The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-26 00:00:00

AMERICA.

Mr. Wells's report on the existing tariff and revenue
system is attracting a good deal of attention. Mr. Wells
has carefully collected his facts, and spews that the
labouring and middle classes have been growing poorer every
day under the present system. All household expenses,
according to his tables, have risen 79 per cent. since 1860.
Every class of the community suffers, and producers and
consumers alike grow poorer. It has been argued that
much of this evil is due to excessive protection. The
lumber tax of 25 per cent. on foreign lumber is loudly de-
nounced, as it presses heavily on the people. The New York
Tribune contends that a distinction should be made be-
tween the protective duties and the duties on imports
which have nothing to do with protection. The latter class
it ranks at five-eighths of the whole import duties. It is
necessary to maintain a high tariff to fill the Exchequer ; the
receipts of the Custom House ought to go to the reduction
of the National Debt. The Tribune argues that the whole
mischief is owing to the excessive volume of the debt,
which ought to be at once acknowledged and reduced.
The imports of the States, says Mr. Wells, are too large
in proportion to the exports, and the Tribune advises those
who want the duties removed to consider the alternative
of increasing the iinports yet further, or of diminishing the
already impoverished revenue.
It is said that Admiral D. D. Porter will be appointed
Secretary of the Navy Iwo tem., and that he will hold the
office until the naval survey, which creates three admirals,
is completed. Admiral Porter will then resign the secre.
taryship, and take one
.of these three posts. Genera;
Schofield is to take a pontion in the Cabinet on the same
conditions.

At the regular meeting of the California Aca-
demy of Natural Sciences, Dec. 7, Mr. J. E. Clayton read
a paper describing the earthquakes in the Kern River re-
gion, as observed by Dr. Farnsworth. A discussion on the
theories of earthquakes followed. Dr. Gibbons remarked
that it was a natural tendency of the human mind to aim
at new and novel theories to account for phenome-
na, and if a theory has the merit of being one's own,
and novel, a man would defend it as earnestly as a
parent will defend h
is deformed and ugly brat, and
that simply because it is his own. The Electric theory
was unphilosophical, and unworthy of a scientific man.
Why should we seek for strange and mysterious causes
when geology gives us so simple and reasonable an ex-
planation? The study of the earth's surface would satisfy
any candid mind that our globe was once much hotter
than now, and at some distant period in a melted state.
If so, only the outside has cooled as yet, and the in-
terior is still a molten mass. Combustion need not be
going on—the beat is there and retains the matter
in a melted form until time is given it to cool. The
present contortions of the earth's surface must have been
caused through this igneous agency, and when such
action takes place, vibrations and trerublings must ensue.
Humboldt stood upon the brink of a crater and observed
that an eruption was always preceded by rumblings and
shocks, exactly like our earthquakes. In this case we
know that fire and gases are concerned, and the cause
is in the interior ; then why not allow that our shocks
are produced by this same agency in subterranean
caverns ? This molten matter is at rust, but when
water gains access, combustion ensues, and volcanoes and
earthquakes result. Mr. Clayton said he once unintention-
ally illustrated another cause in the following manner :
Re had constructed a tub four feet deep and five feet in
diameter. Having filled this tub with water, and wishing
to heat it, he inserted a pipe in the water through which
he introduced steam for the purpose. The result was that
a series of shocks was produced, and the tub danced
around the room like a thing of life, till it was finally rent
in piezes. We might have reservoirs of water beneath
us—which uo one could deny—and a stream of hot
water might gain access the result would be an
earthquake. The Geysers were an illustration of these
causes on a quiet scale. As a further corroboration of
this, he said earthquakes were more frequent in countries
where there hss been the greatest disturbance of the
earth's surface, and hence caverns were more likely to
exist. The settling of the earth in places most probably
filled these caverns, and we had seen instances of the
water from these reservoirs rising to the surface and forming
springs. The earth has also been rent in the same manner that
the tub was. Very light shocks are continually taking place
from these causes. Mr. Yale thought that earthquakes were
perpetual, and not exceptional, but it is only the more se-
vere ones that we experience. When a boy lie once en-
tered the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky with a party, where
he remained 48 hours. While there a tremendous thunder
storm took place is the "outer world," "but no sound of
that e'er came down to the everlasting depths of those
dark solitudes," Dr. Kellogg also thought the electrical
theory unphilosophical. If electricity throws down a
chimney simply, it makes a deafening report; how then
could it throw up moun ains, or shake the earth so
silently ?

General Dix has succeeded in procuring a circular

from M. Pinard, Minister of the Interior, dated Bth De-
cember, 1868, doing away with the necessity of passports
for Americans in France. This order relieves the citizens
of the United States, more particularly in the south of
France, from much inconvenience. " The Emperor's Go-
vernment has decided that citizens of the American
Un'on shall hereafter be permitted to enter, travel, and
sojourn in France, on the simple declaration of their
nationality, and without being subjected to the necessity
of passports."
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