The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 29, 1867.

illicit manufacture, restriction of tax-paying dis-
trict, and annual increase of consumption claimed
for cigars, are, of course, equally applicable to
smoking and chewing tobacco. Could the true
amounts of manufacture and sales of these articles
be ascertained, it may reasonably be inferred, from
what we have already shown, that the figures would
reach an almost fabulous extent ; so much so,
that we have no doubt many would believe the
totals to be incorrect. It is said by experts of
the revenue service, and by others, that not
more than twenty per cent. of the spirits dis-
tilled in the country is returned for tax. It can
scarcely be considered unreasonable to say that
only half of the cigars and tobacco manufac-
tured in all forms are returned for tax. The files
of the Internal Revenue Board show the large ex-
tent of attempted fraud in this respect. Double the
figures we have given allow for the opening of the
entire Southern market and the regular increase,
and an aggregate for the present year will be pre-
sented, both for tax and for quantity made and
consumed, that may well cause a thinking mind to
reflect upon the aggregated cost of trifling luxuries
which are generally indulged in by a people. It
is only through such statistics as those here given
that the truth is brought before us. Consider that
in three-fourths of one year over seven millions of
revenue has been derived from chewing tobacco
alone, with a fair prospect of the balance of the year
swelling the total to ten millions. There is much
food for reflection presented by these facts. We
must remember that this is only the tax upon the
several articles. Calculate the amount of sales of
the quantity made, returned and unreturned, and
some idea may be had regarding the magnitude of
this branch of trade. They come, too, as a useful
exhibit of the extent and cost of popular luxuries of
small expense. They show the people where onr
taxes come from, and stand forth as indisputable
proofs of the extravagance incurred by indulgence
in those things which are popularly known as
" petty vices," and which most men call trifling in
cost.—American paper.

mist over night itself. Torches were lit, but then
rain fell, and a general retreat ensued.
A deep thaw has now set in, but atmospheric
frost is alone subdued, for ladies mean to keep it
crisp and bright on trails of flowers which are to
hang from their hair. . .

Crystal beads are but imitation fountain drops,
and the new pistachio-green trains, so lovely at night,
are like the ocean waves under sunlit sky.

Airy ball dresses are looped up with rushes and
long spear grass. The rarest exotics are the favourite
artificial flowers. Should any very elegant reader
spend sleepless nights thinking of a very recherche
evening dress, let her imagine the effect of a long
poult de soie train, and at front widths having rolls
of fern green satin round the bottom, above a crape
pissee. This underskirt is to be fancily covered
with a tulle tunic, hooped up on each side by long
velvet ferns, in the midst of which, hidden under
the tulle, a few violet and white flags, with a bul-
rush or so to relieve the green. Nothing can be
prettier, as far as imagination goes, and if a coquette
does not sleep soundly after that, it is to be feared
she will never enter into the spirit of our new aqua-
rium mania. Amber beads, pearls, and coral, are
much worn on bonnets, bead-lace on berthes and
head-dresses.

There are many other novelties, such as pencil-
ling, powdering, veining, enamelling, and electro
plastro-perfecting of faces, which accomplishments,
we may suppose, will be the ruin of artists, as ladies
now do all their painting themselves.
The next novelty is something far more rational
—it is the Henrietta yacht perfume, which is creat-
ing a perfect furore. It is used as an eau de toilette,
on the handkerchief, in a sick room, on board a
vessel in sea-sickness ; and now it may be said that
the " Yacht Club," like the " Jockey Club," has its
special perfume. Let us trust that good old Nep-
tune, who brought the Henrietta so safely over in
his briny arms, will smell of something nicer than
he has done since he was salted by Nature for the
sake, all hope, of perpetual preservation.

10 days we would be in the longitude of the Cape.
From hence till land was sighted some of these birds
were always in sight of the ship. Sometimes four
or five albatrosses at once were sweeping about
astern, some of them showing marks of having been
struck with shot. It was useless to shoot at them,
for they would have been lost ; but we caught two
with baited hooks, one measuring nine feet from
wing to wing, and, unmindful of the Ancient Mari-
ner, slew and stuffed them. I paid my footing on
the forecastle, in hopes of seeing something of the
crew. But one is apt to be in the way there, and
it is difficult to see much of the sailors. With the
officers it is different. Nothing can exceed their pa-
tience in listening to anything, reasonable or unrea-
sonable, which the passengers have to say
or to complain of, and in answering any questions,
sensible or foolish. It is a hard life for them,
requiring nerve, temper, and power of endurance,
for like most English gentlemen they are ever
ready to work with their hands as well as their
heads—and as a ship often has only two responsible
officers, each has at least half of every night for his
watch on deck (in all weathers, be it remembered),
in addition to the work of the day. Yet for this a
chief officer gets the miserable pittance of £7, and a
second mate and a doctor (as hard-worked a man
as either) £5 a month, sometimes even less, ceasing
immediately at the end of the voyage. One could
wish that the great shipowners, wealthy as they
must be, were a little more liberal in this respect.
The butcher, on the other hand, is a man of capital,
and comes furnished with a crowd of bull-dogs, ca-
nary-birds, thrushes, and other animals, which
bring him in a handsome profit at the end of the
voyage.

It is well if a voyage passes without quarrels. In
such close quarters, one must be inoffensive indeed
to offend nobody. If you are cordial friends with
the fat unwashed man who has sat next you at three
meals every day for three months, and with a loud
voice insisted on being helped first to everything,
your disposition must be amiable indeed. Except
the relation between the two Lord Justices of the
Court of Chancery, compared with which the bond
of matrimony itself is a trifle, I know none so try-
ing as close juxtaposition on board ship. You are
at the mercy of the noisiest, the least scrupu ions,
and the most officious. If a man drinks, he will
drink twice as much at sea, where he has nothing
to do. However, eating, sleeping, or talking, we
are always going ; that is the great satisfaction.
The average daily run increases as we get south.
Between 40 deg. and 45 deg. south latitude
there are no more light or foul winds for a ship
sailing east, and the caurse is straight, at the
rate of 250 knots a day. But it gets colder and
colder, till ono day the wind changes from north to
south, and we experience what it is to have a tem-
perature of 40 deg., or lower. Snow and hail fall-
ing, draughts as usual, and no possibility of a fire.
Often it blows half a gale; you cannot walk the
deCk to warm your feet, but 'must hold on fast, and
take your chance of a drenching from one of the
heav seas, which from time to time strike the ship
abeam or on th 3 quarter, with a noise like a ten-
pound shot out of a gun. The air gets drier ; we
are getting into the Austrian climate. At last the
day comes for sighting laud. For an hour or more
it is doubtful, then certain, that land is in sight. I
put the day down as a red-letter day in my life, as
we pass within a mile or two of Cape Otway, and
see the red sandy cliffs, the pale green grass close to
the water's edge, the lighthouse and telegraph sta-
tion above, and behind, the ranges of thick impene-
trable bush, huge forest trees, with their dark foliage
standing out against the sky, a landscape as wild
and unsullied by the hand of man as though it were
a thousand miles from a settlement. One longs to
be landed there and then, but the breeze is fair and
strong, and though at sunset we take in all sail but
two topsails, we rush on, and. are forced to heave to
before midnight, pitching and rolling in the swell,
lest we get beyond Port Philip Heads in the night.
Soon after midnight all are astir, for there is a
rumour that the pilot is coming. From the deck a
lirge star near the horizon is to be seen, and an in-
distinct dark object underneath it. It moves, gets
larger, the moon's rays fall upon it, and shining
white as silver, a little schooner with a light at her
mast-head shoots under the stern. The pilot climbs
on board. Three more hours pitching, and the long
low Heads are left astern of us, and we are in smooth
water. As the Melbourne folk tre sitting down to
their Sunday's breakfast, and you in England are
going to bed for your Saturday's night rest, our
anchor drops in Hobson's Bay, a quarter of a mile
from the long, low, sandy coast. Fronting us is
Sandridge, the port of Melbourne ; to the right, as
far as the eye can see, dark green foliage, broken
by clusters of houses and bare spaces of sand ; and
to the left, a marshy, sandy plain, bounded by the
distant ranges, purple as the hills of Gascony or the
Campagna.