The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-08 00:00:00

carpenters' shops in the vicinity of the offices have
been converted into smitheries, engine-rooms, and
workshops for carrying out the new system of
wrought-iron gun carriages and equipment. The
oscillation and constant jarring occasioned by the
working of the heavy machinery is, therefore, a
source of interruption and ceaseless inconvenience,
which, on inspection, the Director of Ordnance
readily acknowledged. A site was subsequently
pointed out at his request, adjacent to the Works
Department offices, and pronounced available for
the purpose. The Director of Ordnance afterwards
joined the various members of the Select Committee,
and inspected the carriage department, pack saddles,
6,000 iu number, intended for service in Abyssinia,
and, after being packed for shipment, were rejected
and replaced by the Otago saddles. Brigadier-
Gen. Lefroy, President lt.A., F.R.S., Capt. Luard,
R.N., C. 8., Lieut.-Col. Shaw, and other members
of the Committee, were present, their object being
to ascertain if they could be converted into ambu-
lance saddles for the conveyance of the sick and
wounded on chairs and in litters, and for the use of
light transport in general.
The work of underpinning and strengthening the
foundations of the Herbert Hospital recently erected
for the accommodation of the garrison troops at
Woolwich is still in progress and, according to esti-
mation, it will extend over six or eight weeks longer,
the dilapidation having been found greater than was
anticipated. A sum approaching £1,500 had been
already expended in repairs, and great hopes are
entertained of the eventual success of the work now
in hand, by which an effectual system of drainage
will be securely established, and the building, not-
withstanding its disadvantageous position, will be
free from the danger which it was feared would ren-
der it unfit for the habitation of invalids.

THE SECRETARY OF 7HE POOR LAW
BOARD AND THE FARNILAM WORK-
HOUSE.

TUR

At the annual dinner of the North-East Hauts
Agricultural Association, which was held at Alton
on Tuesday, Mr. Sclater-Booth, M.P., took the op-
portunity, in replying to the toast of " The County
Members," to refer at length to the pending inquiry

into the condition of Farnham Union and other mat-

:ers of public importance. His remarks on the former

subject, which was previously introduced by the
Rev. Dr. Fell, embodying as they do the sentiments

of the President and members of the Poor-law

Board, will doubtless be read with an amount of
interest corresponding to the attention with which

ley were received.
Mr. SCLATER-BOOTH, M.P., in responding to the

:oast, after alluding to the absence of Mr. Beach,
_ . _ _

.
M.P., who is in Italy, said—lt is scarcely possible

ior a member of Parliament to address his consti-
tuents at this moment without referring to the re-

markable circumstance that we are now on the verge
of a new session of Parliament in November. This
is a new state of things, which has only once oc-

curred within my experience, and I hope sincerely
that it will not occur again. When I look abroad

and see the Continent bristling with arms ; when we

see the great nations of France, Germany, and
Italy viewing each other with angry distrust, and
when we know that every Stock Exchange in

Europe has been for some months past in apprehen-
sion of war breaking out, not because there was any
reasonable apprehension or grounds of quarrel that
we could put our fingers upon, but simply from the

fact that the Powers of Europe were arrayed, as it
were, in arms, and it seemed impossible but that war

should follow. 'When we look at the critical state of
circumstances existing in Italy we ought to be
thankful that the worst that can happen to us—a

-ROYAL NA7IONAL LIFEBOAT INSTI-

I'UTION.

foreign war—is a war in Abyssinia,and this subject,
as you are aware, has necessitated the calling toge-
ther of Parliament at this unusual and inconvenient
season of the year. To the Government, Parliament,
and the country at large it is satisfactory to know
that the people are to be consulted upon the great
question of peace or war, although it is applied to a
place so obscure and comparatively insignificant as
Abyssinia. I feel that the country will respond to
the call which will be made, and which we hope will
not necessitate so serious an outlay as is generally
imagined. The expedition has been planned with
wisdom, and I hope will be conducted with success ;
but that some sacrifices will have to be made is cer-
tain. The cause of the war is, however, so just, and
the escape from it so impossible, that I feel sure the
Government will be heartily supported in the expe-

Yesterday a meeting of this institution was held
at its house, John-street, Adelphi, Thos. Chapman,
Esq., F.R.S., in the chair. There were also present
. .. .

Sir E. Perrott, Bart., W. H. Harton, Esq., Admi-
ral Ryder, G. Lyall, Esq., Capt. De St. Croix, A.
Boetefour, Esq., and R. Lewis, Esq., secretary to

he institution.

The minutes of the previous meeting having been

read,
Areward of £l2 3s. was votedto pay the expenses
of the institution's lifeboat at Braunton, in putting

off in a westerly gale and a heavy sea, and saving
the lives of the crew, consisting of nine men, of the

brig Ruth, of London, which went ashore near
Braunton on the 17th ult. A reward of £6 lls. was

likewise granted to pay the expenses of the lifeboat
of the institution at Llanddwyn, in putting off on
the 21st ult. and bringing safely ashore the crew of
11 men belonging to the bark James Campbell,
which went ashore on the North Bank, about two
miles from Llanddwyn. A reward of il3 9s. was

dition which they have undertaken to carry out.
Allusion has been made to my connection with the
Poor Law Board, and if this had not been the case I
could scarcely, speaking to an audience at Alton,
have forborne to allude to circumstances which have

voted to pay the expenses of the institution's lifeboat
at Girvan, N. 8., in putting off in a hurricane on the
26th ult. and succeeding, after great exertions, in
saving the crew of three men of the smack Margaret

Davies, of Girvan, which had become a total wreck
off that place. The shipwrecked sailors afterwards
publicly expressed their gratitude for their rescue ;
for, in the absence of the lifeboat, they felt that in
that dark and stormy night they must have perished.
When the poor fellows were rescued they were all
but exhausted, as their vessel was nearly all under
water, and the sea making a clean breach over them.
A reward of £l4 Bs. 6d. was likewise voted to pay
the expenses of the Daniel J. Draper lifeboat, just
sent to Mullion, Cornwall, in going off, on the 21st
ult., in a heavy surf and bringing safely ashore those
of the crew of the barque Achilles, of Glasgow,
which had stranded during foggy weather on Polu-

wian Beach. The remainder of the crew of the

THE SUN, LONDJN, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 8, 1867.

'ETE.

The following is the text of the identical note ad-
dressed by the Governments of France, Russia,
Prussia, and Italy to the Porte relative to the Cretan

question :
" Since the beginning of the lamented events
which have occurred in the Island of Crete the
Great Powers took a great concern in the state of
things, which not only wounded their feelings of
humanity, but which would also exercise amongst
the Christian population in Turkey an influence en-
dangering the tranquillity of the East and the gene-
ral peace.
" Several of those Powers have agreed to advise
the Porte to stop the effusion of blood, and to con-
cert with them a solution to that deplorable conflict
by means of an impartial inquiry ou the complaints
and the wishes of the Candiotes.

" Meantime, they insisted upon saving the farni-
,es of the insurgents from the calamities of war.

"The Ottoman Government did not materially
oppose that work of humanity, but they met the
counsels, the exhortations, and the urgent and
reiterated demands of the Cabinets with an inert
strength nothing could victoriously attack.
" The amnesty the Ottoman Government granted
to suspend hostilities does not give any of the guar-
antees which would render such a step truly serious,
and their definitive refusal of a collective inquiry
leaves no hope for any solution of the open ques-
tion, nor any remedy to the abuses which provoked
the rising of the Candiotes, which agitated the
Christians in the East, and won the solicitude of
the Great Powers in Europe.

" In spite of their pressing demands, not a single
organic reform has been resorted to till now to
satisfy the wishes ocjthe other Christian populations
of the Ottoman Empire, for whom the sight of that
stubborn conflict is apermanent cause of excitement.
"In those conjectures the Powers who have
offered their counsels to the Porte have the satis-
faction of having accomplished the dictates of
humanity, and of their feelings of sympathy, not
only for the general interests of the Christian races,
but for the well-being of Turkey herself ; for that
well-being is indissolubly connected with the hap-
piness and tranquillity of the:populations placed
under the Sultan's sceptre.
" The Cabinets apprehend that the prolongation
of that sanguinary conflict, and the obstinate re-
sistance of the Porte to listen to friendly exhorta-
tions, should dispel among those populations the
hope of seeing their situation really improved just
at the moment when they are most fervently enter-
taining such hopes. By following such a policy the
Porte is precipitating the crisis the Cabinets are so
anxious to avoid.
"They believe that they have exhausted the efforts
of conciliation and the advices of foresight.
"Therefore, without renouncing the generous mis-
sion their consciences impose upon them, they havebut
one alternative—to redeem their responsibility, and
to let the Porte bear the possible consequence of her
actions.

"It is certain that the Ottoman Government
could not reckon upon a material assistance from
the Christian Powers in the path it has chosen, and
which it continues to follow.
" But the Cabinets, after having vainly tried to
enlighten it, think it is their duty to declare to the
Ottoman Government that henceforth it would be
useless to ask their moral support in the. middle of
the embarrassments in which Turkey is involved in
consequence of the trifling importance she has
attached to their counsels."