The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 29, 1866.

on the sacks during his brief rest, "He was
not bound to supply him with a bed." We
may, however, be allowed to feel a little sur-
prise that Mr. WHEELER did not keep two men be-
came there was " not half work enough" for one.
If eighteen hours a day is not half enough work,
Mr. WHEELER'S computation of time must be a little
different from that of ordinary mortals, seeing that we
do not usually reckon forty hours to a day. Of
the time for sleep or rest we say nothing, since that
is a necessity which is evidently not dreamt of in
Cow-cross philosophy ; but Mrs. YELLALY fashion.
Mr WEEELER has a good deal of virtu-
ous indignation to spare for the public
who insist upon hot rolls for breakfast.
On one point we must cordially agree with him :
" The state of the journeyman baker is a disgrace
to the country." The remedy, however, is not easy
to find. Mr. WHEELER might, of course, ha ,•e em-
ployed another journeyman, and so secured them
each at least an alternate night's rest; but the whole
system of night work is bad, and the simple obser-
vation of the poor widow " that GEORGE had too
much of the bakehouse altogether," expresses a
melancholy truth, applicable to a very large propor-
tion of the 15,000 men of his class in London.
The end came at last, the inevitable end,
of such excessive and protracted labour,
but its extreme suddenness has made the story
remarkable. One morning about 3 a.m. the journey-
man called his master, and asked to be laiddown on
his old friends, the sacks. There was no possibility of
reviving him, and two doctors sent for, with singu-
lar heartlessness, refused to answer the call. A cab,
after some trouble, was secured, and poor SPRIGGS
was sent to St. Bartholomew's Hospital—a goal he
never reached, for the man who had been knocked
about by fate all his life ended his restless career in
a cab at last, and only the corpse of the poor journey-
man reached the kindly shelter of St. Bartholomew's.
Certainly this story reads as if Reform was not
only wanted in the electoral system. It seems as if
industry needed to be protected against itself, as if
trade was destructive as well as creative,
and as if the sooner the whole system of
journeymen, apprentices, and others in similar po-
sitions, were put under regular and impartial in-
spection the better. Let us hope that poor GEORGE
SPRIGGS, humble, patient, and neglected in his life,
may not have died in vain, but that the public sense
of justice and humanity may be roused to help
those who cannot help themselves.

The ninth meeting of the Royal Geographical
Society this session was held on Monday evening at
Burlington House, under the presidency of Sir
RODERICK MURCHISON, and the paper of the even-
ing was singularly interesting. It was written by
Sir 11. RAWLINSON, K.C.8., on M. VENINKOF'S
recent account on the Pamir and the sources of the
Oxus in Central Asia. The region lying between
the southern frontier of Russia and the northern
frontier of our Indian empire in Kashmir is very
obscure, and presents almost a terra incognito
to the geographer. M. VENINKOF'S work
is founded on a MS. by an unknown author,
whose MS. is date d_lBo6, and who professes
to be employed by the East India Company
to purchase horses for their army. It is accom-
panied by sketches of the country, tables of astro-
nomical positions, and several maps. The details
given of the natural features of the country and
the inhabitants are minute and interesting ; alto-
gether the production, if authentic, is of the highest
value and interest. Sir 11. RA.WLINSON, in his re-
marks upon this singular manuscript, observed that
the map founded on it had been made use of in the
compilation of the best modern maps of Asia. lle is
himself, however, of opinion that the whole MS.
is an elaborate hoax. Sir HENRY entered at some
length into his reasons for this belief, and the diffi-
culty of the whole question shows the obstacles
against which our geographers have to contend.
We commend the whole controversy to the atten-
tion of the curious.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Wednesday Evening.

The Moniteur to-day is completely barren, as far
as foreign news is concerned, and indeed in other
respects it is to-day quite devoid of interest. It
publishes rather a long letter from Florence, devoted
chiefly to the discussion in the Italian Chamber re-
lative to the election of Mazzini. The latter cha-
racterises the discussion as remarkable for modera-
tion, but of course agrees with its decision that
Mazzini, " being deprived of his civil rights by a
condemnation for a capital offence, is not eligible
for election to the Chamber."

There is a lull in the horizon of German politics
to-day, but it is rather curious to remark that
several of the Paris papers which for some time past
have professed to consider war between Austria and
Prussia to be inevitable now seem to entertain the
possibility of " making things pleasant" between
them.
A curious case of resuscitation from death has
occurred at Brocou, near Vienne (France). A lady
named Degusseau, 34 years of age, was supposed to
be dead, and the time for the funeral was fixed.
The mourners assembled at the house, but before
the undertakers wore about to take the coffin to the
church, a woman who is in the habit of attending to
the dead put her hand to the supposed corpse, and
felt a slight movement. It was a living, not a dead
body. Some brandy was administered, and breath
returned. The lady has been in a state of lethargy
for some days, and was still in that condition when
the last account of the case was sent from Vienne.
The annual ham fair, held in Passion-week on
the Boulevard Bourdon began yesterday, and pre-
sented a scene of great excitement in consequence
of the fears entertained relative to trichinose. The
crowd was so considerable that it was difficult to
move. It is customary with the Parisians to pro-
vide :larger quantities of ham during Passion-week
as an adjunct to the festivities of Easter. This year
the sale has been considerably checked, although
the dealers took the precaution to post bills contain-
ing an extract from the report of the French veteri-
nary surgeons sent to Germany to study the disease,
in which they state that it does not exist in France.
Unfortunately for the pork dealers, however, people
are afraid of the trichinose.

The alternations in the weather in Paris during
the last week have been really extraordinary. Yes-
terday morning at six o'clock the air was frosty,
but before sunset there was a storm of thunder and
lightning, not very heavy, it is true, but the rain
fell with violence and abundance. To-day the
weather has been warm and beautiful.

The negotiations between the Governments of
Berlin and Hanover relative to the construction of
a railway direct have terminated satisfactorily. The
advantage of this railway for Prussia will be very
great, for, in addition to the facility of transport to
Hanover, it will give her a direct communication.
with the North Sea..

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Drouyn de
Lhuys, " albeit unused to the melting mood," can
sometimes unbend from the asperities of foreign
politics, and prove that he knows the value of in-
dustrial and scientific progress. At the recent
meeting of the Zoological Society of Acclimatation,
at which M. Drouyn de Lhuys presided, he made a
very interesting speech, full of historical research
and information, relative to the culture of the
vine, a branch of industry so vitally important for
France. Ile said that the culture of the vine and
the manufacture of wine from the juice of the
grape could be traced to the earliest ages. In the
days of Pliny the wines made in the district of the
Delta were purchased at a high price by the con-
noisseurs of Rome. The Bible raeutioned the cul-

ture of the vine by Noah, and the wines made in
some of the districts there named were still in re-
repute. Homer, in " The Odyssey," spoke of the
wine made on the coast of Thrace, which was so
strong that it would bear twenty times its volume
of water. The Romans did not acquire perfection
in the manufacture of wine till much later, but the
conquest of Greece enriched the vineyards of Italy,
and afterwards out of twenty different sorts of
wine, Italy, according to Pliny, furnished two-
thirds. France had assumed now the first place
among wine countries. The vine from which- the
celebrated Tokay wine was made was now accli-
matised near Montpellier, and experiments were in
progress in the environs of Rheims with Portuguese
vines for the manufacture of port. Russia was
entirely dependent upon France for her vines and
wine. Australia was beginning to make good wine
with the produce of the vines from France. California
had been able to make wine for ten years past with
French vines. In conclusion, M. Drouyn de Lhuys
said that for two centuries the world had made an
advance in acclimatation without/knowing it, and
France, guided only by the instinct of her cultivat-
ing genius, had made great progress in wine making
before science had discovered the first germs of the
art. Aided by science, however, the improvement
in the wines of France would now be sure and rapid.
In the pamphlet on cholera by Dr. Charles
Shrimpton, to which I have already alluded, the
author, after citing various authorities to prove
that the disease is not propagated by contagion,
a doctrine which he supports by powerful argu- '
ments, the author gives his own opinion. As Mr.
Shrimpton is consider©d in Paris to be a first-rate
authority upon all points eonnected with the medi-
cal art, your readers will naturally be interested in
knowing his views regarding this terrible disease.
He says, " Frankly, it seems impossible in the pre-
sence of facts so positive, which are repeated daily
and which are patent to all the world, not to attri-
bute the propagation of cholera to some electrical
action, yet unknown, but very real, particularly as
the direction and the violence of the winds do not
exercise any influence upon this formidable disease."
This theory well deserves investigation by the pro-
fession and by men of Science generally. In Paris
the pamphlet has excited great interest.

The Abyssinian Prison-rs.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Reuter's Telegram Company (Limited), 1, Royal
Exchange-buildings, E.C., London, March 28.
beg to call your attention to the fact that
the letter from Dr. Beke, alluded to in the telegram
received to-day at the Foreign Office from her
Majesty's Consul-General in Egypt, bears a date
antecedent to that of the letter from the same gen-
tleman communicated by me to the journals on
Monday last, the one being dated 12th February,
and the other 17th February. In forwarding the
latter communication Dr. Beke referred to a letter
he had written previously, but which has never come
to hand, wherein he had stated that Mr. Rassam had
met the Emperor Theodore, and was well received.
This statement Dr. Beke declares to be false, he
having been deceived by Mr. Rassam's. messenger.
His own words are :—"I have been grossly deceived
by Mr. Rassam's messenger, whose report of that
gentleman having met the Emperor Theodore and
been well received by him is as untrue as the tele-
gram announcing Consul Cameron's return, sent by
Mr. Rassam from Suez on the sth September last."
This denial was not given by me because the state-
ment to which it referred had not been received.

From these facts it would appear that the contents
of the missing letter have come into the hands of
the English Consul in Egypt, who has doubtless
telegraphed them in ignorance of the later in-
formation.

The latest news from Dr. Beke is contained in
hi: letter of 17th February, received by me and
published yesterday, in which he states that Mr.
llassam was to await at Debra Tabor or Korata the
Emperor's return from his campaign in Go-djam.—
I am, Sir, yours, &c., JuLius REUTER.

LA TEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA.

BRUSSELS, MARCH 29.

The Independance Beige of to-day publishes tele-
graphic intelligence from IVeime, according to
which the King of Prussia gave his consent on
Monday last to certain military arrangements,
which, although only of a preliminary nature, in-
dicate that war is almost inevitable.

SPAIN.

MADRID, MAncir 28 (Evening).

Senor Rios Rosas, President of the Congress ;
Senor Silvela, Director of Public Instruction ; and
some other members of the Congress who abstained
from voting upon the motion of Senor Fages for the
reduction of the army, have tendered their resigna-
tions.

AM ERICA.
SOUTHAMPTON, MARCH 29.
The Hamburgh and American Company's steamer
Borussia, from New York on the 17th inst., passed
the Needles at 11.10 a.m. to-day.