The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-07 00:00:00

SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION.

The Sunday School Union has obtained a great honour
amongst its fellow societies. Its annual gathering at Exeter
Hall, on Thursday, is said to have been one of the largest
ever assembled within the walls of the building, an occur-
rence which is the more remarkable inasmuch as no promi-
nent members of either House of Parliament were included
in the list of speakers. In the absence of the Hon. A. F.
Kinnaird, M.P., President of the Union, Mr. Wright,
of Birmingham, who was very warmly welcomed, was
appointed chairman. Mr. Groser read an abstract of
the report, the first part of which gave some interest-
ing statistics regarding the progress of the movement
which the Union had been estal?lished to promote in
foreign countries. The number of metropolitan
auxiliaries, it continued, was now 11, and of county unions
160. In the former there were 719 schools, 16,097 teachers,
and 181,319 scholars ; in the latter, 2,7b7 schools, 69,367
teachers, and 524,899 scholars, making totals of 3,516
schools, 85,464 teachers, and 706,218 scholars, and
shewing an increase over the numbers of last year
of 136 schools, 1,956 teachers, and 13,350 scholars. The
committee recorded an increase in the return of busi-
ness. The sales during the year had amounted to £21,179
2s. 7d., being £4lO 17s. 3d. in excess of the return of
last year. The committee were making exertions to
procure the repeal of the obnoxious statute which subjects
Sunday and ragged schools to the payment of rates. The
following resolution was proposed and carried :—" That
this meeting is glad to find that public attention has re-
cently been directed to the baneful influence exerted by a
large class of serial publications on the juvenile population.
Believing that the extent of the evil has been by no means
overrated, this meeting would urge upon teachers the im-
perative duty of seeking by every means in their power
to provide healthy literature for their scholars, and to cul-
tivate a taste for reading such books and magazines as are
at once attractive, useful, and elevating in their charac-
ter.' Petitions drawn up for presentation to the House of
Commons regarding the rating of Sunday-schools and the
opening of museums on Sundays were then submitted to
the meeting.

Mr. William Exham, Q.C., will, it is understood,
contest Youghal, and will give an independent support to
the Conservative party if returned.

OUTRAGE ON RELIGION.—Baron Ferdinand Swit
has just been tried at Venice for an outrage on religion
and the propagation of scepticism by an article published
in the Ragione, and in which he attacked the sacraments
of the Eucharist and Baptism. He has been condemned
to two months' imprisonment and 600 f. fine.
SNOW IN MAY.—The higher ranges of fells and
mountains around the lake district of Westmoreland were
covered with snow on Monday morning to the depth of
three or four inches. The cold was remarkable. During
the day heavy falls of rain occurred, accompanied by a
sharp breeze from the north-west. On Saturday the
thermometer registered 90 deg. in the sun ; on Sunday
the mercury fell to below 50 deg.

THE RIGOURS OF AN ENGLISH SPRING. The
British Medical Journal tells an extraordinary story.

Among the patients in the new children's ward of University
College Hospital (it says) are at this moment two under the
care of Dr. Harley and Mr. Berkeley Hill, whose cases
strongly exemplify the more than usual "severity of
spring" this year. The one is suffering from frostbite, pro-
ducing mortification of the finger ; the other from sunstroke
while playing in the sun on one of the hot days of last
week.

A MUNIFICENT DONATION.—The Council of the
Royal College of Surgeons having accepted from Mr.
Erasmus Wilson, F.R.S„ the munificent sum of £5,000,
together with a fine collection of drawings and models,
for the endowment of a Professorship of Diseases of the
Skin, the committee appointed by the council will, on
Thursday next, present a scheme, which has been agreed
upon in concert with this benevolent gentleman, for the
chair of dermatology to be thus founded. The British
Medical Journal adds that the first series of lectures in
connection with this chair will be delivered by its founder.
AN AMBASSADOR AWKWARDLY PLACED.—A Paris
correspondent of the Independance Bilge relates and
amusing incident which occurred at the Princess Mathilde's
soiree on Sunday last, the Emperor Napoleon being
present. An actress from the Odeon Theatre recited Victor
Hugo's Ode to Napoleon 1., which is little else than a long
invective against England. It so happened that our
ambassador, Lord Lyons, was right in front of the actress,
and it was to him, in utter ignorance of his name and
position, that she seemed to address the poet's verses.
The confusion of the rest of the company may be imagined.
That nothing might be wanting to increase the embarrass.
ment of the ambassador, the Emperor had to lead off the
applause.

A LIBEL CASE.—Application was made to the
Court of Queen's Bench on Thursday by Mr. Henry
Munster, a defeated candidate for Cashel at the
general election, for a rule calling upon the publisher
of the Sheffield Independent to shew cause why a
criminal information should not be issued against him
for libel. The article
.complained of appeared in
February last, at the time of the inquiry into the allega-
tions into the Cashel election petition, which resulted in
the unseating of Mr. O'Beirne. Some strong comments
were made upon the large expenditure of Mr. Muniter,
but the court decided that the observations were not of
such a character as to warrant the issue•of a criminal
information.

USE AND ECONOMY OF TRAMWAYS.—The'economy
of horse life, and of horse suffering, accomplished by the
tramway are sufficiently evident. In the tramway car
the work of the horse is natural, and comparatively easy
—a straight pull by the collar, always in -one dirAction—
, in the ordinary omnibus the horse has the draught, and
also the much more cruel work of stopping the vehicle by
the sudden tug at the end of the pole, a process that does
more to hasten the end of the poor brute than the pull.
In the case of the tramway car the stoppage is effected by
purely mechanical means. The horse, instead of having
to bring another set of muscles into violent exercise, of
having the collar violently lifted from its seat to the galling
of the withers, has simply to relax the muscles in
play, and rest until the brake has done its work, and the
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driver is ready to resfune the journey,