The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-11 00:00:00

Foreign Mail Packet List.

Australia and New Zealand, via Southampton May 19.
Ditto, via Marseilles May 18.
Brazil and Cape Verde, by British packet June 6.
Ditto, by French packet . May 22.
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena May 25.
China, Penang, and Singqp ere, via Sou: hampton May 10.
Ditto, via Marseilles May 13
Falkland Islands
Gibraltar, via Southampton
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton May 19.
Ditto, via Marseilles
India (Bombay), via Southampton. May 12.
Ditto, via Marseilles May 26.
Mauritius, via Southampton
Ditto, via 31arseire3 May 6.
Newfoundland May 10.
Portugal
Ditto, by private ship to Lisbon...
United States and British North America, by Bri-
tish packet
Ditto. by United States packet, via Southamp-
ton .

Ditto, via Cark O • • •
Ditto, by Canadian packet, via Londonderry May 12.
West Coast of Africa, Madeira, and TaLeriffe May 13.
West Indies and Pacific (except Bahamas, Cuba,
and Mexico May 15.
Bahamas, via New York. June 1.
Bermuda, ditto May 10.
Cuba and Mexico • May 29.

WEDGWOOD'S IMPROVE 3IENTS.--The manufac-
ture of white ware, relief tiles, and small ornamen-
tal articles, were carried on at the new works. But Wedg-
wood saw clearly that it was not these classes of ware
which would either open or secure a new and great mar-
ket. What was wanting was a ware of a superior descrip-
tion, so excellent in all respects as to be suited to the tables
of the upper classes ; and which, when improvements and
facility in production should enable the manufacturer to
sell it at a cheaper rate, might reach those of the middle
classes. He had for a considerable period, as we have seen,
turned his attention towards the improvement of the ordi-
nary cream coloured ware, manufactured at various pot-
tery works in Burslem and itsneighbourhood. But his ex-
periments had been desultory : rather directed to future pur-
poses than immediate results. Ho now, however, concen-
trated all his energies for a period in this one direction.
Every essential of body, glaze, form, and ornament was
alike the object of his care. But through the various ne-
cessary processes his patience was often sorely tried, his
repeated failures most disheartening. One kiln after an-
other was pulled down in order to correct some defect or
effect some necessary improvements. His losses from this
source alone were at this period very heavy, and the ware
itself was often destroyed before he could bring his firing
processes to the requisite degree of perfection. His chemi-
cal combinations often baffled him, and his experiments
both in body and glaze would, after the greatest pains,
turn out entire failures. Yet, unwearied and indomitable
in spirit, he persevered, and success came. He had to in-
, vent, and, if not that, to improve almost every tool, in-
strument, and apparatus ; and to seek for smiths and ma-
chinists to work under his guidance. Lathes, whirlers,
punches, gravers, models, moulds, drying-pans, and many
other things were all variously improved. He often passed
the whole day at the bench beside his men,•and in many
cases instructed them individually. Tho first pattern of
each original piece he almost always made himself; and
though no great draughtsman, the enamellers could work
from his designs.—Meteaard's Life of Wedgwood.
THE MAIN DRAINAGE WORKS AND THE ENGI-
NEER OF TILE METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS.—At the
meeting of the Metropolitan Board of Works to-morrow a
report will be brought up from the Main Drainage Com-
mittee, recommending "that the sum of £lO,OOO be granted
to the engineer and his three assistants, in recognition of
their services in connexion with the erection of the /Wu
Drainage Works—the sum of £6,000 being awarded to the
engineer, and the sum of £4,000 to his assistants, in pro-
portion to the amount of the works executed under their
superintendence."

ABLE-BODIED PAUPERS.-LA return made by the I
Poor Law Board shows that there were in the union
workhouses of England on the Ist of March, 1865, 4,426
men and 10,334 women who were not disqualified by any
mental or physical infirmity from earning the fair average
wages of able-bodied persons in the class to which they
belong. Birmingham Workhouse had as many as 93 of
such able-bodied men in it, Bristol 92, and Clifton 0 ;
Sheffield, 121 ; Manchester, 129 ; Liverpool, 233. On the
other hand, in all Wales there were only 32 such able-
bodied men in the workhouse ; in the North Riding of
Yorkshire only 9 ; in Derbyshire only 7 ; in Cornwall only
11, and nine of them were in ono workhouse, that of Truro.
ALGERIA A LA FRANcAISE !—The Place du
Gouvernement might be the principal square of a
French provincial town of the first class. There are big
hotels, cafes, counting-houses, and shops ; the names are
French, the green blinds are French, the merchandise is
French. You may buy Paris chocolate, and pectoral paste,
and pills, and sham jewellery, and crinolines. You may
dine a la carte or au prix Axe; you may buy the latest
scrofulous French novel at the bookstalls, and read the
same etiolated little newspapers, with their timid murmur-
ings of news a fortnight old, and their leading article
devoted to a puff on a corncutter or a juggler fresh come to
town. In a word, you are in a little Paris. The "pst" of
the consumer sounds shrilly through the air, and the
" v'la 31'sr " of the gargon is audibly responsive. The
itinerant musicians of Gaul, the wheezy flute, the rachitic
fiddle, and the harp dying of atrophy strum and tootle feeble
music at the street corner ; the commissionaire slumbers
on his trunk in the sun ; the shoeblack plies his trade ;
the bonne parades the same elaborately-laced babies ;
the little girls in Hessian boots and frilled trousers go
through competitive exhibitions with skipping ropes ; a
real French poodle, shaven and shorn, crosses your
path ; groups of red-trousored soldiers lounge by,
their mouths agape, and their hands thrust in their
pockets ; the roguish little milliner flits by with
her handbook ; the tremendous oftier superieur aiguilletted
and epauletted, strolls out of the cafe where ho has been
breakfasting, picking his teeth ; the orderly trots by with
his leathern satchel on his hip; the gamin makes faces at
you, flees behind a corner if you threaten him with your
cane, and when you are at a convenient distance flings a
stone at you ; the snowy-vested, night capped cook
emerges into the morning and leans against the door-
jamb to inhale the fresh air, all hot and hot though it be,
until it is time for him to dive into his burning tomb of
pots and pans again ; Adolphe, in curly-brimmed hat and
turn=down collar preposterously vandykod, and cravat in a
gigantic true-lover's-knot, leers under the bonnet of Ma-
dame the spouse of the employe of the administration, taking
her walks abroad, and attired in tho height of Parisian
fashion, to cheapen leathery artichokes and skinny
chickens in the market ; whilst Jules is humming " R lel
n'est sacre pour un Sapeur," and puffing his halfpe,nnajycaidgori
as superbly as though it were a half-crown
bunches Wan eh
iledfrefinewpreerse ;
syhourigtohtbuiyn ctighear
sliiigehgtshattnecti.
tthhere.geilsd_oeuds
signs of the photographers and theclen s—
of industry which appear at present ttiostabstewrho tbhleanienhoesst
energetic of Frencdhfancullitnies: thtehroe iscalaecdhiseta-durtivseolusnd are
trumpeting and ruing
asleep in theirboxesatshuesrutahlh;ehanedefcrthopepLineggiue.
pnLiksae,t;
pop-
pies in a cornfield are
the Telegraph.
ALARMING ACCIDENT ON THE HOLYHEAD LINE.—
THREE PASSENGERS SERIOUSLY INJURED.—About 9 o'clock
on 'Tuesday evening two passenger train; the one from
Bangot-toCarnarvon, and the other from Carnarvon to
Bangor, came into violent collision at the Menai-bridge
crossing, and as the result three passengers were seriously
hurt ; both engines were smashed to pieces ; a few seconds
more and the locomotives must have gone right through
the passenger carriages, as they were running in a cros
direction. The debris was such as to block the line for
several hours.

CRYSTAL PALACE.--In consequence of the very
unfavourable state of the weather many thousands of per-
sons were prevented from attending the Great Choral
Concert of the Metropolitan Schools of 5,000 voices; con-
ducted by Mr. G. W. Martin. It has boon arranged with
the directors of the Crystal Palace that the performance
shall be repeated on Wednesday week, tlO 24th Mny, the
Queen's Birthday. Several pieces appropriate to ttie day
will be added to the programme.