The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-18 00:00:00

TilE SUN' LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 18,711862.

chased his paternal estate from the pecuniary hone- •
rarium awarded him voluntarily by a grateful
country, and knowing equally well the rustics of
Sussex and the town populations of the North, he
was just the man to be the interpreter between the
two. There is, we are sure, no danger whatever
of any rupture between the North and the South, in
England, but it is nevertheless true that the vast
masses of the North and their employers, and the
labourers, farmers, and landlords, too, for the mos
part of the Southern coast, know no more of each
other than do the populations dwelling on each side
of the Border States of North America. But the
difference between the two is not one of institu-
tions. No slavery curses our South. Hundreds
and thousands, indeed, from our agricultural coun-
ties use their freedom to migrate to the North, and
to exchange agricultural for manufacturing wages.
We can none of us forget the savage attack of
the Rev. Mr, KINGSLEY on the rich men of Lanca-
shire, an attack which Lord DERBY so successfully
rebutted, by showing that four-fifths of the half
million at that time subscribed were actually raised
in Lancashire itself. Mr. COBDEN disposes of it it:
his usual good-natured style, observing that the
subject of poor rates seems to have " puzzled the
Rev. Mr. KINGSLEY, who, in a letter which he has
recently published, displays so great an amount of
ignorance as to the condition of Lancashire, that it
seems to me he has dated his letter from a very
appropriate place when he dates it from
one of the provinces of the Saxon Hep-
tarcby," Wessex. Mr. COBDEN'S general explana-
tion of the reasons for the lowness of the poor
rates in Lancashire is very natural. The greater
part, nearly all, of the manufacturers are self-made
men. They have risen from the ranks ; their habit
is to live among the people they employ, conform-
ing their general hours and mode of life to theirs.
As the rule, he thinks they do not spend above
half their incomes, but invest the rest in increasing
their mills and machinery. When they have done
so, the result is that two-thirds, or more probably
three•fourths, of their capital is invested in their
mills, machinery, and the cottages attached to them.
The consequence is, that all the labour is fully
employed, while the capital liable to rating becomes
very large. Both causes co-operating, inevitably
produce a low poor-rate in ordinary times. When,
however, a crash like the present one comes, the
whole of the vast capital represented by mills and
machinery becomes a loss instead of a source of
profit. It more needs to receive rates than to pay
them. It is, in fact, in the condition of the deluged
farms of Marshland.

Indeed the danger to be most apprehended, and
the working men themselves have sufficient intelli-
gence to see it, and to express their apprehensions,
is lest the floating capital of their masters should be
exhausted during the continuance of the famine,
and when it ceases, that great numbers of them
should be unable to resume business. This would
indeed be a prolonging of the calamity ; and its
-worst result. It would mean, of course, that the
future operatives of Lancashire should be so in ex-
cess of the demand, that for a long time wages would
be very low. o The evil in that case would tend,
we may hope, to remedy itself, since the profits
being greater, capital would, by its unfailing laws,
soon follow increased profits.
We have heard a great deal of the manufactures
of late years having been so in excess of the demand
that the cotton famine has been really a boon to the
masters. Mr. COBDEN'S opinion is different. He
disentangles the case. He admits the increase of
mills, machinery, and production. It was caused
by the speculative demands of merchants chiefly
for the Indian and Chinese markets. He does
not admit that had the cotton supply continued
the mills would have stopped. The merchants
would have been heavy losers, perhaps many of
them bankrupt, through their heavy exports being
sold at half price abroad—but the goods thus sold
cheap would have circulated throughout Asia, and
created a taste and demand for the productions of
our looms. They would thus have ultimately
brought us fresh orders, while the mills at home
would gone on, if not quite so fast, yet at a fair rate
of business, buying their raw material cheaper, and
keeping their people at work even if they made but
little profit.

The comparison was very striking, even the Rev.
Mr. KINGSLEY will feel its force, which Mr.
COBDEN made between the North and the South in
England, in regard to the extent of population sub-
ject to the pressure of the present calamity :

"We had in the county of Sussex, according to the last
census, 38,000 agricultural labourers of all ages. I assume
them to receive 12s. a week ; and I see a farmer or two
present who will admit that I am very liberal, assuming
their wages to be 12s. a week for labourers of all ages, it
amounts to £1,200,000 a year, which would be the
amount of wages paid throughout the whole of
the county for agricultural labour. I have taken out
from the same census-returns the number of agricul-
tural labourers in the eight great southern agri-
cultural counties, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Wiltshire,
Dorset, Devonshire, and Somersetshire, and I find they
amount to 283,500. Giving them all 12s. a week, and lam
sure for Dorsetahiro, Wiltshire, and North Devon that is
being exceedingly liberal—(laughter)—l find that the
amount of agricultural wages paid in all these eight coun-
ties is £8,000,000 a year, so that you have now a loss of
wages in the cotton districts equal to what it would be if
the whole agricultural labour of all the eight southern
counties ceased to be employed to-morrow."

But, to complete the parallel, he had to suppose
all the farmers at the same time deprived of their
incomes, their rents still going on, and their
rates fearfully increasing; their farms producing
nothing, and they left to support themselves and
their labourers in these eight counties out of their
little floating capital. The illustrative comparison
is perfect. Every agriculturist must at once com-
prehend it, and see its justice, and we feel assured
that its lesson will not be lost on the farmers of
England. The case is, indeed, one for all classes,
and Mr. COBDEN'S admirable speech is just the
thing wanted to make all comprehend it. It ought
to be circulated widely in agricultural districts.

The King of Bavaria passed some hours at
Augsburg on the 13th with the Queen of Naples. Her
Majesty spends the greater part of ber time with the Duke
Louis, her brother, who has not, in consequence, trans-
ferred his residence to Nuremberg, where his regiment is
at present.

A sitting of the Belgian Senate took place on
Monday, under the presidency of Count do Renesso-Breid-
bach, when the election of M. V2ndenbergh-Eisen as
Senator for Antwerp, which took place on the 20th May
last, was annulled as informal.

TllE ALABAMA.—The following has been received
from New York :--" Fall River, Massachusetts, Dec. 6.
The British brig Hiram has arrived here, having on board
the crew of the bark Harriet Spaulding, from New York
for Havre, which vessel was burnt at sea by the Alabama
on th© 19th ult., in lat. 41, long. 66. The crew of the Har-
riet Spaulding were kept in irons some days before being
transferred to the Hiram. The Alabama had on board the
crews of three other vessels burnt at sea, names not given."
There must bo some mistake in the report, as the Alabama
was at Martinique on the 19th ult.
LONGEVITY IN THE NORTH.--There died at
Crossgight, New Deer, on the 6th inst., Sophia Lillie, for-
merly resident in New Pitsligo, in the 104th year of her
age. She retained all her faculties unimpaired till within
a few months of her death. There died at Cuminestown,
on the Bth inst., Isabella Gray, wife of Mr. James Watson,
shoemaker, in her 90th year. This worthy and respectable
couple lived together in conjugal union in the same house
for the almost unprecedented period of 67 years. There is
still living, near the western boundary of the parish of New
Deer, a man whose age wants only seven years to complete
the century. He is still able to move about, and, except-
ing that he is rather dull of hearing, he is in complete
possession of all his faculties. About a mile to the east-
ward lives a woman still two years older, but she has been
confined to her bed for some time past, though otherwise in
moderate health and perfectly sensible. On the estate of
Hatton Castle, in the parish of Monquhitter, there resides

within 30 yards of the spot where she was born, a woman
who has lived there in a state of contented celibacy for con-
siderably upwards of 90 years. She is 'still able to walk
about, and is possessed of a large share of intelligence and
conversational power.--Banffshire Journal.
The Church of Santa Maria della Passions, at
Milan was broken into a few days ago and robbed of a silver
ostensory and two pyres of the same metal. The conse-
crated wafers were found strewed about the floor. No clue
has as yet been obtained to the discovery of the oulprits.
A letter from Altenburg (Saxony) says :—" We
have passed a fearful night. About one o'clock a fire broke
out in the Tceplitz Hotel, in the part where Timmer's
Theatrum mundi was installed, then spread to the rest of
the building, which was occupied by the Post-office, and,
still extending, reduced to ashes 27 houses and two barns."
A new tariff for the trade with China has just
been published at St. Petersburg. It was drawn up on the
20th February, 1862, between M. de Balluzek, resident
Russian Minister at Pekin, and the Chinese Government.
WINCHESTER COLLEGE.—The second-mastership
of this college has become vacant by the death of the Rev.
Frederick Wickhltm, M.A., who was appointed in 1846,
The appointment is in the gift of the Warden and Fellows
of New College, Oxford.
The Provost and Fellows of Eton have presented
the Rev. A. H. Nourse, curate of Standlake, to the incum•
bency of Cogges, near Witney.
A DANGEROUS ELEPHANT.—OnTuesday a serious
accident occurred at Alnwick on the entrance of Mander's
collection of wild beasts into that town. The earriage con-
taining the musicians, drawn by elephants and camels, had
reached the Green Bat, and was resting there, when one of
the elephants was taken out to assist some of the heavier
carriages up Hotspur-street, which has rather a steep in•
dine. While the former carriage was standing, one of the
keepers commenced to tease the remaining elephant,
which became highly irritated, and when the men were re-
harnessing the other elephant, on its return from assisting
the carriage, the one which had been excited seized the
keeper with its trunk, and threw him up into the air, caught
him again as he was falling, and threw him on the ground,
and had his foot on the breast of the keeper to crush him,
when fortunately he was extricated from his perilous posi-
tion. There was a crowd of people present, and a rush was
made to see what was doing. A. number of persons were
thrown down, and the wheels of the carriage passed over
two women, who, besides others, were severely injured, but
none fatally. The elephant is described as being usually
very quiet and docile.—Newcastle Chronicle.
DESTRUCTION OF IRON SHIPS BY GALVANIC
ACTION INDUCED BY PREPARATIONS OP COPPER.—The
French floating battery La Gloire has lately been examined,
and found to be seriously injured by the action of copper on
her iron pirtes, the whole of which below the waterline
will have to be removed, being converted into a kind of
plutubago by galvanic action. We had occasion some time
since to call attention to the extraordinary state of her Ma-
jesty's ships Triton and Sharpshooter. On their being
docked for examination, the iron plates were in some places
reduced to the thickness of writing paper, and in the case of
the Triton the scrapers actually went through the plates
when removing the tons of oysters, barnacles, &c., attached
to her bottom. It appears tb at this ship had been coated with
a preparation of copper, and the destruction of the
plates and rivets arose from galvanic action on the exposed
surfaces of the iron where the nria.,,,,,,,t123g has tipeereA
rubbed off under the bows and and forefoot and along the
light-load waterline. The salvation of this ship from foun-
dering was no doubt occasioned by the adhesion of the

shell-fish. She has just been thoroughly repaired at Devon

port Dockyard, and is now coated with Messrs. Peacock
and Buchan's preparation, which is superseding the copper
preparations hitherto used in her Majesty's dockyards. We
understand that Captain Peacock, formerly a master in her
Majesty's navy, who published a pamphlet on this subject
some years since, actually warned the late Ministre de
Marine, in Paris, against what has now taken place, two
years ago ; he also waited on the Minister of Marine, in
Madrid, on the same subject, and has been for several years
in communication with our own Admiralty authorities on
the importance of preventing galvanic action upon the iron
ships of the British navy, and we are glad to see that their
lordships and our dockyard officials are at length alive to
this important subject.—Shipptng Grzette.

THE WOOD A NT.—lt is most interesting to watch
the ants bringing materials for their home. If an ant finds
a little piece of broken fern stem that is suitable for the
outer wall, he picks it up by one end, holds it out straight
before him as if be were smoking a very large cigar, and
sets off briskly homewards. This mode of carrying his bur-
den is evidently adopted for the convenience of steering it
to the ants. I have even
through the grtarsisflibnlgadaese,
tfhaellyenapfeprena,r atnod
houthmeranim
epyedesi,
amreen
bt sy, which,
no
means
insignificant
seen an ant carrying off a grub three times its own size,
holdingt in the same manner; the strength required for
such a feat is truly enormous. But when a heavier or

larger burden, as a piece of stick, has to be transported,
a different plan is adopted. Six or seven ants
are detached for the work, and they set about it with a
unity of purpose that is really surprising. Grasping
it with their jaws, they gradually edge it forward in the
right direction, one of their number always seeming to act
as foreman, and taking hold of the end, which seems to be
the post of honour. As long as the ground is tolerably
even the stick is dragged along without difficulty, and the
foreman or ganger cannot be distinguish from his fellows,
save by his position at the end of the stick. But when
they get among broken ground, or if the stick should per-
chance fall into a crevice and carry its bearers with it, the
ganger seldom touches the stick except to pull it into the
proper direction, but runs ahead to reconnoitre, then re-
turns to the gang, and is all life and animation. I have
seen the clever little creatures make a mistake, and get the
stick into a labyrinth of broken ferns and twigs, through
which they could by no means steer it, and then seen them
carfully return to the same path until they were clear of
the thicket, and choose another and a smoother road.—Once
a Week.

ARTIFICIAL "SIAMESE TWINS."—A curious and
interesting experiment was lately made at Strasburg to
effect the union of two animals, so that they might, to a
certain degree, have a life in common. It was, indeed,
producing artificially what nature produced spontaneously
in those extraordinary phenomena, the Siamese Twins.
Two white ras, of the Albino species, were selected for the
experiment, probably as being more manageable than their
darker brethren. An incision was made on the right side
of the one, and on the left of the other, engaging the skin
and the cellular tissue under it. The surfaces of the two
wounds were kept closely together by sutures and ban-
dages until the 6th day, when union by the first intention
was found to have taken place. 1 hey then walked side by
side, being united in a fleshy band. An attempt to poison
both by the mouth of the one did not succeed, but an injec-
tion thrown into the jugular vein of one animal was found
to have entered the superficial femoral veins of the other,
showing clearly that an intimate vascular union had
already taken place between them. This interesting expe-
riment may have a most important bearing on restorative
surgery.—Gah:gnani.

UNVEILING OF THE STATUE OF THE LATE SIR
WILLIAM NAPIER, K.C.B.—Yesterday afternoon the
statue recently erected to the memory of the late Sir Wm.
Napier, the historian of the Peninsular war, in the north
entrance to the nave of St. Paul's Cathedral, was formally
inaugurated. A goodly company assembled to witness the
unveiling of the statue, although the proceedings were de-
void of even the simplest kind of ceremony. The statue has
been erected by public subscription. It is Bft. Gin, in
height, and is of Carrara marble. The left hand of the
general is represented as grasping the sword, a scroll being
held in the right. The pedestal is 6ft. Gin. in height, and
is of Sicilian marble. The inscription is, "General William
Francis Patrick Napier, historian of the Peninsular war,
born 1785, died 1860." The position of the statue is im-
ntediately on the left of the north entrance, and between the
monuments of General Hay and Sir Thomas Picton, the
corresponding position on the left being occupied by the
statue of Sir William's illustrious brother, the late Sir
Charles James Napier. The sculptor of both statues is Mr.
G. G. Adams, Sloane-street.

Sir Anthony de Rothschild has arrived at the
hotel Bristol from London; Lord and Lady Castlorosse
have left the same hotel for Englaudl

LATEST NEWS.

VIENNA, DEC. 15.

The Prince and Prince s of Prussia arrived here
from Venice at 7 o'clock yesterday evening. The
Emperor drove out to the railway terminus to
welcome their Royal Highnesses, but their reception
was what is here called a strictly private one.
This evening the Prince and Princess will dine
en tamale at Court.

BERLIN, DEC. 18.

The Allgemetne Preussiche (Stern) Zeitung of to-
day publishes an article on the proposition that a
popular Assembly should be'added to the Federal
Diet, which concludes as follows :

" Should a majority of the members of the Diet
agree upon such an extension of the popular re-
presentation at the Federal Diet without the con-
currence of all the members, such an act would
be a violation of the Federal Constitution."

TURIN, DEc. 17 (Evening).

In the Chamber of Deputies to-day the Minister
of the Interior stated that the Government, in ac-
ceding to the proposition for an inquiry into bri-
gandage, has by no means intended to encroach
upon the privileges of the Executive.

The Government was determined to make every
effort to repress brigandage and prevent its recur-
rence in the coming spring. The principal object
which it had in view was the) re-establiahment of
the authority of the law.

After a short discussion, the Chamber passed to
the order of the day.
Dr. Bertani proposed that the Chamber should
declare that it regarded the arrest of the Deputies
at Naples as an offence against the majesty of the
Sovereign Parliament.
Signor Rattazzi demanded a full discussion of
the subject, but the Chamber adopted the order of
day.

ST. PETERSBURG, DEc. 17.

The Russian Government has received from the
Prince of Servia information respecting the arms
despatched to him through Wallachia.
The Prince categorically repels any suspicions to
which this event might have given rise and ex-
presses his deep respect for the engagements which
he is under.

The Prince further says that he is making no
preparations for war, and intends no hostile act
towards his Suzerain. The arms bad merely been
collected for the ordinary wants of the public
service in maintaining order and security in
Servia.

SOUTHAMPTON, DEC. 18.

The Hamburg and American Company's steamer
Hammonia, due here from Hamburg on Monday
night, and appointed to sail for New York yester-
day, only arrived here this morning.
The detention was caused by the breakage of 250
teeth of the large cog wheel of her machinery.
She will sail for New York on Saturday next,