The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-01 00:00:00

NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE,

A GUA AAIARELLA restores the Human Hair
I-1 to its pristine hue, no matter at what age.
J NO. GOSNE I,L and CO. have at length, with the aid of one of
the most eminent Chemists, succeeded in perfecting this wonder-
ful liquid. It is now offered to the public in a more concentrated
form, and at a lower price.
Sold in bottles, Es each; also 55., 7s. rd., and 159. each, nclud-
ng brush.
Red Bull Wharf, Angel-passage, f 3, Lipper Thames-street, Lon-
don, E.C.

THORLEY'S HORSE and - CATTLE SPICE,
In Penny Pack ets only, of all Corn Chandlers in London, and
Of all Grocers, Druggists. and Corn Dealers in the Country.

NATIONAL INSTITUTION for DISEASES
of the SKIN, Gray's-inn-road and Mitre-street. Physi-
cian, Dr. BARR MEADOWS, 40, Dover-street, Piccadilly. Ave-
rage number of Patients under treatment, 1,000 weekly. Free
letters are available for necessitous applicants.
THOMAS ROBINSON, Hon. See.

STRUGGLES OF A VILLAGE LAD, THE.
Spewing that nothing is difficult when you try. Illurainatte
fancy cover, is. ; cloth boards, ls. 6d. Pot free for stamps.
London—W. TWEED lE. 337. Strand.

1.79 GS OF ALL THE BIRDS WHICH BREED
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interesting particulars ; 170 utlines, printed on thick paper fox
painting. offering a moat instructive and delightful amusement to
young persons, Price 64. Tinted, Is. Post free for stamps
London—W. T7WEEDIE. 337. Strand.

TEMPERANCE STATED AND ILLUSTRATED.
By Eminent Writers. This carefully-collated selection of facts,
testimonies, and opinions in favour of Abstinence is admirably
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who may for the first time he induced to investigate the claims
the Tourerance Movement. lettered, price Is. Cd. Post free
for Staub.
LONdnli TwEgr.)x. 337. Strand.

THEATRES, AND AMUSEMENTS.

GAIETY—Peter Spyk. Dolly. Bluebeard.
QuEEres-My Wife's Dentist. 'Twixt Axe and Crown.
OLvarpic—Old Gooseberry. Little Em'ly. Undine.
VAUDEVILLE—ChiseIIing. Two Roses. Don Carlos.
STRAND—Kind to a Fault. Pilgrim of Love.
NATIONAL STANDARD—Put Yourself in his Place. The

Hole in the Wall.
ALHAMBRA—Grand Ballet and Varieties.
CREMORNE—Fireworks, Ballet, &c.
ST. JAMES'S HALL.—Christy Minstrels. Every evening.
MADAME TUSSAUD'S (Baker-street) —From 11 a.m. till 3
p.m. and 7 till 10 p.m. ls.; extra rooms, 6d.
POLYTECHNIC—Professor Pepper's Ghosts. Afternoon and
Evening.

-111 T

ORNING EDITION

LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1870.

Oun anticipations are often falsified in this boas

ful nineteenth century in a manner the most
astounding. No sooner had we hit upon our
international exhibitions, for example, than people
began to talk about the millennium. Swords were to be
beaten into ploughshares, and spear-heads, or at any
rate, bayonets, into reaping-hooks. That was nearly
twenty years ago. It was in 1851 when a Crystal Palace
glii4ered on the green sward of Hyde Park, to the north
east of the spot where now stands the huge dome of
the Albert Hall, due east of where now glitters
yet more gorgeously the half ecclesiastical shrine of
the gold encrusted Albert Memorial. Between then
and now, how many wars have there been ? Among
others, there have been as sanguinary and as destruc-
tive wars, both in the old world and the new, as his-
tory has anywhere recorded. There have been in suc-
cession the Crimeanwar, and the Chinese war, and the
Japanese war, and the Mexican war, and the great
civil war in America, and the Italian war, and the
great internecine German war between Prussia and
Austria, and the Indian mutiny, and the war in New
Zealand, and the war in Abyssinia. Finally, there
is the terrible war now raging so furiously be-
tween the two greatest military nations on the
European Continent. After twenty years, or very
nearly twenty years, have thus succeeded 1851, this,
it will be admitted, looks very like the approach of
the looked-for Millennium !

Again, what with our railroads and electric tele-
graphs, what with our steam vessels and locomo-
tives, what with our steam-printing presses and
our übiquitous newspaper correspondents, it has
long come to be regarded as impossible or next
to impossible to keep the public in the dark in regard
to any posts whatever for any, even the most fugi-
tive, intervals of time. Nevertheless, with all these
appliances at command, how has the case been, not
here in England alone, but all over Western Europe
during the last week or ten days, in regard to two of
the largest armies for many years gathered
together ? Railways, telegrams, journals, to the con-
trary notwithstanding! Millions have been in absolute
darkness all that while as to what in the name of
fortune has become of either of those armies. Looking
at the map of the seat of war, in wondering quest of
either of them, one has been tempted often to say, as
the interlocutors exclaim at the close of their first col-
lective interview with the Ghost in " Hamlet," '"Tis
here ! " "'Tis there ! " "'Tis gone ! " In one sense we
are no better off than our forefathers. Like them
we have to wait—a lesser time, it is true—but, in
either case, we have to exercise our patience. In
another sense we are much worse off than our pre-
decessors, for we are more readily open to deception.
Bewildering telegrams make bad worse. Accordingly
as the news hails from Paris or Berlin—from this
headquarter or from that—the tidings come with
the most flagrant contradictions. All this is in some
respects a wholesome lesson to those who are dis-
posed to be boastful as to the pre-eminence of the pre-
sent over all preceding generations. With all our
vaunted enlightenment, we are really very little
more enlightened. With all our impassioned yearn-
ings for peace, we are not a jot less homicidal.

WE fear that the vision which was entertained in
some quarters that a process had been discovered

whereby the sewage of our towns could be converted
into portable guano, has been entirely and somewhat
roughly dispelled by a Parliamentary return which
has recently been published. We all know that

town sewage is a most valuable fertiliser
when applied to the soil, a most noxious
pest when allowed to escape into our
rivers. We do not need to be told that when
the sewage of towns can be spread over adjacent land
the results are most satisfactory, and a high degree
of fertility is attained at the same time that a
grievous nuisance is abated. But while this mode
of dealing with sewage is practicable in small towns
where the quantity is manageable, and laud is not
of excessive value, the case is different in large
towns and cities. There the amount of sewage is
prodigious, and the extent of land needed to get rid
of it is very great, at the same time that the value of
land is very high. Clearly, then, if any means could
be devised whereby the sewage could be converted
into portable manure, capable of conveyance to any
part of the kingdom, a serious difficulty would be
surmounted, and a substantial boon conferred. In

fact, town and country would alike benefit. These
advantages seemed to be offered by. the "A. B. C."
process. This process consists in passing the sewage
of a town into works, where it is mixed with certain
chemicals, and, the solid matter having been ex-
tracted, the harmless and comparatively pure water
with which it is was originally mixed is allowed to
pass off into the river. The solid matter is then
dried and is offered for sale as native guano. This
process is ingenious and is apparently successful. A
casual visitor inspecting the works at Leamington
would see the solid manure ready for sale, and the
water which originally contained it running almost
pure into the adjacent Leam. Unfortunately there
are two tests which quickly ascertain the value of a
process of this kind, the purity of the effluent liquid
and the fertilising properties of the manure. Of
course the greater the first, the greater also should be the
second. The more the sewage matter had been
taken out of the one, the more should be left behind
in the other.

The report presented by Sir WILLIAM DENISON,
Mr. FRANKLAND, and Mr. CHALMERS MORTON, the
commissioners appointed to inquire into the protec-
tion of rivers, shows that the "A. B. C." process is an
entire failure. The effluent water that poured into
the Learn contained a much larger per tentage of
sewage matter than the maximum permitted by law.
On the other hand, the " native guano " was
almost worthless, commercially, and the cost
of production far more than swallowed up the
small apparent profit made upon the sales.
The theoretical value of the manure is