The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 12, ITCI.

men poachers and they inform agai2st them, and
appointing suitable persons to discharge tilt:: office,
by the aid of a competent analyst, of purveyors of

articles of human food.
The articles brought before Dr. LETHEBY for
analysis are instructive. Two were bread, one
milk, and one mustard. The mustard was mixed
with wheaten meal and turmeric, The former, it
is well known, is necessary to make the mustard
meal, which is too strong and harsh when quite
pure, suitable for ordinary purposes. The turmeric
is regularly used to get the desired colour, and is,
we are told, innocuous. The milk was adulterated
in the usual way—with water—an article not

always easy to get just now, and which, if our
temperance friends may be trusted, had better
be much more largely used than it is. The ana-
lyst's testimony here would, we fear, throw the
costs, not on the milk-waterer, but on the cow-

plainant.
But the bread is a more serious case. It is the
stuff of which the greater part of the muscle of
our country should be made of. One of the
samples was made of pure wheaten flour. In the
other water, once more, was a prominent ingredient.
Not less than 44 per cent., nearly half the weight
of the. bread, was water. " Water best of all"
is an eld motto indeed, and one which
the Maine force men would place at
the basis of all liquor legislation, yet even
they, we presume, hardly wish to attenuate
their limbs, and perfect the pallor of their coun-
tenances, by eating as well as drinking the ever-
lasting water. Most justly Dr. LETHEBY re-
marks—
" Of the many classes of adulteration that deserve atten-
tion, there are none so serious in their consequences as
those which affect the stamina and health of the people.
The adulteration of bread, for example, with materials that
lessen its nutritive value, is not merely a fraud on the
pocket, but also a fraud on the constitution of the consumer;
for that which diminishes the flesh-forming constituents of
so important an article of diet must necessarily be a means
of impairing the growth of the animal fabric, and of weak-
ening the force of labour."
This is really a serious consideration, and is surely
worthy of the attention of the public, and of the
Legislature too. Better that the working man and
his family should have a less and genuine loaf than
the larger one, which he imagines to be cheaper,
and has no proper means of knowing to be very dear to
him, than that he should purchase bread adulterated
with that feeble article of diet, rice, and, in addition,
with alum to make the weak flour absorb that
article so profitable to sell at from 6d. to 10d. per
41bs.—water. Only think of the enormous illegi-
timate profit—profit made at the cost of the muscle
and sinew of the working man, when nearly half
of what is sold him as bread was supplied by the

pump or cistern.
If London be a fair specimen of all England, and
the Doctor's calculations correct, our agricultural
friends, as well as Mr. GLADSTONE, must bestir
themselves. To them the increased consumption
of malt would be no trifle. The chief point is, how-
ever, to enact suitable clauses for making the act
efficient. There is no reason in the world why the
sports of the rich should be guarded by the most
severe, stringent, and summary set of laws in Eng-
land, and the food of the many be protected so
slightly. It is, surely, of more consequence: to
the country that flour, bread, meat, and beer should
be genuine, than that a starving man should not
knock a hare on the head to get a cheap supper.
Dr. LETIIEBY seems to have-some hope in the
matter of beer, by appealing to Mr. GLADSTONE ;
and it is certainly remarkable enough that the
national Exchequer must also smart severely for
the adulterations which defraud the purchaser of
the national beverage, of quality and health. The
following calculation seems prima facto a correct
one, and is too curious to be passed over. After
explaining the mode in which adulteration of beer
is effected, the Dr. adds :
" Now, apart from the question of how much injury is
done to the health of the consumer by this practice, or how
largo is the fraud on the pocket of the purchaser, it is a
matter of interest to know what is the effect of it on the
revenue. There are, I believe, about 6,200 publicans and
beer retailers in this metropolis. Supposing that each, on
an average, has a sale for only six barrels of beer and porter
per week, and that the degree of dilution is but to the extent
of five gallons of water per barrel, in the aggregate there
would have been used 186,000 gallons of water per week.
This, if properly and honestly brewed into beer, would have
required about 1,722 quarters of malt ; and as each quarter
of malt pays a duty of 225. 6d. to the revenue, there is a
fraud of rather more than £1,937 sterling per week, or nearly
£lOO,BOO per annum. In like manner almost every such
fraudulent practice of trade has a wider relationship to the
public interests than the mere act itself would imply."

THE TREATY WITH FR ANC.E.

(From _Last Night's Gazette.)
Board of Trade, Whitehall, Jan. 11.

The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of
Privy Council for Trade have received, through the Secre-
tary of State for Foreign Affairs, a copy of a French Impe-
rial Decree, fixing the import duties on the undermentioned
articles, at following rates, from and after the 10th of
January :

Imported ill
Frtuch
Di
n 0 .0
. A o tk.,
Articles. c r„)
4 4-0 t
74 .0
Ei
4
41 ^ F... 1
fr. e. fr. o. fr, e. Ir. e.
Raw hides, fresh or dry,
large or small, and skins of
all sorts, raw, dressed,
or in pieces :
By sea lOO k. Free :Free 250 250
By land
Horse-hair, prepared or all
kinds do. Free Free 300 300
Grease, of all I,,inds do. Free Free 200 200
Elephank.' teeth do. Free .. 300 300
Torkdseshell do. Free 500 500
Mother of pearl shells rough do. Free .. 400 400
Oleaginous fruits and nuts,
by sea
ditto by land do. „ Free 250
Balsam of Benzoin do. Free .. 250 250
Cacrutehoue an gutta percha,
rough or Nast in lumps do. Free .. 300 300
Woods. isweet scented)
C9;.:oa nuts
hard seeds for carving do. Free Free 300 300
Flax and hemp and other
vegetable filaments, not
denominated .. Free Free Free Free
Jute, in stalks or stripped .. Free Free Free Free
Madder, roots, green, and
dry, or alazari and ground,
or in straw .. Free Free Free Free
Sulphur, not purified, and
sulphur ore
Ores—lron, copper, lee', tin,
zinc, crude, or calcined, pul-
verized or hot, cobalt, anti-
mony, arsenic, and others
not denominated .. Free Free Free Free
Copper, pure or mixed with
zinc, brass of first fusion,
in masses, bars, or plates,
and old broken works and
Lead, old broken works of, ings 100 k. Free Free Free 025
and filings
Lead, rough
Tin, rough and filings, and
old broken works
Bismuth
Zino, of first fusion, in rough
masses, pigs, bars,or plates,
filings, and old broken
works . . do. Free Free Free 025
Nickel, pure, or mixed with
other metals (argentan) in
masses do. Free Free Free 025
Bones and hoofs of cattle,
rongh, calcined, and bone
black do. Free Free Free Free

•
By the same decree, the bounties hitherto granted on the
exportation of refined sulphur and brimstone; hides or
skins, tanned, curried, or dressed ' - lead ; copper and brass,
beaten, in plates, or otherwise worked, are abolished.

THE SIEGE OF GAETA.—The Presse states that
the Spanish frigate lying off Gaeta has been observed mak-
ing, for the guidance of the besieged, signals which have
been followed by better directed firing on the Piedmontese
position. A Toulon letter says :—" The Tage, line .of-
battle ship, at present stationed at Messina, has received
orders to return immediately to Toulon. The surrender of
the citadel of Messina being altogether dependent on the
fate of Gaeta, the continued presence of this vessel there
has been judged unnecessary."

LATEST S.

(REUTER.S TELEGRAMS.)
THE SIEGE OF GAETA.

VIENNA, SiTURDAY, NOON.

The French Ambassador yesterday officially in-
formed Count Rechberg that tie French fleet will
leave Gaeta on the 19th inst.

The Wiener Zeitung of to•cay contains an ims
perial autograph letter, appoiiting Count George
Apponyi Judex Curiae for Hungary, in the place of
Count Czirakys.

TITRIN, SATURDAY.

The reports that General Fanti had resigned,
and that the political committees were enrolling
volunteers, are both unfoundfd.
Farini has been appoinbd Secretary of the
private Cabinet of the King.

PARIS, JAN. 12.

The llioniteur of to-day says :—" The report
that a change would take place in the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs is without any foundation. The
Emperor never thought of depriving himself of the
enlightened and devoted concurrence of M.
Thouvenel."

PARIS,JAN 11 (Evening).

The Petrie asserts that a project of law trans-
ferring the Bourse property to the State will be
submitted to the Corps Legiklatif,
The rise in the funds to-day was occasioned by
the rumour that the turnstile at the entrance of
the Bourse will be abolishel.

TURIN, JAN. 11.
To-day the National Bank raised its rate of dis-
count to 7 per cent.

NAPLES, lAN. 10.
The popular demonstration which was announced
for to-day has not taken place.
It is expected that the Council of Lieutenancy
will tender its resignation.
A decree has been published granting pensions to
the poor priests.

MADRID, JAN. 11.

The Epoca says :—" The Moors, not having
fulfilled the stipulations of the treaty, it is said that
Spain is about to occupy the principal forts in
Morocco."

A solution of the difference between Spain and
Venezuela is shortly expected.

FRANCE.

BOURSE, lan. 11.—The market has been rather
more buoyant, and prices are a shade better. Threes,
for the Account, are now at 67f 10c; Mobilier,
667 f 50c ; Orleans, 1,360 f ; Northern, 948 f 75c ;
Mediterranean, 892 f 60c; Austrian 467 f 50c ;
Lombard, 465 f.

The following were the last quotations :
ft per per Cents ... 96 40 Credit Fonder - --
Do. end month.... 96 50 Belgian 41 9B 75
3 per Cents
Do. end month 67 20 Roman
Bank Shares 2895 Austrian
Credit Mobilier.... 670 Spanish Threes 4B
Do. Account 668 751Homs Debt 47 25

INDIA, CHINA, AND

ATJSTRALiA.

By extraordinary express in anticipation of the
overland mail we have received our letters and
papers. The dates are—Hong-Kong, Nov. 29;
Calcutta, Dec. 8 ; Sydney, Nov. 21.
The Englishman's Weekly Mail (Calcutta, Dec.
8) says ;

" The six days only which have elapsed since our
last dispatch have brought no change of position
worth remark in commerce, although money is
rather more in demand, owing chiefly to the open-
ing of the indigo sales, and in a minor degree to
the rising rates at Bombay, resulting, we believe,
from heavy opium speculations by houses there.
Their bank raised their rates one per cent. for a
third time in a month on Thursday last. The Bank
of Bengal shows the extraordinary balance in hand
of over three millions, yet Government Securities
droop, owing to the continued, if not increasing,
want of confidence in the Government, which has
neither power nor spirit to resist unjust inroads on
our limited resources by their master at home.
" The sales of indigo of the new crop have opened
with considerable spirit, every parcel offered being
sold immediately at full prices.
" What with Grants at headquarters, and
Campbells at our stations, capitalists at home will
not need much explanation of the low esteem in
which Government and its securities are held by
capitalists—not of the ryotry order—here.
"We hope that the means taken here to back the
representations of this Government will cause some
independent member to ask Sir Charles Wood, in
his place,' on what grounds he has given £440,000,
with certain annuities and prospective payments, to
Prince Gholam Mahomed, other than the only
apparent ground that he had the assurance to ask for
a good deal more, and the astuteness to go to Eng-
land to look after his own case, in the pursuance of
which he is said to have dispersed whole bales of
undoubted Cashmere shawls, and no end of soft
words and glowing promises. There is no possible
pretence of any personal power or influence here
which eould render this man or his family formid-
able in a political sense. We have heard that Sir
C. Wood talked with more than his ordinary folly

about ' not being able to afford another rebellion
at Russapuglah.' The simple fact is that Sir C.
Wood, for reasons certainly other than those of
State, has given away more than half a million
of our public money, and there is naturally an
indignant protest, and inquiry for these ' other
reasons."