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

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 12, 1861.

men poachers and then.. inform against them, and
appointing suitable per, sons to discharge the office,
by the aid of a compete at analyst, of purveyors of

articles of human food.

The articles brought before Dr. LETIIEBY for
analysis are instructive 3. Two were bread, one
milk, and one mustard.. The mustard was mixed
with wheaten meal and turmeric, The former, it
is well known, is necest;ary to make the mustard
I meal, which is too strong• and harsh when quite

pure, suitable for ordinsasr 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 coin-

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 old 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
.f impairing the growth of the animal fabric, and of weak-
ening the force of labour."
This is really a serious consideration, and is surely 1
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. LETHEBY 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 facie 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
large 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, abeut 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."

LAI E,knrr NEWS.

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

VIENNA, SATURDAY, NOON.

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

The Wiener Zeitung of to-day contains an hug
perial autograph letter, appointing Count George
Apponyi Judea Curie for Hungary, in the place of
Count Czirakys.

TURIN, SATURDAY.

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

PARIS, JAN. 12.

The Moniteur 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 Patrie asserts that a project of law trans-
ferring the Bourse property to the State will be
submitted to the Corps Legislatif.

The rise in the funds to-day was occasioned by
the rumour that the turnstile at the entrance of
the Bourse will be abolished.

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. 1

The Epoca says :—" The Moors, not hating
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, Jan. 11.—The market has been rather
more buoyant, and prices are a shade better. Threes,
for the Account, are now at 67f 10c; Mobilier,
'667f 50c; Orleans, 1,360 f ; Northern, 948 f 75c ;
Mediterranean, 892 f 50c; Austrian 467 f 50c ;
Lombard, 465 f.

The following were the
41 per per Cents 96 40
Do end month 96 50
3 per Cents
Do. end month 67 20
Bank Shares 2895
Credit Mobilier 670
Do. Account 668 75

last quotations :

Credit Foncier —
Belgian 4} 9B 75
Piedmontess Fives 7B
Roman
Austrian
Spanish Threes 4B
Home Debt . .

RAILWAY 2.

Cash. Account.
Orleans 1362 50 .. 1362 50
Northern
New ditto 872 50 .. 870
Lyons and Mediterranean 895 .. 896 25
Geneva 370 370
Southern 503 75 .. 503 75
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lorebard

AMERICA.

QUEENSTOWN, SATURDAY.

The Royal Mail steamship Persia, Capt. Sudkins,
from New York on the 2d inst., arrived here at
6.15 a.m., landed all mails except those for Liver-
pool, and proceeded at 6.30 a.m. ; all well. The
Persia brings 37 passengers. She was off the port
at 4 a.m., but could not communicate owing to the
foggy weather.

The Australasian had arrived out. The secession
movement showed no important development.
It was said that the seisure of public property at
Charleston met with little sympathy from the
Southern members of Congress.
The President was engaged on his special mes-
sage respecting the action of South Carolina.

The Committee on the state of the Union had not
been able to agree.

On the Ist inst. Mr. Benjamin made a secession
speech in the Senate, declaring that the South
could never be subjected to the North, whereupon
great confusion ensued in the galleries. In the
House resolutions were passed by a majority of 43
that the employment of force was impracticable.

The military preparations at Charleston were
actively progresiing.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

NEW YORK, DEC. 31 (EVENING.)
Tha banks' returns, to-morow, are expected to
show an increase in the reserve of specie. The state
of the money market is more satisfactory. The rate
for the choicest paper is 10 per cent. Exchange
closed firm—Bankers' bills 104 k to 105 ; commer-
cial bills 103 to 104. The cotton market is firmer,
with a good demand. Sales—to-day, 4,000 bales
on the basis of 11f, for middling upland. At the
close of the market some holders demanded 111.
Flour is less active, the-firmness of freights check-
ing sales. The market closed firm at previous quo-
tations. Wheat unchanged. Corn firm, and in
good demand. Pork firm. Sugar steady. Freights
firmer.

NEW ORLEANS, DEC. 29.
Sales of cotton, to-day, 10,000 bales. Middling
111 to 111. Freights for cotton to Liverpool
ss. Bd.

"KING FROST" IN 71IE ZOOLOGICAL

GARDENS.

INDIA, CHINA, AND

AUSTRALIA.

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 nylishman"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
whic 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."