The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-17 00:00:00

RITUAL OBSERVANCES

Lord PORTMAN presented a petition against the con-
tinuance of ritual ceremonies in the Church of England.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.

The following bills were read a second time :—Suther-
land Walker's Estate, Buchanan's Estate, Newchurch
Parish Division, Merrybent and Darlington Railway,
British Gas Company (Staffordshire Potteries), Nelson
Local Board, and Slough Gas.

The following bills were read a third time and passed :
—Amicable Life Assurance, Bury Gas, Lancashire and
Yorkshire Railway (extension of time, &c.), Alfin Valley
Railway, New River Company, and Cambridge University
and Town Water.

PRIVATE BILLS.
Lord REDESDALE moved that the standing orders be
suspended in order that the time for depositing petitions
praying to be heard against private bills, which would
otherwise expire during the adjournment of the house, be
extended to the 28th instant.
THE COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS AT BUR-
LINGTON HOUSE.
Lord OVERSTONE drew the atttention to a statement
which had appeared in a morning paper, to the effect
that the collection of paintings at Burlington House was
to be removed. He thought that time should be afforded
to Parliament and the country to express their opinion on
this subject.
Earl GRANVILLE said that the Government felt that
they should be bound by a decision of the House of Com-
mons in giving the National Gallery, the trustees of which
had funds at their disposal, the means of selecting a site
for the erection of a building for their purposes. He believed
that while the site of Burlington House had been origi-
nally selected there was some doubt on the part of the trus-
tees of the National Gallery as to whether it was the most
elegibile.
After a few words from Lord OVERSTONE, the subject
dropped.
lord (Chelmsford) not to prsse this bill in the face of the
opposition to its provisions that were expressed against
it. Ho referred to the amendment proposed by Lord
Teynham, and to the general dissatisfaction exhibited at
previous attempts to legislate on this subject.
Lord CHELMSFORD repeated the objections ho made
to the course pursued in opposing the bill after its having
passed a second reading, by which its principle was ap-
proved. He had undertaken the duty of introducing this
measure very reluctantly, but he did so in compliance with
petitions from thousands and ten of thousand of tradesmen,
and from which it appeared that there were no less than
60,000 tradesman, with their employds, who were reluc-
tantly compelled to trade on Sundays.
[LEFT SPEAKING.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS—'Psis EVENING.
The SPEAKER took the chair at 4 o'clock.
PRIVATE BUSINESS

The following bills were read a second time and passed :
Abercarn Roads ; Aberdeen County and Municipal Build-
ings; Belfast Burial Ground; Bridport, Lyme, and South
Coast Railway ; Combmartin and Ilfracombe Road ; Dublin
and Kingstown Railway (Lease) ; Glasgow City Improve-
ments, &c. ; Kilmarnock Water ; London and South
Western Railway (Additional Powers) ; Manchester,
Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway (Additional Powers);
Manchester Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway (New
Lines); Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (Outer Works
Alteration); Mersey Pneumatic Railway; Metropolitan Rail-
way (Additional Powers) ; North Walsham and Dilham
Canal ; Salisbury and Yeovil Railway (Capital) ; Ventnor
Gas ; and NV alker and Walisend Union Gas.
THAMES AND SEVERN CANAL NAVIGATION

.[LEFT SPEAKING.]

Bank of England Returns,•--This Evening.

An Account, pursuant to
cap. 32, for the week ending
ISSI7B DE
Notes issued .....£26,851,825

£26, 856,82 i
BANKING B]

Proprietors' Capi-
tal £14,553,000
Rest
Public Deposits
(including Ex-
chequer, Sav-
ings' Banks,
Commissioners
of National
Debt, and Div
Accounts) 5,936,219
Other Deposits 18,620,772
Seven Day and
other bills 529,822

.C 42,983,125

the Act 7th and Bth Victoria,
Wednesday, May 16, '1866.
PARTMENT.

Govemmt. DebLll,ols,loo
Other Securities.. 3,984,900
Gold Coin and

Bu ---
14854825
Silver

£26,851,825

lIPARTMBNT.
IGovernint. Secu-
rities(including
Dead Weight
Annuity) •••• X 10,837,057
Other Securities.. 30 943, 259
Notes ............... 730 830
Gold and Silver ,
Coin

471,080

.£42;983425

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

LONDON, May 17.—Wind this day at noon—South•
Easterly; moderate breeze, and fine weather, but rather
cloudy.

LBY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. I

GRAVESEND, Thursday Morning.
Arrived, May 16—Mercur, from Stolpemunde ; Adelina,
from Foochow ; Elois, from Philadelphia ; Victoria, from
Memel; Anna, from Rostock; Collier, steamer, from
Dieppe.

Arrived, May 17—Flecha, steamer, from Ghont ; Trident,
steamer, from Hamburg ; Baron Oey, et.auier, from
Antwerp;, Ranger, steamer, and Cologne, steamer, from
Rotterdam.

DEAL, Thursday Morning.
Arrived, May 16.—Montrose, from London, for St.
Vincent ; Freeda, .from London, for St. Übes ; Caldera,
from London, for Bombay; George, from Barbadoes, for
London.

Arrived, May 17.—W. L. F. L., Commercial Code, from
West, for North ; Utenage, screw steamer, from West for
London.

The following will be read with interest as de-
scriptive of the chronograph :—The chronograph,
which has now come to be regarded as the great authority
in all matters where it is essential to obtain the rate of
speed with perfect accuracy consists of an ordinary quick
train lever movement, on a scale sufficiently large to carry
the hands for an 8-inch dial, and with the addition of a
long seconds hand, which traverses the dial, instead of
being, as usual, just above the figure VI. The peculiarity
of the chronograph consists in this seconds hand and the
mechanism connected with it. The hand itself is
double, or formed of two distinct hands, one lying
over the other. The lower one, at its extreme end,
is furnished with a small cup or reservoir, with a.
minute orifice at the bottom. The corresponding
extremity of the upper band is bent over so
as to rest exactly over this puncture, and the reservoir,
having been filled with ink of a thickness between ordi-
nary nary writing fluid, and printers' ink, the chronograph is
ready for action. The operator, who holds tightly grasped
in his hand a stout string connected with the mechanism
peculiar to this instrument, keeps a steady look out for the
fall of the starter's flag. Simultaneously, therefore, with
the start of the race, the string he holds is pulled by him,
and at the same moment the upper hand dips down
through the reservoir in the lower, and leaves a little dot
or speck of ink upon the dial. This is repeated as the
horses pass the winning-post, so that a lasting; an indisput-
able record is afforded by the dots on the dial of the time
—exact to the tenth of a second—which is occupied in

running the race.
REFRESHMENT ROOMS IN THE HOUSE OF COM-
moNs.—The select committee on the Kitchen in a
report issued on Thursday morning, again complain of the
deficiency of accommodation, and they recommend that an

enlargement of the rooms be executed according to a plan
by Mr. E. M. Barry in 1863, at an estimated cost of £4,650.
During the present session, they say, the want of sufficient
accommodation has been more manifest than in any former
year. The average number of members dining during last
month has been 125 per day ; and one evening before
Easter as many as 239 dined in these rooms, while tho

tables accommodate only 96 persons. Nearly 100 members

have signed a paper in approval of the alteration, and
many more have since expressed themselves in its favour.
With the report is an account of the proceedings of the
committee, as in the case of more important investigations.
The committee at one sitting adopted a request to the wine
merchants that they supply better brandy and sherries,
and complaining that a drunken man who had come from
a wine merchant's to replace some of the wine had taken
away with him a rope and a pulley, " the property of the
house." At another sitting a wine-bin was the subject of
a resolution, and at a third sitting a resolution in favour of
a supply of Hungarian wines was adopted, and a rebuke
agreed to with regard to the dilatoriness of the waiters.
At one sitting the Sergeant-at-Arms, it was agreed, should
be requested " to send a requisition to the Office of Works"
for 10 dozen table napkins, 12 dozen glass-cloths, and 12
dozen coarse cloths. Of three of the sittings,. told,c=aed.
with becoming reticence, that " the commatee 1
seems,
The wine bill for the session of 1865 amounted, 2
to £559 ls. Bd.
• t on the 15th inst ,
Mr. John Fowler, president, thist sohacciehairy.
his Royal High-
ness.m
elected,ll
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.—At the
meeting of the members of
Prince Alfred, K.G., was by acclamation, a
.
honorary member.
seven members and six associates
the present session,
declared to be duly elected, includ-
ing the ordinary ballot, the last of
Collet first-
class Henryfirst-
were balloted for andlss
Mr.
James Melville Balfour, chief
ing in the former c
LI gchiniaee
ferainssgistenptarte
engineer
rO toang ot,hNe .Z.;
Londonli r.
East Indian Railway C;
agyin; e eMr
rt
o. James
njrgoe insniadet eehri t engineer
"Great Eastern
Jonathan Dickson Ikin, Westminster ; Mr.
ARlcalovinV:f:hidrsiitlees,hlvdeNi the
eyiroMla
isrirtt;
district
Davis,
Western
act i
nltgailewn
Water-
works ; and Mr. William Smith, chief engineer of the Cal-
mate Waterworks ; and in the latter class, Mr. J. Henry
Cotterill, Sloane-street; Mr. Charles Foote Gower, West-
minster; Mr. James Sidney Hargrove, Westminster; Mr.
John Gillet Livesay, surveyor to the Local Board of Health,
Veutnor, I- lAT
-• "• ; Mr. JOhn Gordon M'Kenzie, Swansa.
and Mr. William Barrow Turner, Dalton-in-Furness.
THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND !—Karl Blind,
the step father of the unfortunate young man who
perished in his attack upon Count Bismarck, has recently
written the following exculpatory letter to the Times f
"Sir,—With bleeding heart, and bowed down with grief,wh 0
I place the palm of martyrdom on the grave obi'
ohm.ral wil
has been his mother's pride and delight. anad whom
loving
ever regard as my true son. A . nobler,
he,lnagine. From
nature than his, it would bo impossible I to I
carried away to sae-
love of country and freedom
he was
Fatherland the mice_
himself, in order to spare to t
fullof
devotion,
ries of a wicked war. His was aheart
full of filial kindness, full of the most generous aspirations.
If others blame him let it not be expected that I, to whom
right he looked as a father, should give the to any one of
saying that I reprobate him whose inspirations have been
the 'purest, and who has enthusiastically—although to the
deepest sorrow of my disconsolate wife, of myself, and
my family-given up his young and promising life in his
country's cause.—l am, sir, yours obediently, KARL BLIND,
—May 10."