The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-06 00:00:00

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.

The English Eight, by whom the Elcho Challenge
Shield was won at the late Wimbledon Meeting, have
requested the Lord Mayor to be its custodian until the
next contest—a duty which, until lately, fell to the Lord
Prov.st of Edinburgh, who received it from Mr. Horatio
Ross and the victorious Eight representing Scotland. The
Lord Mayor has willingly given his consent ; and the
ceremony of presentation to his lordship, which will take
in Guildhall very shortly, will otherwise be notable as
furnishing an opportunity for a great display of the
reserve forces. This demonstration will, we understand,
in all probabily be made.
In the attempts now being made further to utilise the
hill regions of India for English residence, the Observa-
tory at Nynee Tal, itself a hill town, is to be removed to
to Raneekhet, which is said to be chosen by some of its
patrons as the future hill capital of India.—Nature.
' The munificent sum of £l,OOO has been contributed by
an anonymous donor, " G. F. 5.," to the fund for the relief
of the sufferers by the great fire at Constantinope. Sub-
scriptions amounting to a little over £12,000 have been
received at the Imperial Ottoman Bank for the fund, and
include one of £5OO from the Corporation of the City of
London, and £lOO from Messrs. J. and N. Philips and
Co., Manchester.
Dr. Eustace Smith has been created Chevalier of the
Order of Leopold, and appointed physician in ordinary to
the King of the Belgians.
Lord Justice Mellish will not take his seat upon the
bench until Michaelmas Term, but the Law 2 lines says
he will, however, be knighted immediately.
The commission of the Hon. Frederick T. Frelinghuy-
sen, as American Minister, has been sent to him ; but
there are said to be doubts o f his acceptanCe of the post,
in succession to Mr. Motley. He fears that it will inter-
fere too much with his business affairs.
Henry Madrell, the pilot who got the steamer Chaim'
ashore, through attempting to navigate the Rock Channel
at Liverpool without sufficient water, has been reduced to
a lower class of licence. He has hitherto been considered
one of the very best men in the service, and the Pilot
Committee regretted being obliged to administer so severe
a sentence.

It is understood that the Government has resolved
to embody the Irish Militia.

Mr. Dixon has placed on the notice paper his in-
tention to introduce a bill next session to amend the Ele-
mentary Education Bill.

The Rev. Orby Shipley writes to the Church
Review respecting the Court of Arches. Catholics, he
says, meaning Anglo-Catholics, are unable to bow to the
authority of the court, because it is not the court of the
Metropolitan. They have two conscientious objections
to it. It is not administered after ancient precedent, and
it allows of an appeal to a purely secular court. Mr.
Bennett is the first priest who has had courage to ignore
its authority, and few Catholics will again consent to
plead before Sir R. Phillimore's court. •
The 7 ablet gives us the Catholic sentiments on the
war. " Our sympathies," it says, "are with the great
French people. They represent the generous and Chris-
tian element in the civilisation of Europe ; for twenty
years they have stood between the Pope and
the Revolution. They are the heralds of- true
civilisation because they are the missioners of the
world. This is reason enough to enlist the symi
pathy of England in the cause of their enemies. Protes-
tant journals have said that the Irish side with the French
because they are Catholics ; they have not.added that the
English side with the Prussians because they are Lutherans,
freemasons, and infidels."
AN ATMOSPHERIC TELEGRAPII.—Nature urves
detailed description of an atmospheric telegraph invented
by Signor Guattari, which professes to effect by means of
compressed air all that is performed by an electric battery.
By an ingenious system of tubes and stopcocks the in-
ventor creates currents, or pulsations of air, which set
in motion a lei er connected with the writing apparatus.
Any number of conducting tubes may be employed, and
the machinery is so simple that it cannot get out of
order. Of course it has an advantage over the electric
system in being wholly unaffected by atmospheric in-
fluences, and in the requisite medium being always at
hand. The Royal Scientific Institute of Naples has
awarded to Signor Guattari a gold medal in recognition
of what they consider an important invention, adding a
graceful tribute on its presentation to the effect that it
was the only gold medal which the institute had e
awarded. As experiments with the machine were succea.-
fully conducted only a few weeks ago,-thesyStem cannot
be pronounced chimerical; and we hope the attention of
our Post Office authorities will be directecl to it,