The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-23 00:00:00

CONTRACT FOR STEARINE CANDLES.
CONTRACT DEPARTMENT, ADMIRALTY,
Somerset House, 7th November, 1866.
'THE COMMISSIONERS for EXECUTING
-I- the OFFICE of LORD HIGH ADMIRAL of the
UNITED KINGDOM of GREAT BRITAIN and IRE-
LAND, do hereby give Notice, that, on MONDAY, the
3d December next, at Twelve o'clock at Noon, they will
be ready to treat with such persons as may be willing to
Contract for supplying and delivering into her Majesty's
Victualling StorsesrEatADAtfEordc,AalNl
DsuLcl Squantities of
Ei
for the use of Her Majesty's Indian Troop Ships, as may
from time to time be demanded under a Contract for
Twelve Calendar Months, certain and further, until the
expiration of Three Calendar Mouths' warning.
Samples (not less than 6 lbs. of each description) must
be produced by the parties tendering, and none to be ten
dered the material of which is of a solidifying point below
125 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty reserve to
themselves an unlimited power of selection in accepting
the Tenders.
No Tender will bo received unless made on the Printed
Form provided for the purpose, and which may be obtained
on application in the Lobby of the Department of the Con-
troller of Victualling, Admiralty, Somerset House, where
the conditions of the Contract may be seen.
No Tender will be received after Twelve o'clock at
noon on the day of treaty, and it will not be required that
the party tendering, or an agent on his behalf, should
attend at the office on the day of Contract, as the result of
the offer received from each person will be communicated
to him and his proposed sureties in writing.
Every Tender must be addressed to the Secretary of the
Admiralty, and bear in the left-hand corner the words
" Tender for Stearine Candles," and must also be delivered
at the Department of the Controller of Victualling, Admi-
ralty, Somerset House, signed by two responsible persons,
engaging to become bound with the person tendering in
the sum of £l,OOO for the due performance of the Contract.
By order, ANTONIO BRADY,
Registrar of Contracts and Public Securities.

The Shocking Murder by a Boy in Sheffield

---~--- -

Yesterday afternoon an inquest was held on the
body of the unfortunate boy, Arthur Allen, whose
death occurred under the me'ancholy circumstances
reported yesterday. The prisoner was brought into
the inquest room by a police-constable, and was
placed at a table in the centre of the room, next to
the chair reserved for the witnesses. The attention
of all present was immediately concentrated upon
him, but he maintained surprising firmness and
composure for some time. He is veryyouthf ul in
appearance, with no trace of malignant passion in
his countenance. His eyes were swollen with cry-
ing. After the examination of the witnesses had
proceeded for a short space the prisoner's firmness
gave way, and frequent bursts of weeping showed
that he realised the position in which he was placed.
His distress was greatest when the officer produced
the hammer and the knife with which the murder
had been committed. It seems that the prisoner
has a stepmother, and he asserts that before he left
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home she used him very cruelly, beat him very fre-
wa
ictailoitdi thats
he " would come to the gallows." That such would
be his fate seems to have been accepted by the un-
fortunate lad as a fact from which there was no
escape. He says he "always felt that he should
murder somebody, but he did not know who it was
to be." Ile was a fatalist ; and having accepted
as something inevitable the belief that he should
conic to the ignominious death of a murderer be
made no attempt to resist the temptation that
constantly beset him to bring about its realisa-
tion. He had contemplated the murder for a week,
and on the fatal night the weapons he used were
secreted beneath the pillow on which he allowed his
victim to repose in unsuspecting confidence. He sat
up during the whole night in the bed, watching the
poor lad. His stepmother's prediction seemed to
ring in his ears, and he resolved, just as the day
dawned, to commit the deed. Ile says he " re-
peated the Lord's prayer, and then struck the blow."
That blow took effect on the left side of the neck,
just beneath the ear, and the injury caused by the
hammer was increased by a severe stab with the
carving knife. The blow was so violent that the
blade snapped in half. Two other wounds were in-
flicted with the hammer, each of them fracturing
the skull ; but the first was the immediate cause of
death. The verdict was " Wilful murder," the
jury regretting they could come to no other.

Extension of the Union over the Continent

of North Amelica.

The policy which actuates the citizens of the United
States to spread the Union over the Continent of
North America has a sound foundation. A re-
public, which shall embrace the whole area of the
Continent, has a better reason for its formation than
the mere idea of grandeur and the ambitious wish—
said to be implanted in the breast of every American
—of raising his country to the rank of the leading
nation of the world. The tendency to split and
form separate governments;originating in the diverg-
ence of interests, of character, of manners and
customs, may or may not be too strong for the wise
course whichactuates the people to permit no nation
to grow upon that continent. which may become
inimical and dangerous to themselves. The spec-
tacle presented by Europe must tend strongly to in-
fluence the statesmen of America in pursuing the
course they have marked out. Europe is incorrigible
in its armaments. War seems to beget war. The
aggrandisement of one country excites the jealousy
of another, and the fears of a third. Small princi-
palities are swallowed up, with an open disregard to
international law, the feeling of the inhabitants, and
to the rights of individuals, which painfully show
weak powers the fate that in all probability
lies before them. A vast addition to the nu-
merical strength of the Russian army is no
sooner announced than Europe becomes alarmed
by a plan for re-organising the French army, which
will give to the EMPEROR the power of bringing into
the field nearly all the able-bodied men in his do-
minions. In the face of rumours which have a
sinister bearing against the KAISER'S dominions,
Austria, though on the verge of bankruptcy, is com-
pelled to prepare for threatened events. Prussia
knows that she is now alike an object of hatred and
jealousy. Thus the Seven Days' War, instead of
pacifying Europe, seems only to have stirred into a
fiercer flame the hot burning embers of strife.
These armaments are maintained and increased in
the face of empty exchequers and credit, each year
running lower and lower. Each nation maintains
an army it has not the strength to support, and it
is compelled to look to extraneous aid to make up
its annually increasing deficit. The withdrawal of
labour from productive sources is a two-edged
sword, cutting both ways. Not only is the expen-
diture increased in the maintenance of an additional
body of men, but the nation loses in a far greater
degree by being deprived of the products of the
labour of the men thus substracted from its industry.
Indeed, the proportion may be said to be two to
one. For instance, if an additional hundred thou-
sand men costs the exchequer £3,000,000, and
there are no troops maintained at so low a rate in
Europe, the loss in the productive power of the
population from which these men are taken
would represent double the sum, or £6,000,000,
causing a total loss of £9,000,000. It is not dif-
ficult to foresee the end of all this. The intoler-
able nature of the burdens will precipitate the
catastrophe, and drive the countries into war to
prevent bankruptcy, or an internal explosion against
the unbearable taxes. If this increase of armament
becomes general throughout Europe, it will be
scarcely possible to maintain peace for more than a
year. With the example of Europe before them,
Americans may well strive for the one paramount
object of bringing the North American Continent
under one central rule. The Constitution of the
United States is admirably adapted for attaining
this end. It combines in a remarkable degree local
self-government, with the centralisation of a general
government. A system such as that iu force through-
out the Union has never yet been tried, and those
who predict eventual ly that failure cannot groun d their
predictions on the experience furnished by history.
a
Whatever may be the evils generated a single
by
nation embracing in its area a vast continent, these
evils cannot be so great as those emanating from a
number of independent States bordering on each
other by mere imaginary lines. To allowthe mani-
fold evils of Europe to be reproduced in America,
the result of these evils staring them in the face,
would show little wisdom on the part of the
American people. The gains of one tariff and
customs regulations extending over the continent, of
one system of coinage, weights, and measures, laws
and language, ono broad railway and traffic plan,