The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 26, 1859.

cessarily magnified—hundreds, perhaps we should suring his life. Try it. When a landlord, wit h
say more correctly thousands, of the most trumpery £l,OOO a-year from land, dies, without insuring his
publications having during the last few years been life for a penny, he leaves his family £l,OOO a-year
preposterously glorified in gilding and fragrant still. How much, then, must a Schedule D: income
new morocco!] Very notable, again, among the of a thousand a-year pay to enable its possessor to
sources of the aggregate diminution in the expen- leave his family a sum -which, invested in the funds,
diture required this year for the British Museum, would yield his family £l,OOO a-year ? Why, if
as compared with that required during the pre- the insurance offices charge him about two per cent.
vious twelvemonth, there is one item of diminished for his policies, he must pay more than £6OO per
expenditure to the tune of £9oo—upon the cata- annum to leave his family in the same position as
logues ! Returning, however, to the facts adduced the man will who neither toils nor spins ! He would
yesterday by Mr. WALPOLE in testimony of the have but £4OO a-year left on which to pay income-
increasel usefulness of the Reading Room alone— tax ! This is but one view—the insurance one—of
we find that the total number of books read by the the question. It is, however, unanswerable. Mr.
students during the past year amounted to upwards GLADSTONE applied it to landlords' succession
of 3,000 per day, or, in round numbers, a grand duties, he is equally bound to apply it to a trades-
aggregate of 876,000 volumes! During the year
immediately preceding this the total number of
books used was at the rate of 2,000 per day, or
576,000 in all ! So that the rate of increase in a
single twelvemonth bas been just half as much
again—or 1,000 per day—or, in one year's time,
300,000 volumes additional. The distribution of
this immense total of 876,000 volumes used
during the last twelvemonth is curious in
its way, as an indication to some extent of the
direction, and in one particular, to the continuity
of the studies thus prosecuted. Oat of that total
of 876,000 volumes-177,290 were returned to the
shelves of the general library-12,428 to those of
the Royal library-687 to those of the Granville
library—and 564,000 to the shelves of the noble
circular reading-room, itself—that grand and beau-
tiful amphitheatre of erudition, that matchless
colosseum of literature! Added to the foregoing,
there were retained from day to day in the closets
set apart for the more persevering and systematic
' readers no less a number of volumes than 122,193
altogether.
Although nothing actually " came" of the argu-
ment generously and ably advanced yesterday in
Committee by the hon. gentleman the member for
Galway, with a view to effect some increase in the
remuneration of the assistants at the British
Museum, we are still sanguine that that increase will
yet come to them eventually—even an increase that
would satisfy the mind of their earnest champion,
Mr. GREGORY. We take the advance that has
already been made of late years in the scale of their
salaries as a happy augury of still further—we can
hardly say munificence, but we will venture to call
it simply—fairplay on the part of the public
towards a class of men remarkable at once for their
probity and intelligence. Instead of entering now,
as they formerly did, at £l5O per annum, with a
gradual rise after many years service to a maximum
salary of £24s—they enter now at something over
£2OO a-year, with a yearly rise of a few pounds
until they attain a maximum remuneration of £3OO
per annum. It is only two years now since the
date of this moderate improvement. We may hope
that another two years will not have passed by
without bringing to these very meritorious servants
yet further evidence that their interests are cared
for by the Legislature.

man's income.

Elsewhere will be found the very curious, and
we doubt not very carefully considered report of
the commission appointed some time back to con-
sider the subject of lighting picture-galleries by
gas-burners. The report itself was laid upon the
table of the House of Commons on Thursday even-
ing, and the gist of it cannot but be regarded,
we think, as highly satisfactory. The Com-
mission consisting of three scientific Pro-
fessors (FARADAY, HOFMANN, and TYNDALL), one
Royal Academician (REDGRAVE), and a Captain
of Engineers (FowKE)—distinctly asserts, in the
very preamble of its report, that—" There is
nothing innate in coal gas which renders it appli-
cation to the illumination of picture galleries
objectionable. Its light, though not so white as
that of the sun, is equally harmless ; its radiant
heat may be rendered innocuous by placing a
sufficient distance between the gas jets and the
pictures, while the heat of combustion may
be rendered eminently serviceable in promoting
ventilation." Having premised this much,
and having added, moreover, these words—" Coal
gas may be free from sulphuretted hydrogen com-
pounds, and in London is so at the present time;
it then has little or no direct action on pictures"—
the Commissioners go on to remark, in relation to
coal gas—" But it has not as yet been cleansed from
sulphide of carbon, which, on combustion, yields
sulphurous acid gas, capable of producing 221
grains of sulphuric acid per 100 cubic feet of pre-
sent London coal gas." And the Commissioners
proceed in their report to observe yet further,
in relation to this pernicious sulphide of
carbon—" It is not safe to permit this product of
the combustion to come in contact with pictures,

painted either in oil or water colours; and the
commission are emphatically of opinion that in
every system of permanent gas lighting for pic-
ture or sculpture galleries, provision should be
made for the effectual exclusion or withdrawal of
the products of combustion from the chambers con-
taining works of art." With that one proviso the
Commission strongly recommends the lighting of
picture galleries by gas burners.

LONDON AND B.RIG.H7ON RAILWAY.

Mr. BRIGHT has laid hold of one iniquity in our
system of taxation which we have more than once
done our best to expose, which Mr. WILLIAMS has
persistently denounced, unpopular as he found it to
moot the question, but which we may hope the
great Birmingham orator will now make his own
business, and most certainly " he'll not fail"—we
refer to the succession and probate duties, as well
as to the unrighteous incidence of the income tax.
The former are too much overlooked. No one
likes to stir an unpopular subject in the House.
But there exists not in our whole fiscal system a
wickeder injustice than the landlords' exemption
from legacy duties. If Mr. BRIGHT takes up this
topic, he will have no mere crotchet in hand ; he
will have a plain matter of fact to deal with, which
no man who has learned arithmetic can dispute.
He will have—what must add zest to Ms eloquence
—a gross aristocratic abuse to illustrate and de-
nounce, till it can no longer bear the daylight ;
and one, too, without any possible defence that we
are aware of. On protectionist principles some-
thing might be said for the corn laws ; but what
can be said on any principle :for taxing most
lightly the most prized, the most valuable, the most
secure kind of property, we are wholly at a loss to

HALF-YEARLY MEETING—(THis DAY.)
The ordinary half-yearly meeting of the proprie-
tors of this company was held this day at the
Bridge-house Hotel.
Leo Schuster, Esq., chairman of the Board of Di-
rectors, presided.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the business of the
day, said that the full nature of the report, which
was in the hands of all the proprietors, would ren-
der it totally unnecessary for him to go at any length
into details, yet he thought it but proper he should
make a few observations with respect to the pro-
pects and state of their line. First of all the
amount of capital outlay had been £246,038, of
which £lBO,OOO had been in respect of this com-
pany's contribution to the Victoria Station and
Pimlico Railway, making £337,500 now charged
on that account ; £24,984 for the new Henfield
branch, which is being rapidly proceeded
with; £15,419 towards the completion of the
Norwood Junction, and the remainder for the sta-
tions on the Uckfield and Mid-Sussex line, and
for sundry works and additional vehicles rendered
necessary by the increasing traffic and the larger
number of miles run. Their debenture stock, it
would be satisfactory to the proprietors to know,
was being well taken up by the public,
which showed that the greatest confi-
dence was reposed in the security of the property.
1 The traffic receipts, it was satisfactory to state, had
been generally increasing, with the exception of
the Epsom line, on which there had been a loss of
£4,000 ; and if anything could prove the
folly of constructing competing lines, he thought
this circumstance did. (Hear, hear.) The share-
holders must not imagine that because their
receipts fallen off that amount, the neigh-
bouring company had earned a sum equal to it.
Such was not the case ; they had hardly done more
than pay their expenses. (Hear, hear.) It had,
in truth, been a loss to both. (Hear, hear.) With
regard to the working expenses, although there had
been an increase under that head, the cost
of each train had been considerbly reduced. The
increase had arisen from several causes. First, from
the outlay incurred in working the West-end line,
the increase of mileage, the heavy repairs that had
been effected in the locomotive stock, and he
could fearlessly say that their property was
now in much better order than it had ever been.
The relations with the South-Western still
continued unarranged, but he could assure the
proprietors that there was no unwillingness to
arrange the difficulty on the part of the Brighton and
South Coast Railway. (Hear.) From circum-
stances that had occurred he had reason to hope that
an amicable settlement would soon be effected with
South-Western. Having touched upon the other por-
tions of the report which referred to the parliamen-
tary business of the company, concluded by moving
the adoption of the report, which has already ap-
peared in the columns of The Sun.
Mr. J. SCOTT (deputy chairman) seconded the
motion. _ _

Mr. BORRADALE said, before the report was
agreed to he wished to ask whether the differences
between the South-Western and Brighton Railway
were to be settled by a reference.
The CHAIRMAN said Captain Mangles, the chair-
man of the South-Western, had called upon him,
and the object of his visit was to see whether an
amicable arrangement could not be come to without
the interference of other parties. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. BESLEY thought it would be unadvisable to
allude further to the subject. When a proposition
was made to settle differences discussions frequently
tended to retard a speedy settlement. (Hear, hear.)
He hoped no further allusion would be made to the
subject on that occasion.
Mr. HEREPATH said if Captain Mangles and Mr.
Schuster could agree he looked upon the differences
as settled.

After a short discussion the report was agreed
to, and a dividend of 21 per cent. for the half-year
was declared.

The meeting shortly afterwards adjourned.

THE CHANNEL FLEET.

PORTSMOUTH, TUESDAY MORNING.

The Channel Fleet is now running in under sal
for Spithead from the southward ; the Royal Albei
leading.

The Earl and Countess Delawarr and Lady
Arabella S. West have joined the circle visiting the Mar
quis and Marchioness of Salisbury at Hatfield House.
Lord and Lady Lindsay have left town, accom-
panied by their youthful family, for Haigh Hall, near
Wigan, on their way to their seat in Scotland,
ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, EDINBURGH.
—Richard Leack, M.D., of Blackburn, and Thomas Abra-
ham, DI.R.C.S.E., of New Broad-street, were admitted
licentiates of the above college on the 12th inst.

LATEST NEWS.

IMPERIAL MANIFESTO.

The following telegrams have been received at,
Mr. Reuter's office :

PARIS, JULY 26.

The Moniteur of to-day contains the following :
" It is endeavoured in England to attribute to
France the causes of the English national burdens,
but the English people are deceived merely in order
to further the national defences. The exaggera-
tion of our armaments is to justify the consider-
able increase of the English budget for the army
and navy. A comparison of the budgets of France
and England will show these considerations to be
erroneous. Since 1813 the army expenses of
England have increased by 200 millions of francs,
making for 1860 a total of more than 650 million
francs ; while in France the army budgets for 1860
do not exceed much 463 million francs. One there-
fore asks whether it is to France and to her extraor-
dinary armaments that the heavy burdens which
weigh on the English people are to be attributed,
or whether these enormous expenses and taxes,
which are the consequence of those burdens, must
not be attributed to other reasons.

views of its ally. The visit of Count de Persigny
to Paris is connected with these negotiations."

The Piedmontese papers, and especially the
Piedmontese" Gazette, continue to give accounts of
the movement of public opinion in the Duchies.
At Modena, the Royal Governor, M. Farini, has
been an object of ovation ; the municipalities of
the country are voting funds for the raising of
troops, and the people raise subscriptions. An ad-
dress to the King has been voted at Reggio, in
which the following words occur :—" Sire, you
will not permit your representatives to abandon
us.,' The province of Guastalla declares in a pro-
test that should it be attempted to replace it under
a detested Government, it would repulse the latter
" with the arms of despair." The municipality of
Parma has voted an address, in which it says :
" Sire, we are with you, and for you ; we shall ever
be so, with the same resolution and the same confi-
dence."

THE VILLAFRANCA PEACE.
All the Paris papers of to-day publish the text of
the preliminaries of peace signed at Villafranca,
quoting the Journal deWayence as authority. They
however, give it with due reserve. It is as fol-
lows :

"Between his Majesty the Emperor of Austria
and his Majesty the Emperor of the French it has
been agreed as follows :
" The two Sovereigns will favour the creation of
an Italian Confederation.
" That Confederation shall be under the honorary
presidency of the Holy Father.
" The Emperor of Austria cedes to the Emperor
of the French his rights on Lombardy, with the
exception of the fortresses of Mantua and Pes-
chiera, so that the frontier of the Austrian posses-
sions should start from the extreme range of the
fortress of Peschiera, and should extend in a direct
line along the Mincio as far as Grazio ; from thence
to Scorzarolo and Luzaua to the Po, from whence
the actual frontiers shall continue to form the limits
of Austria. The Emperor cf the French will hand
over (rentettra) the ceded territory to the King of
Sardinia.

" Venetia shall form part of the Italian Confede-
ration, though remaining under the crown of the
Emperor of Austria.
" The Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of
Modena return to their States, granting a general

amnesty.
" The two Emperors will ask the Holy Father to
introduce indispensable reforms into his States.
" A full and complete amnesty is granted on both
sides to persons compromised in the late events in
the territories of the belligerent parties.
" Done at Villafranca, the 11th July, 1859."

BEItNE, JULY 26.

The conference of the three Powers, France,
Austria, and Piedmont, will most likely take place
at Zurich, at the end of July, and be probably of
short duration.

PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE.

TRIESTE, JULY 25.

The Imperial war steamer Elizabeth, having on
board Count Colloredo and Baron Hubner, has ar•
rived here from Ancona.
Lussin is evacuated, the French fleet having set
sail.

It is alleged that the Duke of Modena will arm
4,000 Austrian troops to enable him to re-enter his
States.