The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-05 00:00:00

r 11111 E COMET.—An intelligible astronomical)
-1- DIAGRAM, indicating the position of the Comet in
relation to the Constellation of the Great Bear, will appear
in the LONDON REVIEW AND WEEKLY JOURNAL,
conducted by Charles Mackay, of Saturday next, July 7.
Office, 11, Southampton-street, Strand.

BE N 8 0 N'S T
" Perfection of mechanism."--Morning Post.
Gold
Silver 2to 50 guineas.
Send 2 stamps for Benson's Illustrated Pamphlet, descrip-
tive of every construction of watch now made, with their
prices.
Watches sent to all parts of the kingdom free by post, or to
India and rue Colonies for ss. extra.
33 and 34, Ludgate hill, London, B.C. Established 17!.
TREATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Less see, Mr. J. B. Buekstone.
THIS EVENING the performances will oommenee with
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. Messrs. C. Mathews, Buck-
stone, Compton, Chippendale, Rogers, Mrs. C. Mathews, Miss
Weekes, and Mrs. Wilkins.
After which, the new farce, entitled FITZSMYTHE OF
Fl'f ZSHE HALL. Messrs. Buckstone, W. Farren, and
ltogers Mrs. Wilkins and Miss Henrade.
To conclude with THE ODDITIES OF THE OHIO. By
the Leolercqs.

Commence at 7.

ROYAL PRINCE S S'S THEATRE.-
Lessee, Mr. A. Harris.
THIS EVENING, will be performed THE MERRY
WIVES OF WINDSOR. Sir John Falstaff, Mr. Phelps. :
To oonolude with THRICE MARRIED. Mr. Meadow
Miss C. Lecleroq, Jul

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intuitive knowledge (for it becomes intuitive) of
the allowance requisite for the direction of the
wind, and the parabolic curve described by
every projectile in long shots—all this needs
considerable experience, and a zest for the
object. It is with pleasure, therefore, that we have
witnessed the formation of several Rifle Corps
already, and most cordially do we recommend
them to the attention of oar young gentlemen.
We all know what a formidable body the French
Chasseurs de Vincennes are ; and we have all been
rejoicing lately in the efficiency of the Turkish Rifles,
trained on their model, at Oltenitza ; but should an
enemy ever land on our shores, the merits
of the rifle would display themselves tenfold.
With every inch of our country well known to us,
and abounding, as it does, from its populousness
and high cultivation, with available shelter for
defence and ambuscade, a national supply of rifle-
men would almost limit an invader to the coast
on which he landed. For domestic defence, at any
point, it would hold any enemy in fear, and per-
haps in check, till our screw steamers and regulars
could combine arrangements to finish the business.
Then, after adverting to the Duke of WELLING-
TON accepting the ' colonelcy, with the Earl of
PERTH as major, and to the letter of Lord PALMER-
STON accepting the offer of a volunteer corps, &c.,
we went on to say :—" In Prussia, the Landwehr
familiarises the youth to the use of arms. Here
we have nothing of the kind ; but were a taste
for rifle practice diffused pretty widely, it would go
far to qualify our young men to become, at a very
short warning, most efficient defenders of their
country. The fundamental qualification is to be a
good shot; the requisite drill is more easily ac-
quired, but for the former, skill and practice are
essential. Where so much of the training must
consist in target work, the requisite discipline be-
comes a highly interesting and stimulating amuse.
ment ; and some of us can testify from experience
that well conducted rifle practice is only second in in-
terest to the fowlin g-piece and the pointer. We really
think it preferable to the modern battue shooting,
a practice all but unknown when those of us above
50 had not reached half that age. We most heartily
wish success to the Victoria Rifles, and hope they
will soon be followed by other corps competing
with them in furnishing first-rate marksmen. We
do not quarrel with YOUNG ENGLAND for their
taste for cricket, but we must hold that the man
who can hit the bull's- eye very often, may be of
much more service to his country than the man
who can score most notches, or knock down most

wickets."

These having been so long our deliberate views,
backed as they were from time to time by appeals
to an indifferent public, we can but heartily rejoice
that they are now shared by the whole nation, and
that soon we may expect to see every town in Eng-
land setting up its rifle butts, and the rifle becoming
to England what her long-bow once was.

Alas ! for the poor little Innocents. The hot
weather is beginning to tell upon them already.
It was only on Tuesday last that the dog-days
commenced, and that we had our first glimpse
of summer weather. And upon that very even-
ing had we not an untimely " count out" in the
Commons ? It appeared at the moment quite a
casualty, something wholly fortuitous, a simple
inadvertence, one that nobody at all had preme-
ditated. But a rumour since then unfolds its
wings and begins to flutter about clubland—to
the effect that the count out was by no means
accidental—that it was, on the contrary, a dodge
deliberately resorted to by the allied gas, water,
and railway interest to defeat, by delay, the Me-
tropolitan Gas Regulation Bill ! Nay, the indi-
vidual member upon whom this ingenious " do" can
be fathered has been particularised. Mr. JAMES
BEAL, taking up his pen at 209, Piccadilly, and ad-
dressing himself to our contemporary the Daily News,
has pointed the feather end of it distinctly at the hon.
member for Peterboro' ! Referring to the count
out on Friday, and attributing it, as before said, to
a device of the allied gas, water, and railway in-
terests, with a view to the defeating by delay of the
Metropolitan Gas Regulation Bill—" Mr. WHAL-
LEY," he writes, " has the credit of the achieve-
ment." To whomsoever this credit appertains
there is the suspicion of the dodge here specified as
one disingenuously resorted to by the advocates and
abettors of the gas monopoly. At the very least
this appears upon the face of it rather suspi-
cious. The count out occurring when it did has an
ugly look. It is unquestionably a matter that re-
quires searching investigation. More particularly
is this desirable seeing how energetically the gas
delegates, led onward by the honourable
baronet the member for Westminster, have
been battling of late in the interests of the great
body of the gas consumers! The odds against
them all the while being enormous, as might be
recognised, as the phrase is, with half an cye, upon
the metest casual glance at the funds upon the
opposing sides—the delegates themselves with an
almost empty money-bag, and the gas companies
confronting them with an aggregate capital of
somewhere about £8,000,000. Notwithstanding
which disparity of " means" or " materiel," so to
speak—RlGHT was here again proving, time after
time, just one too many for MIGIIT, when lo ! there
opens before the next advance move of the delegates
the pitfall of Tuesday night's count-out; dug, or,
at any rate, covered over, quoth rumour, by
that doughty champion of the gas companies, the
hon. gentleman the member for Peterboro'.
However this may be, in truth, the count out of the
preceding evening was as smpicicus as it was inop-
portune. ,

. Yesterday again two more of the unfortunate
Innocents that are already massacred fell untimely
victims before the advent of that seasonable
battzi which appropriately ushers in towards the
close of 'July the heathery sport of the August
grouse-shooting. One of these numbered 25 upon
the list of votes and proceedings of the House of
Commons (No. 195) under date Mercurii 4. die
'tali 1860, appearing there under its own
dirty frowsy name of Dealers in Marine
Stores Bill, already read a first and second
time, and yesterday to be considered in
committee. The object of this bill by the
way, it may be at once stated, is, or rather was, of
the most highly moral kind. Mr. SPOONER
watched over its development, and was seconded
in the humane attempt by Mr. NEWDEGATE. Was
it not, in fact, designed expressly to " put down,"
after the fashion of Sir PETER LAURIE, the Re-
ceivers of Stolen Goods ? But how ? By means
of a bill that the Home Secretary was obliged to
stigmatise last night as mere arbitrary in its pro-
visions than any he (Sir G. C. LEwis) well remem-
bered to have k-een. And certainly on looking into
even a few amoy,g, these provisions, it appears to
have well deserved this rather unenviable charac-
ter. It would (unless modified in Committee) have
rendered it incumbent upon all plumbers, black-
smiths, silversmiths, ironmongers, in fact all per-
sons dealing in metal, to take out a license, and to
be liable at all times to police inspections ! One
of the difficulties appeared to be the discovery of
some exact definition of -what might be said really
and truly to define the Marine-store Dealer. As