The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-15 00:00:00

calm and reflection, it is impossible not to recognise
its truth and appreciate its importance. Certainly
the right hon. gentleman is very well qualified to
pass an opinion upon the advantages of criticism.
for few public men have been more subjected to it
than himself both by friends and foes, and no one
is more prone to indulge in it than he is ; so that,
when he affirms it to be his opinion, based upon
philosophical inquiry, that each " party is indebted
to the animadversions and criticisms of the other," we
may safely infer that there is some use in the " war of
words," which has been stigmatised as waste of
precious time and neglect of public interests. Men
are kept up to the mark by the reflection that they
are being subjected to a close scrutiny and a severe
test by their opponents, and thus are put on their
mettle, while the excitement of the controversy and
the spirit of emulation developes new powers and
brings to light latent gifts. Mr. GLADSTONE de-
voted the rest of his speech to topics of a more
domestic and local nature ; and, in alluding to the
magical flight of time, he said that was some
consolation for those who began to count
up the years that were past and to think
that the years to come might be few, that
when they retired from the scene of their active
exertions they would leave behind them those who
would honourably and devotedly exert themselves
to the good and happiness of their country. On
the whole, it may be said that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer made a speech which reflected great
credit on his statesmanlike discernment of the great
interests of the State, and which took a genial view
of the intercourse which might subsist between
public men, who, amid all the differences of party
and varieties of opinion, could unite in the great
work of serving their common country, and thus
leave behind them benefits that would endure when
the temporary events of the hour were forgotten.

The British Association has fairly concluded its

labours for another year, having accomplished its
allotted work by taking a comprehensive survey of
matters scientific and instructive. On Wednesday
morning the final papers were gone through, many
of the sections having closed their labours on the
previous day. In some departments the number of
contributions was so great as to require a supple-
mental sitting, and certainly the interest and im-
portance of the topics touched upon fully accounted
for the retention of the papers. One of them pos-
sessed a melancholy interest, and we suspect few of
the audience could have listened to Mr. WHvmPER's
account of the peculiarities of the Matterhorn with-
out painful thoughts of the tragedy so recently
enacted on that mountain. The account of the
mountain is very interesting. Mr. WimiPER ob-
serves that the reason why the ascent of the moun-
tain was hitherto found so difficult was that the
attempts were made from the western and southern
sides, where small jagged fragments of rock con-
tinually project, sloping downwards. He arrived at
the conclusion, after careful observation, that on
the opposite side of the mountain these sort of steps
or ledges of rock must slope the other way, and
consequently afford some slight footing to the
climber. This theory proved to be correct, and the
whole of the north-east face of the mountain proved
to be " a long staircase, with the steps shelving
inwards." It was from this selection of the spot
for the ascent that the unfortunate party found their
way so much easier than they had anticipated.
Nevertheless the ascent of the Matterhorn is not
an adventure to be lightly attempted, and we can
only hope that it may be left to its solitary glory,
and that no more valuable lives may be risked in
what is after all a profitless though perilous exploit.
In the Economic Science Department a very in-

resting paper was contributed by Mr. GOODMAN
on the Small Arms manufacture of Birmingham.
The statistics of this trade show how important and
extensive its operations are. Several branches of it
require very great skill? and are highly paid ; in-
deed, during the last ten years it is probable that
the wages earned in this trade exceed those of any
other. The work is mostly paid by the piece, and
a workman in some of the branches in full employ-
ment sometimes earns from £5 to £6 per week.
This high remuneration is not, however, too easily
earned, for as a sample of the delicacy and accuracy
of workmanship required in the barrel boring, Mr.
GOODMAN mentions that a military barrel must be
bored with such care that it will receive a plug
measuring 577 thousandths of an inch, and it is
condemned as useless if it take one measuring
580 ! The payment for all the skilled branches
of work is very high, and a man is held to be
an inferior workman in any of those departments if
he cannot, single-handed, earn his 30s. a week.
This rate of wages Mr. GOODMAN considers to be
excessive, and damaging to the trade, which has to
contend against the cheap labour of Liege and
other places which are now rising into formidable
competition. The number of guns made in Bir-
mingham is immense. In the twelve years from
1801 to 1813 it was more than four millions, or
over a thousand per working day. The establish-
ment of the Birmingham small arms factory,
on the American interchangeable system, will,
Mr. GOODMAN thinks, be of great advantage
to the trade. The gentlemen who boast so largely
about the strict neutrality which this country
observed during the American war had better turn
to the statistics given respecting the supply of arms
from Birmingham to the Northern States. With
the exception of a brief embargo laid on the export
of arms during the affair of the Trent, a steady
supply was kept up from May, 1861, to October,
1863. On the removal of the embargo spoken of
one steamer took out from Southampton 40,000,
rifles to New York. The trade worked at its full
power, straining every nerve, till we find by the
return from the Birmingham proof-house " in the
month of October, 1863, 69,345 rifle barrels were
proved, being very few short of 2,000 per day from
Birmingham alone." This nnmber, as the writer
observes, is altogether unprecedented in the history
of the trade. Up to March, 1863, the number of
guns supplied to America was from 40,000 to 50,000
per month. This is pretty fair when we remember
the outcry that was raisedabout suffering an unarmed
vessel to leave our shores. Fifty thousand guns
are likely to
How
our
do more damage than one unarmed
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fiftyo
thousandnon7janstenr
non
s
ex-
plain away this awkward fact, that the total num-
ber of Enfield rifles sent to America from London
and Birmingham was considerably over one million.
In the same department au interesting paper was
read belonging more properly to the Social Science
the Scientific Association. It gathering than to
related to " the social, moral, and educational status
-
of the population of South Staffordshire," and
dwelt strongly upon the great prevalence of
drunkenness among them, and the extensive em-
ployment of female out-door labour. Lord
HOUGHTON remarked that the employment of
women was a difficult subject, and he remembered
once, after speaking against it, receiving a letter
from a woman employed in the brick trade, in
which she said, " Pray do 'not take ,
away the small sum we get for making
bricks till you give us some ether means
of earning a living." There is no doubt
some reason in this appeal, and poor woraen are
too often compelled to help to earn &living for their