The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-24 00:00:00

balanced by the annoyance and obstruction
of quite unnecessary and useless move-

It will be a useful check upon
excessive speculation to insist upon some
better guarantee for the stability of newly-formed
companies, while the additional security which the
estblished lines will acquire from the removal of
the present drain upon their resources by reckless
and interested competition will put the whole ques-
tion of railway property on a more satisfactory

merits.

footing.

The Meeting of Liberal Members.

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The following is the circular which has been
issued by Earl Russell convening a meeting of
Liberal members :

Lord Russell requests the favour of your attend-
ance at a meeting at 10, Downing-street, on
Tuesday April 10, at ono p.m., on matters of great
importance.
Thursday, March 22, 1866.

The Mystery of Stodare's Sphinx Explained

If we unveil the " Mystery" which Colonel Sto-
dare has been exhibiting at the Egyptian Hall for
some time, we trust, says the Reader, that we shall
not incur the displeasure either of the inventor of
" The Sphinx" or of those who intend paying it a
visit. The Sphinx, be it known, is the object of a
patent, as indeed everything is now-a-days. The
specification, which has just been made public, gives
us the required iliformation. In Colonel Stodare's
L exhibition, as almost every one knows, a head ap-
pears on what seems to be an ordinary three-legged
table, which stands in the centre of the stage. To
all appearances the head is an independent member,
which makes a speech, and answers questions, quite
as well as many an " independent member" in
" another place." The secret lies in the table, which,
instead of being open underneath, is occupied by
two mirrors extending from the two back legs and
meeting at the front leg. Now if a spectator is
ignorant of the existence of a mirror, he has no
means of distinguishing reflected from real objects,
unless they appear in unnatural positions. It is a
law in optics that the reflected imago of an object
appears as far behind the mirror as the object re-
flected is in front of it. It is obvious that by a
proper arrangement of duplicate pictures of that part
of the scene hidden by the table a reflection of those
duplicates may be caused to appear in the mirrors
underneath the table, and thus lead the spectator
to imagine that he sees beyond the table, whereas all
the time he is looking at a reflected image of the
back scene. The triangular space enclosed by the
glasses serves to contain the legs and body of the
Sphinx, whose head appears on the top of the table.
The principle, it will be seen, is somewhat similar
to that of Eidos Aeides, a clever illusion shown at
Her Majesty's Theatre last year, which consisted in
rendering an object alternately visible and invisible
by placing a sheet of plain glass in front of it, and
disposing a facsimile of the scene at the back at a
suitable angle at the wing. When the duplicate
scene was strongly illuminated, the stage-lights
being lowered, it was reflected in the glass, which
acted for a time as a mirror, and the object disap-
peared. When the lights on the false scene were
turned down, the stage lights being allowed to pre-
dominate, the object became visible again. We
may add that Colonel Stodare's patent was not
granted, the application having been successfully
opposed by the proprietors of " Proteus," another
of the ingenious optical delusions in fashion just
now.

SALE OF PRINCE NAPOLEON'S HOTEL.—The sale
of Prince Napoleon's Hotel in the Avenue Montaigne,
Paris, took place on Wednesday. The total produce of the
sale was £46,004.
NARIIOIV ESCAPE OF PRINCE MURAT.—Prince
Murat, colonel in the Guides, had a narrow escape a few
days back while descending the Champs Elysees in a
phaeton which he was himself driving. The horse took
fright, and, becoming uncontrollable, dashed the vehicle
against a tree. Both shafts were broken by the shock, but
the prince escaped unhurt.

ENFRANCHISEMENT OF COPYTIOLDS.—The Copy-
hold Commission state in their report for 1865 that in that
year they completed 88 enfranchisements in clerical manors,
48 in collegiate manors, and 903 in lay manors. Since 1841
the Commission Lave completed 6,610 enfranchisements
and commutations, the consideration consisting of £972,368
for payments in full, rent-charges amounting to £8,158,
and 1,388 acres of land. Operations continue under the
Universities and Colleges Estates Acts of 1858 and 1860,
and the Commission have authorised in all 254 sales, 97
purchases, 38 enfranchisement; 18 exchanges, 29 applies-
tione for raising money, end 2 transfers of trust.