The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-16 00:00:00

TUP,SDAY _EVENING, OCTOBER 18

LITERATURE.
THE BEAUTIES OF THE BOYNE AND
BLACK-WATER By William R. Wilde.
Ireland generally, but especially the fair and fer-
tile lend of Meath, has reason to feel grateful to the
erudite author of this most interesting volume. Pew
tcurists will henceforward omit visiting a district
rich in historic monuments and natural beauty,
though hitherto not even its easy distance from the
metropolis was able to tempt any of the modern sys-
tematic writers upcn Ireland, who one and all
neglected the scenery of the Boyne. Inglis made the
circuit of the island, but merely crossed the river at
Drogheda. Barrow t.nd the " Angler in Ireland"
seem ignorant of its existence, and the Halls notice
only its appearance at Trim. Mr. Wilde has now
collected and enlarged the sketches which have already
appeared in the Dublin University Magazine among
the series of " Irish Rivers," and, including the tri-
butary fb,od of the Blackwater, has produced en
illustrated Handbook fur these charming but hitherto
neglected streams. Ile has carefully noted every
object of interest along the banks of these placid
waters ; the scenes of Sylvan beauty, the Pagan
relics, feudal remains, and monastic monuments,
hick stud their margins. Commencing at the source
of the Boyne, at the loot of the castle-Browned hill of
Carbury, he first follows its windings to Clonard,
thence through Trim to Navan, from which town a
day's excursion is presumed to be taken along the
Blackwater to its head, and from Navan to the
town of Drogheda. The entire is a region
of rare interest. Fertile meadows hanging
woods--localities memorable in history and in song--
the palaces of Heathen kings—the raths of warriors
—the pillar-stones of Druids—the footprints of
early Christian saints, their oratories, round towers,
and churches, their wells and crosses—and the battle-
fields, fortresses, and castellated mansions of more
modern times—all these, treated of with a master's
hand, present a strong attraction to the traveller who
is not wholly devoid of taste. The antiquarian will
revel in these pages, and derive additional enlighten-
ment from the numerous woodcuts, which are the
best in artistic skill that we remember to have seen,
and bear the unmistakeable impress of fidelity. The
chapter on the celebrated tumulus at New Grange,
with that on the Ethnology of the Ancient Irish, is
worth the entire price of the book. There is like-
wise a great deal of historic information to be gleaned
on various matters, even so modern as the birth of
the Hero of Waterloo, whom we always considered
to have been born in the county of Meath, at Dungan
Castle (which, by the way, is Feargus O'Connor's
birthplace), and in the immediate neighbourhood d
Laracor, long the residence of Swift and Stella. It
appears, however, that the Duke first saw the light
in Dublin, in the mansion now known as the Royal
Irish Academy House, and originally Chichester House.
There has also been a misunderstanding as to his day
of birth, wherefore, for the edification of genealo-
gists, we give the entry thereof from the registry of
St. Peter's parish in Dublin :—" Arthur, son of the
Earl and Countess Mornington, born 30th April,
1769." Casting the view backwards for three hun-
dred years, justice to Ireland appears to have been
administered in a notable manner, and some idea of
the state of the country in the middle of the six-
teenth century, and of the mode taken by its gover-
nors to suppress crime, and to gain the affections of
the Irish chiefs and people, may be had from the
following, among similar instances, from authentic
history :
"So late as 1546, we read that the plains of Cairbre
and Castle Carbury were plundered and burned' by
some of the Irish insurgents, particularly the Olitllys,
the O'Maddens, and ,O'Connors. The mode in which
this outrage was punished by the high legal functionary
of the Government is highly characteristic of the time.
When,' say the annals, the Lord Justice, Anthony
St. Ledger, heard of this, he came into Offaly and plun-
dered and burned the country as far as the Togher of
Cruoghan ;' and again, the Lord Justice came a second
time into Offaly, and remained fifteen days in the coun-
try, plundering and spoiling it, burning churches and
monasteries, and destroying crops and corn.'"
Standing on the summit of the Hill of Tara a glori-
ous view is obtained of the great plain of Meath,
constituting the richest portion of what was once the
appanage of the Monarch of Ireland, for it is gene
rally thought that, of the fine provinces, Meath was
always allotted to the King Paramount in addition to
his peculiar dominions, for the support of the Imperial
dignity. Nevertheless it appears to have had its
peculiar rulers, and, as the O'Conors ruled in Con-
naught, the Mac Murroughs (afterwards called
Cavanaghs) in Leinster, the O'Neils in Ulster, and
the O'Briens in Munster, so the O'ltlelaghlins were
potentates in Meath. They were kings therein at
the time of the English invasion, when a daughter of
that royal line, Dearvorgail, the faithless bride of
Brefney, and the Helen of the Irish Iliad, was
reduced by the ill-fated Dermot Mac Murrough,
King of Leinster. The English Monarch deposed
the rightful O'Melaghlin, and mace a grant of the
fair province of Meath to Hugh de Lacy, one of the
fiercest of the soldiers of Strongbow. Tara was the
grand palatial residence in the ancient heroic days of
Ireland.
" Here sat in days of yore Kings with golden crowns
upon their heads; warriors with brazen swords in their
hands ; bards and minstrels with their harps; grey-
headed ollamhs; Druids with their oak leaf crowns;
learned historians; wise brehons and subtle lawyers;
the physicians, the smiths, artificers, charioteers, hunts •
men, architects; the chess-players and cup bearers, to-
gether with crowds of servants and retainers, whose
places are all specified in the ancient annals relating to
Tara. Snetr not at the Irishman's veneration for this
spot ; the history of its long-!aded glories' is still pre-
served ; the memories of Tara have remained a silver
thread in the garment of sackcloth he has worn for
centuries."
We will now take leave, at least for the present,
of Mr. Wilde and his delightful and instructive guide-
book, with the quotation of a passage which will
afford a fair specimen of his descriptive powers. lie
thus depicts the view from the Hill of Slane, near
the noble castle of the Marquis of Conyngham :
" Here, pilgrim, stop ; rest on yonder monumental
slab, beneath the shadow of that tall, ivy-mantled tower,
the belfry of the cathedral—it once was gorgeous with
the shrines of Fathers, and illumed by many. a flicker-
ing taper, though now the hemlock fills its aisles, and
(he purple foxglove waves its lonely banneret. The
ground whereon we stand is sacred—consecrated by the
toot prints of our patron saint, hallowed by the dust of
kings. Look abroad, over the wide, undulating plains
of Meath, or to the green hills of Louth—where, in the
broad landscapes of Britain, find we a scene more fruitful
and varied, or one more full of interesting, heart-stirring
associations? Climb this tower and cast your eye along
the river. Look from the tall, pillar-like form of the
Yellow Steeple at Trim, which rises in the distance, to
where yon bright line marks the meeting of the sea and
sky below the Maiden Tower at Drogheda, and trace
the clear blue waters of the Boyne, winding through this
lovely, highly cultivated landscape, so rich in all that
can charm the eye and awaken the imagination ; take
into view the hills of Skreen and Tara; pass in review
the woods of Hayes, Ardmulchan, Beauparc; look down
into the green mounds and broad pastures of Slane;
follow the Boyne below you, as it dances by each
ford and rapid, to where the great pyramids of Western
Europe, Knowth, New Grange, and Dowth, rise on its
left bank; see yen not the groves of Townley Hall and
Old Bridge, marking the battle-field of 1690, with the
ill-fated hill of Donore, where the sceptre passed for ever
from the royal line of Stuart, obtruding its long-remem-
bered tale of civil strife upon us? Duleck stands in the
distance. Beyond those hills that border Louth lie
Monaster-boice and Mellifont, the last resting-place of
the faithless Bride of Brefney. Those steeples and
turrets which rise in the lower distance were shattered
by the balls of Cromwell, and that knoll which juts
above them is the Mill Mount of Drogheda. What a
picture hare we here, from:this Richmond-hill, of Irish
scenery! What eu extensive page Qf our country's his-
tory does it unfold to us! What recollections gush upon
us as we staad on the abbey walls of Slane, and take in
this noble prospect at a glance! The records and the
footprints of two thousand years are all before us; the
-Pagan
procession of the simple shepherd to the early
Pagan mound; the rude clinger standing on the earthen
circle; the Druid fires, paling before the bright sun of
Christianity; the cadence of the round tower's bell; the
matin and the vesper hymn swelling from the hermit's
cell, or early missionary church; the proud galleys and
glancing swords of fierce northern hordes; the smoking
ruins of church and tower; the shout of rival clans iu
civil feuds; the lances and banners of Norman soldiers;
the most, and fosse,: and drawbridge of the keep, still
echoing-back the strife of hostile ranks—the native for
his soil, the stranger for his hire; the ford defended, and
the castle-won; the pilgrim's cross, the stately abbey,
and the baron's hall; in church, the stole ejected for the
surplice; the town besieged, the city sacked; and then
the rattle, and the roar, and smoke of recent` battle—
have, one and all, their epochs, ruins, sites, or history,
legibly inscribed upon this picture."

-ROYAL NAVAL BENEVOLENT SOCIETY.--Yester-
day morning a quarterly general court of the subscribers
-to this institution was held at the Thatched House
Tavern, St. James's-street, Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas
Briggs, G.C.M.G., in the chair. Commander Dickson,
the secretary, read a brief report. The receipts for the
quarter, from subscriptions and donations, added to
stock purchased, gave a total of 1,858/. 175., and the ex-
penditure amounted to 593/. 6s. 10d., leaving a balance
of 1,265/ 10J. 21 to the credit of the society. The in.
terest on capitil stock invested in the Three per Cents.
had amounted to 524/. The report hating been adopted
the secretary directed the attention of the court to the
distressing case of the orphan children of the late Lieu-
tenant Id•Renzie, who had been upwards of forty years
in the service, and died a few weeks ago from au attack
of cholera, followed almost immediately by his wife, who
fell a victim to the same disease, leaving a family of six
children in utter destitution. Her Majesty the Queen
Dowager had been graciously pleased to subscribe 201.
towards the maintenance of one of the children, and the
society would at once perform its duty to such members
of the family as were entitled to assistance. The family
now memorialised the society to exert its influence to-
wards procuring the admission of one of the children
into the female school at Richmond. On the motion of
Captain P. Clark, seconded by Captain Bague, a resolu-
tion to that eff€ct was agreed to, and after a private dis-
cussion relative to Mr. Spicer's bequest of 1,000/., the
court proceeded to distribute a sum of money amongst
the most deserving of the applicants for the society's
bounty.

The CHURCH and the POST-OFFICE.
(From the Weedy DiTatch.)
Mr. Editor,—The two great national institutions
above•named are, at this time, in collision ; the au-
thorities of the Post office having proposed some
mitigation of a public inconvenience, `iz., that of the
detention in London for twenty-four hours of letters
so transitu from one part of the country to pother;
and the episcopal heads of the other institution, the
Church, having instituted active proceedings to pre-
vent such mitigation, and for not only the preserva-
tion but the extension of the existing inconvenience.
Nothing less than the complete stoppage of any Post.
office work, however serviceable and necessary, will
satisfy the leaders of the Sabbatarian movement.
In this collision, I confess myself to have some
leaning towards the secu:ar institution in preference
to the sacred. There are many points of contrast
between the rival institutions. The Post-office is the
cheapest establishment in Europe, and the Church is
the dearest. The Post-office benefits the e ntire com-
munity, and the Church only a sectarian section.
The advantages of the Post office are distinct, posi-
tive, tangible, obvious to common sense ; the ad-
vantages promripromised by the Church are invi-ible, on:
of time, beyond sense, and only estimated by those
who vvoi k so hard at the work of faith that they
properly call themselves believers. The active spirit
of the Post-office, Mr. Rowland Hill, was forced into
his present position by public opinion ; the Bishops
and Archbishops of the Church are raise.: into their
position by the political influences of the aristocracy.
The Post office allows and enables every one to
express his thought freely to others—the Church
prescribes to the present and all future generations
what they shall think and believe ; or, at any rate,
what they shall say that they think and believe.
Robberies in the Post-office are perpetrated to the
annual amount of thousands—those of the Church tell
up to millions. The Post-office tax, when much
higher than at present, was proverbially the most
willingly paid of all taxes—Church-rates and other
ecclesiastical impositions are as proverbially the most
unwillingly paid, often subjecting the conscientious
objector to the seizure of his goods and the incarcera-
tion of his person. Many more particulars might be
enumerated ; but I have doubtless said enough to
show that my superior respect for the Post office is
by no means capricious, but a reasonable and well-
grounded preference. I will, therefore, only add that
the agitation which won for us the penny postage was
conducted by fair reasoning and argument, employed
no gross falsehoods, prevailed not by censures and
fulminations, but calmly pleaded the commercial,
intellectual, and moral good to be gained by the
change ; in all which respects it is, as 1 shall show,
very unlike the present clerical agitation.
At the head of that agitation is the Bishop of
London, hurrying from platform to platform,
haranguing meetings, memorializing the Prime
Minister, working himself and his hearers into a
perfect fume and fury ; and all, as he professes, for
the honour of Christianity. Now, Sir, the present
crisis is one at which the friends of Christianity might
well have other things to think about, than just such
as the Apostles of us Gentiles treated as the " beg-
garly elements" of an obsolete ceremonial law. The
character of Christianity has been perilled all over
Europe. Has the Bishop never heard of Haynau's
hangings ? Of Radetzky's flogging of women ? Of
More O'Ferrall's anti- Christian conduct to the Italian
fugitives ? Of the demoniacal demands of the Rus-
sian Czar? Is his Episcopal Christian blood so un-
moved by these atrocities, these blood-red stains upon
the Christian name, that he has time and feeling to
bestow upon the heinous sin of forwarding a letter ?
It is recorded that there were Roman Catholics who
shrunk with abhorrence from the thought of picking
a chicken-bone on a Friday, but who saw nothing to
move them in the massacre of St. Bartholomew's-
day. Will theologians always be the same? Always
immersed in the importance of the pettiest cere-
monial observances, and insensible to the great cause
of God, man, goodness, and freedom—whose martyrs,
to the disgrace of nominal Christianity, gain more
show of sympathy from the turbaned Turk than from
Christian potentates and prelates ?
The Bishop speaks of the Post-office clerks as
vested with an " indefeasible right" to the " full en•
joyment of the Sabbath." Does he respect that "in-
defeasible right" in his own cook and coachman ? 1
shall never cease from censuring the cant and
hypocrisy of Sabbataniarism till 1 find its advocates
practising what they preach. They have full power
over their own households. Is there a single Bishop
on the Bench for whom neither man, woman, nor
beast ever does one stroke of work upon the Sabbath?
If so, let his name be gazetted, and I, with thousands
more, will do him homage ; not, indeed, as either the
best or wisest of mankind, but as a person, in this
particular, of unimpeachable and singular consistency.
" Indefeasible right" is the theme of scoff and scorn
when applied to what is most worth having. The
phrase is proscribed. There are many indefeasible
rights, to may apprehension :—that of the people con-
stituting a nation to self-government ; that of a ra-
tional being to exercise his reason on dogmas
propounded to his faith; and that of paying only for
the religion in which we believe, and not for that
from which we dissent. On these indefeasible
rights, so deeply momentous to human hap-
piness, dignity and progress, our Right Reverend
Fathers in God, the; Lord Bishops, are not accustomed
to descant, or only for their reprobation. All are
swallowed up in the preposterous indefeasible right of
not accommodating our neighbour by devoting a
Sunday hour, occasionally, to sorting the contents of
a letter bag. Those contents may affect not only the
pecuniary interests of the industrious, perhaps saving
honesty from bankruptcy; but also the troubled in
mind or body, the anxious, the suffering, the sick, the
dying, end their dearer t friends. Heaven forgive the
assertion of an indefeasible right of not doing to others
that which certainly we would have them do unto us.
It comes with an ill grace from those who are "set for
the defence of the Gospel," but who by no means
champion the rights of man.
In rushing, last Monday, from the meeting at
Willis's Rooms to the meeting at Freemasons' Tavern,
the Bishop seems to have dropped his consistency by
the way. He is reported, at the former, to have ap-
pealed in confirmation of his Sabbatarianism to " the
almost unanimous voice of the metropolis, and of
Protestant Christendom." At the other meeting, his
language was somewhat different. "The observance
of the Christian Sabbath, imperfect as it was in this
country, had always distinguished it from continental
nations, and any step from our high supremacy," &c.
Both appeals told; as what will not tell from a Bishop on
a platform upon Church- going hearers; but how do they
hold together? The vanity ofmultitudinous support, and
the vanity of " high supremacy" by distinction, are
keys not to be fairly played upon the same hand. An
honest agitator, to say nothing of a mitred one,
should look, not only to what will tell, but to what is
true. Protestant Christendom is not Sabbatarian,
after the Scotch and English fashion. Protestant
Christendom, on Sundays, keeps open shop at Paris,
plays cards at Geneva, and dances in Germany. The
Bishop must at least strike off that head of his Janus
logic. The other head will scarcely escape being broken.
Ask Protestant Christendom of our "high supre-
macy," and the response will be that it is nothing
better than a pragmatical peculiarity of Anglican
Puritanism.
One disgusting feature of this agitation is the pro-
minence of direct falsehood as to fact. Advertise-
ment after advertisement has the capitalized heading
of " Commencement of Sunday Labour in the Post-
office." At most the plan is only a slight extension
of what is done already, and always has been done.
Really the tendency is, if we take the country gene-
rally, to a considerable diminution. Any how, there
is no novelty, no question of principle, between the
existing custom and that which is proposed. What
class, except the Church, with the platform faction of
religionists at its back, would be capable of this
shameless iteration ?
The " Lord's Day Observance Society" has ad-
dressed a circular to all the parsonry of London, in
hich this fib is incorporated, with others in addition.
It states that the ettention (treated as a novelty in the
sentence immediately preceding) of the desecration of
the Lord's Day in the Post-office department, is sure
to lead to an increase of the demoralization already
prevailing therein, as appears from the evidence of
Colonel Maberley, the Secretary to the Post-office,
before the Select Committee of the House of Corn-
moos on Postage, in the year 1843, in which he says,
at p. 188, No. 1,174:
"That the department has become thoroughly de-
moralized, and that the number of applications for
missing letters, containing property made at the Ge-
neral Post office, from January sth, 1837, to January
sth, 1842, was 32,369, in 22,368 of which the property
was not found. The amount of property contained in
the letters not found was 322,0331."
Now mark the equzvoque. Colonel Maberley does
not ascribe this truly lamentable demoralization to
Sunday sorting. The connexion between the two, and
the consequent bearing of an increase of the one upon
an increase of the other, is altogether fudge ! a pious
fraud. It is foisted in by the " Lord's Day Observ-
ance Society," which, it is much to be regretted, is not
also a" Truth Observance Society." Such an asso-
ciation seems to be much needed.
The circular goes on to threaten us with more
cholera, unless the General Post-office be checked in
its intended improvements. 'This falsifying society
wields the thunderbolt and announces judgments.t
From the infant days of Christianity to our own;
indeed,
indeed, from the birth of priestcraft to its last syl-
lable of recorded time," has cant thus dared to ascend
into the regions
of impiety. The Board of Health
has traced the ravages of cholera to our criminal ne-
glect of obvious sanitary precautions, to which we
were morally bound to attend. Mr. Joseph Wilson,
honorary secretary, and the Rev. J. T. Baylee, clerical
secretary, know better; it all comes of what they
call Sabbath-breaking. The wisdom of the Gwyder
House Physicians must yield to the Divine inspiration
of No. 14, Chatham place, Blackfriars. That is the
Mount Sinai of the metropolis.

1 I have chiefly considered this as a Church question,
because although many Dissenters juin in it, yet the
' Church authorities take the lead ; and there is an
advertised Dissenting memorial to Lord (Lim
Russell (from the Spa-•fields congregation),
which draws a distinction such as I have
not met with elsewhere, which deserved to
be imitated. It says, " that whilst your memorialists i
would not wish the Legislature to interfere to induce
the people to keep the Sabbath-day holy, they very
seriously protest against any national arrangement
that would make them break it." Here is a glimpse
of good sense and true Christianity. But it is strange
that those who saw so much should not have seen a
little more. Observances of a religious character
should always depend on moral means, and not on
legislative enactment. But who interferes to enforce
any violation of conscience on the Sabbatarian ? who
" makes him" do anything on the i-iuuday ? Tne
temptation is only a pecuniary one. He has only
to take his choice in the eternal dilemma b?taeen
God and 111r.rnmon. No class is t xempt from that
delemma. Why, then, the Post office clerk ? He
endures the perpetual test of sincere conscientious
ness, that is all. Let him do his duty. Let him
also allow those mho think the Sabbath not dis-
honoured by rendering useful service towards others,
to do their duty also. Heaven will judge. I say
nothing against a man's having a conscience which
I deem mistaken, so long as he only makes it his
own rule; the fault begins when he uses it as the
rod to beat his neighbour into Lis own narrow faith.
Then his private conscience becomes a public
nuisance.
Lord Ashley acted as bottle-holder to the Bishop
of London at the Marylebone and Westminster meet-
ing. He is a zealous second, and in one thing outdid
his principal. Proud of the Bishop as a tower of
strength in the cause, he ventured to promise help of
an infinitely higher order. His Lordship is reported
to have said—" If they persevered in spite of difficul-
ties and defeat, they might rely upon it they could
not fail to prosper; they might depend upon human
support, and, if they acted in a right spirit upon the
support of the Almighty." The authority of Lord
Ashley for promising that support was not called for,
as it ought to have been, by the meeting. It is in
cumbent on him to produce bis credentials.

PUBLIC°.

(From the Scotsman.)
The change in the Sunday arrangements of the
Post-office, which has been the cause of some ig-
norant and some dishonest denunciations, is to be
adhered to by the Government, and will come into
operation to-morrow. Lord John Russell and the
Postmaster- General are entitled to the very highest
credit for refusing to be driven from a well-considered
beneficial arrangement by a clamour got up first in
London, partly by misconception and partly from
selfishness, and then taken up in the provinces by
parties in manifekt and often avowed ignorance of the
whole facts of the case. In justification of this state-
ment, we point with confidence to the complete and
crushing testimony now afforded by the " Original
Minute for the Change in the Duties of the Office,'
drawn by Mr. Rowland hill, of date Feb. 3,
and now given to the public. There are two
points in this document, the simple mention of which
alone should be sufficient to set the matter
at rest, and to touch with shame the honest
portion of those who have been talking so non-
sensically and vituperatively. In tee first place,
the document was written and in the hands of the
authorities more than eight months ago, consequently
must be held as the true exponent of the intentions of
the change, and could not have been drawn with any
reference to the present agitation, every one of the
misrepresentations engendered by which it utterly
extinguishes. In the second place, it shows that,
from the first, the sole object of the change was to
reduce Sunday labour. The document begins—" In
obedience to your Lordship's instructions, I beg to
submit my views as to further measures for reducing
the Sunday duties of the Post- office." Again, "-The
importance of affording to all connected with
the Post office the utmost amount of rest on the
Sunday that is consistent with a due regard to
public convenience having led to measures for
the total suspension of money order business on ,
that day throughout England and Wales, it is
very satisfactory," &c. And then, " There can
be no doubt that a further very important relief,
as relates to Sunday work, may be effected in all the
provincia • l offices." The document then goes on to
tell that the change proposed had been repeatedly re-
commended by Parliamentary Committees, and enters
into details showing how the change will operate a
reduction of work, mentioning also among other
points the additional pay to the London clerks and
the avoidance of the hours of worship—arrange-
ments which the agitators are mendaciously asserting
were brought about by their clamours. Nor is it
only the ietention of the Post-office authorities that
is thus seen to be the reverse of what has been repre-
' sented—their intentions are already in operation, an
order being at this moment in the hands of all the
2,000 postmasters of England "that on and from the
14th instant, every provincial office, of whatever
description, in England and Wales, shall be closed
on Sunday, from ten A.M. to five rau., for all pur-
poses except for the necessary receipt and
dispatch of mails." Now, what have we here ?
Absolute proofs that the change was devised for the
express purpose of reducing Sunday labour, being the
next in series to the change regarding the money-
orders, which very greatly served that end ; and that
this intention will to morrow be realised by enabling
hundreds of men to attend public worship, which has
hitherto been beyond their reach. And the officials
actuated by these intentions and achieving these re-
sults have been denounced through the country as
"infidels engaged in a design to break down the
Sabbath 1" That these follies and slanders disgrace
their authors is not much matter (we speak, of course,
of the designing and not of the purely simple), but it
is impossible to over-estimate or too much deplore the
injury done to the priceless institution profaned by
their advocacy. Perhaps the strangest little incident
connected with the affair is the mistake into which
the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce was yesterday
led, blindfold. A requisition was got up for a
meeting on the subject, and when the day
came, it was found that the "Alliance" party
had made a great " whip," while but few of the
attenders of the ordinary meetings were present,
trusting, it is presumed, that the motion would
easily be thrown out, as all such motions have been
before. But this was not the only ally the Alliers
had—owing to the prevailing ignorance on the sub-
ject, they managed to entrap some respectable Members,
such as Bailie Stott, who showed he knew nothing
whatever of the facts, and took excellent care to guard
himself against being supposed to share in the general
views and tactics of the patty. It is certainly the
oddest thing ever done by the Chamber of Commerce ;
and it will be as odd if some of those who voted in the
majority do not confess their mistake when they have
taken means to learn the truth. In pleasing contrast
with this strange and in some degree accidental vote,
we have a discussion in the United Presbytery of
Perth, who refused, almost unanimously, to support a
motion against the proposed change till they should
learn the facts. We think that, after reading Mr.
Hill's minute, the members may well congratulate
themselves that, they did not act in haste and igno-
rance. Some sound and cheering remarks, it will
be seen, were made by reverend members of the Pres-
bytery, as to the great mischief done by this per-
petual agitation about " Sabbath desecration," con-
ducted as it is with a peculiar and painful want of
sense and veracity.

(From the Scotch Reformers' Gazette.)
" AN INFAMOUS PROPOSITION."—OUT meek and
pious friend the Guardian affects to be in a terrible
rage against Mr. Rowland Hill's plan of Post-office
reformation on Sunday. It calls it (vide Guardian
of yesterday) " an intamous proposition." Now, the
time has been, and that not long ago, when the
Guardian itself regularly for its own letters and
papers to the Post-office on Sunday; and there are
good divines at this moment in Glasgow who think it
no shame and no sin to open their own notes on that
day—received through the Post-office. If they ars
sinners, we also are 'very great sinners, and it
was the Guardian itself that set " the pernicious
example" to us. Do our very particular
friends, Messrs. John, James, and Robert, not
read from their own written notes on Sunday f
Have they not coned these over perhaps from a late
hour on Saturday night to a very early hour
withon
Sabbath morning ? So far from finding fault
them, we would say that they were only attheir
duty
t `own
heit
when they did so. But if they write
notes, and correct their own epistlesr onir:ge to others ?
Steunday what
right have they to deny the same p
iv
We will stand up for the
sanctitytaii of the Sabbath as
much as any of them. No n
can say that we ever
wrought for filthy lucre on t at
day. That is more
than many or the Guardian's very choicest friends
can say. But we best respect the Sabbath when we
denounce in this place the arrant cant and gross hypo-
crisy appertaining to it, and we regret to see that
this cant and that hpyocrisy are at..this moment the
order of the day in Glasgow : and really the game
thrives amazingly with those that can put on the very
longest faces about it.
(prom the Sheffield Times.)
The agitation on the subject of effecting some
alterations in the London Post-office has extended to
the provinces, but many of those who take part in it
appear to labour under gross misconceptions. The
object of the Government is to diminish the aggregate
amount of Sunday duty throughout the country; and
to effect this it is necessary, not to commence Sunday
labour in the London Post-office, but to make some
slight additions to it. Hitherto from twenty-five to
fifty or sixty clerks have been employed on Sunday,
and twenty-five additional clerks are now intended to
be employed, but not during the hours of Divine
service, and these twenty-five are to be volunteers.
The additional service is to be given only for letters ,

In its eivil relations, however, the consequences of
error on the part of the commercial tester are scarcely
less important or detrimental, inasmuch as the fortunes
and reputation of individuals are placed at the mercy
of a soi disant chemist. My attention has been at-
tracted to thin subject in consequence of the recent
trials for the supposed infraction of the laws regu-
lating the manufacture of tobacco, a question which
a leading metropolitan journal emphatically desig-
nates as affecting "the honour of Government, the
interests of trade, and the credit of science." Most
persons are aware that the manufacture of tobacco
is regulated by the Excise, and that a strict surveil-
lance is kept with a view to prevent adulteration.
One of the chief substances employed for this pur-
pose being sugar, the presence of the smallest quan-
tity of this article on the premises of the manufacturer
has been deemed sufficient ground for seizure. The
chen ists to the Excise (nien of hitherto unques-
tioned infallibility in this department) having posi-
tively stated that genuine tobacco contains no ap.
preciakle quantity of sugar, the most trivial amount
thereof has Leen accordingly regarded as a proof of
adulteration. On this hypothesis numerous convic-
tions have been obtained. In 1845, a Committee of
the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into
the operation of the tobacco duties. In reply to a
question from the Chairman (Mr. Hume) Professor
Graham and the other Excise chemists, Mr. G. and
R. Phillips declared that there was no appreciable
sugar in tobacco; and having further stated that the
only test employed was fermentation and the produce
tion of alcohol, Mr. Hume remarked that " this was
a sorry account of chemistry." Mr. Hume was pro-
bably aware of the utter inadequacy of such a test.
and that the German chemists had long before dim )-
vered one, by means of which the hundredth-thousa id
part of indigenous sugar may be readily detected in a
plant. The committee, in consequence, ordered an
investigation by other chemists, which soon
led to.
most important results. Pending this analytical in-
quiry, the Excise continued their prosecutions; seizures
were made, and convictions obtained against large and
influential houses at Leeds, Norwich, and Devizes, all
on the evidence afforded by the Excise chemists. In
the mean time the chemists employed by the
House of Commons' Committee published the results
of their investigations, which were made on samples
of leaf tobacco procured from different casks of leaf
tobacco in the Queen's warehouse, at the London
Docks. They, one and all, ascertained the presence
of fermentable sugar, both in different hogshead] and
in different samples taken from the same hogshead.
Such was the utter discomfiture of the Excise chemists;
but already a vast amount of mischief had been done,
and some of the first houses in the trade hail been un-
justly fined on a false assumption. The question then
may naturally be asked—Will the Government com-
pensate those firms for the injury sustained ? and it
they do not feel themselves called on to perform
an act of retrospective justice (of which,
doubtless, they have no intention), will they
at least guard against prospective evil, by
appointing men possessing adequate scientific
acquirements ? It is well known to those
acquainted with the state of science in this
country that organic chemistry is comparatively in
itsinfancy, whi!e in the chemical schools of the con-
tinent investigations of this nature are commenced by
students of the first year. My memory especially,
recall to me this fact in the case of the Roy-al Labo-
ratory at Munich, so far back as 1839, over which
Professor Vogel, the elder, then presided. It is
further well known that all the more recent dis-
coveries, with very few exceptions, have originated in
either France or Germany. There is at the present
moment, wasting his energies in an obscure town in
a petty principality of the latter country, a man,
whose researches in this walk of science, accurate as
profound, and successful as they have been accurate,
have gained for him immortal fame—Baron Liebig.
Would it not be to the interest of the Government to
employ the intellect of such a man in the fiscal de-
' partment of the country at some pecuniary sacrifice ?
Or, if the national prejudice would be opcosed to the
introduction of foreigners, are there not some native
professors who have acquired their knowledge of this
seience according to the accurate system of investi- .
gation pursued in the German laboratories ? Amongst
others, I may select Sir Robert Kane, Drs. Blyth and
Muspratt, and Sir Benjamin Brodie's son. The
antagonism so often exhibited in the opinions of
medical men has long since passed into a proverb,
proving, as it does, that :medicine is as yet a very
imperfect science.. Let chemistry redeem itself from
a similar reproach, and instead of the conflicting
statements hitherto advanced in medico. legal inquiries,
let the uniformity of truth mark the results of
analysis. The accomplishment of such an object rests
mainly with the Government, by employing men
whose industry and science qualify them for the duties
they are called upon to discharge.
I have the honour to be, Sir, yours, &c.,
T. M. O'DWYER, M.D., M.R.C.S., Eng.
31, Hope-street, Liverpool.

CHOLERA.--THE DWELLINGS OF
THE LABOURING CLASSES.
The following requisition, signed by 287 bankers,
merchants, and traders, was left with the Lord Mayor,
at the Mansion-house, on Saturday :
" TO THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD MAYOR.
"My Lord,—Tho undersigned householders, mer-
chants, bankers, and traders of or belonging to the city
of London, beg to express to your Lordship how deeply
they feel impressed with a sense of awe at the frightful
ravages of cholera in this metropolis.
" Whilst the undersigned are anxious to declare their
recognition of the hand of the Almighty in the visitation
with which He has deemed it expedient to alil.ct the
metropolis and the entire nation, they feel deeply grate-
ful, through his infinite goodness and mercy, that the
pestilence, which has been so fatal among the poorer
classes, is now arrested in its direful career.
" The undersigned cannot but regard this visitation
as a warning of their long-neglected duty towards their
humble fellow-creatures, and earnestly beseech ofv
theur Lordship to cause a public meeting to be convened
Guildhall, or any other fitting edifice,
order that the
undersigned may give utterance to their
a 't
gratitude
of
for
which has been shown them t
the mercy
their tribulation; at the same time to devise
such mea-
sures as will improve the dwellings of the labouring
classes, shall be better enabled to resist,
in ravages of sickness and disease—to asfsuetse,
be-
comewhereby, a healthful, happy, and orderly people, and be
surrounded by influences favourable to morality and
religion."

BRITANNIA TUBULAR BRIDGE.--Last week we
informed our maders of the progress of the lifting opera-
tions, whicli, have since been favourable carried on at the
rate of six feet per twelve hours, when the hydraulic
presses are worked—and we have now to state that
there remains only about twelve feet before the tube will
have reached its permanent elevation. with respect to
the floating of tube No. 2, which cannot to all appear-
ances be tar distant, we have no positive accounts. It
will interest our readers to know that on Saturday
morning last the steamer Fairy, on her passage frau
Beaumaris to Carnarvon, sailed under the tube. Mr.
Stephenson, Mr. Forster, the Messrs. Clark, and the
other principal managers, with a great number of work-
men, who stood on the top of the tube, greeted the
Fairy with three most hearty cheers, as she glided be-
neath—the first vessel to pass under the stupendous
structure. The passengers and crew returned the com-
pliment, and fired a salute. At two o'clock in the
afternoon she took the same course, on her return from
Carnarvon to Beaumaris, when a gun was fired from off
the tube—which was acknowledged cn board by the
lowering of the flags, &e. The Fairy's must-head is
about fitty-eight feet above the level of the water, and
at the time she passed unch-r the tube, which had then
been lifted about 98 feet, there was nearly 40 feet to
spare. The passengers on the occasion were numerous,
comprising several distinguished strangers now staying
at Carnarvon, Bangor, and Beaurnaris.—Carnarvon and
Denbigh Herald, Oct. 13.

DEATu OF TILE REV. WILLIAM AULD, GREENOCK.
—This venerable minister died on Tuesday night, a Jew
hours after Mr. Morton, his a.sistunt and successor, was
ordained to the co-pastorate with him.—Caledonian
Mercury.