The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-27 00:00:00

'E stTN, LONDON, TFIUMAY EVEI'ING, MAY 27, ISM,

ought to suspected. lam convinced that after a
little reflection you will regret the step you have
taken." Than this remonstrance noubing surely could
be more dignified or more temperate. We shall be
curious to observe bow it will be responded to by its
distinguished recipient. Not only has the indignation
of M. BALAGIY, the mayor of the arrondissement of the
Batignolles, been excited by this extraordinary pro-
ceeding on the part of M. TRIERS, but the incident
is said to have produced an exceedingly unpleasant
impression (and no wonder !) upon the National
Guard on duty at the Mairic. Bear in mind, more-
over, the fact, that the result of the first ballot
has so far proved unfavourable to M. TRIERS
that, although placing him at the head
of the list of candidates voted for in the Second Cir-
cumscription, by reason of his having obtained
13,333 suffrages out of the 32,683 electors making
up the aggregate of the constituency, it still leaves
him 3,009 below the required absolute majority of
16,312 ! Bear that in mind, and it may be under-
stood at once how very indiscreetly M. TIMERS has
acted. With a fresh ballot before him, he has wan-
tonly and evidently quite causelessly awakened this
angry feeling, not simply in the mind of the
Mayor of Batignolles, but among the National
Guard of the arrondissement. It is to
be hoped that it may not prove fatal to his interests
in the new election now immediately impending.
`Whatever may be the numerical strength, or rather
weakness, of the Opposition in the Corps Legislatif,
there cannot be two opinions as to its force in-
tellectually, 'any more than there can be an in--
stant's doubt as to the formidable character it de-
riveh trim the glaring tact tnat . .
nation from Paris and from the other leading consti-
tuencies. This is a fact which we are certain is
thoroughly appreciated throughout Europe, and by
no one in Europe more thoroughly than by his Ma-
jesty the Emperor NAPOLEON 111.

THE word of command has been given, and meet-
ings are being held up and down the country in
order to screw the courage of the Peers up to the
fighting point. The meeting at Belfast has just
been succeeded by one at Birmingham, and
both were distinguished by a fine display of
Kentish fire and bad logic. That very respectable
nobleman the Earl of llAnnowny presided at
the English gathering, and he was followed
by Mr. NEWDEGATE, M.P., Mr. CHARLEY, ALP.,
Mr. LLOYD, and Dr. EVANS, the defeated candi-
dates at the general election, and a certain
Mr. BREWIN GRANT, who is just now the
hero of a storm in teacup. One member of
the Upper House, two members and two would-be
members of the Lower House, and a Dissenting
minister who has quarrelled with his co-religionists,
are not a very formidable phalanx. The Lords are
scarcely likely to mistake this " demonstra-
tion " as the voice of Birmingham, still less as
the voice of England. If the Opposition cannot do
better than this they will be wise in refraining
from any further demonstrations. The only thing
they demonstrate is the smallness and the insigni-
ficance of the Opposition.

" LOST, somewhere between Mercury and Saturn,
a balloon. Any comet giving such information as
will lead to the recovery of the said balloon, shall be
handsomely rewarded." Did our readers chance to
notice this announcement in any of yesterday's
papers ? A " captive balloon " has for some days
past been soaring above the chimneys of London.
Every afternoon it has been cheated with the
pretence of freedom. It has been allowed to rise to
a certain height, but its upward progress has
always been checked by ropes. On Tuesday,
favoured by a strong wind, it burst its
bonds and shot aloft. All night it went
joyously careering through the heavens like " a
rejoicing native of the infinite," to quote " Festus "
BAILEY. All night it cleft the clouds, and laughed
at the rain, and went dodging about through the
constellations, taking care to avoid collision with
meteors, and to escape entanglement in comets' tails.
There was no one in it, o one to check this triumphant
march by pulling at valve-strings. Whit fun it
would have been if there had been just one person
inside, or say two—a pair of lovers, for instance—
blissfully ignorant of balloon management, and
carried hither and thither among the planets and
the stars, whither they had so often soared
together in imagination. Only fancy their feelings
in being thus transported beyond this sordid, mun-
dane, commonplace region into the infinite abyss of
light and joy. A little cold, perhaps, now and then;
but it is only to go a few thousand miles nearer the
sun to get warm again. Rather hungry work, do
you say ? Who would think of eating and drinking
when listening to the music of the spheres ? Or
supposing it bad been Mr. CARLYLE who,
tempted by the near proximity of the
captive balloon to his Chelsea home, had seated
sahicitmqieussae;atianinidethtehewecait,hr:etth:Nerlihi,atist eialsen,n,—ocpeasp:o;dratnuwdnthita.hytef or making
a " storymin ehe
would have had to tell on his descent, supposing he
ever did descend ! Even his German-English would
be inadequate to the telling of it. He would have
had to invent some new linguistic combina-
tion compared to which " Sartor Result's " would be
easy and pleasant reading. What an opportunity
has been lost ! If poor EDGAR ALLAN Poi had been
alive he would not have lost it.

6111-0
Erri Ist
, 1 rfnft

L.LTE,RATURE•

Familiar Quotations. One Vol. Pp. 524 George
Routledge.

The compiler of this very excellent gabring to-
gether of Familiar Quotations, Mr. Johtßartlett,
may be congratulated. It is beyond an question
the best collection of the kind we have eventamined.
It is the most copious, the most accurate, al the most
admirably well-arranged compendium of Familiar
Quotations," to our thinking, that ha ever yet
been published. " Passages and Phras3 in Com-
mon Use" is the sub-title of the book. fhe words,
in effect, here given in inverted comma, arc taken
from Mr. Bartlett's title-page. To ay that the
volume embraces within it all sub phrases
and passages would be, of tours, to write
an obvious absurdity. An absolutly complete
collection must always remain a ?stilt to be
aimed at, never to be accomplished. Supposing
the work to run through any number of editions,
each edition being revised and added o with every
conceivable amount of care—somethhg, we may
be certain, must still remain forgoten or over-
looked, in spite of all the enegy and all
the caution of the original coupiler or of
his successors. One distinguishing peculiarity of
the collection here under notice 's this, that
it is accompanied by an Index so considerable that
any passage or phrase in the volume can be turned
to at once with the utmost facility. How consi-
derable the Index is, may be best indicated perhaps
by our mentioning the fact that out of the 524
pages making up the book, nearly 200 are devoted
simply to that same Index. In point of fact, there
are 174 pages of Index to 350 pages of Quotations.
Whenever a reader wants to trace borne to its right
author any familiar phrase, any familiar line, any
familiar passage, whether of prose or poetry, he
has but to turn to the alphabetical Index here pro-
_ _ , ,
book in which it may be found will Wearudaaka
upon the instant. The volume is as acceptable
an addition to any library in the land as the
new number of Bradshaw, with all its faults, is to
a Railway Traveller, or as Murray is to any tra-
veler oa the American Continent. Bartlett's
Familiar Quotations in effect is a handbook to all
that is best, or at any rate, to all that is most epi-
gratnatically felicitious in English Literature.

GOLDEN ',mut;Es—Cassell, Petter, and Galpin.
—A graceful little brochure, so entitled, compris-
ing within it ten harmonious fragments of verse,
and numbering altogether less than thirty pages of
letterpress, here brings to us, evidently enough, the
first effusions of a sensiti ye and poetical temperament.
It is a promise, not a fulfilment. It is a harbinger,
like the earliest budding of a young tree in spring.
The writer disdains to appear anonymously, and
therefore unaffectedly inscribes his name upon his
title- page,. as William Gordon Stnythies. The
superscription he has chosen is explained by the
very motto on the title-page—namely, these three
melodious lines from Longfellow
omy songs! whose welcome moasures •
Filled my heart with s..cret rapture!
Cilildren of my golden leisurcs !"
A beautiful green nook in Glouceitershire, gives its
name—" Bisley"—to the fiat piJce in the little
pamphlet ; a poem inscribed, under date 29th July,
1863, to the widow of the venerat •d author of
" The Christian Year." The sorrowful atm • sphere
of death breathes throughout the remainder--as
evidence the very titles of some—" Take Them
" Adieu !" " Gone Home!" " Consolation !" again,
is the heading to some lines on the loath
of J. H. G., dead in Australia. Another,
the second piece, is an eulogistic memento of Charles
Kean, the Trage lian. "At Last" has referent! to
one beloved but long passed away. " Springtime,"
apparently a more hopeful title, in its pmultimate
stanza utters the lamentation—
" I see again that sunny Spring
When with suspended breath,
I saw her spirit take its wing
Into the realms of death."
" The Old Letter," also, is suggestive of the ejacu-
lation—

" Oh, thou dearly loved old leer,
Thou en crumbling into dust !
As the hand that wrote the ha, dAnn
As the Lan I now writing—must."
Even when the wri er chaunts a Hymn, to the re-
fraiu " Trust in God," one of his earliest adjurations
is to the of .!et—

'• When the friewls you love and cherish,
In your heart's d,,cp inmost core,
Pie•or let th✓ir friendship perish,
And are fr:euds to you no more

Trust in God."
Death, or rather the sense of death, so perva les the
whole, that, vernal though dine lines are, it is as if
there were the canker of death upon each of them.
There is enough of promise for the future, however,
in them all, to admit of our hoping for happier re-
sults from the next budding, or, better still, from a
later efflorescence.

7HE RULE OF THE 110.4 D AT SEA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—The two letters of Mr. Gray and Admiral
Sullivan on the " Fresh Steam-hip" collision ought
not to go unchallenged, although they will be satis-
factory to the public, as showing what the authors
of the existing rules have to say by way of ex-
planation of the subject.
It is quite evident that some competent tribunal
must now be appointed to take this question into
consideration.

Will you in the meantime permit me to observe
that the authors of these regulations have no power
to put an authoritative construction upon them—
but that we must look to the construction that is
put upon them by the decisions of the Admiralty
Courts, and their general acceptation by the public.
The meaning of " end on" is, I presume, on a
line with the keel, but the meaning of " nearly end
on" is indefinite and incomprehensible.

In the case of the Louisa and the City of Paris,
brought before the Admiralty Court in Ireland,
Judge Kelly said—" But when it is recollected that
the order to hard-a-starboard was given by the
steamer when the tug was but two points on her
starboard bow, it seems clear that the proper article to
apply to the position is the 13th ;" and again, " We
attribute the collision to the City of Paris for not
having ported, slowed, and reversed in time, when
she bad the tug two points on her starboard how."
In the case of the Thames v. the Stork the Court
said, " In order to excuse her from porting, it must
be quite clear that there are three points of differ-
ence, and not less ; for surely it would never do to
contend, where they were so nearly meeting end on,
that if the evidence should be that it was only one
or two points only in the direction they were meet-
ing, that that would be sufficient to dispense with
the observance of this rule." _ _

And in the case of the Printer v. the Fingal the
Court said, " Part of the evidence says_ that they
were within two points of meeting end on. I should
consider that if they were within two points of
meeting end on, they would fall in with the latter
part of the statement nearly end on.'"
Now what is the plain English of this construc-
tion of the law, but that if two steamers are Meet-
ing, instead of keeping put of the way, they shall
adopt the only comrse which will endange'r a collision,
and, as Sir John Hay in his letter to Mr. Bright
very truly says—" It must be recollected that two
oce?n steamers probably may not see each other's
lights until within two miles of each other, and
that each steaming 12 knots they pass each other
in five minutes. The attempt for two long ships
to cross each other under such circumstances must
be haz irdons, and if any hesitation aril 2s on the
part of the officer in charge of either ship, a colli-
sion is almost sure to ensue. How much better
then that the officer iu &large should know that in
all cases, he will do right by turning the ship's
head away from the approaching vessel,"
Will reference to Admiral Sullivan's explana-
tion of the collision between the Amazon and the
Osprey, the officer of the watch was cashiered, not
for whatafterwardshappenel—but because "he put
the helm of the Amazon to starboard, instead of to
port, when first sighting the light of the Osprey—
in contravention of the Regulations for Preventing
Collisions at Sea"—the ships being then five miles
apart, and as the sails of the Amazon were lifting,
it was more convenient for her at that time to bear

day.

away to the southward. This finding and sentence
were ordered to be read on board all her Majesty
ships in commission.
If such is to remain the law, I can only say that
the seas will not be navigable.—Yours obediently,
WILLIAM STIRLING LACON.
London, 25th May, 1869.

LATEST INTELL MENGE

(REU'ER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.
NEW YORK, May 26.
The National Steamship France arrived out to-

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
CLOSING PRICES.

Gold closed at 1391 ; the highest quotation dur-
ing the day was 140:1 ; the lowest, 1391. - -
Sterling Exchange on London lO9l.
5-20 U. S. Bonds, 1882 l2l/.
t 4 " 1885 ll7l.
1867 llB4.
10-40 ifi
Illinois
Erie 2Bl.
Cotton—Mid. upland 2Blc.
Petroleum—Standard White 3lc.
Flour, extra state, $5.70e. to $6.30c. Corn, old
mixed, 96c.
(11m.:ElqsTowN, May 27.

The National Steamship Company's steamship
Helvetia, from New York, arrived here at 7 a.m
to-day. She landed passengers, and proceeded for
Liverpool. All well. - •
The Guion steamship Idaho arrived here from
v - • _ „,,,,I,ked passengers,
and sailed at 11.30 a.m. for New York. All well

BOMBAY, May 25.

Official reports from Pcshawur state that the
Atneer Badukshan was collecting an arniy of 4,000
men in the interest of Shere Ali, hoping to subdue
Turkestan without the assistance of the latter.

Shere Ali reached Cabul on the 10th inst., and
had au interview with Yakoob Khan in the presence
of all the Sirdars and the army.
Rumours have come from Bokhari to the effect
that the Russians were moving against Kokhand
and ColQb (?)