The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY E ENiNG, APRIL 21, 1860.

opened up to view successively by the Apostle and
the Prophet of Total Abstinence, is abruptly trans-
formed at a single movement of the pen of Mr. COB-
DEN, at a single flourish of the ca atoi icai isaau of
our wonder-working Chancellor of the Exchequer.
How will this transformation affect the moral condi-
tion of our population ? What influence will it
exercise over the hop trade, over the hop growers,
over the maltsters, the brewers, the publicans ?
Hitherto the consumption of wine by Englishmen
has been as nearly as possible 66 times less than
that by Frenchmen. Indeed, it has been calculated
by M. CHEVALIER that, upon an average, a French-
man drinks as nearly as possible 100 times as much
wine as an Englishman, the present average of
wine drinking in England giving about a bottle
and a half per annum to every member of the popu-
lation ! An estimate based upon the fact that the
existing consumption of wine in England every
year is 6,748,975 gallons. Remembering, moreover,
that the population of this country has absolutely
doubled within the last seventy years, this average
of a bottle and a half per annum for every person
exhibits a positive falling off in the national con-
sumption of wine since 1791—prior to which
date the average awarded about two bottles and
a half per annum to every individual. But then it
should be remembered that 1791 was the date of a
hard drinking generation. "We have changed
all that." The age then was Bacchanalian, Com-
paratively speaking the present one would be con-
sidered by our grandfathers as an age of milksops.
Yet if we drink nowadays according to
M. CHEVALIER'S estimate, a hundred times
less wine yearly than our French neigh-
bours—it should be remembered that we strive
to equalise matters in the balance of imbibition,
by swallowing about twice as much spirits and
swilling about six times as much beer as our French
neighbours. Impressed by the reflection that
" Were the people of the United Kingdom only
to drink a quantity of wine equal to the quantity
of spirits now consumed by them, the revenue at
is. a gallon on wine would be equal to that ob-
tained by the 5s 9d duty"—a writer in the Edinburgh
Review cannot refrain from ejaculating exultingly,
"When we consider the immense supplies which
are at hand the moment we cease to exclude them
by prohibitory duties, not only from France but
Spain and Portugal—the extreme lowness of
price—the wholesome and acceptable nature of
wine when it is obtained pure and used in mo-
deration—and the gross absurdity and injustice
of shutting out from a whole nation one of the
best gifts of Providence to mankind by an ex-
cessive tax, we are led irresistibly to the con-
clusion that the reduction of the wine duties is a
measure of the utmost utility, and that far from
causing any permanent sacrifice to the Exche-
quer, wine, at a low duty, will take its place
amongst the ten or twelve principal permanent
sources of the customs' revenue." All this is argued,
however, by the reviewer in spite of the previous ac-
knowledgment that in dropping the dutyupon wine
we are dropping a restrictive, almost, he maintains, a
prohibitive tax, upon a luxury. His argument is
that—because the use of every other article of food
or luxury has increased, while that of this
particular luxury (wine) has, on the contrary,
alone fallen off—we ought to drop the duty upon
this same article of luxury—wine. The people of
England—he reasons—draw TEA in abundance
from China, SUGAR from the West Indies, tobacco
from America, food and fruit from every part
of the globe—whereas wine is kept under the vir-
tual interdict of a tax of 300 or 400 per cent. on the
bulk of tho supply ! The argument, so expressed
by the Edinburgh, is certainly, to say the least of
it, advanced somewhat injudiciously. According
to this very mode of reasoning—w,e ought surely to
insist upon it that, before dropping the import duty
upon an admitted luxury like wine, we ought to
diminish, if not actually abolish, the prohibitive
import duties still heavily imposed upon whole-
some and uninebriating necessities of the popula-
tion like tea and sugar. It were even more generous
to lower the duty upon tobacco, a luxury already
the solace and delight of a very considerable part of
our population—and a luxury (whatever may be
the notions entertained by some as to its deleteri-
ous properties) incapable of being used to a demo-
ralising extent: as opium lures its victims on to the
. verge of madness, or as fermented liquors lure their
victims on to the delirium of intoxication. When
" the cup that cheers but not inebriates" had been
placed untaxed within reach of our toiling popula-
tion—then, but not till then, would have been the
right time to reduce or even to remit the import
duties upon claret.

The Duchess (Emily) of Beaufort and the Ladies
Somerset have arrived at their residence in Hill-street,
from Alminton, for the season,

Frances Ann Marchioness of Londonderry has
returned to Holdernesse House, Park-lane, from Brighton.

His Excellency the Marquis Spaventa has ar-
rived at the Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn-street, from Italy.
The Earl and Countess of Clarendon and the
Ladies 'Villiers have arrived at their residence in Gros-
venor-crescent from the Grove, near Watford, for the sea-
son.

The Countess of Sefton and Lady Cecilia Moly.
neux come to town to-day.

The Earl and Countess of Lanesborough and
Miss Jane Digby have arrived at their residence in Great
Stanhope-street for the season.
Viscount and Viscountess Ingestre have arrived
at their new res!ance in Eaton-place from Staffordshire.
Viscount and Viscountess Stormont have arrived
in town. His lordship has taken a house in Upper
Grosvenor-street for the season.

His Excellency Lord Cowley arrived at Dover
yesterday from Paris. His excellency landed from the
John Penn, mail-packet, and after a brief repose carne on
to London lftst evening.
Lor.t and Lady Aveland and the Hon. Misses
Heati Leo to have arrived at their mansion in Belgrave-zquare
from Normanton. Park, for tho season.

THE METROPOLITAN RIFLE VOLUNTEERS.—The
commandants of the Metropolitan Rifle Corps met on the
17th inst. at Viscount Ranelagh's house, and unanimously
agreed to organize the different corps in Middlesex into
brigades and divisions. The first brigade day will he on
dthlee'reexfore-
Saturday, the sth of May, in one of the parks. The Mid-
oelualnotelleartsociiio thatw i)y the In
amounts to 14,000
July there 0
men,
and
e it is
be two divisions of 5,000 men each, ' fully organized,
equipped, and ready for any work.
THE LAST CRUISE OF THE ROYAL
in YACHT* ''.
—F—
".
tract of a letter :—" It was a o.good
and since ships sailed on thes
ea I suppose none ever
went so fast, till we broke dov m.
of Biscay. We
visaed . the middle of the Bay
Gibraltar, Cadiz, Seville, Lisbon,
Vigo, and Ferrol, and were back to England again in 11
days, and should have been in 12 but for the accident. We
ran out to Gibraltar in three days and eight hours from
Portland, averaging 131 knots all the way. Coming home
we went into all these places,
a few hours, in each, and spent a day, sometimes but
,were crossing the Bay again,
when, aboutmidday on Monday
tlast, 190 miles from Ushant,
and about 400 from Portsmouth,
heard, and all went on deck, rodh
''L
heavy rattling noise was
found the great shaft or
axle to the port . paddle broken
we were helpless for a time. Within halves; and there
and the aid of a gallant crew e a smart captain,
&a., in six hours the shaft was secured tengineers, stokers,
bodily into the sea, and thereby not
only
prevent it falling
but of course causing the ship to list ovyernesinng the
wheel,
considerably on
one side. No sooner was all seemed than it began blow
heavily from the eastward. With but one wingef elift•toi
deemed prudent to paddle cautiously, and put, her ite.t. 4"
to
the sea ; even then she steamed four knots an hour all
night and next day, and shipped very little water. Tiliat
wind freshened at night off Ushaut, with a very limy?
cross sea, and still she struggled gallantly on in the Weal).
of it. As we entered the Channel, and she had help under
her lea if necessary, she was made to go 7,8) and a li ,na y
91 knots, with her one wheel."
CLIFTON SUSPENSION BRIDGE,--The .71 ristoi
Gazette says that the usual periodical report of the comp]) -
tion of this work is once more rife. It seems that Mr.
Hawkshaw, the engineer of the llungerford Suspension-
bridge across the Thames, visited Bristol on 'Wednesday,
in company with Mr. Christopher Claxton, it is ztati,d with
a view of seeing whet could be done in the master. it op.
pears that the Tlungerford Stlapension-briclge is to be taken
down, to be replaCed by a railway bride from the Surrey side
of the river to Charing-cross; the chains end platerial,
therefore, 0f tliP 010 struiAtire, it is tliongtit, may be applied
to the 100g-01,spended work at Clifton, and the contractors
are reported to be willing to really finiah our bridge op the
same terms as those ofaxed to colonQl Serreli, the Atncri-
can tmenem

NEW SOCIETY OF PAINTERS, IN

WATER COLOURS.

(THIS PAY.)

The approach of the spring s:.as. is
heralded by the opening of this popular and attrac-
tive Exhibition. The gallery of the New Society
of Painters in Water Colours—although the public
will not be admitted until Monday morning—ac-
cording to annual custom allowed, this forenoon,
the privilege of an anticipative inspection of its
accumulated works of art, to that portion of
the general public whom we can hardly call
the select few, but should rather designate
the select many, seeing that they occasionally
cause that long apartment at 53, Pall-Mall, to bear
a resemblance to the crush room at the Opera upon
the night of a Farewell like that now threatened
to her admirers by Piccolomini. The present is the
twenty-sixth annual exhibition of the New Society
of Water Colourists, so that the title of the associa-
tion is fast becoming somewhat of a misnomer. It
is in many respects as meritorious as any one of
its quarter•of-a-hundred predecessors—in several
instances, moreover, being distinguished by works
of unusual excellence. The collection—including
the smaller pictures hung up on the two double
screens—extends to the number of 372 pro-
ductions altogether. Although we were in
attendance at the Private View this morning very
early it was noticeable at a glance that already
there were sprinkled over the collection—sparsely
at the time of our entrance, but more plentifully
before our departure—those charming little green
tickets which are surely as the droppings of manna
to the exhibitors! One of which tickets, it may be
remembered by the readers of Mr. Thackeray's
masterpiece, was once upon a time so charm-

ingly transferred to her own fair bosom like a
brooch :(to the horror of old Lady Kew) by that
wilfullest of heroines, Ethel Newcome, then
affianced to the most Hon. Fergus Angus Malcolm
Mungo Roy, Marquis of Farintosh ! Among the
very earliest of these early " sold" pictures was
No. 339, the exquisite " "Enid" of the Poet-
Laurate's Idylls of the King—as deliciously and
delicately portrayed by the pencil of Augustus
Bouvier as by the pen of Alfred Tennyson—
where—

" Like a blossom vermeil white,
That lightly breaks a faded flower-sheath,
Moved the fair .2-Enid all in faded silk !"
One of the most ambitious pictures in the whole
gallery is (No. 224) the dreamlike vision of " Queen
Mab," valued by the artist (Henry Tidey) at £2so—
circular glimpse of dreamland and fairyland that
would have rejoiced the heart, could it hut have
gladdened the eyes, of Shelley. The contribution
to the Gallery this year from the easel of Edward

Corbould is not unworthy of that popular artist,
either in imagining or in execution. It is scrip-
tural and yet eltrich—No. 250, " The Visit of
Saul to the Witch of Endor " —Saul prostrate
by the margin of the charmed ring, the
ghost just risen at the mandate of the wierd incan-
tation. Hard by (No, 240) is Henry Warren's
limning of the tawny beauty depicted by Moore
in his "Lalla Rookh," dreaming away childhood
among the roses of Bendemeer. Carl Werner
has a clever pre-Raphaelite limning of a Monk in
white serge (No. 167) by the garden cloister of S.
Zeno, at Verona, and a little further on (N 0.169), he
gives us a wonderful peep at " Venice as it is," near
the Palazzo Delfini. Aaron Penley and Charles
Vacher have shown themselves as industrious as
usual. Louis Haghe has, in No. 78, produced a
rich and glowing representation of the Murder of
Rizzio—the apartment in which the murder is being
perpetrated having not the smallest resemblance in
the world to that little unsightly den in the Palace
of Holyrood now shown to visitors (with the
bloodstains on the floor) as the actual
scene of the assassination. We must hurriedly
close our remarks, however. They are but the
momentary record of our first hasty survey of the
Exhibition. Amongst the earliest of these in
attendance this morning at the private view, we
observed the Bishop of Oxford—the number of the
visitors to the gallery before our departure begin-
ning rapidly to multiply.

LATEST

NEWS.

P.A.-Pd S., SA..I L.. 2, D .', 'l'

The 21oniteur of this morning contains the fol-
lowing as the result of the voting in the district of
Nice:—

Total number of votes inscribed on the electoral
ists 29,142.
For annexation 24,448
Against

MADRID, SATURDAY.
MM. Rafael and Tristany have been captured.

GENEVA, APRIL 20.

M. Thouvenel has sent to Dr. Kern an explana-
tion of his despatch of the 13th March, wherein it
was pretended that Switzerland had prop lied to
France a treaty for a partition of Savoy.
M. Thouvenel says he understood the Swiss note
to claim either the maintenance of the state quo in
Savoy or the neutralised districts, but only in case
France should take the whole of Savoy.
M. Thouvenel concludes by regretting the pub-
lication of the denial as an indiscretion.

DRESDEN, APRIL 20.
The Vienna correspondence of the Dresden Jour-
nal contains the following :
The reply of Austria to the note of Switzerland
expresses a hope that France will entirely fulfil the
assurances by which she engaged herself not to
violate in the neutralised districts of Sivoy any
rights formerly acquired by others. Austria fur-
ther trusts that Francs will settle all questions
which might come under consideration with Swit-
zerland and with the great Powers who have gua-
ranteed her neutrality.
The Archduchess Sophia arrived to-day at Dres.
den on a visit to the Royal Court.

GENEVA, APRIL 21.

The four presidents of the committees for the an-
nexation of Northern Savoy to Switzerland have
protested against the voting which is to take place
to-morrow in Savoy, Their protest concludes
thus :—" We submit to the law of the strongest.
We are not vanquished ; we are victims."
The Liberal party of Chambery publishes a de-
claration, recommending the electors to abstain
from voting. This declaration says :—" Between
the kingdom which rejects, and the Empire which
takes, possession of our country, the Liberal party
in Savoy is incorruptible ; •neither will it abdicate,
but will preserve intact, the principle of liberty of
action, and will abstain from voting."

GENEVA, APRIL 20.

Baron de Mensshengen remitted yesterday to the
Federal Council the reply of Austria to the Swiss
note of the 19th March. This reply, in its details,
is altogether reassuring to Switzerland.
News received from Swiss residents at Naples
announces that the revolt had spread over the
whole of Sicily.

VIENNA, APRIL 21.

The delay for the redemption of the circulating
bank notes (conventiousmunze ) of 1,2, 5, 10, 58,
100, and 1,000 florins has been prolonged till the
end of September.

VIENNA, APRIL. 20.

According to official advices received here from
Naples to the lath inst., there is no faith in the
statement of the Triester Zeitung that, on the 9th
instant, the Austrian Consul at Messina retired on
board an Austrian merchant vessel, fearing a bom-
bardment of the city on that day.

NAPLES, APRIL 17 (via Genoa).

The King has reviewed and banqueted the
troops. The embarkation of cannon and munitions
of war continues.

It is asserted that 13 tricoloured flags were float-
ing at Trapani, Mazzara, and Marsala.

Three moveable columns have left Palermo. Other
columns have been sent from Messina towards
Catania and Melazzo.

BERLIN, APRIL 20.

In to-day's sitting of the Chamber of Deputies
the question of the constitution of Electoral Hesse
has been discussed. The Polish members of the
Chamba declared that they would not take part in
the discussion. The Minister von Schleinitz said
—" The question of Hesse not only concerns the
legal state of affairs in a German country, but also
the fundamental laws of the whole Confederation.
The question of the constitution of Electoral Hesse
is a question of the constitution of Germany. In
that question Prussia relies on the circumstance
that the resolution of the Federal Diet of 1852 ad-
mitted the explanation that the constitution of
1831 had only been provisionally suspended, and
on that ground Prussia proposed to re-establish the
constitution of IS3I. Prussia was obliged to sin-
cerely renounce a policy which went hack to the
resolution of the Carlsbad Congress, and.which had
not given any benefit to Germany. The resolution
of the Federal Diet of the 24th March exceeds the
constitutional competency of the Federal Diet.
For that reason Prussia not only gave a dissentient
vote, but also expressed a reservation. The Prus-
sian Government did not fail to understand the
consequences of her policy. The country may be
assured that the Prussian Government will adhere
to its point of view, and will pursue such a policy
as the honour and the power of Prussia demand.

MUNICH, APPIL 20.

The marriage contract of Princess Matilda,
Duchess of Bavaria, and Count Trani, brother of
the King of Naples, has been ratified by his
Sicilian Niajesty. The marriage will immediately
take' place by proxy.

PARIS, APRIL 20, 3,30 F.M.

The Bourse has been dull. Iteutes opened at
10.20, but subsequently relapsed, and cicsed at
70.05, or 15c, lower than yesterday.