The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-07 00:00:00

THE GENERAL DISARMAMENT QUESTION.—The
Paris correspondent of the Telegraph contradicts the re-
port that France has proposed to the other great military
powers general disarmament. This is not likely to be the
case, especially after Count Bismarck's speech. The
present is not a suitable time to make reductions in the
army, although it may be desirable to lessen the cost of a
large army establishment. The reduction of the military
contingent lately referred to meant no more than that a
certain proportion of men had been sent on furlough.
A ROYAL GIFT.—The Philadelphia Press says:—
Just before leaving Boston, Prince Arthur sent to Miss
Minnie Sherman, daughter of General Sherman, a chaste
and costly gold medallion, having his likeness on one side
and that of Queen Victoria on the other. Accompanying
the gift was a delicately worded note, in which the Prince
begged that Miss Sherman would accept the medallion as
a token of the appreciation of the generous hospitalities he
had experienced at the house of her father, and as a slight
tribute to the beauty of American women, of which she
was so striking an exponent.
COUNT BISMARCK ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.=
Count Bismarck made a long speech against the motion
for the abolition of capital punishment which was
recently carried in the North German Parliament. He
stated that the opponents of capital punishment attached-
too much importance to death, and put too great
a value upon life, and their views were based on
a morbid tendency to treat the criminal with more
consideration than his victim. As to the wrongfulness of
taking human life, did not numbers of people die annually
in factories and mines ; and if innocent men were sacri-
ficed to secure the public comfort, why should a criminal
be spared? He thought the responsibility of condemning
a man to imprisonment for life was as heavy as that
of condemning him to death. He called the movement a
"morbid sentimentality of the day," which it was desi-
rable to oppose with vigour.
THE ARMY IN 'ENGLAND.—Great Britain, says
the Army and Nary Gazette, is to be divided into nine
great military commands, with fourteen districts within
those commands, conterminous with them and with the
counties, which will make this ceuntry one for all military
purposes. The Inspectors of Reserve Forces, have
becerne inspectors on the general staff of the army, in
order that they may be part of this general united military
administration. There will be twice as many recruiting
districts as before. There were four in England, one in
Seotland, and two in Ireland, or seven in aIL There 'will
now be fourteen. There will be recruiting stations open
at London, Dover, Bristol, Portsmouth, Plymouth,
Birmingham, Peterborough, Liverpool, Manchester, •
Newcastle-on-Tyne, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness, and
Dublin.

THE GAIrE AND THE TURNIPS.—The Dundee.
Advertiser, in an
.agricultural report, mentions having
made special exarninittin into numerous turnip-fields on
the braes of the Carse of Gowrie, and thus des,,:Til-K,s its
experience; gained by actual observation :—" du.,trac-
tion from hares, rabbits, pigeons, and frcm crows its
frightful—enough to make the farmers' gorge rise. We
noticed that the side of the turnip exposed to the
south and the rays of the sun was invariably
attacked, being the only part that could be assailed
during the severe frost by the game. The roots were
cut and scraped into every conceivable shape. After
the hare and the rabbit had satisfied themselves, it was
then the turn of the pigeons and crows to follow up the
destruction of the tuber, which they found to be easily
accomplished. The strong bills of the crows worked most
disastrously. No wonder that the farmers are disgusted
at the Game Laws, seeing the produce of their irksome
toils brought to such a pass. The sooner they associate
and agitate for the complete removal of these laws the
better."

PAPAL MONEY IN FILINCE.—There has lately
been a great deal of excitement in Paris respecting the
Roman money which the French Government refuses
any longer to authorise the fiscal establishments to
receive without a loss of 9 per cent. The public irritation
at this inconvenient change is not lessened by the offer of
the Coniptoir d'Escompte to accept the same money at a
loss of 5 per cent. only. The Sa/ut Feblic, a Lyons paper,
says that it is quite plain that if a financial com-
pany can make a good speculation on terms
so much more favourable to the public, the Govern-
ment's affected generosity deserves little credit, and the
public is deceived and mulcted. The Monde suggests a
mode by which the objectionable coins might be with-
drawn from circulation i France without prejudice to
the public. Let the faithful and the priests who make
collections for Peter's Pence effect a gratuitous exchange
of the moneys so collected in their immediate circles.
They could tnen transmit their gatherings to Rome in the
Pontifical coin."

THE SAN DONATO COLLECTION.—The sale or
the ancient pictures in the great San Donato collection
commenced on Friday in Paris. At the previous sale the
works of the French painters in the 18th century sold for im-
mense sums, while on Friday Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese,
Domenichino and Perugino were obtained at comparatively
low prices, without any eager competition. The only
painting which obtained anything like its real value was
" A Venetian Supper," by iorgione, which was purchased
by a dealer, M. Reuter. La Belle Tani, by Veronese, was
sold for 30,200 f. An Adam and Eve by Tintorctto, full of
light and grace, obtained only 6,000 f. A Virgin and Child
by Perugino, (the roaster of Raphael), sold for
39,000 f. There was a Francesco degli Albizzi by Sebastian
del Piombo, whose works are not common which sold for
6,000 f.. but a series of views of Venice, attributed
to Marieechi were sold for 1751 r. One of the most extra-
ordinary events of the sale was the purchase of a Saint
Catherine, by Domenichino, for 520 fr. Another was the
price given for a " Supper at Emmaus," by Titian,
a very fine work, although it has suffered from
retouching. The name of Titian alone one might have
thought would have raised the competition beyond 12,500 f.
A Greuzo sold at the previous sale for 89,000 f. A Titian
on Friday could but obtain 12,500 f. So much for faShion
in art ! The sum total produced by the ancient paintings
was 189,315 f. ; that of the French school and marbles was
over a million.

Tug VISITATION AND RELIEF OF THE POOR.---Mr.
Henry Ilownall, the chairman of the Middlesex magi-
strates, has issued a pamphlet, advocating some impor-
portant reforms in connection with the visitation and
relief of the poor. He recommends a much greater
distinction to be made in poor-houses, between the aged
poor and the able-bodied, and that greater facilities
should be permitted for the relatives and friends of the
former to visit them and bring them presents. Especially
should the visits of benevolent ladies be encouraged.
Their aid in the right management of females is essential,
while their services in reading to the sick and instructing
the young are invaluable. Mr. Pownall shews by prison
statistics that the effect of encouraging such visits
has been to reduce by one half the number of
disorderly women sent to gaol from poor-houses.
He also recommends that the poor-rates should be raised
by national taxation in equable proportions, and that
-the laws of settlement should be altered. Thus the
whole of a certain midland parish is owned by an UP.
who employs on his estate 200 men and women who are
not permitted to reside on his land, but in an adjoining
parish whose heavily-rated tradesmen and other occu-
pants have to pay entirely for the expenses of sickness,
vice, and old age, of these poor persons, whilst
,their
wealthy neighbour receives the benefit of their laboui• and
time of health. Similarly the affluent West End parishes
with low rates enjoy the services of persons who, in time
of poverty, come upon the heavily-rated, struggling East-
Enders,

THE METROPOLITAN RAILWAY.—Lord Justice Giffard
ahs heard an appeal in the Court of Appeal from a deci-
sion of Vice-Chancellor James in the case of " Salisbury
v. the Metropolitan Railway," whereby the Vice-Chan-
Cellor refused to restrain the directors from paying dividends,
as theplaintiff alleged, out of capital, because the plaintiff
had not asked the interposition of the court with sufficient
promptitude. The case arose from a difference in the
estimated value of lands which the company had been
f- ,ed to buy, in consequence of injury done to, their
adations. The Lord Justice said there was no case
,atever for an interlocutory injunction such as that
eyed for, the plaintiff having delayed his case 13(,) long,
1 he accrodingly dismissed the appeal.
jIIARGE AGAINST A MERCFIANT.—Mr. Robert Brown,
Irchant, of Cornhill, who is charged with obtaining the
eptances to two bills of exchange by fraud, has been
in examined at the Mansion House. The prisoner
teed a Scotch firm of shipbuilders to build
iron screw steamers, and obtained £1,500
its commission. teacher of languages, named
rski has now been called, and admitted signing the
;ract; for building the ships, though he had no capital,
had never been a shipowner. He signed several bills
;he prisoner at his request.
IARGE OF FORGERY. —Richard Batten, a secretary and
I, who was said to have been educated at Harrow,
been charged at the Lancashire Assizes with forging
mnissory note for £1,500. He wrote from the Water 100
d, Liverpool, to a firm of money lenders in London
tg for a loan of £l,OOO. He represented himself to be
`Beer named Cooke, in the Lancers, and sent his pho-
Th, which he desired them to verify at the United
ice Club. On finding there was an officer of the name
ioke in the regiment, that he had property, and that
;holograph was his likeness, a promissory note for
)0 was sent down to the prisoner, and signed by him
to name of Cooke. Before the money was paid, how-
an accidental communication with the real Lieu-
it Cooke exposed the fraud. The prosecutors and
.enant Cooke united in recommending prisoner to
;yr on account of his family, but the judge observed
the case was tb bad one, and sentenced to seven years'
PCITitIISIO. 1;;Isti;*:

THE BISHOPS AND THE. COUNCIL.
The Bishop of Quimper and Leonhas published a pastoral
almost entirely devoted to the question of Papal Infalli-
bility. He says that when the Pope solemnly promulgates
er.les of belief and of conduct as teacher of
all Christians, then he is really infallible. This is an in-
evitable necessity, it is his right, the right of bishops
and priests of all the faithful and of the whole Church.
The Bishop of Hebron and curs of Geneva, has addressed
a letter of explanation respecting his speech; and
his attitude in the Council to the journal of
Geneva. " You judge the Council," he says, "at
a distance, and by means of partial accounts. There
are, in fact, many diverse opinions and tendencies among
the bishops, but these do not affect the complete unity of
the faith. Some bishops think the proclamation of
the complete rights and authority of the Vicar of Christ
is inopportune. They think it more prudent to suspend
certain promulgations to conciliate the suspicious
susceptibility of civil powers. Anxious for weak souls,
and sensible of the dangers of the Church in our epoch,
they hope by this reserve the better to obtain the goodwill
of States and the conversion of Protestants. Others
more numerous admire this prudence, but prefer the in-
tegral affirmation of the truth. I am with them. Ido
not doubt either our age or the secular powers." The
Ga:ette Populairc deCologne has an article on the Augsburg
Ga.:rue, in which it says that behind that journal is a per-
sonage c.ipecially protected by his high extuiaal position, who
is not himself obliged to observe secrecy, andwho therefore
feels himself bound to make public all he knows of the
Council. Those who are not familiar with the diplomatic
and ecclesiastical world of Rome would be perplexed to
discover the name of this personage. Notwithstanding
the measures adopted against the correspondents of hostile
journals, the Augsburg Gazette can consequently continue
its revelations. The Berlin, Post says that a report is
current in the diplomatic circles of Vienna to the effect
that the Austrian Ambassador at Rome has been giving un-
sparing warning,s to the Curia, which have produced a storm
in the Vatican, the Jesuits declaring that the Papal
Nuncio must be recalled from Vienna. Antonelli him-
self is reported to have said to Cardinal Rauscher,
" Things have come to such a pass with you in Austria
that you have ministers who might be placed undt
interdict.