The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-20 00:00:00

The 0 esterreichische Zeitung ofto•day contains

an article, in which the writer maintains thal Austria is
not impoverished, but naturally he fails to make good his
thesis. State domains and railroads have been sold, hun-
dreds of millions of florins have been spent for warlike pur-
poses, Government stock bearing 5 per cent. interest is at
61, the metallic currency is at a premium of 32 per cent.,
and it is therefore absurd to say that the nation is as
rich as it was formerly. As it may be urged that it is the
wealthier classes who most feel the fall in the price of Go-
vernment stock and the deterioration of the currency, it
may be as well to observe that poor and rich now have to
pay 13211. for what is worth but 10011.
ABOLITION OF PASSPORTS IN SWEDEN.—The
Swedish public were agreeably surprised by the appearance
in yesterday's official gazette, Oct. 10 (the Post-och Inrikes
Tidningar), of a Royal Ordinance, dated September 21, by
which the system of passports is entirely abolished in
Sweden. This ordinance repeals formally all existing laws
relating to passports, and enacts that henceforth no such
document shall be required, either on entering or on leaving
the country, or for travelling in the interior. Although
passports for some time have been virtually abolished in
many of the German States, no formal regulation to that '
effect exists in Germany or elsewhere. Therefore Sweden
is the first continental country where such a law has been
passed. This being the case, the matter is of sufficifilt im-
portance to call the world's attention to the feat as an
example to be followed by other Governments. In 1857 a
very liberal Customs' tariff was adopted by the Diet. In
both these respects—free trade and exemption from the pass •
port nuisance—Sweden has of late made great steps in
advance of most, if not all, continental States, as becomes a
country where a free press has long been one of the funda-
mental institutions, and constitutional liberty is as old as
that of Great Britain herself.
HEREFORD CATTLE.—A great sale by public auc-
tion of cattle belonging to Mr. Rea, one of the first of Here.
ford breeders, took place at Menaughty on Tuesday. The
auctioneer (Mr. Russell) stated at the sale that for the last
20 years Mr. Rca, at the Royal Agricultural and all the
principal shows of Hereford cattle in the kingdom, had
taken upwards of 200 first-class prizes, and sold a great
number of animals for exportation to Australia, Jamaica,
and America. There were about 150 lots, and the prices
fetched were in some cases high, though not extravagant.
The highest figure was £157 10s. for a bull, " Sir Benja-
min," and the total sum realised was nearly £3,000, some of
the lots being withdrawn in consequence of the lateness of
the hour and the departure of a portion of the company.
THE GLEANER'S BELL.—Recently, at the ancient
town of Great Wakering, in Essex, with some friends, I
found the sexton or bell-ringer just about to enter the
church tower for the purpose of tolling the bell. It was then
on the stroke of 6 o'clock p.m. Thinking there was to be
weekly evening service, we proposed retiring, as we had not
come to pray, but to pry into the curiosities of the place.
The old man told us to stay, as he was only going to ring
for the gleaners, and added that he did this regularly dur-
lug harvest time, at sunrise and sundown. Is this custom
common to all counties of England ? How far back may it
be traced? And is it simply to be ascribed to the want of
watches and clocks in bygone times ? Or is there a sacred
token of prayer and praise attached to it ? Notes and
Queries.

HEALTH OF THE DUKE OF NORFOLK.—WO are
sorry to hear that the illness of his Grace the Duke of Nor-
folk has taken an unfavourable turn, and that his recovery
is considered scarcely possible. The duke still remains at
his villa at Littlehampton, as it is not thought that he
would be able to bear being moved even so short a distance
as to Arundel Castle. He has received the last rites and
sacraments of his Church from the hands of one of the
London Oratory: Tho duchess is unremitting in her at-
tendance on her husband's sick bed.
THE BATTLE OF VULTURNO.—It was no unfitting
spot for the closing act of such a struggle. The prize of
victory—that fair city of Naples itself—was almost in sight
of the combatants. Close at hand, and on one edge of the
battle -field is the splendid palace of Caserta, in which the
ancestors of the young King had held royal state for more
than a century past. It is the masterpiece of Vanvitelli,
and amongst the most magnificent of Royal residences
in Europe. Those who have visited the spot will_remember
the gardens with the cascades, and how the cascades
are so arranged as to represent quaint combinations of
statues and mystical emblems. The forests of ilex be-
hind the palace swarm with game, and herein it was that
the ancestors of the young King—being themselves Kings
of Naples—used to take their pastime, and divert them-
selves with the slaughter of wild animals, when the affairs
of state no longer claimed their attention: Francis 11. all
but played his last throw for empire in his own park.—
Once a Wee!;.
THE AGAPEMONE AGAIN.—Mr. Hodder, the
fighting man of the. " Abode of Love," having failed in his
mission to wrest Mrs. Price from her husband at Glaston-
bury, Mr. Charles Verriour, the resident lawyer in the in-
stitution, has been commissioned to undertake the task of
separating man and wife once more. Mr. Verriour on Fri-
day visited Glastonbury, and made his way to the house
in which the Rev. Lewis Price and his captured lady
have taken up their residence. Mr. Cruse, the land-
lord of the dwelling, opened the door, and at once re-
cognised the close-shaven applicant as a follower of
Henry James Prince. As soon as the door was open, Mr.
Verriour placed his foot so as to prevent its being closed,
and asked for an interview with Mr. Price. Ho was told
that Mr. Price had resolved to hold no further communi-
cation with the fraternity, and that anything ho wished
to say must be said through the ex-Agapemonite's
solicitor. The lawyer kept up a conversation with the
landlord outside the house for some time, hoping probably
to attract Mrs. Price's attention. Over and over again he
asserted that he only desired to see Mr. Price, and would
not avail himself of any opportunity to speak to the lady.
Mr. Cruse eventually left the Agapernonite in the street,
and in less than a minute afterwards the ambassador of
Mr. Prince was detected clandestinely conversing with Mrs.
Prince through her bedroom window. As soon as this dis-
covery was made the landlord's indignation was aroused,
and he followed the lawyer to the George Hotel, where a
phaeton and horse were waiting, and on the way thither
and at the inn exposed the man with extraordinary earnest-
ness. The foiled commissioner of the Agapemone deemed
it wise to leave Glastonbury with all haste. Our corre-
spondent states that there is no blame to be attached to
Mrs. Price in this matter, and that she is "very comfort-
able." —_Bridgewater Ifereury.
BURSTING OF A LOCH KATRINE WATEEPIPE.—
On Wednesday morning one of the waterpipes which convey
the water from Loch Katrine to Glasgow burst in the vil-
lage of Maryhill, a few miles from Glasgow. Information
was despatched to the district inspector, who was in a short
time at the scene of the accident, but he had to proceed to
Garscube-bridge to put off the water, and the consequence
was that a considerable time elapsed before the very great
discharge of water could be stopped. The quantity of water
which escaped was, we may say, tremendous, and in a short
time flooded to the depth of three or four feet several of the
houses in two of the streets in Maryhill, much damage being
of course done. The water rushed violently down a steep
bank into the river Kelvin, making ravines and rugged
channels in the streets, and carrying off the.kerbstones and
causeway indiscriminately before it. In several places the
water collected into large ponds, and a number of pigs nar-
rowly escaped drowning. Considerable damage was done
to gardens, avenues, and houses. A number of workmen
are busily engaged repairing the pipe.—Scotsman.
This England of ours stands out amidst conti-
nental troubles, in virtue of the fact that more than in any
other country all men are equal before the law. Every man
according to his faculties may rise by industry and per -
severance ; and if genius, perseverance, and favourable cir-
cumstances meet together, a day labourer may attain to
any position under th Crown. Ia virtue of this conviction,
all men are contented, because the door is opened for better-
ing their position, and lord and lout dwell together in har-
mony, and the lout is content, having few aspirations.—
Once a Week.
A TRUE ESTIMATE.—There are people, and they numerous, who have an idea that inventors are a thought-
less, wasteful race, who throw away their own property and
that of their neighbours in absurd schemes. No doubt,
there are numbers of these imaginative schemers, without
judgment : but what then? In other departments of life
we have unsuccessful merchants, and quack doctors, and
mock musicians, and mechanical poets, and pretenders of all
sorts ; and why should the realm of mechanical invention be
without them ? The fact remains the same, that this our
England waged a contest of years against the whole conti-
nent of Europe banded under the elder Napoleon, and came
off victorious, the cost being mainly contributed from
the earnings of the steam-engine, and spinning machinery,
and power looms, and other appliances. It was Watt, and
Crompton, and Hargraves, and such men, the never weary-
ing inventors, who were at the root of the winning of this
great fight, in the service of humanity, pulling down the
false prophet who broke down old despotisms to make a
worse despotism of his own.--Once a Week.
NEW INVENTION.—A hand-loom weaver at Dun-
fermline, named Charles Lawson, has completed the inven-
tion of a machine for weaving Brussels and velvet-pile car-
pets and tablecovers, which is likely to cause a revolution in
these branches of manufacture. The peculiarity of the
machine is that it can be applied to any plain cloth web,
raising the weft to any length, and in case of velvet-piles
cutting the loop in process of weaving. By this process
any variety of colours can bo introduced without waste of
material, the pattern being formed entirely of the weft,
which, instead cf being shot across the whole breadth of the
web, is inserted only where shown in the pattern—thus. a
dozen different colours can be woven as economically as one.
The process is described likewise as producing cloth quicker
than by any of the old machines. The inventor has taken
several years to bring his invention to a practical issue, one
groat difficulty having been the fixing of the weft, so that it
will not pull out after the pile is cut, in which he has now
completely eucceeded,—Scotsnm.