The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-16 00:00:00

AGILICIJLTITILE.

The Hon. E. Stanhope is collecting a large amount
of opinion in prosecution of his inquiry into the
employment of women and children in agriculture.
Chambers of Agriculture supply him with a means
of getting at the farmer's view of things, which is
both convenient and safe, and Mr. Stanhope is
making good use of it. On Saturday he got from
the Staffordshife Chambers the opinion that there
was nothing in the system pursued in the county as
to female labour which required altcratiou by law.
There seemed to be great differences of opinion as to
children's labour, but ultimately it was resolved that
no child under eight years of age should be employed
at all, and that the hours of children between the
ages of ten and thirteen be so regulated as to afford
an opportunity for attendance at school.
"THE CHARITIES OF LONDON."

The Times recently, with more enterprise than
discrimination, published 21 pages of statistics,
sheaving the receipts of "the charities of London."
This formidable table included the great societies
which have their offices in London, but whose opera..
tions are spread over the whole kingdom, perhaps
even the whole world. For instance, the Additional
Curates and the Pastoral Aid Societies are con-
sidered as metropolitan charities, although the larger
portion of their funds are spent in the provinces.
Again, the hospitals, orphanages, and other similar
institutions are considered to be purely for the benefit
of London, although their buildings contain a large
number of persons who go up from the country to
receive the benefit of them. It is difficult to imagine
how either the Lord's Day Society or the National
Sunday League can be considered a London charity.
Nor is it intelligible why the receipts for books sold
by the Tract Society should be estimated as pure
profits, when in the case of a bookseller (who would
sell the same works at a higher price) only the
difference between the cost of production and the
selling price is debited to his balance. Altogether
the broad sheet of figures may be taken as a specimen
ofindustry, but is worth very little as a basis of
argument.

THE DETAILS OF THE DEER TRADE.
Few of those who appreciate the eide.
British beer have any idea of the variety
processes through which it has to pass befeorye tilenit finds
ofee the
its way to the table. To produce the.
Double X, or the inimitable Burton,requires vast
veritable
resources, elaborate machinery, and a thorough 1 w.
ledge of the whole art and mystery. The brewerdein thelives
the manufactured article to thewholesale dealer
metropolis. Messrs. Foster, of Brook-street, are_ the
largest distributors of beer in the world. They have
a railway warehouse at Agar-town, and cellars and
stores in the Marylebone-road and Westmoreland-
street. street. The superficial area devoted to the various
purposes is about 60,000 square feet, or nearly
an acre and a-half. The ale remains in
cask for several months before it is bottled.
The ale that is intended for a warm climate is kept
longer in wood than that destined for home consump-
tion, being held in cask for a full twelvemonth, beyond
the usual period. The ale when bottled is corked by
machinery, wired by boys, and packed in tiers until
a stack is formed of 1,000 dozen. The ale remains
a few months in this condition, and is carefully
watched and tested until the beverage is suit-
able for consumption. The pale ale is sent
everywhere, but the strong sweet ale is
exported to Russia and cold climates. The former
is sent in enormous quantities to India, where it
commands a high price. The regularity and celerity
with which the various operations of washing,
bottling, wiring, packing, and storing are carried on
are astonishing, and a million or two of bottles are
filled and moved about and eventually distributed to
all parts of the globe without a single hitch in the
machinery.
(' GREAT WITS TO MADNESS NEARLY ARE ALLIED ;"
Especially if they take to drinking. A terrible
illustration of this is given in to-day's papers. A.
man, named Dunbar, who seems to have been of con-
siderable genius, having made a plaster model for a
sculptor, named Lynn, celebrated the comple-
tion of his task by drinking several glasses
of beer. Tie seems to have drunk himself
into a frenzy, and soon afterwards he cut his
throat, and was hacking and sawing at it when Mr.
Lynn rushed forward to stop him. Enraged at this
obstacle, the dypso-maniac stabbed his would-be
rescuer, and then a fierce struggle ensued ; one man
seeking to save two lives, including the assassin's,
the other seeking to destroy two, including his de-
liverer's. Eventually lelparilveede,i tip
;but Dunbarit
wais
seized and bound, and hisl throat w
required strong men tohuonllhinlit
is supposedandpre-eiit
thathim
from tearing open . wounds.
he will die.

THE LICENSED VICTUALLERS.

The same paper, which records the above horrible
tragedy at length, describes at greater length the
good deeds of the men who are primarily responsible
for it. A list, of more than a column long,
details the subscriptions of the brewers and the pub-
licans towards the Licensed Victuallers' Asylum.
The whole subscriptions amount to £1,434. Weighed
in the balances against such misery and horror as we
have just described, the alms of the brewers and
the publicans will seem lighter than vanity itself.
And this is only one case out of thousands. The
charity of the beer-makers and the beer-sellers
reminds us of nothing so much as an attempt by
usthemtoloo
put
whicho they had set on fir
pennyutwitha syrile.ige the flames in