The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-31 00:00:00

Curt

strati a

HER MAJESTY.

OSB 0 RNE Monday.
The Queen walked in the grounds this morning
with Princess Louise, attended by Lady Augusta
Stanley.
The Prince and Princess of Wales visited her
Majesty this morning.

Prince Leopold went out, attended by Lieutenant

Accident to Re Majesty's Achilles.

PLYMOUTH, Tuesday.

Her Majesty's armour-plated iron screw steam-
ship Achilles, 26, Capt. Edward W. Vansittart,
having been refitted at Devonport, left Hamoaze
this morning under her own steam, aided by two
tugs on her port side and one on the starboard side.
Shortly before 8 o'clock she struck the eastern side
of the -Winter Rock, which lies in the, northern
part of the Sound ; her head was then south-east.
She was backed off immediately. The Achilles
afterwards proceeded outside the Breakwater, ap-
parently to try her speed at the measured mile, but
having immediately afterwards returned to the Ad-
miralty anchorage in the Sound, it is supposed she
has incurred some damage.
At the time of the accident it was about high
high water. Wind W.N.W., a strong breeze.
The rock is marked by three buoys.

THE HOUSE-HUNTER'S CATECHISM..—As I am not
much of a business man, my future mother-in-law
insisted on writing me down a list of questions—a cate-
chism for landlords. They wero not complementary to
judgment, but they were still essential, as Mrs. Masterman
pithily observed. Theyran somewhat in this way :—"Rent?
Number of rooms ? If a store-room? Mind the coal-cellar.
Ask what taxes. Look at the gas. Try the bells. Fell all the
walls. Stamp on the floors to see if they are strong for danc-
ing. Make a note of the wall-papers. Who aro your neigh-
bours ? Turn on the water. Look at the kitchen grate. Is
the house dangerous for robbers ? (Bad grammar, Mrs.
Masterman.) How long since occupied last ? When built ?
_ _

If lumber-room ? Go on the roof. Look down the china-

neys. See if the wine cellar is damp. Observe fastenings•
Measure all the rooms. Ask rent of neighbouring houses
Price of meat, poultry, and fish. Price of wages ? Size of
hall ? Numbor.of stairs ? If main drainage ?" "Why,
Mrs. Masterman," I remarked, "it would take a surveyor 3
week to answer all these questions." " Edward," said that
august and terrible personage, laying down her cards (we
were playing whist at the time), 'if you love Lizzie, and
if you love me, you will not neglect a single question."—
Dicke.zs's "All the Tear Round."

FREE PUBLIC LIBRARIES.—New York possesses
the magnificent Astor Library, containing about 100,000
volumes in every department of literature, open :.•eely to
the public for reference every day from nine to five. It
has also a City Library free, open daily from ten to four ;
an Apprentices' Library—established solely fcr the use of
apprentices and females in the employ of mechanics and
tradesmen, and open freely to this class from eight in the
morning till nine in the evening; a Medical Libraii, free,
open from ten to ten ; a Printers' Library, containing more
than 4,000 volumes, also free ; and now there is every pro-
spect of another free Library being added on a large scale.
Boston, by a special act of the Massachusetts Legislature,
in 1848, was provided with a free public library, and had
granted from the City funds 5,000 dollars a year for its
maintenance. Immediately on its establishment energetic
citizens contributed largely in books and money towards the
preliminary expenses, and a citizen of London (Mr. Joshua
Bates), couLected with Boston by business andpersonal ties,
presented a sum of £lO,OOO sterling for the purchase of
books. Throughout the United States, libraries—readily
accessible to all in search of knowledge—are numerous, and
one result is that in intelligence, in acquaintance with litera-
ture and knowledge of the best writers in their language,
the American people are unequalled in the world. But it
was not left for democratic institutions to set an example in
this respect—Rance possesses more than 100 public lib-
raries, open free to all toners, without distinction of per-
son, rank, or country ; Austria and Prussia together have
nearly 90 ; Bavaria has 17 ; Belgium 14 ; and other Euro-
pean kingdoms have a fair share. Until the passing of Mr
Ewart's Act, in 1850, for enabling Town Councils to esta-
blish publ is libraries and mu seums,Engl and had the unhappy
pre-eminence of being without a single strictly free public
library. Paris now possesses seven perfectly free public
libraries, Vienna has three, and Berlin two. The library
of the British Mu:seuni was, and is still, we think, properly
available to readers only under certain restrictions. The
libraries of Sion Co'lege and of Dr. Williams also were and
are subject to restrictions which prevent their free use by
the public. These three libraries, however, are, at the pre-

. .
sent moment, notwithstanding the activity of provinciPl
towns, the only libraries available for inhabitants of this
great city of London, and the restrictions to which we have
referred, including the hours during which they are open,
render them totally useless for the man of business, the
clerk, the mechanic, and the artisan. Many smaller towns
and cities throughout England have voluntarily taxed them-
selves under the provisions of the act of Parliament referred
to and have established) ibraries, mo st of which are rendering
immense service to the cause of education. London,
which of all other cities in the world owes most of its po-
sition to the intelligence, education, and activity of its
citizens, stands, to our thinking, degraded and disgraced for
its apathy in this matter. Is there no public spirit among
our bankers and merchants equal to that which has made
John Jacob Astor's name one to be carried down to the
remotest posterity, accompanied by the thanks and bless-
ings of those whose intellectual advancement has been
promoted by his princely liberality ? Is the accumulation
of wealth alone the object of ambition to our citizens, and
have taey no desire to contribute aid towards the elevation
and improvement of the masses ? We hear of political
reform t'll we are sickened with the very name—and re-
cognise it only as the war-cry of a party and the red flag
of political antagonism—but this branch of social reform,
the truest and surest of all reforms, is left unheeded and
uncured for. Among the bankers, merchants, and traders of
our city there are men who have felt it an honour to enrol
themselves in the ranks of literature, whose fame hereafter

will depend more upon their contributions to literature and
science than to anything they may have done in the accu-
mulation of wealth, such men—honoured and re-
spected in all circles, possessing the confidence and
respect of their fellow-citizens, we call upon to
be up and doing in this matter. Let them initiate
measures for the establishment of a Free Public Library
in this city—a library which shall be an honour to the first
city in the world. The contribution of their wealth, and,
more than all, the influence which their active exertions
will give to such a movement, is sure to rally around them
a body of supporters whose energies and exertions will be
irresistible. It is apathy, not opposition, that has to bo
overcome; antiquated prejudices doubtless prevail —penny-
wise-and-pound-foolish difficulties may be urged, but the,.:o
are mere cobwebs, which will be swept away with ease by
a body of determined men. The aim of such a movement
as we speak of should be to induce the Corporation of the
City of London to grant an eligible and central site for a
building, and to contribute from its funds a sum towards

the expenses of erection and endowment ; such sum to be
supplemented by voluntary contributions, and we have
such cpnfidence in our fellow-citizens that we believe indi-
vidual subscriptions will be by hundreds and even thou-
sands of pounds towards such an object. Apart from the
benefit which will result to the inhabitants of this city

from such a library, a movement in this direction on the
part of the metropolis will set in motion similar active
exertions throughout the country; and we hope the day's
not far distant when our country will stand first among
the nations of the world in the activity of its educational
institutions, and the extent of its means for imparting
knowledge.—From Triibner's Literary Record, July, 1866•
THE MONEY MARKET SIX MONTHS AGO.—Bat

though 7 per cent. might be a good sign, there were
certainly bad ones in the commercial wealth on Nevi
Year's-day. There had been in the autumn a terrible
crash in the Indian markets, especially at Bombay. Much
money had been lost. Financial companies and banks
had already begun to totter. There was an uneasy feeling
abroad, was it unreasonable ? The country was committed
to a fearful amount of new expenditure. Every kind of
outlay was in motion ; railways, English and foreign, re-
constructions of London, of provincial towns, and of many
foreign ones also. Hotels, docks, warehouses, works of
sewage, new mines, were absorbing prodigious quantities
of capital. The City forgot, no one took heed that capital
laid out on works which yield no return for years was
capital destroyed, money lost for the moment, was real
poverty increased, was diminution of means and wealth,
absolutely without compensation at the time. A railwol
in construction is as pure, as true a destruction of wealth
as the digging and filling up of holes in the ground ; it is
only when the traffic flows in, and an income makes its
appearance, that it ceases to bo a most effective generator
of poverty. Works of this nature, impoverishing for the
time, and remunerative only at distant periods, had been
commenced in unheard-of numbers : and misgivings began
to be felt as to the pressure which their completion
might exercise.- Bonamy Price, M.A., in The Gentleman S
Magazine.
REPRIEVE OF THE NOTTINGIIAM :MURDERESS.---
Jane Revill, sentenced to death at the last Notts
Assizes for the murder of her child, has been respitod
during Her Majesty's pleasure. The respite was ma °
known to the unhappy young woman on Saturday evening,
when she was so overcome by the intelligence that sli°
was unable for some time to give utterance to her feelings:
After her condemnation she became very dejected, but
since the remission of the Bentouce she has become ova-
paratiyely cheerful.