The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-27 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS.

(From the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons.)
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 26.
Messengers from the Lords brought up the following Bills,
to which their Lordships have agreed :
Public Works (Ireland—No. 4) Bill—Public Works (Ire-
land—No. 5) Bill—Constabulary (Ireland) Bill—Leases
(Ireland) Bill—New Zealand Government Bill—Ejectments,
&c. (Ireland) Bill—Conselidated Fund (Appropriation) Bill
—Amendments to Waste Lands (Australia) Bill, without
amendment—Rateable Property (Ireland) Bill—Steam Na-
vigation Bill—Drainage of Lands Bill—Customs Duties (No.
2) Bill—Poor Employment (Ireland) Bill, with amendments
—Private Bills Bill, with an amendment.

PREVENTING THE OXIDATION OF IRON.--Mr. Poole
has taken out a patent for preventing the oxidation of iron,
and for rendering malleable iron harder and more durable.
The first improvement consists in adding to pig iron, when
in a state of fusion, from two to ten per cent. of copper,
tin, nickel, or antimony, whereby it is rendered more
malleable and less subject to oxidation. The second
im-
provement consists in coating iron with steel, or with a
species of iron containing less carbon than common cast
metal, by adding one part of blister steel to four parts of
molten cast-iron, and then continuing to add scrap iron to
the molten mass, until an iron rod is no longer rendered.
brittle by being dipped into the mixture. With this iron
common iron is coated in the same manner as in the case of
covering iron with brass. The third improvement consists
in case-hardening iron, and preventing it from rusting, by
the use of the ferrocyanide of sodium, calcium, or barium,
avoiding the use of the ferrocyanide potassium, which has
already been employed for the purpose, as mentioned in vol.
3of the Artizan, p. 116. An alkaline bath formed with car-
bonate of soda, or any of the other alkalies, is used in con-
nexion with the ferrocyanide. The iron, to be case-hardened,
requires to be heated to nearly a red heat, and is then to be
immersed in the bath, where it is raised to a higher beat,
after which it is to be plunged into the ferrocyanide previously
fused, in another vessel. The process appears to us to be far
too complicated to be likely to come into general use, even if
effectual for the purpose, of which we have doubts.—Artizan.
PRICE OF GOLD.—The premium on gold at Paris is
16 per mille, which, at the English Mint price of N. 17s.
1014 d. per ounce for standard gold, gives an exchange of 25
55; and the exchange at Paris on London at short being 25
771 A, it follows that gold is 0.87 per cent. dearer in London
than in Paris. By advices from Hamburgh the price of gold
is 436 per mark, which, at the English Mint price of 3/. Iv&
10i/d. per eunce for standard gold, gives an exchange of
13 101,4 ; and the exchange at Hamburgh on London at short
being 13 111%, it follows that gold is 0.34 per cent. dearer in
London than in Hamburgh.
A SUBSTITUTE FOR FLOGGING IN THE ARMY.—We
are informed by Sir Charles Napier that blistering was suc-
cessfully tried as a substitute tor flogging in two corps, and
he is not aware that this mode of punishment was adopted in
any. other regiment. The commanding officer of one of the
regiments in question, then stationed in Guernsey, where
liquor is cheap, determined to put a stop to the crime of
drunkenness on duty, by an appeal to the honourable feel-
ings of the soldiers, and at the same time to make drunken-
ness as unpleasant as possible, but without the lash. He
gave out an order to say that he would not flog, but trust to
the soldier's self-respect for keeping sober on duty. Next
day. a man was drunk and confined. The colonel, accom..
panted by the surgeon, went to the guard-house, and felt the
drunkard's pulse. He was declared to be in a fever. Nothing
could be more true. He was therefore put into a blanket,
and four soldiers bore him through the barracks. Hie
comrades all laughed at the care taken of him. On reaching
the hospital, the patient was put to bed and blistered between
the shoulders, fed on bread and water for a week, and then
discharged cured. He was then brought on the parade,
when the commanding officer congratulated him on his re-
covery from the fever, and sent him to rejoin his company,
where he was laughed at and jeered by his comrades during
the space of a week. Many others underwent the same
treatment; but the joke, though very amusing to the sober
soldiers, soon began to be none to the drunkards. There was
considerable pain and uneasiness—some bread, plenty of
water, but no pitying comrades—no commisseration—no
mercy. The experiment was completely successful. Not a
man of that regiment was flogged in Guernsey from the
time the men were treated with blisters; and after a fort-
night there was no such thing as a man drunk for guard or
parade. Now this regiment has been in an infamous state.—
Military Miscellany, by Henry Maxwell, F.R.S.E.
A PETRIFIED FOOT DISCOVERED IN THE THAMES.—
Yesterday afternoon, some boys, playing on the river bank,
at the end of Essex street, Strand, near the Watermens' Pier,
picked up a petrified foot, which on examination proved to
be that of a female. The ankle bone and the bones of the
toes were perfect in form and consistency, but towards the
nails of the toes, the process of decomposition had taken
place as regarded flesh, the nails being perfect. Several
gentlemen from King's College Hospital inspected it, and.
pronounced that it must have been embedded in some pecu-
liar soil for a great length of time, and had probably been
washed down from one of the sewers, as the river water bad
no tendency to petrifaction. This relic of brief mortality"
was purchased by a gentleman in the parlour of the Swan
Tavern, who expressed his intention to forward it to some
scientific institution. The foot is small, and the indications
are, that it is that of an adult female.
residence for
Lord John Russell has taken a country
the season, near Ricktnansworth, HertfonlspiryAn(l464ii 1:141
in course of preparation for tiler eveptiog Qi 44v