The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-09 00:00:00

WHITECHAPEL.

Fair average supplies of meat aro on sale here, for which
the demand rules inactive, as follows :
Beef from 2s Bel to 4s Od ; mutton, 2s 10d to 444 2d ; lamb,
Os Od to Os Od ; veal, 3s Od to 4s Od ; and pork, 4s Od to
Od per 81bs. by the carcase.

COURSE OF EXCHANGE.—YESTERDAY.
Amsterdam I Short. 11 181 11 19
Ditto
Rotterdam — ;12 1 12 11
Antwerp
Brussels — 25 70 25 75
Hamburgb.
Paris
Ditto
Nlarseilles — 25 721 25 77/
Frankfort on Maine — 1195 1191
Vienna
Trieste
Petersburgh —32 f
Berlin —
Madrid
Cadiz — 485 481
Leghorn — 25 80 25 85
Milan — 25 825 25 871
Genoa — 25 821 25 85
Naples
Palermo — 1181 118
Messina — 1185 1181
Lisbon
Oporto
Rio Janeiro — • • • •
New York — •• ••
Foreign Gold in Bars (Standard)....per oz. E 3 17 9
Mexican Dollars
~
Silver in Bars (Standard)
South American Doubloons „ 0 0 0

Lord Palmerston arrived at Dent's George Hotel,
Portsmouth, at an early hour yesterday. In the
afternoon his lordship, attended by Col. Tervois,
R.E., rode out and inspected the new forts and lines
of defence now being constructed for the protection
of the port and arsenal on its eastern side. Rear-
Admiral Charles Eden, C. 8., who has also arrived,
paid a visit yesterday to the Britannia naval cadet
training ship.

The Moniteur Vinicole states that the vintage
throughout France has been favoured by magnificent
weather and is progressing admirably. The grapes are all
gathered in the southern departments, and the accounts
received thence are unanimous in describing the quality of
the wine as very superior and the quantity greater than
was expected.

GAS OR WATER.—The consumption of gas now
is at least double what it was ten years ago; and the an-
nual quantity manufactured in London is about 8,000 mil-
lions of cubic feet. One-fourth of this quantity, according
to reliable estimates, is lost by leakage, condensation, dis-
honesty, and bad debts ; and at least one-half of this fourth
—or 1,000 millions of cubic feet—escapes every year into
the London street earth. Mr. Spencer, as analytical chemist
to the New River Company, has traced this escaped gas in
its destructive action upon the 4,700 miles of metropolitan
gas and water mains, until
underground London appears to
be ono vast grave of iron rotting into plumbage. The 12
gas mains, with their 80 joints, which lie side by side with
water mains and telegraphic-wire pipes over the sewers in
Cockspur-street, Charing. cross, are not such a happy family
as their appearance would lead us to suppose. They are
crowded together like tramps in a threepenny bed, and there
does not seem to be room for a rat to run between them ;
but there is no real friendship for all this shaking of hands.
The defective joints of the gas-mains lead to the enormous
leakage just described, and the escaped gas, by its action on
the street-earth, destroys water-pipes in a few years that
ought to last for a century. Apart from the feel condition
of the London street-earth, we are all interested in saving
this escaped gas and this destroyed pipeage, for our gas
bills include the cost of the one, and our water bills the cost
of the other. While the water-pipes are softened, and the
gas penetrates the tubes, the water is also adulterated with
an undrinkable mixture. I have heard of a letter addressed
to a leading water company, which ran somewhat in this
form :—" Mr. Blank presents his compliments to the Blank
Company, and wishes to know whether they supply gas or
water. Mr. Blank is led to make this inquiry, because one
of his servants went to the cistern with a pitcher and a can-
dle, and instead of procuring water, she blew up the roof of
a wash-house."---Dickens's " All the Year Round."
WOLF SHOOTING IN FRANCE.—In the forests
situated on the limits of the departments Correze, Dor-
dogne, and Haute-Vienne, a grand battue for the destruc-
tion of wolves took place a few days ago, and the result was
that several were killed, others wounded, and ono caught
tiliVO hi the village of Sant-hau-le-yendound,