The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-17 00:00:00

rHE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 17, 1869

CLERGY MUTUAL ASSURANCE
SOCIETY
f---

Established in 1829.
OFFICE :
No. 2, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster.
TRUSTEES.
The Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Archbishop of Dublin.
The Bishop of Winchester.
The Archdeacon of Maidstone.
CHAIRMAN.
The Venerable the Archdeacon of London.
DEPUTY-C HAI RMAN.
The Honourable Edward W. Douglas.
ACPOARY.
Stewart Helder, Esq.
SECRETARY.
The Rev. John Hodgson, M.A.
Total existing Assurances £4,473,023 Os. Od•
Total Annual Income 173,545 9s. 7d.
Total Invested Capital 1,693,975 ls. 6d.

For the year ended 31st May, 1869, 315 proposals, as-
suring £274,540, and yielding in annual premiums £9,383
16s. 6d., were completed ; and .£88,482 13s. ld. was (not-
withstanding the large reductions made by Bonus in every
fifth year from 1831 to 1866, both inclusive) added to the
Fund accumulating for the purpose of meeting future
claims.

Prospectuses, Accounts of Bonus, &c., ecc., to be had at
the Office, on application personally, or by letter; also a
Pamphlet by the Bev. J. Hodgson, called " Notes on Life
Assurance," containing explanations on various interest-
ing points.
Clergymen and their Wives, and the relations of Clergy-
men and of their Wives, are invited to make Life Assur-
ances in this Society.

AGENTS WANTED EVERYWHERE
to introduce commodi ies valuable to every householder
high and low. This offers a highly remunerative Commission to
Tradesmen, Travellers, Gentlemen's Servants, &c. Apply with
two stamps to R. 3IARRISON, Great Orford-street,Norwich._

THEATRE-ROYAL DRURY- L ANE.
,lole Lessee and Manager, Mr. F. B. Chatterton.
Tries EVENING, at 7, BELLES OF THE KITCHEN. At 8
FORMOSA ; Messrs. Barrett. H. Irving, David Fisher, Brittain
Wright, John Rouse; Mrs Billington, Misses M. Brennan, Mac
donald. and Katharine Rodgers. Conclude with BORROWED
PLUMES.

sation of the Imperial army the late Marshal has bad
mainly to do, under the personal direction and
supervision of his MAJESTY, the Emperor. It
can hardly be matter of surprise, bearing in mind his
noble services to the State, that the death of Marshal
NIEL should have profoundly affected his Imperial
master, insomuch that the latter had not the heart to
go, on the very morrow of the demise of his Minister,
to the Camp at Chalons, himself to participate in the
celebration, by the army, of the Centenary of the Great
NAPOLEON. That participation—denied, by the death
of Marshal NIEL, to NAPOLEON lll.—was trans-
ferred by the EMPEROR to his heir, the future NA-
POLEON IV.

THE question of a supply of water is of so much
interest to every town in the three kingdoms that
we welcome the publication of the report of the
evidence taken before the Royal Commission on
Water Supply as a valuable contribution to the
practical literature of the day. From the
experience which has been gained at Glasgow
it appears that in the single article of soap alone
the economy resulting from the use of soft water as
compared with that generally supplied is equal to a
saving of 3s. 4d. per head on the population. It is
a somewhat creditable fact that our present expen-
diture for soap amounts to Os. Bd. per head per annum,
and one-half of this expenditure would be saved
if we bad the command of soft water, such as nature
has provided for us in the various mountainous and
uncultivated districts of the country. As a general
rule, the saving on soap would pay 5 per cent. on
the cost of a soft-water supply. In other respects
our domestic economy would be equally improved.
Tea and coffee will go one-third further when soft
water is used ; and, according to M. SOYER, vegetables
are one-third m ore valuable when cooked in water of the
right degree of softness. Neither is it in a domestic
point of view alone that large national advantages
arise from a proper regulation of the bountiful
supply of water with which Providence has favoured
our happy islands. The clouds, though bountiful,
are somewhat capricious ; at one time we
have dangerous floods, and at another we
are subjected to inconvenient drought. The
construction of suitable reservoirs in the moun-
tains would remedy both evils. In wet weather the
water would be stored, in dry weather it would flow
forth for the supply of mills and trout streams to
double its present quantity, and at the same
time ample provision would be made for the
unfailing supply throughout the longest drought',
of the population of our towns. Of course the chief
difficulty is found as to the supply of London. In
twenty years the population of the metropolis will
number four and a half millions, but a judicious ex-
penditure of twelve millions sterling would provide
an abundant supply of pure water from North Wales,
giving water of 2 degrees of hardness, instead of 15
degrees of hardness as at present. As before stated,
the saving on soap alone would pay 5 per cent, on
the whole of the outlay, leaving all the other advan-
tages as net profit. It is a pity that our engineers
should have so little to do: when we know that
their energies might be so advantageously em-
ployed in giving to all towns as good a
supply of water as that which is now enjoyed by
Glasgow. Not only are our engineers idle, but our
labourers are emigrating or starving, and our capi-
talists invest in foreign loans because we cannot use
our own money. With abundance of capital, unli-
mited labour, and no lack of useful objects, it is
surprising that so prolonged a stagnation
should paralyse all our movements, and leave
us, as it were, starving in the midst of
plenty. The present period of depression will no
doubt be followed before long by such a time of
excitement as we have previously experienced ; and
when a movement comes, it is to be hoped that some
of the activity will be employed in the direction of
water-works, so as to perfect the supply in all cases
where it is now defective.

LATEST INTELL EGENCE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL. Aug. IG.

The Inman Royal mail steamship City of
Antwerp, which Ift New York for this port on
the 14th inst., will bring $lOO,OOO in specie.

NEW YORK, August 16.

The Guion steamship Nebraska arrived here
to-day.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
CLOSING PRICES.

Gold closed at 1381 ; the highest quotation dur.
ing the day was 134 ; the lowest, 1334.
Sterling Exchange on London lO9B.
5-20 U. S. Bonds, 1882 1221.
64 6g 1885 1204.
cc i 4 1867 l2O.
10-40
113.
Illinois l4l.
Erie 2Bl.
Cotton—Mid. upland 33fc.
Petroleum—Standard White ...
Flour, extra state, $6.95e. to $7.55c. Corn, old
mixed, $1.12c.

QUEBEC, August 16.
The Allau (Glasgow) steamship Hibernian ar-
rived out to-day.

BOSTON, August 16.
The extra Cunard steamship Malta arrived here
at 6 a.m. yesterday.

COTTON-GROWINGc

Mr. Charles Beke, in a letter to the Athenceum, pro-
poses a new ground for cotton-growing, where he says
that its cultivation would be a matter of small expense.
The regions of Upper Ethiopia., he says, were described,
even in the time of Pliny, as "possessing scarcely any
trees of importance, except those bearing wool," and it is
from thence that seeds were imported, as recently as the
year 1820, from Ethiopia into Egypt, where its cultivation
made such rapid progress that the quantity exported in
1824 was 32,000,0001 b., and realised the sum of £848,479
sterling. If, therefore, he argues, its growth was so rapid
under artificial culture in Egypt—a country where it is
not indigenous—there would hardly be any limit to
its production in its home in Upper Ethiopia, where
it would need no artificial irrigation, and but
little labour in cultivation. Our manufacturers
might confidently look to that country for an almost in-
exhaustible supply of cotton, and it would be much to
their interest to foster its cultivation in that portion of
the dominions of the Viceroy of Egypt. The means of
transport is the point which offers the greatest difficulty.
Mr. Beke does not believe in the practicability of M.
Lesseps's plan of turning the Sahara into an inland sea, but
he proposes to form a water communication by means of
a canal between the Red Sea and the interior of Africa.
This canal, he says, would simply follow the line of a
natural watercourse, and would convey a portion of the
waters of the Atbara, the last great tributary of the Nile,
into the Red Sea at a short distance to the_ south of the
port of Seewakin.