The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-20 00:00:00

pensation. It was in this manner that a year or so
back Mr. Wilderspin, the founder of the system of
infant education, obtained the spontaneous applause
of the multitude in the form of a voluntary
testimonial. Another of our conspicuous na-
tional benefactors has been hitherto disre-
garded, but we are glad to learn that there
is a prospect of this oversight being at length
amended. It is understood that Mr. Ryan, the
discoverer of the means of preserving timber from the
destructive influence of the " dry rot," has made ap-
plication to the Government for participation in the
benefits derived from what is commonly called the
Royal Bounty Fund—a fund created for distribution
among those who may be regarded as having deserved
such assistance by their exertions for the, public wel-
fare, or by their own individual misfortunes. Not
one, we are satisfied, will gainsay for one instant
the claim put forward by the inventor of the system
of " kyanizing" wood by the employment of the cor-
rosive sublimate—a treatment which not merely ren-
ders green timber durable, but ready for immediate
use. The benefits conferred by this gentleman on
the public are too obvious to require any detailed enu-
meration; but one circumstance at least deserves part i-
cuter remembrance, that to him we are all of us indebted
—from her Most Gracious Majesty down to the most
impoverished third-class pamsengers— for being enabled
to travel throughout the United Kingdom with so
much celerity, comfort, and cheapness. Neither ease,
rapidity, or economy of travelling by the steam-
engine could have been accomplished but for the ap-
plication of the longitudinal, "kyanized," wooden
sleepers in place of the old, ricketty, and.costly
sleepers of stone originally employed by Mr. Ste-
phenson. Through the instrumentality of Mr.
Brunel, in the first instance, the " kyanized" timber
sleepers were substituted for their predecessors, and
the example of that celebrated engineer has since
been followed upon all the lines of railway by his
eminent contemporaries. Merit becomes the more
conspicuous when years have rendered it venerable.
"The age of man," it is said, "is three score and ten
years, and though some be so strong that they reach
four score, yet is their strength but labour and sor-
row." Neither the age nor the deserts of this national
benefactor will, we are satisfied, be overlooked.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We hare received the Paris papers of yesterday.
In the National Assembly, on Wednesday, M.
DUPONT D Busac presented the report of the
Committee on the Laws of Caution Money for the
Journals. The Committee is in favour of continuing
the caution money temporarily on the following con-
ditions _

"1. The caution money to be reduced one-half. 2.
It must be paid in cash or Five per Cent. Rentes. 3.
Journals-published only during the 45 diys previous to
the meeting of the Legislative Assembly shall be exempt
from the caution money. 4. Until the meeting of the
Legislative Assembly, publications and circulars relative
to the elections may be publicly sold without any pre-
vious authority, and under the sole condition of their
being signed by the writers."
The Assembly declared the matter to be urgent,
and fixed the discussion for Wednesday next.
It was confidently asserted in the political salons of
the French capital on Wednesday evening, that the
POPE had been restored.

The rumour of the invasion of Transylvania by
the Russians had occasioned a great sensation in Paris.
M. BOUSSINGAULT was elected a Councillor of
State on Wednesday. The Council of State is now
complete.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE. APRIL 19.

East Indian, 4—Great Indian Peninsula, 4% —Paris and
Rouen, 22%.