The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-30 00:00:00

THE RECENT ACCIDENT ON MONT BL ANC.

Letters from Chamounix state that the search for the
bodies of the two remaining victims of the late accident at
Mont Blanc had remained unsuccessful up to the 18th.
On that day the searching party were nearly buried by
another avalanche. On the 23d, however, they discovered
the corpse of the portor Tournier, and now hope to re-
cover that of Captain Arkwright.
TILE IRONWORKS UNION.—We learn by tele-
graphirom_Wolverhampton that at the conference of iron-
workers yesterday it was resolved that henceforth there
shall be only one union, one executive, and one code of
rules for England, Scotland, and Wales. _

The Right Hon. Sir Stafford Northcote will arrive
in town to-day from his seat in Devonshire, in order to be
present at the meeting of the Cabinet Ministers to bo held
to-morrow, in Downing-street.

A BAD FASHION REVlVED.—Duelling, which
everybody thought was on its decline, has had a
sudden revival in France. The journalists of the capital
have been exchanging cartels right and left, and now a
fatal encounter has taken place between two civilians.
Some of the inhabitants of a quiet street near the Porte
Maillot, Bois do Boulogne, hearing a noise in the night,
looked out of window and saw a knot of men in fashion-
able evening dress, surrounding two of their companions,
who were lunging at each other with rapiers. One of the
combatants fell and the rest quietly fled. The dead body
has proved to be that of M. Seguin, the son of a banker,
avid a well-known man about town ; and the dispute which
resulted in the meeting seems to have boon occasioned by
high words passed at a card party. The affair is still
wrapped in mystery, and the police heve been unable to
find out who was the unfortunate man's antagonist.

- -
THE EARTH'S RisK:FRO3I C 011ETS.---.A correspon-
dent of the Athenmum writes to that journal as follows:
" Mr. Garbett has favoured in your number for the
6th of this month with certain calculations respecting
the number of times during a million of years that
we may expect the earth to be struck by a comet,
judging from recorded facts. Admit for argument's
sake his estimate of 593 cometary visits, or 1,186
passages `'through the sphere raised upon the earth's
orbit, during a century, and that• it would re4uire
2308 i 1186 such average passag es fairly to hit, or have a
chance of hitting, every part of such sphere. The circum-
ference of the earth's orbit (a great circle of such sphere)
would be 72,250 earth-diameters, and taking the average
of the holes made as 31.* earth-diameters long, it would re-
quire at the very least 2,294 such passages to hit, or have
a chance of hitting, every part of such orbit. Such
being the case, are not the chances that only once

in such 2,294 passages would the earth happen to be where
the comet came ? Unless Mr. Garbett can negative this
view, does it not follow that wo must alter this result from
4 hits of the earth by a comet during a million of years,
or one in 250,000 years, by multiplying the figure last
given by 2294 ? The result will be the somewhat less
critic al situation for the stability of our special cosmical
institution of one hit by a comet per 574 millions of years;
and then :—Why, the chances aro we may not have been
hit yet.

An imperial decree in the 3loniteur promotes
General Frdhault, Director of Artillery at the Ministry of
Marine, and formerly Governor of Guadaloupe, to the
grade of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.
AN ANECDOTE OF THE LATE MARQUIS DE BOISSY
—almost too good to be true, has recently got into circu-
lation among our Farisian contemporaries. The eccen-
tric Marquis, as is well known, in spite of his furious
onslaughts on la perfule Albion in the Corps Legis-
latif, was a complete Anglomane in private life. He
dressed in the English fashion entertained English guests
and kept up his household with Englsh servants. During
his last illness a lady called upon him, and as she
sat by his side she remarked, with some alarm, that
her companion played carelessly with a revolves. M. de
Boissy seid, '• I beg pardon, Madame, but all my servants
are English, and I am obliged to bo on ray guard, as the
rascals are capable of anything.
A QUADRILLIONTH OF A GRAIN OF GOLD is Cor-
rectly represented in a fractional form thus—

I,I,OO,O)O,OUU,UOJ,LUJ,‘ 00,00U,V00.

SQUARING THE ClRCLE.—Professor de Morgan,
in his last Bundle of Paradoxes, writes that a civil engi-
neer—so he says—has made the quadrature "no longor a
problem, but an axiom." As follows:—" Take the quad-
rant of a circle whose circumference is given, square the
quadrant, which gives the true square of the circle. Be-
cause .5V17.5-=-56.25=th0 positive square of a
circle whose circumference is 30."

A singular panic occurred on Sunday evening on
the Versailles railway to a special train heavily laden
with visitors from the La Marche steeplechases.
Shortly after crossing the river at Asnieres the
engine and carriages came to a standstill, and, a
sudden terror seizing on the passengers, a rush was
made to the doors, and in a moment the whole of
the passengers scrambled on the line, some jumping
from their seats on the roof in their haste to alight,
no one, however, knowing of any cause for alarm.
Fortunately no other train passed at the time,
and, the guard having re-assured the passengers
as to the cause of the stoppage, they resumed
their seats laughing, but half ashamed of their
foolish fear.