The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-29 00:00:00

CHILDREN ON THE TRAPEZE.

Certainly we have had enough "frightful ex-
amples" of the danger -of trapeze performances.
Men's performances are questionable enough, though
there is hardly much to fear where practice had made
perfect, as in the case of Leotard ; that women should
take the dangerous flights is most reprehensible,
but what shall be said of a child suspended at the
height of sixty feet, and compelled to go through
the usual swinging and standing. to the " amuse-
ment "of the spectators ? Such a spectacle is 3 nati
now to be witnessed at Cheltenham. In that
town a child, advertised as 4 years of age, thouga
probably a trifle older, hangs nightly by its heels, by
the back of its head, by one arm and one leg, to a
bar suspended twenty yards above ground. A
correspondent writes :—" As a father, I indignantly
protest against the cruelty, cupidity, and demoralising_
tendency of such a sight ; and, as a medical man, I
cannot but express my conviction that the unhappy
child, by such a performance, must end its clays in
a very few years, even if it escapes the all but
certainty of an immediate fatality."

MANUFACTURING DRUNKAWDS,

The power of making anybody drunk has not yet
been granted to the publicans, as one of their number
recently discovered. The magistrates of Liverpool
found themselves compelled to draw the Lue last
week. They had before them a licensed victualler,
one Caroline Hammond, charged with permitting
drunkenness. The prisoner had served three
girls, of 13 or 14 years of age, with
three pints of beer. One of the girls was found
by a police constable, soon after being served, very
ill in the street. The magistrates, we are told,
" severely censured the keeper of the public-house"
and fined her ..{3 and costs; tbserving that " but for
her previous good character a heavier penalty would
have been inflicted."

FOREIGN NOTES.

THE lIAZZINI PLOT.

Amongst the papers found on one of the persons re-
cently arrested at Milan is a letter by Mazzini, which has
just been published. Judging by this epistle it would
seem that the hopes of the Mazzini party are not in the
ascendant at present. The outbreak which recently took
Place at Milan was a Republican scheme, but the mine
was exploded too early. Mazzini regrets this premature
action in his letter. Still more seriously does he com-
plain of the dissensions amongst the memberi of his party.
It appears that several military men who had been won
over were by no means disposed to submit to the control
of the arch-agitator. They aimed at taking the direction
of the movement, and they held to the belief that the
best policy would be to wait for some home or foreign event
in order to commence the work of insurrection
under favourable auspices. Mazzini is not of
that opinion. Though he thinks the raising of the
standard at Milan was badly concerted, he is not
the less convinced that the time is ripe for the overturning
of the monarchy. He suggests an agitation on the sub-
ject of Rome in all the chief cities, with a view to prompt
and decisive a,...tion. A. hearty initiative, he says, would
upset the monarchy which has lost its two strongest sup-
ports—the inertia of the agricultural population and the
confidence of the army. From this it is clear that the
recent outbreaks were due to Mazzinian influences. The
Constitutionnel attributes the riots in Belgium and France
to the same cause.