The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-14 00:00:00

MANUFACTURERS OF THE VICTORIA CROSS.

•
GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.
WEST DRAYTON 'SUMMER RACES,
MONDAY and TUESDAY, August 19th and 20th.
On the above days SPECIAL FAST TRAINS will
leave PADDINGTON for WEST DRAYTON at 12.10
and 1.0 p.m., returning from WEST DRAYTON after
tho Races. Other Special Trains will also be run if re-
quired. Fares, there and back, 3s. 6d. and 2s. 3d.
ORDINARY TRAINS run frequently between LON.
DON and WEST DRAYTON.
For full particulars see hand-bills.
J. GRIERSON, General Manager.
Paddington, August 12.
J

OHN GOSNELL and CO.'s CHERRY
TOO ra PASTE is greatly superior to any tooth
powder; Ores the teeth a pearl whiteness. protects the
enamel from decay, and• imparts a pleassnt fragrance to
the breath. Price is. 6d.—Bed Bull Wharf. 93, Upper
Thames-street. London.

"THE RUIN OF THE FEW IS THE GAIN OF THE MANY."
THE Panic of '66 and its consequent depression
of the Colonial bTarkets enables the "EAST INDIA
TWA. COM I" ANY" to offer TILLS LOWER TITAN EVER.
Six Pounds of Good Tea for 6s. 6d. can't be dear.
The Company's KAISOWS by the Clipper Ships are really
delicious.
9, Great St. Helen's Churchyard, Bishopsgate-
street, Jan. 1, 1867.

THE BEST REMEDY FOR INDIGESTION.
NORTON'S CAMOMILE PILLS are confi-
dently recommended as a simple but certain Remedy
for Indigestion, which is the cause of nearly all the diseases
to which we are subject, being a medicine so uniformly grate-
ful and beneficial, that it is with justice called the "Natural
Strengthener of the Human Stomach." "Norton's Pills"
act as a powerful tonic and gentle aperient ; are mild in their
operation, safe under any clicumstane,es, and thousands of
persons can now bear testimony to the benefits to be derived
from their use, as they have been a never-failing Family
Friend for upwards of 20 years.
Sold in bottles at Is. lid., 2s. 9d., and I Is. ea3h, in every
town in the kingdom.
CAUTION.
Be sure and ask for "NORTON'S PILLS," and do not be
persuaded to purchase any of the various imitations which
ire sprung up in consequence of the success of NORTON'S
CAMOMILE PILLS.

KEA.TING'S PERSIAN INSECT DESTROY-
ING POWDER. For which a Prize Medal was
awarded to the Producer at the international Exhibition,

!EU..
This powder is quits harmless to animal life, but is un-
rivalled in destroying Fleas Bugs, Elle% Cockro tches,
Beetles, Gnats, Mosquitos, Moth's in •Furs, and tvery other
species of insect. Sportsmen will find this an inval
Ladiesuable
remedy for destroying new+ in their Dogs, as also
for their Pet Dogs. Being the Orignal Importer of this new
inva. which has found so great a sale that it has
temptedluable others article
to vend a so-called article, the public are
therefore cautioned to observe that the packets of the genuine
powder bear the autograph of THOMAS KEATING.
Sold in packets Is., 'this to 63: and 4s. 6d. each; or Is.
packets free by post for 12 postag • stamps, and 2s. 6d. on re-
ceipt of 36. Also in bottles Is. 2d., and with bellows Is. 6d
and 3s. each, by
THOMAS KEATING, Chemist,
97, St. Paul's Churchyard, London, E.C.

TEETH. —Messrs. G A B R I E L.
(ESTABLISHED 1315).
NEW PAMPHLET, FREE BY POST FOR FOUR STAMPS,
Explaining the Painless System of Dentistry, and
self-adhesive Teeth without springs,
AT MODERATE CUARGES.
*** 01, LUDGATE-HILL, CI VY,
*** 56, Harley-street, Cavendish-square, London.
*** 131, Duke-street, Liverpool.

The Metropolis Gas Question.

The Select Committee of the House of Commons
on the Metropolis Gas Bill has presented its report
to Parliament. We have already stated the points
of difference between the committee and the gas
companies, which rendered nugatory the attempt at
legislation on the subject this session. After de-
tailing the proceedings before the committee, the
report proceeds as follows :
" Your committee do not recognise as just the
construction which the companies appear to place
upon the combined operation of the two acts of 1847
and 1860. When the act of 1847 was passed, it was
intended for the regulation, not of thirteen companies
in London acting upon an exclusive system, but for
the regulation of all the companies which might be
established throughout the country, and which in
general would be subject not only to the limit of
the act in respect of dividend, but also to the com-
petition of other companies in the same districts.
When the Act of 1860 was passed, the metropolitan
companies had not generally attained the limit of 10
per cent. ; and the possibility of that limitation being
interpreted to convey a right to a ' statutory' divi-
dend of 10 per cent., may not have been as clearly
understood as from recent experience and discussion
is now the case. This view has, however, been very
distinctly presented to your committee in the course
of the present inquiry, and while they do not feel
themselves at liberty to interfere with the enactment'
of 1860 in that respect without consent of the com-
panies, they do feel bound to be careful that they do
not strengthen by any proceeding of their own what
they consider to be a departure from the intention
with which the limit of 10 percent. was originally
prescribed by Parliament. Substituting, in the
case of the metropolis, effective regulation for
that competition which they believe was contem-
I plated by Parliament when the Act of 1847 was
passed, they think that justice will be done between
the consumer on the one side and those who have
invested their capital on the faith of the legislation
of 1860 on the other, if in any future arrangement
a price be fixed, which will afford to the companies
a reasonable prospect of attaining, from time to
time, with due care and management, the maximum
dividend of the act upon the share capital which has
been already expended under the authority of Parlia-
ment ; but that the stimulus to due care and man-
agement will be unduly weakened, if they are
enabled to make good the deficiency of one year's
dividend by the surplus of another.
" The reduction of price, under the bill, as it

would have stood if the companies had accepted the
decision of the committee, would have been, as com-
pared with the prices of the Act of 1860, from 45.
6d. for twelve candles, or 41d. per candle, to 3s. 9d.
for 10 candles, about 21d. per candle ; if compared
with the actual prices now charged by the companies
(except the South Metropolitan and Independent),
viz., 4s. for 14 candles, a reduction from 3id. to
24d. nearly. The 3s. 9d, for 16 candles proposed
by the Board of Trade may be considered as nearly
equivalent to the 3s. 4d. charged by the last-men-
tioned companies for 14 candles. Besides this re-
duction, provision would have been made for im-
proved administration and reduced expenditure by
the amalgamation of the companies, for an efficient
audit of the accounts, for an effective supervision
of the working and expenditure, for the abolition of
the system of back dividends, and for the payment
of penalties out of the sum divisible among the share-
holders. The advantages to result from these vari-
ous amendments of the Act of 1860 would have been
secured to the consumer by a periodical revision of
price, through the agency of arbitrators appointed
by the Board of Trade ; and the purity of the gas
would have been insured by a system of administra-
tions under the superintendence of the same board.
To these advantages your committee consider that
the consumer is entitled ; and they recommended
that nothing less should be required as the c(
tions of any settlement which may leave in the hands
of the companies exclusively the future supply of
the metropolis.
"In conclusion, your committee have now to
repeat the expression of their decided opinion, that
either by the way of regulation, or by the way of an
independent supply, the consumer is entitled to a
far more efficient control than he at present enjoys
with respect to the supply of gas to the metropolis.
The difficulty mall which your committee have had