris, and have since been staying with the Earl and
Countess of Macclesfield, at Sherborne Castle, Oxon.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Bath, and
infant son and heir have left their temporary residence, in
Stable-yard, St. James's for Longleat, Wilts, for the

ATES NEWS.

PARIS, Auc-. 26,

The appeal of Vessel, Miot, and others against
the judgment pronoubced
.against them by the
Tribunal of Correctional Police for conspiracy
against the Government, was heard yesterday.
The Court of Appeal confirmed the sentence of
all the accused, except Adine and Bray, who were
acquitted.

COPENHAGEN, AUG. 25.
The English Baltic squadron arrived off here to
day, and anchored in the roads.

TURIN, AUG.. 25.

The report that the King was about to visit
Naples is incorrect.
Tho National Guard of Catania has refused to
yield to the Garibahlians the custody of the prisons.
The official Gazette of to-day says :--

" News received from Palermo and other towns,
except Catania, states that the authority of the
Government has been everywhere maintained, and
that perfect tranquillity prevails.
" The latest despatches contradict the alarming
statements invented by several journals.
" The Extraordinary Commissioner telegraphs
that agitators have adopted a system of propagating
disquieting intelligence.
" Reassuring news has been received from all
quarters.

" The day before yesterday Menotti Garibaldi
odyaueed tuvv ui do Meeoiuo. Ho encountered tho
royal troops upon his march, and was compelled to
return to Catania.

" With a view of intimidating the population of
Catania, Garibaldi has published the false news

hat the prefect and people of Palermo had joined

the movement; that Palermo was free, and in the
hands of the National Guard ; and that he (Gari-
baldi) had full liberty of action.

" Yesterday a rumour was circulated at Acireale

that Garibaldi had taken forcible possession of two
steamers in the port of Catania, but the news has
not yet been confirmed."

EVENING.

The Discussione of this evening contains a tele-
gram from Messina stating that Garibaldi, having
left Catania in the night, had embarked on board
an English ship, accompanied by a few of his staff.
He is believed to have landed at Calabria.

PARIS, AUG. 25.

La France of this evening states that arrange-
ments have been made for sending reinforcements
to Rome should circumstances require it.

The same journal announces that Marshals
Randon and M.Mahon will remain with the Em-
peror until Wednesday.

La France also states that the rumour that
Garibaldi had telegraphed to Turin that he would
negotiate with the King personally, requires con-
firmation.

CONSTANTINOPLE, AUG. 24.

It is stated that the Montenegrins, in spite of
their acceptance of Omar Pasha's conditions, have
hung 100 Turkish prisoners.