The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-16 00:00:00

ENGLISH SYMPATHY.

The Allgemeine Zeitung, a semi-official Berlin
paper, has an article specially devoted to ridiculing
English sympathies. After making much sport of the
value supposed to attach to British feeling, the
semi-official paper proceeds :

In reality, however, John Bull never sympathized
either with Germany or France, his sympathies being re-
served for his worthy self. The enthusiasm once felt for
the Germans and now for the French rests on shillings
and pence. It was to the interest of England that France
should be humbled, and the interest of English trade that
France and Germany should be mutually weakened and
injured, that they might for a long time cease to compete
with England in the world's markets. The war has
already brought England much money and revived its
depressed trade, the exports increasing a million in Octo-
ber, and eight millions in the whole year. The longer the
war lasts the better for manufacturers, provison merchants,
and gunsmiths.
This is an elevated estimate of the nature of British
feeling. People are naturally disposed to underrate
what they cannot obtain, and possibly the almost
complete transference of British sympathy from
the Gt.rman to the French cause may have had a
good deal to do with this depreciation. But even if
it be all true, there is some excuse for us. Our
sympathies have often been with Germany at
different periods of our history ; and not 'in-
frequently has this favourable feeling taken
a practical turn. In the wars of Frederick the Great,
and several times since, we have again and again
subsidised the Prussian armies, again and again
helped them to fight. There can be no question as
to the benefit Prussia obtained from our " benevolent

neutrality :" it would be interesting it the Allgemeine
Zeitung would kindly point out what benefit we de-
rived from it ourselves.

TUB •GREAT GUN UNDER TRIAL.

The trial of the great gun at the Royal Arsenal,
Woolwich, has been satisfactorily accomplished.
This gun, which weighs 35 tons, is the most power-
ful piece of ordnan :0 in existence. It was
loaded with 75 lb. of pebble powder, and the 700 lb.
shot,which is a cylinder of a foot in diameter and two
and a half feet in length, fitted with brass studs to
fit the rifling of the bore.. The monster gun was
fired twice at the proof butts, and was entirely
unchanged, showing no sign of crack or injury of
any kind. The recoil carried the sleigh, or
carriage on which it stool, about nine feet to the
rear, up iron plates which were laid at an angle of
seven degrees. The gun was fired by a gunner in a
canvas suit, who Etoocl before a magnetic bat-
tery, and at the word " Fire," touched a
stud. The quantity of powder used in sub-
sequent experiments will be increased to 150 pounds,
as the service charge is to be 1201 b., and it is usual
to try every gun with a test one-fifth more powerful
than it will have to bear on service. The officials
and others present at the trial were fully satisfied of
the capacity of the formidable weapon.

THE TRANSMISSION OF SMALLPDX.

The gravity of the present epidemic of smallpox
in the metropolis is likely to do public service, for it
has called the attention of the authorities both to the
neglect of vaccination among the lower orders, and to
the recklessness with which infection is transmitted. A.
man and his wife named Barfield have been summoned
by the Islington Vestry for a breach of the law in this
respect which might have been attended with very
serious consequences. They lived in Church-passage,
Islington, and one of their children caught the
smallpox. It was removed to the hospital, and the
sanitary inspector told the mother to disinfect her
rooms, and not to take in any mangling before doing
so. The defendants disinfected their rooms, and
afterwards removed. In their new lodgings another
child caught the smallpox and died of it. The next
day the woman mangled some clothes and took them
home without disinfecting them, and for this she and
her husband were summoned. The mangle
was kept -in the front room, and the child
died in the back ; but the evidence shewe i that the
woman while attending on the child went from one
to the other. When she was told to disinfect the
rooms she tore the notice in pieces, and said she
should take in mangling whenever she could get it.
The magistrate, after remarking on the importance
of the case, said the authorities deserved great credit
for taking it up. The woman must pay a fine of
20s. and 12s. costs, or be imprisoned for fourteen
days. The man must pay a fine of Is. and 2s, costs.
Both were removed to the cells.