The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-27 00:00:00

Sick Children.

The Prince of Wales has been giving his support
to one of the most admirable of all our charitable
institutions. Sick children have a special claim on the
care and sympathy of their elders in every rank
of life, and that claim is enhanced tenfold when the
little sufferers belong to the class which has to en-
aure habitual privation. The hospital for sick children,
at whose annual festival the Prince of Wales pre-
sided onWednesday evening, supplies a demand which
in London unfortunately never diminishes in its
urgency. The number of in-patients and out-patients
last year-709 and 15,780 respectively—shew how
extensive is the work done by the institution ;. and
it is [gratifying to find that the subscription
list keeps pace with the expenses. A fund exists for
supplying surgical instruments and for sending chil-
dren to Brighton, and similar subsidiary efforts are
made in other directions. A convalescent in-
stitution at Highgate is of immense assist-
ance in recruiting the strength of those
slowly recovering from sickness. The Queen
and the Princesses have always taken a warm interest
in the hospital, and have bestowed much kindly help
on it. The Prince of Wales has now done
his part by presiding over the annual dinner,
and by advocating the claims of the association
upon public support. A new hospital is in contem-
plation, and the subscriptions for it are promising.
One anonymous donor has
_contributed the welcome
sum of £l,OOO. •
Arithmetical Progression.

Every one has heard instances of the extraordinary
rapidity with which some kinds of property increase
in value. The present price of a few square feet of
ground in the City of London would have considerably
astonished our great-grandfathers, and it now seems
that this Jack-and-the-Beanstalk rate of growth is
not restricted to terra firma. The shares in the
New River Company exhibit the same marvellous
increase. At the recent sale by auction of a few of
these shares some curious facts were mentioned.
Charles the Second owned a number of the shares
in consideration of sums advanced to Sir Hugh
Middleton at the time of the construction
of the Canal. The King gave up thirty-
six for an annual payment of £5OO. In
1836 one of the King's shares was tested by
public auction, and proved to be worth £17,050,
thus making the whole thirty-six worth over
£613,800, or an annual income (at 4 per cent.) of
£24,000 instead of the modest £5OO originally allotted.
The sale this week was more remarkable in its results,
as one of the King's shares sold for £48,000. The
36 shares, therefore, are now worth £1,728,000,
representing an income at 4 per cent. of £69,120, or
138 times more than King Charles was content to
accept for his share.
Street Paving.
A very successful trial has been made in London,
of the Val-de-Travers asphalte, a substance which
has for many years been used in Paris. Upwards of
a year ago the City Commissioners of Sewers,
with the consent of their engineer and surveyor, re-
solved to lay down a quantity of the asphalts by
way of experiment in one of the most frequented
of the metropolitan thoroughfares Thread-
, needle - street. Owing to the satisfactory

result which appeared- to follow- the action of
the Commissioners, they have been petitioned by
the inhabitants of other streets to have the news
paving material applied to their thoroughfares a
well. It has been noticed that the Val-de-
Travers asphalte gives to a carriage-way all the
adrantages rendered by granite or macadam
without the drawbacks of either of the latter. It
does not produce a slippery pavement, it is unaffected
by heat or frost, is easily laid down, and
makes a street smooth and clean, and, lastly
and chiefly, it is enduring. This peculiarity
is what tends to mae the substance
especially valuable in the busy roadways of London,
and it is on account of. this mainly that the citi-
zens are anxious for the further adoption of the
material. To remove all doubt as to the last-
ing character of the paving, a piece of the
roadway near the Bank of England was taken up on
Wednesday, and although the portion was selected
from a spot where the traffic is usually greatest,the
reduction in its thickness, after nearly eighteen
months' wear and tear, was the least imaginable.