The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-07 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS MAGAZINES.

The Eclectic proceeds in its new series with
interest and variety. A wider range of subjects is
iirluded, and less of the sectarian character is

I visible than in its old form. " Town and Forest."
the Pleasing story by the able authoress of " Mary
Powell," is continued, and shows us some glimpses
of the scenes among which city missionaries live
and labour. " 13ad Weather on the Mountains "is
the title of a paper showing us what hardships and
sufferings men will undergo for the cause of
scientific discovery. Articles on the Rev. Mr.
Stanley's recent work on the Epistles to the
Corinthians, and on the Queen's Government and the
religions of India, are among the most prominent,
though scarcely the most interesting in the num-
ber.—Tait's Edinburgh Magazine opens with three
biographical papers on three very different subjects
—Robert Burns, Wolfgang, Mozart, and William
Beckford. They are the three most attractive articles
in the number. The stories of " Marion" and " The
Bird Catcher" are continued, and there are some
papers on political topics.—The Scottish Review
upholds the views of the Scottish Temperance
League. Without coinciding in the opinions of
teetotalism, it is impossible to help respecting and
sympathising with the earnest desire expressed for
the elevation of the working classes, arid for the
practical philanthropy evidenced. An essay on
" Substitutes for Paper Material" will interest the
curious.—The Welcome Guest is conducted with
spirit and vivacity. Its tales and essays are above
the average, and its selected poems and paragraphs
are often of a high order.—Newton's London Journal
has an opening paper " On Decennial International
Exhibitions—are they required ?" and answers the
question in the negative. Its list of recent patents
and scientific notices are, as usual, copious.—Le
Follet has its accustomed array of fair ladies and
fine robes, and discusses the millinery prospects of
the coming season with a solemnity befitting their
importance.—Charles Knight's Popular History
of England has reached its 37th part, and
brings us down to the Accession of Queen
Anne. Its clear and impartial style, and its
happy illustrations of the successive epochs,
both literary and pictorial, combine to raise it to a
high rank among modern popular histories. The
present part is adorned with the portraits of Wal-
pole, Chatham, and Wolfe.—The Dictionary of
Daily Wants, The Dictionary of Useful Knowledge,
and That's It, are three admirable little serials,
issued in monthly parts, conveying various kinds of
information, practical, scientific, and general, in a
clear and concise form, at a very low price. They
are well calculated to assist the diffusion of general
knowledge, and we trust will receive from the pub-
lic that ready appreciation -which their merits de-
serve.

THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS AND THE
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH,

(From the Calcutta New Era and Press.)

When the first electric telegraphs were success-
fully established in England and America, no man
perhaps then living took so intense an interest in
everything appertaining to the subject as the late
Czar of Russia. Nicholai Pavlovitch—a really
great man spoilt ; spoilt by a fate entirely different
from that which had nursed the youthful days of
all his race before him •, we mean 20 years of a suc-
cess almost unqualified, and therefore of pride un-
chastened by anxiety. He had a quick eye for the
advancement of Russia, almost to the last ; and to
the very last a zeal and eagerness above suspicion
for all that promised to aid in that advancement.
With the new species of telegraph he was like an
iitelligent and impetuous child with a new toy. He
never rested till he had his own private telegraph
room in the Winter Palace ; and when his laborious
day was aver— -and &most laborious day.it was—that
of Frederick 11. of Prussia Was not more so—thither
he returned for recreation. We say returned;
because he paid many brief visits to that room of an
official nature at all hours. But when the business
day was fairly done, he was there again from taste
and choice, and often for hours together, nobody
daring to disturb him ; sending and receiving in-
stantaneous messages to and from Paris, Berlin,
Vienna, Moscow, and all the other important places
with which he had put that magical chamber into
communication,—alone, if we may say so, with the
ends of the earth.

It was not merely while the newness and the
gloss were on the invention that his interest en-
dured. Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm of
one whose wealth and power commanded its hardest
and most wondrous achievements for his amuse-
ment ; and that amusement but grew by what it
fed upon, and grew into a sort of intelligent mania.
He, it was, we firmly believe, and not the present
monarch, who prepared and even began the re-
placement along the wastes of Siberia of the old
aerial telegraph with its towers and signals,
by the docile and obedient electric flash. As
in India, we had hundreds of miles of the more
easily and rapidly-constructed kind of commu-
nication before we could get as many scores of miles
in railway—so in Russia. It was only in the pre-
sent Emperor's time and about the date when
Sebastopol fell at length in blood and fire beneajh
the united blows of France and England, like some
giant demoniac whom the spirit that leaves him
rends as it departs, that the railway from St.
Petersburgh to Moscow was effectually completed :
nor was it till some time later still that it was opened
for the miscellaneous public and the uses of traffic.
But Nicholas, nevertheless, was wont to send queries
or messages to Moscow, and to get his reply to
them in a couple of minutes without stirring from
St. Petersburgh, from one palace, from one room,
in it, or even from his chair. The Russian paper
cigarette, which they always call a papiroos, and
of which the Russian ladies, like the Spanish, con-
sume great quantities, is soon smoked out ; but
Nicholas could put a little catechism of admini-
strative queries and send a list of orders receiving
answer, to the first, and a register of the second,
between his two splendid capitals, before the most
diligent smoker in the lower south gallery of the
Winter Palace could consume one of these little
papiroosses. When he had no business about
which to telegraph, he would still amuse himself
by the oddest conversations with his ambassadors,
in cipher of course—for he was not a man to let the
telegraph officials laugh at him—across many inde-
pendent kingdoms, many a river and mountain, and
many a thousand miles of country. Sometimes the
Russian ambassttdor at Paris, in the midst of some
entertainment, would receive a sudden summons
that his master was speaking to him from St.
Petersburgh, and that an immediate answer was
required. After he had notified his attention,
mortal man could not divine the subject which
might not be opened. It would sometimes, for in-
stance, happen that he was called upon to reply to
such an interrogation as the following, to which the
electric telegraph is much too busy to pay any
attention did it not come from the absolute monarch
of ninety millions of courageous and intelligent
subjects :
" Where were you just now ?"
" At dinner, at Monsieur de M.'s."
" Was the dinner good ?"

" Yes."
" Any fresh caviare ?"
" Your Majesty knows that to be impossible."
" What ladies were present ?"
" A. B. and the yolng C."
" Is the young C. ugly or pretty ?"
" Beautiful."
" Where did she sit ?"
" Next Madame, and the servant upset a soup-
plate upon her dress which had cost her, I believe,
nearly 2,000 francs."
" How did she look, when this happened ?"
" She looked charming."
" Then the soup became her ?"
" Very much. Much more than it became Ma-
dame de T. who had it in her mouth, not on her
lap, and who pulled a face,"
" Why ?"
" It was hot."

"Which? the face or the soup ? What kind of
Weather have you in Paris this evening?"
Very warm and showery."
"It freezes here. Good night—go back to
your party. I am going to Berlin to talk to
Kisseleff. By the bye, don't wear your St. Vladi-
mir at Monsieur de M's. He is a good fellow and
must be treated with less ceremony and more cor-
diality."_ _ _

And then the Emperor would go to his wife's
drawing-room, and tell her perhaps the gossip of
three capitals for that very day and hour.
But to return. The possession by Russia of the
electric telegraph through part of Siberia, and of
well-organised telegraphic communication through
the whole of it, renders the Russian relations
with China only the more deserving of vigilance
on the part of England. Nor is that telegraph,
we suspect, the only advantage which Russia en-
joys in Siberia, of whose interior state we know in
general as little as we knew of this one slight
circumstance in a huge although comparatively
recent system.

SHOCKING ACCIDENT AT A COLLIERY.—A girl,
about 13 years of age, named Kavanah, residing at Upper
Ballylehane, in this county, met with a most frightful acci-
dent a few days ago, by accidentally falling into one of Mr.
B. B. Edge's coal pits. It appears that her mother hadthat
morning proceeded to Carlow for the purpose of transacting
some business ; and, not returning home as early as was ex-
pected, the daughter left her dwelling about ten o'clock at
night to meet her parent. Having walked along the road
for some distance, she went down to what is called the
" ladder pit colliery" to warm herself. When coming away
from the fire,,which is immediately at the edge of the pit,
the poor creature stumbled, and fell headlong into the shaft,
to a depth of 25 yards. On being taken up, it was found
that she had sustained a concussion of the brain, with frac-
tended by a medical gentleman who dressed hersu fr.w\o'aunsadts,
and did everything in his power to alleviate her
but she now lies in a stateof insensibility, little 1 sufferings
entertained of her recovery.—Sounders' X letter. beiug
eics _Letter.

THIRD EDITION:

SUN OFFICE, Seven o'clock.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS--(THIS EVENING).
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsaok
at five o'clock.

The Duke of NORFOLK presented a petition in favour
Gf a reform of the representative system.
The Earl of ALBEMARLE presented a petition from
Dies, in Norfolk, in favour of the abolition of church-rates.
LAW OF PROPERTY AND TRUSTEES REPEAL

AMENDMENT BILK"----- --
On the motion of Lord ST. LEONARbS, this bill was
read a second time.

LAW OF DEBTOR AND CREDITOR.
The LORD CHANCELLOR then rose to introduce a
bill for the amendment of the law of debtor and creditor.
After having referred to the bill introduced last session
said the present measure must be accepted as a guide to the
course of legislation the ministry intended to adopt rather
than a complete measure. The subject bud been under
the consideration of the Government during the recess, and
the result had been that the present bill had bee
framed, which he thought their lordships would adopt, and
thus afford a great relief to the whole of the commercial
community. The law as at present in existence was admi-
nistered by two distinct tribunals, viz,, the Insolvency and.
Bankruptcy Courts. By the Prison Act at present in force
a person might apply to the Commissioner for his
discharge from prison on his furnishing the Court
with a complete schedule of his debts and liablilities. After
this step had been taken the creditors received notice, and
they then assembled, and on their being satisfied that he
had acted properly he received his discharge. But on the
appointed day of hearing, if anything occurred by which the:debtor was prevented from passing. protection wasgranted
but that he was always at the mercy of his opposing credi-
tor. In the law as it at present existed there were many
defects, and it was to remedy this state of things that the
present measure was introduced. In the year 1840 a Royal
commission was appointed to inquire into the bankruptcy
law, but in 1849 the whole law was consolidated, and the
law now in force was the result of that inquiry. He
knew there was great unwillingness to interfere with
the law of 1849, although there had been meetings
held on the important subject of bankruptcy and
insolvency in almost every town. The result of these
meetings has been, that the Government have been
enabled to obtain much information on the subject,
and to adopt many of the suggestions, where they were
considered safe and expient. It was in 1840 that the sub-
ject of bankruptcy and insolvency was first proposed to be
continued under one head, so it is clear the advisability of such
a step had been considered ; and he need not inform the house
that from that time down to the present such a union had
been much discussed. Before he proceeded further, ho
could not refrain from quoting a passage from the report of
the Royal Commission, to show how much they de-
precated imprisonment for debt. His lordship then read
the passage to which he alluded, and proceeded to state the
provisions of the bill then before their lordships. By the
present bill imprisonment for debt was only inflicted were
the debtor absconded. The bill also proposed that there
should be but one court, to be called the Court of lusol-
vency. They did not intend to get rid of the pre-
sent Insolvency Commissioners, but they would be
called in to aid and be employed under the new
system, as by the knowledge they had acquired they
would be able to give important information as to the pro-
per staff that would be required to properly work out the
improved law. He also proposed by the bill to get rid of
the distinction between " trader" and "non-trader," as it
was considered to be an unwise distinction; and a noble
and learned lord, a great authority in the house (Lord Lynd-
hurst), was of the same opinion.
[LEFT SPEAKING.]

HOUSE OF COMMONS—(TiIIs EVENING).
The SPEA.KEIt took the chair at four o'clock.
ANSWER TO THE ADDRESS.
Colonel FORESTER, Comptroller of the Royal House-
hold, brought up the answer of her Majesty to the Address
that had been voted by the house in reply to the Speech
from the Throne which was as follows :—" I have received
with much satisfaction your loyal and dutiful address. I
rely with confidence on your careful consideration of the
measures which will be submitted to you, and I shall
be always ready to co-operate with you for the preservation
of the institutions of the country, and in promoting the in-
terests and prosperity of all classes of my subjects."