The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-24 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 24, 1862.

The great domestic topic is Cotton. The thou-
sands of pounds flawing in to the Relief Funds '
from all sources at home, and from even the
remotest colonies, which thus still indicate their
warm family attachment, are proofs of this. The
meetings of the Cotton Supply Association, and
the efforts made in India, all show how English-
men, everywhere, are eager to contribute their
money, or their skill to meeting the pressure of
the Cotton famine. But, if we are not mistaken,
Mr. HARBEN, with his new product, which we
shall take the liberty to call SEA COTTON,
will prove by far the most munificent
contributor of all. His name having become
public we felt it our duty, as journalists, in re-
ference to what strikes us as a discovery of such
promising importance, to examine, if permitted, for
ourselves ; and we are bound to acknowledge the
frank courtesy with which our wishes were met.
Mr. HARBEN appears, in fact, not only to have
nothing to conceal, but to wish the utmost publicity
for his discovery, for the express reason that it
may be examined by thousands, instead of a few,
that thus every difficulty may become known and
met ; and that at the earliest possible period the
discovery may be applied to commercial purposes.
No one of course would prophecy in a case like
this. We must wait the results of actual trial on a
large scale. But we must confess that while our
apprehensions and hopes balanced each other be-
fore, our hopes are now completely triumphant.
We-had thought previously of many difficulties
and objections, but all we could think of are
gone, and gone completely. We cannot, of course,
insure that others may not arise.

Some of the sea grass—Zostera Marina—is now
before us. We have examined it many ways, our
readers on the coast may follow our example, and
if they do, they will find it next to impossible to
believe that such a product will not be promptly
utilized. The plant will be easily recognised where
it grows, as when washed up by the water it has
nothing common in appearance with other sea-
simply very long blades of grass about
weeds, being
a quarter of an inch wide. If taken while damp,
and the greenish cuticle carefully broken without
as tobreak the whole leaf, and
pulling so strongly
if then the broken parts 139 gently drawn asunder, a
beautiful warp of delicate, white, strong, filaments
will appear, which may be drawn out to a consider.
able length without breaking. If one end be let go,
their natural elasticity twists them into one fine
thread. One fact is very remarkable. Examining
a piece by a powerful microscope, it appeared
that the visible outer skin was but
a flattened tube, in which the filaments lay
somewhat loosely. We called to mention this to
the discoverer, but found we had been long antici-
pated by him. He proved in a minute the truth
of the microscopic appearance, by taking a piece
of fresh weed, breaking it in two places half an
inch apart, and drawing oat the filaments, when
the half inch of green left in the middle, would
slide up and down on the filaments with the
utmost ease, like a tube on a number of strings
inclosed within it. It would thus seem that these
beautiful filaments may be as long as the blade of
the grass itself, which extends frequently to
many feet.
We find that there is no difference of opinion—
indeed, there can be none—respecting the beauty,
fineness, and stzength of this singular fibre. The
Wonder seems to, be rather how it could escape ob-

' servation so long_ We noticed in a Manchester
contemporary another claimant for the honour of
the discovery ; but having made it our business to
see his patent, it is for a very different and unim-
portant thing, the extraction of fibre from common
seaweeds—(seaweeds proper, Alga, not Zostera)—
and by processes so common and rough as this
beautifully delicate fibre would never bear.
It is quite evident that the patentee knew
nothing whatever of the marvellous filaments of
the Zostera Marina. If he had, indeed, he would
have been chargeable almost with cruelty in sup-
pressing such knowledge while Lancashire was
starving, for his patent dates seven years ago_
When examined by a good microscope, in com-
parison at the same time with cotton wool, it was
impossible to notice any difference in the thickness
and smoothness of the filaments, which were quite
different in this respect from the fibres of flax
hemp and that class of substances. We can hardly
doubt, indeed, that it will prove a unique pro-
duction.

A doubt has been suggested whether the plant
can be obtained in quantities sufficient for commer-
cial purposes. From all the information yet before
us, we rather imagine that it is abundant in shal-
low marine water all over the world. On some
parts of our coast we know of its existence in great
abundance. It is carted away for manure by the
famers, and is thrown up after storms in immense
quantities. It is brought from the Mediterra-
nean in bales for the cabinet maker ; and perhaps
may grow bettor in some currents and temperatures
of the ocean than in others. We should think it,
however, almost certain that wherever salt water
can cover the soil, there the Zostera Marina either
grows, or may be made to grow. We can easily
imagine, indeed, that if there should be any diffi-
culty in finding enough, ourestuaries will be planted
with it ; there will be a regular cultivation of it, and
thousands of salt marshes in England will become
as valuable as the sea islands of America themselves.
It would be interesting, meanwhile, if persons on the
coast would communicate to the press such know-
ledge as they may have of the growth of this plant
in their own localities. It has been a subject of
such extremely little interest hitherto, that no one
would notice it. There are, we are inclined to
think, vast fields of it, without our going so far as
the Mediterranean ; perhaps some of our readers
can confirm our conjectures.
_ _

The whole business is, however, through the
noble generosity of Mr. HARBEN, in the way for
the fullest and earliest investigation. Instead of a
patentee and his assistants trying unsuccessful and
imperfect plans of manipulation of the rough ma-
terial for months, all the modes, mechanical and
chemical, which can occur to hundreds and thou-
sands, will be in operation at once. Strange in-
deed will it be if, with so many minds brought to
bear on so intensely interesting and practical
a matter, we do not quickly hear of a
" eureka" from some of them. The grand discovery
has been made. There is the fibre or filament,
whichever we please to call it. There can be no
mistake on that point. And when we have before
our eyes a beautiful tissue of fibres, which every
child playing on the beach could learn in five
minutes to develops to almost any length, it would
be a stigma, indeed, on our ingenuity if qualified
adults do not speedily place it in the hands of the
manufacturer.

It was very cleverly arranged no doubt, but the
dodge has been entirely unsuccessful, down at Stoke-
upon'.Trent. Mr. GRENFELL, the Liberal candi-
date, has been returned there by a majority in every
way decisive. Whatever Mr. Sergeant SHER may
say to the contrary, it „!ill looks, as it has looked
all along, exceedingly like D. perfectly understood
thing between himself and the Conservative candi-
date, Mr. BERESFORD.HOPE. Who, in the name of
fortune, eversupposed for one instant that Sergeant
SEIEE had the smallest atom of chance of being re-
turned by the Stoke-upon-Trent constituency.
That he would get the show of hands at the hust-
ings upon the nomination day—as he did—was an
event no doubt very probable. But it might
almost be taken as a rule, that the show of
hands, in these mixed constituencies, might
be regarded at once (certainly in the majority
of instances it might)-- not as a prophecy of
success to the candidate favoured with that show of
hands, but—tout au contraire. Here is a case
exactly in point. The competitor who, instead of
making a rush first past the winning-post, turns
out eventually to be just nowhere—obtains the
show of hands (according to the dispassionate
view of the returning officer) unmistakeably, over-
whelmingly. He is, in fact, the non-electors' candi-
date. His rival competitors " the" Liberal
candidate, Mr. GRENFELL, and the Conservative
candidate, Mr. Ever-so•many-letters-of-the-alpha-
bet HOPE—are compelled to demand a poll. And
the polling takes place, on the subsequent day, ac-
cordingly. With what result ? Why, with a ro-
sult so preposterous of its kind, that the doubt
hitherto entertained as to the integrity of these
recent proceedings down at Stoke-upon-Trent be-
comes more than ever strengthened and confirmed.
The Liberal candidate who was to be hustled
out of his otherwise certain promise of success
by the appearance of an invidiously superfluous
Liberal candidate (No. 2) in the person of Mr.
Sergeant SHEE, obtains from the electors not
simply a clear majority but a majority so clear, so
large, so decisive by its magnitude that his oppo-
nents are at once placed in a positively ludicrous

position.
" HorE told a flattering tale !') says the song.
And of this old fashioned, plaintive, lachrymose
little love ditty there comes floating to us just now
a very doleful echo indeed from the Tory Commit-
tee-room down at that liberal, fre-trade, reforming
borough of Stoke-upon Trent. HOPE there,
has of late been telling an excessively flattering
tale in very deed, and in very truth, when
promising, through this cleverly thought-of dodge
—(in the playing out of which Sergeant SHEE has
enacted the part of poor old BERTRAND to the Tory
ROBERT MACAIRE)—so very brilliant a triumph to
the Conservative candidate ! Those uncompromising
numbers jotted down at the close of the poll yester-
day at four of the clock, on the 23d of September,
down at Stoke-upon-Trent, serve in regard to the
very Moral Tale we are here particularising " to
paint the Moral and adorn the Tale !" For Mr.
Gaxiivra,L, " the" Liberal candidate-1,089 !
Nearly an odd hundred over and above a good
round thousand !
Conservative
For Mr. BERESFORD HOPE, the
MACAIRE-918! For Sergeant
SEEE, the pro-Tory BERTRAND, though all
the while ostensibly, and so 4 far as honour
went, the quasi Liberal or soi-disant Reforming
Candidate-32 ! Eighteen less altogether than a
mere half hundred! So that, whiler‘
Mr. ur RENFELL
(now chosen, in spite of how much derision ! M.P.
fcr Stoke-upon-Trent) is recognised as 171 ahead of
Mr. HOPE himself, and as many as 1,057 (tell it
not at Sergeant's Inn !) ahead of Mr. S
-11 ER—this
successful Liberal candidate, now, we repeat, chosen,
beyond any doubt, M.P. for Stoke-upon-Trent, has
absolutely a clear majority of as many as 139 votes
over and above the numbers accorded to his two
antagonists put together ! Had no Liberal electors
whatever been lured away from the Liberal cause
by the inopportune appearance among them

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THE SUN.